Nebraska Football’s Second Bye Week: Hope? Where I’m Going There Is No Hope.

The bye-week is a perfect time for what random thoughts. They could all be wrong. They could all be right. Or maybe somewhere in between.

During my last bye-week article I said there has been obvious progress. I am thinking that I may have been wrong. It sure looks like it. Maybe Nebraska has had to take a couple steps back in order to take some steps forward?

This is where I am right now. Trying to rationalize what is going with this program.

I am fully confident that Scott Frost is going to get it done. Will hard decisions have to be made in order to get that done? Those decision could include finding some new assistant coaches. It could also include changing the way that they do things. He will have to look at what he does from each and every angle.

Martinez will have to fight for his job next year. This is a good thing. It should make Martinez better. It is also a reflection of the increased talent in the quarterback room. Luke McCaffrey, Noah Vedral and Logan Smothers. We know we have three capable quarterbacks right now. We will find out what Logan Smothers has to offer and from all indications it sounds like he is going to be a stud.

Last week against Purdue was the first time I thought that Coach Frost should have considered taking Martinez out. This is assuming that Noah Vedral was healthy, which might be a poor assumption.

Coach Frost did not go out of his way to defend the play of Adrian Martinez after the game yesterday. He defaulted to the, “I gotta watch the film” response, which could be completely legitimate. However, earlier this year he was more much willing to defend Martinez after the game.

Martinez is obviously not himself. Probably both mentally and physically. I don’t know if he’s seeing and feeling ghosts. Regardless, his play need to improve dramatically. If it doesn’t then Luke McCaffrey could have something to say about it next year.

Martinez missed multiple throws against Purdue which likely would have been the difference between a win or a loss. I hope the best for him and want him to return to his normal self.

Nebraska very easily could be 7-2. If Nebraska finishes drives and games then they would have beaten Colorado, Indiana and Purdue. I believe that. Their only losses would be to two undefeated teams in Ohio State and Minnesota.

Walk down the road for me if you will. If everything were to stay the same EXCEPT Nebraska scores one more touchdown against Colorado early in the second half, doesn’t get a personal foul against Indiana, and finishes the Darrion Daniels interception with a touchdown then Nebraska likely wins those games. If those three things happen, they would still have issues up and down the roster. There would still be questions regarding coaching decisions and whether certain assistants need to be fired. There would be concerns about the future of the program. Those would all still be there.

But they would also be 7-2 instead of 4-5.

That is absolutely nuts.

Of course, if “ifs, ands and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a great Christmas.” So it doesn’t really matter what could have happened. We all simply know what did happen.

They lost those games and unless they upset Iowa or Wisconsin, they likely will not be going to a bowl game for the third straight year.

Please don’t compare the Scott Frost situation to Willie Taggart. After learning about the firing of Willie Taggart by Florida State I received multiple messages from people who were concerned about the safety of Scott Frost’s job.

If Florida State was willing to fire Willie Taggart after less than 2 years on the job, then surely Nebraska could fire Scott Frost.

I don’t think the situations are comparable.

First let’s start with a picture of a Florida State home game against Louisville this season.

Does that look like Nebraska? No, nothing like it.

Also as Bruce Feldman, of The Athletic, wrote the following about the Florida State job:

This is a big job, but it does have some sizable challenges. One coach who I would’ve seen as a viable option told me that when you fire a coach before two years are up, that means you have some problems, and that deterred him. Neither the school president nor athletic director are expected to be in place long-term. There’s also some dysfunction with booster structure. But that won’t keep some hot coaching names from being very interested.

That again does not appear to be like a description of Nebraska. The only similarity is that they are both second-year coaches.

Also Willie Taggart’s first head coaching job was at Western Kentucky. His first season they went 2-10. His second season he went 7-5. Third season he went 7-5. He then got the job at South Florida. Again, first season he went 2-10. Then went 4-8. Then 8-5 and lastly 10-2.

His first season at Oregon he went 7-5 and then took the job at Florida State.

Contrast with Scott Frost. In his first head coaching job he went 6-7 in his first year after the year before they went 0-12. Then in his second year they went 13-0.

Those are two completely different situations. Add in that Scott Frost is a Nebraska alum and Taggart was not a Florida State alum.

The only thing they have in common is that they were both second year coaches this year.

I believe that if Scott Frost was actually an alum of Western Michigan that his job still would not be in jeopardy. He is following Mike Riley who many believe sent this program into a nose-dive. Add that he was the universal national coach of the year two years ago.

Scott Frost is not Willie Taggart.

Frost and his coaching staff have completely butchered the use of the 4-game redshirt rule.

Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald said on the radio that maybe this 4-game redshirt rule might not be such a great thing. He might have a point. Especially when Rhamir Johnson has burned two of his redshirt games by only playing one play in each game.

Why couldn’t they throw Brody Belt into the game for that one snap? Maybe they thought they would get a first down and then Rhamir Johnson would stay in? I don’t know. I just know that if we have a kid that supposedly could help us this year but you still want to redshirt him then maybe don’t burn two of the games by using him for only one snap.

If you’re going to lose anyways, you might as well lose with kids that have bought into your culture.

If there is still issues with some of these older players buying-in then maybe go with the kids that are your future. It isn’t like you are winning anyways.

I am 100% with Scott Frost.

I have zero concern about whether he can turn this thing about. It has been a more painful process than I expected, but if that’s what we have to go through to get where we want to go then so be it.

A Poll Question

When I was receiving messages about people being concerned about Scott Frost’s status as a coach I had an idea. The idea was that we could put out a poll asking simply “Should Scott Frost be fired?” The results would be overwhelmingly “No.” I would expect that it could hover around 95% of respondents would vote no. Then I could use that poll to show that there is no reason for people to be concerned about Frost’s employment.

HOWEVER, there likely would be a firestorm of people on Twitter and Facebook saying things like “HOW DARE CORN NATION EVEN POSE SUCH A QUESTION!”

So instead of posting it on twitter, I just want to hide it away at the bottom of a bye-week article. I will be interested in the results. If they are what I expect them to be then the people are concerned can see there is no reason to be concerned.

Am I going to regret this? We shall find out, but I hope this explanation stops any firestorm from happening as nobody at Corn Nation or any fans that I have heard from think he should be fired.

Well (doing the sign of the cross) here we go.