UCF LB Coach Mark D'Onofrio Talks Potential Cole Kozlowski Return and Addition of Arthur Kingdom
UCF linebackers coach Mark D'Onofrio speaks exclusively with our own Bryson Turner at the Knights' Local Media Day.
Video Transcript
All right, coach, welcome back for another season in Orlando.
How are you doing?
Doing great, doing great.
So you welcome in a couple of new linebackers in this fall.
You got, of course, a true freshman with a true freshman coming in from the fall, but you also have Arthur Kingdom coming over from Europe.
So what's it like bringing an experienced player like Arthur in at this point in the process?
Yeah, he's got a, he's got a really good attitude.
He's obviously got a maturity about him.
Um, we, we, you know, we brought him in real, uh, late in the process, right, so he's just kind of getting started right now.
So there's a lot to, a lot to unpack for him and a lot for him to catch up on right now.
So, but you know, we're working hard trying to, trying to get him caught up, and he's got a great attitude.
So, uh, we'll just keep plugging away one day at a time.
But, uh, you know, I'm glad he's here.
He's a, he's a, uh, he's got a , like I said, he's got a really great attitude and he's got a maturity about him.
That he wants to be good and he's he's going to give us everything he's got.
What's been your first impressions of him so far in practice and how do you think he could end up factoring into your decisions?
Yeah, I think, I think right now in terms of a practice piece right now it's been a very, you know, I've gotten a lot of work with him an individual, but as far as the team reps go, just the, the fact, just getting him familiar with all the defenses and all that kind of stuff, we're just kind of getting him up to speed a little bit.
So, so he was able to get some.
In the first couple of days, not, not a ton, but put him in a spot where, you know, where we thought he could have success for camp, but his, his, his reps have been limited to this point.
So I, I, I guess I would say incomplete in terms of what our, what our evaluation is at this point.
It's just early in the process for him.
You had Cole Kozlowski visiting the team in practice, at practice recently with the recent ruling out in Colorado, he could have a chance at.
Coming back for another year, just what's it been like seeing this, this, all this unfold?
Yeah, well, first off, I, you know, obviously I wish , I hope it happens, right, because I think not only Cole but any of the other guys in that class, uh, you know, if, if everybody else in college football, you know, before and after them has gotten at least 5 years, I think those, those guys deserve a 5th year to make the, make the rule uniform.
So first off, I hope for his sake because I know, I know he really wants to play.
Um, it'd be, you know, obviously it'd be good for us, you know, we get a player who's had a lot of success for us last year, uh, finished the season really strong, um, and it would continue to make our room deeper.
So, um, you know, it's out of our control right now.
My control is to is to coach the guys I have in the room and make them the best they can be.
And if, if we're able to get Cole back to join the group, then, then I'd obviously be super fired up for him and for us.
Considering what the linebacker room looks like now and potentially Cole in the mix as well, what's it like trying to make the decisions about playing timeshare?
Yeah, like you said, it's not a, it's not a reality right now, so you don't, you don't even sit there and worry about, you just worry about developing the guys in the room and, um, you know, I think, you know, Cole hasn't played football for at UCF since the end of November.
That's 8 months, right?
So he's, he, he would have some, some work to do in terms of.
Getting in shape, getting his body right, doing all those kind of things that, you know, the guys that I have in the room right now, they, they've been with me since January.
They've been in OTAs.
They've been in spring ball.
They've been.
In training camp they've been the ones training in the weight room and the conditioning and all that kind of stuff, so, um, you know, it's, it's you're really not comparing apples to apples, right?
There's gonna be, there's gonna be, uh, there's a longevity to this.
It's a long season.
It's a marathon, and yeah, so if we, if we were able to get Cole back to at any point during the year, back to the form that he was previously, then it would be a bonus and then I. I could worry about all that then, but right now that's, that's not, that's not a worry for me.
It, it's just, it's just a bonus and I hope it works out.
And we'll be in a hurry to try to get him back, but, uh, right now the, you know, the focus is on, on the guys we know that are definitely going to play for us this year.
