UCF's Culture Shock
I know that I have written numerous articles about how Danny White has remade UCF in his image. Well prepare for one more. But don't worry Scott Frost will get praised as well. There has been a fundamental cultural shift at UCF since White took control. Let us be frank with one another Todd Stansbury left this athletic department in a bad situation. Stansbury was content to sit back and do nothing except rip FAU off for stadium ideas. Oh yeah and he brought Charge On, which may be the lamest rallying cry, into the mainstream. Besides that he remained content with keeping and extending Keith Tribble's mediocre head coaches. Stansbury had no personality, had no plan for upgrading facilities and was a dead fish in fundraising. Then he too his lapdog and went back to Oregon State. Leaving the athletic department a mess. One that Danny White had to fix.
Coming off a winless season, you would expect the players to speak about redemption. About how they failed last year and were embarrassed. How they were afraid to fail again. That was the thing about O'Leary's tenure. Players often were afraid of making errors and the repercussions that would follow. One would think that attitude would continue. After all the players that O'Leary recruited make up the roster. So it is only natural to think that the attitude of fear would continue. That could not be futur from reality. When you hear reports coming from players how they are having fun. How they are no longer chastised into fearing making mistakes. The players talk about how that the change was much needed. How Scott Frost and his staff were a much needed breath of fresh air. In just a week of spring practice, the culture surrounding the football team completely shifted. In fact make it a day. After that first day of practice you could see something that has been missing around this team returned:confidence. Going 0-12 can only effect confidence in a negative way. But that confidence has now returned to the players.
In the Stansbury era, all the sports teams seemed to relive on the moniker "sleeping giant." Every single time the Knights were on tv, that seemed to be THE talking point by the announcers. Whenever a had moderate success that would be the phrase that would come from the athletic department. This was most prevalent in football. But that is now replaced with #UCFast #UCFierce and Rise and Conquer. No longer will the term sleeping giant be tolerated. When Danny White gave an interview after his first 3 months in the job, he mentioned something very interesting. He compared the UCF fans and facilities to Ole Miss rather than Buffalo. The fact that an athletic director was no longer using that dreaded sleeping giant terminology. That UCF was close to the culture of SEC team rather than a MAC team. It was music to UCF fans ears. He proved that by firing underachieving basketball coaches Joi Williams and Donnie Jones, while rewarding the woman's soccer coach with a long overdue extension. It was a clear message: produce and you will be rewarded, don't and you can hit the pavement. His hires of Scott Frost and Johnny Dawkins(as much as I personally hate that hire), show that commitment to that ideal. These two hires show the ingenuity that was lacking in Tribble and Stanbury's tenures.
The focus has now shifted from the potential of UCF to the actual results. When you hear Scott Frost talk, it's never about how young the team is or the 0-12 record from last year. It is about the here and now. How the players are fitting in and what they are achieving now. Sure it is only spring practice, but Frost is already establishing the winning mentality. He masks it as "fun" , but there is a method to his madness. The players have already talked about how they have added more muscle mass than they had last year. How he is pushing them to not only meet their peak strength, but exceed it. Practices routinely consist of the offense running 125 plays. If you took Brent Key's playbook and made 5 copies of it, I doubt you would get to that total. Sure some of Frost's plays can be labeled as quirky, but UCF needs quirky right now.
To his credit, George O'Leary was willing to give some young coaches a chance, but only if they had shown loyalty to George. But then he would replace them with old retread, the worst being last year's hiring of the defensive coordinator that shall not be named. Frost on the other hand is relying on first time coordinators and assistants. Sure they had experience as position coaches or grad assistants, but never full fledged coordinators. For a first time head coach to hire a bunch of young coordinators and assistants instead of veterans is ballsy. Sure it may not pay off and there will be speedbumps. But damn it haven't UCF fans been asking for this kind of change for years?
