I cringe every few days when I see University of Central Florida fans obsess over a new story regarding former football coach Scott Frost. The man who led UCF to a perfect 13-0 record and then bolted to Nebraska has drawn the ire of Knights fans who feel jilted.
Now, months after Frost's departure, Knights fans remain fixated on a man they once deified and now decry. The latest saga in the Frost-UCF connection revealed itself early Friday with a story published in USA Today about the Knights national championship declaration.
The story itself was well-written and got the perspectives of several people around the college football world, but the comments that left UCF fans miffed came from Frost.
"I completely get behind their argument,” Frost says in the piece. “I do think it was almost criminal how low they kept UCF in the rankings, and I think it was intentional. But at the end of the day, the playoff system is that the national champion is the team that wins the playoff.”
If that sounds like Frost isn’t completely aboard the national title train, it’s because he’s not.
“All I’ll say is if we had stayed there, I would have had a hard time getting behind it,” he says. “I think it was smart by them, because it has kept UCF in the media and in the conversation. But you know, like our rings, I kind of wish my ring just said ‘Undefeated Season’ and ‘Peach Bowl Champion.’ ”
This rather innocuous quote that contained a lot of words of support from Frost as well sent off shockwaves in Knights Nation. Fans took to message boards, Facebook groups and the like to assault the ex-coach's character and discredit his opinion.
Frost probably does not care what some rabid UCF fans say when he is thousands of miles away at his dream job in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he does not need me to defend him, but I am going to do it anyway.
First off, not everyone has to have the same opinion or level of comfort with what UCF is doing. I believe Frost is genuine in saying that he believes the Knights were championship-caliber but does not know how he would have embraced the national championship proclamation if he were still here.
The coaches from around the country that were quoted in the USA Today story had similar opinions. Even new Knights head coach Josh Heupel has been reticent in his comments about the title claim.
Coaches have too much respect for their competition to fully embrace something as bold and forward-thinking as the firestorm UCF started. This is not for them, it is for Knights fans, players and the great exposure it created for the university.
As a UCF fan and alum myself, I want to make sure we keep things in perspective. Ripping Frost takes the Knights supporters to a place in the college football world I do not think we want to be.
UCF is well positioned by the nature of the school's young history and athletic director Danny White's deft marketing moves to be the preeminent challenger brand in the sport. The Knights national championship campaign is supposed to drive the change the sport needs for greater inclusion among its ranks.
Looking like a bunch of crazies online while tearing apart a former coach that rebooted the program makes UCF no better as a fanbase than the rest of these arrogant, blue blood groups across the country. All of a sudden those wearing black and gold look a lot like the Alabama fans who cannot get over a national championship being declared by a Group of Five school.
Knights fans ongoing addiction to all things Frost actually closely resembles the Nebraska supporters who still salivate over every footstep he makes.
Upsetting the college football apple cart means more to me than just fighting for a fairer ranking system and expansion of the College Football Playoff. It is about changing the entire tenor of discussion around the sport.
Frost only did positive things in his short two-year tenure at UCF. He is one of the biggest reasons the Knights were even able to call themselves national champions and he has left the cupboard full of talent for Heupel to try to break through the glass ceiling even more in 2018.
Remember Frost for the good times. Let us all collectively take the high road, wish him well and focus on a new coaching staff and a new team that has great potential.
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Photo Provided By University Of Central Florida Football.
