Former Auburn football HC Gus Malzahn has named a starting quarterback for his second season roaming the UCF sidelines as the Knights’ leading play-caller — that’d be former Tigers target John Rhys Plumlee, who transferred to Central Florida this offseason after three years in Oxford.
During his time with Ole Miss, Plumlee converted from a QB his freshman season to a receiver the following two to facilitate the ascension of Matt Corral to a Second-team All-SEC signal-caller who led the Rebels to a 10-win season.
Plumlee had 16 all-purpose touchdowns to just three interceptions during his lone campaign as a quarterback under Matt Luke. When Lane Kiffin came along, Plumlee became a receiver who wasn’t targeted much his sophomore year but reeled in 19 receptions for 201 yards in 2021.
Plumlee was high on the opportunity to become a QB once again after spending two years away from the position:
"“That’s where my heart’s always been growing up. It’s always what I loved to do. To be able to do it again and to be able to get back behind center, it’s truly a blessing and something I love to do.”"
The former Auburn football championship QB coach for Cam Newton, Gus Malzahn, tweeted out the announcement of John Rhys Plumlee being UCF’s QB1
Plumlee beat out sophomore signal-caller Mikey Keene, who threw for 1,730 yards, 17 touchdowns and six interceptions on 63.6% passing during the 2022 campaign in the wake of Dillon Gabriel’s season-ending injury.
Plumlee ran for 92 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries while also completing 11 of 21 passes in Ole Miss’ 20-14 loss to Auburn football at Jordan-Hare Stadium back in 2019.
The Hattiesburg product has a massive chance to be the QB that leads UCF into the Big 12 in 2023 should he decide to exercise his extra COVID year of eligibility — a near certainty considering he became a Knight in order to start under center once again.