Alberts and Frost

[Pennsyhusker_rivals246774]

I have been absent from this board since the day Alberts announced that Frost was being retained. I lost all hope for the near future of Husker football and decided that I had better things to do with my time than waste another second on this sad football program. My thinking was that we will have a bad recruiting year this year, another losing season and another bad recruiting year next year, followed by a fired coach, and a new coach who would be saddled with two straight horrible recruiting years and a sixth straight losing season. I am still worried about that scenario and I still think Husker football is in a world of hurt right now, but I have now come to the view that Alberts did the right thing. In fact, I think he did the only smart thing he could have done. Given how many high profile coaching vacancies opened up this year the chances of us landing a P5 head coach with a proven track record were slim. And I think that hiring a hot shot coordinator, though not always bad, is just rolling the dice with an unproven head coach yet again.

We now have some excellent new coaches and I would love it if they would make Busch a full time ST coach. That would mean no running backs coach but one of the other coaches could probably do double duty and coach them. But the bottom line is we have a much easier schedule next year and some excellent new coaches and we still have some talent in the cupboard. Getting a portal QB and replacing Jurgens are essential. But there is some hope for next year and if Frost turns this thing around next season, then Albert's will emerge from this looking like the only adult AD in the country with a lick of sense.

 

[Lincoln100]

There is not only no hope for next year, bit there is no hope for the year following. Worst case scenario, frost meets whatever secret metrics deal they got, gets to stick around for next year, and then goes back to 3 or 4 wins. He ain't the future. I am counting on the idea that TA gave him another year to save the university a ton of money, and because he didnt have a solid choice lined up, with the intent of getting rid of him at the end of 2022.

 

[BleedRed78]

I think if we can get our **** together and become legitimately competitive in this NIL era (late is better than never) then there's hope for the program as the landscape shifts. If we fail to step up to that plate though... We'll end up stuck in the inevitable G5 amateur league as the super conferences converge into a single minor league...

 

[BleedRed78]

Oh, and welcome back! I usually appreciate your insights and opinion. Cheers to hopefully doing better so we don't have to feel so disgruntled about our beloved team.

 

[Charlie Marlow_rivals363743]

could make a decent tv show

 

[leodisflowers]

There is not only no hope for next year, bit there is no hope for the year following. Worst case scenario, frost meets whatever secret metrics deal they got, gets to stick around for next year, and then goes back to 3 or 4 wins. He ain't the future. I am counting on the idea that TA gave him another year to save the university a ton of money, and because he didnt have a solid choice lined up, with the intent of getting rid of him at the end of 2022.

False. Plenty of hope. Lots of change and easier schedule and if he fails. maybe we land a big fish. Always hope.

 

[steinek11]

There is not only no hope for next year, bit there is no hope for the year following. Worst case scenario, frost meets whatever secret metrics deal they got, gets to stick around for next year, and then goes back to 3 or 4 wins. He ain't the future. I am counting on the idea that TA gave him another year to save the university a ton of money, and because he didnt have a solid choice lined up, with the intent of getting rid of him at the end of 2022.

Way too early to tell. We are so far down, that winning seven games and going to a bowl next year would be a significant improvement.

The quarterback they get out of the portal will be the key to all of this. We need a winner with some fire that can rally the team. We have some talent on this team. Now that Frost has play calling off his workload, we'll see how he does running the program top to bottom.

No doubt he is aware of his failures to date. I just hope he has a plan in place to turn it around.

 

[Husker.Wed._rivals]

I'm confused. If Whipple is OC and coaching QBs, doesn't that free up a dedicated QB coach spot for special teams?

 

[99_BoothBalloons]

False. Plenty of hope. Lots of change and easier schedule and if he fails. maybe we land a big fish. Always hope.

Yep. I wouldn’t bet on a Frost recovery but it sure can happen.

Handing over the reigns of the offense to focus on the managing aspect of being a HC is a huge change. Our biggest problem has been a lack of discipline and organization. A HC who’s not focused on designing and calling the offense should be more capable of addressing those issues. We’ll see how it plays out.

