Transfer Tracker: Ex-UCF QB McKenzie Milton lands at Florida State
The Transfer Portal has changed the landscape of college football. So at Rivals we bring you the Transfer Tracker, where we analyze players entering the portal and rate them on what kind of impact they could make at their new home.
Next up in the tracker: Ex-UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton, who is now headed to Florida State.
AS A RECRUIT
Milton caught the eye of Scott Frost while he was the offensive coordinator at Oregon, but the Ducks never offered and Milton was set to stay home and play for Hawaii. However, after Frost was hired by UCF, Milton committed to the Knights and signed shortly thereafter.
AT UCF
Milton won the job midway through his freshman season with the Knights and went on to become one of the most prolific quarterbacks in UCF's history. He led the team to a 13-0 record in 2017, including a Peach Bowl victory over Auburn. He finished eighth in Heisman Trophy balloting that season. In 2018, he followed it up with another impressive season, leading the Knights to an undefeated regular season before suffering a devastating knee injury in the final game of the year against rival USF. After spending the the last two years rehabbing and with the Knights having starter Dillon Gabriel back, Milton entered the portal for his sixth and final year of eligibility.
He chose to stay in Florida and head north to Tallahassee, where he will join coach Mike Norvell. The pair dueled during their time in the AAC when Norvell was the head coach of Memphis and Milton was quarterbacking the Knights. Now they will be together to try to turn around the Seminoles.
FARRELL'S TAKE
"There are a lot of unknowns here after Milton’s awful injury but the fact that FSU and others went after him so hard tells me he’s going to make an impact. Will he be the same player? Can he make the same kind of national impact? He’s a tough evaluation to make because before the injury he was amazing. The Noles need help at QB immediately and he’s a great fit." -- National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell.
Impact rating: 6.9
IMPACT METER
The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and mange their rosters so we here at Rivals.com continue to evolve our coverage. Each time a player of note enters the portal, we will examine their potential impact on the college football landscape and assign an impact rating, both when they enter the portal and when they choose a destination. The scale is from 1-10 and the description below explains the scoring scale.
1.1-4.0 — Not a big impact expected, likely a non-starter and down the bench depth player.
4.1- 6.0 — A solid impact can be expected in the right scenario and has the potential to battle for a starting job.
6.1-9.0. — A high impact player who won’t change a program but will certainly be a very good contributor and starter.
9.1- 9.9 — A very high impact player who should start the moment he steps on the field and will change the outlook of a program immediately.
10 — A franchise transfer who has a chance to be an All American and one of the elite players in college football.