Welcome to UCF Knights on SI's countdown to kickoff!
In this series, we are going to introduce you to every single player on the 2026 UCF football roster so that you can know what to expect from them or even pinpoint the ones you want to follow throughout the coming season. We are going to go through the Knights' roster in reverse jersey-number order, with the day each player's entry is published corresponding to the number of days remaining until UCF's season-opener on Sep. 3 at 7 p.m. against Bethune-Cookman.
So, with 28 days to go, let's meet UCF defensive back Matt Irwin :
Position:Defensive Back
Class:Junior
Height/Weight:5-foot-11 / 180 pounds
Hometown:Meridian, Idaho
High School:Owyhee High School
Matt Irwin arrives in Orlando after at least six years of playing football for teams based in his native Idaho. In fact, he is the only Idahoan on the Knights' roster this season.
After serving as a starting quarterback for Owyhee High School for three seasons, he stayed in western Idaho and played his first two seasons of college football for the Idaho Vandals , where he managed to start in one of the eight games he played in as a true freshman.
Irwin played in all 12 of the Vandals' games last season, and started in three of them. He recorded 45 tackles, 29 of them solo, a tackle for loss and two pass breakups.
Irwin is one of three additions from the transfer portal to what was already a deep UCF defensive back room. With returners like Braeden Marshall, Antoine Jackson, Jayden Bellamy, Demari Henderson, DJ Bell and Jayden Williams, and fellow FCS transfers like Ty Bartrum and Jailen Duffie in the mix, Irwin has his work cut out for him when it comes to earning playing time.
Thanks to his experience with Idaho, Irwin has a leg up over some of the younger members of the defensive back room, but he is still going to have to compete with several returning players for playing time. Luckily for him, he is entering his junior year, and thanks to the NCAA's new age-based eligibility, he could have another two years of college football ahead of him after 2026. So, even if Irwin ends up getting a relatively small slice of the playing time pie with the Knights this season, his work this season can help lay the groundwork for the position group later down the line.
Catch up on the rest of the list below:
No. 14 Alonza Barnett III and Kahmel Johnson
No. 15 Will Stone and Preston Hall
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/ucf as Meet The 2026 UCF Knights: Countdown To Kickoff - No. 28 Matt Irwin .
