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I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around what happened in Ann Arbor, and mainly this entire season. There are so many thoughts, excuses, justifications, doubts which continue to swirl in my brain that it is just going to result in word vomit. So here we go.
And just so we are clear, this is word vomit. Not coherent thoughts.
Would we be in this position had the Akron game not been rained out?
And by “position” I mean looking completely inept against Michigan. I had a feeling that there was so much anticipation surrounding Scott Frost’s first game and when it ended up getting rained out that the fan base and the team appeared to be in a funk leading up to the Colorado game. Then we make all the mistakes everybody knows about and Adrian Martinez gets hurt. We lose. Then we have Andrew Bunch try and win against a scrappy Troy team. He doesn’t. So now we are 0-2 in like 2 million years and heading into a Michigan team with a great defense and we crap the bed.
So if we played Akron, would we have had the mistakes (knocking off the rust) against Colorado which led to the loss and then maybe Martinez doesn’t get his leg twisted and thus we don’t lose to Troy and we go into Ann Arbor with a 3-0 record and maybe actually show up like we want to be there.
It’s an excuse. A bad one, but still...I wonder.
Is the “losing culture” so engrained in the program that the “culture” is fighting back at Scott Frost and the staff and they are fighting two battles at once?
It keeps coming up. It appears that the staff believes that there are players that don’t want to be here. Or don’t want to make the proper commitment. Frost made the comment that the players that leave were never really here in the first place.
Brutal. I like it. But still.
Is that our best justification for the lack of quality football since the Colorado game? I mean there was OBVIOUS improvement from last season in the game against Colorado. I mean it was obvious to everybody else right?
So what happened? It literally disappeared. It was non-existent against Troy and against Michigan it went in reverse.
Is the “losing culture” fighting back?
Is that a ridiculous thought? Probably. I don’t know.
The coaching staff has a lot to do with what has happened right?
Is half the team upset with how the coaching staff handled the quarterback situation? The players saw that once a true freshman quarterback went down, that the offense stopped working.
Or did it stop working because once the true freshman quarterback got hurt that they stopped trying?
Either way, when Frost keeps bringing up the lack of buy-in or commitment by players, THEN WHY ARE THEY STILL PLAYING?
Are they still playing? That’s what I want to know.
But this special teams squad is one of the worst in the country, if not the worst and the quality of play has actually been declining since the first game.
It doesn’t make sense. Is that coaching? Is it the players?
Is it both?
Doesn’t it feel like for this entire season that anything that could go wrong has gone wrong?
And it just keeps happening.
On that punt return attempt by Tyjon Lindsey where he coughed up the ball I yelled out to my empty living room.
“IT KEEPS HAPPENING!”
Like there are mistakes. And then there are just really dumb mistakes that seem to happen one time a season to a team. And those really dumb mistakes seem to be happening several times a game to Nebraska this year.
It’s like the 2009 Iowa State game all year long so far.
So instead of getting mad next week after Barret Pickering hands the ball off to a Purdue player like a jet sweep, just yell “IT KEEPS HAPPENING!”
Why can’t Scott Frost put a competent team on the field while building this program up the right way?
Is it back to the culture? Is it that once we make a mistake that is appears to snowball on this team and that speaks to a mentality among the players?
Or is Scott Frost just not pushing the right buttons right now?
Or maybe the buttons he is pushing is more for the long term and not for those players that don’t want to buy in?
I don’t know.
I keep hearing that Frost isn’t just changing the paint on the program, he’s putting in a new frame and gutting the entire thing. I’m not saying this isn’t true, but is it an excuse?
I sure hope it is true, because ask yourself...what if it isn’t true? Those are some scary implications.
Am I the only one that wonders if Nebraska fans just deserve the past 20 years of misery?
Josh Peterson of Unsportsmanlike Conduct jokes that maybe Osborne sold his soul for the 1994 championship.
Maybe he didn’t.
Maybe Osborne sold the soul of the Nebraska fanbase for those championships and have been paying for it ever since.
Maybe we are almost done .
Hopefully.
I think we can start with this after the beatdown Nebraska experienced on Saturday. You know it is bad when the Wendy’s twitter account takes notice.
Might need a Scott Frosty to ice down the beating Nebraska is taking.#FreshFanReaction
— Wendy's (@Wendys) September 22, 2018
Patience, Husker fans, even if latest loss wasn’t necessarily rock bottom - Steven Sipple: Lincoln Journal-Star
If you’re a Nebraska football fan, you’re perhaps tired of people telling you to be patient.
But you’re going to have to be patient if you’re staying with this big red ship. A simple acknowledgment might go a long way toward helping you cope:
Being patient often sucks. Remember that. It surely sucked during an otherwise gorgeous Saturday in the Big House.
Frost: Huskers ‘got their butt whipped’ across the board in Big House blowout - Parker Gabriel: Lincoln Journal-Star
The calendar hasn’t yet turned to October, but the Big House on Saturday afternoon quickly became a house of horrors for visiting Nebraska.
Who knows where this Huskers team will be by Halloween, but right now must feel a bit nightmarish for coach Scott Frost’s first team.
