The UCF Knights football team landed a major boost for the future on Saturday as four star quarterback Rocco Marriott flipped his commitment from the James Madison Dukes to the Knights. Adding Marriott gives UCF a marquee headliner in the 2026 recruiting class and turns this four star quarterback flip into one of the biggest recruiting wins of the cycle.
Marriott, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound passer from Platte County High School in Missouri, ranks as a consensus four star prospect across the major recruiting services. He already owns video-game production at the high school level, throwing for more than 3,000 yards with 39 touchdowns as a junior while adding nearly 20 more scores on the ground. That blend of size, arm talent, and mobility fits exactly what the UCF program wants in its next wave of quarterbacks.
Rivals and On3 recruiting reporter Hayes Fawcett took to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account to share that the four-star signal caller had officially flipped his JMU commitment to the Knights football program, confirming the move on a national stage.
“BREAKING: Four-Star QB Rocco Marriott has Flipped his Commitment from JMU to UCF, he tells me for @rivals”
The same post also included a short message from Marriot, making it clear he is ready to get to work in central Florida.
“AGTG. Orlando let’s work!!”
For the UCF football program, the four star quarterback flip is another sign of how the Big 12 stage has raised the program’s ceiling. Marriott joins a growing 2026 Knights recruiting class that already features talent at quarterback, setting up real competition for the future. It also delivers a tough blow to the Dukes, who lose the star pledge to a Power Four school. For the Knights, it is the kind of commitment that can anchor an entire class and send a message to other blue chip targets that UCF football recruiting is here to stay.
