Frost, Family, and Football

Nebraska…the climb back begins

When Nebraska hired Bo Pelini after firing Bill Callahan, I must admit, I chugged the Kool-Aid hard, betting that Pelini would bring Nebraska back to respectability. Come on, Tom Osborne was the athletic director at the time, this would breed success. All we needed was someone that knew the college game, would get with the program, recruit Nebraska kids, rekindle the walk on program and we would be set.

Did Pelini have some fire?  Sure, he did, and we needed that in the program at the time. Did Pelini have any head coaching experience? No, but he had been at Nebraska, he could rely on Osborne and I felt good about that.  That first game with Pelini on the sidelines, I just had a feeling that things were going to turn around and the Callahan era would evaporate and soon all would be right in college football. Nebraska had taken their lumps, but now we were ready to go.

At the end of the Pelini cycle, I knew it was inevitable that he would be fired.  You can’t challenge your boss time after time and expect things to continue onward, smooth and normal.  It was time to get rid of him and I wasn’t all that disappointed to see him go.

When Mike Riley was hired, at first, I really didn’t like the hire, but then, based on my knowledge of his time at USC, the fact that they had tried to rehire him as their coach and the fact that he had roots with Bear Bryant at Alabama, I thought, you know, maybe it will work out.  He certainly was the anti-Bo and I could appreciate that, but in the back of my mind, I really needed to see it on the field.

When Riley started with the BYU game, I wasn’t as excited as I was nervous.  We hadn’t lost our first game of the season in so long, I generally didn’t think anything of it before that day.  That day though, I was worried. Little did I know how prophetic that feeling was, as we lost on a Hail Mary and seemed like we were outcoached. It also seemed as if we were out hustled.  As the season wore on it didn’t increase my expectations, but we seemed to recruit well. I thought, maybe, but excitement never really was the term I’d use to describe the Riley era at Nebraska.  Mostly empty promises, a team that wasn’t well prepared and an apathy that was starting to set in.

I know I don’t just speak for myself, but probably most Husker fans when I say this season is different.  When Scott Frost was hired, I had some idea that it was going to happen, but we had been snake bit before with coaching hires and I knew it wasn’t a certainty that he would come home.  I wanted so bad to be excited about Husker football again, but until Coach Frost was on that camera wearing a red tie, I just couldn’t let myself get all wrapped up in it. I’d put my emotion into Pelini and if Frost had decided to stay in Florida or take the Tennessee job, I really feared what could happen if I let myself have too much hope.

The day did come though.  Frost was hired, and I don’t know if I had felt that much excitement about Husker football in a long time.  It rekindled something inside me that I didn’t know existed anymore. I’m not a spring chicken, my college years were spent watching kids my age win three national titles.  As a Husker fan, I knew I was spoiled by that. It was ok to be spoiled. I knew in my heart that I had lived a great Husker life and maybe that fire gets doused a little bit as you become a parent.  It doesn’t flicker as hot when you worry about work, your kids, your spouse, car payments, coaching youth basketball, parents passing away or any other part of your “life” that really isn’t about Husker football.

Bleedhuskerred.com

Frost has brought it out of me though.  Last Saturday I took my boys down to watch practice and I could feel it in the air.  There is an excitement again in Memorial Stadium. You can’t describe it, but you know it when you get in there.  On Sunday, I was so pumped, I knew I couldn’t wait for this Saturday. Monday came and finding out that Tristan Gebbia was leaving the program dampened the excitement for a bit, but then I thought, you know what, Coach Frost is still here.  He knows what this program is about.

The next thing you know, it’s Thursday and I don’t want to wait any longer!  It’s time for Husker football, it’s time to watch all that hard work that the coaching staff and the players have put into football, not just for themselves but for us.  Coach Frost understands that. For the first time in a long time, I understand it too. It’s about all of us. It’s about you, me, the players, the coaches, the administration, the state of Nebraska.  I don’t know about you, but I’m as excited as I was 20 years ago. It’s funny, Tom Osborne said he has that same feeling. Who knew!

