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UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 2, 2015John C. HittDanny WhiteScott FrostOrlando, Florida JOHN C. HITT: Let me welcome Scott and his lovely fiancé, Ashley, to the Knights family. We're delighted to have them with us. As I think all of you will know, Scott is a proven winner and an offensive innovator, built a lot of his career at the University of Oregon. I've been impressed with his commitment to winning the right way on the field but also working with his student-athletes to assure their academic success and preparation for productive and rewarding lives. Let me close by thanking Danny White for the way he has approached this whole search. I think the outcome was outstanding, and we're so happy to have Danny and Sean with us as we are to have Scott and Ashley join us. So go Knights! DANNY WHITE: Thank you, Dr. Hitt. It's an honor to be here, and I think probably every time I speak publicly I'll thank you, Dr. Hitt, for ultimately giving me the invitation to come serve UCF. I'm so grateful to be here, and we can't wait to officially start. It's a little bit of a unique situation; I haven't even started yet, but we're hiring people. We're moving fast. It was great also to have a president during the interview process, and Dr. Hitt was great and gracious with his time. When you're selling an institution like UCF that's gone through such transformational growth in the last couple decades, the candidates wanted to meet the person that led that effort and that made the job even more attractive, so that was a critical part of the process. I want to thank our football student-athletes. I met with about eight of them. I think it was eight, and it had to be a video conference because of the situation, but got great insight on what we kind of characterized through the conversation as a little bit of an anomaly this season and some of the characteristics they were looking for in a head coach. I think anytime a team goes through transition in coaching leadership, it's difficult on the student-athletes, so I want to thank all of them for representing us well throughout that process. Certainly want to thank and recognize Coach O'Leary. I had the opportunity to speak with Coach yesterday. He did an unbelievable job building a foundation here in this football program and one that's set up for continued success. Several families that have invested in a lot of ways made this job -- I'm going to talk about the process and how attractive this job was in football circles, and there's a lot of people that have made that possible, the facility that we're sitting in here amongst many others, but I just want to single out a few if I could: The Williams family and the Densch Trust, the Roths, the Nuneses, the Albertsons, the Nicholsons, the Garveys. Many others have stepped up in big ways through the years to make this a great football job and one that's going to continue to grow. But having said that, the work can't stop here. We need the support of all UCF alumni, the Orlando community, to continue to build in building a nationally competitive football program. I can't wait to get here December 14th and meet a lot of folks. I will caution, Coach Frost has a lot of work to do in building a staff and getting recruiting going, so we're going to wait to get him out in the community for a few weeks. The process was swift, obviously. I think it was 13 days ago that I sat in this room, something like that, before we started, but we started with a large list. As I mentioned, there was huge demand for the job. Ultimately we whittled down that list to the folks we were most interested in. We interviewed sitting head coaches, people from all walks of life, different levels of football, and ultimately I think when Coach Frost left the room, Dr. Hitt, your quote to me was, I think he said, "Danny, I think you found your guy," and you were right. There was one person that really stood out. Coach Frost has a unique pedigree. I think we mentioned this in the press release, but experience on both sides of the ball as a player and a coach. That's really unique, I think, in the sport of football. He had an opportunity to learn under legendary coaches both as a player and as a coach. Everybody I talked to in the sport of football -- as a basketball guy, I like to recognize what I don't know about football, so I do lean on people that are experts in that field, and Scott's reputation in the sport of football, as a person and as a football mind, is really unbelievable. Very, very impressive. We're really excited about bringing the Oregon brand of offense here to Central Florida and excited about the way that Coach Frost talked about the recruiting process and building that relationship with the prospective student-athlete from before they step on campus and certainly through their time in our program and ultimately until they graduate. Everything I learned about Coach Frost, he's a man of integrity, high character, and most importantly, and this is something we talked about a lot in the interview process with all the candidates, Coach Frost has