It’s been 5 months since Scott Frost made his extremely anticipated return to the UCF, and the Knights’ head coach is lastly beginning to really feel at dwelling as soon as once more.
Frost, 50, is reuniting with a program after an eight-year absence. Since his introductory press conference in mid-December, he’s navigated a whirlwind of feelings and challenges as he embarks on this new chapter in his profession.
“[It’s been] enjoyable — onerous however enjoyable,” Frost advised reporters throughout this week’s Large 12 spring conferences in Orlando. “The primary month was tough. It was simply rebuilding an entire crew, and any time you’re a brand new coach at the present time, that’s going to occur.”
A lot as he had carried out in 2016, Frost inherited a crew that was coming off a disappointing downturn. The Knights underachieved in 2024, ending with a 4-8 report earlier than head coach Gus Malzahn left to turn out to be the offensive coordinator at Florida State.
In his first season with the Knights, Frost had directed UCF to a 6-6 common season after the crew had gone winless in 2015. In 2017 beneath the erstwhile Nebraska star, the Knights capped a 13-0 season by defeating Auburn within the Peach Bowl.
When Frost took over the Knights after final season, it rapidly grew to become obvious that he confronted a monumental activity.
“We had 49 guys on scholarship after I took the job,” Frost recalled. “We would have liked 85, so that you don’t have very lengthy to attempt to discover them. That was robust.”
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Frost and his new teaching employees rapidly started rebuilding the roster, primarily by way of the switch market. UCF added over 30 gamers from the switch portal in time to host spring camp in March.
Nonetheless, simply two days earlier than the camp concluded, the spring switch window opened, and the Knights misplaced roughly 20 gamers. Nonetheless, Frost was capable of fill some wants, including roughly a dozen gamers.
“Being a brand new coach on this period, in lots of methods, is difficult,” Frost stated. “There have been some extra modifications after spring, however the spring portal was the primary time we have been capable of make choices, really having first-hand information, at the very least from my perspective, of what we had and what the gamers may do, what we would have liked, who may play, and who we didn’t assume may. So we made a couple of extra modifications there.”
When the crew gathered for an offseason assembly this week, Frost and his teaching employees had the chance to evaluate the roster for the upcoming season.
“We presently have over 60 new gamers on our soccer crew,” Frost acknowledged. “There are people within the room who don’t know half of the individuals sitting round them. Subsequently, it is going to be an actual problem for us to organize for video games and foster a crew mentality the place gamers genuinely care about each other. To begin, they should get to know one another.
“I just like the expertise we’ve on the crew, however now we bought to show them what we would like them to do and develop a crew out of these guys, and we’ll see how briskly we are able to get that carried out.”
With the atmosphere round him starting to settle, Frost is getting acclimated to the job. And regardless of the chaos of rebuilding the crew, he hasn’t misplaced his humorousness.
When requested to explain the quarterbacks room throughout a media session this week, Frost responded, “The quarterbacks room is white, and there’s a display screen on the entrance — Oh, you imply the gamers within the quarterbacks room.”
He went on to say there was competitors within the spring amongst Tayven Jackson, Jacurri Brown and Cam Fancher however wasn’t prepared to decide to naming a starter at this level. He has a number of months till the Knights start preseason camp earlier than opening the season in opposition to Jacksonville State on Aug. 28.
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In the meantime, there may be nonetheless loads of work to be completed earlier than then.
“We have to get in higher form and get stronger, so we’re working onerous within the weight room,” Frost stated. “We have now a couple of months of getting guys accustomed to schemes on either side of the soccer and we’ve bought to come back collectively as a soccer crew. We have now to develop a crew mentality. There’s lots of work to do.”
And whereas Frost isn’t any stranger to the Large 12, this shall be his first time teaching within the league.
“It’s a tricky league and watching the tape, there’s lots of good groups within the league,” Frost stated.
However despite the fact that his crew isn’t receiving lots of preseason consideration, that’s completely superb in his thoughts.
“UCF’s all the time form of carried out with the chip on their shoulder and gained lots of video games that folks didn’t anticipate them to win traditionally, and I believe that should proceed to be a part of our nature of who we’re,” he stated. “The children are excited in regards to the launching level that they must attempt to accomplish greater than what individuals assume.”
Please discover me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. E mail: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Join the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly e-newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF protection.