John Rhys Plumlee Leaves a Complex, Unique Legacy at UCF

John Rhys Plumlee may have one of the most complicated relationships with a fanbase that we have ever seen. UCF Knights fans either love him or are extremely critical of him. There is no in-between.

I’ll be honest, at some points I fell into the extremely critical crowd. This was mainly during last season, where I flip-flopped a lot on the guy. But all of this season, I considered myself part of the JRP Fan Club. And I believe that club has grown a lot this year. Though that extremely critical crowd was there all football season, I feel like it got smaller and that Plumlee turned a lot of haters into fans. But still, you go onto social media right now and you’ll see a few comments criticizing him.

Why do I bring this up? Because it plays into what I want to talk about. JRP announced he will not play baseball for UCF in the spring to pursue an NFL career. His final appearance in a UCF uniform will be Saturday at the Hula Bowl in FBC Mortgage Stadium.

Now that we can officially say his time as a Knight is over, I’ve been thinking a lot about JRP. About his time here and everything he’s done.

This all goes back to November, after the Houston. JRP was at the podium at the postgame press conference and I got to ask him a question. I’ve talked with JRP before. I joined the Banneret back in January after the football season had ended, so all of those conversations were about baseball and not football, but I was used to questioning him. But despite that, the answer he gave has stuck with me.

On Senior Day, a day where you celebrate an athlete’s time with a program, I wanted to ask JRP a question that reflected that theme of legacy. I asked him what he would remember the most about his time on the football team and how he wanted the UCF fans to remember his time with the team.

I was expecting a short answer. A few sentences mentioning positive times or being thankful or something like that. The response he ended up giving me was nothing like that. It was long, emotional, and thoughtful. He talked about his love for UCF, the memories he made, what he gave to the program, his locker room relationships, the things he did off the field and so much more.

Everything he said was really summed up by the way he ended his answer. He said “Quarterback is just one thing I do. It’s not who I am.” When I first heard that I chuckled to myself because yeah of course it’s not the only thing to do. Your whole gimmick as an athlete was that you played multiple sports. You became a mini-celebrity this past spring when you played in a baseball game and the spring football game on the same day.

But when look back at that quote, I realize he’s right in more ways than just that. JRP did a lot here at UCF. He did things that went beyond sports. When people talk about his time here, it will take a while because there is so…