Kris Frost's mentality instilled by military father

AUBURN – Kenneth Frost had two options and he had no idea they'd mean life or death.

The Marine lance corporal, and father of Auburn linebacker Kris Frost, could either continue to serve, as he did since he left high school in 1979, and go to Lebanon where many of his friends were being shipped off to, or he could leave the Marine Corps. Kenneth Frost chose the latter, not knowing the full magnitude of his choice in 1982 until October 1983, when the bombings of U.S. and French military barracks in Beirut killed 241 U.S. military personnel, including 220 Marines, many of Frost's friends.

It was the largest single-day loss of life for Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

"It practically saved my life," Kenneth Frost said, "because just about all my comrades were killed over in Lebanon."

As No. 3 Auburn hosts Texas A&M Saturday afternoon, it is also the annual Military Appreciation Day, which will honor those who serve, like Kenneth Frost did.

Kenneth instilled a mentality in his sons, Kris and Ray, to always "stay the course, stay the course."

It was more than run of the mill chores, discipline and routine parents expect from their kids, it was a way of life – not more "serious," as Ray Frost said, but "taking stuff a little deeper instead of a little too shallow."

When they weren't playing with a wide array of military action figures, the boys would try and sneak up on their father while he slept, but his days of being up between 3:30 and 4 a.m. at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri made Kenneth a light sleeper.

Kris and Ray still make fun of their dad for eating while he stands up, another habit he picked up in the military.

"We could never understand why he did that," Kris Frost said. "But he kind of had it programmed in his head that that's a way of life."

Kenneth demanded a level of organization, which stayed with Kris while he grew up, though he's a bit less so now, at least off the field.

"He's got a level of maturity about him; he's like a 30-year-old man now as far as feeling confident in himself, not only in life but in doing things," Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said. "But Kris is not a regimented guy. He's punctual and all that but he's real exuberant, always kind of energetic. I don't believe if you went into his room you'd find everything in the right place; he's one of them guys that everything would be there and he'd know where it was but you couldn't find it."

Kenneth got his boys into football at a young age, first at the pee-wee fields of suburban Long Island, New York and then in Matthews, North Carolina, where Kris would go on to be a five-star recruit and one of the top linebacker prospects in the country.

Kenneth text his son a few weeks ago, encouraging Kris to deliver on the promise he showed years ago.

"I like what I'm saying but I want to see more consistency out of you," Kenneth Frost told his son. "Play like the five-star player that you are. Show everybody what you're about. Put everything on the line now.

"From then on he's been responding."

After posting a career-high 14 tackles against South Carolina, Kris made the biggest play of his career, tackling Laquon Treadwell inside the one-yard line and forcing a fumble that might've saved Auburn's season last week against Ole Miss.

Kris has been humble about the magnitude of the play, which could end up defining his career.

A son answered his father's demands, and boasting isn't their way.