A new era in UCF football will begin in 2016 as the Knights announced Dec. 1st, the hiring of Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost as the 10th head coach in program history.
A former national-champion quarterback at Nebraska, Frost has been with Oregon since 2009, and took over as its offensive coordinator in 2013.
A native of Nebraska, Coach Frost traveled to Stanford to begin his college career under legendary Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh. Frost played at both quarterback and free safety for the Cardinal. He then returned home to Nebraska and play for head coach College Football Hall of Famer Tom Osborne. After sitting out the 1995 campaign where the program went 12-0 en route to the national title, he took over for Tommie Frazier in 1996 as the Cornhuskers’ starting signal-caller and was selected as the Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year throwing for 1,440 yards with 13 touchdowns and just three picks. He also rushed for 438 yards and nine touchdowns.
As a senior in 1997, Frost was a Johnny Unitas Award finalist, a Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist and a CoSIDA Academic All-America selection. He was voted on to the All-Big 12 Second Team, throwing for 1,237 yards and rushing for 1,096 along with 19 touchdowns on the ground. His Cornhuskers were Co-National Champs after beating Peyton Manning's Vols 42-17 in the Orange Bowl.
Ironically, Frost's Pro career was on Special Teams and defense, not QB. Frost played for the Jets, Browns, Packers and Bucs.
Frost was coached by Stanford’s Bill Walsh, Nebraska’s Tom Osborne, the New York Jets’ Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, and Jon Gruden. After a graduate assistant stint at Nebraska and KSU, Frost helped Northern Iowa reach prominence as a linebackers coach. From there it was on to Oregon and under Chip Kelly a National Championship and a Heisman trophy winner in NFL Tennessee Titans Rookie QB Marcus Mariota:
“He’s really helped me understand why we run certain plays against certain defenses. Without that, some of the stuff that I’ve been able to do this year wouldn’t have happened.” Marcus Mariota-2014
After taking over a program that was 0-11 in 2004 , O'Leary took the UCF program to new heights, national prominence and academic prominence. After an 0-8 start this year , O'Leary resigned. In Coach Frost the Golden Knights will see a lot of O'Leary's qualities: toughness, academic excellence, dedication to the job at hand. Frost will be tested early when they travel to Michigan on September 10th and then welcome Maryland on the 17th.
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