CBS Sports: It's clear Nebraska is poised for quick success with Scott Frost

[junior4949]

True about the HC experience.  But also 13 years assistant coaching and GA experience.  Plus 5 years in the NFL.  That's a lot of time spent around football.  

That said, I think there are a LOT of Husker fans who have unreasonable expectations about the rate at which SF will turn things around in Lincoln.  Just sayin.. 

I think what a lot of people forget with regards to Frost is the people he was surrounded by while actually playing football.  As a player, he was around some of the best coaches to ever coach the game.  As a coach, he's been around some good coaches.  As a player, he was around some of the absolute best. 

I tend to agree that the expectations are unreasonable.  Under the last two regimes, the roster management wasn't great.  It's going to take a while to get the roster up to snuff. 

 

[Saunders]

"People better get us now," Frost said at one point, "because we're going to keep getting better."

 

[Fru]

Make a bowl game this year. Be in the hunt for the Division next year. Then hopefully have things rolling by 2020 and 2021. 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

There's a good chance we may be overvaluing the difficulty of the schedule in some areas. Many of us having been staring at this schedule for years with some apprehension and anxiety, but once the team is in the thick of it, it's possible it may not be as bad as anticipated.

That said, I think the reality is that the five (presumably) toughest games on the schedule as of today are all on the road, and road games are inherently more difficult as a norm. I think the narrative would be a little different were these games more balanced between home and away.

I hear what you are saying about road games, but Northwestern isn't a tough road environment, and NU has won every game there since joining the Big Ten.  Michigan is a tough team, but it's not historically a tough place to play.  The "Big House" isn't actually intimidating.  Iowa does have a good home field advantage, but I think playing them at the end of the season is going to be a big help for Frost.  This could be way off, but I think NU will be playing it's best football at the end of the season.  I see this season very similar to 2008 (Bo's first season).  That team peaked at the end of the season, winning it's final 3 games of the regular season and bowl game.

 

[Ulty]

I'm also at the point in my Husker fandom, after seeing the journey from Osborne thru Riley, that if Frost can't get the job done at Nebraska and restore us to glory (or at least respectability), then perhaps no one can. Too pessimistic? Probably. But from that standpoint, Scott Frost's plan MUST work. It's too good of a story not to.

To quote Back to the Future Part 2:

Marty: "What if we don't succeed?"

Doc: "We must succeed."

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I'm also at the point in my Husker fandom, after seeing the journey from Osborne thru Riley, that if Frost can't get the job done at Nebraska and restore us to glory (or at least respectability), then perhaps no one can. Too pessimistic? Probably. But from that standpoint, Scott Frost's plan MUST work. It's too good of a story not to.

 

[HuskerInLostWages]

It will be a building season, but I think we beat Michigan, their coach is too c$%ky and thinks he's good. We wont upset OSU and I think we beat Northwestern, and Iowa.  Wisconsin might be close but who knows.  I expect a bowl game at 6-6 but I think we win 8 this season because teams simply don't know what to expect out of us.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

We are only one season removed from a 9 win season, on a team where attitude, discipline, scheme and coaching were coonsidered major culprits, as the talent didn't suddenly fall of a cliff. 

And at the time, 9 wins was the bare minimum expectation for Mike Riley. 

But perhaps it's unrealistic to expect the same from Scott Frost.

So I'm going with 8 wins.  

 

[Enhance]

I hear what you are saying about road games, but Northwestern isn't a tough road environment, and NU has won every game there since joining the Big Ten.  Michigan is a tough team, but it's not historically a tough place to play.  The "Big House" isn't actually intimidating.  Iowa does have a good home field advantage, but I think playing them at the end of the season is going to be a big help for Frost.  This could be way off, but I think NU will be playing it's best football at the end of the season.  I see this season very similar to 2008 (Bo's first season).  That team peaked at the end of the season, winning it's final 3 games of the regular season and bowl game.

Agreed on Northwestern's environment. My viewpoint is they're going to be a tough team and it's on the road so, despite history, it may still prove to be a tough outing for us. As for Michigan, I've heard mixed reports of people saying it's tough or that it's really not as bad as one might anticipate. Either way, I think the bigger concern is their defense more than the venue.

I'm on board with your final thoughts, though. I think Nebraska will be playing their best ball come the end of the season and may have a tough go of things in October.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I keep hearing that the schedule is 'BRUTAL", but I still don't see it that way.  Yes, at Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio State are going to be very tough games, but I still see Northwestern, Iowa, and Michigan State as very winnable games, especially considering the final month of the season is when I expect NU to be playing the best football (unless the team is decimated by injuries).

Everyone needs to read this...

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Agreed on Northwestern's environment. My viewpoint is they're going to be a tough team and it's on the road so, despite history, it may still prove to be a tough outing for us. 

