After a whirlwind first two weeks on the job, Scott Frost has officially locked in the initial members of his first recruiting class as head coach at Nebraska.

Amid some very unusual and sometimes difficult circumstances, Frost and his staff were able to receive several National Letters of Intent on the first day of the inaugural college football early signing period on Wednesday.

While the 2018 class is far from completed, Frost said during a media teleconference Wednesday afternoon that he felt the Huskers were off to strong start despite such a short recruiting window.

“A lot of these kids we’ve known for a long time, and one thing we weren’t going to do was just sign kids to fill spots,” Frost said. “We want kids that we know can come be good people and become good football players. We have a lot of work to do here in January, but I’m excited about the guys that are on board.”

Not only did Frost and his assistant coaches have to try to recruit and re-recruit prospects during a matter of a couple of weeks after taking over at Nebraska, but they also had to do so while continuing to coach their former UCF players leading up to the Jan. 1 Peach Bowl.

It may not have been an ideal situation, but in the long run, Frost feels the early signing period will be a great asset for teams looking to secure key spots in their recruiting classes and for prospects not wanting to partake in the “circus” leading up to the February signing day.

“The kids out in the country that don’t want to be involved in some of the ugly parts of recruiting and want to get it over with are going to sign early,” Frost said. “The kids that really know where they want to be, and that’s going to keep them from being involved in the circus that’s going to take place in January.”

Frost stressed that much work was still left to be done one the next month, but the good news was after having a little more time to evaluate Nebraska’s current roster, it wasn’t going to require the total personnel overhaul that some might have thought for a team that went 4-8 last year.

“I think we have good pieces on the team in Lincoln, and I think they had probably more talent on the team last year than the record indicates,” Frost said “So we’re excited to get to work with the guys that are already on campus in Lincoln, but adding talent certainly helps.”

By the time the dust settles on Wednesday night, Frost said there would be room for 19 players in Nebraska’s 2018 recruiting class.

However, by the time the regular signing day rolls around in February, he said he expects the class to grow to more than 20 players.

“I think we’ll sign a class of over 20 eventually by the time this is all said and done,” Frost said. “There will probably be some movement and hopefully a lot of work that we can get done before the February signing period and perhaps afterward.”

Frost reiterated that he and his staff didn’t want to scramble to try and fill up as much of the class as possible in December. Instead, they identified a select number of targets they wanted and focused their efforts on them over the past two weeks.

“This is unusual with an early signing period, and I think everybody was finding their way through this first year,” Frost said. “It made it even more difficult for a lot of guys that have changed jobs like we have, but again, I feel good about where we are.

“I didn’t want to come in and try to fill a class in two weeks because that doesn’t give us enough time to evaluate and get to know people and develop relationships. There’s a lot of work left to be done, but I think we’ve got a good start on it and I like where we landed from a numbers standpoint.”

Nebraska will continue to address its remaining needs with the remainder of the class, and Frost made it no secret which two position groups needed the most help.

“We’ve talked to a lot of people, and numbers-wise there are some big holes,” Frost said. “There’s a couple positions where the number of scholarship players that we would normally want to carry, the University of Nebraska is way down on those numbers.

“Receiver and defensive back are two of the most glaring ones. There’s just not enough guys at those positions, and those are places we need to go to work and get some kids in just to make sure we have enough kids at those positions.”

One of the biggest wrinkles of the 2018 class compared to recent classes before it was the heavy influence of junior college players.

The Huskers earned LOIs from Arizona Western College’s Greg Bell - ranked the No. 1 JUCO running back in the country - Jones County (Miss.) JC defensive back Deontai Williams, and Arizona Western athlete Jaron Woodyard on Wednesday.

That group could add another member depending on the upcoming announcement of Butler (Kan.) C.C. linebacker Will Honas, who is expected to make his decision between Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Kansas State.

It’s been a long time since Nebraska signed even one JUCO player in a class, as you have to go back to 2014 when the Huskers landed Byerson Cockrell and Joe Keels. Former head coach Mike Riley did not take a JUCO player in three straight classes from 2015-17.

Frost said he didn’t “want to make a living” off of recruiting junior college prospects, but if the player was of high character and could help NU win, the staff wouldn’t hesitate to continue to hit the JUCO ranks.

