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2026 UCF Knights More Focused, Disciplined Than 2025 Team
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- 2026 UCF Knights More Focused, Disciplined Than 2025 Team
(Raymond Carlin III/Imagn Images)
The 2026 UCF Knights have the chemistry and discipline that they lacked last season, as players are pushing each other to become better in every workout session.
Defensive back Jayden Bellamy said everybody on the team is more mature and focused. Coach Scott Frost and his staff added over 30 players from January's transfer portal cycle that embody the culture he envision for the program.
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These new additions -- and returners -- are hungry to lead UCF to its first conference championship in the Big 12. Bellamy has noticed the changes in the team's approach to the offseason. His teammates are arriving on time to practices, meetings and workout sessions.
"I feel like everyone's trying to compete to be better," Bellamy told Sons of UCF at Big 12 Media Day . "Like, even if it's in the weight room, if someone power cleans 275, someone's trying to get 315, and it just pushes each other to be better and stronger."
The bond these players have built in a short period could be a sneaky strength for UCF. On defense, it shows on the field in coverage assignments, like a safety helping his cornerback in a zone. On offense, it shows when an offensive lineman understands the quarterback's cadence or the receivers move with him on the run outside the pocket.
It's the tiny details that elevate a team from good to great, and chemistry is the foundation of that. Watching film is a staple in football, but Bellamy and the defensive backs have taken it a step further by watching NFL cornerbacks.
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David Overstreet II is the new defensive backs coach for the Knights, and he was the previous cornerbacks coach for the Dallas Cowboys . He also had a coaching stint with the Chicago Bears and mentored Jaylon Johnson .
The defensive backs unit lean on Overstreet II's NFL experience to understand what it takes to make it to the next level.
"We watch Christian Gonzalez , Jaylon Johnson, JC Horn, we just watch a bunch of people, and we just take things from what they do and try to apply it to the field," Bellamy said.
UCF had a top three passing defense in the Big 12 last season under defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and defensive backs coach Brandon Harris. Bellamy headlined that unit as one of the best graded defensive backs by PFSN's Cam Mellor.
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Taking NFL concepts and techniques and applying them to the college level could make the Knights' pass defense even harder to throw against. It is a senior-laden position group, so they're combining their college experience with the NFL film they watched.
Bellamy's observation from spring camp and the offseason means UCF could be a sneaky good team in the Big 12. The lack of chemistry and discipline that cost them some wins last season, they have now.
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