ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Scott Frost is back in Orlando, but he isn’t the same man or coach that he was in 2016 when he first arrived.
Frost has the mental and emotional scars to prove it.
What You Need To Know
- Scott Frost is back at UCF to try to revive the football program — again
- In his first stint as the Knights’ coach, the team went undefeated and won the Peach Bowl in the second season
- Then his alma mater, Nebraska, called to hire him, and he struggled through 4-1/4 losing seasons before being fired
- Frost said he knows now that “football is not life,” but he wants to help the Knights to be elite again
After his teams went 13-31 in 4-1/4 seasons at Nebraska, the Knights’ head coach had to dust himself off.
Now he said he’s ready to lead the Knights in a new direction after they went 4-8 last season.
“I feel like, in my bad times, I have something to prove. But this isn’t about me,” Frost said. “One of my first messages to the team tonight will be, ‘Football is what we do, and I want to be elite at it and be the best that we can be at it and get better every day. But football is not life’.”
It’s hard to understand where you’re going without revisiting where you’ve been. Frost left UCF on top of the world in 2018.
The 2017 football team he coached in his first stint at UCF had an undefeated season, became the 2018 Peach Bowl champion by beating Auburn of the powerhouse Southeastern Conference and had a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback McKenzie Milton.
After leaving UCF, his time in Nebraska and the Big Ten was anything but a smooth ride.
“I think sometimes when you make football the most important thing in your life, then you ride the highs and lows of that,” Frost said. “It can wreck you individually and personally.”
He was fired by his alma mater in 2022, and he didn’t coach college football for three years. He spent some time with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams as an analyst.
Coming back to UCF isn’t for Frost’s ego, though. He said it’s for the black and gold.
“I think if I said I had a lot to prove personally, that would be about me, and it’s not about me,” Frost said. “It’s about the university and this team.”
Just like his first stint at UCF, Frost is taking over a program that finished the previous season with a losing record. He will be coaching in a new conference for the first time. The Knights were in the American Athletic Conference the last time. Now, they are in the Big 12 Conference.
One difference this time is there are about 70 new players on the roster since last season.
“I feel really good about the talent level on our team, but we’re largely unproven,” Frost said. “We don’t have a lot of returning production. So, it’s really going to be how fast can these guys operate at a level, that they can compete at the level in a game against teams from the Big 12.”
It’s a new beginning for Frost in a similar place. But he knows success won’t come overnight.
“Sometimes it happens slower than you want. Sometimes it happens faster than you want,” Frost said. “Last time I was here, it happened faster than even we expected. We have a saying around here that’s still up on the walls when I got back the first time, ‘rise and conquer’.”
Frost’s return to UCF is more than a feel-good story. He is here to change the culture and win.
Brandon Green
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