Dennis Dodd Absurdly Puts Scott Frost on His Coaching Hot Seat List

Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports published his annual Hot Seat Rankings. Out of 130 FBS football programs Dodd picked 11 coaches who had to show immediate improvement in 2020 (if there is a season) or they have to win in 2020. If they don’t then they will be fired.

Nebraska football fans likely would have seen the title of his article, “2020 Hot Seat Rankings: 11 college football coaches with their jobs on the line this season” and probably would have continued scrolling through twitter because there is no way that article would apply to their beloved program.

Except it did. It is the opinion of Dodd that Scott Frost has to win in 2020 or he will be fired. That is so far removed and not representative of the actual opinion of the people in power. Including Nebraska football fans.

Are fans disappointed in a four win season in 2018 and a five win season in 2019? Absolutely.

Scott Frost is not and should not be exempt from criticism. He is 3 - 9 in one score games at Nebraska. He has said some things publicly that he wishes he could have back and some of the personnel decisions have been questionable.

I could be talked into the fact that Nebraska should have won three to four more games in 2018 than it did. Nebraska probably should have won at least three more games than it did in 2019. They simply couldn’t close games and would make untimely mistakes.

Admittedly thoughts like that are essentially worthless. As some will say, you are what your record says you are.

Optimism used to flow through the Nebraska football program like water around a rock. It just kept coming. Nebraska fans could talk themselves into 8, 9, 10 win seasons. Looking back maybe we should have seen it coming. That optimism was probably a blinder to what actually was right in front of us.

What we have witnessed since Scott Frost took over the program appears to be comparable to stripping a car for it’s parts and building a new one. He isn’t taking a 2004 Ford Taurus and giving it an oil change. He is stripping the Taurus for a few parts hoping to build something completely different.

Nebraska fans know and understand this fact.

Bill Moos, Scott Frost’s boss, appears to be more keenly aware of this fact than anybody. He said he would have been satisfied with six wins in 2019. A couple weeks ago Moos, talking about the 2020 season, again said six wins would show improvement and that the program is heading in the right direction.

Before the 2019 season national writers were pegging Nebraska to win the division. A couple national commentators even picked the Huskers to win the Big 10 Conference and compete for a College Football Playoff.

They completely missed their mark while those around the program, including the local media, were reserved when it came to expectations for the 2019 season.

Maybe then, we shouldn’t be surprised when Dennis Dodd, another national writer, gets the situation at Nebraska wrong again.

Times are tough for people throughout the country. The same can be said for sports writers. They need clicks and one of the best ways to get clicks and reaction is to put Nebraska football on a list even if doing so is completely absurd.