UCF Knights quarterback Joey Gatewood has been converted to the wide receiver position.
Head coach Gus Malzhan announced the position change during a press conference on Tuesday.
“Joey [Gatewood] is a guy that moved to receiver last week and he’s got a real chance,” Malzahn said. “So I’m excited to see his development with that.”
We know about Ryan O’Keefe and Jalyon Robinson returning and #UCF added an SEC starter from the transfer portal in Kobe Hudson.
Who else is emerging at WR?
Gus Malzahn mentions a few names, begining with Jaylon Griffin: “He acts like he’s a starter.”
+ A note on Joey Gatewood: pic.twitter.com/H7KfNPf3Y6
— Jason Beede (@therealBeede) March 29, 2022
Gatewood committed to Malzahn’s former Auburn Tigers program as a four-star athlete recruit in 2018. After redshirting his freshman season, the Jacksonville native lost out on the starting QB job to Bo Nix in 2019 — leading to his transfer to Kentucky in 2020. Returning to play under Malzahn — this time with UCF — Gatewood logged 17 passing yards and one passing touchdown as a backup for the Knights in 2021.
UCF star Dillon Gabriel suffered a season-ending broken collar bone during the Knights’ third game of the season. In his place, true freshman QB Mikey Keene took the starting quarterback job — not Gatewood. After a 1,730-yard, 17 touchdown performance through 11 games this past season, Keene is slated to take the QB1 job again in 2022.
Once recruited as an elite athlete by some of the nation’s top programs, it will certainly be interesting to see what Gatewood can do with this position change.
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