Even without Cole in the, in the picture, you still have a competitive room to join Lewis Carter as one of the starters who's who's really stood out to you so far for that spot, at least in terms of maybe starter in the sense of, you know, a lot of playing time share with.
Yeah, I think, I think there's a group of guys right now that are fighting for.
Uh, reps, you know, we, we, we played, we play a lot of guys, um, so that's the first thing is, you know, last year we played, uh, we played Cole, we played, we played Lou, you know, Kelly Lawson played 390 snaps for us.
Jane McDonald played, played a ton for us.
So obviously, uh, or Jaden Jennings, uh, Jaden's, Jaden's back, right?
So first off, he's a guy that's going into his 6th year of college football.
He's very smart, can play all three positions, um.
Work really hard, right, so he's going to be a guy that, that, that's going to be in the mix for us, um, and then obviously we brought in 3 new players, uh , from the portal that are older.
We brought in Taka Curtis, Julio Cre, and Rashad Henry, uh, and all those guys are, are continuing to develop and get better.
So, um, you know, uh, you know, I see, I see, you know, and Phil Pchati's a guy that's kind of coming back off an injury right now who's continuing to improve, get better.
He's been out for the better part of the last couple of years, so, um, but he's finally.
Looks healthy right now and is improving.
So, um, we've got really good competition and we've got a bunch of young guys, you know, we got we got we got Arthur Kingdom who came in of late.
So we've got, we've got the amount of guys that we need to have in a room for a full college football season.
There's a lot of things that happened.
At one point last year we were down to 5, you know, uh, late, late in the year going into a game with only 5 where we played 3 quite a bit , so.
I like the depth we have.
I like the numbers we have, and uh I like the competition .
Last year, Cole had quite a breakout season.
Who among your room this year could stand to be in a position for a breakout that maybe Night Nation might not expect from the jump.
Yeah, I don't know.
I think it's, it's, it's too early to tell.
I think at this, at this time last year, you know, remember, it took, it took cause to the 5th, 5th game of the season last year to, to, to be the starter, right?
And he just, he just kept chopping wood.
He missed a lot of, a big part of training camp last year with a hamstring, um, so, you know, he missed the better part of 3 weeks, so that kind of delayed his progress and all that kind of stuff, so.
You know, I really don't know.
I think we've got a lot of candidates.
I just mentioned all of them, so it could be any one of those guys, you know, uh, they all, they all need a little luck.
They all need to stay healthy and, and, uh, and they need it to go well for them, but I, but like I said, I think there's, there's, there's plenty of candidates , and it's always going to be that way, uh, in this, in this day in college football because you're gonna, you're always going to have new first year guys.
So we took 3 of them, um, you know, we got, like I said, we've got a guy like Jay Mac, uh, uh, Jane Jennings who's, who's coming back.
Um, you know, we'll see.
I'm fired up about all those guys.
Louis was talking about how Matthew Ospinti has really impressed him as far as how as how vocal he's been in meetings for a young guy.
Just what's it been like welcoming him into this mix.
Yeah, no, Matt's Matt's done a good job, um, you know, um.
For young guys who really learned the playbook well, got banged up unfortunately in the spring.
He had a hamstring injury, so he missed the bulk of spring which kind of curtailed his development a little bit.
So he's been healthy now for a while and we'll continue to work with him and the rest of the group, Preston Hall.
Um, you know, who's a true freshman as well who came here in January out of Houston.
Um, so just keep working with those guys and keep, and keep developing.
They're fortunate to be around a really good group of guys like, like Lou and veteran guys like we have and, and Jay Jennings and, and all those guys because, uh, they, they've got good mentors in, in the room in terms of, in terms of their peers.
What does this linebacker room need to do in order to be where you want to be by September 3rd?
Uh, just compete.
Right, compete with one another and, and, uh, to be honest with you, just, just be unified, right?
The most important thing is that we all realize we're all trying to chase a common goal, which is win as many games as we can and have the best season we can possible, right?
And we're trying to do that before individual goals and I would ask them to put team goals before individual goals and trust the process that there's as much, there's there's enough snaps to go around if they earn them and everybody can have individual success when the team has.
That type of success that we expect to have.
All right, awesome.
Best of luck this season.
Eric's great.
