Scott Frost might’ve never truly wanted the Nebraska job—at least not deep down. He knew it. He said it. But he took it anyway, knowing well it wasn’t the right fit. Now, after wandering the coaching wilderness, Frost is right back where his story really started: UCF Knights. The same school he took to a 13-0 season and a national championship ring in 2017. The same program he always called home. Back then, he was a rising star. Now, he returns older, a little scarred, but maybe a lot wiser. With McKenzie Milton now on staff and a fresh locker room to mold, the reunion isn’t about nostalgia. A second act that lives up to the first.

The path back wasn’t straight—or pretty. At Huskers, Scott Frost inherited a proud program but walked into a pressure cooker, and it didn’t take long for the steam to boil over. He lost 22 one-score games, more than any coach in the nation during that span, and was ultimately fired mid-season in 2022.

It wasn’t a matter of scheme or effort—it was heartbreak after heartbreak, week after week, year after year. “Scott Frost never actually wanted to coach at Nebraska,” analyst Adam Breneman said. “He said he knew it wouldn’t make people happy but said, quote, ‘I knew it wasn’t the best for me.’” The weight of expectation, legacy, and homegrown pressure was too much. He became a symbol of what happens when a dream job turns into a nightmare.

After being cut loose, Scott Frost retreated from the game. He coached his son’s flag football team and quietly worked behind the scenes with Sean McVay and the Rams. That’s where the healing began.

McVay saw something in Frost beyond the headlines. “If you can really look at some of the things that didn’t go down the way you wanted, real growth can occur,” McVay said. “I saw that in him.” That restoration of confidence mattered—and it showed. Frost didn’t return to college football to chase ghosts of 2017.

In fact, Milton recalled Frost’s words: “It’s my goal to get back to UCF one day.” Milton added, “At that time, I was like, ‘I pray to God that happens.'” Now he has. And this time, he’s brought a clearer vision, a changed perspective, and the same fearless playbook.

Still, the situation at UCF is far from settled. The Knights lost Gus Malzahn to another opportunity, and AD Terry Mohajir found himself hiring his second head coach in four years. Mohajir, who once worked with Malzahn at Arkansas State, took a big swing by bringing Frost back in mid-December. But the roster he inherited? Borderline skeletal. Graduation hit hard. The transfer portal hit harder. By the end of spring, UCF had just 49 scholarship players

Then came the second wave. Over 20 players left once the spring portal opened, and Frost had to act quickly, pulling in over a dozen transfers to stay afloat. Altogether, more than 60 new players now populate the locker room—a complete rewire of the team’s DNA. That level of turnover is more NFL preseason than college camp. But Frost knows how to build culture quickly. He did it once. The question is whether he can do it again in a Big 12 that’s tougher, faster, and deeper than the AAC ever was.

“This isn’t about recreating 2017,” Frost said. “It’s about catapulting UCF again.” There’s no illusion here. No magic wand. Just a coach who’s failed, learned, and come back with his eyes wide open.

UCF’s AD sees Scott Frost days ahead in year one

Five months into Scott Frost’s return to UCF, Terry Mohajir is feeling the early momentum—and he’s not afraid to say it out loud. Speaking from the Big 12 spring meetings in Orlando, Mohajir sounded genuinely encouraged by the Knights’ new direction under Frost.

“We’re really proud of him,” Mohajir said, adding that he kept a close eye on Frost during those early weeks back on the job. “I had to check on him quite a bit during this transition when we hired him because he was out for a year, even his last year at Nebraska; it wasn’t quite like it was this past year with the transfer portal.”

College football has gotten a whole lot more chaotic, and Frost walked right back into the storm. With the rise of NIL madness and the non-stop motion of the transfer portal, it’s been hard to find any real footing. But Mohajir is holding out hope that the new House settlement case will bring some long-overdue stability.

With less than 12 weeks to go before the 2025 season kicks off, Mohajir is setting realistic but hopeful expectations. “You’ll see us getting better. I want to see progress and get better,” he said. The Knights finished 4-8 last year, but there’s a new spark in Orlando.