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Final take: Frost took a gamble, and hit the jackpot

ATLANTA – When Scott Frost said he was going to coach UCF in the Peach Bowl, his decision immediately had its critics.

How could Frost possibly give his full attention to both Nebraska and UCF this past month and make it work? How could he finish off the Huskers early signing day class and still manage a bowl game against a team in Auburn that was one-game away from the College Football Playoff.

On Monday, we saw why Frost is so special. We saw why Orlando columnist Mike Bianchi compared Frost to a young Urban Meyer. Certain coaches have the “it” factor, and what Frost pulled off these last 30 days showed how special he truly is.

“It was hard. The head ball coach, give him credit. He ran himself ragged this last month,” former Husker Barrett Ruud said following UCF’s 34-27 win over Auburn. Ruud will be announced next week as Frost’s 10th full-time coach in Lincoln.

“I’m as happy for him, as I am for all of our players. They earned it man. They deserve to go out like this. It’s a great group of men with high character, and they earned this.”

All week nobody in the college football world gave UCF much of a chance. They were one of the biggest underdogs of all the bowl games, and the mood around the media hotel was Auburn should physically overmatch the Knights.

Credit Frost and his coaching staff. They didn’t get caught up in this talk. They had their team ready, and you can argue it was the best coaching job we’ve seen from any staff this bowl season considering the circumstances.

“This was big,” running backs coach Ryan Held told me as the confetti came down. “Everybody can kind of see what we do. It was Rocky IV. It was Ivan Drago vs. Rocky, and our guys bought into it, and we slayed the dragon today.”

The other thing we learned this week about Frost is people will run through a brick wall for him. From his coaches to his players. The effort level UCF displayed on Monday was incredible.

“He’s just such an awesome person,” Held said of Frost. “He got me out of the ‘minor leagues’ and gave me a chance. It’s very hard in this profession, and he believed in me. I’ll run through a wall for that guy. He’s such a great person with the coaches and the players and the culture he creates. He brought every single coach up to Nebraska, and in this profession, that’s very hard to find when you win at maybe the lower level, and you move up.

“A lot of guys get left on the island, and he didn’t do that. We are going to work our rears off for him, and the Nebraska people are going to be very happy that he’s the head coach for the Huskers.”

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What I saw on Monday

***This week was obviously emotional for the UCF players and coaches saying their last goodbyes.

“We just got a little closer, and we hugged a lot more,” UCF defensive lineman Jamiyus Pittman said of these last few days in Atlanta. “We told each other we love each other more than a couple of times a day, and this is why.”

***Ruud has been around a lot of great moments as a player and a coach, and he said Monday’s Peach Bowl victory might top the list.

“This is about as cool as it gets,” Ruud said. “This is about as fun as I’ve been around.”

***Frost even admitted after the game he wasn’t sure how this week would go, but he just believed in the process.

“I didn’t know if we’d have a chance or not, but I thought us coaches being here would give them a chance,” Frost said. “I can’t believe they did this. They pulled this off under these circumstances. It’s a credit to these kids.”

***The officiating crew made a big mistake in the final minute on Monday. A 10-second runoff was supposed to happen with 34 seconds left on the clock after an Auburn player went down with an injury. It was supposed to be a 10-second runoff followed by a wind of the clock. After the long injury timeout, the refs forgot to take 10 seconds off the clock. Luckily for UCF, they got an interception on the next play to win the game. That was a major mistake by the officials, and the UCF sideline was going nuts.

***Held said come Tuesday morning, it will be time to turn the page now and begin a new chapter with this coaching staff in Lincoln.

“It wasn’t easy, but we don’t make excuses,” Held said of this last month. “We found a way to get it done. We told the guys we loved them and cared about them, and we were here for them. We had two hats, and I think we did a great job on both ends. I’ll remember this forever. Obviously tomorrow morning we’ll wake up, and we have to move forward.”


Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com, and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET's Big Red Wrap-Up Tuesday's at 7 pm.

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