If you think Scott Frost is leaving UCF, this interview reads like his goodbye

UCF head coach football coach Scott Frost is the obvious top candidate for the same job at Nebraska. Frost is a Nebraska alum, a legendary quarterback in Lincoln who led the Huskers to a split national title in 1997. He’s now the hottest available coaching candidate in the country, as he leads 11-0 UCF into the AAC title game on Saturday.

Frost has mostly avoided discussing the Nebraska job publicly. (He did allow that he’d be “hurt” if he, a Nebraska native, weren’t being considered.) In a vacuum, this interview Frost gave to the Orlando Sentinel doesn’t tell us anything other than that Frost really likes UCF. But if you’re someone who thinks Frost is going to take the Nebraska job or any other gig, these quotes start to read like a heartfelt goodbye.

“It’s hard to put in words. … I turned down some other jobs when I was at Oregon because I loved that place. There was a tear in my eye when I got on the plane to fly down here, but this place has been exponentially better than I even could have expected. The fans here, the community, these players. This is a special place and it’s only going to keep getting better.

“I’m glad that I was the one to help get this place back to where it should be. This place should compete for conference championships every year because of what it is. People in this community have been so great to me with the birth of my child, and I can’t tell you how many bouquets and gifts and phone calls we got. I’ll always cherish the decision I made to come down here. I’ll be a UCF guy the rest of my life.”

“I don’t know. There’s only a couple of places in the whole country that I would even think about coaching. … It’s not all about the money for me. It never will be. The quality of life here is second to none and these players are like family to me. Life always affords you tough decisions and we’ll see what happens. But I can’t tell you how much I love this place and these players.”

Those are both quotes that sound a lot like something a coach would say if he were about to leave a place he really loves for a more powerful job. They don’t sound like something someone would say at the end of his second year on a job that he planned to keep doing for the foreseeable future.

And if he is, it doesn’t have to be for Nebraska. That’s the most obvious landing spot, but the coaching carousel can spin quickly. If Jimbo Fisher were to leave Florida State for Texas A&M and the Noles were to go after Oregon’s Willie Taggart to replace Fisher, maybe the job at Oregon — where Frost used to be the offensive coordinator — would be open. That would leave Nebraska as one of just two possible homecomings.

That’s just one example of how Frost-to-Nebraska wouldn’t happen. Another is that Frost decides to stay in Orlando and lead a program he’s built from winless the year before his arrival to undefeated in his second season.

We’ll probably know more after UCF plays on Saturday.