Peach Bowl win justifies Frost's grueling month

ATLANTA - The amount of time, effort, and sleepless nights Scott Frost put in to finish out the 2017 season with his Central Florida team before moving on to Nebraska had been well documented over the past month.

As he sat at the postgame press conference podium following the Knight’s 34-27 Peach Bowl win over Auburn on Monday, it was clear he had no regrets over his decision.

“Yeah, it makes it all worth it,” Frost said of closing out a perfect 13-0 season. “I hold my head high because through this whole process and decisions everything and, I tried to do everything the right way the best that I knew how. It was the right thing to do to come coach these guys.

“I’m not happy for me. I'm so happy for these guys. I told them in the locker room, this was an 0-12 group when I got there, and they looked like they weren't having any fun and didn't care about each other. We had a long way to go, and to think that they are sitting here Peach Bowl champions and 13-0 in two years, I couldn't be happier for them.”

Frost’s decision to continue to coach UCF after officially accepting the head job at Nebraska was initially met with some concern from some Husker fans.

Not only would it require Frost to juggle getting things going in Lincoln while trying to finish the year off in Orlando, he would also be bringing his entire coaching staff with him to NU leading up to college football’s inaugural early signing period.

But not only did Frost and Co. close out arguably the best season in Central Florida’s program history, they were able to lay the foundation for a 2018 recruiting class with 12 signees that included four of the nation’s top-40 junior college players and a Rivals250 quarterback.

The past four weeks definitely took their toll on Frost and his staff, as UCF’s players told a story of Frost vomiting on the practice field at one point because he was so exhausted.

But as he held onto the Peach Bowl game ball as tightly as he did during the 1997 national championship, the smile on Frost’s face said it all.

“You know, a memory,” Frost said when asked what that game ball meant to him. “I’m going to have a ton of memories from this place. UCF has been unbelievable to me.

“Having my first child was incredible, and then getting to spend time around guys like this all season and watching them have the success that they had. It will be hard for me to ever top 2017.”

While UCF’s players will certainly be sad to watch Frost move on, defensive lineman Jamiyus Pittman said there was no other way they were going to send their coach off than 13-0.

“There’s too much love for Coach Frost not to send him out like that,” Pittman said.

Central Florida wasn’t the first Group of Five team to get snubbed from having a shot at playing for a national championship, but given what the the Knights did on Monday, their case was as strong as anyone's.

UCF became the first team since the start of the College Football Playoff era to complete a perfect season, and yet it only made it up to No. 12 in the CFP rankings following its American Athletic Conference championship.

Frost did his best to keep his comments on his team’s place in the polls to a minimum during the season, but he let his feelings be known following the Peach Bowl win.

“Going through the season, I was afraid to say much about the rankings and everything because I'm a little superstitious,” Frost said. “And just when a coach starts running his mouth, that's when you lose the next game.

“But it wasn't right. I was watching every week, the Committee sitting in a room and decide this two-loss team must be better than UCF because UCF is in the American. Or this three-loss team must be better than UCF.”

“It looked like a conscious effort to me to make sure that they didn't have a problem if they put us too high and a couple teams ahead of us lost. And oh, no, now we have to put them in a playoff. But we just beat a team that beat two playoff teams and lost to another one by six points and we beat them by seven.

“And Auburn is a great team. I'm not taking anything away from them. I give them a ton of credit. But these guys deserve everything they get, and they deserve more credit from the Committee than what they got.”

As Frost celebrated UCF’s victory on the field, he found his newborn son and held him even more proudly than he did the Peach Bowl trophy.

After the game, Frost was asked if he would tell his son about this Central Florida team when he got a little older.

Frost said he wouldn’t have to.

“These guys will all still know him when he gets older because I expect to stay in touch with guys like this as long as I live,” Frost said. “You know, I love looking at other people's pictures of big moments in their lives with their children, and that was special for me to hold him.”

The strength of Frost’s connection with UCF, even as he now officially turns the page on his next journey at Nebraska, is one that will likely always stick with him.

He even made sure to get in one last recruiting pitch for the Knights in his final sendoff.

“Listen, I'll get heat for saying this, but if I'm a recruit out there, I want to come play at UCF,” Frost said. “It's an incredible campus; it's an incredible opportunity. They are going to come in and play with some unbelievable human beings and football players.

“If I'm a recruit out there, I want to come to Nebraska and play for this group of men (coaches) that made this happen. I'm going to be a fan of both, do everything I can for the guys at UCF and do everything I can at Nebraska, and I can't wait to watch what both programs can accomplish.”

In a season where Central Florida’s offense garnered all of the headlines - and rightfully so - it was the defense that made the difference in its Peach Bowl victory.

Not only did the Knights hold Auburn to 20 offensive points, they directly accounted for 14 of their own via turnovers, including a game-changing pick-six in the fourth quarter.

UCF also racked up six sacks and held the Tigers to just 90 rushing yards, each especially impressive feats when considering one of the more lopsided mismatches was projected to be UA’s offensive line vs. the Knight’s defensive front seven.

Frost gave plenty of credit to his defense and defensive coordinator Erik Chinander, who will follow him to run the defense at Nebraska. He also praised senior linebacker Shaquem Griffin, who earned Defensive MVP honors for his 12 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

“The defense kept us in that one early and then offense hit its stride when it needed to,” Frost said. “This guy over here (Griffin) was playing like his dreadlocks were on fire today. Every time I looked up, he was running somebody down and making a play and making a sack.

“A lot of credit to Coach Chinander and his staff and that group of guys on defense. I told them before the game they needed to play harder than Auburn, and they did.”

Griffin said Chinander’s game plan for Auburn worked to near perfection, and the players felt like they were ready for everything the Tigers threw at them.

“We had a good offense and had to make sure where our coaches put us in, and we did a good job of that all year,” Griffin said. “We had the game plan and they gave it to us, and all we had to do was study it and all the guys bought in. Even when the coach wasn't there, as a group we came in and watched and made sure we learned it.

“And then when the game came, everything we're saying, we knew what was coming and we just made plays.”