As promised, UCF head coach George O’Leary didn’t drag out making his decision on Blake Bortles’ successor at quarterback. The signal-caller selected to start the season for the Knights is redshirt freshman Pete DiNovo.
The 20-year-old has yet to take a game-day snap at the college level, but he earned the starting spot following a lengthy position battle with Justin Holman (Bortles’ backup last season), Tyler Harris and Nick Patti. The race boiled down to DiNovo and Holman as those two took the majority of reps with the first team in recent practices while Harris and Patti took turns taking snaps with the second team.
“I kicked the coaches off the field this week for tag scrimmaging and when you look at that and break it down, he had sideline to huddle management the best of the four as far as I was concerned. And that was really the deciding factor,” O’Leary told the Orlando Sentinel. “I think all four of them can play, I think right now we’re in a good situation. But we need to move on and he’s [No. 1].”
O’Leary appeared to be favoring Holman following the spring game, hinting that he had separated himself from the pack. Both Holman and DiNovo were productive in the spring game, each passing for more than 100 yards, but DiNovo tossed the lone touchdown pass (to J.J. Worton) of the game.
Offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe confirmed that the competition was tight, but over time, DiNovo’s consistency and improved arm strength won out.
“There is still competition, coach made that very clear [Sunday] morning when we called the group together. This is not in stone forever and ever,” Taaffe said. “But the thing you gotta be careful of is you can’t have a quarterback looking over his shoulder every play if he makes a mistake [and thinks] he’s gonna get yanked. So there’s a fine line there and Pete’s been the most consistent.”
The players learned of the decision following Sunday’s practice.
“It doesn’t matter who’s going to be the starting quarterback or who is the starting quarterback as long as we get the job done,” running back Will Stanback said.
Coming off its best season in school history, UCF has landed in ESPN’s Top-25 power rankings, coming in at No. 23.
The list was compiled by a panel of 13 ESPN voters including reporters, analysts and television personalities from the network. The committee used a combination of the teams’ individual Football Power Indexes, ESPN stats and expert opinions.
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