Let me tell you a little story of the 2017 UCF Golden Knights. In 2015, the UCF Golden Knights hit rock bottom, going 0-12 and losing most games by huge margins. The program needed a change, so it fired head coach George O’Leary and brought in a new face to the coaching scene. In 2016, UCF hired Scott Frost, former OC for the Oregon Ducks, to coach their program. This was not unheard of: hiring a coach with no prior head coaching experience to a big job like this, but the success he would have would be. In 2016, he would turn the program around and take them to a bowl game. In this season, they would rotate through a lot of QBs, but in a sense, the starter would be Freshman QB McKenzie Milton. Milton was known to be a dual threat in being able to move around the pocket and make the long throws, while accuracy was often thrown to the wind. This season, it felt like Frost got the wins he knew he could get, to have them just sneak in at 6-6. They would play in the Cure Bowl against Arkansas State and lose to the combo of Justice Hansen and Kendall Sander absolutely lighting up the scoreboard, but getting to the bowl game was all that mattered… what happened next no one could have predicted.

At the time, there was a 4-year drought of no CFB team being able to finish the season with a 0 in the loss column. Frost was the OC at Oregon for a long time and ran the West Coast offense, and would establish that to be the main way to play at UCF also. This year was the final form of that offense. To start the year, UCF would play 2 non-conference games and win them 61-17 and 38-10 over FIU and Maryland, respectively. They would continue to cruise through conference play with only 1 single-digit win over SMU until they reached the final game of the season versus USF. At the time, UCF was now ranked 13, and USF was ranked 22, and we were in for a barnburner in rivalry week.

To this day, I truly believe this is one of the most underrated college football games ever. This gave you everything you could have wanted and for all of the glory. The first half was a tale of 2 quarters with UCF scoring 3 TDs and leading 21-7 at the break, only for USF to tighten up before half and bring it to 21-20. USF would leave with the advantage in the 3rd, scoring 2 TDS and leading 34-28 going into the 4th quarter. UCF would go on to open the 4th slow before punching in 2 touchdowns with 2 minutes to go, taking the lead 42-34. USF would get the ball back and proceed to toss an 83-yard touchdown pass with 1:41 to go in the game and put in the 2-pointer to tie it up… Most thought we were heading for OT…

Except for Mike Hughes (Yes Vikings Mike Hughes)

He would take the ball from the 2-yard line on the kickoff and take it all the way to the house in a game-winning kickoff return to win 49-42!

In the next game, UCF would play for the AAC title and, in all likelihood, a shot at a NY6 bowl game in the Peach Bowl. The biggest stage a Group of 5 team had made it to that point (Game prior to Cincinnati making the CFP). The game was 62-55 for a final score… I am gonna cover this some other time, so look forward to that! 

The UCF Golden Knights had just taken 2 seasons to go from defeated to undefeated and now have the biggest game in program history versus the Auburn Tigers at AT&T Stadium. Both teams were rather sluggish to start the game, with the halftime score being 13-6 in favor of UCF behind a rushing TD from Milton. The floodgates would open in the 3rd with 3 TDs scored, with 2 in favor of the Tigers, putting them all tied up going into the 4th. For most UCF fans, this was enough… to know they got there and tried, but to win felt like a fever dream. Milton would put in another score to start the 4th, and the defense would hold and hold until finally… Auburn snapped. An INT by UCF would be taken to the house as Golden Knights fans knew it was over. UCF would complete the truly undefeated season in a 34-27 win and claim themselves as the 2017 National Champions.

This fairytale story is absolutely wonderful to see… I seem to have missed something. The day after the 62-55 Double OT win over Memphis, Frost was in the news for something other than his undefeated season… something other than his play. He was in the news for getting hired on a 7-year deal to coach at Nebraska. The alma mater, the kid, the most hated man in Nebraska- welcome to the series, Scott Frost.

2018:

I think if you asked any person who was a fan of Nebraska Football in the winter of 2017 what they thought 2018 was gonna look like, I think you would have gotten 1000 different responses. I know personally I saw a coach who just turned around the worst of the worst. I thought he could do it in Nebraska no problem. A lot of people pointed out how his offense would not work in the Big Ten. Some people would have told you it was a Nebraska problem and not a coaching problem. Either way, Nebraska would be the most-watched team coming into the 2018 season to see what the new look for the program would be with the hometown kid at the helm.

