Frost returns to UCF, details plan for Peach Bowl
Just as he said he wanted to do when he officially accepted the position as Nebraska’s new head football coach, Scott Frost was back in Orlando on Tuesday to lead his former Central Florida squad in its first practice leading up to the Peach Bowl.
Frost and his 10 full-time assistant coaches - all of which followed him to Lincoln - will coach the No. 10 Knights one final time on New Year’s Day against seventh-ranked Auburn.
Wearing a white UCF polo, Frost sat beside his former athletic director Danny White as the team was formally invited to the Peach Bowl during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The former Husker quarterback wanted no part in fielding questions about the “duality” of his role with NU and Central Florida, but he insisted that he and his staff would fulfill their obligations to both programs over the next three weeks.
“There’s some unusual circumstances surrounding this, but we’re going to handle this the same way that we would handle any bowl game of this type,” Frost said. “I'm grateful to have this opportunity. UCF has been unbelievable to me, and to be up here one more time is special to me…
“It’s unusual circumstances, but our staff is completely committed and we’re going to do everything we can for this football team.”
Central Florida will hold three practices this week and three more in Orlando next week before traveling to Atlanta for a full week of on-site bowl practices.
The players took last week off for some much-needed rest after playing 12 straight games, and when the team returned to work on Tuesday with their now-former coaches, Frost said it was pretty much business as usual.
“This morning it was just ‘get back to work, it’s good to see you again, guys,’” Frost said. “Regardless of any circumstances, we were going to give them a week off. It’s time to get back to work. That was our message today…
“As long as I live, UCF and Orlando will feel like home to me, and it felt like coming home to these guys. Like I said, these aren’t ideal circumstances, but we’re all dialed in and committed.”
Frost’s title at UCF for the next few weeks is Game Day Head Coach.
While offensive coordinator Troy Walters is tabbed the team’s interim head coach, Frost said the staff would work the Peach Bowl just as they did for every other game during their 12-0 run to an American Athletic Conference title.
“I think it’s going to be the same, yep,” Frost said.
As far as his work at Nebraska is concerned, Frost said the time he and his staff have spent on the recruiting front has been no different from what it would be during any other bowl preparations.
“In any of these bowl games, the same operating methods would be used,” Frost said. “Coaches would be on the road recruiting for a week, and then we’d come back and coach a team and probably go out the same day and recruit, and probably come back and coach the team. That’s the way these things work, and every team that’s coaching a bowl is doing it right now.”
Quick hits
***This will be Frost’s eighth time participating in a New Year’s Day bowl game as a player and a coach. He said he would use the same formula of practice and preparation he did at Nebraska and as an assistant, most closely resembling his time as an assistant at Oregon.
***Now that the regular season is over and the final polls are locked in, Frost admitted he was disappointed that UCF didn’t climb higher than 10th in the national rankings with their perfect 12-0 record.
“Yeah, I was frustrated with it,” Frost said. “I didn’t want to talk about it, because once you talk about it that’s when you lose the next week, and I was more worried about our players and our success on the field than getting into a debate about where UCF should be ranked…
“That’s a debate that’s probably well above my level, but I believe so much in the young men that have worn UCF on the side of their helmets all year, and I’m honored to run out on the field with them one more time.”
***White said his conversations with Frost throughout the process led him to believe Frost was committed to finishing the season if he were to move on to another job, no matter what bowl UCF earned.
“There was never any wavering from him in terms of his commitment to this team and seeing this season out,” White said. “I’ve always known how important it was for him to finish this season out with this group.”