I want to start out this post with the fact that i’m not at the “fire Frost” table yet. My decision hasn’t been made yet as you need to let the rest of the season play out. If I had to pick my side now, i’m leaning on letting him go, but I just haven’t firmly landed there. I completely understand the people that have and the ones that say “if he hasn’t shown it by now, he won’t ever.” I get that. I certainly get it more than the people that say “we are close” because we have close losses.
I was doing some reading while waiting on something for work and came across the article from when Tom Osborne had his meeting with Bill Callahan. Callahan was coming off a 2006 season where he went 9-5 and played in the Big12 championship game. But his 2007 season was sitting at 4-4, and in walks the new AD. Osborne had a pointed conversation with Callahan and clearly defined what needed to happen. “Go 4-0 you are 8-4 and things are fine. Play well, win 3 of your next 4 to get to 7-5 and although I can’t guarantee anything, maybe it can still work. If it’s 2-2, it’s going to be pretty tough to keep you because you’ll end up 6-6 and we don’t have many break-even seasons around here. And if you have a losing season, there’s no way this can work out.”
That was said to a coach that was 26-19 at Nebraska, coming off a conference championship game appearance, and was sitting 4-4. Scott Frost currently sits at 15-25 at Nebraska, no bowl game appearances and 5th in the west is the best finish while currently sitting dead last, and this season is 3-5. Will Alberts take the same approach as Osborne, and if he does will he have the same standards? If so, Frost has to go 4-0 to get the “maybe it will still work” if this is the same bar that TO gave Callahan.
There’s no doubt in my mind we are in a different spot. TO came in and basically gave Callahan a goal that wasn’t attainable. Things had changed too much and TO was trying to get it back to the way things were. Frost will definitely get more leniency than what Callahan was given. But at what cost? Someone brought up a great point to me on twitter when I referenced that the reason I thought Frost should still have a chance to keep his job is because I feel the constant turnover has been what has put Nebraska in this mess. But the response was “I feel like retaining mediocrity to avoid a lack of continuity can be worse.” That’s a really good point.
Alberts has no crystal ball, but i’ve said many times that if you are going to make a move, you make a move now. You lose most of your defense, and before the season I was told this is Martinez’s last year. You also lose Toure and possibly Allen before we talk about anyone else transferring out. Now I have no idea if this season is changing that for Martinez, NIL money for another year is pretty appealing if you can’t make it to the NFL, but let’s say you lose Martinez and possibly Allen, you then lose Domann, Stille, CTB, Williams, Dismuke, and possible Daniels on defense. There’s no better time to bring in a new coach than when he is needing to find a QB and replace veteran leaders. Matt Rhule who I really like as a head coach basically got rid of Cam Newton because you need your guy relaying your message as a new coach. After this year is the year if you make a move, but how can he know 2022 won’t go well?
Further, our recruiting class is awful right now. We lost our best recruit who just decommitted on Monday. We only have 8 commits and are behind teams like Texas Tech, Southern Methodist, Cal, Wake Forest, UCF, Virginia, Duke, Illinois, Colorado, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt in not only overall ranking but average star ranking. We have 3 guys committed from Nebraska who will stay on board no matter what, 2 of the guys committed are out for the year with injuries, so that leaves 3 recruits that could defect (one of which is a TE who has 3 catches and from Minnesota who the Gophers didn’t even offer). We don’t have a recruiting class to save like when we let go of Mike Riley and we lost guys like Micah Parsons (who was silently committed to Bray) and multiple other four stars. In fact, we don’t have a single four star committed.
The problem is, Alberts doesn’t have a crystal ball. He doesn’t want to pull the plug too early, so probably needs 1-3 or worse to feel good about letting Frost go. But not having a crystal ball can put him in a way worse situation if we keep Frost and have another clunker for the 2022 season. Because we are already struggling on the recruiting trail this year, what do you think will happen next year? That would make two bad recruiting classes in a row, and that can make a rebuild extremely difficult. One bad class you can deal with. Two…. that gets bad in a hurry. Remember, most recruiting classes are completed before the season begins nowadays, so we will be recruiting with 4 losing seasons and won’t have much of a chance to have a winning season pull things together for us.
