Scott Frost encouraged by UCF’s fight despite 20-11 loss at Cincinnati
CINCINNATI — UCF head coach Scott Frost struck a familiar tone of frustration and optimism after Saturday’s 20-11 loss at Cincinnati, praising his team’s effort but lamenting recurring mistakes that continue to hold the Knights back.
Frost said UCF “fought unbelievably hard” against one of the Big 12’s better teams but once again fell victim to self-inflicted wounds — from red zone miscues and penalties to mental lapses on defense — that turned a competitive performance into another missed opportunity.
Here’s everything Frost had to say in his postgame press conference:
On the frustrations of a lopsided offensive box score and few points to show for it
“Yeah, I’m disappointed for the guys and encouraged at the same time, and this was my message to them, that the fight was unbelievable today. The effort was unbelievable. I think they’re one of the better teams in our league, and we can go toe-to-toe with them.
“But in order to get it done, the detail’s got to be better. You know, as well as our defense played, we busted one coverage and gave them a touchdown, dropped a tight end on another one and set up a touchdown, and those guys are good right now. They can be great if we eliminate those things.
“You know, offensively, we’re young and grown with a lot of young players, but we were plenty explosive and consistent until we got in the red zone. And that’s three weeks in a row that we’ve, you know, shot ourselves in the foot on a lot of drives, and that’s got to get better. And, you know, the discouraging part is we’re fighting with these guys and not winning against pretty good teams.
“The encouraging part is the stuff going wrong we can fix, and we’ll go back to work and work even harder to get those things fixed.”
On the decision to start Cam Fancher, Tayven Jackson’s health status and if he could’ve played
“Yeah, we went in the game with Cam starting, and Davi (Belfort) as our No. 2 option, and Tayven was emergency if we needed him.”
On UCF’s trouble with penalties
“Well, we got to keep working at it. You know, some of the penalties, you know, I’ve got to look at the tape and see. I thought there were some the other way that we didn’t get, and I’ve got to look at the tape and see.
“I don’t want to sound critical until I see it. You know, we came out on the first drive and dropped, and we’re moving it, and dropped a ball that would have been a big play for us, and hit another play, and our receiver was on the ball, covering up a tight end instead of off on a basic formation for us, and that hurts us. We overcame a holding on another drive and then got a chopped block later in the drive.
“You know, those things hurt you, and we played well but not disciplined enough and not with enough detail.”
On the false starts
“Where they’re happening is the most frustrating to me because they’re happening, for the most part, in the red zone. It’s starting to be a pattern, and we have to address that. You know, we went round and round, whether it be on a silent cadence or not this week, and we started without and finished with a clap cadence just to try to solve it, but I don’t think that was the issue.
“It’s just in clutch moments, you know, being able to calm yourself down and hear the snap count.”
On Cam Fancher’s performance
“I thought he played really tough. You know, I haven’t watched the tape yet, but I know he played tough. Whether the ball was always in the right place or not, we’ll evaluate on the film.
“I thought he made some great throws in the first half. We missed on a couple shots. He made some other ones that got called back.
“Again, it’s self-inflicted wounds on a lot of the things, and, you know, once they got up two scores, you weren’t, you know, the way they played defense, we weren’t going to get behind in their secondary anymore, and then it was more of a grind it out, completed in front of them, and run-the-ball type of game.
“And we still executed that pretty well until we didn’t and made mistakes that cost us drives. And, you know, any game in this league where a defense can hold an offense like that to 20, we got to be good enough on offense to have a chance to win or win.”
On UCF’s defensive performance
“Yeah, I think that the two offenses we played the last two weeks are two of the better ones in the Big 12, and, you know, we went toe-to-toe with them. You know, I told this defense, like, even at the end of the game when the game was probably over, down nine, they still fought and got off the field, and that says a lot about who they are. I mean, they need to take the next step now, and they’re really good right now.