an understanding and values highly academic excellence. That's something that's already a part of this football program. We're the leading public university amongst football programs in graduation success rate. Coach O'Leary and his staff did a great job of building that foundation. We want to be about winning championships but winning the right way and graduating student-athletes. With that, it's my honor to introduce your new head football coach, Scott Frost. (Applause.) SCOTT FROST: This is great. You guys all assured I'd get hired as a head football coach. They say a lot of good things about you. I'm honored to be here. I'm excited to be here. I knew this place was special looking at it from afar, and now that I've been here, I recognize that it can be even more special than I thought. I'd really like to thank Danny and Dr. Hitt for believing in me and bringing me here. I've taken a look at a lot of head coaching jobs in the last three years, and there wasn't anything that made me want to leave the University of Oregon. That's a special place. I think this can be a special place and is a special place. This place, UCF, has a lot of potential. It's got a great recruiting base. The people that I've met that are involved with this program are already impressing me, the type of people that are here and the type of love that they have for this university and this athletic department. I can't wait to bring an exciting style of play to UCF. I know the kids, the players that I talked to today seemed really excited about that. We're going to play hard. We're going to play fast, and we're going to do it the right way and we're going to have a lot of fun. I can't wait to get started, and the look in their eyes, I know they can't wait to get started. I'm a first-time head coach. I can't imagine a better place to become a first-time head coach than this university. I think the sky's the limit for the football program here, and we're going to get started day one to try to reach that sky. Thank you, and looking forward to spending a lot of time with all of you. Q. There are some people who would say that being the offensive coordinator at Oregon is a better job than the head coach at the University of Central Florida. How would you respond to that? SCOTT FROST: I had a great job. I think this is a better job or I wouldn't have left. I could have stayed an offensive coordinator at Oregon for a long time and been happy, but I felt it was time for me to go try to run a program, and I recognized things in this program that really appealed to me. I knew I could bring the offense that I was familiar with here, and there's players right around here that are going to fit into it and be able to make it thrive. I see the attention to detail with the facilities and the campus that this place has. I think this place is a big-time program waiting to happen. I've got a ton of respect for Coach O'Leary and what he's done here. He's really set the bar high. But I think we can even take it higher, and that type of potential is what made me really want to come here. Q. For Danny, this hiring all seemed pretty hush-hush, which is pretty impressive in this day and age with media. Can you describe in detail what the process was like hiring him; was he always on that long list that you described? DANNY WHITE: You know, this is such a unique situation because I'm the AD at Buffalo for another couple weeks, so I didn't necessarily have as much of a list going in. But certainly had ideas at the beginning, and I think Scott would probably be on anybody's list who was starting a football search just about at any level of college football across the country. He's one of the most respected football minds in the game right now. But we started, as I mentioned, with kind of a broad scope and then really tried to narrow it down to -- you can only interview so many, but we had a really impressive group. It was hard to make those decisions, who's not going to be interviewed versus those that we did interview because there was really people that didn't make that list, which speaks, again, to the work that's been done here. This was a job in very, very high demand, and we had a lot of really attractive choices. Q. For Scott, you obviously have a lot of things that you have to address here. What's your number one recruiting concern for UCF and also what's your official start date, too? SCOTT FROST: Do you know the official start date? DANNY WHITE: Today, if that's all right? SCOTT FROST: All right. I don't know when I officially start. There's a lot of work to be done, so I can't wait to get started on it, and I've already been working on that. I look at the recruiting class, and there's, I think, six commits right now. I think the first step will be make sure that we keep the kids that they've recruited in place. Then there's a lot of work left to do with that. The first thing I'm going to do is meet with the guys that are already here. I know there's a lot of people in this university that have poured their heart and soul into this to try to make it work for one year, two years or longer. I want to make sure and give those