UCF and Scott Frost are reuniting.
According to the Orlando Sentinel and other reports, Frost is set to be the Knights’ next head coach. UCF has been in the market for a coach after Gus Malzahn resigned to be the offensive coordinator at Florida State.
Frost, 49, was UCF’s head coach in 2016 and 2017. He was hired to replace George O’Leary after UCF went 0-12 in 2015 and the Knights promptly went 6-7 and went to a bowl game in Frost’s first season. In his second, UCF went 13-0 and beat Auburn to win the Peach Bowl and cap off an undefeated season after missing out on the College Football Playoff.
Frost left UCF after that season to become the head coach at Nebraska in a stint that didn’t go nearly as well as Cornhusker fans would have hoped. His teams never won more than five games in a single season. Frost was fired three games into the 2022 season after Nebraska started 1-2 and lost at home to Georgia Southern.
The former Nebraska quarterback was retained for 2022 despite a six-game losing streak to end the 2021 season. During that losing streak, Nebraska announced that Frost would be back for a fifth season with a restructured contract as four of his assistant coaches were fired before the end of the season.
Frost has been serving as an offensive analyst on Sean McVay’s staff for the Los Angeles Rams this season. Before taking the UCF job, Frost was Oregon’s offensive coordinator for three seasons and the team’s wide receivers coach for three seasons before that.
Frost doesn’t inherit a UCF situation that’s nearly as dire this time. The Knights won nine games in each of Malzahn’s two seasons, but were 6-7 in their first season in the Big 12 in 2023 and went 4-8 in 2024 despite the excellence of RB R.J. Harvey. He rushed 232 times for 1,577 yards and 22 TDs, but UCF’s QBs combined to complete just 58% of their passes for fewer than 2,400 yards. The Knights went just 2-7 in Big 12 play and ended the season with a home loss to Utah. The following day, Malzahn resigned to take the job at Florida State.