Notes & Quotes | Scott Frost Is Confident in Team’s Response to 2 Weeks Off

(Photo by Adrian J. Herndanez / New Day Review)

Sept. 18, 2017 at Wayne Densch Center for Student-Athlete Leadership

Availability: HC Scott Frost

• The UCF Knights returned to a normal routine on Monday after missing the previous two weeks of games because of Hurricane Irma.
• UCF practiced on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15 following Irma’s departure.

HC SCOTT FROST: “Well it’s early, but Monday felt like Monday. It’s the first time in a couple weeks that a day’s felt like it’s supposed to feel. Players responded well. I thought they came out and practiced really well today. So, hopefully we’re taking the first step to getting back on a regular schedule.”

 

“Yeah, I think those practices last week were key for us. If we had come out rusty today, it wouldn’t have been the best for our preparation, but getting those Thursday, Friday practices in helped the players feel like they were ready to go again. Got a couple more days off, and now we’re kinda back into regular routine. They had a good day.”

 

“It’s been a challenge. You know, we game plan for three teams, and we didn’t end up using ’em. We’ve had time. That’s made it nice to have a little more time to prepare for these things. We already have a game plan ready for [the University of Memphis] that the kids have already seen. So, there’s some good things, but when you’re a competitor, and you wanna play—the players wanna play, the coaches wanna coach—we put in too much work not to go out and test ourselves against other people. So, we’re all itching to get out and compete again, and we’re gonna have to take advantage of every opportunity that we get. These next two games are two really good teams. We have a big opportunity right in front of us, going up and playing Maryland who’s doing really well right now. Play a Memphis team that just knocked off a Pac-12 team. These are two big weeks, so we need to get as ready as we can fast.”

 

“Well, if today’s practice is any indication, I feel really good about our players being able to dial back in. Their desire to play football and their hunger to go out and compete is gonna drive ’em to work. Thursday and Friday were a little bit sloppy and a little bit rusty, but today was as good a Monday as we’ve had. So, that speaks a lot to how mature our team is compared to last year and how they handle this whole thing. The rest of this week’s preparation needs to look like today. If it does, we’ll have a good chance.”

 

“Well, we’ve got fresh legs. I can tell you that after watching today. The guys were running around and zippin’ and zappin’ everywhere. So, the speed of practice was really good today. Sometimes the execution can get a little sloppy. I didn’t see that today, but, when you have a layoff, that’ll happen. We gotta make sure we take care of the football and do the little things right. Sometimes not getting hit for a while, you can fumble it a little more. Those types of things. We’re gonna work hard on it all week and make sure our players are aware of those issues and those problems, and, like I said, we just need to practice tomorrow, Wednesday like we did today.”

 

“I took my wife to [Halloween] Horror Nights at Universal. So, we don’t get time off like that very often and certainly unfortunate circumstances that we weren’t able to stay on a regular routine, but any chances our coaching staff gets to get outta here, we need to spend more time with family.”

 

“Yeah, it was great. They had, I think, nine haunted houses. I got to ride the roller coaster. Things I don’t usually get to do in the fall. So, it was a pleasant night.”

• In the aftermath of Irma, more than 5 million Floridians were displaced and without power.
• Frost and his team personally helped the Central Florida community by filling sandbags, feeding the National Guard and volunteering at a food bank.

HC SCOTT FROST: “Well we didn’t have our whole team here to practice, and that was really what the biggest reason that kept us from playing last Saturday. We had a number of guys here and a good piece of the team here. We didn’t want to sit on our hands and do nothing. We lifted both mornings, and we went and did things, and our players really answered the call. We didn’t make it mandatory, but we told ’em we had some opportunities to go out and help people in the community, and the guys responded in force. I was with the group that did sandbags, and those guys worked hard. Hopefully we made a little bit of difference there. Sounds like they really worked hard at the food bank. And those are two small things, but when people are hurting, and when there’s damage in the area, we have an army of guys here, and we’re gonna be looking for ways that we can help.”

 

“Yeah, any time you can go do something as a team that doesn’t have to do with football, I think it helps you. Watching those guys work together, filling sandbags was fun for me. Seeing which guys were working hard and which guys were helping each other—all those things help bring your team closer together, but this team we have this year, I think, is gonna respond to any curve balls that are thrown [at us] a lot better than our time last year, and a lot of it has to do with how closely knit these guys are.”

• The Knights travel to face the University of Maryland on Saturday.
• Last season, UCF fell to the Terrapins 30-24 in double overtime in both teams’ first-ever meeting.

HC SCOTT FROST: “I think Maryland’s very similar to us. They had a new coaching staff last year. They took over a program that wasn’t—hadn’t done well the year before. Saw some improvement last year in the record they had, and I think they’ve even taken another step this year. Obviously a big win in Week 1 against [the University of Texas at Austin]. I see more team speed. I see their guys understanding what they’re doing better. I think they’re more efficient. They made a bunch of improvements. I think we have, too. So, the two teams were evenly matched last year, and I think both programs have taken some more steps forward.”

