ORLANDO, Fla. _ Former UCF coach Scott Frost defended the Knights after they were criticized by Alabama coach Nick Saban, saying one or two of the Tide's titles are self-proclaimed.
Frost previously said he wasn't comfortable with UCF athletics director Danny White's push to proclaim the Knights national championship after posting the only undefeated record in the nation last season. Frost suggested it was good to simply celebrate going 13-0 and defeating Auburn in the Peach Bowl, but he acknowledged White did it to highlight UCF's exclusion from the four team College Football Playoff semifinals.
However, Frost doesn't necessarily think Alabama should be criticizing the Knights for their championship claim.
"Alabama probably has one or two national championships they claim that weren't necessarily recognized by everybody," Frost told Nebraska TV station KETV.
It was a response to a Saban interview with USA Today, during which he praised UCF for going undefeated but added, "self-proclaimed is not the same as actually earning it."
"We've only had one undefeated team, and that is really hard to do," Saban said. "So I have a tremendous amount of respect for their team and what they were able to accomplish. ... And they can make every claim that they should have been in the playoff. I get that.
"But we have a system, and it's not fair to the people who went through the system and earned their way playing really, really good teams _ I mean really good teams _ and really tough games. It's not quite fair to them for somebody else just to decide to (claim a national championship)."
Frost's response mirrored UCF fans' reaction on social media to Saban's comments, noting the school added five self-proclaimed national titles in the mid-1980s and still celebrates them as legitimate championships.
UCF continues to take jabs from some national analysts and Alabama fans, but White has kept the Knights in the national college football conversation well into the offseason and every debate about the championship claims includes a look back at UCF's perfect season.
