Northwestern Wildcats and Pat Fitzgerald (1-2) – Northwestern has won the division title 2 of the 3 years Frost has been here and Fitzgerald seemingly is always mentioned for big jobs due to his ability to get more with less players due to the restrictions at Northwestern academically in taking recruits. Our lone win is a 3 point victory in 2019.
Michigan Wolverines and Jim Harbaugh (0-1) – This is the team that actually popped in my head as a possibility. But Frosts lone game against them was a 56-10 defeat, and Harbaugh has actually shown he can win and dominate in a Power 5 conference at Stanford. Something our staff is yet to do.
@Minnesota Golden Gophers and PJ Fleck (1-2) – I was really impressed with what Fleck had done and getting the hype train going there in that 2019 season. I did see a stat that Fleck in his first 3.5 seasons at Minnesota is no different than the previous 3.5 before he got there. But our staff is 1-2 against them, and last year the Gophers only traveled 50 scholarship players to Lincoln as they were decimated with injuries, and still came out with a win where they clearly outcoached us. We went from this team being a huge win for Frost in year 1 with a 53-28 blasting of Minnesota, to losing 2 straight.
Purdue Boilermakers and Jeff Brohm (1-2) – I think people probably point to this one for sure, but I struggle here. We are 1-2, and don’t forget 2019 where Purdue came to Lincoln without their best player Rondale Moore and a third string walk-on QB Jack Plummer and left victorious. We finally beat them in 2020 when most of their players opted out due to Covid.
Ohio State Buckeyes and Ryan Day (0-2) – No
@Wisconsin Badgers and Paul Chryst (0-3) – Winless against the Badgers but continually play them tough. Tough for me to say we have a coaching advantage when we haven’t won a game yet.
Iowa Hawkeyes and Kirk Ferentz (0-3) – Again, winless against this team/staff and again continually play them tough. While i’m not sure we have the coaching advantage, we eventually are going to steal one from these guys or Bucky.
SUMMARY:
Frost and his staff are 3-15 in the B1G against their last 7 opponents with hopes of trying to win four of those to get to a bowl game. While I have a hard time saying we don’t have the coaching advantage in any, I need your help telling me where we might have one. This isn’t if you think we can win, this is if you think we have the overall coaching advantage.
Comment below!
Honestly, I don’t think we do in any of those matchups. This is the most poorly coached team on offense and ST in the B1G. Hell, you even have to put Bielma ahead of Frost at this point.
I was just trying to forward think and not look back on this season. We have to have the advantage somewhere in the next 7, i’m just curious where it would be.
Yikes! When you break it down like that, I struggle to see where we have a coaching advantage in any of our remaining games. I do feel we match up well (or even better) athlete for athlete (except for Ohio State), but nothing in Frost’s tenure here suggests they can outcoach and scheme our way to a W or 2 or 4. It is maddening how it is always (always!) 1 step forward and 1 step back…its like we are afraid of success. Mentally soft…something??? Coaches rotating players for no rhyme or reason (Betts, Manning, Running Back’s, etc). Our coaches cannot find a competent punt returner? That is just asinine IMO…..Combine the above with an offensive line that is absolutely not playing well and we have our work cut out for us getting to bowl eligibility IMO. I would say a stunning turn of events, but in reality, nothing has changed the last 4 years except we look better coming off the bus. Edit – I do think Chinander has had a great feel for games this year and has coached very well…the others, not so much
I think I could say we have a defensive coaching advantage in multiple games, but overall i’m not so sure. I also agree we have the talent edge but we did against Minnesota last year, Northwestern most years, Purdue most years. Really need to see what we can do these last 7.
How much of this is Frost holding onto his staff too long? As it was mentioned it seems like he is evolving more to a BIG10 style of play, but are the coaches on Offense the right ones? This year will stink again most likely, but if he is retained, does he go out and get Offensive coaches to make the changes needed to compete?
I don’t mind the ideas Lubick is bringing to the table. But I think Austin and him are going to go their separate ways after this year. Not sure if that’s good or bad.
Let’s say we keep our coaches in place on the defensive side but replace our head coach with any other Big Ten head coach — and he brings his offensive assistants and special teams coordinator — and we are either 4-1 or more likely 5-0 right now.
Statistical note: Nebraska is 116th nationally in yards per point. Last season, we were 114th. We have a horribly inefficient offense.
I can’t even begin to think how bad we are offensively and on special teams. It has to be maddening for our defense. And probably maddening for Martinez, it’s crazy how bad our offensive line is.
Scary thought. Maybe Purdue. Though I think their identity is clearer than ours on each side of the ball. HOw would Trev answer this? Do you think he would use this criteria in his evaluation. If he does……..
I’m not sure on that at all. Purdues defense has actually been impressing me a bit as well. But if we are better coaches than Purdue we haven’t shown it.
We need to show our coaching prowess in 4 of these next 7 games.
Just based on samples from this year alone, I do think we may have an advantage against Minnesota, Purdue and possibly Wisconsin. It seems to me that Nebraska has shown improvement in coaching this year from a game planning/scheme perspective (particularly against OU and MSU). I’ve seen a little from our upcoming foes and have not been really impressed with coaching this year in some cases. Player development and proper use of available talent still is leaving a lot to be desired with Nebraska, but I think there are more available examples of players you can identify improvement in this year compared to prior years.
I think that’s fair. I believe if you look at the 2021 season you could probably come up with 2 or 3 we may be better than, but if you look at history we certainly haven’t proved it with only 3 wins total in 3 seasons against our upcoming 7 opponents. With that said, I think Wisconsin has only lost to undefeated teams. Fleck always seems to look bad then pulls out a great gameplan against us.
This is a young and inexperience football staff, outside of Mike Dawson and Sean Beckton. You see growth in some coaches like Erik Chinander with his play calling and game plans. Every game he gets better and better. You see a slower growth out of Scott Frost. Like, it took him four years to figure out to not take the ball to start the game and defer to the second half. Once he can figure out that a spread offence with two TE will work better then 4 wide receivers maybe this will go somewhere this year. He is getting out coached more times then he is not but that is not actually the biggest issue. The issues is so bluntly obvious that everyone knows it. If he can get some production out of the OL and ST, Nebraska will be in every game. And just maybe, they can get a big upset somewhere. I do not know who can turn this thing around faster in the future, Frost or a new head coach. We tried new head coaches and that doesn’t seem to work. But then again are we making progress with this one? I dont think you or any fan has an answer, but I do think we all see an Oline that cannot block anyone this year and that is the root of the problem. Under Callahan, Pelini, Riley, and even Frost in year 1-3 everyone had there own opinion on what was wrong. This year I think it just two things, and can those get fixed in a hurry? I dont know.
I lean to keeping some continuity which is why we need to get to 5 wins. But it gets tough to defend keeping him if we are 4-8 or worse.
If 4-8 I see him staying ONLY if the Defense keeps playing like they are. Then you have to make changes to the Offense staff. Keep Beckton but I bet he wants to go back to Florida. Maybe keep Lubick if he shares the vision Frost does. But everyone else would have to go. Could Lubick be the QB coach? And you will have to hit the transfer portal hard for some Oline talent.
Ya, basically have to see how the season plays out. Can’t be on your third OC in 5 seasons IMO unless you are Saban so Lubick stays. But OL needs a ton of help. WRs look way better now that our playmakers are on the field (weird concept). Defensively we look solid so that looks really good.
Sir Yatch is reporting that Frost is trying to replace the Iowa game with The University of Steve in Provo, Utah (not Provo, Spain). They have bad coaches.
Ah boaty mcboatface.
It would seem that Nebraska will have to beat Iowa to make it to 6-6.
Frost’s future may ride on it.
However, in a world where the university still owes him $20MM, I think he gets year five, regardless.
I think 5-7 gets him another year. Before the season I was talking to two media guys and asked what it would take for Alberts to fire Frost and they both said “catastrophic season”. I think not making a bowl game 4 straight years is catastrophic but asked them to clarify. They said “4 wins or less”. I think he’s safe with 5-7 unfortunately. But if you look at that, it means only 3 more wins so we either go 3-1 here then lose 3 down the stretch or lose to a Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue and upset Michigan, Ohio State, Wisky, or Iowa.
Short answer, I can’t say I think he is for sure better than those guys, but I’m sort of in the camp that thinks he isn’t going to be a long-term solution for us. Though I’m not personally sold on how good Chryst is. Not sure if he did well inheriting prior players/culture, or if recent struggles are more of a blip.
Long term, for college coaches, I consider how good you recruit and develop a huge part of what we consider how good of a coach you are. For example, I don’t think Dabo Swinney at Clemson is one of the best game planners/strategic/technical coaches out there, but dude has brought in studs and has retained staff, and the results have been great because of it.
Saying that, I think Frost was a decent recruiter and brought in good recruits, maybe giving him an advantage over the likes of Brohm and Chryst if you were to ask me a few years ago. That being said, so far this year I think our recruiting class is pretty bad, I don’t think there’s the type of players that are going to make us competitive with anyone relevant. I think Frost had momentum and a name out of UCF, but after the last 3 years, I can’t give a reason why a good recruit would want to come, especially if I’m a QB, receiver, or OL.
IMO, our defense may play well enough this year to make us look respectable, and Martinez will be a 5th year next year so we could theoretically look decent the next year or so. But given the future talent we have behind our starters, and what I think will be poor recruiting classes coming in this year and in the future unless we turn it around, I don’t have much confidence for the long-term outlook.
Ya the jury is still out on Chryst for me, but since Frost has never beat him kind of tough for me to say we have the coaching advantage. What worries me with Wisconsin, is 2021 is the first year since 247sports has done it that the Badgers have better team talent than us. And their 2021 class is better than ours for the first time as well. What happens when Wisconsin starts getting good recruits and develops well. Instead of getting worse recruits than us and developing them well?
