Scott Frost

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When it comes to our favorite college football team, we
Nebraskans are a quirky bunch. We love the team pure devotion.
The players hold mythological status for the ages. We revisit
in astounding detail, our greatest moments for generations. Only the
Vatican sits on more sacred ground than our Memorial Stadium.

(00:22):
But unlike most every other fan base, which never forgets
the bad often uses it for motivation, Nebraskans have a
remarkable capacity to forget, literally, strike from the caverns of
the collective labyrinth, any bad coach, higher, bad game, bad call,
bad moment, as if it never happened. For years, we

(00:42):
explained away the few losses with we didn't lose the game,
We just ran out of time. We are the Norman
Vincent Peels of college football fans. Our glass is always
half full. This was never more evident than in the
days that followed the departure of Scott Frost as head coach.
Two days prior to his removal, his Huskers allowed six

(01:03):
hundred and forty two yards in a forty five to
forty two last second loss to Georgia Southern, a one double,
a program that received one point four million of our
dollars just to come in and Lincoln and win, ending
the Frost regime as the most unsuccessful in a century.
Forty five games, sixteen wins. Quite a gulch from December second,

(01:27):
twenty seventeen, for on that date he finally said yes
to the begging. For the previous month, everybody, from his
old roommate to his head coach, prominent boosters, the university president,
regents to the governor begged him to please take this
six year, guaranteed, thirty five million dollar contract. Frost was

(01:48):
one of those Saturday heroes, won a national title, played
in the NFL, then started his climb up the coaching ladder.
It was more like an escalator, not much climbing, just writing.
Picked the write up opportunities. Oregon under offensive guru Chip
Kelly to underachieving Central Florida, despite its locale amongst the
most fertile recruiting parcels in the country, in a league

(02:11):
that plays no defense at a school with practically no
academic speed bumps. First year five hundred, second year thirteen
to zer ran an offense that looked like a fast
break basketball team. Folks back home were depressed. Our team
was struggling through pathetic Mike Riley's third lackluster season four

(02:32):
and eight. The inert pressure to get Frost could crack
granite around here. Forget this thin resume is only twenty
five games as a head coach, his unproven recruiting record,
and a staff he would bring to Lincoln from which
not one assistant had ever coached in the Big Ten.
But we had to have him. Whoever interviewed Frost, or

(02:54):
however the conversation with him would be described, was incompetent.
They asked the pertinent questions posed to a prospective head coach,
or did he interview us? Understandable? Nobody in a position
of authority, the president of the chancellor, of the athletic
director had enough credibility with Nebraskans to come back to Lincoln,

(03:15):
tell us Frost wasn't the guy, and live to see
the next sunrise. Frost was a jerk from the jump,
ordered the media to never interview a family member, predicted
the Big Ten would adjust to him, and warned them
to get us now, because come year two, we're going
to be dangerous. What we got was abject failure. What

(03:37):
his team's lacked in organization and fundamentals was more than
made up for with his bewildering in game strategies. They
were off the field issues, work ethic concerns, communication breakdowns,
He got caught breaking the rules, all made worse by
the losses. We were disappointed, bordering on catatonic. But Frost, eh,

(03:58):
that's ranching while cashing the thirty five million. Frost's few
public statements thereafter implied he was the victim. Sure we
lost big, but it was the place, not me. Thinks
we needed to tell him how hard it was going
to be. That's preposterous. And his unwillingness to blame the
guy in the mirror and shiv alma mater leads me

(04:21):
to wonder if he's learned one damn thing. It all
came out yesterday about how the only thing he learned
from the Nebraska Nightmare was to choose your next job
more carefully. I never really wanted to be there. They
had to talk me into it, Scooter. We can agree
on that. We talked ourselves into you. Let's never forget

(04:44):
that