UCF found a star in Tre'Quan Smith

Last year there were few lone bright spots on the UCF football team. The offense was anemic, the defense horrid. It was really hard to find any positives from last year's squad. Yet one player stood out. Through all the muck and the garbage, UCF may have found a star. The next big time wide receiver to come out of UCF. That bright spot came in the form of Tre'Quan Smith. In his redshirt freshman season, Smith put up some impressive numbers. He had 53 receptions, for 724 yards, and 4 tds. He made third team all AAC. And guru Phil Steele has already had Smith on his Pre Season AAC team. Oh and he won AAC rookie of the year. He is the only freshman wideout in history to lead team in all three major statistical categories. While the running backs will improve in Frost's offense expect Tre'Quan Smith to rise into superstardom.

Tre'Quan Smith is a freak of nature. I mean that in the most complimentary of ways. He is a solid 6'1 for a wide receiver. His head coach once described him as "the best athlete to ever leave Village Academy." Oh how the young man showed that last year. There are two plays that will forever be etched into UCF fans minds. That is JJ Worton's Catch vs Temple and the Hail Perriman play. Well Tre'Quan Smith last year put on his own impressive highlight tape of catches. There is the play against Tulsa where Smith literally landed on a defenders shoulders and still caught the ball. Then there was the 360 catch against USF. So while the offense looked anemic under the over his head offensive coordinator that was Brent Key, Smith gave the UCF fans hope in the future. That maybe the cabinet was not as bare as most had thought. 

Want to hear what is so scary about Tre'Quan Smith? He is still learning the game of football. Essentially he has only played 4 years of football. 3 years if you remove his redshirt year. Smith had walked away from football his freshman year of high school. He would return his junior season and set the world on fire with his play. Yet for all his exciting and breathtaking plays, Smith is still raw. He is still learning the game and learning his position as he split time between receiver and defensive back in high school. That should terrify the opposition. Here is a young player that is still learning the game. If he can continue to develop and learn the game, his play will only continue to wow both fans of UCF and opposition. He is such a raw talent that he needs a coach to mentor him, to hold him into reaching the star potential. 

Enter Troy Walters. Growing up in the 90s/early 2000s, Walters was always one of the wide receivers I would pick up playing Madden. Now he is the offensive coordinator/receivers coach at UCF. When he first became coach, there was a rumor about who Frost would hire. The rumor circulated between Steve Spurrier Jr and Walters. You see Frost knows UCF's history of producing wide receivers that make it to the NFL and the pure wideout talent that comes from Florida. So it was clear that he was going to choose a wide receiver coach to be his offensive coordinator. He went with the right choice with Walters. Walters resume is impressive. There is his tenures as Wide Recievers coach at Texas A&M, NC State, and Colorado. At Texas A&M, Walters tutored the likes of Ryan Swope and Jeff Fuller, both of whom set the catches and receiving yards records while he was there. At NC State, the trio of wide Recievers he coached had a season of 2,199 yards and 18 TDs. That was all in one season. He then moved to Colorado where he shined for 3 years. In his first two years at Colorado, he worked with two of the best Recieversin Colorado history in Paul Richardson and Nelson Spruce.   Richardson, who earned first-team All PAC 12, set school single-season marks for receptions and yards. he was the first Colorado wide receiver to earn first-team All-Conference honors since 1997.  Spruce, who earned second-team All-Pac-12 mention, broke Richardson’s reception mark with 106 for 1,198 yards the following year. There is a clear progression by his players that can be attributed to his coaching. All the wideouts will shine under Walters, but it is Smith that can truly be elevated into a superstar.