Sipple says that Frost needs to be concerned about growing fan apathy. I agree. I grew up in Lincoln. As a boy I sold coke in the stands. I started going to games with my dad in 1965. I have travelled to tons of away games. Was in Norman in 1971. And even though I have lived on the east coast since 1989 I have always flown back to Lincoln every Fall for 2 or 3 games. I am as rabid a Husker fan as you can find. And guess what? I really just don’t give a **** anymore. My pride in the excellence of our football team is gone. Now all I feel is apathy and disgust.
My point? That if I have reached this level of indifference my hunch is so have thousands of other Husker fans.
Frost isn’t going anywhere. He will be our coach for at least a few more years. Too many millions to buy him out in an era of Covid budget crisis. So he needs to look in the mirror really hard and make the changes necessary to turn this around. Because if he doesn’t, our last remaining strength as a program - - fan support - - will be gone.
I agree that the program needs to worry about apathy. I'm a pretty patient guy, without being a "I'll put up with anything" guy and I gave up early in the third quarter. I turned the TV off. Wondered if I'd watch a game the rest of the season. It doesn't mean much if the only wins you can beat are the third tier teams.
I believe that Frost will figure it out but it apparently will take a little while longer.
I believe that there are two reasons that apathy is setting in:
1. It's been nearly twenty years since we've been consistently good. Even with Pelini we didn't reach "consistently good" and he had temper/people skill issues that people weren't willing to deal with. Boiled down: we are tired of waiting and patience is thin.
2. By a majority, Frost was the savior. So to find out he isn't the "immediate" savior is hugely disappointing to a very worn out fan base.
Personally, I think that he will get it figured out. I guarantee that he cares at least as much as any one on this board. Frost has a "nice guy" mentality and I don't have a problem with that. Osborne had the same mentality. One difference tho is that Osborne's nice guy mentality still had room to pull players that were making mistakes.
I was listening to a 95 replay and a penalty was called and the announcers didn't know who the penalty was on. One announcer said "well, look to see who's not in for the next play". There needs to be consequences for repeated mistakes. Whether it is missing one or more play or running stairs next week, at some point consequences need to kick in to solve repeated issues.
Or maybe the players need to take leadership and initiate "blanket parties"!
I jest.