The End of Scott Frost (Opinion)

Author's Note: All ideas that are expressed in this article are biased and based on my personal feelings with Scott Frost and where the football program is going. Direct quotes from Trev Alberts press conference were used as well.

After being proclaimed “the Golden Child” in 2017 following his 13-0 magical season with the University of Central Florida, Scott Frost’s reign as Husker head coach was less than superb. After initially starting off his Husker head coaching gig with a rain out and following that with an 0-6 streak while mixing in a shocking loss to Troy, Coach Frost never found his footing. 

The 2021 football season was arguably his best campaign leading the Huskers to “The Best” 3-9 football team in NCAA history. With the narrative being written that Scott didn’t know how to win one-score games, things didn’t change entering the 2022 season. 

Scott restructured his contract in the preseason of the 2022 season while bringing in 15 transfers and reconstructing his entire offensive staff, Frost bet on himself to bring Nebraska back from the dead. Unfortunately, after just 3 games into the season, 3 weeks away from his buyout dropping $7.5 million, Scott was relieved of his coaching duties. Scott ends his tenure as Nebraska’s head coach with a career 16-31 record.

While there is extreme excitement from the fan base regarding his removal, we are all left wondering why? Why right before Oklahoma, our biggest game of the year. Why before the buyout gets cut in half? Well I have my own thoughts. 

First, Nebraska and Scott Frost needed to break up. Like a toxic girlfriend, holding on to each other just ruins both. Scott Frost was constantly losing his fan support and Nebraska was constantly losing. As Trev Alberts noted following the Frost firing press conference, “I thought it would work. Listen, we all have short memories. But Scott Frost was among the absolute leaders in that (2017) cycle of coaching. Scott’s a good football coach. Scott’s going to go on and be a successful coach. I told him that this morning, and he agreed. … The right situation will emerge, and I think he’ll be successful.” He continued later stating, “There’s nine games left in the season, We owed it to our players. We owed it to our fans to give these players an opportunity these last nine games. We’ve got good players on this football team. I think a different voice and having some new energy and enthusiasm can make a difference.” It’s clear both Scott and all of College Football knew this was coming but it still comes as a shock at this point in time. 

While there are questions regarding Nebraska buying out the $7.5 million for Coach Frost to stay home as opposed to coach, it’s obvious the outside influence that must have been to persuade this decision. The entire state of Nebraska supports one united group; that is Nebraska Football. The boosters, investors, and outside fan influence all may have had an input in the coaching change. But one thing that is never a problem with Nebraska football is the idea of money being an issue. Nebraska is in the midst of building a $155 million football facility and renovations to Memorial Stadium, thus indicating how clear money was not the issue behind Scott’s removal. 

For me, I personally believe there is one reason Nebraska fired Scott before Oklahoma (OU) and that is so we have an excuse. Part of me wants to lean the way of saying this game could be different. Where we finally get over the hump. Where the kids don’t make simple mistakes. Where the coaches don’t make a ridiculous onside kick call. While I expect a few issues to be corrected in the 6 days of prep before the OU game, I fully expect OU to expose us worse than what Georgia Southern did last week. We can’t realistically expect a major change in the player development in 6 days, and we can’t realistically drink enough Kool-Aid to tell ourselves that we will beat the number 7 team in the nation. I am often an extremely optimistic individual but for this week, I expect a fun competitive atmosphere (thanks to our offense continuing to score) but certainly not entering Mickey Joseph's first bye week with a 1-0 record. I would be happy to eat my words and suffer whatever consequences needed to get a Husker upset this weekend, but I just don’t feel it. Not after the heartache of Georgia Southern putting up 642 yards of total offense on our Blackshirts. If we lose, the media can turn the attention to the “what if” questions had we had our initial head coach. 

While listening to the first press conference of Mickey Joseph however, I was rejuvenated with passion and optimism. The things he said, prioritizing a week by week game, not caring about anything other than game and preparations of “the boys”, and already making practice adjustments has me excited for what he has to offer. A concern of mine entering the post-Frost era was more about the transfers that would leave, however, it’s clear the team has already rallied around Coach Joseph and is ready to battle for him. Hopefully he can spark a fire to end this “Losing culture” that Ochaun Mathis commented on. 

While I am eager to see where the future goes, one thing is for certain, we can no longer blame either Scott Frost nor Adrian Martinez for our blunders the rest of the season. 

Good Luck Scott Frost and Go Big Red.