Scott Frost's Nebraska regrets show striking lack of accountability for failed tenure

New York Times

09-07-2025

Scott Frost didn't have to say anything resentful about Nebraska. That appeared to be his plan when the Huskers' former coach returned to UCF in December.
Frost avoided mention of his ex-employer and alma mater when UCF reintroduced him in Orlando. If a nod of courtesy to his home state and the school that entrusted him was too much, so be it. Both parties had long ago moved on.
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But when presented the chance, how about showing a touch of accountability?
In Frost's appearance Tuesday at Big 12 media days in Frisco, Texas, he said that Nebraska in 2017 was the 'wrong job' for him.
Fans of the Huskers, in retrospect, agree. His exit from Nebraska in September 2022 after a 16-31 stint over four-plus seasons classified him among the most disappointing coaching hires in the history of college football.
Frost had to know questions about Nebraska would come in his first opportunity back with the Knights to face a group of national media members.
What went wrong? What did he learn? They're relevant topics as he aims for a second time to elevate UCF, this time in a tougher conference and amid a volatile climate in the sport.
The conversation in an interview with reporters from The Athletic on Tuesday turned to Frost's final, emotional game at UCF during its unbeaten 2017 season. Before that double-OT win against Memphis in the American Athletic Conference championship, he had all but decided to take the job at Nebraska.
'I didn't want to leave UCF,' Frost said. 'I always said I would never leave unless it was some place you could go and potentially win a national championship. And you know, I got tugged in a direction to go try to help my alma mater. And I didn't really want to do it. It wasn't a good move.
'And I'm lucky that I have an opportunity to get back to a place where I was a lot happier.'
He mentioned again that he didn't want to talk about Nebraska. But Frost kept talking.
'Don't take the wrong job,' he said. 'That's what I learned. Make sure you're working for and around good people.'
Frost at times clashed with the athletic directors for whom he worked in Lincoln. Bill Moos provided the coach with autonomy; Trev Alberts kept his thumb on Frost.
That both methods flopped perhaps said more about Frost than about the administration at Nebraska.
Frost's lack of humility in public related to his Nebraska failures is striking. Frost could have won the day in Texas on Tuesday with a sentence or two to recognize Nebraska, which paid him more than $20 million in salary in addition to a buyout of approximately $15 million.
He chose scorn. Maybe Frost has made amends in private with the stakeholders at Nebraska who mattered to him. Certainly, he bears some responsibility for the worst five-year stretch of football at the school in more than six decades.
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He knows that, right? You couldn't tell on Tuesday.
He pointed at the forces and figures that pulled him back to Nebraska. As Frost laid out seven years ago, his former coach and mentor, Tom Osborne, was instrumental in convincing Frost that he could fix a program that had slipped, unthinkably at the time, to a 19-19 mark under coach Mike Riley from 2015 to 2017.
Frost's longtime friend, Matt Davison, urged him to return home and restore the pride they shared as teammates in winning a national championship in 1997.
Frost, 50, suggested that the people around him were part of the problem. Yet no fewer than 10 members of his Huskers staff have rejoined him in Orlando.
Tuesday in Frisco, he offered an extended opening statement in his time on the main stage and showed gratitude for the Big 12 and the players alongside him. It displayed growth and a renewed attitude from Frost, who took the air out of Lucas Oil Stadium in July 2022 to start his final appearance at the Big Ten's version of this event.
He's happier now, that's clear.
'Just a little older and wiser,' he said. 'You learn through success and failure. It's been good being away and getting a little perspective.'
Accountability sounded only a step or two away.
He doubled back on negativity, though, a staple of his time at Nebraska that contributed to the Huskers' 5-22 record on his watch in games decided by one score.
For UCF, it presents no obvious concern. Frost has illustrated that his style fits in Orlando.
He talked optimistically of tackling the challenge ahead for the Knights. They finished 10-15 as members of the Big 12 in the past two years under Gus Malzahn.
'We worked our butts off to try to rebuild the roster,' Frost said of the past seven months at UCF. 'And that was hard. But also, in some ways, it's good. We could go get the guys that we wanted to fit us. I'm pretty happy with what we came out of that with.'
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Frost also said this about the turbulent environment within the sport: 'College football's in a weird place. And it's not pretty.'
Pay it no mind if Kansas State coach Chris Klieman or Texas Tech's Joey McGuire had offered those words. But for Frost, if the wins don't come as swiftly at UCF as in his first stint, a precedent exists to assign external responsibility.
Is he laying a foundation to avoid accountability? It wouldn't be the first time.