“We can be great if we eliminate the mistakes. It’s the same thing. You know, their two big plays were on mistakes, and that’s really a focus thing more than anything.”
On the struggles in the run game besides Cam Fancher
“One, they’re splitting time. You know, two, we kind of got behind in the game, and we needed to throw it a little more. What they were giving us later in the game was kind of the quick-passing game, and we were trying to take advantage of that.
“You know, Myles (Montgomery) is an elite player, though, and we need to make sure and get him the ball when it’s appropriate. That was kind of the game plan coming in was to lean on the run game, but after we, you know, shot ourselves in the foot on the first couple drives and got down by a couple scores, we still tried to commit to the run game, but at that point, you’re kind of in try-to-catch-up mode.
On UCF’s blocking
“We had a lot of different guys out there. A couple guys got nicked up. You know, I think their run defense is pretty good, and when they’re called to stop the run, they get a lot of hats around the ball really fast.
“The nose guard, I think, is one of the better players in our league. You know, I’ll have to watch the tape, but I’ve been pleased with the progress those guys have been making, and kind of like everything else, we just got to be a little more consistent.”
On the difficulties on fourth down
“Yeah, I don’t remember both of them until I watched the tape, but I know on one, we, you know, false started and would have got the first down, and we were yards short. And so, again, you’re not going to get every fourth down, but you got to put yourself in position that when you hit and make the play like we did on that play, that, you know, we should have been first down by three yards. Instead, we’re a yard and a half short.
“You know, mistakes, and it almost feels like it’s kind of necessary growing pains that we’re going through, and I wish it wasn’t necessary. But, man, a lot of the things that happened, we addressed with the team. Like, this is going to come up.
“We got to be better. It’s going to get louder in the red zone going toward their stands. You know, the formations that we didn’t get right.
“There’s a lot of things that we talked about, getting the ball up a little quicker on the shot to make sure that we don’t outrun it. There’s a lot of things we talked about for the game that then we didn’t execute, so that’s on the coaches and the players to just find that little more detail to make those things work.”
On whether he believes this is a team that can break through in the second half of the season
“Yeah. My message to the guys was, man, they’re better than we were week one. You know, week one, we played like we had diapers on against a team, and we found a way to win.
“And the last three weeks, we’ve played good Big 12 competition, and we’ve gone toe-to-toe with them. We haven’t found a way yet. Now we’re 3-3.
“There’s no reason we can’t go try to win the rest of them. That’s not saying we will, but this team is getting better, and if we can take the next step with just detail, execution, and discipline, we can be even better.”
On Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield dedicating the game to Shawn Clark
“Yeah, you know, that’s been a weight on me and our team since it happened. I just love the man, and it’s touching that, you know, other people are doing what they do to at least honor him. You know, that’s a tough thing to go through for a team.
“I think the kids are responding well, but it was heavy, and it was emotional. I know he meant a lot to a lot of people, and it’s really good to see people honor him.”
On what he’s seen from his players in this losing streak
“You guys can try to write an article about the guys getting down and giving up. It ain’t going to happen, not with this group. We’re frustrated. I’m frustrated.
“I’m also, in a strange way, encouraged by just the fight and the improvement that’s happening. The team we just played could end up in the Big 12 Championship really easily if they keep playing the way they’re playing, and if we don’t make mistakes, we’re right there or have a chance to win or win.
“So, this team’s not going to give up. Are we frustrated we’ve lost the last three? Yeah.
“I don’t think we played our best game in Manhattan. Felt like we had one last week and kind of gave it away, and this week, we didn’t have it, but we should have been right there, and the things that we need to fix are really fixable, so we’re going to, as a coaching staff, double down on those things.”
On the importance of next week’s game vs. West Virginia
“Yeah. We just got to go back, get to work, and have fun as a group, practice in this week, and try to be even better next week, and our best is going to be good enough in this league if we play our best. I don’t know if we’ve done that yet.”
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