Scott Frost says UCF is ‘a lot farther ahead’ after spring
Scott Frost is not interested in selling UCF fans on offseason optimism just for the sake of it.
He knows what happened the last time he was entering Year 2 as UCF’s head coach. He knows people remember how quickly the Knights went from rebuilding to unbeaten during his first stint in Orlando.
But as Frost wrapped up his second spring since returning to UCF, he was careful not to make any bold promises. He did, however, make one thing clear. He feels a lot better this spring than last.
“I don’t know about confidence level,” Frost said when asked how he feels now compared to this time a year ago. “Everything just feels a lot better. I love the kids we’re working with. It’s so much fun coming in here every day, partly because of where we are at UCF and partly because of the kids that we’ve assembled on this roster. They’re just awesome to work with.
“I’m not a prognosticator, so I don’t know what that means, but I know I feel really good about where we are.”
That was the balance Frost struck throughout his post-spring media session lastTuesday. He believes his team is further along. He likes the talent, the leadership, the buy-in and the overall feel of the program. But he also knows UCF still has months of work ahead before the season opener.
“If you haven’t noticed, I’d rather under-promise and over-deliver,” Frost said. “I’m not going to get up here and act super excited about any person or this team. I’m really excited about who we have. We’ll see how that plays out.
“The team’s got to do its talking on Saturdays in the fall. We still have a lot of time to work to be as good as we can be.”
Frost said the biggest difference this spring was that UCF did not have to spend as much time teaching players how to practice, how to work or how to meet the standard. He says it looked more like a team that wanted to be coached.
“The first thing that got better this spring was just the buy-in from everybody and the work ethic from everybody,” Frost said. “We have guys that want to do the right things, and not just because they’re getting told to do something. They want to do the right thing. They want to be good.
“We’re not spending as much time coaching character and work ethic as we were. When we don’t have to coach effort, we can focus on the other things, and that happened a lot this spring.”
Frost was asked directly how he feels after spring.
“Happy,” Frost said. “I love the guys we’re working with. I think we’re a lot farther ahead than we were a year ago. I think we have a lot more room to grow. I have a lot of hope. In the meantime, I’m just having a lot of fun doing it.”
Frost acknowledged there are still position battles to be sorted out, and UCF has yet to see its full team together because of players who missed parts or all of spring. But he believes the roster is in a better place nearly across the board.
“Other than defensive end, I think we’re pretty clearly better at every spot,” Frost said. “There are still some competitions happening in a lot of spots due to the depth because of some of the guys that we brought into the program, so I’m excited about a lot of guys and a lot of positions.”
The next step, Frost said, is recovery. After a full winter and spring, the players were told to get away from football briefly before ramping back up for summer work.
“The biggest priority for the team right now is to recover,” Frost said. “We worked really hard all winter. They gave us a ton of effort all spring. With the calendar we have now, I think training well is important. Recovering well is really important too.”
Frost was also asked if he had a message for a fan base eager for a resurgent football season after back-to-back losing years.
“Be supportive,” Frost said. “We thank you for everything you did. We’re doing everything we know how to get better. I feel like we’ve got a really good chance this year. We’re a lot farther along than we were last year. Regardless of what happens, I appreciate the support that we get.”
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