I keep hearing that year after year, but is Northwestern that "tough of a team".  Hear me out.  Northwestern has had good records and has beaten NU a number of times since NU has joined the Big Ten.  But, I think those Nebraska losses were more due to coaching incompetence and mistakes.  Northwestern is not going to "out-talent" Nebraska, or a lot of teams in the Big Ten.  Where Northwestern wins games is by keeping the scores relatively close and counting on the other team to make a mistake, and capitalize on that mistake.  The worst NU team in the past 60 years should have beaten Northwestern last year.  NU was up by a TD with the ball in easy FG range.  If Riley runs the ball up the middle 3 times, NU probably makes a FG and goes up by 10, and NU wins.

I say all that because Nebraska has hired a coach which should be smart enough and have the team play better so Nebraska isn't giving away football games.  There may be an adjustment period in 2018, and there may be mistake-filled games that happen once a year, but isn't this why NU hired Scott Frost?  If Frost gets NU to the point where they are beating the teams NU should beat on a regular basis, that is the first step.  The next step is winning the toss-up games more often than not, and NU is a championship contender.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

We are only one season removed from a 9 win season, on a team where attitude, discipline, scheme and coaching were coonsidered major culprits, as the talent didn't suddenly fall of a cliff. 

And at the time, 9 wins was the bare minimum expectation for Mike Riley. 

But perhaps it's unrealistic to expect the same from Scott Frost.

So I'm going with 8 wins.  

That's where I am at this year, too.

 

[Enhance]

I keep hearing that year after year, but is Northwestern that "tough of a team".  Hear me out.  Northwestern has had good records and has beaten NU a number of times since NU has joined the Big Ten.  But, I think those Nebraska losses were more due to coaching incompetence and mistakes.  Northwestern is not going to "out-talent" Nebraska, or a lot of teams in the Big Ten.  Where Northwestern wins games is by keeping the scores relatively close and counting on the other team to make a mistake, and capitalize on that mistake.  The worst NU team in the past 60 years should have beaten Northwestern last year.  NU was up by a TD with the ball in easy FG range.  If Riley runs the ball up the middle 3 times, NU probably makes a FG and goes up by 10, and NU wins.

I say all that because Nebraska has hired a coach which should be smart enough and have the team play better so Nebraska isn't giving away football games.  There may be an adjustment period in 2018, and there may be mistake-filled games that happen once a year, but isn't this why NU hired Scott Frost?  If Frost gets NU to the point where they are beating the teams NU should beat on a regular basis, that is the first step.  The next step is winning the toss-up games more often than not, and NU is a championship contender.

While I mostly agree with your interpretation of Northwestern, I think 2018 is going to be that year where it's tough to say what you're going to get week-to-week, similar to your second paragraph. I'm predicting they'll win seven games but am preparing for the possibility of only five or six wins. For the record, I don't believe the latter will happen, but I still think this team's floor could be around five wins especially if major injuries happen.

If you subscribe to the rule of thirds in sports (i.e. a team will play 1/3 of their games above potential, 1/3 at potential and 1/3 below potential), Nebraska's ceiling or their 'above potential' is probably going to be at its lowest point in year one. Playing above their potential may be roughly akin to other teams' normal potential at this point. I feel confident that Nebraska will surpass most of the teams in their division under Frost but, in 2018 and without any games under their belt, something like Northwestern on the road is still a concern to me.

 

[knapplc]

We are only one season removed from a 9 win season, on a team where attitude, discipline, scheme and coaching were coonsidered major culprits, as the talent didn't suddenly fall of a cliff. 

And at the time, 9 wins was the bare minimum expectation for Mike Riley. 

But perhaps it's unrealistic to expect the same from Scott Frost.

So I'm going with 8 wins.  

Was that 9-4 record because we had good players or because we played bad opponents?

Nebraska's best win that year was against 9-4 Minnesota, whose SOS was 65th in the nation. We played seven teams with a winning record and went 3-4. The nine teams we beat had a combined record of 47-67. Against teams above .500 we were outscored 154-210, and got beat by two or more TDs three times.

It's numbers like that that make me hesitate to get too giddy about wins & losses this year. I think everyone putting a number on wins is brave. It's hard to say what we'll see. All I'm expecting is more fight, different schemes, tons of procedural penalties, and some really fun football (at times). 

 

[NoLongerN]

I would normally tend to strongly agree, but before I can type it out he's gone out and accomplished something else. This transition to date has been so smooth and things are lining up so far ahead of schedule that I don't even know what reasonable means in this context anymore. 

This is true.

What I find humorous is the fan that thinks their "expectations" somehow should be taken into consideration.

The fact is that Frost has expectations and things he wants to accomplish that far exceed any Husker "fan". He is tied to the program far greater than any of us.

I've been a fan watching the Huskers since 1971-72 ... Frost wasn't even alive then ... and yet, he cares more and has a deeper connection to the program.