But Alberts needs to show he’s giving everything he can to Frost. People probably didn’t understand the firing of Pelini, which is why you had to end up with Mike Riley. They didn’t understand the firing of Solich, which is why it took 45 days and begging to get Bill Callahan here. Both those coaches got fired after 9 win seasons. But people understood why you fired Callahan, and even though I love the guy, they understand why Frost would be fired. He’s been on hot seat lists for 2 years now, hasn’t made a bowl and hasn’t gone over .500 any year here. We could get someone good.
You also add to the difficulty when you see we are selling buy one get one free tickets for the Purdue game. Even the “red carpet experience” for donations is starting to dry up.
Here’s the long and short of it… firing Frost is basically what Alberts will be known for if he pulls the trigger. A decision like that will dwarf getting rid of wrestling and football at UNO. So he has to be right, and he has to replace him with the correct person. Because you can look like Steve Pedersen in a hurry if we screw this up. I remember reading how Alberts went around to all of the assistants and Frost saying how proud he was of the effort and what they were doing after the Michigan game. I’m sure he felt we were close. But I also have a pretty good suspicion that he was saying those things assuming a win against the Gophers was coming. That may have backfired.
If i’m Alberts, i’m probably not laying out an ultimatum like Osborne did. But after the season i’m asking Frost what his plan is and praying to whoever it is he prays to that he says “we are making a change here and here” in regards to a couple coaches. If Frost says “we are keeping our head down and going to get to work right now on getting better” and doesn’t think there should be changes… Alberts needs to be ready to pull the trigger.
Let’s see how the remaining games play out. We go 2-2 and I think Frost is safe, over that more than safe, under that, tough decision for Alberts. 4-8 is not progress in any way possible. There are big money boosters ready to move on, there are big money boosters wanting Frost to stay. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision.
Here’s the thing, SSO.
If Frost/Nebraska had simply beaten Illinois and Minnesota over the past two seasons, we wouldn’t even be having these conversations.
Again:
2020 Illinois…dud team with lame duck coach
2020 Minne…came to Lincoln down 35 guys
2021 Illinois…dud team with brand new coach
2021 Minne…well, you just saw that one
So if Frost/Neb just wins those four eminently winable games…
5-3 with a bowl game in 2020
5-3 and headed to a bowl game in 2021
JUST THOSE FOUR GAMES!!
That’s fine, but we lost. I guess I was speaking towards what actually happened. The fact we are losing to Illinois and Minnesota makes it worse in my opinion, not makes me think how close we are.
I think you misunderstood.
My point is not a defense of Frost. Instead, it’s an indictment.
All he needed to do to avoid the “hot seat” was win those four games against four shitty teams. And he couldn’t do it!
lol oh. Sorry i’ve just heard the “close losses mean we are close” mantra so long maybe I thought everyone was going there with me.
What a fantastic post, maybe your best. You’ve done a great job explaining the dilemma.
I think Frost has to win two of the last four to have a chance at staying (Purdue and one of the three “good” teams we play). I feel like it would be really difficult to make the case for retaining a coach that wasn’t able to defeat a single “good” team on the schedule. And there wouldn’t be any sign of improvement happening over the course of the year. With two bye weeks across those last four games, I think Frost has to demonstrate an upward trajectory.
Beyond that, to your point SSO, I think Frost will have to demonstrate to Alberts that he has a vision that involves more than “we’re going to work harder next year”. So some coaches need to go. I think that’s a pretty classic way for head coaches to get a last-chance…the head coach gets to stay but there are changes to the program.
My biggest frustration with the Solich firing was that Solich had made those changes but then the new staff didn’t get a chance to recruit or show what they could do in turning NU football around.
If Frost can show an upward trajectory over these final four games, I think he’ll get that chance.
Agree. Not sure if Solich was the answer but made changes and they won 9 games. Obviously the decision was made already for him.
Thank you for the post. I needed to see something so I could process this current situation. You’ve done a better job than the action media has.
I’m really interested how TA plays his cards the next six weeks, including the bye weeks. Is he publicly going to endorse SF? If he stays behind the curtain does the signal anything?
