UCF Football: 5 takeaways from Knights’ perfect 2017 season

3. McKenzie Milton took the next step

McKenzie Milton came to Orlando, Fla., to attend the University of Central Florida all the way from Hawaii. Milton’s mother even relocated to Orlando to support her son during the football season. Milton was a long way from home but Scott Frost had made his mark in Hawaii while recruiting at Oregon during his time there as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator.

Coach Frost needed his quarterback to start a new era of #UCFast at Central Florida. From experience, his quarterbacks would be mobile and intelligent — like Frost. That was his experience level with Marcus Mariota, one of the most athletic and intelligent quarterbacks in college football history. If anyone could not only convince Milton, a three star dual-threat passer, to come all the way to Orlando Frost could also mold him into a winner and champion.

Milton started as a true freshman and quickly moved the Knights from 0-12 to 6-7 losing their bowl game to Arkansas State’s ferocious defense. Milton, diminutive in stature at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, threw for 1,900 yards and 10 touchdowns with seven interceptions. Most freshman have growing pains and the young Milton was no different. But the question would be if he was to take strides in 2017 or regress — football coaches don’t believe that you can stay the same.

Milton improved in leaps and bounds throwing for 4,000 yards and 37 touchdowns on only nine interceptions. He improved his yards per carry from 1.6 to 5.8 and added eight touchdowns on the ground. Every good program is driven by a good quarterback who picks up first downs and guides their squad. Milton is a leader and learned from a great man and a great coach in Scott Frost on how to lead a program in a positive way.

Hopefully Milton can continue his climb up the ranks of college football greatness under Josh Huepel who commanded the S&P+’s 10th-ranked offense in 2017.