UCF takes AAC title in double overtime
ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida needed another shootout to keep its unbeaten season alive. And when it was over the Knights found out their coach won’t be around much longer.
It has been quite a couple of weeks for UCF, but all things considered, the Knights probably could not have gone much better.
In one of the wildest FBS conference championship games ever, the 12th-ranked Knights captured the American Athletic Conference title with a 62-55 victory over No. 16 Memphis in double overtime.
It is the UCF’s third AAC crown in the past five years and comes eight days after it won the East Division with a 49-42 win over South Florida in Orlando.
The crazy game was quite possibly the last at UCF for coach Scott Frost. Less than two hours after it was over, the secondyear coach and former Nebraska quarterback was announced as the Cornhuskers’ next coach.
Frost — who inherited a team that was 0-12 in 2015 and has them as one of the two remaining unbeaten teams in FBS this season — said during the postgame news conference that he would discuss it with his team first.
“The hard thing about all of this is they should give you time after the season to make decisions and they don’t. These things happen at t he wrong time,” Frost said. “The one thing I wasn’t going to do was sacrifice my commitment to this team. I’ve been game planning, coaching and doing the best that I can for these guys and these decisions land on you.
“This place has given me more than I have given this place.”
Soon after Nebraska made it official and welcome the former Cornhuskers quarterback home.
Athletic director Danny White said that there is a possibility that Frost would coach the Knights in their bowl game. Offensive coordinator Troy Walters has been named the interim coach to handle day-to-day matters.
“We have a special opportunity to make the season even more historic,” White said. “We have to figure out how that plays out on game day but Scott’s mind is focused on preparing our team. There’s no one else that can do it and be as competitive as we want to be.”