On December 3rd, 2017, Scott Frost walked into a packed conference room to officially the new head coach of Nebraska football. Frost was deemed the savior of Nebraska football and that he would be the coach to bring Nebraska back to national relevance. After back-to-back disappointing seasons, we have learned that this process will take longer than everyone thought.

Frost’s first season at Nebraska was very underwhelming.

The team started the season a terrible 0-6. The thought of national relevance was quickly diminished after this kind of a start. However, all hope was not lost, we have already seen Frost work through bad seasons at UCF. While Frost was coaching at UCF he took the team from 0-12 to 13-0 in only two seasons. The second half of Frost’s first season went much better, they went 4-2 in the final six games of the season. This gave them an overall record of 4-8, although fans were not pleased at this record, next season looked promising because of their strong finish to the season. 

Nebraska started this season strong with a home win over South Alabama. Feeling good about the week one win the team traveled to Colorado, for a date with the Buffalos. This game was supposed to be another strong win for the team and Frost’s dominant season would continue. However, the team got a big shock. The Buffalos played the Cornhuskers hard and gave Nebraska its first loss of the season. After the game, Frost sat in front of the media and gave a simple promise: “this is gonna get better.” 

Well, it hasn’t gotten better. 

Since the Colorado game Nebraska has had a record of 3-5. This has put Nebraska at an overall record of 4-6, which has the makings for another disappointing season and another season without a bowl game for Scott Frost. This has many fans questions if it will get better or if Nebraska football is too far gone, even for Scott Frost.

This begs the question if we should have kept Mike Riley as the head coach? Riley’s record overall at Nebraska was 19-19, much better looking than Frost’s 8-14. If Frost keeps winning at the pace he is now, by the time Frost will have the same number of wins as Riley, his record would be 19-33. Now, this test is a little inaccurate because Riley had three seasons at Nebraska while this is only Frost’s second season. These next stats, however are unarguable. Riley’s worst season at Nebraska he went 4-8. With two games remaining in this season, Frost is on the verge of having that record two seasons in a row. With Riley as the coach, Nebraska went to a bowl game two out of three seasons, with Frost’s second season wrapping up he is on the verge of not having a bowl appearance for the second season in a row.

All of this being said, I believe that Nebraska did make the correct decision in hiring Scott Frost. In Mike Riley’s final season at Nebraska they suffered some pretty bad losses and the season ended with four straight losing efforts. With Scott Frost coming off of a incredible 13-0 run at UCF the decisions seemed pretty obvious: Riley was out, Frost was in.

The only reason Frost’s coaching ability in Nebraska is being questioned is because of the fans and the media. Many media members and fans of the team publicically said that they predicted Nebraska to win the Big 10 West division and return to national relevance in only Frost’s second season. People took notice of Frost’s extremely impressive work at UCF and believed that he could do it again. The problem with this is that they thought it would take only two seasons again. 

Frost’s work at UCF was very impressive but, UCF plays in the American Athletic Conference. There is a big difference between 13-0 in the Ameriacan Athletic than in the Big 10. The Big 10 has much better competition on a weekly basis and they are facing top teams week in and week out. People have the assumption that Frost can turn any team in the nation around in two seasons around this is just not an accurate statement. Frost needs more time to recruit players and train them to perform. This process takes longer than two years and no one wants to wait that long.

Frost needs more than two years to turn Nebraska around. There is too much work to be done, it doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are. With time comes change is a very common saying and it applies perfectly here. Frost has an incredible knack for coaching, and he does great things as a coach. People in Nebraska trust him to coach the team and believe that he can do great things, they just don’t want to wait. People are very impatient when it comes to Nebraska football, everyone wants instant success. Instant success is very hard to come by, no matter who the coaching is.  People just need to give Frost time to do the great things he has the capability to do.

Nebraska signed Frost for an additional two years last Saturday, so they seem very committed to him being the coach of the future. Nebraska will return to its former championship form and Frost is the coach to do it.  We just need to take a little pressure off of him and the team and let them do their work. People need to be patient and let it all work out. With Nebraska’s recruiting capability, the team’s talent and Frost’s incredible level of coaching, who knows how far the Cornhuskers can go.