guys an opportunity to get in front of me and I want to get to know them. Putting a staff together then, whether it's those guys or guys that I bring in to make sure that we have boots on the ground to go out and get some more recruits to add to this recruiting class. That all has to happen pretty quickly so we can make a dent in this recruiting cycle. Q. Scott, obviously you've done your research. You know what sort of program you're taking over. How long have you thought about how long it's going to take to get it turned around? You're coming off a winless season. SCOTT FROST: To be honest with you, I don't know. I've watched a couple of UCF games on TV this year. I'm impressed with some of the talent. You know, 0-12 is not a good record. We're going to get this thing turned around. I don't know if it's going to take one year or two or four, but I know there's talent here. I know that if we get the guys having fun playing football and playing in a system that they love and have them following a process that's going to make them better every day, if the guys will commit to that, then we'll get this thing turned in the right direction, and really the goal is to get to the top of this conference again. They've been there in the very recent past, and I don't see any reason we can't be there again. Q. In your position as a coordinator, you've had some great mentors that transitioned from coordinator to head coach. Did you speak with anybody, any of those mentors, and what did they maybe tell you? SCOTT FROST: I have a lot of guys that have influenced me in my coaching career. I have talked to a lot of them. It's unbelievable how many people have reached out to me, how many phone calls I've gotten. I've talked to Coach Osborne quite a bit; Mike Tomlin, I had a long conversation with him last night. He talked to me about when he took over the Pittsburgh Steelers from being a defensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings; Raheem Morris has reached out to me; talked to Coach Helfrich and Coach Kelly. There's a lot of people in my corner, and I'm grateful for that. If there's ever a question I don't know the answer to, I'm not so proud that I'm going to act like I do; I'm going to go to people that know the answer and see if I can't find a way to solve a problem. Q. There's been a bit of consternation amongst fans over the last three years about recruiting, particularly in the state of Florida, in Central and South Florida. What's your message to recruits and high school coaches in Central and South Florida that you're trying to bring about UCF now? SCOTT FROST: Well, I want them here. I want the coaches around here if they want to be; I want the players here. You can't possibly recruit well unless you have a good relationship with the high schools. I have recruited down here quite a bit, considering I've been out on the West Coast, and all these coaches have accepted me with open arms when I'm down here. I want those guys involved with the program, and listen, we don't need to go very far to find kids to win at UCF. The kids are right here. We just need to put a product on the field that excites them to come play here, and I think that's going to be easy to do if we can create relationships with those coaches and those kids. We can get it done largely with kids right around here. Q. Just how much of Oregon's playbook are you planning to bring here, and what's the degree of difficulty in implementing it to a place that's never done it before? SCOTT FROST: Well, I'll bring the whole playbook. I don't know how many of them I can fit into my suitcase (laughter), but listen, we went through a process this year. We lost a Heisman quarterback from a year ago. I took a young man named Vernon Adams who had played at a 1-AA and FCS program and we had to try to teach him the offense in less than a year. He's had an unbelievable season, so I know it can be done. We have freshmen that come in and play at the University of Oregon. One of them was from right here in Daytona, Charles Nelson, a year ago was a true freshman and contributed to our national title run. It can be done. It can be done quickly. We play fast, but we play efficiently, and the things that our kids are going to have to learn make sense, and they're fairly easy to pick up. I told the team earlier today, if they'll buy into the process, it's a proven process that I've seen work, and if they'll buy into that and work on that every day and trust that process, we'll get them to where they want to go. Q. Your first head coaching job; what does that mean for you personally? SCOTT FROST: I'm excited. You know, when I was a football player I used to look at coaches and think they were crazy for spending the time they did in the office, on the field, doing those things. Coaching is a rewarding business. I love to compete with other people. I love the chance to win or lose and to prove myself on the field. The greatest part of this job is mentoring young men and the relationships you develop with young guys. I want this to be a family atmosphere. I want players that care about each other and coaches that care about the