Returning veterans, like Lewis Carter, anchor a young UCF defense. Coach Grinch leans on their "scars" to guide new talent and build a formidable unit.
As UCF's Spring Practice kicks off, players will begin separating themselves from the bunch.
We have already begun to see this as Roundtable's Demetrius Montero recently talked about how the freshman have fared in spring ball thus far, sharing that they are impressing the veteran returners, like wide receiver Duane Thomas Jr. and linebacker Lewis Carter.
On Thursday, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch credited his returners like Carter, for helping the younger guys get on track so quickly.
"You're always going to have, you know, a new percentage of your roster, you know, more so now than ever. We understand that," Grinch said. "That's going to be new and doing things for the first time and all those things. But, if you can lean on some guys that have been been been with us, and most specifically have played with us, not just in the locker room, not just, in the program, but guys that actually executed on Saturdays."
Grinch went on to say that he can use his returning players' experiences to guid the new additions in the right direction.
"They bring some scars with them that you can reference and not in the way of beating them down, but just things, you know, reference points and some of those things and then they can lend a hand..." Grinch said. "One of the unique things about this day and age is the guys that come back are, you know, guys that you invited back. There's an expectation in terms of what they bring, you know, to the program and those things. And so, excited to to have those guys."
UCF returned some major production on the defensive ball, including Carter and defensive back Braeden Marshall.
Grinch gave Carter, his ball-hawking middle linebacker, high praise, saying that he is a "Lewis Carter fan."
"I try really hard not to to fall in love with with guys, you know, because I don't want to put too much on their plate expectation wise," Grinch said." But, I'm a Lewis Carter fan, man. And he is a football playing dude and I'm excited no one can steal him from us now, so I can say that. But no, Lewis is a real one. He plays the game the right way. He runs, he hits, he leads, he does just about everything at the level on which you want it."
Carter will be one of the lone returning contributors in the UCF linebacking room, making this endorsement a heavy one. However, Carter is rolling into the season after playing the best football of his collegiate career at the end of last year.
In three of UCF's four final games, Carter recorded 12 or more tackles, adding a sack and forced fumble in the Knights' season finale against BYU.
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