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Frost being Frost
- Thread starter Irv
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Frost being Frost
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Stan Raymond
Offensive Lineman
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HUGE runway, got everything he wanted, never had a winning record and still got 5 years. Should have been fired years earlier. Still to this day pissed about the extension. Gave a HC that has done nothing but lose that still has 5 years on his contract an extension, utterly negligent use of AD funds.
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That was the biggest BS ever. "Hey Florida State reached out about Frost, we better give him an extension" but they fired a guy that actually had a better record than Frost at the time. Their fans would have freaked out.
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HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE - That was the justification for it?! Someone really believed that FSU was going to take him?! I never heard this until today.
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Should have wrapped him in a bow and hand delivered him
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If you change just one head coach, it’s a completely different five year stretch.
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It’s apparently not Frost’s fault as far as he’s concerned, yet somehow he had a significantly worse tenure than #4 on your list.
Still in the camp that our fan base owes Riley an apology. Ran him out of town during the nonconference schedule following a 9-win season to hire a guy who showed us what being a truly shitty coach looked like.
Program would’ve been in much better shape after 5 more years of Riley, which tells just how bad at his job Frost was (and, I’m pretty sure, is).
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lol, yes, as well as some BS on the recruiting trail about how we were getting negatively recruited that he may not be there long-term when the kids got there because he's on his initial contract. No one pushed back that that whole narrative was due to how bad things were going and he could be fired.
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His agent finessed the Ath. Dept so bad.... which makes Scott even more of a POS for throwing shade after the fact.
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I agree we would’ve been in better shape keeping Riley. Personally, I’m not a fan of the line of thinking that just bc the new coach didn’t work out, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have still fired the old coach. I still think all of the coaches we’ve fired over the last 20 years was the right decision, we just made terrible hires. Some of them we could see from the get go and others like Pelini and Frost, we thought we were back.
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Would of been better off keeping Solich until we hired Rhule
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Background: The Prodigal Son Returns
Nebraska Football was at a critical juncture in 2017. Mike Riley had just been fired after another losing season. While Riley was well-liked, he always seemed in over his head in Lincoln, and Nebraska fans were desperate for a return to relevance.The name at the top of every list was Scott Frost. He had helped orchestrate high-octane offenses as Oregon’s OC under Chip Kelly (including during Marcus Mariota’s Heisman season) and had just completed an undefeated 2017 season at UCF, culminating in a Peach Bowl win over Auburn. The Knights even declared themselves national champions, a move some ridiculed, but with Auburn having beaten both Alabama and Georgia, the two teams in the National Championship game, they arguably had a point.
But beyond the résumé, this was a homecoming. Frost was a Nebraska native, a legacy, and the quarterback of the 1997 national championship team. When he accepted the job in December 2017, celebrations erupted across the state. "If he did that at UCF, imagine what he can do with the superior resources at Nebraska".
2018 – Arrogance, Mismanagement, and a Brutal Start
Frost arrived proclaiming that “the Big Ten will have to adjust to us,” setting the tone for five years of misplaced arrogance.In just his first year he mishandled the QB competition between Tristan Gebbia and Adrian Martinez, leading Gebbia to transfer just days before the season opener. It's very unusual for QBs to transfer before their true freshmen season even starts, but that's what Gebbia did. It was an odd move at the time, and even more odd in hindsight because Martinez missed significant time with injury, which would have been a huge opportunity for Gebbia. I don't believe we know the full reason he transferred, but there has to have been more to it than losing the QB Battle and the blame still ultimately falls on Frost.
Nebraska’s home opener against Akron was canceled, making the next game, against Colorado, Frost’s real debut. Despite promise from Martinez, Nebraska blew a late lead and lost to their hated rivals.
Then came a stunning home loss to Sun Belt team Troy.
They got blown out by Michigan, with Jim Harbaugh seeming to take some comments personally from the last time the two had faced off (Frost said that he thought his UCF team played more physically than Michigan in a 51-14 loss in 2016).
