Year Two an Utter Failure

Hey, at least its over. At least we do not need to watch anymore mind-numbing football for nine months. Maybe we wont talk ourselves into a big year three after what was nothing short of a disastrous year two of Scott Frost’s tenure at Nebraska. Athletic Director Bill Moss, said preseason, “I would like to see us get to six wins this year”, and many laughed by saying it will certainly be better than that. How good does six wins sound now. There are so many questions about this program now, and its future looks very bleak. Did anyone expect no bowl game this year? That would be a no, but here we are.

One would have felt after a humbling beatdown at Minnesota, and a defensive collapse against a good Indiana team, Nebraska would beat a 2-6 Purdue team that was coming off of a home loss to Illinois. But, thinking that anything positive will happen to this football program is a fools errand. The game went like so many other mind-numbing losses have happened during Frost’s tenure in Lincoln. This one was just on steroids. Nebraska looked great to start, took a 7-0 lead, and then had first and goal at the Purdue 2 following an interception. That’s when the same things began to happen. The Huskers failed to move the ball two yards for three plays, and not once did they try to run the ball up the middle. Disastrous play-calling by Frost. A field goal made it 10-0. Nebraska forced a stop, and then Sophomore quarterback Adrian Martinez missed a WIDE open receiver for a sure fire TD, and that led to a punt. After another Nebraska stop, the Big Red had it at the 25, Martinez threw into double coverage and got picked off, instead of a simple checkdown that was open. Then the defense finally gave out to end the half, and the Boilermakers scored two TDs to lead 14-10 at halftime. If Nebraska had executed simple offensive football, they would have been up 24-0 at one point, and it would have been see you later.

The problem is, Nebraska does not execute anything resembling solid fundamental football. This season its been penalties, and turnovers that have killed this programs. The Huskers actually won both of those stats, and still lost against Purdue. The games’ ending was so predictable. In the fourth quarter, Martinez led two touchdown drives, and both times, the Nebraska defense let Purdue, without their star wide receiver and down to their third string quarterback, drive the length of the field for a touchdown, the latter being the game winning score with a minute left.

People like to point to talent as the issue, but Purdue is not Ohio State, neither is Colorado, or even Minnesota, or Indiana. The list of problems with this football program are too long to list. One is that Martinez has seemingly forgotten how to play the game of football. His decline from last season has been alarming on so many levels. He continually misses open receivers, he continues to give the ball away, he makes the wrong reads constantly, and for some reason, Martinez has forgotten how to run the football. It has been this way since week one, and yet Frost and his staff have not come close to helping him get better. Frost himself, has had some awful play-calling as well. The disaster at the goal-line is just one example. The countless screen plays that never work because Martinez cant deliver the ball, yet continue to be called are puzzling. So is the running up the middle on third and long, and the list goes on and on. Then there is the defense, which, besides the Northwestern game, has been a disaster in Big Ten play. The failure to get a stop when a stop would clinch the game is mind-numbing. So is allowing Indiana to convert third and long after third after third and long. Then, allowing 322 yards against a mediocre running team is also very concerning. Well coached teams don’t do that, well coached teams play discipline football. Nebraska does not play anywhere near that.

Pundits also like to point to the culture as reason why Nebraska keeps loosing. The culture is a loosing culture, and its impossible to blame previous head coach Mike Riley for this culture this deep into Frost’s tenure. Its his tenure, and its his fault there is a loosing culture. In his postgame press conferences, the

head coach keeps pointing the finger, not the thumb. He should point the thumb more often. This disastrous year two falls on his tab. There needs to be accountability, and the head coach needs to be held accountable at times. The culture is not why the likes of Mel Tucker, PJ Fleck, Tom Allen, Jeff Brohm, and Steve Campbell have coached circles around Frost.

Nebraska is certainly going to fail to qualify for a bowl game for three consecutive seasons, and its going to be another long off season in Lincoln. There will be numerous questions that remain to be answered, those will include, why did Martinez decline to such an alarming degree, will this defense work at the power five level, why is the play-calling awful, among many others. The definition of insanity is not changing anything, and expecting the result to change. Frost needs to figure out something to change this offseason, whether or not that includes assistant coaching changes remains to be seen. But, something must happen. This is not a talent issue, and the culture issue falls squarely on the head coach.

Right now Nebraska is a bottom feeder, a doormat in the rugged Big Ten. This month, The Huskers will watch Indiana and Illinois play bowl games while they sit at home. At this moment, there is no reason to believe that next year will be any different, and if that’s the case, Frost will be feeling a warm seat heading into year four, if Nebraska doesn’t qualify for a bowl game again next season. The head coach needs to figure something out, and he needs to do it fast.