I really believe you are correct. The end of the season meeting is going to come down to is SF willing to reshuffle his offensive staff. You could make a case of moving on from all of them other than Beckton. I’m concerned about losing Fisher and TT also. Those guys I going to get attention. I hope they stay but I believe TA needs to factor in players and coaches leaving as well.
I don’t think he will publicly make a statement, but he is operating at a higher level than our previous 2 ADs so maybe I just don’t know what good leadership looks like there. I think he’s really analyzing things. Us having to do 2 for 1s with tickets isn’t helping him say “Frost needs another year”.
Yeah, part of me almost wishes the sellout streak would just end, because if that’s what we’re holding onto with the current state of things, it kinda feels meaningless. I get having that support even when things are bad can be a selling point, but I don’t think right now our sellout streak is all that high up a recruit’s list currently.
I feel like it might kind of be a natural consequence and message to the current AD & coaching regime; like, ‘look we’re great fans and all, but you’re bad for this long, you can’t expect everyone to keep forking over money for every game no questions asked’. I mean I don’t want us to be known as the fairweather fan base, but I think a headline of a sellout streak being broken under your watch can send a message.
I get that’s from my perspective of being ready to move on. I will say I agree with the other posts in that I don’t envy Alberts’ situation currently. I know it’s easier said than done to pull the plug on someone when it’s not you doing it, and you better have a good plan in place if that’s the case.
I get it. A lot of people are ready. We are donating tickets to keep the thing alive. That’s crazy to me.
If you are in Trev’s spot and think this will define you, shouldn’t you prep a response? Right now its a pretty easy reply. He had 4 years and couldn’t get to .500 in any of them. The record was not trending up, but down (5-4-3 in wins to 3/4 likely this year). He was 2-2 against Illinois and Northwestern, with losing records against the other 4 divisional opponents (2-10 at the moment and about to get worse). There was no reason to believe we were about to be in the Big 10 Championship game. He wasn’t close to any of the standards we hold here even with us lowering the bar drastically.
The real issue is more to your point about having the replacement because we can’t afford to botch that again. This is Trev’s job and this is what will define him. He can punt and give Frost another season but if he doesn’t think Frost is the guy then he’s really just prolonging the pain and making us less desirable to candidates when the change comes. Trev needed to begin doing homework on potential candidates before the season started in case this situation arose. As the season has progressed he should have been digging in deeper realizing its more likely to be needed. That’s his job.
I think you made a great point that this is the time to do it if that’s the plan. Our defense is about to lose a lot of key pieces. Our offense is a mess and honestly that’s what this staff was supposed to specialize in. Our special teams are at a point where that mess of an offense isn’t even our worst phase of the game. I think the next question is what should we be looking for in our next coach? That’s the toughest piece of all this in my mind and I’m glad I don’t have to make that call.
For sure. I just think Trev doesn’t want to be the year 1 AD making a move even though he has the previous 3 seasons records to draw from as well.
Do you think he wants to be the AD who retained a 3 win coach and watches him win 3 games again? The results will dictate the narrative. What you posted only matters if he makes a bad replacement hire. If he doesn’t have confidence in his ability to hire a football coach then he’s probably not the right fit here.
lol that’s fair. I mean 4-8 warrants firing in my eyes, I just don’t know if he will do it. 5-7 and getting to a bowl due to GPA being high doesn’t really do much for me. We are just so far removed from “2019 we are going to be dangerous” it’s crazy. I mean, just think if in 2017 when we hired him 2022 would be our first change at a .500 record? I bet the response would be “well he would no longer be here, right?”
Exactly! The only reason we are having this discussion is because the performance has been unexpectedly and shockingly bad. The bar has been lowered so much for this staff and they can’t even come close to hitting it. We are 6-14 vs Big 10 West opponents with 3 game left this season. Imagine if Riley or Callahan were sitting at 10-11 in those games with Purdue, Wisconsin and Iowa on tap this year.
Right, ok you can tell me that the culture was bad, fine. But it shouldn’t have made things this bad. I mean, we went through spring in 2018 and came with “dangerous in 2019”. The way we played at the end of 2018 had people picking us to win the west. I just don’t get what went so sideways. Shoot, Martinez was getting Heisman odds preseason 2019.
