Gotta admit the weird COVID season plays into it.
What exactly do you do with that "free" extra year?
If you're a four year starter on a team with four losing seasons, is your return for an unprecedented fifth season an asset or liability?
For a lot of guys, that's actually a sixth season of hard core practicing and conditioning for a football career that will be over immediately, as they have no future in the NFL.
If you really are close to success and you're a band of brothers and you love your coach, maybe you do commit to Scott Frost's Nebraska for a final redemptive season. But the pragmatist would advise against it. Teams with four consecutive losing seasons have to believe they're really not that bad, and coaches have no choice but to coach them up. But maybe they really aren't good enough, as the evidence suggests.
Part of me thinks Adrian Martinez should be a little embarrassed to come back for a fifth year, understanding his ample chances to prove himself and the need for the program to groom his successor. His best opportunity is to prove himself at another program, and Scott Frost might be doing Adrian a favor.
But I also wouldn't dismiss the rumors of a larger toxic culture in Scott's program as mere clickbait by s#!t-stirring sports writers. At this point there's enough smoke to be legitimately concerned.