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Reacting to Nebraska’s loss to Northwestern: Year Five and Frost is still clueless

Evan Bredeson
·7 min read
85

I’m going to be honest with you, when Scott Frost was hired as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2018, I never thought I would write these words, but after today’s 31 to 28 loss to Northwestern in Dublin, Ireland, I’m left with no choice. It’s time for Nebraska football to move on from this head coach and coaching staff. Scott Frost has failed at his job.

No Big Ten coach in their fifth year on the sideline should be so clearly and effortlessly outcoached. No coach with over a decade of Power Five football experience should be over his head to this degree. Pat Fitzgerald and his staff put on a coaching clinic in Dublin and showed just how clueless Frost and his staff truly are when it comes to managing a football team on game day.

The same mistakes each and every game, each and every year. No respect for the football on offense. The defense always has the ability to give a big play at the worst possible time due to players not being prepared properly. Second-half adjustments don’t exist (did you notice any in Dublin?). But most of all, the unnecessary risks that consistently put this team behind the 8-ball.

An onside kick when up 11 in a game where you have all the momentum is an all-time “what the heck are you thinking” coaching decision. I feel at times like I’m watching my nephew play Madden Football. How can a college football coach with experience as a player, assistant, and head coach have absolutely no feel for a football game? It’s just stunning how lost he looks on the sideline every Saturday. And please spare me the argument, “if it fails, he’ll get crushed, but if it worked, you would have praised him.” No, I wouldn’t have because it was just plain dumb. There’s no advanced statistics or game theory that would support that onside kick call.

I don’t want to hear about the 2023 recruiting class. I don’t want to read about the transfer portal and all the difference makers the Huskers were able to bring in to turn things around this season. I don’t want to see the experts on TV talk about how a new offensive coaching staff will help reinvent the Husker football program. Year in and year out, this staff has shown they don’t know how to get out of their own way. You are what your record is, and Scott Frost has a record of 15-30 at Nebraska. That’s 45 games as a head coach, and I’ll say it here, and now, I don’t need to see number 46.

I’ll be the first to tell you I drank all the kool-aid this season. I really bought into all of it. I thought the changes would make a difference. I thought new coaches and new players could help turn things around. I convinced myself that everything was going to be ok. I was a man crawling through the desert looking for a drink of water, and I convinced myself the mirage was real. I’m as angry at myself as I am by everything else. How could I have been so careless? I should’ve known better. Just because I want something to be true doesn’t mean it is true.

They say every good athletic director has a list of names that he keeps in a drawer, should he ever need to replace one of his coaches. Let’s hope Athletic Director Trev Alberts knows where that list is, and let’s hope it’s updated. He’ll be needing it sooner rather than later.

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1563623887299960833

Story originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire