State of the Program: UCF Knights

Head Coach: Scott Frost is entering his first year in this stint at UCF, but he had his first head coaching job here too. UCF was coming off an 0-12 season when Frost took over, he immediately led UCF to a bowl in his first year and then rose the program to power the next season going 13-0 with a Peach Bowl win (and some would say, a National Championship.) You may know that Scott Frost is a Lincoln, Nebraska native and was a star QB for the Cornhuskers, but did you know he originally signed with Stanford? Yes! He later transferred to Nebraska. Following a brief stint in the NFL, Frost moved into coaching. He rose up the ranks under Chip Kelly, eventually becoming the OC at Oregon. Then came the aforementioned UCF stint and then Nebraska called Frost home. It seemed he was destined to bring the Cornhuskers back to prominence but it just never happened. Frost ended up going 16-31, including a wild 5-20 record in one score games. This involved the infamous 2021 season when Nebraska went 3-9 with all 9 losses by one score. Now he’s looking for redemption.

Program Outlook: This time last offseason it felt like UCF was one of the hottest programs in the Big 12. They were making big pickups on the recruiting trail and it seemed like only a matter of time before they started competing for Big 12 championships. Then UCF opened 3-0 with a wild comeback over TCU and it felt like they were ready to make some noise, the Big NOON crew was in town to see them take on Colorado. A win and UCF could fire up early playoff talk, instead they were blown out 48-21. A tough defeat but rebound against Florida and the Knights could still stake claim as one of Florida’s best but they stumbled once again in a 24-13 loss that made it apparent there were bigger issues. UCF only won the space game the rest of the way, note you don’t want to face UCF in the space game. Now the Knights may come to grips with falling backwards instead of forward and beginning a new era. This is a program that can absolutely contend for Big 12 championships but it’s going to require work to get the pieces in place.

How does the 2025 Roster look?: UCF ranks 109th in the country returning 42% of their production per Punt and Rally’s returning production rankings. Frost worked hard at bringing in a strong freshman class, but added some portal pieces as well. Key players starts with the QB position, who will start? Indiana transfer Tayven Jackson is likely the favorite, he played a little bit last year and performed well when called upon. Jacurri Brown started some games for the Knights last year and will be back as well. Whoever wins the job won’t have to do it alone, sure star RB RJ Harvey is gone but this program knows how to produce backs Myles Montgomery is ready to step up along with Western Michigan transfer Jaden Nixon. The defense will be led by Edge rusher Nyjalik Kelly who proved to be a star last year. Malachi Lawrence will be back as well and Sincere Edwards (Pitt) is another great piece in the mix. UCF hit the portal at linebacker too, they got a great mix with a seasoned producer in Keli Lawson (Va Tech), a smaller school menace in Cole Kozlowski (Colgate), plus two high upside guys in former Oklahoma LBs Lewis Carter and Phil Picciotti. The secondary is also very portal heavy with Isaiah Reed (Brown) who could be a star corner and Jayden Bellamy (Syracuse) who is a good playmaker. They are loaded at safety with Phillip Dunnam (FAU) and Demari Henderson back from injury. Jyaire Brown (LSU via Ohio State) is a former top recruit that hasn’t found his place yet, he might be able to fit in at corner or safety. The question marks starts with the offensive line, they lost a lot here and while there’s a couple experienced portal players to help there’s still some question marks. There’s a fascinating mix of smaller school big producers and high upside portal guys at receiver, but they need this to come together. The interior Dline will require some sorting out too.

Screenshot from FBSchedules.com

2025 Schedule Thoughts: UCF faces a challenging schedule in 2025. Their non-conference features an opener against last year’s CUSA champ, Jax State but the Gamecocks are going through a coaching change of their own. The Knights play NC A&T who is rebuilding at the FCS level and they wrap up the non-conference hosting Bill Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels. Their Big 12 schedule is rough, the Knights play a lot of the better teams in the Big 12 on the road. The good news is that they also get a lot of favorable home games, they host Houston, a critical swing game as their Space Game, this is often UCF’s best performance of the year so good choice on that, they also host Oklahoma State who didn’t play well in Orlando 2 years ago and West Virginia who also has a coach in his first year returning to the program. The schedule will make reaching a bowl difficult, it is critical for the Knights to defend the Bounce House to make it happen.

Final Thoughts: UCF almost certainly had a large candidate pool to choose from, so it was surprising this is the route they went. Sure, it makes sense to bring in a coach who brought the program their greatest season (a National Championship season depending on who you ask) but it’s a different animal now. UCF’s program has changed rapidly and Frost has recent history to overcome. There’s another part of this that makes sense, Frost felt like he didn’t get to finish the job with UCF and felt he left too soon the first time because Nebraska came open. Either way while some will want to point to this year as one for Frost to answer these questions, it isn’t. This year is about building the foundation to get this program rolling, getting some encouraging results and winning 6 of their 7 home games to reach a bowl will get this off to a good start.