Will Lee Hunter Change UCF's Defense?
The UCF Knights have experience, size and speed returning across the defensive line. That’s great news. Even better, more talent has already worked through spring practice after transferring to become a Knight.
Lee Hunter is a 6-foot-4 and 320-pound goliath in the middle. He’s just a redshirt freshman, but an extremely powerful player. As he learns the technical aspects of playing football, along with playing “violent” as Defensive Line Coach Kenny Martin defines below, he can be a stalwart for the Knights.
If that transformation to becoming a consistently dominant defensive lineman takes place early in the 2022 season, UCF could have the best defensive unit in the American Athletic Conference. When his range of skills truly expand, watch out.
This means not only physically beating up on the opponent, it also means using sound fundamentals like specific pass rush techniques and mixing his moves up from play to play.
The question becomes, when does Hunter make that jump to becoming dominant?
Hunter is a problem for offenses with just with his raw strength. Seeing him during spring practice proved that as he muscled his way past offensive linemen. Few opposing players will be able to handle him consistently. With that, it still comes back to the finer points of football to maximize a Hunter's abilities.
Not every second-year player is ready to be compared to Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald. He’s probably as technically sound an interior defensive lineman as there is on planet earth. Nobody is expecting Hunter to be like that during his second season of college football.
That said, if Hunter takes even a moderate step forward with his overall ability to grasp the techniques being taught, he impacts the defense in multiple ways.
For one, if he can be even a solid pass rusher, teams will need to double team him because no team can have him smacking the opposing signal caller. Just cannot have a player with Hunter’s size and strength laying into a quarterback. Thus, double teams.
Maybe he’s not in the pass rush package right away against South Carolina State on Sep. 1. It’s a long season. Keep grinding, keep working, and get into that pass rush group before the season comes to a close.
Next, taking the load off of other players. Fifth-year senior Anthony Montalvo could start at the one-technique position, i.e. nose guard. No matter which player starts, there’s going to be a rotation. The more plays that Montalvo splits with other players, Hunter included, the more rested he can be. That makes each player better, and the whole of the UCF defense better.
It’s a matter of time before Hunter becomes a consistently dominant player. If he takes that next step in 2022, the UCF defense could become dominant up front. Here’s what Martin had to say about Hunter during media day:
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