Yeah, I can see him not wanting to pull the plug on anyone year one of his tenure. I mean I want someone new, but I can see how if you’re in his position, letting it go one more year and then pulling the plug if you deem so might be safer, stating you have the coach more than one year under you, then pulling the plug after one year and the next coach doesn’t do well, and you appear hasty in your decision making, and everyone questions that you were to quick in your new hire without it being the right person. Although I feel like itd almost impossible it know who that person is.
I think there’s a couple reasons for that. First, for the next coach they want to know he did an honest assessment. If we go 3-9 or 4-8 that’s pretty easy for him to say “look, i’ve only been here one year so I had the records of first 3 seasons and then was fully looking at this season, and it’s not better.” 4 years is a long time in today’s college football world. The tweets that John Bishop sent out of everyone that has been a head coach as long as Frost and him being basically at the bottom for wins is pretty easy to defend if you want to move on.
We were hoping Frost was the next big-time coach. He just isn’t, he is over his head young and needs more experience. I think he is smart enough to figure things out, but he just might be to stubborn and already dug himself into a hole with a lot of his comments and performance. He is not developing and motivating players like he should be. He is trying to be just like TO, but that wont work because TO already had a program built and he just needed to keep it going, SF needs to build the program basically from scratch. That needs to be from the top down and he is trying to do it from the bottom up. That is why you see sophomores, juniors, and transfers as captions before seniors. When SF was a player the program was already built. Telling players how it was isn’t making it better because you are letting the underclassmen dictate the culture and they don’t understand yet, and they end up just going through the motions. That is why we now hear SF changing things up being more vocal and upset at mistakes. He needed to be that way from the beginning but, like I said before, he is over his head. Problem is players can see if the coach is not trusting himself. They want to believe what the coach is telling them is correct, and if the coach keeps changing his structure they will start questioning if that said coach knows what they are doing. Then you will lose the locker room and then there is no choice on what Trev needs to do. There is no question playing Okla, Mich ST, and Michigan close that he is doing something right. So, let’s see if the changes he is doing during the bye week helps the team play better and win. He is on the top of the mountain right now, the team can either fall back down or get over the hump. You can only be at the ‘so close’ stage for so long before you go one way or another.
I think a lot depends on what your short list looks like. Firing Riley was easy because we knew Frost was a going to be a hot item on the market and everybody was on board with him.. Even with our lack of success, people would be very split on firing frost (I think at least). Right now I’m not sure there’s a home run hire out there that we have a realistic shot at.
I’d agree there. You can’t fire Frost and go get some assistant coach, or a .500 coach somewhere hoping that Nebraska resources make him better.
really good synopsis of the current state of affairs in Huskerland. I was all in on Frost, and likely still am (I just dont know any better I guess, and I am being stubborn and I keep thinking he will turn it around). The offense is shockingly bad in that there is nothing to hang our hat on and how we fold like a cheap tent when things get tight…that, IMO, is directly on Frost. If he stays, he has to make changes on the coaching staff IMO. If we go 0-4 to end the year (a real, real possibility), then throw the towel in and move on..the team will have been lost at that point. 2-2 and I think he stays without a doubt…if we play like we did against Michigan (minus the last 3 minutes), I think we can go 3-1…you just dont know what team will show up (and what players are playing and what the coaches are calling…which might be the most frustrating part). I couldnt have been more wrong about Frost since he has been hired..I want it to work so desperately that I am likely drunk on Koolaid…I do feel good about TA though..I think he was the best hire for long term stability for the Huskers and feel he will make the best decision for us…but he is in a tough spot no doubt
No shame in being wrong about being extremely optimistic about his hiring. I’m for moving on, but at the time that totally seemed like the no-brainer move to make. I don’t think anyone anticipated it being this bad. Some people say they foresaw his lack of HC experience causing issues, but that’s a lot of hindsight bc there’s plenty of coaches who don’t have a ton of experience who do well.
I’m still on board with him for some reason, no idea why. But to your point, it’s just been so bad on offense and if I remember correctly people were saying we shouldn’t bring the defensive staff over. They are the ones holding this thing together at this point.
