UCF’s Scott Frost on current state of transfer market: ‘It’s a mess’ (2025)

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 not.

“When you’re 18, 19 or 20 years old, you think money is everything, and it’s not. Happiness and success are way more important than that and I’ve learned that personally. I’m happy here and happy to be back here, and sometimes decisions are made for the wrong reasons, but that’s life, and hopefully we can try to educate guys too, as much as we can, and mentor them as much as we can to help them make good decisions.”

Frost believed Nebraska was his dream job, but it turned into a nightmare after he was fired following four losing seasons.

Even with the Knights wrapping up spring camp, Frost was confronted the transfer market. A handful of players entered it, led by quarterback Dylan Rizk, offensive lineman Waltclaire Flynn Jr., linebacker DJ McCormick and defensive back Tre’Quon Fegans.

The 10-day window will close Friday.

“I don’t think anyone is really happy with the situation we’re in now, except perhaps the institutions that have unlimited money to spend and want to maintain that advantage,” Frost said. “It’s a mess. It’s constant negotiation and it’s a bidding war for every single player, whether they’re in the portal or not.

“That’s the reality, whether people want to admit it or not. It’s a sad state if a sport as beautiful as college football is won by the people with the richest boosters. That’s kind of where we are right now, but hopefully they’re trying to put some guardrails around it.”

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.