UCF coach Scott Frost
UCF coach can’t ignore Nebraska coaching vacancy
tries to keep the focus on his undefeated Knights — not his coaching future — as the team prepares for Saturday’s AAC title game.
Game-planning ways to stop Memphis’ prolific offense is probably the easiest part of UCF coach Scott Frost’s week as he prepares for the American Athletic Conference championship game.
Frost, 42, has a captive national audience after making college football history with the Knights, turning a winless team into an undefeated team in two years.
The Nebraska native wants the attention to stay on his players, but that’s becoming increasingly difficult as noise surrounding his coaching future hit a fever pitch this past weekend after Nebraska fired Mike Riley and athletics director Bill Moos made it clear he wants Frost. During Frost’s weekly press conference Monday, he addressed questions surrounding his future.
Here are some of the highlights:
Question: What do you want to say regarding web reports about your coaching future?
Answer: “I’m not gonna say
much. I can’t tell you how much I care about these players and that’s true in my past and that’s going to be true every year I’m coaching and our entire staff is that way. These guys are special and they deserve my best. I’ve said that all year. They deserve our coaching staff’s best. Every year in college football there’s tough decisions to make and those kind of things happen. And when the time’s right we’ll make them. I know it’ll be really hard to leave this team because of how much love I have for this group of guys and how much effort they’ve given us. So all I’m gonna do is go back in my office and watch more film.
“This shouldn’t be about me. I know the questions are gonna come but these guys have earned the right to have this conversation be about them and about the game they won on Friday and the game they’re gonna play this Saturday and this shouldn’t be about me or the future or anything else, but these kids.”
Q: Are you interested in Nebraska?
A: “I’d be hurt if Nebraska weren’t interested in me. We’re undefeated; I’m from there. When you win, a lot of people are interested in you. That doesn’t matter. Like I said, what matters is these players and what they’ve accomplished and they deserve the focus to be on them and not me.”
Q: Have you talked to players about your coaching future?
A: “No, I don’t even want to bring it up. I just want them to see me continue to work and do everything I can to help them finish this off. When they see that, they’ve been doing the same exact thing.”
Q: How close does this feel to the finish line?
A: “This has been such a fun season that I think rather than guys being tired and looking for a finish line I think they’re gonna be sad when this season ends. It’s been a magical ride. We’ve had some unbelievable games. This is an unbelievably tight-knit group. They don’t seem like a team that’s tired and looking for the finish line. They seem like a team that’s enjoying being around each other and having fun at practice and trying to accomplish absolutely everything that they can accomplish.”
Q: What are your thoughts on Nebraska firing four coaches since you played at the school?
A: “I’ve been doing my thing. I’m doing my thing here. I’m a loyal guy and I’m loyal to my family. I’m loyal to people that care about me. I’m loyal to this coaching staff. I’m loyal to these kids. I’m loyal to my alma mater, but I’m more loyal to the people I’m going to battle with every day. And that’s been at Kansas State, Northern Iowa, Oregon and here. Right now, my loyalties lie with these players.”
Q: What do you think of having a camera crew staked out at your parents’ house in Nebraska?
A: “I didn’t know that, but that makes me mad.”
Q: What have you learned about yourself and the coaching profession?
A: “This is a tough business. It’s also a very rewarding business when it’s done the right way. I can’t tell you how much pride I take in the fact that we came here and took on the task of fixing something that wasn’t in a good place when we took it over. I don’t think that the players were in a good place and this university is special. And this community is special and it gives me a lot of pride to know that we came in and righted the ship. I knew this place could be the type of place to compete for conference championships every year. I gotta tell you I thought it would take a lot longer than this to get it to this point. But we’ve made the right choices on the steps we made along the way. The biggest part is I’m thrilled for these players, especially these seniors because they’ve been through a lot now. To have those guys come up to me after the game and show the emotion that they showed toward me and the rest of the staff helping them accomplish this stuff, it’s a special feeling and I’m so thrilled for this university and these group of kids to be able to experience this.”