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UCF hires Oregon coordinator Scott Frost as head coach

By Nicholas Ian Allen

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Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost is the new head coach at UCF.

Only a few days ago, reports surfaced that Bowling Green head coach Dino Babers would be hired as the new head football coach at UCF. However, Tuesday morning, Brandon Helwig of UCF Sports reported that the Knights actually plan to hire Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost as the program’s new leader.

The school announced the hire shortly thereafter.

“Scott is a winner and innovator who has directed one of college football’s most exciting offenses at the University of Oregon,” UCF Vice President and Director of Athletics Danny White said in a statement released by UCF. “His attitude and experience are exactly what we need to ensure the Knights compete, and win, at the highest levels. I couldn’t be more excited to bring Scott and his fiancé, Ashley, to the UCF family.”

An assistant coach at Oregon since 2009 and the offensive coordinator since 2013, Frost will be charged with turning around a UCF football program that plummeted to 0-12 this season after a long string of success in both Conference USA and in the American Athletic Conference.

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Under former head coach George O’Leary, who retired midway through the 2015 season, the Knights won 31 games from 2012 to 2014, including a 2013 Fiesta Bowl victory over Baylor, and had four double-digit winning seasons since 2007.

Prior to his first head coaching opportunity, Frost led Oregon to the No. 1 ranking in the Pac-12 in both scoring offense and total offense in each of his three seasons as a coordinator. The Ducks averaged 43.2 points and 548.2 total yards of offense per game this season, both of which rank sixth nationally.

While Frost had the benefit of 2014 Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota his first two years, Oregon actually improved slightly in total yardage in 2015 after Mariota left for the NFL (Oregon averaged 547.0 yards per game in 2014).

Frost has played and coached for an impressive list of legendary coaches. As a player, Frost began his college career at Stanford under Bill Walsh before transferring to Nebraska to play quarterback for Tom Osborne. As a senior, Frost led Nebraska to the national championship and he won the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award after becoming only the tenth player in college football history to both run and pass for more than 1,000 yards in a single season.

Selected in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, Frost played defensive back under head coach Bill Parcells and defensive coordinator Bill Belichick. Frost also played for the Cleveland Browns, Green Bay Packers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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Before retiring, Frost spent time as a graduate assistant coach at Nebraska in 2002. After his playing career was over, he became a GA at Kansas State under Bill Snyder and coached on the defensive side of the football. He became a linebackers coach at Northern Iowa in 2007 before being promoted to co-defensive coordinator in 2008.

In 2009, the Wood River, Nebraska native joined Chip Kelly’s staff at Oregon as wide receivers coach and was promoted to offensive coordinator when Mark Helfrich became head coach in 2013.

With his resume as a national championship quarterback, an NFL defensive back, and with a history both playing for and coaching under some of the brightest minds in the game (and on both sides of the football).

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Frost is ready to become a head coach. And, 2015 aside, UCF has a history of success on the gridiron, as well as a talent-rich location that should make the Knights very competitive again soon.

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