Perhaps asking that is unfair. I mean I was one of the Nebraska fans who thought Scott Frost was the answer Husker football needed. But who would have thunk it? Scott Frost didn’t learn a thing from Coach Osborne while playing for him. We all saw the lack of humility while he was here, but with Frost’s latest comments the arrogance, lack of awareness and accountability are still a part of who he is.
When asked at Big XII media days yesterday, “What did you learn from your time at Nebraska?”
Frost replied, “Don’t take the wrong job.”
He later added, “I got tugged in a direction to try to help my alma mater and didn’t really want to do it. It wasn’t a good move.”
Frost sounds exactly like someone Matt Rhule tries not to recruit. Nebraska only wants you if you truly want to be here. But once again Frost is playing the role of the victim. Going so far as to imply he couldn’t do it alone. Suggesting his failure was due to Bill Moos and Trev Alberts not supporting him. I’ll say this, were they two of the best AD’s Nebraska ever had? Probably not, but they sure weren’t Steve Pederson or Shawn Eichorst either. They fired winning coaches while Frost got more chances than he deserved.
But all one needs to do is look at Frost’s record while at Nebraska (16-31) and it will tell you everything. There has not been a coach at Nebraska who was less successful in the last sixty years. And if you look at his career coaching record and take away his catching lightning in a bottle during the 2017 season, he’s 22-38. He has one winning season as a head coach.
So don’t let Frost try to convince you Nebraska was the problem. A large part of the burden is his to bear. Rhule has won as many games in two seasons as Frost did in four (12). Plus, Rhule got the Huskers to a bowl game in his second season. Something Frost was never able to accomplish.
Looking back, we should have known it was never going to work. There was too much negative history between Frost and Nebraska before he became the head coach. A home state kid, he rejected Nebraska for Stanford and then appeared to come crawling back. He was the starting QB that went to Arizona in 1996 and lost after Nebraska had put up 26 consecutive wins. He ended up being the villain in the Lawrence Phillips fiasco and was booed at home during the national championship season of 1997. Don’t think he forgot that. It’s been a love hate relationship from the start. It put Frost on the defensive from day one.
Let’s face it, Frost never had the tools to succeed at Nebraska. He walked in with a stethoscope and a reflex hammer and poked around. Meanwhile, Matt Rhule showed up with a scalpel, a chest spreader, and everything needed for a heart replacement and went to work. The comparison isn’t close. Frost may be a great offensive mind, but he’s so far from being the CEO Nebraska needed it’s ridiculous.
I hate to say it, but with Frost’s latest comments he may have lost Nebraska fans all together. I’ve heard several fans and even media members say they wanted him to do well on his return to UCF.
But now I’m afraid the relationship has gone toxic. After yesterday, people are rooting against him. It’s too bad, all Frost needed to do was show a little humility and shoulder some of the blame. Would that have been so hard after walking away with generational wealth? Instead, he’s working his way towards being one of the biggest disappointments associated with Nebraska football.
Let’s hope he’ll learn to quit picking at the scab.
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