Subscribe
Follow Us
UCF football coach Scott Frost recently spoke regretfully of his time with the Nebraska football program, which he served as the starting quarterback and, decades later, head coach. But Urban Meyer thinks Frost probably regrets doing that.
During a Big 12 Conference media day, Frost, who spent parts of five long, unsuccessful seasons as the Cornhuskers' head coach, was blunt about what he believes to have been a massive mistake.
“Don't take the wrong job,” Frot said when asked what he learned from his time at Nebraska. While he did elaborate, it certainly did not give a glowing review of his time back in Lincoln.
“I said I wouldn't leave (UCF) unless it were someplace you could win a national championship. I got tugged in a direction to try to help my alma mater, and didn't want to do it. It wasn't a good move. I'm lucky to return to where I was a lot happier,” Frost said.
The comment, as expected, caught the attention of Nebraska fans, many of whom soured on Frost relatively quickly during his tenure. Urban Meyer also caught wind of it, and the former college football and NFL coach said he was surprised at Frost's statement.
“We’ve all stood at the podium, and we say something like, ‘Ouch, why did I say that?' And you can’t take it back. I’m sure he would want to take it back,” Meyer said. “If it’s not meant to be, it’s a direct shot at Nebraska. I know Scott Frost, a hell of a coach, and I’ve known him a long time. That didn’t go well. I actually had people send it to me and say, ‘Wow, look at this.'”
Whether Frost regrets what he said remains to be seen, but the reality is that Frost, like Nebraska, should have a lot of regrets for that time period.
His time at his alma mater was in stark contrast to his two seasons with UCF; in 2016, his first season in Orlando, Frost led the Knights to a 6-7 record and a Cure Bowl appearance, a year after the program had lost each of its 12 games. The following season, in 2017, UCF ran the table, going 13-0, winning the American Athletic Conference, and capping the season off with a Peach Bowl victory.
The two-year turnaround made Frost one of the most highly sought-after young coaches in the country at the time, and with Mike Riley's tenure at Nebraska ending so poorly, it made sense on paper for Frost, a Lincoln native and two-year starting quarterback for Tom Osborne, to return home.
However, Frost never won more than five games in a given season as Nebraska's head coach, during which time he went 16-31 overall and 10-26 in the Big Ten. After a 1-2 start to the 2022 season, he was fired. Frost spent the 2023 season away from coaching before becoming an analyst for the Los Angeles Rams last season. UCF hired him as its head coach in December following the resignation of Gus Malzahn.