On with the Rewind:

Adrian Martinez…As my good friend said, my prediction that Martinez was going to be the starter wasn’t really going out on a limb, it was either him or the other guy, I had a 50/50 shot to be right so I shouldn’t pat myself on the back.  Fair enough. What I do know is that a lot is riding on that young man to play well this year. I was surprised a little with Gebbia leaving, but I know how hard it is to be in college and not get what you want out of a sport you love.  I wouldn’t put myself in his category, but I transferred in college too for reasons that involved sports. Sometimes you need to look out for number one. I wish Gebbia had stayed, but it’s Martinez’s team now. I have a lot of faith in the young man, I wish him a long, healthy career at Nebraska.  

Defense…Looking back at last season’s team, the term Blackshirts really doesn’t fit anymore.  I think that defensive coordination Erik Chinander feels that way too. He wants the defense to earn that title back.  I think they will look much better this year. They are deep on the defensive line and they have enough linebackers that have experience that they should improve.  It won’t take much to do that from 2017, but we sure could use a 2009 like resurgence. Is that possible with this group? Only time will tell, but I’d like to at least get to the middle of the pack in the Big Ten this year.

Offensive Line…This is going to drive the bus for the Huskers this season.  If Greg Austin can get these cats on the same page, the offense has plenty of weapons to make teams suffer when Nebraska has the ball.  There isn’t a lot of developed depth on this line, but the interior of Jerald Foster, Cole Conrad and Tanner Farmer have a lot of starts on their resume.  If they are competent in the least, Martinez may not have to worry so much about what he can do when pressured. That would help a lot with the true freshman’s growth this season.

Scott Frost’s Playcalling…More than anything else, I’m excited for this.  We have had some decent offense since Coach Osborne roamed the sidelines, but Coach Frost seems to have a gift when it comes to getting the most out of an offense.  In today’s college football, that is the name of the game. Will his prowess on the headset be enough to bring the Huskers back to bowling this year? I think so, I’m very anxious to see it on Nebraska’s home turf instead of Oregon or Central Florida

Season’s Prediction…Like a lot of people, I’m going to hold my 10-2 guess in my back pocket and look to pull that out in 2019.  I’ll be the first to admit that I think Nebraska’s schedule is overrated, I don’t think it’s as difficult as some make it out to be.  Coach Riley has been competitive with most of the teams in the West division at one time or another in the last 3 years. If he can do it, I’m almost assuredly positive that Scott Frost can.  All of that in mind, I think that first year head coaches have a lot of things to climb over, and I’m guessing this team will end up around 7-5. It’s not that I don’t think they will be good, they may be, but there is so much unknown.  My goal for this team is to improve as the season goes on, don’t get blown out by more than four touchdowns in any game and give us a glimpse of an offense that will be top rate by next season. If the Huskers do that, I think we can all call this season a success. 8 wins would be gravy, any more than that, look out!

Score Prediction:     Nebraska 37 – Akron 14

Akron has some playmakers.  Their quarterback is super athletic and will look to make plays with his feet as much as his arm.  I would bet though, Akron won’t have seen a stadium quite like this one. It’s Scott Frost’s opening game, it’s going to be super amped.  I expect it to be a mad house and I expect Nebraska to come away clean. I’ll say 37-14, but If it’s a wider margin than that, Martinez will have had a great game and the team will be further ahead than I thought.  I hope that’s the case and my score is WAY off. Let’s get this thing started already! GBR!!!

End of Summer Means the First Frost of Fall

Looky there! Football Season is Almost Here!

That was quick.  I was just at the spring game when the Scott Frost hype was hitting its apex, new offense, new quarterbacks, new everything.  Spring couldn’t have come at a better time. Husker football needed a rebirth and it got one. It seems like it was a lifetime ago when Mike Riley was fired and the search for a replacement was on.  Be honest with yourself, was there really any choice other than Scott Frost? It’s a match made in Husker Heaven, the proverbial chosen one coming home to right the wrongs of the last 17 years. Scott Frost was around when things worked at Nebraska and he says that he is going to work to deliver that back to the Husker Faithful.