The season would start against an old foe with Colorado coming to Memorial Stadium. Nebraska, during the offseason, was able to bring in a highly rated QB out of California to potentially helm the offense. He would be named the day-one starter, introducing Adrian Martinez (Not Taylor Martinez, and no, they have no relation). The season would start with 3 rushing touchdowns in the first half while Colorado was held to 2 TDs, leaving the Huskers up 21-17. In the 3rd quarter, Colorado would score twice, but a 57-yard TD pass to JD Spielman would keep the Huskers up 28-27. As long as the Huskers hold this lead, they will begin on the right foot and extend Frost’s winning streak to 14-0… Laviska Shanault had some other plans when he got a 40-yard bomb to the end zone with under 2 minutes to go, leaving the Huskers down and out. Huskers lose 33-28.

Some Husker fans thought it was gonna be a slow start, but not this slow, as Frost would lose 6 in a row, including to Troy in week 2, which left fans scratching their heads about how he was so bad after being good for so long. Finally, on October 20th, Nebraska would get in the win column versus Minnesota in a 53-28 stomping, which finally felt like we were getting on the right track. The following game would be against Bethune-Cookman, which the Huskers would also win. Nebraska, at 2-6, would then go to the Shoe for the biggest game of their season. Ready to take the lashing, the team would go in, but as the game went on, the alarm bells started to go off. Ohio State was not playing as they should and were in a dogfight with the Huskers till the 4th, when they got a 2-score lead, which they were able to ride into a 36-31 win. Nebraska, with the close loss, would ride in with 2 more wins, including a 9-6 Michigan State win which was covered in 6 inches of snow. The loss to Iowa at the end of the season would sting, as in Iowa fashion, they would win on a walk-off field goal, but the progress was there. The close losses showed there was progress being made for the future… right?

2019:

Nebraska would start the season ranked at 24 (never a good sign). Nebraska started the season with a win over South Alabama and went into the second part of the home-and-away series against Colorado. The game now being in Boulder created a lot of hostility toward Nebraska fans. During the pregame to this one, the Colorado fans were seen cursing and throwing things at Nebraska players walking out of the tunnel with all of the class Colorado fans have. The game would start fast for Nebraska, putting up 17 unanswered going into half. Colorado would score 1 lone touchdown in the 3rd. You might think this game is boring; why are you covering this one… just you wait. Colorado would score just 40 seconds into the 4th before Nebraska would score on the first play they had after the kickoff. Colorado would then score a rushing touchdown and field goal in 6 minutes. Adrian Martinez would then lead another drive capped off by a 6-yard rushing TD. Then, the defense is the most inoppurtune time would shut down and allow Colorado to drive down and score a 26-yard passing TD with 51 seconds on the clock. 31-31 and 38 points scored in the 4th alone. Nebraska would get the ball first and not score, leading to Colorado being able to kick the game-winning field goal and win in OT 34-31 in a heartbreaker, which would bump Nebraska out of the rankings.

Nebraska would win 2 in a row after this against Northern Illinois and Regular Illinois. Nebraska would struggle a lot to find wins, mainly due to injuries to QB Adrian Martinez. Wins against Maryland and Northwestern would be the only ones the Huskers would find in the final 8 games. The lowlight of the season for the Huskers would have to come this season versus Ohio State. College Gameday came to the Cornhusker state after playing them in a close contest the previous year. The town was not sold on the team being legit, but was excited to have buzz around the town. This year was different, with Ohio State stomping them in Memorial Stadium, leaving no doubt for a bad Gameday pick. In the final game of the season, with a bowl game on the line for the Cornhuskers, they would face Iowa. As always, since I feel these 2 teams can’t play in a blowout, the Hawkeyes would end with a walk-off field goal. This one hurt way worse, as not only was it at home, but it was to end the bowl hopes for the Cornhuskers.

2020:

I am gonna be very honest, I find this hard to count as football. Going back and watching some of the games they played just doesn’t feel like College Football. The season would start out with a massive loss to Ohio State, who was ranked #5 in the nation. Scott Frost would do more of the same, with having 2 one score wins and 3 losses to add to his resume. The rest of the opponents were unranked, and one of the losses was once again Iowa. I think most fans this season could not get invested due to the circumstances surrounding COVID. It felt like most of the season was very underprepared, and that was seen no other place more accurately than watching Adrian Martinez. He looked very scared in pocket and with the offense play design having to shrink down had left Frost mostly without the one think which has made him good in the past at running an offense which is the deep threat. Despite all of the hardship and the terrible 3-5 record which the Cornhuskers had at the time, they still would be invited to play in a Bowl Game. After meeting with players, they declined the offer to play... a team declined to play in a bowl game after not making one for the previous 4 seasons.

What would come next for Husker fans would be… The most terrible, no good, very bad season of all time. Welcome to the best 3-9 team of all time!