 

“I think they’re a little bit different this year. I think they run it a little more to set up pass. They certainly can do both. They’re running their quarterback a little bit more this year. A lot of fly sweeps and quarterback powers off fly sweeps and some counters that they run really well. They do a good job of mixing up the throwing game. They’ve only played two games, but nobody’s really stopped ’em yet, so it’s gonna be a big challenge for our defense. We gotta have a great week of practice and go up there and [be] prepared as we can be to play that game.”

 

“I think there’s an opportunity to prove something every game. You guys always ask me, wanna get me to say that one game is important than any others. This is just another game on our schedule. They’re a good team. It’s a great opportunity for us. But this game isn’t gonna make or break our season. It is fun watching a lot of these teams from our conference and other Group of Five schools winning games against Power Five teams. And I think our players are always gonna have a little bit of chip on their shoulder when we go play games like this and wanna come away with one of these wins. But we’re gonna have more opportunities after this one. So, this game is certainly important. We’re playing a really good team, but it’s no more important than any other game we’ll play this year.”

 

“I don’t think we have a team that’s gonna be too ramped up. They seem to have had the right level of intensity, this group. Like I said, I think we have really good leadership. I think we have the right mentality and the right unity as a team right now, and I think we’ll do a lot better job of responding to a break in the schedule than we did last year.”

• Against Maryland last season, quarterback McKenzie Milton made his first start as a true freshman.
• Milton passed for 260 yards and two touchdowns with one interception on 21-for-36 passing and also rushed for a touchdown on one of his 19 carries.
• More concerning, perhaps, were his turnovers, as Mitlon fumbled the ball six times, losing three of them.

HC SCOTT FROST: “Was it six fumbles? Sweet fancy Moses. We watched the game from last year a bunch of times. I think, overall as a team, we played pretty well—well enough to win. We made too many mistakes, and it cost us the ball game. We had fumbles on exchanges. We had tip-ball interceptions. McKenzie threw one backwards over his head for a 15-yard loss or something. It was his first start, and I think he’s kinda indicative of both teams right now. He’s a lot better player than he was when these two teams squared off last year, but I think both teams, as a whole, are better than they were when UCF played Maryland last year. So, I expect a great competition and a whale of a game.”

• With games against Memphis and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets being cancelled, UCF will look to potentially schedule a game during the Knights’ bye week.
• The American Athletic Conference opener against Memphis has already been rescheduled to Sept. 30.
• According to a team press release announcing the cancellation of the Georgia Tech game in Orlando, “[the] teams, American Athletic Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference explored rescheduling options.”

HC SCOTT FROST: “Yeah, it’s not ideal. I liked where our bye week was when I saw the schedule when the schedule came out. The good thing this year, compared to last year, is last year the bye week got changed on us last minute. So we didn’t get a chance to give our kids any time off. So there was no time to recover physically. There was no time to get rested. The one benefit this year compared to last year is these guys had about five or six days off. That should help us, and now we’re gonna have a long stretch here of 10-straight games, hopefully, if we get another game scheduled. But getting this time off and letting our kids actually rest and recover should help us get through that. It’s still not ideal, but I think every player in our team, and every coach on our team would rather play an 11th game and sacrifice having a little more time off. It’s a little bit of a challenge from a recruiting standpoint, too, ’cause we usually send the coaches out on the road on a bye week, and we’re gonna lose that opportunity. So there’s some adjustments we’re gonna have to make, but, again, playing an 11th game is a better option to me than not.”

• Maryland quarterback Tyrell Pigrome will miss the remainder of the 2017 season, according to a report by the Washington Post’s Roman Stubbs.
• In his stead, true freshman Kasim Hill has taken the reigns, throwing for 207 yards and two touchdowns on 16-for-19 passing in two appearances.

HC SCOTT FROST: “Yeah, the freshman from D.C. is a good player. He’s gonna be a really good player there. You never know what you’re gonna get when you start a true freshman. He’s played well when forced into duty. I think they’re smart and asking him to do things that he can do. He throws it well; he runs it well, and he’s managed the offense well in a game and a half. He’s not that much different from the guy that they were starting to begin the season, so I think their offense is gonna be their offense, but he’s been impressive in a week and a half.”

• Offensive lineman Tyler Hudanick suffered a season-ending injury during the 2016 season.
• He did not play in the team’s season-opener against the FIU Panthers.

HC SCOTT FROST: “Tyler’s coming along. The sooner he’s out there, the happier I’ll be. He’s getting a little bit better every day. We’re still not sure when it’s gonna be. Might be sooner, might be later. You know, he doesn’t need time off right now. He needs reps, and he needs to get comfortable with his leg. He needs to be explosive. He needs to kinda shake a lot of rust off. So, he was out there today and doing some good things, and I think we’ll have him back before too long.”

For more on the Knights, as they embark on their first road game of the season, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.