Despite the chaos, Adrian Martinez showed real flashes of potential. His talent was evident: strong arm, good mobility, but it went, undeveloped under Frost in future years.
Nebraska finished 4–8, the worst season since before Bob Devaney. Frost began blaming the structure he inherited from Mike Riley as the root cause of his own shortcomings, an excuse he'd continue to repeat for years.
2019 – Hope, Regression, Blame Games, and a Rewarded Failure
Frost opened the season with a win, but after being ranked (The last time Nebraska would be ranked in five years), he blew another lead at Colorado and lost in Overtime. But he bounced back and beat Illinois and was at 3-1 going into a matchup against a Top 5 Ohio State team. It was a close game the last time the two played, and College Gameday was in town to celebrate the occasion. But Frost's team never showed up and got blown out 48-7. This is the last time Gameday came to Lincoln.He then proceeded to lose four of the next five, setting him up with a 4-6 record. He needed to win his next two against Maryland and Cockeye to make a bowl game, which was the Big goal of the season. And it looked to be well-in-hand with a big win over Maryland, and a lead against Cockeye.
But he missed that goal again after a last-second loss to Cockeye, which Frost blamed on Cockeye’s defenders clapping to mess with the snap count. Technically he's correct in that disconcerting signals by the defense is a penalty that was never called, but it's one that rarely occurs because it's such a simple adjustment to fix. A clear cop-out for being thoroughly out- coached by Kirk Ferentz.
Despite back-to-back losing seasons, Frost received a contract extension at this time. This was baffling, even at the time, because even if you were the most optimistic Nebraska fan you couldn't deny the results weren't there to justify this. Bill Moos was doubling down on a move that already looked like it might not be paying off.
At this time Nebraska was also investigated by the NCAA for using unauthorized staff in practices. Frost denied responsibility and mocked the NCAA in the press, acting far more arrogant than he had any right to be for a coach with a losing record. Conspiracy theorists, myself included, believe this led to a grudge against Nebraska by the Big Ten for embarrassing the conference on a national level.
Also notable, Adrian Martinez regressed significantly, showing poor mechanics, decision-making, and confidence. Frost had no answers, and no development plan. Sophomore Phenom Wandale Robinson also jumped ship to Kentucky after seeing the growing dysfunction.
2020 – Culture Collapse and COVID Controversies
COVID sucked. Should be enough said there, and there is plenty to criticize about the Big Ten's handling of everything that year, but Frost, like he usually did, ran his mouth and made things worse. When the Big Ten announced they were cancelling the Football season, Frost said they would look at other options to play Football, including potentially joining the SEC for the season (It would have been a disaster, but hilarious to see). This, of course, was not liked by the Big Ten Conference, who publicly reprimanded Frost and Nebraska for the comments. Still though the Big Ten eventually relented and played Football (when the pandemic was getting worse versus summer months, but again this is about Frost and not the Big Ten's handling of COVID).To Frost's credit, during this time had done a decent job at recruiting. There were future pro players all over his lineup:
Adrian Martinez, Luke McCaffery, Cam Jurgens, Brenden James, Cam Taylor-Britt, Luke Gifford, Jojo Dommann, DiCaprio Bootle, Ty Robinson, etc.
Buuuuut he still finished 3–5 in a shortened season despite only facing one ranked opponent. Another loss to Cockeye, and an eighth straight loss to Wisconsin as well.
Frost was later sanctioned for violating Big Ten COVID protocols, which we should have seen coming in hindsight. To make matters worse, he repeatedly stirred controversy with his off-field behavior.
Around this time he attempted to siphon resources from other sports, including trying to shut down the athletic training table for the Volleyball team, which caused significant internal resentment for the Football program. The Volleyball team, who are perrenially National Title contenders in their own sport, questioned why Football was being given preferential treatment when they can't even make it to a bowl game.
He was known around this time to hog the Athletic Department's golf simulator alongside friends, much to the chagrin of the actual golf program who wanted to use it to practice their sport.