I’ll give him these four games but to be blunt I don’t think he has a snowballs chance in hell to win more than 1. If this was anyone else but Frost the fanbase would be calling for him to be fired immediately. I want to see where people are when we are 3-9 or 4-8. If people are defending Frost at that point then there is almost nothing he could do to make them change their mind. The only question left for me is what will Trev do if that is the case because I think it’s almost inevitable he will be faced with the decision on whether to fire a 3-9 or 4-8 coach by the end of the game on Black Friday.
Never thought we’d be here but…here we are.
I think that’s where my frustration is. All of these things that are happening that we know are wrong (whether that be on the field results or S/C) are just being looked at as “well they were here when we were good so they have to be doing it right”. If we can’t look at the results and say we need to be better I don’t know what to say. I think 3-9 makes it easy because that’s what six straight losses? But 4-8 may make things difficult on him.
Crazy to think 4 wins in year 4 and he may survive but I agree that is a possibility.
lol right? If he in December 2017 we said “hey by year 5 we might be .500” I think people would lose their minds and say we hired the wrong guy. Not “boy we didn’t know how bad it was.” Especially if you said our QB would be a guy getting odds for the Heisman before 2019.
People saying you can’t keep firing coaches every four years. One way to stop doing that is to hire the right coach! I know you can’t go out and find a Saban or Dabo just standing around waiting to be hired, but there are several good candidates out there.
How do you stop the can’t keep firing coaches every four years/coaching carousel? you hire the right coach! Again easier said than done. But that’s why AD’s get paid what they do. Myself, along with the majority of the fanbase thought this was a sure thing and Frost would be on easy street. Not many, if any saw this coming. But hearing the same excuses, week after week, year after year. Its becoming obvious that Frost wasn’t/isn’t ready. I don’t think we see much if any improvement if Frost stays another year or two. If he does and we see the same results, that only puts the program in a deeper hole.
I randomly used 1996 and went through 2020. Bama hired Saban in 07. 96-06 Bama had 4 different coaches with a combined WP of .570. Since Saban 07-20 the WP is .880 A total of 5 different coaches from 96-20
Nebraska 96-06 had 3 different coaches and 96-20 had 6 different coaches. 96-06 the WP was .740 and 07-20 the WP is .580. TO 96-97 .920, FS 98-03 .760, BC 04-07 .550, BP 08-14 .700, MR 15-17 .500 and SF 18-20 .380
Iowa State 96-06 had 1 coach with a WP of .410 4 coaches from 96-20 with a combined WP of .410. Now where Iowa State took a step forward was hiring MC and his WP is .560, which is significantly better than WP’s of the pervious coaches (range for .210-.410).
USC had 3 coaches from 96-06 with a WP of .700 and 7 coaches from 07-20 with a .700 WP. Since PC coached 01-09 and had a .840 WP that helps the coaches before and after him. WP of coaches other than PC range form .510-.750
Penn State 1 coach form 96-11 (not counting the interim). Penn State has had 2 from 12-20. Both had/having success.
Texas 4 coaches from 96-20, we will see if the got the right guy or not.
OU 4 coaches form 96-20 and looks to have the right guy in Riley.
OSU 5 coaches form 96-20 and Day seems to have the things rolling, despite some hiccups on defense.
Michigan 4 coaches from 96-20 and Harbaugh is doing ok. Now if he could just beat OSU.
Florida 6 coaches from 96-20. Do they have the right guy?
FSU 4 coaches form 96-20, doesn’t seem like they have the right guy.
So it has to be from the top down, the university president, the AD and the right head coach to get and keep things going in the right direction. I think UNL has the right president and AD, but the HC seems to be the weak link.
Love this, completely with you.
lol I agree with hiring the right coach. To be fair, I thought Frost was the right guy even though he was a little green. But he came in like that cocky sales rep who thought he was an alpha because he was in a territory already performing and when he had to work a bit things got bad.
And maybe had Trev been hired instead of moos, maybe things would be different, in year four with Frost. My take is moos was hired to keep things afloat. He hired Frost, at the time an no brainer. He also hired Fred and Will. Then all moos had to do is sit back and let the wins stack up and ride off into the sunset with a pile of cash! Moos got the cash part, but the wins didn’t happen with football. Basketball we will see and baseball is off to a blazing start!!
