UCF head coach Scott Frost speaks during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Frisco, Texas, Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — celebrated return as comes with the backdrop of a failed tenure at Nebraska, the alma mater he said he didn’t want to talk about at Big 12 football media days Tuesday.

Even though he did.

Frost said, “I really want to keep it about UCF,” just a few hours after telling a reporter from The Athletic that he never wanted to take the Nebraska job in the first place coming off a 13-0 season in 2017 that sparked debate about whether the Knights should have had a chance to play for the national championship in the four-team playoff.

“I said I wouldn’t leave unless it was someplace you could win a national championship,” Frost told The Athletic. “I got tugged in a direction to try to help my alma mater and didn’t really want to do it. It wasn’t a good move. I’m lucky to get back to a place where I was a lot happier.”

When the same reporter asked Frost in a one-on-one interview what he learned from his time in Nebraska, the former Cornhuskers quarterback said, “Don’t take the wrong job.”

Frost’s tone was quite a bit different in two different settings with reporters at the 12,000-seat indoor stadium that is also a practice field for the Dallas Cowboys.