Despite the crappy record, Nebraska was invited to a bowl game thanks to the three Big Ten wins they did get. However, they had a team poll and the players decided to decline the invite. I cannot overstate this enough, the team that had not been to a bowl game in four years declined a bowl invite. If that doesn't show you where Frost's team culture was, I don't know what will.
The QB situation went from alright, to bad, very quickly. Martinez regression continued. Eventually Frost tried playing true freshman Luke McCaffery, but he simply wasn't meant to be a QB. Frost tried to convert McCaffery to receiver, but he wasn't having it and transferred out. When Frost critized him for it, his big brother and NFL All-Pro brother Christian pointed out Frost's hypocrisy, as he transferred from Stanford to Nebraska in 1995 when Bill Walsh tried to convert him from QB to Safety. Another embarrassing season and more egg on Frost's face.
2021 – “The Greatest 3–9 Team Ever” and Peak Dysfunction
You know what happened here.Nebraska went 3–9, losing all games by less than 9 points, setting an NCAA record for one score losses.
They were competitive in every single game, but won NONE of them. They almost beat a #3 ranked Oklahoma team in the 50th anniversary of the Game of the Century. They lost in Overtime to #20 Michigan State, had a brilliant battle against a playoff bound #9 Michigan in a night game at memorial, but lost in the last moments, leading to yet another blown loss and a chance at a signature win lost again. Frost's facepalm became the image most associated with this team. They were undeniably competitive with some of the best teams in the country, so the 3-9 record was deceiving, but what does that matter if you can't win the damn games?!
It was also this year that rumors began surfacing that Frost had routinely shown up late or intoxicated to meetings. The dysfunction wasn't getting better, only worse, and the losses began to stack up on the recruitment trail.
He began to lose top prospects from local highschools like Xavier Watts, who wound up being an All-American at Notre Dame.
Perhaps the worst thing was the recruitment of five-star QB Dylan Raiola. Raiola was always a top recruit and had offers from all the top programs. USC, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon, Ohio State, etc. Despite this, Nebraska was seen as having the inside track on him as a Husker legacy. His father, Dominic Raiola, was a center for the Huskers in the early 2000s, and won a Remington Award for the top center in College Football, earning his name a spot on the side of the stadium.
Dylan was reportedly ready to commit to Nebraska his freshman year of high school, all Frost had to do was show up to a meet-and-greet with his family in Arizona... But Frost cancelled the meeting, saying he had too many margaritas the day before and was hungover.
Dylan reportedly (and rightfully so) swore that he would never play for Frost, and the next day Ryan Day flew out to his family's home in Arizona and he wound up committing to Ohio State instead. He had a five star QB basically fall into his lap and still managed to fumble it.
*(Raiola eventually still ended up coming to Nebraska, but he didn't start considering Nebraska again until Frost was fired in 2022)
This was also the year when details emerged about Frost rejecting Joe Burrow. In 2018, Burrow had transfered from Ohio State and was interested in Nebraska, where his father, Jim Burrow, had starred at DB in the '70s. Frost reportedly told Joe he wasn't good enough to start for the Huskers over Adrian Martinez. Joe of course, went on to win the Heisman Trophy, a national title, and became the No. 1 overall pick, having the greatest season of any College QB ever, and this same year he took the Bengals to the Super Bowl. Regardless of if you think Burrow would've hit his full potential at Nebraska or not, this is a generationally bad misread at QB.
2022 – Disaster in Ireland and the End of the Road
Frost was returned despite the 3-9 record the season prior. The one score game figure was horrible, but it was the first time you could actually argue they were actually close to success. But new Nebraska AD Turd Alberts told Frost he had to make significant changes to his staff, and so he did. Many of the assistant coaches were gone, and new ones were brought in. Mickey Joseph, another Husker legacy, who was the receivers coach on that 2019 LSU team, and OC Mark Whipple, coming off of an ACC Champion Pitt Team were the big additions. There were also significant roster changeups.Adrian Martinez time in Lincoln was done. He transfered to Kansas State. In his place was Texas transfer QB Casey Thompson and Florida State transfer Chubba Purdy (Brother of longtime Cockeye State legend Brock Purdy, Brock hadn't started for the 49ers yet). Trey Palmer, a former five star receiver, also transfered in from LSU.