 

[99_BoothBalloons]

I'm confused. If Whipple is OC and coaching QBs, doesn't that free up a dedicated QB coach spot for special teams?

No because previously the WR coach was the OC. The OC has only shifted from the WR coach to the QB coach. No openings were created by doing that.

 

[Lincoln100]

Way too early to tell. We are so far down, that winning seven games and going to a bowl next year would be a significant improvement.

The quarterback they get out of the portal will be the key to all of this. We need a winner with some fire that can rally the team. We have some talent on this team. Now that Frost has play calling off his workload, we'll see how he does running the program top to bottom.

No doubt he is aware of his failures to date. I just hope he has a plan in place to turn it around.

That's the problem, Frost was supposed to be an offensive genius, and maybe he is, but he doesn't know how to make it work. So now we clip his nuts and start this narrative of "he's going to be the CEO of blah blah blah." Is he a CEO ? He's not a leader, he's a positions coach / coordinator who we are trying to dress up to look like a head coach. Winning 7 games and going to a bowl game is an improvement only because of the disaster of the last 4 years. If we get to 7 (because of an easy schedule) it is fools gold. It all stems on getting a QB that is a winner and has fire to rally the team? How about expecting that from a coach? I'm counting on Alberts to make a nice hire next year to give us legit hope that we can be more than Minnesota, on our good days.

 

[Pennsyhusker_rivals246774]

That's the problem, Frost was supposed to be an offensive genius, and maybe he is, but he doesn't know how to make it work. So now we clip his nuts and start this narrative of "he's going to be the CEO of blah blah blah." Is he a CEO ? He's not a leader, he's a positions coach / coordinator who we are trying to dress up to look like a head coach. Winning 7 games and going to a bowl game is an improvement only because of the disaster of the last 4 years. If we get to 7 (because of an easy schedule) it is fools gold. It all stems on getting a QB that is a winner and has fire to rally the team? How about expecting that from a coach? I'm counting on Alberts to make a nice hire next year to give us legit hope that he can be more than Minnesota, on our good days.

Yes, the easier schedule might mask continuing issues. Just like Riley's easy schedule in his second year give him some easy wins that hid the deep rot in the program.

 

[Huskerfan2112]

could make a decent tv show

Post of the year.

 

[FargoNDHusker]

I'm not a fan of what they did, don't understand retaining Frost with a 3-9 record in the year that was supposed to be the best roster he's had while here. It just seems like we're fine being a middling program that is "close" but also not good. That said, this what the powers at be decided and I'm going to root for it to work out. This staff seems like a more professional, business like staff that will help Frost and I hope I'm proved wrong about keeping Frost.

 

[Pennsyhusker_rivals246774]

I'm not a fan of what they did, don't understand retaining Frost with a 3-9 record in the year that was supposed to be the best roster he's had while here. It just seems like we're fine being a middling program that is "close" but also not good. That said, this what the powers at be decided and I'm going to root for it to work out. This staff seems like a more professional, business like staff that will help Frost and I hope I'm proved wrong about keeping Frost.

I was not a fan of retaining Frost either and I am still in deep doubt that it will work out. Even Alberts said that there are few examples of such a situation working out. My point is that the pool of available candidates for a good coach was going to be very small this year. I think Alberts made the only reasonable decision in the face of that. You can fire one lousy coach and hire another lousy coach out of desperation and that is not good. We have endured twenty years of that ****.

 

[DrAlan_Grant]

I definitely agree with you that Alberts did the right thing, and agree that I'm not too excited about our recruiting class.

Also revamping staff to save your job doesn't have a lot of historical success, though based on how close we were, I think Frost has a chance.

We will have a lot to prove with the O line, QB, and a defense that has lost some great key players, but I still have hope.

 

[Redscarlet]

I was not a fan of retaining Frost either and I am still in deep doubt that it will work out. Even Alberts said that there are few examples of such a situation working out. My point is that the pool of available candidates for a good coach was going to be very small this year. I think Alberts made the only reasonable decision in the face of that. You can fire one lousy coach and hire another lousy coach out of desperation and that is not good. We have endured twenty years of that ****.

