Scott Frost is indeed heading home.
With speculation mounting throughout the week — and with one report during today’s game having his Nebraska coaching staff almost set — Frost’s UCF Knights dropped Memphis in a thrilling double-overtime affair to claim the AAC championship. Afterwards, Frost stated he was going to celebrate with his team when asked about the NU job.
However, the Omaha World-Herald, among others, have reported that Frost has agreed to a seven-year, $35 million contract to become the ‘Huskers next head football coach. That would make Frost the third-highest paid head coach in the Big 12, behind Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer.
Frost and the university had reached an agreement on a contract earlier in the week but kept it quiet out of respect for UCF’s opportunity to not only win a conference crown but also clinch the Group of Five’s New Year’s Six bowl bid.
It’s expected NU will officially introduce — or reintroduce — Frost at a noon local time press conference Sunday.
Frost was born in the state of Nebraska and played his college football for the Cornhuskers. He is in his second season as the head coach at UCF; it’s unclear if he’ll finish out the season with the Knights.
If you wanted an offensive shootout, you certainly got it in the American Athletic Conference championship game. After out-lasting No. 20 Memphis (10-2) for a second straight shootout victory, this time in a 62-55 double-overtime thriller, No. 14 UCF (12-0) will get their chance to score a signature victory against a power conference opponent in the New Years Six bowl lineup. At 12-0, UCF essentially clinched their spot in the big game bowl lineup to be determined by the College Football Playoff selection committee tomorrow. We may not have to wait quite as long to learn about the future of UCF head coach Scott Frost.
Memphis forced the AAC championship to go to overtime with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to tie the game at 48-48. Memphis had a chance to win the game in regulation but could not convert on a long field goal in the final minute. UCF also could not take advantage of a last-minute possession and gave the ball back to Memphis by way of an interception. But little time remaining, Memphis could not get into field goal range. So the game went to overtime after 96 points and 1,399 yards of offenses.
After the teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, UCF opened the second overtime with a touchdown run by Otis Anderson. Memphis kept the game alive with a great fourth down conversion between Riley Ferguson and Anthony Miller, but Ferguson was picked off a couple of plays later by Tre Neal.
It was the only interception of the game thrown by Ferguson, who passed for 471 yards and four touchdowns. Miller caught 14 passes for 195 yards and three scores and Memphis had two 100-yard rushers with Darrell Henderson and Patrick Taylor Jr. UCF’s box score was loaded a swell. McKenzie Milton passed for 494 yards and five touchdowns to overcome three interceptions in the game. Anderson rushed for 117 yards and Tre'Quan Smith accounted for 161 yards and two scores. Dredrick Snelson also had 145 yards and two touchdowns.
As the highest-ranked conference champion, UCF will be rewarded with the lone spot in the New Years Six bowl lineup reserved for the highest-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five conferences. It is only fitting this year’s spot goes to the only undefeated team in the country outside of Wisconsin (and if Wisconsin loses in the Big Ten championship game, UCF will be the only undefeated team in the country).
UCF may be heading to the Peach Bowl or another New Years Six bowl game, but Frost could be making his way to Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a storyline that was unavoidable for the ABC telecast in the beginning of the game, and for good reason. Frost has been one of the hottest names in the coaching carousel, and the undefeated run by UCF was a big part of the reason why that was the case. Various reports and rumors have suggested Frost is already on his way to Nebraska to be the next head coach, but nothing official has been announced on either end. Frost declined to answer the question about accepting the Nebraska job in his on-field postgame interview.
We’ll probably find out in the next 24-36 hours where UCF will be heading for the bowl season, and the decision of Frost will not be lingering too far behind if it has yet to be made official one way or the other by then. Memphis will still be heading to a bowl game as one of the top AAC representatives too, but it will not have the same prestige as the big bowl game lineup. Memphis head coach Mike Norvell could also remain a name to watch on the coaching carousel’s radar too.
It’s been a while, but the wait was more than worth it for the Toledo football program.
Prior to the MAC championship game Saturday afternoon, the oddsmakers had installed Toledo (11-2) as a 21-point favorite over Akron (7-6). That ultimately proved to not quite be a generous enough point spread as the Rockets had little problem dispatching the Zips in a 45-28 win. With the victory, Toledo claimed its first MAC crown since 2004 and its third win total in the game.
The Zips were making their second appearance in the game and first since 2005.
