Frost: 'The potential at UCF is unlimited'
UCF head coach Scott Frost was the featured guest on ESPN's 'Championship Drive' podcast on Wednesday with hosts Ivan Maisel, Adam Rittenberg and Ryan McGee.
During the eight-minute interview, Frost spoke about how his offensive philosophy will aid in recruiting, why UCF is attractive as a Power Five candidate while also touching on the recent Orlando shooting tragedy.
The interview began with a comment about the illustrious group of coaches he either played for and coached under, including Bill Walsh, Tom Osborne, Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich.
"I think I've picked up quite a few things from a lot of different people," Frost said. "I've been really lucky to be around the people I've been around. You just try to learn from them and take the best things from each of them, the things you like from each of those coaches. I've been around those guys in college, Chip and Mark, and some really good ones in the NFL too. It's great to have those guys as a resource to call for help whenever you need it."
Spread offenses are becoming more common around the country, but that's not the case in Florida as none of the other major state universities run that particular style of offense. Can that benefit UCF?
"Absolutely," Frost said. "The interesting thing is that I think most of the high schools in the state of Florida are playing some sort of spread uptempo style now. We're really the only one doing it as far as the major colleges in Florida. I think our system is really going to be a great fit for a lot of the athletes in Florida and I think those kids are going to be more familiar with the type of offense we play than any other. It's really helping us and giving us a boost in recruiting already. I'm looking forward to getting some really talented kids in our program."
While a lot of attention this offseason has focused on the fact UCF went winless in 2015, one of the hosts brought up the fact how successful the program was prior to that, winning a conference championship in 2014 and another title and BCS game the year before. Where is the talent level on this team?
"I think they underachieved last year," Frost said. "I think it was kind of a perfect storm of things happening to them. They had some injuries. They were a young team. Then I think after they lost a couple games early in the year that were close, that they had a chance to win, I think it spiraled out of control and everybody gave up to some degree. We've got some good players in the program. I think we can continue to get better and better players as we recruit to the style of football that we're going to play and the culture that we're building. But I know the players on our team right now are working their tails off. They're doing everything we ask them to do. I have no doubt we'll be an improved team this year."
A "bad" year for Oregon is 9-4, so is Frost ready to accept a season that might be somewhat of a struggle?
"I think it's going to take us a while to get this thing built to the level we want it," Frost said. "But consistent success, I fully believe we can get there. We're going to draw some really good talent to this place. UCF is a place that kids are going to want to be. It's the second-largest university in the country. It's up and coming. Orlando is one of the best college towns in America. Great city to live in. I think if we start recruiting well and doing things that I know can help build a program into a winner I don't see any reason we can't reach a similar amount of consistent success. I don't know how long it will take to get there. The potential at this place is unlimited."
UCF's candidacy in regards to Big 12 expansion was brought up and Frost was asked where he sees the program in the future.
"People ask me about expansion and I probably know less about it than most fans who are following it closely," Frost said. "I do know this. We have 62,000 students at UCF and we're growing faster than any school in the country. Orlando is the fastest growing major city in the United States. It's a huge TV market. Beautiful place to live. There's a lot of factors about UCF and Orlando that make it very attractive to belong to any conference. I think my job here is to help the football team to get to the level that it should be at and we expect it to be at. I think if we can take care of that, a lot of the other things will take care of themselves. If you think about the number of kids that we have in school and the number of kids we're graduating every year, our fanbase is going to be enormous in a very short amount of time. That kind of fanbase brings support. It brings TV viewership. I think there's a lot of attractive things about this school to any conference."
Lastly, in response to a question about the recent events in Orlando, Frost mentioned that he donated blood and wished it wasn't always a tragedy that brings people together.
"Orlando has rallied to try to support those people and the families any way they possibly can," Frost said. "I know I gave blood the other day and a lot our players did too. I kind of wish communities like Orlando and others would do some of those things in front anything like that happening, rather than always being reactive. Obviously there's a lot of people suffering through a terrible tragedy right now. But I kind of hope that people around the country see the blood shortage as one example and realizing giving blood ahead of something like that happening is a lot more valuable than waiting for something like happening to galvanize and support one another. Even though it's a terrible thing hopefully we can learn something from it."