This week’s press conference was a unique blend of real reaction to life events and potential head games for an opponent. While this is one of the harder ones to approach, it’s among the easier availabilities to translate in this week’s edition of Frost Bytes
Offensive Line Coach Shawn Clark Hospitalized
Late last week, Knights offensive line coach Shawn Clark suffered what head coach Scott Frost called, “an unfortunate medical event”. While the exact ailment is still currently unknown, it has been reported that coach Clark is in stable condition.
No timeline for a return has been announced yet, but coaching assistant Alex Farah will take over offensive line coaching duties while UCF looks for “a veteran guy to help him” as the season progresses.
“I can’t say enough good about him,” said Frost paying tribute to his colleague. “You enjoy this sport and you want to do it with people you like and care about and there’s not very many guys I’ve ever been around that I enjoy being around as much as coach Clark.”
Facing Bill Belichick
It’s not every week as a college football coach that one faces a former NFL legend like six-time Super Bowl winner Bill Belichick. It’s even rarer that you do it while having played for that coach on an NFL franchise where he was making his making his way as an assistant.
Frost played for two years with the New York Jets who drafted him and moved him to safety where Belichick was an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator.
When asked about being on the same sideline as him, Frost recalled his experience. “I can’t say enough about how intelligent he is and how much football he knows — and that was before he went on a run as a head coach. . .”
Frost also commented on what to expect facing North Carolina’s head coach. “. . . He’s going to try to take away what you do best in every game. It’s going to look a little different in every game. Because of that we need to be ready against multiple things and be ready to adjust during the game.”
A way to read that is to expect the Tar Heels will be prepared to face Myles Montgomery, Jaden Nixon and the Knights running attack which has been dominant in the first two outings. However considering that UCF’s offensive line coaching situation is in flux, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see UNC throw extra pressure at whoever is playing quarterback.
Cam Fancher Starting?
To the surprise of Knight Nation, quarterback Cam Fancher is still at the top of the depth chart. When asked about Fancher’s status on Monday, coach Frost mentioned that he was on the road to recovery, but wouldn’t state whether he or Week 1 hero Tayven Jackson would start.
“Cam’s cleared to practice, I don’t know how close he is to 100% yet,” said Frost. “We’ll figure out [who is starting] as the week goes along.”
The conspiracy theorist football fan might think that coach Frost is making the best of a difficult situation to give coach Belichick an unclear picture of what the UCF lineup may look like at 3:30 pm ET in the Acrisure Bounce House on Saturday. As much as he praised his the coach he worked with in the past for his intelligence, it would make sense to muddy the waters of preperation.
That being said, would it be enough to alter Belichick’s approach to preparing for the Knights at all? In a limited sample size, Jackson has looked more poised, more accurate, and more athletic between the two players. Preparing for Jackson may leave the Tarheels just as prepared on defense if Fancher was named the starter for the Knights first power conference contest and final game non-conference game of 2025.
