When Scott Frost left Oregon to become the head coach at UCF a few years ago, the staff he began to assemble didn't necessarily have deep recruiting ties in Florida, which led to some skepticism.
But just two years later that staff he put together recruited won some pivotal recruiting battles for in-state kids, and helped them take a program that went 0-12 when he took over, to 12-0 just a few short seasons later. So when Frost took the head coaching job at Nebraska, he wanted to bring along all 9 on-the-field assistants that helped him orchestrate that turnaround with the Knights.
Yesterday, Frost was critical of coaches who take other jobs and opt to not bring the entire coaching staff with them, telling ESPN, "That's not the right thing to do, in my eyes."
"The right thing to do was to give every one of my coaches an opportunity to come. If they're good enough to take an 0-12 program to 12-0 in two years, they're good enough to coach anywhere. Because what they've accomplished at UCF is next to impossible."
SMU defensive coordinator Van Malone, who is one of a few coaches who has not followed Chad Morris to Arkansas, saw the article and tweeted a subtle shot last night
Frost added that each one of his assistant coaches expressed a desire to follow him to Lincoln, which he noted was flattering.
Most coaches opt to bring a few, or a handful of those assistants, while others are left to look for opportunities elsewhere for any variety of reasons. It could be that the new job at a higher profile school means they need to upgrade, or make a splash hire with a proven coach or local high school guy by creating a few open, it could be related to recruiting in a new geographic region, or it could just be personal - like an assistant wants to stay behind so his kids can finish out school or graduate before the family decides to move on. Those are just a few examples. The point being, for a variety of reasons, it's rare for a head coach moving from one place to another to bring his entire staff, but that's exactly what Frost has decided to do.
As we pointed out earlier this week, Nebraska is in a very unique situation from a recruiting standpoint.