Scott Frost
Scott Frost went 43–48 as a head coach, 2016–2026, at UCF and Nebraska. His 2017 UCF team claims the national title. Share
- Record
- 43–48 career
- Seasons
- 9
- Schools
- 2
- National titles
- 1 claimed: 2017
- Born
- Jan 4, 1975
- Alma mater
- Nebraska 1997
- Best season
- 2017 13–0, No. 6
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | UCF | 6–7 | 3rd (East) | Cure Bowl L | ||
| 2017 | UCF | 13–0 | 1st (East) | Peach Bowl W | 6 | |
| 2018 | Nebraska | 4–8 | T–5th (West) | |||
| 2019 | Nebraska | 5–7 | T–5th (West) | |||
| 2020 | Nebraska | 3–5 | 5th (West) | |||
| 2021 | Nebraska | 3–9 | T–6th (West) | |||
| 2022 | Nebraska coached three of 12 games | 1–2 | ||||
| 2023–24: not a college head coach | ||||||
| 2025 | UCF | 5–7 | T–13th | |||
| 2026 | UCF | 3–3 | ||||
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
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Malachi LawrenceNo. 23 pick, 2026
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 21 | 3–18 | 14% |
| Against top-10 teams | 9 | 1–8 | 11% |
| Against rivals | 23 | 8–15 | 35% |
| Conference games | 64 | 25–39 | 39% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 2 | 1–1 | 50% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 41 | 13–28 | 32% |
| At home | 50 | 30–20 | 60% |
| On the road | 39 | 12–27 | 31% |
| At neutral sites | 2 | 1–1 | 50% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 34 | 29–5 | 85% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 57 | 14–43 | 25% |
His own 91 games on file, 2016–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Fitzgerald 2018–2022 | 2–3 | Northwestern | 5 | |
| Jeff Brohm 2018–2021 | 1–3 | Purdue | 4 | |
| P.J. Fleck 2018–2021 | 1–3 | Minnesota | 4 | |
| Kirk Ferentz 2018–2021 | 0–4 | Iowa | 4 | |
| Lovie Smith 2018–2020 | 2–1 | Illinois | 3 | |
| Willie Fritz 2016–2026 | 1–2 | Tulane, Houston | 3 | |
| Jim Harbaugh 2016–2021 | 0–3 | Michigan | 3 | |
| Paul Chryst 2018–2021 | 0–3 | Wisconsin | 3 | |
| Ryan Day 2019–2021 | 0–3 | Ohio State | 3 |
Scott Frost’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Northwesternseries | 5 | 2–3 |
| Illinoisseries | 4 | 2–2 |
| Minnesotaseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Purdueseries | 4 | 1–3 |
| Ohio Stateseries | 4 | 0–4 |
| Iowaseries | 4 | 0–4 |
| Marylandseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Cincinnatiseries | 3 | 2–1 |
National coaching awards
The awards- 2017 UCF: Bear Bryant Award and Eddie Robinson
How he was hired
- Hired by Nebraska for the 2018 season from UCF, where he was head coach. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Also a player: Scott Frost’s playing career.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Kansas State | Graduate assistant | |
| 2016–17 | UCF | Head coach | |
| 2018–22 | Nebraska | Head coach | |
| 2024 | Los Angeles Rams NFL | Senior analyst | |
| 2025–present | UCF | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Ron PrinceKansas State
- Mark HelfrichOregon
Assistants who became head coaches
- Mario VerduzcoDe Anza
- Ryan HeldPeru State, Oklahoma Panhandle State, Southwestern Oklahoma State, Highland, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Nebraska Kearney
- Mark WhippleMassachusetts, New Haven, Brown
- Mickey JosephNebraska, Langston, Grambling
- Pete AlamarRice
- Shawn ClarkApp State
- Kefense HynsonOregon State
Worked under (2)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ron Prince | Kansas State | 2006 | Graduate assistant | |
| Mark Helfrich | Oregon | 2013–15 | Offensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (7)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Verduzco | UCF, 2016–17: quarterbacks coach; Nebraska, 2018–21: quarterbacks coach | De Anza | |
