The difference I think is that most of us really believe that Frost will succeed where others have failed. Sure, most of us were positive about some of the last several coaches, but I'm not sure how much we really believed they were going to be championship-level coaches.
I and some others spent a lot of time defending Mike Riley to the point that we were labeled Riley apologists-as if we were huge Riley fans who were just giddy over his hiring(I doubt that was really true of anyone). But the truth is, at least for me(and probably for others as well) is it was out of a sense of fairness, as in he needs to be given a fair chance. He was given a fair chance and failed miserably. I can't say at any point while I defended Riley that I really believed he was going to be a championship-level coach. I thought he could do a better job than he did, but I wasn't thinking "this is the coach that is going to lead us to the promised land".
I brought up Riley first because he was the toughest of the last 4 coaches to defend and feel optimistic about. I spent my share of time defending Callahan too-again, more out of a sense of him needing to be given a fair chance then really believing he was going to be a great coach. I can say maybe I had myself believing briefly that he could lead us to championships when I saw how good his first full recruiting class was, but I'm not sure I could say I really believed it deep down. I defended Pelini a lot too until his final season, but again I can't say I really believed he was going to lead us to championships-maybe briefly after the end of the 2009 season at the Holiday Bowl when he made his "Nebraska is back and we're here to stay" comment, but I could see the next season that was probably just a dream. The only one of the last 4 coaches I could really say I believed that would lead us to championship-level success was Solich, and that was early in his tenure when we were just coming off of 3 championships in 4 years and I had little reason to believe that kind of success wouldn't continue.
But Frost is different. I have a faith in him that I never had with the last 4. I can say he will lead us to championships sometime, and really believe it. He just seems to be on a different level than any of those 4. He projects a level of confidence that the others didn't. He has experienced actual championship-level success as a college coach, unlike any of those 4. Unlike any of those 4, he was also a genuinely hot prospect who just about any other school would have taken if they had a chance. So there is something very different to me about Frost, and it's not just the level of support he has from fans. He really seems like a real championship-level coach, and not one you have to strain to see it.