This post is spot on… And I wasn’t in favor of retaining SF but with the new hires that look like good hires and thinking the same thing this isn’t the year to be hiring someone we might not be happy with like when SE fired Pelini and hired Smiley Riley..

 

[Pennsyhusker_rivals246774]

This post is spot on… And I wasn’t in favor of retaining SF but with the new hires that look like good hires and thinking the same thing this isn’t the year to be hiring someone we might not be happy with like when SE fired Pelini and hired Smiley Riley..

Exactly. We just need to frankly admit that NU football is in a really tough spot these days. Our brand is severely tarnished to the point of non existence, we are in a bad recruiting area demographically, and we have suffered through the worst seven year stretch in the modern history of NU football. Everyone is on TV now. Everyone has money. Everyone has great facilities. And lots and lots of teams have excellent coaching staffs. It is much harder to rebuild a program like Nebraska's than it used to be and you better hire a damn, damn good coach - - a "sure thing" hire - - or you are just going to be back in the same situation. And we all thought Frost was that "sure thing" hire four years ago. And that only goes to show how any coaching change is a roll of the dice. That there are no "sure thing" hires, short of paying Saban 30 million a year to come here. We all have poked fun, mercilessly, at the "we are so close" mantra. But in reality we were a good QB away this year from winning nine games or more. And so there is hope that getting new coaches and a new QB can get us over the hump. That might just be whistling past the graveyard, pollyanna optimism, but it really does seem that it is our best bet. I think Alberts made the right call and that is hard for me to admit since I was really ready for the only time in my entire life to just give up on NU football after Trev announced he was keeping Frost.

 

[Mack In Motion]

I have been absent from this board since the day Alberts announced that Frost was being retained. I lost all hope for the near future of Husker football and decided that I had better things to do with my time than waste another second on this sad football program. My thinking was that we will have a bad recruiting year this year, another losing season and another bad recruiting year next year, followed by a fired coach, and a new coach who would be saddled with two straight horrible recruiting years and a sixth straight losing season. I am still worried about that scenario and I still think Husker football is in a world of hurt right now, but I have now come to the view that Alberts did the right thing. In fact, I think he did the only smart thing he could have done. Given how many high profile coaching vacancies opened up this year the chances of us landing a P5 head coach with a proven track record were slim. And I think that hiring a hot shot coordinator, though not always bad, is just rolling the dice with an unproven head coach yet again.

We now have some excellent new coaches and I would love it if they would make Busch a full time ST coach. That would mean no running backs coach but one of the other coaches could probably do double duty and coach them. But the bottom line is we have a much easier schedule next year and some excellent new coaches and we still have some talent in the cupboard. Getting a portal QB and replacing Jurgens are essential. But there is some hope for next year and if Frost turns this thing around next season, then Albert's will emerge from this looking like the only adult AD in the country with a lick of sense.

Good post.

I don't think Frost should have been retained. He has been given time and resources to field a decent team an has not done so.

I think he should have been given the opportunity to rehab his career at YSU or somewhere similar.

But I'll still support the program. Hope we win em all next year.

I disagree with the narrative that there were so many openings we just wouldn't have been able to find someone. For the following reasons:

1) it's likely there will be just as many openings next season. Possibly more. College football landscape is changing rapidly.

2) if there are fewer openings next season, that means there are fewer targets in play

IMHO, either TA thinks Frost's replacement is not available until after next season OR the powers that be have had enough of paying huge $$$ to coaches who don't coach here any longer.

If it's the former, we should recover pretty quickly. If it's the latter, we have likely become Minnesota.

 

[FargoNDHusker]

I was not a fan of retaining Frost either and I am still in deep doubt that it will work out. Even Alberts said that there are few examples of such a situation working out. My point is that the pool of available candidates for a good coach was going to be very small this year. I think Alberts made the only reasonable decision in the face of that. You can fire one lousy coach and hire another lousy coach out of desperation and that is not good. We have endured twenty years of that ****.

Definitely agree on that, the more big jobs that opened up I was more on the side of being fine retaining him. Just when the announced he was back it just didn't make much sense to me. Like you said firing a coach just to fire him without a plan and the risk of getting a worse coach sets you back much further than what they are doing.