It is easy to get caught up in all the hoopla.  After all, Coach Frost just took on all comers at Central Florida, finishing undefeated and then brought the entire staff with him to Nebraska to do in Lincoln what he just did in Orlando.  We all know it is a different bird at Nebraska that it is at UCF, but we also know that Nebraska isn’t that far off the competitive map. In fact, just two seasons ago, Nebraska went to Madison, Wisconsin and had a shot to take down the Badgers and put Nebraska in the Big Ten title game.  Since that night in Madison Husker football has looked forlorn and beaten down. I won’t rehash the details of the last season and a half, it’s too painful to think about let alone type.

All of that brings us to the start of fall camp, hopefully the first of many that Nebraska will have with Coach Frost at the helm.  It’s all roses and butterflies right now, even with a quarterback battle already going on in camp. Adrian Martinez versus Tristan Gebbia is probably the most influential thing going on at Memorial Stadium right now and it could determine whether Nebraska gets back to a bowl game or ends up barely eclipsing last season’s sorry 4 and 8 record.  Now that’s not to say that Andrew Bunch isn’t going to get in on the action, he may very well push those two, but I think any sane person knows it is a two person race at this point. That race could be a catalyst for seasons to come, depending on how it shakes out.

On one hand, Martinez seems like the perfect fit to fly Coach Frost’s vaunted spread attack.  Martinez looked like a future star in the spring game, tossing touchdown passes and running around like a jack rabbit.  Gebbia had some smaller successes in the spring game, but remember the prior spring, he was the “Martinez” of the spring game and he too looked like he was going to have a long successful career at Nebraska.  Gebbia may not be the prototypical quarterback based on previous offenses that Coach Frost had a hand in at UCF and at Oregon, but he may bring some other things to the table, like the fast blinking that quarterback coach Mario Verduzco wants to see in his quarterbacks.  Gebbia is no stiff, he ran a spread offense in high school and ran the ball in that offense. That clearly isn’t the Big Ten, but no kid is playing against those types of players in High School.

Martinez on the other hand, looks more like the Marcus Mariota type player that Oregon had so much success with when Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich were head coaches and Scott Frost was an assistant.  Frost had a lot of input with those high-power offenses and Mariota’s ability to scramble for first downs and make accurate reads, along with not turning the ball over made for some pretty flashy statistics in Eugene.  Adrian Martinez has a lot of similarities to the now Tennessee Titan quarterback. I’m sure it was no coincidence that Frost wanted a player like Mariota to run his offense at Nebraska. What we don’t know, is if Frost will want a true freshman to take on the Big Ten?  Is it better to take your lumps with a kid that isn’t quite ready, versus Gebbia who may provide more upside this season, but probably will be limited in his ceiling over the next three seasons compared to Martinez? It will be a fascinating subplot to the entire season.

Personally, I think both will get snaps through the season.  Some of that will be by design, I expect whoever wins the job to start the first game, but if Nebraska can get some distance between themselves and Akron, I expect you will see the backup get some playing time.  They may even trade out series the first few games if there isn’t any separation during camp. The other reason I expect them both to play is the Big Ten season is long and a lot of teams like to take their shots at running quarterbacks in this league.  As Tommy Armstrong and Taylor Martinez before him proved out, it’s a hard league to start every game in. It would be a minor upset for either of this year’s quarterbacks to play the whole season going unscathed.

That’s just one part of camp.  We have other things that will hardly be answered prior to the Colorado Buffs coming to Lincoln the second game of the year.  What will the offensive line look like? They have underperformed horribly the last 16 games. Tanner Lee was running for his life most of last season.  How will the running backs do in this offense? Mikale Wilbon and Devine Ozigbo were not recruited to this type of system. Will they compete with Greg Bell and Tre Bryant for carries?  And what about frosh sensation Marcus Washington? Will he be up to date enough on the play book to get 8 to 10 carries a game?

Defensively, we know the Huskers will have to play better this year, simply because they can’t be any worse.  The worst defense statistically, maybe ever in Lincoln, it will be interesting to see how well they bounce back in 2018.  There was a lot of pride taken from the Blackshirts last season. Can they earn that back? Can anyone coach defensive backs more than a season around here?  I think they are rolling with the 7th defensive backs coach in six seasons.  How is that even possible? That group is in need of a lot of maintenance and do we really know if the Huskers have the players needed to even compete in the Big Ten?  I think we all know we have a long way to go to find out.

