FRISCO, Texas – On December 7, 2024, UCF made the decision to hire back Scott Frost as their head coach, the same man who led them to a 13-0 run in 2017. Being a head coach in today's era of college football means there's a lot more to handle in terms of roster construction with the transfer portal, one area of which is working to retaining the talent already on the team.
As Frost was settling back into his role at Central Florida, the portal was already in full force, which made things difficult. One of the names that came up early was Malachi Lawrence, who was heading into his senior year with the Knights.
"A lot of people had really strong opinions about Malachi," Frost said. "We were able to retain him, and then honestly, I wasn't sure what we had for sure because he missed all of spring ball rehabbing his shoulder from the year before. One thing I noticed right away about him was just how smart he was. He's the type of kid, you teach him something about football or anything one time. He's really smart, got a really good intellect, and that was probably the thing that I noticed quickest."
Lawrence's position coach, former Giants and Eagles position coach and now UCF defensive run game coordinator/EDGEs coach Mike Dawson, noticed the same quality.
"Malachi is very, very intelligent," Dawson said. "Has expressed that he wanted to be a coach or would like to be a coach when he's done playing. His willingness to jump in with both feet into a new system, having a couple different position coaches along the way and now being a senior going into your last year having to learn a new system, that could be frustrating for some guys, and he went the opposite way."
"He wanted to know what the interior d-linemen were doing, where the linebackers were going, not only memorize his job but also have the understanding and figure out the positions around him were doing which I thought was awesome."
After the Knights finished their spring camp, Frost thought he had an idea of what the outlook of his defensive end room looked like.
"We had two defensive ends last year, and I'm just being honest, probably the prevailing thought was that Nyjalik Kelly was going to be the better of the two," Frost said. "The best thing I can say about Malachi is he really figured out how to approach his work like a pro, really starting in spring… Malachi listened. He started doing all the right things off the field, taking care of his body and making good decisions. Probably from the time he came back until the end of the season, he just never stopped his climb of improvement."
Kelly, who went undrafted and signed with the Packers as a UDFA, was on the field during spring camp while Lawrence recovered from the aforementioned shoulder injury. Once Lawrence returned, Frost and his staff began to see the potential they saw in Lawrence blossom.
"There was quite a few effort plays where he'd chase something down from the backside or play hard all the way through a snap. And then you start thinking, 'We really got something here,'" Frost said. "And those plays kept happening throughout the season. Even about midseason, he was having a good year, and he just kept getting better all the way through to where there really wasn't anybody that could stop him. I think the progress that he made is going to continue now that he's doing everything the right way."
Going into his final year with the Knights, Dawson's plan for Lawrence was to make him a more complete player by tapping into the intelligence that stood out to him and Frost when they first met Lawrence. What'd that look like?
"Instead of just lining up and seeing the guy across you and going 'Hey, I got to beat this guy somehow,' whether it's a pass rush or whether it's the run game, being able to see alignments of what we call the core. Where's the tight end? Where's the running back? Where are they in relationship to each other?" Dawson said.
"Basically for us, the box or what the formation looks like in our eyes. If the running back and the tight end are on the same side, if so, based on what defensive call we ran what are the plays I'm most likely to see? Being able to help him kind of dive into that piece, you really saw that come out on tape a few times."
At the end of the 2025 season, Lawrence ended up leading the nights in sacks with seven, posted a career-best 11 tackles for loss, broke up three passes and forced two fumbles across 12 games.
The work that Frost and Dawson saw Lawrence doing off the field had translated onto it in his final collegiate season, and the rare traits that he possessed began to flourish.
"One of the biggest things to me is he's unique a little bit in the sense that he's got at the end of the day, what's going to be above average size and strength," Dawson said. "And then is able to couple that with having a pretty deep toolbox. He's not a, 'Hey, I'm going to hit this move and that move,' and 'I'm going to rely on this or that.' He's kind of got that rolodex where he can kind of slip through a bunch of different things."
With the season in the rear-view mirror, it was time for Lawrence's physical tools and athleticism to be put on display at the NFL Combine. Lawrence measured in at 6'4 3/8" and 253 pounds with 33 5/8" arms. His 4.52 second 40-yard dash was third-best amongst edge rushers in 2026, but that number isn't what caught Dawson's attention the most.
"He ran a great 40 at the combine. I think that's pretty easy to look at and see. But that 10 (yard split) time and his explosiveness is something that jumped out to me in training camp when we got him on the field prior to last season… I thought that in particular piece of it, how explosive he was at his size, was pretty impressive." Dawson said.
Lawrence's 1.59 second 10-yard split was the second-best among the crop of edge rushers in his class. The week at the combine changes draft stock for many players, and Lawrence was one that benefitted from it.
When the NFL Draft rolled around, Lawrence had risen up to being projected to go in the late first-round to early second-round. After trading back three spots with the Eagles, the Cowboys selected Lawrence with the 23rd overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Lawrence became the second defensive player in UCF history to be drafted in the first-round.
Having spent time with the Giants and Eagles, Dawson has the rare experience of being on both the collegiate and professional side of football when it comes to the NFL Draft process. In his current role, he gets asked all the time about his players by scouts and NFL front office personnel. When teams asked what kind of player and person they were getting in Lawrence, Dawson had his answer ready.
"I always try to head that stuff off when they ask. 'Hey guys, Malachi's easy, he makes it easy because he checks all those boxes,'" Dawson said. "He's a great guy in the room, you're not going to have to worry about changing your whole teaching style or philosophy to be able to get him to learn something. He's going to be able to pick it up. He's going to be great with the other players. He's going to learn from the older guys and he's going to know when to pick up cues and all that. So all that stuff is easy."
In his career as a head coach, Frost has sent plenty of his players to the NFL ranks as well. In his eyes, Lawrence has right wiring to not just play in the NFL, but stick in the league.
"There's a lot of guys that go into the NFL that I've seen that are super talented. But you've got to be made of the right stuff and be smart enough and enough of a pro to max yourself out at that level. I think Malachi's a good mix of all those things." Frost said.
Looking back on their time together, Dawson saw Lawrence set a goal for himself going into his final year at UCF, and got a front row seat to watching him achieve it and then some.
"In his time with me, he really had one mission, and that was to become an NFL draft pick and be able to prolong his career and stay in the NFL," Dawson said. "I deal with a guy that was great off the field, equal to what he is on the field, [they will] love him in Dallas… He's an easygoing guy that turns on the intensity and knows when it's time to go to work, to go to work."
From head coach to head coach, Frost gave some advice to Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer on how to coach Lawrence, who was a building block for Frost's team in his return to UCF and now becomes a building block for Dallas' defense.
"I think he can do anything that you ask him do," Frost said. "I would tell them to coach him hard and challenge him. He's going to be able to make any play, run game or pass game, that you need him to make if you teach him the right way and challenge him to do it."
"I think they got not just a good player, but a really good young man."