Leading the way yet again for the Rockets was Logan Woodside, with the quarterback completing 23 of his 37 passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns. Terry Swanson chipped with 180 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
The defense, though, may have been the story of the day for Toledo as they held Akron to just 123 yards of offense — 76 passing, 47 rushing — through almost three quarters of play; as UT’s defense went into prevent mode, Akron finished with 396 yards. While they forced just two turnovers — the Rockets’ offense had five — UT forced five three-and-outs and seven punts overall.
Really, this was the only way for the regular season to end for Lane Kiffin and Florida Atlantic.
In his first season as FAU’s head coach, the former Alabama offensive coordinator made headlines from coast-to-coast seemingly on a daily basis for his tweeting habits off the field. Somewhat lost amidst the non-football social media hoopla was the team’s success on the field, with the 9-3 Owls riding an eight-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s Conference USA championship.
Exiting it, that streak has now reached nine in a row as FAU (10-3) jumped out to a huge lead on North Texas (9-4) then “held on” for a 41-17 win. The game marked the first-ever Conference USA title game appearance for both football programs and, thus, the Owls first-ever league title.
The Mean Green had been looking to exact a measure of revenge as the Owls thumped them 69-31 in Week 8. That game was also played on FAU’s home turf.
With Win No. 10, FAU set the school’s single-season victory mark, breaking the standard of nine set by the legendary Howard Schnellenberger‘s first team back in 2004. Not only that, but the Owls now have one more win this season under Kiffin than they had in the last three years combined.
And, as has been the case throughout 2017, FAU’s offense played a pivotal role in the success.
The Owls entered Week 14 10th nationally in scoring (39.8 points per game) and 16th in total offense (480.2 yards per game). Saturday afternoon in Boca Raton, they had 27 points and 382 yards… in the first half alone. The Mean Green defense stiffened in the second half, however, as the Owls finished the game with 486 yards of offense.
FAU led 27-0 at halftime and 34-0 in the middle of the third quarter before UNT mounted what turned out to be an incomplete mini-comeback.
With three rushing touchdowns on the day, including one late in the fourth quarter that officially snuffed out UNT’s come-from-behind hopes, Devin Singletary now has 29 rushing touchdowns on the season. That ties the Conference USA record set by Central Florida’s Kevin Smith in 2007. Smith is now the running backs coach at… FAU.
Those 29 touchdowns, incidentally, re also tied for fifth-most in FBS history.
Singletary wasn’t the only offensive star of the game as wide receiver Kalib Woods caught six passes for 208 yards and a touchdown.
It wasn’t a perfect day for the Owls, however, as John Franklin III had a long touchdown run taken away after he Deshaun Jacksoned the moment.
After a week of speculation culminated in their head coach deserting them for another job — and a history-making contract — Florida State still had a game to left play that would determine whether their nation’s longest bowl streak would continue. And, to the credit of the players and the remainder of the coaching staff, they proved to be up to what was a very challenging situation.
Playing in front of a very sparse crowd at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee…
… FSU jumped on Louisiana-Monroe (4-8) early and never looked back, cruising to a convincing 42-10 win over the Sun Belt school. This game had originally been scheduled for Week 2 but was canceled because of Hurricane Irma; because of its importance to FSU’s postseason, the contest was subsequently rescheduled.
With the win, the Seminoles moved to 6-6 on the season and became bowl-eligible. Had they lost this game, or any of their last three games for that matter, FSU would’ve gone bowl-less for the first time since the 1981 season. Instead, they’ll extend their bowl streak to 36 in a row, the best such streak in the country.
A significant portion of the credit for the win would have to go to Odell Haggins, the longtime defensive line coach who was named interim head coach when Jimbo Fisher left for the Texas A&M job Friday. The players could’ve just gone through the motions Saturday afternoon, especially in front of such a sparse crowd; Haggins and the other assistants from Fisher’s staff didn’t allow it as the offense put up 504 yards of offense while the defense limited the Warhawks to just 1.7 yards per carry.
Of the Seminoles’ 302 yards rushing — they averaged nearly 7.0 yards per carry — Jacques Patrick accounted for 155 of them on just 19 attempts. Cam Akers chipped in another 117 and a pair of rushing touchdowns to match Patrick’s two. All told, the ‘Noles had five touchdowns on the ground.
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