Two-Minute Drill: High school football almost over; CFP, bowl selections
Florida’s Classes 1-7 play their state semifinals on Friday; Miami and Florida await their bowl assignments Sunday; Bucs, Dolphins, Jags all in action.
ORLANDO — The architect of UCF’s greatest football season in program history is back.
Scott Frost will return as the Knights’ head coach, a source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The News-Journal Saturday. The Orlando Sentinel’s Matt Murschel first reported the news. Frost takes over for Gus Malzahn, who resigned Nov. 30 to become Florida State’s offensive coordinator.
Frost, 49, went 19-7 in his first tour of duty in Orlando — capped by the memorable, undefeated 2017 season in which the Knights claimed a national championship after a Peach Bowl triumph over Auburn. He departed for his alma mater, Nebraska, but was fired in 2022 after posting a 16-31 record without reaching a bowl game.
The Cornhuskers lost 22 of 27 games decided by one possession during Frost’s tenure.
Who is Scott Frost?
This is a question that does need answering for UCF fans. Of all the candidates linked with the job, he was comfortably the most familiar.
Most recently, Frost has served as a senior football analyst with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams.
In addition to his coaching tenures at UCF and Nebraska, Frost served as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach at Oregon under Chip Kelly (2009-15). He mentored Marcus Mariota in a Heisman Trophy-winning campaign as the Ducks reached the national championship game.
As a player, Frost led Nebraska to a national title in 1997 with 1,237 passing yards, 1,095 rushing yards and 24 total touchdowns. He collected Big 12 Newcomer of the Year honors as a redshirt junior in 1996 and second-team All-Big 12 honors in his final campaign.
The New York Jets selected Frost in the third round, 67th overall, in the 1998 NFL draft as a safety. He played 59 NFL games over parts of five seasons with the Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns.
Why did UCF hire Scott Frost?
In a nutshell, UCF is trying to recapture the magic of Frost’s first stint.
He and his staff demonstrated an ability to recruit top-end talent in Florida and unearth some of its hidden gems without the added benefit of Power Four football to offer. Frost transformed UCF into the highest-scoring team in the sport with breakneck pace and an ability to tear defenses apart by ground and by air.
At Nebraska, though, Frost’s Cornhuskers never topped the numbers set in his 2018 debut on the sidelines (30 points, 456.2 yards per game).
Frost told CBS Sports in April that he was “dying to get back” into college coaching. Both he and the Knights will have points to prove that they belong at the Power Four level, considering UCF has a 5-13 conference record since joining the Big 12 in 2023.
Former players, including recent UCF Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Shaquem Griffin, vocalized their support of rehiring Frost via social media. He will inject much-needed juice into a program that faltered to a 1-8 finish.
Scott Frost coaching record
Though Frost has a 13-0 season on his resume, his overall record sits three games below .500. He is 1-1 in bowl games; UCF finished 2016 with a lackluster hometown loss in the Cure Bowl to Arkansas State.
2016 at UCF: 6-7 (loss in Cure Bowl)
2017 at UCF: 13-0 (win in Peach Bowl)
2018 at Nebraska: 4-8
2019 at Nebraska: 5-7
2020 at Nebraska: 3-5
2021 at Nebraska: 3-9
2022 at Nebraska: 1-2 (fired Sept. 10 after 45-42 loss to Georgia Southern)
