Soon we'll have a HALF DECADE of Coach Frost at Nebraska. His time here has felt surprisingly fast and agonizingly slow at the same time (kinda like watching Adrian Martinez play QB). Anyway, it goes without saying that the Frost era has been a gigantic disappointment so far. But I’m curious, if you can put yourself back in your 2017-18 mindset, how did you think things were going to play out? There has been a lot of talk ever since he came here that “he needs time to build from scratch” and “he’s going to have a long runway.” What did the long runway look like at that time in your opinion?
In all of the talk of a 5 year rebuild from the bottom up, I NEVER took that to mean it would take 5 years to actually start to see tangible W/L progress. I don't think anyone did. I figured by 2022 we would more or less be "back." Maybe not to a championship level, but to a level where we had our systems figured out, our depth chart was in competent shape, players knew their duties like the back of their hand, and we were winning all the games we were "supposed to" win as we contended for the West. Basically, Bo-level winning percentages but with an actual healthy program built from great coaching and a modern culture underneath the record.
Can we make a big enough jump to make those expectations a reality in year 5? I highly doubt it. The past four years have looked NOTHING like I thought they would. If you told me in spring 2018 that we would ever have a losing season under Frost (let alone FOUR STRAIGHT) I would think you were nuts. But here we are witnessing what is so far one of the biggest coaching faceplants in college football history. NU Frost hasn't even seemed like the same person as UCF Frost. It's bizarro world. All that being said, I’m still rooting for things to miraculously come together… I can't even imagine how much fun it would be to have a 2017 UCF type team in Lincoln led by a (formerly?) beloved Husker. But I’m not even dreaming of reaching those heights yet, I just want to see competency and a healthy foundation. That’s all I ever expected by 2022. The fact that those meager standards still feel so far away is kinda shocking in the grand scheme of things.
I doubt any of our expectations came true for the first four seasons. In year 5 I'm just praying for divine intervention from the football gods, and hoping to see Frost wake up and show signs of life.
In all of the talk of a 5 year rebuild from the bottom up, I NEVER took that to mean it would take 5 years to actually start to see tangible W/L progress. I don't think anyone did. I figured by 2022 we would more or less be "back." Maybe not to a championship level, but to a level where we had our systems figured out, our depth chart was in competent shape, players knew their duties like the back of their hand, and we were winning all the games we were "supposed to" win as we contended for the West. Basically, Bo-level winning percentages but with an actual healthy program built from great coaching and a modern culture underneath the record.
Can we make a big enough jump to make those expectations a reality in year 5? I highly doubt it. The past four years have looked NOTHING like I thought they would. If you told me in spring 2018 that we would ever have a losing season under Frost (let alone FOUR STRAIGHT) I would think you were nuts. But here we are witnessing what is so far one of the biggest coaching faceplants in college football history. NU Frost hasn't even seemed like the same person as UCF Frost. It's bizarro world. All that being said, I’m still rooting for things to miraculously come together… I can't even imagine how much fun it would be to have a 2017 UCF type team in Lincoln led by a (formerly?) beloved Husker. But I’m not even dreaming of reaching those heights yet, I just want to see competency and a healthy foundation. That’s all I ever expected by 2022. The fact that those meager standards still feel so far away is kinda shocking in the grand scheme of things.
I doubt any of our expectations came true for the first four seasons. In year 5 I'm just praying for divine intervention from the football gods, and hoping to see Frost wake up and show signs of life.
