UCF head coach Scott Frost met with the media following the Knights' ninth spring practice, which took place Saturday inside FBC Mortgage Stadium. Frost shared his thoughts on the team's progress through the first half of camp, discussed the quarterback competition, praised the energy on defense, and talked about the continued emphasis on building a tough, unified culture.
Here's everything Frost had to say following the workout:
After nine days of practice, out in the stadium today, how did things go?
"There's some good and some bad, any spring ball is like that. We're installing a lot of new stuff and throwing a lot at the guys too, so there's mistakes. The biggest thing I was looking for is who was gonna show up, be ready to go and fight and be tough.
"And we got a lot of that on this team, but I don't think we have enough. And so we're gonna keep pushing them and helping them understand the expectations we have. We got a long way to go."
How was it to have the fans in the stands, bringing a little bit of support, cheering here and there when big plays happen?
"It's good, I think most of the people in there were probably family. I think a lot of the guys are having fun and enjoying what we're doing right now. So it's good to have family. We're gonna have a barbecue with them right after this. We'll get a chance as coaches to meet some of the parents and siblings and that's always a positive. I want this to feel like a family and they're welcoming each other."
Do you think players have responded to coaching throughout the camp?
"It's been good, I think the guys were hungry to be pushed and to be challenged. We started that right away in the weight room. There's some guys really responding to that and really giving us effort. And there's some guys kind of dipping their toe in. We need a bunch of fighters out there and guys who are gonna be ready to go no matter what, drop of a hat, they're ready to play football and they're gonna fight for their brothers.
"I think that culture needed some cultivation. I don't think it was there and we're gonna do our best to try to keep building it."
How does it feel to be back on that field again?
"I love that field, I have a lot of good memories on that field. It's beautiful weather today. A good day to be out on the field, a good day to be a Knight.
What are you seeing from the quarterback position out there?
"Quarterback, nothing has emerged yet. All four guys that are taking reps right now have done good things. What we really have to eliminate is the mistakes. For as many good plays as we're making, one catastrophic play hurts you worse than three really good plays help you. So I need guys that are seeing the game faster, making good decisions, and we really gotta eliminate across the board with that group the catastrophic bad plays that are gonna get a team beat. So we gotta keep addressing that.
"I'm waiting for somebody to step out front and take it, and right now there's a lot of guys doing good things, but nobody that's really taking it and running with it."
What have you seen out of your offensive line?
"I thought early on in this practice, the defense came more ready to play than the offense. So we need more get up and go and just some tough attitude from those guys right from the beginning. As practice went on and as we had some more competitive drills, that got better.
"But that can't be a part-time thing. That's gotta be the standard, and I don't think it was."
What can you take from this scrimmage that you're going to apply in practice?
"As a coach, you want everything to be perfect immediately. What I do know is we got a lot of really good kids that wanna be good. We got a lot of speed. We're not there yet. We're a long way from being there.
"But I think back to 2016, our first scrimmage out here in the spring, I was discouraged coming off that field. We couldn't do anything. I think Adrian Killins got one swing pass and went 70, but otherwise we didn't do anything good, or at least it felt that way.
"We're doing some good things. There's just a level of speed and precision to execution that has to happen on every single play to make it work, and we're not there yet."
How have you seen the defense respond to Coach Grinch's system?
"The defense came with it today. They had energy right from the start. A lot of eyes on the ball, a lot of hats around the ball, and they got a lot of turnovers today, which is good.
"As a head coach, it's good for the defense and not good for the offense. But they added some good pieces there to some good pieces that were already here, and I think they're starting to gel a little bit as a defense. So overall, I think they probably won the day.
"Some good and bad there too, but I feel like that group's coming together."
How would you evaluate the progress of the early enrollees, particularly wide receivers like CJ Jenkins and Waden Charles?
"We got some early enrollees, freshmen, who should still be in high school. The biggest factor in playing early isn't necessarily talent, it's how fast can you adapt to college, how fast can you be a grown-up. Are you dipping your toe in the water, are you diving in head first?
"I give a lot of the freshmen credit. They've come in and really made their mistakes full speed, which is what we want to see. And I think there's several guys that have put themselves in position to have a chance to have some playing time this year."
You're still learning about this roster. Has anything surprised you after working with the guys?
"No, I don't know if there's really been any surprises. This is Florida and we're fast, I'll say that. We gotta play that way all the time.
"Every day something surprises me, either in a good way or a bad way. And then we address and try to fix those things and move on. That's another thing we have to do better, is when we address something and fix it, I need to get fixed permanently.
"So when we make the next mistake, we're on to that one. These guys have a lot to learn from our expectations for them to offensive schemes and terminology, to defensive schemes and terminology. We're intentionally throwing a lot at them.
"I think there's probably two ways you could do this. So you could install slow and really try to get stuff dialed in or throw the whole book at them and let them learn it and then work on the detail later. We kind of took the second route and trying to get the guys to learn a lot of what we want them to do early on.
"That leads, at times, to some execution problems, but we got summer and fall to fix those things."
What about the overall evaluation of the wide receiver room?
"Yeah, things always look better when you get close to the first game and you're running with your first group. We don't know who those guys are for sure yet. Everywhere I've been with our offense, this has happened that we're asking the guys to run a lot more than they've ever run in any practice before.
"We put Catapult systems on them to track their top speeds and their accelerations and their total distance. A lot of people around football are doing that. Every practice we've had in spring has been better than anything that this team's done before prior to this spring practice.
"So these guys are running a lot. Inevitably, we have little soft tissue injuries then, and then you get short some guys and the guys that are left have to take more reps and it can cascade on you. The good thing is about a year, year and a half into being in this system, you can run forever, and that's what we need our receivers to be able to do. So we're gonna keep pushing them."
The portal's gonna open up in a couple weeks. How do you guys, as a program and as a coach, how do you evaluate the talent that's in the portal to make sure that you find the right fits?
"You know, the biggest thing for me is we're starting to get a really good culture with this team. This team's starting to come together and that's hard in this day and age with 29 new players or whatever we have and trying to take that collection of individuals and make them a team. So the first thing we'll make sure is if there is any additions that they are guys that are gonna fit into what we're already been building.
"I don't think anybody coaching really likes the way everything is right now, but we will continue to look for opportunities to improve the roster and make this a better team."
I know it's still a work in progress on the field, but have any individuals stood out in terms of either what they've done or maybe off the field from a leadership standpoint?
"Yeah, I think a lot of guys have. We haven't kind of intentionally not put anybody in leadership positions yet, because I think that kind of has to work itself out. Post spring ball and into the summer, we'll start identifying the leaders and kind of empowering them to take a little more charge.
"Right now, everybody's new and everybody's learning new, but there's a lot of guys that have stood out to me from that standpoint."
Coach, you felt like defense kind of won the scrimmage. What was it that they brought, what positive did you see there that you could build on that?
"I think, honestly, anytime you're installing new systems on both sides, speed to the ball and effort overcomes a lot on defense. And if an offense isn't ready to execute perfectly with speed, defense usually wins early on. We've had some good battles on the field, but for the most part, I thought the D came more ready to play and played with a better tempo and pace today, and that was the difference."
