Has the brand improved under Frost’s watch?

The boos rained down from the stands as Gus Malzahn walked off the Bounce House field on November 29, 2024, after a 28-14 loss to Utah, cementing a 4-8 season. Twenty-four hours later, Gus was gone, trading his black-and-gold visor of responsibilities for the promise of a garnet-and-gold safety net at Florida State.

Seven days later, Scott Frost was announced as UCF Football’s Head Coach… again. His hiring quickly swung the vibes pendulum from despair to optimism, largely due to the wild success during his first tenure in Orlando. In the announcement of his hire, Frost said, “The foundation we built here has only grown stronger, and I am thrilled to continue shaping this program’s legacy.”

In the 18 months since that statement, many things have continued to change and evolve in college athletics and in the Knights football program. But how has Frost done in reshaping and building the program? The Sons of UCF convened a panel of local media and content creators to get their thoughts on whether UCF is better, worse, or the same in several key areas of the program in the 18 months since Frost’s hire.

The panel of respondents includes: Christian Simmons (Pegasus Podcast), Andrew Cherico (Knights 247, Sons of UCF), Brian Peterson (Sons of UCF), Austin Heffernan (Space Knights), Dali Drama (Knights 247, Sons of UCF), Jeff Allen (JAS, Sons of UCF) and Adam Eaton (Sons of UCF).

In part three of a four-part series, we examine UCF’s place in the Big 12 and college football.

Is the National Brand of UCF Better, Worse, or the Same?

Christian: WORSE – Frost wasn’t handed much to work with, but a 5-7 season isn’t going to do anything to help the brand. UCF has become largely invisible to wider College Football. Talk of the team is absent on national podcasts and sites like The Athletic or On3. Even Big 12-centric media don’t have much to say about the Knights. And how can you blame them? This is a former G5 team that has gone 7-20 in conference play since moving up. What is there to talk about if you don’t live in Orlando?

Andrew: SAME – Not too long ago, UCF was on top of the college football world. The Knights rode a historic 2017 season into national relevance and eventually leveraged that momentum into a move to the Big 12. Since then, however, the program’s trajectory has stalled… UCF has missed a bowl game in back-to-back seasons and is now viewed by many as a team in the bottom half of the conference rather than one capable of competing near the top. That’s a far cry from where the program stood just a few years ago, when it was widely regarded as one of the fastest-rising brands in college football and arguably the best up-and-coming program in the state of Florida.

Brian: SAME – UCF’s national brand dipped for a bit, turns out the country stops paying attention when you’re not good anymore. But Frost’s return gave us a small PR bump (maybe not for all the right reasons), and the Big 12 spotlight helps. We’re not back to 2017 levels of chaos fame, but at least national media remembers we exist without needing a NASA reference. Sustaining attention requires winning at a high level, especially in a Power conference. The foundation is there, but the program hasn’t yet taken the next step to reestablish itself as a consistent national storyline.

Austin: SAME – Irrelevant in the scheme of things. TV Viewership is awful. The national brand tanked at the end of the Gus era, and Frost hasn’t redeemed it yet. I’m a bit worried he won’t elevate the national brand like he did in 2017, but it’s too early to judge. According to Medium.com, UCF was the 77th most-watched program in College Football last year. Our brand has faded.

Dali: WORSE – And has been eroding… We’re known as the underdog with some history, but we’re not close to being an elite program. Our undefeated season in 2017 still gets UCF mentioned as a Cinderella story. Joining the Big 12 has helped us get more attention, but as one of the lower-ranked teams in a Power 4 conference, we’re still getting used to the tougher competition.

Jeff: SAME – Need a winning season to raise profile, and the base is getting restless.

Adam: WORSE – Gus and Co. certainly had this program careening down the proverbial hill with two losing seasons, but the hire of Frost, and the results of his first season, didn’t do much to change the narrative. In most national and conference publications, UCF is an afterthought, if it is mentioned at all. For a program that once tried to brand itself as the Future of College Football, the Knights need to get some wins on the board if they want to make their future in the changing landscape of college football less murky.

Is UCF’s competitiveness in the Big 12 Better, Worse, or the Same?

Christian: BETTER – I’m not going to try to spin a 2-7 Big 12 record into a positive, but there were some real signs of life for a program that has been largely listless in this conference. When you consider that this roster was thrown together with duct tape on short notice by a coach who left College Football before NIL and the portal took off, that’s not nothing. Three of those seven losses came by single digits, and the Knights were competitive in most of their conference games. That’s a step up from losing by double digits at home to a 4-7 Utah team.

Andrew: BETTER – UCF has a roster that is better equipped to make a stronger push in the Big 12. Now, it’s about execution and turning that potential into results as the Knights enter another season in the conference. With many of the team’s key contributors being redshirt seniors, Scott Frost has an experienced roster capable of competing at a high level. The opportunity is there. Now, Frost and his staff must capitalize on it and make the most of a veteran group that won’t be together for much longer.

Brian: SAME – We’re not running the conference, but we’re also not getting shoved into lockers anymore. The results may still be inconsistent, but the gap between UCF and the middle tier of the conference feels smaller. There are flashes where UCF looks like it belongs. We’re still in that middle tier, where every game is winnable and losable, which is fun if you enjoy emotional instability. This season will tell us if we’re moving up or just redecorating the middle.

Austin: SAME – We lost our first-ever Space Game last season. No one in the Big 12 fears us at this point, unless you are Oklahoma State. We own them. Almost every other UCF Athletics program on campus has been competitive in the Big 12. Competing in the Big 12 is a must for Frost for 2026. UCF is a football school. Football schools have to compete every year, or you run the risk of losing that unofficial title of “Football School.”

Dali: SAME – We’re expected to finish in the bottom or middle of the Big 12, and it won’t be easy. Our 2-7 conference record in 2025 and struggles on the road show how far we have to go. Predictions for 2026 are around 3-9, or maybe close to making a bowl game if things go well. We’re unpredictable and can pull off big plays, but we don’t have the depth or consistency of the top teams. Winning at home will be crucial if we want to make a bowl game. We almost need to win every game at the Bounce House.

Jeff: SAME – Not enough improvement in the win column.

Adam: SAME – The results haven’t been good over the Knights’ three-year stretch in the Big 12, highlighted by two wins in conference in 2024 and 2025. Thus, the bar was low, and hasn’t moved much. Worse yet, UCF saw its Big 12/AAC draft classmates Cincinnati and Houston each post winning seasons in 2025. While I will concede that the team seemed to play harder in 2025, moral victories won’t get the job done in 2026. Frost needs to have this team in position to win conference games, particularly in the five home contests.

In the fourth and final installment of our series, our panel will examine the excitement level and trajectory for the program