| Ryan Held | UCF, 2016–17: running backs coach; Nebraska, 2018–21: running backs coach | Peru State, Oklahoma Panhandle State, Southwestern Oklahoma State, Highland, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Nebraska Kearney | |
| Mark Whipple | Nebraska, 2022: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | Massachusetts, New Haven, Brown | |
| Mickey Joseph | Nebraska, 2022: assistant head coach, wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator | Nebraska, Langston, Grambling | |
| Pete Alamar | UCF, 2025–26: special teams coach | Rice | |
| Shawn Clark | UCF, 2025: offensive line coach | App State | |
| Kefense Hynson | UCF, 2026: passing game coordinator | Oregon State |
Other assistants under him (12)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Chuck Bresnahan | UCF, 2016: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Erik Chinander | UCF, 2016–17: defensive coordinator; Nebraska, 2018–22: defensive coordinator | |
| Jovan Dewitt | UCF, 2016–17: assistant head coach, special teams coordinator and linebackers coach; Nebraska, 2018–19: special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach | |
| Mike Dawson | UCF, 2016–17: defensive line coach; Nebraska, 2018: defensive line coach; 2020: linebackers coach; 2021: outside linebackers coach and EDGE; 2022: defensive line coach and EDGE; UCF, 2025–26: defensive run game coordinator and EDGE | |
| Troy Walters | UCF, 2016–17: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach; Nebraska, 2018–19: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Steve Cooper | Nebraska, 2018–20: offensive quality control coach; 2021: interim quarterbacks; 2022: sr.OA; UCF, 2025: offensive coordinator and tight ends coach; 2026: offensive coordinator | |
| Bill McGovern | Nebraska, 2020: defensive assistant | |
| Matt Lubick | Nebraska, 2020–21: offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach | |
| Bill Busch | Nebraska, 2021: defensive analyst; 2022: special teams coach; 2022: interim defensive coordinator and special teams coach | |
| Alex Grinch | UCF, 2025–26: defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| Brandon Harris | UCF, 2025: defensive backs coach | |
| Mark D’Onofrio | UCF, 2025–26: linebackers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | UCF | head coachbonuses up to $250,000; $45,000 in bonuses paid; buyout $4,125,000 | $2,000,000 USA Today | |
| 2016 | UCF | head coachbonuses up to $250,000 | $1,700,000 USA Today | |
| 2015 | Oregon | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $375,000 | $755,000 USA Today | |
| 2014 | Oregon | offensive coordinatorbonuses up to $258,333 | $400,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Frost’s teams went for it on 26% of fourth downs and on 46% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 47% of plays and took 23.9 seconds a play, 2016–2026.
| Season | School | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 12 g | UCF | 32 of 125 26% | 50% | 48% | 21.7 | −0.12 | |
| 2017 13 g | UCF | 20 of 80 25% | 39% | 47% | 23.4 | +0.22 | |
| 2018 12 g | Nebraska | 19 of 93 20% | 34% | 50% | 22.5 | +0.09 | |
| 2019 12 g | Nebraska | 23 of 102 23% | 41% | 40% | 23.4 | +0.02 | |
| 2020 8 g | Nebraska | 13 of 61 21% | 38% | 44% | 23.8 | +0.04 | |
| 2021 12 g | Nebraska | 24 of 86 28% | 50% | 44% | 24.6 | +0.13 | |
| 2025 12 g | UCF | 38 of 102 37% | 63% | 54% | 26.4 | 0.00 | |
| 2026 6 g | UCF | 13 of 42 31% | 52% | 49% | 26.9 | +0.04 | |
| All 87 g | 182 of 691 26% | 46% | 47% | 23.9 | +0.05 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.