 

[huskerdrb]

We are in a situation

I was not a fan of retaining Frost either and I am still in deep doubt that it will work out. Even Alberts said that there are few examples of such a situation working out. My point is that the pool of available candidates for a good coach was going to be very small this year. I think Alberts made the only reasonable decision in the face of that. You can fire one lousy coach and hire another lousy coach out of desperation and that is not good. We have endured twenty years of that ****.

You are spot on…that being said, if Mizzou can pick up their program anyone can. If Minnesota can be in the hunt for conference playoffs, anyone can. Picking a coach is a crap shoot, so who knows. As far as coaches, maybe we need to get one out of a Northwest Arkansas high school football program. Malzahn and Drinkwitz (sp?) both came out of there and Mizzous special assistant to head coach is from Greenwood Arkansas. Something in the water.

 

[B1G RED RULES]

@Pennsyhusker - so glad to see a post from you again. I know many of us really appreciate your outstanding perspective on the program.

I have changed my perspective on Trev as well and I’m convinced he’s running the program more than most think and have a plan of action he is playing out. The fact that he is under Trev’s thumb gives me some hope - because I lost all hope and Scott Frost long ago.

 

[BugsAreQualityProtein]

Frost needs to cut bait with either Ruud or Dawson(preferably Rudd)IMO. I understand that there are differences between OLB and ILB in a 3-4, but I think Dawson and Tuioti could share the OLBs. That would make room for both ST and RB coaches. This good ole boy system of hiring your best friend needs to end at NU

 

[Headcard]

We are in a situation

You are spot on…that being said, if Mizzou can pick up their program anyone can. If Minnesota can be in the hunt for conference playoffs, anyone can. Picking a coach is a crap shoot, so who knows. As far as coaches, maybe we need to get one out of a Northwest Arkansas high school football program. Malzahn and Drinkwitz (sp?) both came out of there and Mizzous special assistant to head coach is from Greenwood Arkansas. Something in the water.

Drinkwitz? What has he done to pick up the Mizzou program? They are worse than before he got to town.

 

[TheWayITellEm]

I'm counting on Alberts to make a nice hire next year to give us legit hope that we can be more than Minnesota, on our good days.

If it's the former, we should recover pretty quickly. If it's the latter, we have likely become Minnesota.

I assume you mean the pre-Fleck Minnesota....which was never better than 5-3 in conference since 1973. Fleck's last 2 full seasons are 7-2 and 6-3.

 

[Lincoln100]

I assume you mean the pre-Fleck Minnesota....which was never better than 5-3 in conference since 1973. Fleck's last 2 full seasons are 7-2 and 6-3.

No, current

 

[Denvrhuskr]

I have been absent from this board since the day Alberts announced that Frost was being retained. I lost all hope for the near future of Husker football and decided that I had better things to do with my time than waste another second on this sad football program. My thinking was that we will have a bad recruiting year this year, another losing season and another bad recruiting year next year, followed by a fired coach, and a new coach who would be saddled with two straight horrible recruiting years and a sixth straight losing season. I am still worried about that scenario and I still think Husker football is in a world of hurt right now, but I have now come to the view that Alberts did the right thing. In fact, I think he did the only smart thing he could have done. Given how many high profile coaching vacancies opened up this year the chances of us landing a P5 head coach with a proven track record were slim. And I think that hiring a hot shot coordinator, though not always bad, is just rolling the dice with an unproven head coach yet again.

We now have some excellent new coaches and I would love it if they would make Busch a full time ST coach. That would mean no running backs coach but one of the other coaches could probably do double duty and coach them. But the bottom line is we have a much easier schedule next year and some excellent new coaches and we still have some talent in the cupboard. Getting a portal QB and replacing Jurgens are essential. But there is some hope for next year and if Frost turns this thing around next season, then Albert's will emerge from this looking like the only adult AD in the country with a lick of sense.

That’s been my perspective all along. Not at all happy with the results in the field the last few years. But I felt like there was progress made this year despite the record, with very obvious issues still left to fix.