There Are No Shortcuts, Even with Scott Frost at the Helm - Brandon Vogel: Hail Varsity
“I thought this was going to be a tough game,” said the Michigan professor sitting next to me in the press box on Saturday. This was at 12:31 p.m., just 31 actual minutes into a nightmare of an afternoon for Nebraska. The game clock showed there was still 8:58 left in the first quarter, 14-0 Michigan.
Did Michigan Remember Frost’s 2016 Comments? Well, 56-10. - Derek Peterson: Hail Varsity
Wyatt Miller, a redshirt senior right tackle for Central Florida, and Chase Winovich, a fifth-year senior defensive lineman for Michigan, are close. Winovich calls Miller one of his best friends.
So, in 2016, when the Knights traveled to Ann Arbor for a date with the Wolverines and their coach, Scott Frost, said UCF outhit Michigan despite losing 51-14, Miller made sure to let Winovich hear about it.
Frost expects Saturday to be the low point as program builds - Brian Christopherson: Nebraska 24/7
Nebraska football fans have felt like they’ve hit the bottom a few times in recent years. Or, at least, they hoped that was the bottom.
But as the Scott Frost era goes, the Husker coach believes Saturday was his team planting into the ground as deep as it can go. He told his team as much after a 56-10 loss to Michigan that frankly reads more kind to Nebraska than much of the game appeared.
Michigan used Scott Frost as fuel for blowout win - Trevor Woods: Maize N’ Brew
The Michigan Wolverines would have won this game by a good margin anyway, but it appears Nebraska head coach Scott Frost motivated the team quite a bit heading into Saturday’s tilt. The game ended with Michigan coming out on top 56-10.
As head coach of Central Florida in 2016, Frost said that his team “outhit” Michigan despite losing the game 51-14.
And now first lets start with very relevant thoughts from the Michigan players
Josh Metellus on Nebraska “we just knew they wanted to give up” pic.twitter.com/y8x0LSiA3E
— angelique (@chengelis) September 22, 2018
Winovich said it seemed at times it seemed Nebraska didn’t want to be out there pic.twitter.com/G6orL4d7OM
— angelique (@chengelis) September 22, 2018
Seeing the postgame comments from Michigan about Huskers "not wanting to be out there" are obviously disturbing. It is also obvious that a "quitters/losers" mindset is still infecting the program.
— John M. Bishop (@JohnBishop71) September 22, 2018
John elaborates some after the that as well
Alright on to the other tweets
Nebraska's had two turnovers in the first quarter of every game this season.
— Christopher Heady (@heady_chris) September 22, 2018
Nebraska fans: “Well at least it can’t get any worse.”
— Michael Sholes (@mlsholes) September 22, 2018
Football gods: “Hold my beer.”
Rinse.
Repeat.
Stanley Morgan first to congratulate Huskers coming off field after team’s first TD.
— Steven M. Sipple (@HuskerExtraSip) September 22, 2018
Wyatt Mazour and Andrew Bunch have 43 rushing yards. Nebraska as a team has 41 rushing yards. Yes you read that right.
— Christopher Heady (@heady_chris) September 22, 2018
Okay. Now about those Special Teams
Car now in flames for Husker special teams.
— Brian Christopherson (@Husker247BC) September 22, 2018
Nebraska’s special teams is truly the worst I’ve ever seen.
— Josh Peterson (@joshtweeterson) September 22, 2018
If you’re playing the Nebraska football drinking game you’re not even reading this b/c you’re dead.
— Corey Lathrop (@cjlathrop) September 22, 2018
Special teams: Frost said same mistakes keep happening, which means, at this point, certain players either can’t do it or won’t, and changes may be coming.
— Sam McKewon (@swmckewonOWH) September 22, 2018
Thoughts from Frost
Frost opens postgame by saying, “I honestly believe this is going to be the bottom.”
— Steven M. Sipple (@HuskerExtraSip) September 22, 2018
“We’re really going to find out who loves football and who loves each other. “
Frost isn’t worried about guys “jumping ship” but said in terms of guys being 100 percent committed, he hasn’t seen that yet.
— Christopher Heady (@heady_chris) September 22, 2018
Frost said Thursday practice wasn’t good. NU missed details then, which didn’t bode well for Saturday. #huskers
— Sam McKewon (@swmckewonOWH) September 22, 2018
Frost gave a lot of credit to Michigan but also said multiple times that if something is still going wrong after three games it’s either, “because a guy can’t do it or won’t do it.” Said NU will continue to try to find the best options at every position. #Huskers
— Parker Gabriel (@HuskerExtraPG) September 22, 2018
Frost: "We're not giving up, we're going to get this thing right." #Huskers
— Thor Tripp (@ThorTripp) September 22, 2018
The Most Self-Serving and Idiotic Tweet of the Day
A lot of people said Nebraska was too big, too strong for Michigan. That you can’t beat Big Red. That Scott Frost was untouchable. Watch out for the Black Shirts they said. They were wrong. This is a massacre. I love proving the doubters wrong. #GoBlue
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) September 22, 2018
Frost on if players start jumping ship: “The ones we’ll lose are the ones we never had.”
— Christopher Heady (@heady_chris) September 22, 2018
IS THIS A SILVER LINING????
#MichiganMan #smelfie pic.twitter.com/enSPOZXJHJ
— John M. Bishop (@JohnBishop71) September 23, 2018