Jeffrey Godfrey IV (born January 1, 1992) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player. Godfrey played for the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

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. He led the Knights to the Conference USA Championship in his freshman year (2010), becoming the first true freshman quarterback to win an FBS conference championship game. Following his sophomore year, Godfrey transitioned to the wide receiver position.

Early life

Godfrey was born to Jeffrey Godfrey, Jr., and Roshanda Spencer in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

on November 1, 1990. Godfrey attended high school at

Miami Central High School Miami Central Senior High School is a secondary school located at 1781 NW 95th Street in West Little River, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.0.1% 80.7% of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch. Miami Central has a large Hai ...

, located in

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. He graduated as the leading passer in Miami-Dade County history with 7,251 yards, beating the previous record set by Jacory Harris of Miami Northwestern. In high school, Godfrey was rated as one of the top quarterbacks in Florida, and amongst the nation's top 10 dual-threat quarterbacks. Due to his performance, Godfrey has been called "Mr. Dade Football". During his senior year, he committed to UCF. He chose the Knights over

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

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and FIU.

College career

2010

Jeff Godfrey enrolled as a freshman in January 2010, and participated in spring practice. At the start of the season he was second on the depth chart behind starting junior quarterback Rob Calabrese. In his first appearance, Godfrey took over during an opening-game rout of

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, going 6-of-7 for 65 passing yards and a touchdown. He would then replace Calabrese the next week while UCF was losing to

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina sy ...

. He stepped in with 5:17 to go in the third quarter, the Knights down 28–7, and led UCF on two touchdown drives to pull within one score. A fumble by one of his receivers on the third drive ended their comeback hopes with a 28–21 loss. Godfrey went 7-of-10 for 107 yards, and rushed for 53 yards, scoring both touchdowns himself. Godfrey became the starting quarterback in the third game of the season against Buffalo, but with the understanding that he would still be splitting time with Rob Calabrese. Head coach

George O'Leary George Joseph O'Leary (born August 17, 1946) is a former American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets from 1994 to 2001 and the UCF Knights from 2004 to 20 ...

felt it was important for Godfrey to watch a more experienced quarterback work as well before giving him full control of the offense. Godfrey ended up 15-of-24 with 130 passing yards, and rushed for 44 more yards. Initially, Godfrey allowed the Knights' rushing offense to do the heavy lifting while he continued to develop his passing attack as a true freshman. During a game against UAB, Godfrey took a hard hit, forcing Calabrese to step in for the remainder of the drive. Godfrey would return and finish the game. During UCF's game against Marshall on October 13, Calabrese was brought in to run a "Wild Knight" play, UCF's take on the

Wildcat formation Wildcat formation is a formation for the offense in football in which the ball is snapped not to the quarterback but directly to a player of another position lined up at the quarterback position. (In most systems, this is a running back, but some ...

. He scored a touchdown, but tore his ACL in the process, firmly establishing Godfrey as starter for the remainder of the season. When UCF hosted

Rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

on October 23, Godfrey threw his first touchdown pass since the opener, and finished 13-of-18 for 178 yards. From there he would take full control of the UCF offense, scoring two passing touchdowns in each of the next five games, while only throwing 2 interceptions the rest of the way. His signature game as a freshman would come against

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

on November 5, where he would go 15-of-19 for 294 yards with two passing touchdowns, and rush for 105 yards–his first 100-yard rushing game at UCF–with one touchdown. As a starter, Godfrey went 8–2 in the regular season placing UCF in both the AP Poll and USA Today Poll for the very first time in the program's history. He also led the Knights to the Conference USA title against SMU earning them an invitation to the 52nd Annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl, A clash between the

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(SEC) and the

UCF Knights The UCF Knights are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Central Florida in unincorporated Orange County, Florida near Orlando, Florida, Orlando. The Knights participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NC ...

(C-USA) with a final score of 10–6 UCF's first ever bowl win. He finished the season completing 159-of-238 passes for 2,159 yards with 13 TDs and 6 INTs, and rushed for 556 yards and 10 more touchdowns. All those numbers are second-most for a true-freshman starter in UCF history behind

Daunte Culpepper Daunte Rachard Culpepper (born January 28, 1977) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Minnesota Vikings. He played college football for the U ...

. His 105-yard rushing game against Houston was the highest rushing total for any quarterback; he had surpassed Culpepper's record earlier in the season. Godfrey exceeded a 200

passer rating Passer rating (also known as passing efficiency in college football) is a measure of the performance of passers, primarily quarterbacks, in gridiron football. There are two formulas currently in use: one used by both the National Football Leagu ...

four times, and only went under 100 twice. He ended up winning the Conference USA Freshman of the Year award.

2011

Before the 2011 season, Godfrey was placed on the watch list for the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award, which is given to the nation's best quarterback. After leading the Knights to a 5–7 record in 2011, Godfrey requested his release from the team, which was granted by Head Coach

. Godfrey was allowed to rejoin the team in April 2012, though he switched positions to become a

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

Statistics

Professional career

In 2018, Godfrey signed with the

Orlando Apollos The Orlando Apollos were a professional American football franchise based in Orlando, Florida, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which began play in February 2019. The team played its home games at Spectr ...

of the AAF for the 2019 season. He was waived/injured before the start of the 2019 regular season and subsequently placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in ...

after clearing waivers. He was waived from injured reserve on March 26, 2019.

References

External links

UCF Knights bio

Stats Page
on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Godfrey, Jeff 1992 births Living people American football quarterbacks American football wide receivers UCF Knights football players Miami Central Senior High School alumni Players of American football from Miami Orlando Apollos players