Everything Scott Frost said after UCF's 68-7 win vs. North Carolina A&T
UCF head coach Scott Frost called Saturday’s 68-7 rout of North Carolina A&T “a step in the right direction,” praising the explosive playmaking of Jaden Nixon, the steady performance of quarterbacks Tayven Jackson and Jacurri Brown, while crediting the defense for setting the tone with early takeaways.
Here’s everything he had to say:
Opening statement
“I thought it was a step in the right direction. My hat’s off to those guys on the other side of mine. They fought hard. We kind of got on them early with a special teams play, which was good to see. I guess they had a couple quarterbacks get hurt. I wish them the best, but I got a lot of respect for them and hope that doesn’t hold them back from having a good season.
“In general, it was a step in the right direction. We’re certainly nowhere near close to what we need to be and can be yet, but there was a lot of good things tonight.”
On Jaden Nixon’s standout performance with his kick return and rushing TDs
“Yeah, I’m really happy for Jaden. You know, it’s just in a game like that, you never know who’s going to get the big plays, and they fell on Jaden tonight. He did a really good job.
“One thing I wanted him to improve from last week is he had a tough run last week where we gave him the ball and there was nothing there and there was a guy in the backfield, but it should have been about a two-yard loss and turned into about an eight-yard loss. And, you know, we’ve been talking to him. As fast as he is, he just needs to run through the smoke and make sure that he’s not always trying to stop and juke.
“He did a really good job of that tonight on offense and on special teams, so really excited for him to have the type of game he had tonight.”
On Tayven Jackson’s start at QB
“Yeah, I’m excited about Tayven. We missed on a couple things that I think we would hit most of the time, but I thought he played well, had a really good week of preparation, and I saw a lot of growth from him. So really excited about where Tayven is going.
“But I think you guys can see why we had a tough decision in camp. You know, Cam Fancher started the thing out because of his consistency, and he was out because of injury today. And Tayven obviously came in and played awesome last week and helped us pull one out. Did some good things tonight.
“And then you can see what Jacurri can do too. So it’s good to have depth, and I’m excited to have those guys.”
On whether UCF has a QB controversy
“I don’t know if it’s controversy, at least not in our house. It isn’t in our locker room, in our building. It isn’t.
“Because those three kids are all class act, and they root for each other and have been pulling for each other even when they’ve been competing. And you look around the country, and there’s teams without one quarterback, definitely a lot without two. I feel good about three guys.
“So, you know, that’s a luxury for us, and we’ll let them keep competing. But right now I’m really happy with the direction that we’re going.”
On whether it will be a “tough decision” to select a starting QB when Cam Fancher returns from injury
“No, I’m not going to create that. We’ve got a bye week to think about it, see who’s healthy and who’s available, and we’ll talk as a staff, but I don’t think it’s going to be tough.”
On the improvements he saw from the defense
“You know, in a game like this, you’re worried about coming out and playing at our level instead of, kind of our play not being as good because of an opponent that’s, again, I’ve got a ton of respect for them. They’re just down a couple levels of football, and we have more resources and just had some more horses than they did.
“But you want to make sure the team is playing up to our standard and not matching the level of competition. And I thought the defense did a great job of that and setting the tone early.
“Second straight week with us having a delay because of weather, and the guys handled that great, and they came out of the gates firing, so that was good to see.”
On rotating in younger players, particularly at WR
“Yeah, it can help. You know, I’m excited about a lot of those young receivers. But all of our receivers are fairly inexperienced, so it’s good to get (Marcus) Burke and DJ (Black) and Speedy (Duane Thomas Jr.) reps. It’s also good to get CD (Chris Domercant) reps. And I’m really excited about Waden (Charles) going forward and CJ (Jenkins) and Bredell (Richardson) and (Jordyn) Bridgewater. And there were a few plays tonight that we just missed, and a couple times it was just a throw a little off, and other times if we ran the route a little better.
“You know, those are the kind of details that we need to keep dialing in on because that’s the difference in making the play work against a good team or not. And I think there’s a learning curve for all of us on our team with the limited experience that we have to try to fast-track that experience and growth.”
More on Jaden Nixon’s kick return TD, which was the first since Mike Hughes in the 2017 War on I-4
“You know, (special teams coordinator) Pete Alamar does a great job with special teams. He’s done a great job with special teams for a long time. It’s great to have room on our staff for a full-time special teams guy. I helped Chase (Blackburn) do the job in L.A. (with the Rams), and it’s a full-time job just to do special teams if you want to do it right. So hats off to Pete.
“When that play hit, it looked eerily similar. You know, I actually thought about it instantly when he kind of came up the hash and broke left, and I think he ran about the same track as Mike did back in the day. So it was a little bit of deja vu for me, but it was a good way to start the game.”