I really like the hires he made. It appears they are addressing specialists And yes, I completely agree that Busch needs to be retained as special teams coach.

Recruiting obviously has not been up to par this year, but transfers can mitigate that issue. We need to play sound football next year. Win some games, get to a bowl and get some momentum and confidence back in the program.

To me, it seemed like he best approach. Obviously had the hiring process gone differently, it may have backfired. I suppose it still could. But the buyout was reduced. So if we need to move on from frost, it will cost us less next year.

I would imagine a proactive A.D. may be having some back room conversations with some agents as well. And/or other possible scenarios for what to do if we have to move away from Frost.

 

[grayhairedfreak]

That's the problem, Frost was supposed to be an offensive genius, and maybe he is, but he doesn't know how to make it work. So now we clip his nuts and start this narrative of "he's going to be the CEO of blah blah blah." Is he a CEO ? He's not a leader, he's a positions coach / coordinator who we are trying to dress up to look like a head coach. Winning 7 games and going to a bowl game is an improvement only because of the disaster of the last 4 years. If we get to 7 (because of an easy schedule) it is fools gold. It all stems on getting a QB that is a winner and has fire to rally the team? How about expecting that from a coach? I'm counting on Alberts to make a nice hire next year to give us legit hope that we can be more than Minnesota, on our good days.

I agree with this take. In his heart of hearts I don't think Frost WANTS to be a CEO. He wants to call plays and design offenses. That is the job of an OC, but he can't bring himself to go backwards (yet). Do what you love, love what you do. Don't have to be the head guy to be happy.

 

[Husker Hambone]

Good post.

I don't think Frost should have been retained. He has been given time and resources to field a decent team an has not done so.

I think he should have been given the opportunity to rehab his career at YSU or somewhere similar.

But I'll still support the program. Hope we win em all next year.

I disagree with the narrative that there were so many openings we just wouldn't have been able to find someone. For the following reasons:

1) it's likely there will be just as many openings next season. Possibly more. College football landscape is changing rapidly.

2) if there are fewer openings next season, that means there are fewer targets in play

IMHO, either TA thinks Frost's replacement is not available until after next season OR the powers that be have had enough of paying huge $$$ to coaches who don't coach here any longer.

If it's the former, we should recover pretty quickly. If it's the latter, we have likely become Minnesota.

Becoming Minnesota would be an upgrade. We are at the bottom of a winnable division. A competent coach would have had this team at minimum in the middle of the big ten west division this season. What a waste of talent this year.

 

[inthedeed]

it's like promoting one of the least productive employees in your room to lead your company and expect great results at the end of each year. might happen in spite of your leader for a while but dont expect long term positive results.
on the positive side we are at the bottom of the pile with an easy schedule in 22

 

[Mack In Motion]

I assume you mean the pre-Fleck Minnesota....which was never better than 5-3 in conference since 1973. Fleck's last 2 full seasons are 7-2 and 6-3.

Nope. I'm afraid the new standard is those kind of results.

 

[Baxter48_rivals204143]

Exactly. We just need to frankly admit that NU football is in a really tough spot these days. Our brand is severely tarnished to the point of non existence, we are in a bad recruiting area demographically, and we have suffered through the worst seven year stretch in the modern history of NU football. Everyone is on TV now. Everyone has money. Everyone has great facilities. And lots and lots of teams have excellent coaching staffs. It is much harder to rebuild a program like Nebraska's than it used to be and you better hire a damn, damn good coach - - a "sure thing" hire - - or you are just going to be back in the same situation. And we all thought Frost was that "sure thing" hire four years ago. And that only goes to show how any coaching change is a roll of the dice. That there are no "sure thing" hires, short of paying Saban 30 million a year to come here. We all have poked fun, mercilessly, at the "we are so close" mantra. But in reality we were a good QB away this year from winning nine games or more. And so there is hope that getting new coaches and a new QB can get us over the hump. That might just be whistling past the graveyard, pollyanna optimism, but it really does seem that it is our best bet. I think Alberts made the right call and that is hard for me to admit since I was really ready for the only time in my entire life to just give up on NU football after Trev announced he was keeping Frost.

