UCF head coach Scott Frost met with reporters during the Big 12 spring meetings at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, offering candid insight into the challenges of rebuilding the Knights' roster, navigating the transfer portal era, and preparing for his first season back at the helm.
From welcoming more than 60 new players to voicing his support for a single transfer window and reflecting on UCF's identity in a new-look Big 12, Frost touched on a wide range of topics.
Here's everything he had to say:
Scott, you got to meet with the full team on Monday. What was that experience like for you? You got a bunch of newcomers. How many newcomers did you welcome in and what's up the team look like?
"It's gonna be a challenge for us. We have a good collection of athletes right now but it's a bunch of individuals right now and turning that into a team is gonna be a big challenge for our players, our coaches and everybody in the building. We have over 60 new players on our football team right now because of the way college football with two portals, and taking over a team that was only about half filled as far as roster spots, so we had a lot of work to do.
"I like where we are, but right now, like I said, there's guys in the room that don't know half the people sitting around them so it's gonna be a real test for us to try to get ready to play and develop a team mentality where guys care about each other."
Coach, evaluate how the spring portal went for you just in terms of players you may have lost and players that you gained.
"Yeah, I think being a new coach in this era in a lot of ways is really challenging. In some of the ways may be good because you can make changes to your team a lot quicker than you used to be able to. There were some more changes after spring, but spring portal was the first time we were able to make decisions actually having firsthand knowledge, at least for myself of what what we had, what the players could do, and what we needed, who could play and who we didn't think could, and so we made a few more changes there. I think added some other good pieces and time will tell. Now we've got to gel and come together as a football team."
What's your primary objective during the summer?
"There's a lot of objectives. We need to get in better shape and get stronger so we're working hard in the weight room. We have a few months of getting guys familiar with scheme on both sides of the ball, but not all of them because we have new ones, so we have to catch them up and continue pushing the ball down the field as far as knowledge of our scheme.
"We got to come together as a football team. We got to develop a team mentality. There's a lot of work to do. The great thing is as a coach in this era I'm learning fast that the portals aren't any fun, but now we have our whole team that we're going to have now for eight months and it's starting to feel just like it used to.
"You're just a coach and you're worrying about football and team development. We're gonna have to put in some time to make sure that we clear all those hurdles."
What do you think about the straight seeding with the College Football Playoff, this new model?
"You know, my opinion doesn't matter. Other people are going to make those decisions. I'm just a traditionalist, I guess, and I think you play your way into anything. So ideally, in my opinion, you have the conference winners who probably deserve to be in and then then it's probably the next best teams 11 teams.
"Again, I don't have any power to make any of those decisions, but I would have loved that a few times in my career when I think we had a good enough team to be in a top 16. I think there are smart enough football people out there that can judge that."
Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham talked about getting to one transfer portal window, saying the Big 12 coaches agreed on that. Is that something you'd like to see?
"Yeah. Two windows is crazy. It was unanimous with the football coaches, at least in the Big 12 that I can speak to. It's got to be one portal. You spend all that time recruiting guys and retaining guys, and spend more time with them in the weight room and even more time on the football field, pouring into them and trying to get them ready to play, and then they leave.
"Roster management is impossible trying to figure out how many high school kids you can take because you don't know how many of our kids are still going to be there, how many other kids you're going to take after spring ball. It's too much honestly. I know we were unanimous in agreement on the fact that however it happens we all hope there's just one portal."
How excited are you just to kick things off in September?
"I can't wait to get back in the stadium. I've been running some stadium stairs, so I've been in there but they're redoing the field right now so I'm not on the field much. But I got a lot of special memories in that place. I think it's good for us with a lot of new players to get some experience early at home in a friendly environment. Hopefully that gets us off to a good start, or it gives a better chance to get off to a good start."
