American Stories – A Fast Track to Success at UCF

The American Athletic Conference, throughout its brief history, has proven to be a showcase for some of college football’s top coaches. Some have been able to parlay successful runs in The American into similar positions at some of the top programs in the nation.

But UCF athletics director Danny White, a visionary, is trying to change that dynamic. In an effort to help provide operating resources for the Knights’ top-25 program, White and the UCF administration has established the UCF Football Excellence Fund, a campaign designed to raise $1.5 million annually for the next five years.

That comes on in the wake of the school’s signing head coach Scott Frost to a contract extension after his first season, where he coached the Knights to a 6-7 record and a spot in the AutoNation Cure Bowl after going 0-12 the year before his arrival in Orlando. The extension runs through the 2021 season.

The 42-year old Frost, a former quarterback on Nebraska’s 1997 national championship team and the former prolific offensive coordinator at Oregon, is building something special in Orlando and he seems to be enjoying himself. Last week, he took snaps as a scout team quarterback in practice to simulate Navy’s triple-option offense.

Tony Dungy, the highly respected former Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach, and one of Frost’s mentors, has said he thinks that newly married Frost should enjoy an extended stay at UCF.  Dungy expressed his support on social media after sending a link to a column written by Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi, which basically said the same thing.

Frost likes living in Orlando and has made no secret that he loves the job he has. He makes it look easy. He has established the young Knights — who have as many game-changing players as anyone in the state of Florida – as arguably the best team in a football rabid state that also includes nationally ranked USF, Miami, as well as traditional powers Florida and Florida State and trending upstarts like Florida Atlantic and Florida International.

Take the names off the jerseys and judge for yourself. The Knights, one of three American teams ranked in the top 25 are no longer a hidden treasure. UCF made history last Saturday when it won its sixth straight game, defeating a typically tough Navy team, 31-21 in front of a homecoming crowd of 35,277 on a sunny day at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.

When Frost first took this job, he told the fans to buckle their seat belts because the Knights were going to punch the accelerator and go fast. He decided to build his offense around speed, the same way he did at Oregon, and named it “UCFast.”

Frost’s first recruit was a running back named Adrian Killins Jr., a 5-8, 158-pound running back from Daytona Mainland who was all-district in football and won the Florida 3A state championship in the 200 meters with a time of 21.1 seconds. Killins signed with UCF because the school was only an hour away from home. He didn’t want to redshirt, but Frost found a way to use him at three different positions.

Killins gave us a preview of what he could do as a freshman when he scored on an 87-yard run against Michigan that lit up the Twitter universe. He also had a 100-yard kickoff return against ECU. This season, he already has a 96-yard touchdown run against Memphis and a spectacular 79 yard touchdown run against Navy that broke a 14-14 tie and gave the Knights the momentum they needed. In the runs against Memphis and Navy, Killins showed a fifth gear that left the other 21 players on the field squarely in the dust.

“That’s huge,” Frost said. “AK’s been doing that for us for a year and a half. He’s an eraser. He erased a tight game and made it a seven-point lead again.”

It was Killins’ fifth touchdown run of the season as he finished with a career-high 122 yards in just 15 carries with two TDs.

Killins’ signature play was such a blur his teammate Wyatt Miller threw out the ultimate compliment, referring to him as “The G.O.A.T”– greatest of all time.

None of this surprises Frost. Or Killins.

“I believe I’m the fastest guy in college football,” Killins said this season. “I know that once I get to the edge, no one is going to catch me.”

No argument there.

UCF entered the Navy game ranked No. 1 in the country in scoring with a 50.6 point average and was coming off a 61-23 league victory over ECU in which quarterback McKenzie Milton completed 21-of 27 passes for 324 yards and two touchdowns and the Knights piled up 603 yards total offense with 33 first downs.

The numbers weren’t quite as awe-inspiring against Navy, but the Knights did gain 483 yards of total offense and gave us another chance to watch redshirt freshman Otis Anderson. Anderson, who was a big name in the class of 2017 after leading his Jacksonville Christian team to back to back Class 2A state championships, clinched UCF’s victory with a 10-yard touchdown run — his first of the season — and had 57 yards rushing in just nine carries. Like Killins, he has the same skill set can play multiple positions, getting his first start at wide receiver the previous week against ECU and responding with a team best seven catches for 76 yards.

Anderson and Killins have been close friends through track since 2008, when they first started competing against each other. The two would warm up together and trade tips before races. “He still has me by a couple steps,” Anderson admitted.

All this speed and talent – it is frightening.

“We have so many game changers.,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be hard for opposing teams to account for all of us.”