On penalties (UCF had 6 for 55 yards)
“Yeah, we’ve got to clean it up. Kind of the same thing again. And I thought we were better discipline-wise tonight, but we’re not close to there yet. Guys kind of making their own decisions, just some mistakes. You know, the one drive they had, we gave them 30 yards in penalties. I want our guys to go attack, tackle, not catch them, and then slam guys down, and, you know, that’s just something we’ve got to learn.
“And we got another 15-yard penalty. Those kill you in tight games, and we had a few on offense like that too. Got another Myles (Montgomery) touchdown called back. I didn’t see what happened on that one, so I’ve got to look at the tape.
“But discipline matters, and we talk about every decision on our team being based on what’s best for the team, not what’s best for me. And I think we still have a little bit of I know I’m supposed to do this on my assignment, but I’m going to go make this play instead of doing exactly what they have to.
“That’s something we’ll talk about a lot over the bye week.”
On Jacurri Brown focusing on run plays with limited passing in the second half
“Yeah, those games are tough because we’re trying to be good sportsmen with the game in a situation like that. But we also have a lot of guys that went all the way through camp and just wanted to play football. A bunch of those plays with Jacurri running were plays where he had an option to give, keep, or maybe even throw an RPO.
“I actually thought the long touchdown, he gave it, and I was watching (Jordyn) Bridgewater run, and all of a sudden Jacurri came shooting out. So he made the right read on that, and they kind of overplayed the fly sweep. He’s an athlete, and he’s a weapon, so glad he’s on our team.”
On having an athlete like Jacurri Brown at QB
“Yeah, like I said before, we’re in an era where you’ve got to bid on players, and sometimes you get the right ones and sometimes you don’t. I think our staff and recruiting department did a good job picking a lot of the right guys. We’ve got to keep developing those guys and coming together as a team, but we’ve got three quarterbacks that I feel really good about, and I’ve been on teams where you’re struggling to find one or definitely two.
“So when you have somebody get hurt a little like Cam did, it’s good to have other guys.”
On the defensive turnovers
“Yeah, every game’s different. The last game we had a really good amount of yards and didn’t score many points, and then you look up tonight and we have a bunch of points and not very many offensive yards because we scored on defense and special teams. But those are the biggest scores in football as far as dictating the outcome of the game.
“When you score on either one of those, you’ve got a really high percentage chance of winning. If you do it twice, you don’t lose very often. So again, that was a product, I think, of the guys having the right mindset coming out and starting fast.”
On the Bounce House atmosphere
“Yeah, they’ve really improved game day stuff. I didn’t know all that was going to happen. I think Terry (Mohajir) spent a lot of money on fireworks tonight. I’m a big fireworks fan. My brother’s here tonight. He’s in the back, the Jeopardy guy.
“His birthday’s on July 4th, so that’s a big holiday for our family, so I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for fireworks. And that was cool. If we actually kick off a game at the right time, I hope the thing’s jam-packed and rocking, but I really appreciate the fans that were there, and a lot of them stayed for the whole thing.”
On being 2-0 and whether the performances met his expectations
“I didn’t know in camp. I didn’t know how the team would react when it was live bullets. I think we played better than we did last week, which is good to see.
“Now we’ve got two weeks to get ready for the next one. We’ve really got to utilize this two weeks. It can’t just be time off and get away from football.
“We’re going to rest the guys and make sure they’re right, but we need to come back and attack and take another step. The games are going to get tougher, and the opponents are better.”
On having a bye week in Week 3
“Well, this is one of the odd years where you have two byes during the year, so I think ours actually worked out really well. So it gives us a couple breaks during the season, but I can’t control where those fall. I think with our young team, it gives us a little extra practice before the next one.”
On what you can learn about your team in a blowout win
“I was impressed with a couple things. Like I said, I was impressed with the way we came out, and we talked about having a nameless, faceless opponent, and coaches talk about that a lot, but I want our kids to have blinders on and not worry about what’s happening around the country or anything else and just be locked in and focused on the task in front of them.
“They did a good job of that tonight, and I was really excited by the play of some of the younger guys. Those guys were hungry to get a chance, and they got to play a lot of the second and third quarter, and I’m anxious to watch the tape and see how they did.”
On the main points of emphasis during the bye week before North Carolina
“Discipline and detail is probably what I’m going to hammer home to these guys. Like I said before, it’s got to be team first all of the time, be in the right spot with your eyes right, right alignment, fewer penalties. That’s all discipline.
“And then just the detail of some of the things that we’re trying to run schematically in all three phases needs to continue to improve. And if you’re intentional in practice, that’s when it gets better.”
On younger players like RB Stacy Gage getting his first college TD
“Yeah, Stacy wasn’t with us in the summer, and we got him back in the fall. He did a good job of being in shape and handling his business and coming back. You know, he had a really good spring, had a good fall camp.
“Feel good about our depth there too. You know, it was really sad to see (Taevion) Swint get hurt a little bit and we’d have another one, but see why I’m excited about our depth at that position with Myles and Stacy and obviously Jaden. And then Agyeman (Addae) came in and did some good things there at the end too.
“So it’s good to have depth in all the spots.”
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