Category: College Sports

For Darryl Brown, few football players stand out like Alonza Barnett III, a talent brimming with the tools for success. Brown witnessed Barnett’s skill firsthand while serving as his coach at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, N.C. The pair would help to lead the Whirlies to the NCHSAA Class 4A state championship in 2020, with Barnett earning MVP honors along the way. Even five years later, the admiration for his former player can be heard in Brown’s voice. “He’s a winner and one of the nicest, most polite young men you’ll ever meet,” Brown recently told the Sentinel. “When you put him on...

UCF is expected to hire former Oklahoma State coach Cooper Bassett as the Knights’ new tight ends coach. CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz was the first to report the move, which was later confirmed by a team source. Bassett, 35, takes over coaching the tight ends from Steve Cooper, who is the team’s offensive coordinator. The move most likely frees up Cooper to spend more time with the offense as a whole. The Oklahoma native joins AJ Blazek (offensive line) and Will Johnson (defensive back) as new coaches joining Scott Frost’s staff heading into Year 2. Bassett was a four-year letterwinner as a...

Nobody was likely happier about Kahmel Johnson’s recent commitment to UCF than his mother, Jesika. “My momma was going crazy. She was crying and [was emotional],” Johnson shared with the Sentinel on Sunday, just hours after he signed with the Knights from the transfer portal. It’s a homecoming, of sorts, for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound defensive back, who hails from Jacksonville, where he excelled at football and track and field at Riverside High School before leaving the state to play at Wayne State College, a Division II school in Nebraska. Johnson is coming off a breakout season with the...

With so much uncertainty swirling around the transfer market, UCF football landed its most significant piece of the offseason when 4-star receiver Tyren Hornes signed with the Knights and their 2026 recruiting class on Saturday. Hornes, a 6-foot, 175-pound standout at Booker High School in Sarasota, announced his decision at the Under Armour All-American Game, where he earned MVP honors. He finished with a game-high 68 yards receiving on three catches with a touchdown. The South Florida native had 39 offers from schools such as Georgia, Kansas State, Michigan State, Auburn and Ole Miss. In...