UCF football bringing Scott Frost back as coach shows how far program has fallen

As UCF Director of Athletics Terry Mohajir finished introducing Scott Frost as the Knights’ next football coach and welcomed him on stage during his introductory press conference, Mohajir presented his new coach with a black UCF jersey with the name Frost written on the back and the No. 10 — representing Frost’s slot as the 10th coach in program history. 

After the two posed for pictures with the jersey, as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell does at the draft with first-round picks, Frost stepped to the podium to speak, and these were his first words: “Well, 10’s not my number, but maybe we know somebody else that can use that.”

The crowd laughed then cheered at the reference to legendary Knights quarterback McKenzie Milton, who wore the number for the 2017 UCF team that finished 13-0 — Frost’s second and final season in Orlando before he took over his alma mater’s football program, Nebraska. 

Instead of cheering, though, I couldn’t help but notice a theme throughout the presser that I kept seeing regarding the hire: nostalgia. 

All I could hear while Frost gave his tenure-opening address, or even when Mohajir spoke before, was consistent references to his first tenure here. As a member of UCF’s 2016 graduating class, I, too, cherish the memories of Frost’s terrific two-year turnaround that saw UCF go from winless in 2015 to undefeated in 2017. I, as much as any other crazed Knights fan, would love to see Frost take this program back to where it was then. 

My hesitation, however, is simple: In that era — from 2016-17 under Frost to 2018-19 under Josh Heupel — UCF catapulted itself into the college football mainstream by pushing the envelope, making bold choices and being disrupters. You know, like when former AD Danny White looked dead into a camera after UCF won the 2017 Peach Bowl and declared the most powerful three words in program history, “National champs, undefeated.” 

To this day, White, even as Tennessee’s AD, continues to double down on the 2017 national title claim, going as far as paying out bonuses to the coaching staff. 

UCF didn’t become the youngest athletics program at 60 years old to join the Power 5 by looking back. This program didn’t reach the lofty heights the Citronauts and Golden Knights who came before us could only dream of by succumbing to a nostalgic longing for its past. 

Although this hire is well-intentioned and serves as a much-needed shot in the arm during a down period in the program’s history, ultimately, it — and the conversation surrounding it — is rooted in the past. That argument is cemented when you consider how much the landscape of college football has completely flipped on its head since Frost last led a college football team to a winning record in 2017. 

Frost was fired as Nebraska’s coach in September 2022 and the NCAA officially began allowing Name, Image and Likeness deals in July 2021. This means — disregarding NIL’s evolution in recent years — Frost has a little more than a year of experience not just running a program during the NIL era but being on a college staff period during the existence of NIL, one of the most impactful roster-building tools a program has at its disposal. 

The other glaring difference between UCF’s reality in 2025 and the first Frost era is that the Knights are in the Big 12 now, and that means they need to recruit like it. Despite Central Florida being a hotbed for high school football talent, UCF has failed to put together a top-35 recruiting class in either of its two seasons in its new conference. For the past five seasons, the Knights have, on average, put together the 55th-ranked recruiting class in college football, according to 247Sports.

During his four full seasons as Nebraska’s coach (2018-21), Frost managed to put together four top-25 recruiting classes in the country and four top-five classes in the Big Ten, but the success didn’t translate to wins. The Cornhuskers had a combined record of 15-29 during those seasons. 

So when you consider the increased competition, UCF’s lack of recruiting pedigree and Frost’s four-year track record of failing to win more than an average of 3.75 games per season, the idea this hire was made looking at the most recent data points and deductive reasoning instead of nostalgia is a bit laughable.

Look: I just want my alma mater to get back to winning football games. I want to be wrong. I want Frost to succeed even more in his second tenure at UCF than he did during Round 1. I’m just scared we’re clinging onto the memory of what the Frost era was and forgetting how we got there in the first place. Regardless of whether my fear proves to be fact, I’ll be watching and cheering on Frost and his players every Saturday next fall.

Go Knights, charge on!