Six of 24 USF football December signees enroll early at USF

ORACLE FILE PHOTO/ADAM MATHIEU

USF football had a busy December with 24 recruits signing in college football’s first ever “early signing period,” which allowed current high school players to sign with their desired school from Dec. 20-23.

A three-star studded class, six of the future Bulls who signed in December — three defenders, two offensive players and a punter — will be joining USF as early enrollees from the 2018 signing class, USF announced Monday.

The early enrollees are defensive ends Dwayne Boyles (Miami) and Stacy Kirby (Orlando), linebacker Antonio Grier (Atlanta), running back Brian Norris (Chiefland, FL), wide receiver Zion Roland (St. Petersburg) and punter Trent Schneider (Sydney, Australia).

The six early enrollees will join coach Charlie Strong and the returning Bulls from last season in spring practice, which is expected to begin in early March.

The USF signee and recruit with the highest ranking, according to the recruiting website Rivals.com, is Roland of the Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg. Roland had offers from numerous Power-5 schools, including the University of Florida, but committed to the Bulls on Sept. 9 after decommitting from Louisville.

The Bulls will have an opportunity to add more players during the traditional signing period, but are expected to sign no more than three or four more players in February, due to the number who signed in December.

Proclamation signed by Rick Scott deems UCF 'national champions'

On Monday, Gov. Rick Scott signed a proclamation that stated Florida will recognize UCF as national champions.

“The UCF Knights are this season's best college football team and will be recognized as the 2017 College Football National Champions in Florida,” the proclamation read.

UCF finished the regular season undefeated, but was left out of the College Football Playoff by the playoff committee largely due to a “weak schedule,” from being in a non-Power-5 conference and not playing any ranked non-conference opponents.

Despite being left out of the playoff, the Knights were selected to play in the Peach Bowl, where they faced and defeated Auburn, which had defeated national champion Alabama in the regular season.

The win brought UCF to 13-0 and prompted Scott’s proclamation on the same day the Knights celebrated their national championship with a parade in Disney’s Magic Kingdom.