ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — UCF promises a new era in its football program. The Knights are just returning to a familiar face to lead the way.
The school re-introduced Scott Frost as its coach Sunday night, bringing back the man who led the team to an undefeated season in 2017 and set the program on its path to joining the Big 12.
He replaces Gus Malzahn, who left to become Florida State’s offensive coordinator following a 4-8 season in his fourth year with the Knights.
“Nobody was expecting this job to be open,” Frost said. “I certainly wasn’t in a place where I was hunting. I’m here because this one is special to me and I want to try to get it right again.”
UCF first hired Frost in 2015 following a winless season, the last time the Knights missed a bowl game before this season. By his second season in 2017, the Knights had taken on an identity as one of the best offensive teams in the nation and took the college football world by storm.
UCF was undefeated in the 2017 season, beating Auburn in the Peach Bowl, the program’s second New Years Six bowl game. UCF used that win to claim a national championship, one confirmed by the Colley Matrix, one of the NCAA’s selectors for a national championship in football.
Frost left after that undefeated season, taking the job at his alma mater, Nebraska. He went 19-7 and 12-4 in the American Athletic Conference in two seasons with the Knights.
Frost found it was not so easy to go home again. He could not rekindle the spark with the Cornhuskers, going 16-31, 10-26 in the Big Ten, in five seasons. He has worked as a senior football analyst for the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL the last two seasons.
“Coaching is funny,” Frost said. “You put yourself out there and you compete and do the best you can. Sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn’t work great. At UCF it worked great.”
It certainly worked great in his first stint. But now he joins a team in a new conference in the Big 12 that struggled to establish itself in its new conference.
The Knights went 6-7 in 2023 and 3-6 in their first season in the new conference, including losing their first five conference games.
In the 2024 season, despite bringing in several high-profile transfers including former Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson, the Knights failed to make a bowl game at 4-8 and 2-7 in the Big 12.
The Knights are hoping Frost can right the ship and return them to their glory days.
“His unwavering love for UCF makes his homecoming much more than a return to the sidelines,” athletic director Terry Mohajir said. “It’s a reunion of the energy, the vision and determination that united us all as Knights. Scott’s leadership and enthusiasm resonated with the values we uphold as UCF.”
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