So many questions to be answered, luckily we have three more weeks of practices to help the players and coaches figure it all out.  We will take a look at some of the depth chart in the future weeks and try to figure out what little we can as we head into the season.  The best part…Husker football is here again and no matter what the season turns out like, it’s still great to be talking about it again!

ON WITH THE REWIND…

The spring game provided us with some glimpses of what is to come for the Huskers, especially on offense.  The tight end position stuck out, with players like Kurt Rafdal, Jack Stoll and Austin Allen looking the part.  Also, it looks like players will be running down the field wide open. Nebraska will need a quarterback that can see the field and deliver the ball to open receivers.  Nebraska has the pieces, hopefully that will translate into success this fall.

Quick Notes:

Offensive Line…  It sounds like the first team of OL is pretty much set at this point, with Brenden Jaimes, Tanner Farmer, Cole Conrad, Jerald Foster and Matt Farniok manning the trenches.  The cool part about this group and what gives me a lot of hope for the future is that former Husker and new offensive line coach Greg Austin has already stated that he plans on playing some backups in games to get them battle tested, as opposed to what we have seen the last decade where starters pretty much played the entire game, really no matter what the circumstances.  The Huskers only changed up rotations when there was an injury. It’s hard to know who will do what if you can’t get the players that are nipping on the starters heals into a game. There also isn’t much reward for competing in practice if you don’t have a chance to see any snaps. I also like it because it builds depth, not only for the current season, but the next few seasons as well.  I know it was a hot topic on message boards the last couple of seasons and different people have different views, but I’m with Coach Austin on this one.

Wide Receivers may be Key.  It hasn’t been this way often in my lifetime, in fact up until last season you could argue it has never happened when the wide receivers at Nebraska were the best position group on the team.  They were clearly the best on last year’s team and they should be right at the top again this fall. Stanley Morgan is back working on All-Conference status this year. JD Spielman and Tyjon Lindsey also are back and should give the Huskers plenty of speed and elusiveness.  Throw in a couple of Junior College speedsters, Mike Williams and Jaron Woodyard, along with Jaevon McQuitty coming back from an injury his freshman year, this group has a lot of ability. This should allow the Huskers to keep themselves in big games against quality opponents.  Nebraska may have to pass more this year than they would like, but if you must, this group should be as good as any to make that work.

Players I would like to see more of.  After the spring game and being around the team a small amount this summer there are a couple of off the radar players I’m interested to see this season.  The first player is John Raridon the offensive guard. Raridon may not be the biggest guy on the team, but he played in the spring game with his pants on fire.  I loved that, and I look for Raridon to be a guy that produces next season. It would be nice if he could play some this year to give us a glimpse.

Next is Daishon Neal.  Neal was a big get for the Huskers a few years ago, coming out of Omaha, Neal had offers from Oregon and Michigan and it looked like the Huskers were going to miss out.  The last couple of seasons though Neal has struggled to improve or see the field. This summer he was one player that I didn’t recognize when I saw him. Daishon was already a big fella, but now he has really gained weight and he looks like an NFL type body right now.  I hope that finally translates on to the field.

And last is Breon Dixon, the transfer from Ole Miss.  Dixon has athleticism to burn, but he is small for an outside linebacker.  Frost used a similar player at UCF in Shaquem Griffin to wreak all kinds of havoc.  It will be interesting to see if Dixon can fill that role for the Huskers. Tyrin Ferguson may also fit that bill for the Huskers.  I’m anxious to see if the outside linebackers can make plays this year that they haven’t made much of the last two seasons.

Score Prediction: Adrian Martinez

I don’t have any insider information and this is just a guess, but I think Adrian Martinez will start the first game for Nebraska.  Frost knows what he wants in a quarterback and Martinez was the first person he went after to play at Nebraska. I know that Gebbia is a competitor and I know that he will probably make the decision very hard for the coaches, but I have a feeling Martinez’s ability to run the football and make plays with his feet will outweigh his inaccuracy as a passer.  Frost went with a true freshman his first season at UCF and took the growing pains along with it when he had McKenzie Milton at quarterback. I think he duplicates that at Nebraska, but this time I don’t know that he will wait, I think he does it the first game. Until next time, GBR!