But Trev might have stepped in sooner, year two or towards of year one too offer some insight/direction vs moos saying just go win and no real direction/advice for Frost. I know Frost and Trev meet on a weekly basis, but too little too late?? What about TO, he’s around but is it all show?? Or is he really offering up advice to Frost?? If so, is Frost ignoring TO’s advice??
Again need that connection / everyone on the same page from the president to the AD to the head coaches .
I think that’s a good point. But I also know Frost wanted to be left alone, which is why he chose us over Florida who was telling him what assistants to hire and he couldn’t bring his whole staff. They could meet in the middle though, needed a bit more guidance than Moos just not a dictator style like Florida.
My problem is we were told Moos finally stabilized all of that. Switched classes to the afternoon with the administration so they could practice in the morning, etc. Now it wasn’t enough what he did. I think it’s just another thing people overemphasize to try and rationalize why this has gone so sideways.
My random thoughts
Trev knew when he was hired that this could be coming, so I feel good that he has a plan for whatever happens and will make the good decision.
What’s the plan at qb next year, when 3rd year qb2 is not ready to play against Minnesota and an injured enough AM that it alters our game plan, is our best option.
Why can’t Frost seem to recognize major issues (st, ol) and try anything different, until the issue has contributed to 1 or more losses.
Frost speaks as if he’s under the impression that we’re a few “details ” away from putting it all together on the field. I wonder if we’re closer to being pretty good or closer to derailing entirely.
It is hard to wrap my head around. Our games against Michigan, Mich St, and Oklahoma would leave you to believe we’re close to being pretty good. Illinois and Minnesota would indicate to me we are close to derailing.
It’s beyond me how we can be both those teams this year, or for 4 years for that matter.
Playing those good teams tough tells me they haven’t quit and there’s talent, which is something. But then to lose to who we have lost to consistently, it is beyond me.
I’m telling you Smothers is not as close as some want to believe. Evidenced by us trotting Martinez out there and taking out certain plays from that book since he was hurt.
That said, transfer portal QB is absolutely in the works.
Spencer Rattler?!?!?!?!
He looks like a spaz to me but people smarter than I had him as a Heisman contender.
Whats fuuny about all of this, is that HCSF has done the worst job of any coach we’ve had since TO. Yet we struggle if we should fire him. He uses the excuse that the culture was so bad, but thats mostly an excuse than reality. He could have had the culture turned around quickly and Rileys culture was made out worse than it was. We went 9-4 and a bowl win in his second year, with a QB not meant for his style. And recruiting was taking off.
Its just funny how things work out. Many people sympathise with Frost, say he just needs more time and yet every guy we’ve got rid of before him did a better job then SF
I think that’s where my frustration is as well. We were so quick to get rid of some of these guys but for Frost who is worse than all of them so far we are making excuses.
A lot of it lays on the power of perception.
He gets more time because he dud so well at ufc and Elsewhere as a coordinator that he can play off that’s it’s not him. Fans think it can’t be look at his past.
The minute Riley faltered or Callahan it was, well see he’s never won before….even though nobody wins at OSU or in Callahan case its see he doesn’t understand college ball.
Cally and Riley past set them up for failure
Frost can blame others and get away with it because if he won so great at ucf and was the most sought after coach then its the school or past coaches not him
All really fair points. At some point we have to look at his results IMO. You can’t sit here and tell me it takes five years to change the culture. Less than 50% of college coaches make it past 4 years, let alone coaches that have a bad record. At some point it’s on him. And my frustration about their excuses probably coming out a bit in my response to you. “They weren’t squatting” or “Riley culture” was just an excuse train that masked the real issues.
Does anyone think our schedule and the B1G conference is something that Trev will consider? I loved how we got the season last year but we all know the folks in Chicago were pissed. Plus our cross over games have been brutal. Think about the West. Purdue beat OSU in 2018, yet they still suck compared to who they beat. I think Trev is also looking at those variables as well. I say HCSF is back no matter what, so long he doesn’t pull a Pelini and lose one of these games by 50. We look the part with the big boys now. I think Trev wants to see what happens after we get a taste of victory. Purdue did nothing after the win over OSU.
