Alberts speaks on Frost's metrics for 2022 after Tuesday court ruling
By BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON 93 minutes ago
Nebraska athletics director Turd Alberts supplied details about the necessary metrics that had been set for Scott Frost heading into the 2022 season.
It came up during Alberts' hour-long show on the Huskers Radio Network after a Lincoln judge ruled on Tuesday the athletic department had to reveal that info after USA Today sued the university when denied a request for that info. The newspaper believed it fit within the scope of public records. The Husker athletics department is required to give out that info within the next seven days due to the ruling.
Given that, Alberts supplied what may be the main information to know during the radio appearance.
"I thought for a variety of reasons that it was in the best interest of the university not to (make it public). So the university chose to challenge that lawsuit. The judge ruled not in our favor..." Alberts said. "It really isn't a huge secret. What I wanted from Scott, and we talked about it a lot, was incremental progress. So Scott and I had talked about ... we needed to get to a bowl game – and not backing into a bowl game. A minimum of six games. And so if we could six games, get to a bowl game, then we could sort of revert back to his original contract."
That's in reference to Frost's annual base salary dropping from $5 million to $4 million in 2022.
"So we'll release those. We're not going to appeal," Alberts continued. "I thought it was important in more of an HR type of personal improvement deal. Obviously the judge viewed it differently. So we'll be releasing that in the appropriate time. I thought it would be fair on the show tonight to just make people aware: that's the extent of what those metrics looked like. I wanted to see improvement and I thought it was a minimum level that we get to a bowl game and get to at least six games."
There was no similar document regarding NU men's basketball coach Fred Hoiberg, Alberts said.
"Fred and I, it was more verbal. That's what my intent with for Scott as well. And I think it was more comfortable for Scott to have something in writing, so we went down that path. As an athletic director, you have these conversations all the time with every one of your coaches. You have to establish what the expectations are and you create goals together. But that's kind of where we are on that. It will be nice to put that behind us and move forward.
"So I guess our fans can be looking for some communication both in our local press and maybe even national about what the actual metrics were."