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.
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For this entry, we have two players with the same jersey number. So, with 18 days to go, let's meet UCF kicker Will Stone
and linebacker Preston Hall
:
1. Who is Will Stone?
Position:Kicker
Class:Redshirt Senior
Height/Weight:6-foot-2 / 195 pounds
Hometown:Austin, Texas
High School:Regents School of Austin
During a team meeting, kicker Will Stone introduced the Knights to his side hobby of DJing, something he picked up after getting into house music a couple of years ago, he said, following an April 7 practice.
"When I was still in Austin, I got a couple of gigs to go DJ for different places and different people," Stone said. "I recently got into sound design, so making my own songs, my own house songs and EDM songs; and so for my talent, I made a couple different remixes of different songs, and I put them together live, and I played them all for the team, and they loved it."
Stone also said he was a 2-handicap golfer, a sport he has continued playing through high school and college.
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As for his role on the gridiron, Stone has mainly served as a kickoff specialist since joining Texas in 2022, only kicking two extra points during the Longhorns' CFP semifinal game against Ohio State at the 2025 Peach Bowl, both of which were converted.
Since he arrived in Orlando, he has been the subject of two trick-shot videos uploaded to UCF's social media channels. The first was one in which he punted a football into the air and hit it with another football, kicked kickoff-style. For the second one, he kicked a football from the Black and Gold Cabana into a tall box placed at field level.
2. What did Stone do last season?
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After playing in four games as the Longhorns' kickoff specialist, Stone elected to redshirt the season. He kicked the ball off 20 times, with eight resulting in touchbacks, averaging 62 yards per kickoff.
3. What role is Stone going to have in 2026?
UCF special teams coordinator Pete Alamar, who Stone said he met during a Texas football summer camp, called the transfer kicker "a student of the game" and "focused."
While they may not have consisted of kicking field goals in games, Stone has several years of college football experience in his competition for the placekicker role against redshirt freshman Noah McGough
, putting him as the likely favorite to become the Knights' new kicker.
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"I just got to be repeatable," Stone said during the Knights' local media day. "I gotta show [Alamar] that yes, you can hit the big ball and you can hit a good kick, but how many times in a row can you do that to the point where he trusts you? Because consistency is really just being repeatable for a long period of time, and I think if I can just show him that, maybe I'll get the opportunity this fall."
4. Who is Preston Hall?
Position:Linebacker
Class:Freshman
Height/Weight:6-foot-3 / 220 pounds
Hometown:Missouri City, Texas
High School:Ridge Point High School
Preston Hall is the next member of his family to enter the college football world.
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Hall's father, former U.S. Marine Ahmard Hall, walked on at Texas, which he attended thanks to the G.I. Bill, and ended up becoming the Longhorns' starting fullback on their 2005 squad that went on to win the national championship. He signed with the Tennessee Titans
as an undrafted free agent in 2006, where he would spend all six of his seasons in the NFL, during which he caught 73 passes for 561 yards and two touchdowns, and ran the ball 24 times for 80 yards.
Meanwhile, Hall's older brother, Mason, was an inside linebacker for UTSA, though he only saw the field three times in three seasons in San Antonio.
Hall committed to UCF on June 22 after it made him his first Power 4 offer, according to 247Sports. Other schools that made him offers include San Diego State
, Colorado State, San Jose State
, UTSA and Sam Houston
.
5. What did Hall do last season?
Hall recorded 73 tackles, 47 of which were solo, 12.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, six quarterback hurries, four passes defended, an interception and two fumble recoveries during his senior season at Ridge Point High School.
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6. What role is Hall going to have in 2026?
Hall is among the youngest in a linebacker room that has added a couple of experienced players since the end of spring practice: Arthur Kingdom
and Cole Kozlowski
. Their additions, combined with the addition of Tackett Curtis
, Jahleel Culbreath
and Rashad Henry
from the transfer portal who join returners Lewis Carter
and Jayden Jennings
, point to Hall most likely not seeing the field much, if at all, in 2026. His best chance is going to be in the late stages of the Knights' season-opener against Bethune-Cookman or in garbage time later in the schedule.
However, with several of these aforementioned players being seniors, Hall and his fellow freshman linebackers, Matthew Occhipinti
, Jayden Burnett
and Dylan Bennett
have the room to develop into players that could become the core of the linebacker room in seasons to come.
"They're fortunate to be around a really good group of guys like [Carter] and veteran guys, like we have, and Jayden Jennings, and all those guys, because they've got good mentors in the room, in terms of their peers," UCF linebacker coach Mark D'Onofrio said during the Knights' local media day.
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Catch up on the rest of the list below:
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/ucf as Meet The 2026 UCF Knights: Countdown To Kickoff - No. 15 Will Stone and Preston Hall
.
