Scott Frost Named Husker Head Football Coach

Scott Frost has been named head football coach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Twenty-years-ago Frost quarterbacked Nebraska’s last national championship team. Now he’s trying to guide the troubled program back to those glory days.

Frost returns to Nebraska after serving as head coach at the University of Central Florida for two years. After graduating from Nebraska in 1997 he played in the NFL for seven seasons and held assistant coach positions at Nebraska, Kansas State, Northern Iowa and Oregon before taking over at Central Florida in 2016. The 42-year-old Frost has led a remarkable turnaround at Central Florida;. The Golden Knights were 0-12 the year before Frost took over. This year the team is 12-0 after a double-overtime 62-55 win over Memphis in Saturday's American Athletic Conference championship game.

"It is a great honor and privilege to have the opportunity to return to Nebraska and to lead the Husker football program," Frost said in a statement released late Saturday afternoon. "I have been fortunate to be at a wonderful school the last two years, but Nebraska is a special place with a storied tradition and a fan base which is second to none. I am truly humbled to be here. The state of Nebraska and the Husker program mean a great deal to me. This is home."

At a news conference Sunday, Frost said the time was right for his return to Nebraska.

"I think the leadership is right. I think the time is right. I think the state is hungry for unity," Frost said. "When I was here under Coach (Tom) Osborne, there was unity of purpose and unity of belief and unity of understanding and unity of support for this program, what it stood for and what it was accomplishing. This program needs that again. This state needs that again."

Frost will lead a Nebraska program in the midst of a two decade slide from national prominence that's included the firing of four coaches since 2003. Nebraska finished 4-8 this season, the team’s worst record in almost 60 years.

At the Sunday news conference, Director of Athletics Bill Moos said Frost is the right choice to turn things around, calling him “the premiere young coach in America” and “the pick of the litter.”

"We all know that he has a passion for Nebraska and we know that he's a very, very good football coach," Moos said. "But he's got great integrity. He's got great morals. He cares about his players. All those things are important."

"I am appreciative of the confidence Bill Moos and our University leadership have in me to lead this program. I would not have the opportunity to be in this position without a lot of great people who have helped me throughout my career," Frost added in his statement. "Specially, I would like to thank Coach Osborne who has played such an integral role in my life over the past two decades, both on and off the field."

Moos said he and Frost met in Philadelphia in November to talk about the job; Frost said he made his final decision last week. Moos, who has led Nebraska’s Athletics Department for less than two months, said Frost was a main target during the search. Moos said he had conversations with a couple other coaches, but only offered the job to Frost.

Frost agreed to a seven-year, $35 million contract. That’s $2 million a year more than what Mike Riley received last year and compensation that puts Frost among the highest-paid Big Ten Conference coaches, trailing only Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and Urban Meyer at Ohio State.

Frost will face pressure right away to earn his money. Next year’s schedule includes games against traditional conference powerhouses Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Frost, a 42-year-old Wood River native, also faces the pressure of being the popular prodigal-son choice of fans who bought “Frost Warning” t-shirts and started “Bring Scott Frost Back to Nebraska” Facebook pages.

"I played here, I understand it," Frost said at the news conference. "I saw the best of this place. I also saw some hard times that maybe other people hadn't. But that's what makes this place great is the passion that the people have for it. Watching it from afar, I'm not sure that that passion was unified. That that passion was always completed supported. It's my hope that my returning this to it's roots, and maybe with me coming back, that we can get that passion all pointed in the right direction."

Before the news conference Frost met with current players.

"I let them know that there's gonna be a lot of hard work to be done. That's things are gonna change. A lot of things are gonna change. But it's gonna be a really fun process."