Lance Leipold addresses how Kansas will prepare for UCF with uncertainty at quarterback

After dropping a Big 12 game at home last week to Cincinnati, the Kansas Jayhawks and head coach Lance Leipold are looking to bounce back during their road trip to Orlando. There, they’re set to take on a UCF team that is looking for its first conference win of the season but is also battling some major uncertainty at the quarterback position.

That quarterback spot is a position UCF head coach Scott Frost admitted was still to be determined ahead of the game. It’s now a situation that Lance Leipold is struggling to prepare for, though, as he recently shared, regardless of the quarterback, he has plenty of respect for Frost and UCF.

“I didn’t see that about the quarterback situation,” Lance Leipold said. “I don’t know if that’s injury-wise or just performance-wise, but they’ve played some other quarterbacks this year, early in the year it appears. Scott Frost is an excellent offensive mind. He’s had successful offenses at UCF in the past, as well as in his coordinator days and as head coach at Nebraska.”

UCF underwent some major turnover on the offensive side of the ball. That included bringing in several transfer quarterbacks. It was one of those transfers, Cam Fancher, who opened the season as the starting quarterback. He’d get knocked out with an injury, though, and was replaced by Tayven Jackson. However, Jackson was injured last week against Kansas State. It was a non-throwing shoulder issue that he missed about a quarter and a half with, being replaced by Jacurri Brown, before returning and playing through pain.

All of that amounts to an unclear quarterback situation for UCF. Not only are there questions about who is healthy and how healthy they are, there’s room to debate who deserves to be the starter. For Leipold and Kansas, that means being ready for different skillsets and different tendencies.

Regardless of the quarterback situation, Leipold sees a very talented roster overall at UCF. That should, in its own way, present some challenges.

“They’re going to play fast. They’ve recruited well. Like many people in today’s era, replenishing rosters due to multiple reasons. I think they’re forming that roster the way they want it to be,” Leipold said. “With excellent team speed at the skill positions. I think, athletically, on the edge, they’ve got two good edge players athletically, length-wise. Everything to match up with a lot of the better players that we’ve gone against so far. Again, that’ll be a huge challenge down there.”

Scott Frost addressed UCF QB situation

Scott Frost has had his chance to address the quarterback situation himself. Overall, it’s still murky, but Cam Fancher is available again if UCF needs him.

“That’s kind of TBD and I’m not trying to give you the runaround,” Scott Frost said. “I got to see how they operate this week. You know, it’s great that we have Cam [Fancher] ready, ready to go again too. So we’ll figure that out as the week goes along.”

Fancher came to UCF as a transfer from FAU. However, he hasn’t been on the field since taking a targeting shot that injured him in Week 1. He’s healthy now, but Frost wasn’t willing to commit to a current role for him.

“We’ll see,” Frost said. “I know he can play and he can play well. So this week’s got to help determine that based on, you know, how everybody looks in practice and who’s ready to go and who isn’t. Just like a lot of positions, we’ll play the guy that gives us the best chance to win.”

UCF will host Kansas on Saturday, October 4th. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EST.