March 28, 2009
ORLANDO, Fla. - The UCF football team held its first full scrimmage of the spring season on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the Knights' practice fields in Orlando before a crowd of about 150 loyal fans.
The NCAA permits schools to have three full scrimmages during its spring practice and the Knights went at each other pretty hard for about two hours on Saturday morning under the supervision on a Conference USA officiating crew.
UCF head coach George O'Leary said afterwards that he was pleased with the scrimmage which was evenly played. It was a balanced affair which saw the offense move the ball quite well at times and the UCF defense also make several big stops at others. Most importantly, the Knights came through the day without any injuries of note.
UCF will be back on the practice field on Tuesday morning in full pads. All spring practices are open to the public.
The Knights will conclude spring practice on Saturday, April 11 with the second-annual Spring Game at Bright House Networks Stadium. The game begins at 2 p.m. and general admission tickets can be purchased in advance by contacting the UCF Ticket Office at (407) UCF-1000, online at UCFAthletics.com, or in-person at Bright House Networks Stadium.
For the latest news on the Knights, log on to UCFAthletics.com - the official site for UCF varsity sports. The site, which also contains ticket and Golden Knights Club donor information, is also the home of UCF's new online apparel store. Also visit UCFPhotos.com, the exclusive fan source for UCF action sports pictures.
Following Saturday's scrimmage, UCFAthletics.com caught up with senior tight end Corey Rabazinski.
On how his spring has gone coming off of a leg injury that forced him to miss the final six games of the 2008 season:
"I think I've made improvements, coming off of the injury, it's tough to get back to where you were but I think I've been getting better with every practice."
On how good it feels to be back on the field and not on the sidelines:
"It's amazing. I hadn't gotten hurt my first three years here. To get hurt and see how hard it is to sit on the sidelines and not practice every day, and know how badly I wanted to strap up my pads, it's like a breath of fresh air now. It's been great to put on a helmet and strap up the shoulder pads and get after it."
On the tight ends and H-Backs as a position group:
"This has been the best spring since I've been here. We have four or five guys that will be able to contribute. There's not that much of a drop off from the ones to the twos to the threes. We've been practicing hard, making some plays as receivers and getting after it on the line as far as blocking goes."
On new position coach Tim Salem's impact:
"He's a real energetic coach. He gets you ready for practice. His energy from the sidelines has always gotten us ready to go. Even in the meetings he gets us psyched up. It's a change this year."
On UCF's new offense:
"This has been our best spring offensively for the first scrimmage. Usually the defense has a little bit of an advantage early on but, as the spring goes on, the offense catches up. We held our own out there today. There was a lot of people out there making plays. We scored a bunch of points. It was definitely an improvement from last year. I can tell that we've made a big improvement."
On the UCF staff helping him recover from his injury last fall:
"I couldn't have expected anything more than the treatments I got here. They're the best trainers in the country, I think. Anything you need, they're always right there. As soon as you get to the sideline, they're ready to help you. They're here from seven in the morning until whenever for whatever you need. When I was hurt, I'd come in at all different hours of the day and anything I needed, they would be there. They would come up to my room if I needed something after surgery. They were right there in the surgeon's room with me. In my opinion, they're the best trainers in the country."
Comparing UCF's conditioning program to what his football-playing friends around the country have to do:
"It's very similar. It's Division I football. It's going to be tough. But, I don't hear that there's a really big drop off from what they're doing to what we're doing. It's definitely say it's similar."
On being at UCF:
"It's been a great experience. Coach O'Leary is awesome. The trainers, the weight room staff are all great. It's been a great experience for me here at UCF."