players and players that care about the coaches. I want everybody to be pulling in the same direction and be proud of being part of something that's bigger than themselves. If we can create that kind of environment here, it'll go a long way. I'm thrilled to have a chance to create an environment in a place like that as a head coach. (Applause.) Q. In 1997, I know that was your National Championship year at Nebraska, UCF went on the road and I know it was a big deal around these parts, played a great game, led at halftime. Do you have memories of that game, and Daunte Culpepper was the quarterback here then. SCOTT FROST: Yeah, I remember. I see Daunte once in a while. Through football we run into each other and we talk about that game. UCF had a good team. I remember coming onto the field and being really impressed with the talent they had on the field. Again, we can do that here. That talent was mostly home-grown right here in Florida and Central Florida. That's the type of team that we need to field. That was a great game. They were leading us at halftime. I think our fans in Lincoln were booing us because they were kicking our butts. We played a good second half and came back. That was a fun football game. Q. Danny mentioned George O'Leary a little bit, that he had conversations with him. Have you had a chance to speak with Coach O'Leary or will you try to speak with him to understand some of the culture and the vibes here in Orlando as you get comfortable? SCOTT FROST: Absolutely. I've got a ton of respect for Coach O'Leary. He's done an unbelievable job here. Anytime you can take a school like this and win a BCS game -- I remember watching that game against Baylor and was so impressed with how it operated and how that team played. Coach O'Leary is going to be one of the first phone calls I make when I'm done with this circus, when I get my feet settled. These guys have had me on a whirlwind here for 24, 36 hours, and once I get a chance to get settled and get my feet on the ground, Coach O'Leary will be one of my first calls. Q. Regarding the timeline of putting a staff together, has that process begun? Danny, will you be a part of that? How quickly do you think you'll be able to add to your group? DANNY WHITE: I'll interject quickly. I will have very little. I believe in giving head coaches autonomy to build a staff that they're comfortable with, and I think that should be Coach Frost's decision. SCOTT FROST: And I'll get started on a staff as quickly as I can. Like I said, I think it would show a tremendous amount of disrespect to people that have worked here long and hard to dismiss them out of hand and just bring in people I know. I want to know who's here. I want to know more about this thing before we hire too many people. I obviously have a lot of people in mind, but I'm going to make the right decision on those as best as I possibly can. I'm sure some of those that we hire will be able to start immediately, whether they're here now or whether I bring them in. Others are probably going to have to finish football seasons for the places that they're at now, so I imagine this will be a process that over time we'll be able to add people. Q. Do you think the team having such a small senior class this year and so many young players makes it easier to kind of implement that pound-and-ground offense that you plan to bring to UCF? SCOTT FROST: Pound-and-ground, that's a new one. (Laughter.) You know, I read that this was the third youngest team in football, in college football last year. You know, that appeals to me. There's going to be a lot of people that are hungry to be led in the right direction. That probably means there's some young talent that just needs to be nurtured and brought along. Can't wait to work with those guys. College athletes in general, if you get the right people with the right character, are just looking for someone to lead them, to lead them on the field and off. From the look in the eyes of the players that I met with today, those guys are hungry to be shown a way to win ballgames and do things the right way. So I can't wait to get started with them. Q. As far as when you'll actually be starting, I know Danny said today, right now, but when will that be? Will you be coaching Oregon through the bowl game or will you be here full-time from now on? SCOTT FROST: This is my priority. I haven't talked too much with Danny or Coach Helfrich back at Oregon about those types of situations. This is my priority. I need to be working on making sure that this team can accomplish all that it possibly can. Recruiting is obviously one of the first things I need to get started with. We haven't really talked through those things in detail. But I'm going to have lunch and then set about my job. Q. When you look at this school, the fan base, younger in the grand scheme of things, when you went looking for coaches, did you want to find a younger head coach that had more of the high-octane offense that seems to be the most popular style? DANNY WHITE: We looked at coaches that had experience with up-tempo offenses and coaches that didn't. There wasn't a predetermined