How can you evaluate Frost or Lubick as offensive coordinators if the O-line can’t run or pass block? I actually like some of the things we’re doing on offense (heavy tight end sets, option) and I see WRs getting open, but the o-line is a sieve. So who owns that? The o-line coach and run game coord. To me, Frost gets an extra year no matter what, but only if Austin goes. And I’ll add one more person…Zach Duval. Our guys may be strong, but they’re not flexible and have no lateral movement capabilities what so ever.
And we need a full-time special teams coach. If that means we have to trade Verdusco for a ST coord, I say make the move.
For sure, and i’ve said as much in some of my previews. How on earth can I say our RBs, Martinez, or coaching is bad when it’s impossible for our coaches to call runs or passes and think it will be blocked appropriately. I think this year i’ve finally figured out it’s OL but who knows.
I don’t care if we go ST with sole responsibility that, or ST coach that has a position, but his first responsibility needs to be special teams. Dawson cares about OLB first ST second. He actually declined the role in 2020.
So I get this point to an extent, but I feel like you could say that about any position group that is bad. For me, at the end of the day, the buck stops with the head coach.
If the OLine is and has been this bad, you’ve had 4 years to recruit, develop, and find a coach who can make them respectable. He’s ultimately responsible to recruit and either coach or hire someone to coach all the positions.
I guess I can buy that it takes some time and adjustments need to constantly be made, but I feel like we’ve been saying that for a while now (if only with this coach we tweak x, y, or z, then we can turn this around).
I respect everyone’s opinion if you feel like he needs more time, like to fix the OL. But I feel like he’s had 4 years to fix these things but has fell short. I mean if that literally is the only problem, he realizes it, and we turn into gangbusters for foreseeable future, then sweet.
Well, I mean I had not problem telling you that WRs were bad in 2019 or even 2020 even though our lines weren’t playing up to their ability. But I think I understand your point, and I would put a lot of blame on coaching when we weren’t playing Betts for whatever reason and now he’s one of our biggest weapons. You gotta get your players on the field.
2019 OL class is not doing our “get huge guys and develop them” any favors.
I completely understand your side of it. 4 years is plenty of time, and if you followed me on the other site, I basically said there’s no reason we should have been this bad. But you have clowns saying “That’s just how bad the culture was”. I promise there were dozens of coaches we could have hired that would have had us in a bowl game already. But, my positive answer is he needed to completely tear down the foundation so we can build back up higher. So that’s why we’ve been as bad as we are. The problem with that logic is just like you said, in year 4 we have our worst special teams and worst OL since he’s been here now that he has “his guys”.
I can agree with your post tenaflytiger.. makes sense, i would see only if Frost gets another year he will be told to make changes.. if not another year….
Talking about out coaching, do you think if the defense keeps playing like it does will other teams come calling for Erik Chinander, and can we keep him?
I think Chinander is definitely making a name for himself. I don’t think he would leave unless it’s an absurd amount of money though. I’m not worried about losing him as much as i’m worried about a guy like Fisher.
I think one of the signs of coaching maturation is fixing (or trying) the OLine in-season. I’m hearing major changes are likely for this Saturday. Are you hearing anything similar?
Yes. There will be at least one new guy that i’m aware of and two if he is fully healthy (he’s been limited last couple weeks). My question is if they put the new guys both on the same side and flip Corcoran. Or do they put a new guy at LG and a new guy at RT so they can have some experience next to them?
I heard that Corcoran is moving to the Rt side. who knows.
Ya I was referencing possibly moving him to RT, Prochazka at LT and Bando at LG. But I don’t know if they want to have the new guys on the same side together or not. Nourili in the mix as well. It’s pretty interesting in a season where we are “the deepest we’ve been since coming here” according to the OL coach that we have basically one lineman that we are happy with. Jurgens.
Long time, first time.
I feel like everyone is pointing to OL issues and SSO pointed out preseason that the NFL guys were shocked at how poorly they move. You have to start looking at a change there. The strength coach would be my first move. Demonstrate you’re making a big change while keeping some continuity. I’m sure a couple coaches will move on naturally anyways (TFish, Lubick?).
We will have 1 or 2 move on this offseason, but I just don’t see Frost ever moving on from Duval unfortunately. I think that would solve a ton of our issues offensively and quite frankly is the reason we had to move from a speed based team to bigger/power guys. We literally couldn’t make Wandale Robinson, the leading WR in the SEC work here.
That last sentence is pretty remarkable
Was definitely interesting typing it. But “he was too short”.
Coaching advantage? I can’t think of a P5 game during HCSF’s tenure where our offensive guru/borderline genius out coached the opposition and the stats confirm it. Is there 1? Too many games lost that we should’ve won but didn’t and hardly any – I mean none I can point to off the top of my head – where we won when we shouldn’t have. The last 3 min plus OT last week is the norm, not an aberration. Hell, Most fans I know are fully aware that the most consistent thing Frost is successful at is his uncanny ability to consistently snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the most asinine, new & unexpected ways. So my answer is NONE.
Btw – I hate waking up surly on a game day & hopefully tomorrow I’ll wake up content with the progress seen after finally whipping the lowly wildcats…until then, it’s time to drink!