Nebraska Football: 5 reasons Scott Frost will bring Huskers back to greatness

4. Scott Frost has won in Lincoln before with the Huskers

It has been two decades and counting, but Scott Frost knows how to win in Lincoln. He was a key part of the last Nebraska team to win a share of the national championship. Frost quarterbacked the Cornhuskers to the top spot in the Coaches Poll at the end of the 1997 season, the last year before the Bowl Championship Series came into existence.

The Nebraska native actually got his collegiate start at Stanford, spending two years in Palo Alto. But he was an awkward fit with the Cardinal, and eventually transferred back to his home state in 1995. He sat out a year as Tom Osborne‘s team won a second straight national title. Once he got his chance to take the field in 1996, though, Frost showed his skills as both a runner and a passer in the heralded Huskers option offense.

In his first year as the starter, Frost went 104-of-200 for 1440 yards with 13 passing touchdowns and just three interceptions. He added another 438 rushing yards and nine touchdowns on the ground as a dual-threat quarterback. That set the stage for a 1997 campaign where Frost finished as a Unitas Award finalist and a Davey O’Brien Award semifinalist.

As Nebraska rolled to a 13-0 season, Frost was the catalyst for their success. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback threw 41 fewer passes but ran for over 1000 yards as the Cornhuskers rolled through their schedule. Outplaying Peyton Manning, Frost ran for three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl victory over Tennessee that completed the perfect season and left Nebraska to share the national title with Rose Bowl winner Michigan.