Nebraska waves the white flag by giving Scott Frost a 5th season | College Football Enquirer
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss Nebraska’s announcement that it will retain head coach Scott Frost for a fifth season after failing to qualify for a bowl game for yet another season.
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAN WETZEL: Scott Frost is back. Nebraska is bringing back their one-time quarterback and current coach. He is 15 and 27 in four seasons, fourth consecutive losing season, no bowl. They are 3 and 7. They are 1 and 6 in the Big Ten. They have the worst recruiting class in the Big Ten currently. They have just nine commitments. Just absolutely nothing, other than we don't get blown out, to earn him a fifth year. But he's got a fifth year.
So they restructured his contract. This is all about loyalty. And then promptly four dudes got fired underneath him. But, Pat, your thoughts on the Cornhuskers signing up for Scott Frost 5.0.
PAT FORDE: Yeah. It's amazing. Nebraska football has become Duke. It's like they don't care anymore or they just are resigned to not being very good. I said in the column that Big Red waved the white flag. They're like, yeah, we're fine with losing seasons. We're good over here. No problem. As long as it's our guy, as long as it's a former Husker from the Tom Osborne era who's losing his ass off, we're fine with that, no problem.
It's just an amazing turn of events, to me, for a place that won 10 games, 11 games all the time. And then when Bo Pelini won nine games every year, that wasn't good enough.
DAN WETZEL: Frank Solich.
PAT FORDE: Frank Solich won a bunch. Not good enough. Played for the national title.
DAN WETZEL: He ain't Nebraska enough?
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
DAN WETZEL: Frank Solich ain't Nebraska enough? My God, he might as well be a stick of corn.
[LAUGHTER]
PAT FORDE: It's a combination of things, I think, guys. And I'll be interested to hear what you think. But it is, A, obviously a realization, well, we can't just go out and get who we want, B, we don't want to spend 20 million to try to get somebody who's not just whoever we can get, and, C, yes, we are still going to cling to this ridiculous notion of he was a really good quarterback once so he'll be a good coach eventually! It'll happen! Just one more year! Just give him that fifth year.
And, hey, I will say in 2018 when they hired him, I thought it was a great fit. I thought it was a good hire. It's turned out to be a disastrous time! It's past time to realize, recognize, admit it, and change course, Nebraska. Unbelievable.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah, there's been some just-- if you really look back at the last 20 years, there have just been some administrative disa-- it's like how do we get to the point where we're accepting that Scott Frost is approaching mediocrity. Here's the thing. He isn't even mediocre. He's approaching mediocrity. You are keeping Scott Frost through four seas-- so the school has gone to-- has failed to go to a bowl for five straight seasons. Scott Frost has failed to go to a bowl for all four of his seasons. The last time Nebraska didn't go to a bowl in back-to-back seasons was '67 and '68. So they've basically doubled that streak.
It's like how did we get here? Well, we got here because Bill Moos extended Scott Frost. If it was cheap to fire him, he would be gone. So that is administrative malfeasance of the highest order.
The best thing about Scott Frost-- the best moment of his tenure was his hire. That was the biggest win for Nebraska. We got him over Florida. Since then, there have been no tangible wins. Zero. None.
DAN WETZEL: Good losses. Good losses.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah, there've been great losses.
PAT FORDE: Good losses.
PETE THAMEL: Yes, yes, this is a grand celebration of a series of really good losses.
PAT FORDE: Yeah.
PETE THAMEL: So now is this going to work? Well, let's see, which stud young play caller wants to go to Nebraska right now and join the offensive staff there? They might as well do their job interviews on a plank, with your tippy-toes on the end of the plank, because that's basically-- it's like, hey, come here for eight months, and if you avoid getting your face kicked in, like it's happened the last four years, you could stick around for a while.
The pathway to this actually working is really, really foggy. But, hey, we'll save money. This is just all sentimentality, nostalgia. And it really fits in line with two decades of horrible decision-makings that have led to this point.
DAN WETZEL: You can do whatever you want with your program, and not wasting money on buyouts has some sense. But, again, those four assistants you just fired? How do you find quality-- who's saying that's it, man, I'm the hot assistant, I want to go to Nebraska where I'm probably getting fired.