end game. I think in coaching searches, people get caught up in the names and the rumor mills and all that stuff, and at the end of the day, the process does matter, and we needed to go through that process, and we did a lot of research, and then the interviews matter. Certainly the offense is exciting and something that we valued, obviously the success that Coach Frost has had. But we're hiring more than the Oregon offense. We're hiring someone that we think is the right person to lead our football program. Q. Scott, with your defensive background, when did you start to really infiltrate yourself with the spread, the high-octane style of stuff, and when you were a defensive coach did you like facing those type of offenses? SCOTT FROST: In my experience in football, the best offenses and defenses are ones that are complete systems. I was lucky enough to be around the West Coast offense. That's a system that has answers built in. It makes sense. It's complete. Nebraska's option offense was complete. No matter what a defense was in, we had an answer. I finished my NFL career in Tampa Bay playing for Monte Kiffin and Mike Tomlin and Rod Marinelli and Raheem Morris and Joe Barry. That system was complete. Every player knew where they were supposed to be, what they were supposed to do, and had answers for everything. That's the best thing I can say about the offense that we've run at Oregon is it's a system. No matter what a defense gives us, we're going to have an answer; the ball is going to go to a different spot; we're going to block it different; whatever it is. I didn't know anything about this offense until I got there and started learning from Chip. We've evolved it every year between Mark and I because you have to stay ahead of the competition, but the best thing I can say about it is it's a complete system, and all the good offenses and defenses I've been around are. Q. You've had other opportunities I'm sure to be a head coach. Why UCF? You said this is your priority now. Last year at this time Oregon was getting ready for the playoffs. Perhaps was that your priority then? SCOTT FROST: Well, one of the big things is I knew you were here. (Laughter.) I had a job opportunity last year. I would have had to take that job a week before the national semifinal. I care too much about the players that I coach to do something like that to them. This year has shaped out a little bit different. When this opportunity arose, this is the best opportunity that I've been given in regards to a head coaching opportunity. Like I said, I think the sky's the limit for this place. I didn't want to leave Oregon for a place where I couldn't get the same type of players that we've had at Oregon that have made us successful. We're fast. We play fast. We have fast guys. Those guys are right here to be had, and if I was a fast kid in the state of Florida and I knew we were going to play this type of offense here, this place would look really good to me, and I think we can get that done pretty quickly here. Q. Dr. Hitt talked about the entertainment factor of football as well as the obvious, but how does that excite you for being able to have that freedom to kind of showcase your offense, and just a message for the fans on the entertainment factor going forward for this team that's struggled? SCOTT FROST: We get this thing rolling and the fans are going to love to come. With the style of offense that I'm used to seeing day in and day out -- sometimes I turn on other games where people don't go fast, where people aren't exciting. It's hard for me to watch those football games. We're going to go a mile a minute here. We're going to hit the accelerator and the gas and go. Building this thing, we're not going to be afraid to take chances and try things, and I know it's going to be a really entertaining type of football, so fans better buckle their seatbelt because we're going to punch the accelerator and go fast around here, and sooner or later that's going to lead to a lot of success. Q. What will your philosophy be on scheduling? Will you want to tackle some of the, quote-unquote, big dogs you say we have in Florida? SCOTT FROST: That's probably a question for Danny. I know that's not a head coaching job, but we've had a couple conversations about that. DANNY WHITE: I think it's hard for me to say what our scheduling philosophy is, and that's something that I'll be working with Scott on, and together we'll come up with a plan that works best for building a fan base. But I think more importantly what works best for his system of offense and defense and how he's going to recruit to that, so I think that all needs to be well thought out, but I think the best way to build a fan base is for us to win football games, so we'll work through that process in the coming months, identify what our scheduling philosophy is here. It may not be much different than what's already in place; I don't know. We've got to have those conversations, and once we get there, we'll be able to speak more intelligently about that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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