American Stories – An Emotional Perfection as UCF the Claims Crown

ORLANDO, Fla. — UCF coach Scott Frost found himself getting emotional as he hoisted the trophy after the Knights defeated Memphis, 62-55, in double overtime at Spectrum Stadium to win American Athletic Conference championship and complete an historic 12-0 regular season.

But he couldn’t see much of the frenzied crowd reaction because his vision was blurred by the deluge of black and gold confetti raining down on him.

Frost left a piece of his heart on that field. His players had given him everything they had during the past two years, coming all the way back from an 0-12 season in 2015, the year before Frost arrived in Orlando.

“That’s not my trophy,” Frost was quick to point out. “It’s their trophy. It was a proud moment for me, but I wanted to get that trophy to them as fast as possible.”

The Knights should be invited to a New Year’s Six bowl game. But midway through the second overtime Saturday, the fairy tale ended when news broke that Frost had agreed to a contract to become the new coach at Nebraska.

UCF athletics director Danny White announced that Frost will coach the Knights in the bowl and that offensive coordinator Troy Walters will be the Knights’ acting head coach. White will continue a head coaching search that he started as a contingency two weeks ago in case Frost left.

Frost was reluctant to talk about the agonizing week he had gone through dealing with the game and his professional future in the postgame interviews.

“The hard thing about all this is, they should give you time after the season to make decisions and they don’t,” Frost admitted. “These things happen at the wrong time. The one thing I wasn’t going to do is sacrifice my commitment to this team. I’ve made game plans I’ve been coaching and doing the best that I can for these guys then decisions land on you and they’re hard decisions. I love this community, I love UCF, I love Orlando and no matter what I do I’m probably going to retire here. I don’t think I’m going to sell houses or anything if I leave. This university, Dr. (John) Hitt, Danny White, UCF, Orlando; just an unbelievable place with unbelievable potential and you’re seeing it this year with these guys. This place has given me more than I’ve given this place.”

It gave Frost a chance to prove he was a great young coach who is a offensive visionary who showcased his genius the past two weeks in a 49-42 victory over USF and then found a way to outlast a 10-2 Memphis team in a wildly entertaining, record-setting game that could have gone either way in the final moments of regulation and both overtimes.

“The first thing, Memphis is a really good football team,” said Frost. “They are well coached; their quarterback (Riley Ferguson) and that receiver (Anthony Miller) are special. They’re the second-highest scoring offense in the country for a reason. We are the highest for a reason, and my hat is off to them. It’s a shame anyone had to lose that game. I said it before what these guys have done is not just improbable; it’s impossible in two years to get where they are and it’s a special group.”

On the eve of the College Football Playoff selection show, UCF is the only unbeaten FBS team left standing.

UCF and Memphis painted an offensive masterpiece. The teams combined for American Athletic Conference records with 1,479 yards total offense and 117 points. The Knights finished with 726 yards and Memphis had 753 to produce the highest-scoring conference championship in NCAA FBS history.

UCF sophomore quarterback McKenzie Milton, the game’s Most Outstanding Player, completed 28 of 40 passes for 494 yards and five touchdowns, two each to wide receivers Dredrick Snelson and Tre’Quan Smith. He also rushed for 65 yards on 10 carries, giving him a total of 559 yards total offense.

For Memphis, Ferguson completed 30 of 42 passes for 471 yards and four touchdowns, three of them to Miller. The game had 23 plays of at least 20 yards, including a 66-yard run by Memphis sophomore running back Tony Pollard, a 62-yard dash by UCF freshman running back Otis Anderson and a 68-yard touchdown reception by Miller.

All told, the two teams set or broke 19 championship game records. It speaks volumes for what The American has become in just five years.

UCF finally took the lead when Anderson scored on a 1-yard rush on the first possession of double overtime to break a 55-55 tie. Memphis looked like it might force a third OT after Ferguson completed a pass to Miller that gave the Tigers a first-and-goal on the UCF 5-yard line. But two plays later, the seemingly endless marathon came to a sudden halt when Ferguson threw a pass that was intercepted by safety Tre Neal.

“We were in man coverage and just tried to pressure them and my dude blocked so I just zoned off and I saw the ball come to me, so I just jumped and grabbed it,” Neal said. “I mean, nothing really else to it. Those guys got to the quarterback and made him panic and I just had to execute like I could.”

This should have been a total celebration for UCF. Instead, a farewell became part of the festivites. The four players who attended the post-game press conference — Milton, Smith, Neal and linebacker Shaquem Griffin — didn’t want to think about a future without their coach. Instead, they applauded what he had done for them.

Whoever coaches UCF next year will be inheriting the nucleus of another great team. The same can be said for Memphis coach Mike Norvell, another bright young coaching mind who came into this game with 35 freshmen and sophomores and pushed UCF to the limit.

“If you’re not emotional about that, then check the pulse, because this football team is incredible,” Norvell said. “Our guys put so much into it and we knew it was no secret that this was going to be a one-possession game. This was going to be something we had to play really well to actually beat them, and we battled. You see the swings and we didn’t get the start we wanted. We tried to be very aggressive. We were down 10 and we responded by taking the lead at halftime. They had a great third quarter. Our guys responded once again, getting it into overtime. At the end of the day, they were able to make one more play then we did.

“But, what a game.”