UCF Knights football recruiting: Analyzing Scott Frost’s 2026 class
The UCF Knights have received eight verbal commitments, including from six players from Florida high schools, for their 2026 recruiting class.
- Three-star quarterback Kane Archer from Greenwood, Arkansas, committed to UCF on April 29.
- Archer, the Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year, threw 57 touchdowns and only 56 incompletions in his junior season.
- Archer chose UCF after receiving offers from several other schools, including Arkansas, Louisville, and Ole Miss.
Scott Frost pegged McKenzie Milton as the future centerpiece of his offense during his first term as UCF coach. Nearly a decade later, the duo have targeted the nation’s most accurate prep passer for the job — one fittingly called Archer.
Greenwood (Ark.) three-star quarterback Kane Archer announced his commitment to the Knights on Tuesday. Listed at 6-foot-1½ and 207 pounds, Archer chose UCF over a group of finalists that included Appalachian State, Arkansas, Louisville, Missouri, Ole Miss and SMU.
Milton paid Archer an on-campus visit on Jan. 17, and Archer returned the favor by attending the Knights’ spring practice March 14. He told Rivals at the time, “I absolutely loved it.”
His addition moved UCF into 34th in 247Sports’ composite team recruiting rankings for 2026, and to 49th in On3Sports’ rankings.
Here are five things to know about Archer, who spoke with The News-Journal in a phone interview earlier this week.
1. Kane Archer named Gatorade Player of the Year in Arkansas
Archer produced one of the best statistical seasons in Arkansas high school football history last fall.
In 13 games, Archer completed a record 81.5% of his passes, averaging 12.8 yards per attempt. He threw more touchdowns (57) than incompletions (56), producing 4,680 yards of offense and adding another 10 scores on the ground.
“The game just moves slower for him,” Greenwood coach Chris Young said. “He has a great understanding of where to go with the ball and when to go, and he can make plays with his feet and his arm. He gets us out of bad plays.”
In December, Archer was one of 51 athletes nationwide — including the District of Columbia — selected as Gatorade Football Player of the Year for his respective state. Other notable winners included Colorado signee Julian Lewis (Georgia), top-ranked junior quarterbacks Faizon Brandon (North Carolina) and Jared Curtis (Tennessee) and Alabama signee Keelon Russell (Texas), who was chosen as National Player of the Year.
There’s one number, however, Archer is most proud of — 26, the number of consecutive wins his Bulldogs have reeled off since he took the reins as starting quarterback.
2. Kane Archer received Power Four football offers in 8th grade
For Archer, the college recruiting process started before he had taken a single snap at Greenwood.
Arkansas, Michigan and Missouri verbally offered the dual-threat QB when he was in the eighth grade. At the time, mid-September of 2021, only three signal-callers in the ’26 graduating class had received college offers, according to On3 Sports.
Young said he’s “blown away” with the manner Archer handled all the attention at such a young age. Even now, the soon-to-be high school senior feels his mindset never truly changed.
“I still haven’t made it yet. I have stuff to prove,” he said.
3. Greenwood won 12th state title with heavy hearts
Greenwood captured its 12th Arkansas state championship since 2000 last fall, defeating Shiloh Christian — former UCF head coach Gus Malzahn‘s old stomping grounds — by a final score of 61-35 in the Class 6A title game. Archer had 321 passing yards, 131 rushing yards, seven TDs and one interception.
Archer and his teammates set out to complete a perfect season with heavy hearts and in honor of a fallen friend. Senior wide receiver Isaiah Arrington, who was committed to play football at Missouri State, died last October — along with his mother (Wendie Medrano) and 5-year-old sister (Vivian Medrano) — in a house fire.
Arrington was 18 years old. He played in the Bulldogs’ first eight games, tallying 44 receptions for 661 yards and nine touchdowns.
“It changed my perspective on life to not take anything for granted,” Archer said. “We’re still really, really young — teenage kids fixing to be adults. This was the first time a lot of us had dealt with something like that.
“He wanted to play at Missouri State, and to do big things, and he was going to do big things. We went out there, won state and did it for him.”
4. Kane Archer models play style after Patrick Mahomes
Off-platform throws are all the rage in football’s modern age, and Archer has them in his repertoire whether he rolls left or right.
Archer models his game after Kansas City Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes, and he has worked with — among others — the three-time Super Bowl MVP’s quarterback trainer, Jeff Christensen.
Jarred Park, a former quarterback at Division II McKendree University in Illinois, met Archer during his freshman year at Greenwood. He has seen huge strides, in private sessions and on Friday nights, in Archer’s accuracy and decision-making.
“Every once in a while you’ll get a guy like Kane who is very instinctual, and he’s very similar to Pat (Mahomes) in a lot of different ways,” Park said. “It’s God-given ability. He’ll feel the rush and know how to get to that spot, and then control the ball with his fingertips. Right when it comes off his hand, he knows exactly what he needs to do to make it go exactly where it needs to go.”
5. Cash Archer, Kane’s brother, signed with Central Arkansas in February
The Archer family will celebrate its second college signing in the space of 10 months when Kane puts pen to paper. He plans to graduate in December and enroll at UCF in time for the spring semester.
His older brother, Cash, landed a Division I scholarship at Central Arkansas in February. The 6-foot-1, 222-pound linebacker led Greenwood with 35½ tackles for loss and 13½ sacks while tying for the team-high with two interceptions.
The biggest piece of advice he received about the latter stages of the recruiting process, Kane said, was to go where he is most wanted. Since the turn of the year, Milton and UCF have made him their top priority at the position.
“Coach Milton came down to see me here at Greenwood, and I could tell straight up that he was one of the realest people I’ve met in the college recruiting process so far,” Archer said. “If I’m going to move across the country, that’s someone I want to play for.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
