By Jordan Long
The college football season started this past Saturday. One of the biggest games of the day featured Nebraska taking on Northwestern in Ireland. Northwestern won by the final score of 31-28. With this loss, the hot seat for Nebraska’s Head Coach Scott Frost is only getting hotter.
Frost was hired as Nebraska’s Head Coach on December 2nd, 2017. In 2017, Frost finished a magical season as the Head Coach of the University of Central Florida where they ran the table, going 13-0. They won the Peach Bowl knocking off Auburn 34-27. Nebraska anticipated Frost would turn the football program back into a winner.
This was a dream job for Frost. He spent 1996 and 1997 as the quarterback for Nebraska. Unfortunately, his tenure has turned into a nightmare. Nebraska has a record of 15-30 with Frost as Head Coach. The problem is his teams haven’t finished games well. In 1 score games, Nebraska is a disappointing 5-21 under him including Saturday’s game.
Against Northwestern this past Saturday, it was more of the same. Nebraska held a 28-17 lead with 9:09 left in the 3rd quarter when they scored a touchdown on a 46-yard touchdown run by running back Anthony Grant. On the ensuing kickoff, Nebraska made a perplexing call. For some reason they tried an onside kick that was recovered by Northwestern sparking Northwestern to outscore Nebraska 14-0 the rest of the way.
According to ESPN, Frost said, “I made that call, so it’s on me. At that point in the game, I felt all the momentum was on our side. I thought if we [recovered] it, we could win the game. … I felt like maybe we were the better team. You can’t really foresee them scoring 14 straight and us sputtering after we played well to start the second half on offense.”
Frost could be let go at any time this year. He hasn’t turned Nebraska into a winning football program. In fact, prior to this year, Nebraska’s last bowl appearance was in 2016. The year is still young so they could improve and reach that bowl game.
If Frost fails to coach this team to a winning record then it might be time to go a different direction. The only problem with this is Frost’s contract goes through the 2026 season or 4 more years. The buyout on his contract is $15 million if he is let go before October 1st. If he is fired after October 1st, his buyout number is $7.5 million.
Nebraska’s next game is September 3rd when they host North Dakota State. They will resume Big 10 play on October 1st against Indiana. Nebraska has been patient with Frost. Another losing season and changes will be coming to the Nebraska football program which will undoubtedly cost Frost his job.
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