Good to have you back, I took off this past summer to think carefully ponder about frost and Nebraska football I also wanted frost fired, but it didn’t happen, now either trev can predict the future and saw all the coaching changes or he rolled the dice and didn’t fire frost gave him one more year which IMO looks pretty smart now God only knows who we might have hired with the coaching carousel it might have been worse I know how much worse could it get with a new coach possibly 0-12 with a lot of players leaving. Not much can do with Trevs decision but I’m somewhat optimistic about next season not worried about 2023 these players just need some confidence once they realize they can beat a Illinois Minnesota Iowa 2023 will shape up a lot better

 

[oldjar07]

I was not a fan of retaining Frost either and I am still in deep doubt that it will work out. Even Alberts said that there are few examples of such a situation working out. My point is that the pool of available candidates for a good coach was going to be very small this year. I think Alberts made the only reasonable decision in the face of that. You can fire one lousy coach and hire another lousy coach out of desperation and that is not good. We have endured twenty years of that ****.

This is false. There were plenty of good coaches out there, even more than we expected.

 

[Anon1727835823]

I'm confused. If Whipple is OC and coaching QBs, doesn't that free up a dedicated QB coach spot for special teams?

no. Lubick was OC/WR. Mickey is "just" WR.

 

[oldjar07]

Good post.

I don't think Frost should have been retained. He has been given time and resources to field a decent team an has not done so.

I think he should have been given the opportunity to rehab his career at YSU or somewhere similar.

But I'll still support the program. Hope we win em all next year.

I disagree with the narrative that there were so many openings we just wouldn't have been able to find someone. For the following reasons:

1) it's likely there will be just as many openings next season. Possibly more. College football landscape is changing rapidly.

2) if there are fewer openings next season, that means there are fewer targets in play

IMHO, either TA thinks Frost's replacement is not available until after next season OR the powers that be have had enough of paying huge $$$ to coaches who don't coach here any longer.

If it's the former, we should recover pretty quickly. If it's the latter, we have likely become Minnesota.

We would have had the jump on a lot of other schools when searching for a new coach if we chose to go that route. Competition from other schools for a coach is a cop out excuse if TA really doesn't believe in Frost.

 

[oldjar07]

This post is spot on… And I wasn’t in favor of retaining SF but with the new hires that look like good hires and thinking the same thing this isn’t the year to be hiring someone we might not be happy with like when SE fired Pelini and hired Smiley Riley..

Mike Riley was a retarded hire. You'd have to try to fail to hire a coach that bad.

 

[nu2u]

This is false. There were plenty of good coaches out there, even more than we expected.

I agree. The pool of available good candidates is not "small" this year ..... or any year for that matter. A head coaching position at a Big Ten program, especially Nebrqaska, is very appealing and is certain to attract serious interest from a multitude of good coaches at all levels from accross the country. It s silly to claim otherwise.

 

[timnsun]

There will always be good coaches available. But look at the high profile openings this year… LSU, Oklahoma, USC, Notre Dame, Florida State, Miami, Oregon…

When was the last time 3 Blue Bloods were hiring at the same time? It’s debatable, but Nebraska could easily have been 8th just among these schools named. So give me your top 8 coaches and we will settle for number 8. Is that guy good enough or will the masses on this board complain incessantly about the hire?

My guess is the latter…

 

[pharvey0829]

There is not only no hope for next year, bit there is no hope for the year following. Worst case scenario, frost meets whatever secret metrics deal they got, gets to stick around for next year, and then goes back to 3 or 4 wins. He ain't the future. I am counting on the idea that TA gave him another year to save the university a ton of money, and because he didnt have a solid choice lined up, with the intent of getting rid of him at the end of 2022.

Perhaps, but maybe Frost has a 9-3 or a 10-2 season next year and saves his job.

 

[pharvey0829]

Mike Riley was a retarded hire. You'd have to try to fail to hire a coach that bad.

Perhaps Eichorst was a closet Wisconsin fan, that might explain the Mike Riley hire.