Ya I really don’t know. I mean, when we signed on with the B1G they literally said “we want Ohio State and Michigan to be playing Nebraska as those are blue bloods we can sell to TV”. Now we are looking at it as unfair. In 2018 Frost was within 5 of Ohio State and hasn’t been close since. We had the ball with 2 minutes left against MIchigan to go win and turned it over.
The B1G wants us to be good IMO. I don’t think they have it out for us personally.
The aspect of the AD’s decision that I don’t think gets enough consideration is the quality of HCSF’s wins, or lack thereof. Who has Nebraska beaten? Absolutely no one. Best win? Emotion-wise, it was the first one, against Minnesota, after 6 straight loses. Was Minnesota good that year? No, average; they were 3-6 in the B1G. 9-6 win against MSU, in a game where neither team wanted to be there? The come back against Illinois? Lovie got fired later. Penn State (last year) is the biggest name win. Penn St was a mess and lost their first 5 games. But that is probably the best team NU has beaten in 4 years. PSU finished under .500, at 4-5. Even blind squirrels get a nut – Purdue stunk, but just up-ended Iowa. There is not a single Win that the AD can point to and say: that game, we beat a really good team. At this point, NU’s prowess in its conference is a step above Kansas, or Cal, or South Carolina, with a worse trajectory.
I think that’s why you see people go with “well we played these teams really close” and can’t point to wins as reasons to keep him. I mean, we are pointing at losses to say we are close when in reality in 2018 we were close to Ohio State (loss by 5), But it got progressively worse each year.
I just struggle to subscribe to the “well the losses are close so we are close.” What people said the problem was with Riley and Bo was that when we lost they were blowouts, I get that. But we can’t say Frost is progress because he loses closer games than them when he is losing more games. The reason things are close this season is because the defensive staff who no one wanted to bring over is keeping us in games. Not because of anything Frost is doing.
And Texas Tech just fired their coach in year 3. He had a 13-17 record overall but 5-3 this year. His failing was supposedly his 7-16 mark against the Big 12 and only 2 wins against teams with a winning record in his tenure. So apparently Texas Tech now has higher standards than Nebraska.
I just wish I knew what our standards are.
Great article by Pernell on the other site on this issue. It looks like he used SSOs article as the foundation and then added more data. But the data is damning.
I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I think the only way TA can make a case for keeping Frost is if Frost can show that the program is trending up. I initially stated that I thought Frost needed to be at 2-2 over the lat 4 games but now I think he’s going to need to deliver 3-1 or he’s gone. And based on all the data that’s been shared, I think that’s fair.
I do think 2-2 keeps him around because that means two wins that he is currently 1-10 against all time. He will still be here at 5-7 IMO, and possible even 4-8 if we have “close losses” which I can’t wrap my head around..
I think Trev’s decision became crystal clear after today. No excuse. He needs to be fired asap.
I hear ya, but I don’t think Trev is there yet.
That’s what I am worried about. Incredible we may retain him. A coach by any other name would absolutely be fired by the end of the year.
For sure. Trev is trying to figure out if he’s had all the support he needs. I’ll go into it in my Trev 2.0 after the Ohio State game.
I think I am in the minority and would like to see Scott get one more year, although I do feel changes need to be made with the QB coach (gone) and OL coach (different person there). Bring in a ST coach and have Frost coach the qb’s. I guess I am just ignorant of the record and I am frustrated, but I just cant stand the thought of starting over and then what happens if we have some success and then they leave and we start over again? Frost would likely be here forever (if he can get it fixed). I do think Trev is the perfect AD for us and believe he will do what is best for the University…he has good experience at UNO, he bleeds Husker red and he is acutely aware of what made the Huskers special for so long and he is acutely aware of the challenges we face. I dont envy him at all
I hear ya, I can’t figure out what I want. Though in your example I would love any semblance of success that would make someone bolt lol.
@SSO interesting….I think I stated somewhere else before but I had a feeling Frost would make this an easy decision for Trev when its all said and done. I still feel that way. I don’t see a win left on the table and if we finish 3-9 I cannot imagine Frost’s support will still be there. Will be very interested with your take after tOSU
3-9 should have him instantly fired, but I do think we get to 4-8 and i’m not so sure at that point.