They opened the season against Northwestern in Ireland. Husker journalists noticed how, despite this being a game they needed to win, Frost's staff didn't look prepared at all. They led in the game early though thanks to the Brilliance of Thompson, but they looked unable to stop Northwestern's offensive line, and after a baffling decision to kick an onside kick while leading by double digits in the 3rd quarter, they collapsed, and lost yet another one possession game in humiliating fashion.
Northwestern, by the way, didn’t win another game the rest of the year and finished 1–11. So Frost can hardly claim they got beaten by a superior opponent.
The following week, Nebraska struggled to pull away from FCS opponent North Dakota, looking sloppy and disorganized.
And then came the last straw: a 45–42 loss to Georgia Southern, in which Nebraska had the worst defensive performance in program history. To Georgia Southern. A sun belt team.
What little optimism they had from last season was fine. Everyone knew this was a loss you didn't come back from.
Frost was fired the next day, with a final record of 16–31, no bowl appearances, and his legacy in tatters. Turd Alberts decision to fire Frost at this point cost the university an additional $8 million, as his buyout would lower if he was fired a month later, but the situation had become so untenable that the boosters gladly paid that fee to get him out.
Reporters also began speaking more on the years of unprofessional behavior from the now former Nebraska Coach: late meetings, alcohol issues, and frequent partying. It was no wonder why Nebraska had fired him, the only question became why hadn't he been fired sooner.
Post-Firing: The Blame Game and Excuses Continue
While Frost stepped back from the public eye for many months after his firing, when he did return, he started doing the same thing he always did: talking big and making excuses. In an interview last year, Frost says he feels like he got "unlucky" at Nebraska.When he was hired back at UCF, he took jabs at former UNL ADs Bill Moos and Turd Alberts, making comments about not having support from athletic directors (as if Frost wasn't treated like a king at Nebraska and given everything he could want). He doubled down on this at Big 12 media days, when asked what he learned from his time at Nebraska he said what he learned was "Don't take the wrong job", and continued to imply a lack of support at Nebraska, while also claiming that he never really wanted to leave UCF, but that he felt pressured to go there. Again, continuing to deflect responsibility and place blame on other people.
Overall though, Frost was never respected by his peers in Big Ten coaching circles. He was routinely ranked near the bottom of anonymous coaching surveys, where they cited immaturity, poor preparation, and excuse-making.
He burned bridges across the entire athletic department, and routinely embarrassed the program nationally, with very little success to show for it. He never defeated a ranked team at Nebraska, had an infamously terrible record in one score games, and had no signature wins under his name. His best wins at Nebraska are against Rutgers and Maryland. No offense to those teams, but that is pretty pathetic.
In Summary
Nebraska Football was already a slowly sinking ship after Mike Riley’s tenure. Frost was brought in as the captain to steer it back to shore.Instead, he poured kerosene on the program and threw a lighter at it... then blamed the cook for the fire.
What followed was:
- Five straight losing seasons
- Historic underachievement
- Cultural and reputational damage
- Talent mismanagement
- Recruiting implosions
- And endless excuses
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I do know that agents are screwing up NIL stuff too. But ya, POS for sure.
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In hindsight, I guess. But the program was also a rapidly sinking ship under him when he was fired. Dude couldn’t recruit his way out of a brown paper bag. Once Osborne’s recruits were gone it was game over. Maybe he would’ve figured it out since he did so well at Ohio.
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Solich started Newcombe over Crouch. Solich was a retard that started the downturn
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But we'd eventually learn he wasn't our biggest retard