“We’re not going to take a bunch of junior college kids,” Frost said. “They need to be the right kids off the field, and they need to be kids that fit us. We’ve certainly recruited several of them that we feel fit us and are good people, and we’ll see where we land with them…

“I think you’re crazy if you rule out any option or any method of getting players who can help you win football games.”

When Frost announced he would be bringing his entire coaching staff from Central Florida with him to Nebraska, the move was made for reasons beyond just loyalty to his assistants.

When Frost was a player at NU under the great Tom Osborne, he remembered how valuable the continuity within the staff was to making everything work both on and off the field.

Considering he and his coaches just completed one of the most impressive program turnarounds in college football history by taking a winless UCF team to a 12-0 record this year after only two seasons, Frost said it was a no-brainer to try and keep the group together in Lincoln.

“One of the secrets to success at Nebraska for a long time was continuity and people that understood the system and the scheme and where they fit and what they’re role was,” Frost said. “It’s going to be a huge advantage for me to have people surrounding me that already know our offense, defense, and how we operate…

“If they’re good enough to take an 0-12 program to 12-0 in two years, they’re good enough to coach anywhere. What they accomplished at UCF was next to impossible.”

That chemistry also translates into Nebraska’s quick recruiting success, as the connections the coaches had made at Central Florida immediately translated to NU and in some cases strengthened.

“These guys have been working a long time to develop relationships,” Frost said. “Listen, we still have a lot of work to do with this recruiting class. But I think the more recruits get around these guys and see what kind of men of character they are, the more they hear about our vision for where we want to take the program and what we’re trying to get it back to, I think we’ll have more success.”

Frost has made it clear how much more value he wants to put on in-state talent going forward, both with scholarship recruits and walk-on players.

Easily the biggest local name in 2018 was Beatrice’s Cameron Jurgens, who verbally committed to NU way back in 2015 under Riley but had started to evaluate his options a bit - he took an official visit to LSU last fall - following the coaching change.

It didn’t take long at all for Frost to win the four-star athlete over and secure the commitment, and Frost might be as excited as anyone to officially make Jurgens a Husker.

“Cam’s a special guy, and it’s no surprise to me that he wasn’t overlooked,” Frost said. “He’s just a phenomenal athlete… I think he’s an unusual talent, an elite talent. We’re excited to get him.

“Kids like that need to stay in the state of Nebraska. I have a special connection to him right away because of who he is, where he’s from and what he’s accomplished athletically in the state. He’s a huge piece and asset for us, and I’m looking forward to watching him develop.”

Every year there are a select number of true freshman and newcomers who arrive on campus ready to make an immediate impact at Nebraska, and Frost made it clear all of his recruits would have every opportunity to do just that.

While he didn’t single out any signee in particular, Frost said it would essentially be a clean slate when it comes to evaluating the Huskers’ roster during spring practices on through fall camp.

“Every single one of these kids is going to have an opportunity to compete,” Frost said. “We’re going to play the best players, whether they’re from Florida or California or Nebraska; whether they’re seniors or freshmen; I don’t care, we’re going to play the best kids.

“But every one of them is going to have to earn it. Everyone is going to have to come in and out-perform the other people on campus. Competition is healthy, so at every single position the competition is going to start over, because there’s going to be a new set of coaches and new eyes on them.”

A handful of Nebraska’s incoming freshmen are planning to enroll early to participate in spring ball, which Frost said would naturally give them a leg up on the rest of the class heading into the start of the season.

“I think it is an advantage, but I’ve seen guys who come in early that don’t play their first year and I’ve seen guys that show up in August that do play,” Frost said. “I think it’s an advantage, but it’s not an insurmountable head start if kids come in late.”

Regardless of which players end up contributing right away, Frost wanted to make sure Husker fans tempered their expectations for the impact his first NU class would have next season.

“This is a process,” Frost said. “Fans are too impatient now, and they think you’re just going to solve all the problems on a roster in a program by going out and signing this kid or that kid and plug them in and play them.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, and I can see now why Coach Osborne always said ‘He’s a good player’ and would never give a more shining endorsement than that, because I think people get a little too excited about how many stars are behind a kid’s name.”