When Scott Frost made his return to college coaching after a nearly three-year hiatus, he stepped into a challenging role as the head coach of UCF in mid-December. His primary task was to navigate the winter transfer window — no easy task.
In the wake of Gus Malzahn‘s departure, players flooded the transfer portal, creating uncertainty for Frost. He needed to retain existing talent on the Knights’ roster while scouting and recruiting new faces.
“The portal was a nightmare,” Frost said following the conclusion of spring camp Saturday. “Then when that was over, it felt like I was just a coach again. Now we’re going to go through another portal season that’s not going to be any fun.”
Nearly four months later, the spring transfer window opened last Wednesday and thousands of players entered within the first few days.
The impact was felt everywhere, but nowhere as much as at Tennessee with the unexpected departure of Nico Iamaleava, a 4-star quarterback who held out on the eve of the Vols’ spring game after contract negotiations broke down with the school.
Iamaleava reportedly was dissatisfied with the money he was to receive from his current name, image and likeness contract. He soon entered the transfer portal and signed with UCLA a few days later.
While unwilling to comment specifically about the situations, Frost believes its just another reminder of the complexities the sport is facing.
“It’s easy to get the wrong people in your ear sometimes and get bad advice, and not necessarily even talking about that situation,” said Frost, who left UCF in 2017 to coach at Nebraska, his alma mater. “There’s people in some of these players ears that don’t always have best interests in mind, and you have a tendency in life to think grass is always greener somewhere else and usually it’s…
Source link : https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/04/22/ucf-knights-big-12-ncaa-football-transfer-portal-scott-frost-nico-iamaleava/
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Publish date : 2025-04-22 10:00:00
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