Take it with a grain of salt when I say I want to see Nebraska return to glory. I’m a season ticket holder at another Big Ten West title contender, and I am completely focused on seeing my team have a special 2022. I also spent two years as a student at Nebraska, one with football tickets. Although it was a tough time in my life personally, I hold no ill will towards the school. The resources for me to succeed were plentiful and I truly enjoyed the folks in Lincoln, especially their passion for the Huskers. It would bring me joy to see them have a team they can be proud of.
That makes it all the more difficult to see what is happening with the program. Nebraska lost 31-28 on Saturday to Northwestern in the Week 0 Big Ten opener played in Dublin, Ireland. It marked the seventh straight loss by single digits for the Huskers, dating back to a blowout win over this same Wildcat team. But it wasn’t just another close loss; that would have been too simple. Nebraska came out red-hot on their opening drive marching right down the field to score a touchdown on a beautiful downfield pass by transfer (Texas) quarterback Casey Thompson. When it looked like the Huskers might run away early, sloppy mistakes kept the Wildcats in the game, with them even taking a 17-14 lead into halftime.
With Nebraska seemingly regaining its footing early in the second half, all hell broke loose. Following a 46 yard touchdown run by Anthony Grant giving the Huskers an eleven point lead, they elected to attempt a surprise onside kick. Northwestern predictably recovered and marched down the short field to score. Philosophically, I shun the old-school, risk averse mentality, and I really believe that in most situations the aggressive move is best. That being said, this ain’t it. Aggressive risks are only worth taking if the probability of succeeding is high enough to outweigh the negatives. My blog (shockingly) isn’t supported by some powerful stat database so I don’t know how likely teams are to recover onside kicks, but conventional wisdom would indicate it’s not very likely. One of my favorite Booger-isms is that there’s no mentum like momentum, and Nebraska gave it all up on this play. Frost was quoted postgame saying he felt that they had most of the momentum and were looking to seize it completely. It’s understandable he would feel that was the best way to do it, considering his defense was struggling to slow down the Wildcat’s offense, but with 24 minutes remaining this risk was simply not worth taking. Some are pointing out, as is common when discussing surprise onside kicks of fourth down tries, that if the play was successful we would be praising Frost. I promise you that I would not. Although I may have credited the would-be successful play’s impact on the game, I’d have disapproved of the decision regardless of the outcome. While going for it on fourth down is the type of worthwhile risk coaches should be taking more often, there is no situation where an onside kick in that spot makes sense.
Coach Frost’s already hot seat is being turned up a notch after another controversial and close loss. While I am typically a proponent of patience in these situations, this could be the exception. I refuse to overreact to one game but the environment around this team might just be too toxic to go on. Admittedly, it appears to be centered around the negative discussions outside the team. Everyone in the program is saying the right things and they seem to have a good attitude going forward. The coach has a 15 million dollar buyout that won’t go down until mid-season, so it looks like they might be forced to try and right this ship with him at the helm – at least for now.
What really irks me is the fact that Frost was asked postgame if he would consider stepping down. In the instant gratification society we live in it feels like some have forgotten that that these are real people who are working extremely hard. If you have a couple bad months at your job are you going to quit? Big time athletics are a process; one that takes place day in and day out behind the scenes, for months leading up to the season and all week before the games we all actually see. A process that one does not simply abandon over three hours of failure. Add in the idea that athletics are built around the concept of competition and it makes it even more ridiculous to suggest Scott Frost would step away.
Nebraska was quietly turning into a trendy pick to win the Big Ten West prior to Week 0. You won’t catch anyone saying that now, but their season is far from over. They will have a chance to get back on track next week against FCS opponent North Dakota (the only school I dislike more than Bucky – another callback to the old WCHA). Bigger questions regarding their defense, or lack thereof, and inconsistent quarterback play, will need to be answered before a coaching change is even a realistic option.
Week one is finally here and I could not be more excited! Check back in the next few days for a breakout players post and again later in the week for a report on my first live game of the season, as well as some reactions to the weekend games. Thanks for reading!
Superior CFB 