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Nebraska football is in yet another bizarre purgatory situation. It feels kind of similar to the end of the Bo era where some people thought the evidence was overwhelming that he needed to go, and others thought he had us on the right track and was just about to get over the hump. The part that makes it so bizarre is the fact that Bo won 9-10 games per year, while Frost unbelievably still hasn’t even made a bowl and would need a miracle run to make it happen in year 4. But it’s not as simple as the seemingly 50/50 split between Bo-lievers and Bo-leavers. And it’s not as simple as saying 15%ers and 85%ers based on one RSS poll that literally flipped a week later. I think there’s a ton of uncertainty and hesitation in the fanbase right now, which has people looking in all kinds of different directions and has turned most of us into wishy-washy undecided voters instead of two steadfast groups.
After 20 years in the wilderness, a pretty large chunk of NU fans have started to view NU football as a Knights Of Columbus style social club, or a comfort food to share with their neighbors and families every Fall based purely on tradition. Their routines and attitudes don't change based on the actual team results year to year. Those are the people who are content to stand behind the struggles and growing pains of the local boy who they watched grow up, the one who “knows how things are supposed to go around here,” rather than risk bringing in another outsider who doesn’t know the ins and outs of the small town feel of NU football. They’re exhausted from all the change, it’s not as fun as it used to be, and they just want to enjoy the county fair aspects of it all while pretending it’s the same as it always was. I doubt many of them hang out on RSS but we all know the type. THE SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERS.
On the other end of the spectrum are the hardcore football guys who see everything very black-and-white and have no patience for nostalgia or arguments for Nebraska being a particularly unique place. They are the ones who think we’ve botched every hire by limiting our outlook and think we’re already well past the point where Frost should’ve been fired. The results aren’t there, it’s as simple as that. It’s ridiculous in their minds to think that Nebraska has a worse fishbowl than anyone else, or inherent limitations that a coach needs to navigate, and once we make the right hire we can be right back in the thick of things. THE “AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS!?” CREW.
And in-between those groups are all kinds of fans all over the map who aren’t dead-set on Frost, and want to do the right thing, but for a variety of reasons aren’t quite sure yet what the right thing to do IS. I think that’s where the vast majority of fans are right now. They know that the past 3.5 years have been a failure and not even close to NU’s standards, but because of the multiple faceplants we’ve gone through for 20 years they want to know for a fact that the “hometown hero” who went undefeated in 2017 is 100% absolutely a bust before making a change. They are intrigued by the new relationship between Frost and Alberts and want to see if a NEW foundation can finally be built when their strengths and Alberts’ professionalism combine. This is where I am right now. It’s not that I’m sold on Frost, FAR from it, he’s not even close to what I expected when he was hired. But because of the kinda terrifying precipice NU football sits on right now (in my opinion), I want to wait til the last second before giving into the idea of yet another failed coach. It’s like being the sweaty guy in a movie trying to figure out which wire to cut to defuse the bomb as the clock ticks down. THE “HANG ON! WAIT! JUST GIMME A SECOND!” GANG.
There are also a tiny number of wackos who can’t really form a coherent thought but feel very strongly one way or another. We see their posts all the time, they fill in the cracks.
So I don’t know where this leaves us, it’s a very shitty situation that is less simple than a lot of people want to admit. The current status quo absolutely cannot stand, Frost is absolutely being held to a lower standard than previous coaches, but after 20 years and 4 coaches and a massive PR push behind Frost being “The Chosen One,” there are different kinds of risks to blowing it all up vs. seeing whether Turd can breathe some new life into Frost's tenure. There's a very good chance it's too late, but I don’t think it’s as simple as “half the fans want this, we're the smart ones, the other half want that, they're idiots.” I’ve felt 50/50 about the entire enterprise all season long, and I’m just hoping the last four games give us a clear direction one way or another.
After 20 years in the wilderness, a pretty large chunk of NU fans have started to view NU football as a Knights Of Columbus style social club, or a comfort food to share with their neighbors and families every Fall based purely on tradition. Their routines and attitudes don't change based on the actual team results year to year. Those are the people who are content to stand behind the struggles and growing pains of the local boy who they watched grow up, the one who “knows how things are supposed to go around here,” rather than risk bringing in another outsider who doesn’t know the ins and outs of the small town feel of NU football. They’re exhausted from all the change, it’s not as fun as it used to be, and they just want to enjoy the county fair aspects of it all while pretending it’s the same as it always was. I doubt many of them hang out on RSS but we all know the type. THE SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERS.
On the other end of the spectrum are the hardcore football guys who see everything very black-and-white and have no patience for nostalgia or arguments for Nebraska being a particularly unique place. They are the ones who think we’ve botched every hire by limiting our outlook and think we’re already well past the point where Frost should’ve been fired. The results aren’t there, it’s as simple as that. It’s ridiculous in their minds to think that Nebraska has a worse fishbowl than anyone else, or inherent limitations that a coach needs to navigate, and once we make the right hire we can be right back in the thick of things. THE “AM I TAKING CRAZY PILLS!?” CREW.
And in-between those groups are all kinds of fans all over the map who aren’t dead-set on Frost, and want to do the right thing, but for a variety of reasons aren’t quite sure yet what the right thing to do IS. I think that’s where the vast majority of fans are right now. They know that the past 3.5 years have been a failure and not even close to NU’s standards, but because of the multiple faceplants we’ve gone through for 20 years they want to know for a fact that the “hometown hero” who went undefeated in 2017 is 100% absolutely a bust before making a change. They are intrigued by the new relationship between Frost and Alberts and want to see if a NEW foundation can finally be built when their strengths and Alberts’ professionalism combine. This is where I am right now. It’s not that I’m sold on Frost, FAR from it, he’s not even close to what I expected when he was hired. But because of the kinda terrifying precipice NU football sits on right now (in my opinion), I want to wait til the last second before giving into the idea of yet another failed coach. It’s like being the sweaty guy in a movie trying to figure out which wire to cut to defuse the bomb as the clock ticks down. THE “HANG ON! WAIT! JUST GIMME A SECOND!” GANG.
There are also a tiny number of wackos who can’t really form a coherent thought but feel very strongly one way or another. We see their posts all the time, they fill in the cracks.
So I don’t know where this leaves us, it’s a very shitty situation that is less simple than a lot of people want to admit. The current status quo absolutely cannot stand, Frost is absolutely being held to a lower standard than previous coaches, but after 20 years and 4 coaches and a massive PR push behind Frost being “The Chosen One,” there are different kinds of risks to blowing it all up vs. seeing whether Turd can breathe some new life into Frost's tenure. There's a very good chance it's too late, but I don’t think it’s as simple as “half the fans want this, we're the smart ones, the other half want that, they're idiots.” I’ve felt 50/50 about the entire enterprise all season long, and I’m just hoping the last four games give us a clear direction one way or another.
