Recent reports indicate that Scott Frost to Nebraska is basically a done deal. Here are five reasons why Frost will lead the Huskers back to greatness.
On Black Friday, the UCF Knights capped a perfect 11-0 regular season with a thrilling 49-42 victory over South Florida. In the process, the Knights won the AAC East title and the right to play Memphis for the conference title. UCF emerged over the course of the season as the odds-on favorite to take the Group of Five position in a New Year’s Six bowl game.
A big part of their success this year is due to second-year head coach Scott Frost. The former offensive coordinator at Oregon arrived in Orlando to take over a team that finished the 2015 season 0-12. In two years, Frost turned UCF from winless to unbeaten and on the cusp of its second trip to a major bowl game in five years.
That has led speculation as to where the 42-year-old will wind up next. There is no guarantee that returning to one’s alma mater is a recipe for long-term success, but few places seem quite as suited for Frost as the place where he first made a name for himself.
Head coach Mike RIley has been fired at #Nebraska.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 25, 2017
Nebraska head coach Mike Riley was fired on Saturday morning. That leaves an opening for Frost, a Nebraska alum, to take over. Here are five reasons Scott Frost cane bring the Huskers back to the national stage.
1. Scott Frost knows how to build a high-powered offense quickly
Two years removed from a trip to the Fiesta Bowl, UCF plummeted to the depths of the FBS in 2015. A large part for the fall was due to an anemic offense that ranked 125th out of 127 teams in the top division of the NCAA. That year, the Knights averaged fewer than two touchdowns per game as the losses kept coming.
That opened the door for Frost to arrive in Orlando. Prior to landing his first head coaching gig, Frost spent seven years in Eugene on the staff of one of the nation’s most potent offenses. After four years as the wide receivers coach under Chip Kelly, Frost was promoted to offensive coordinator when Mark Helfrich took over for Kelly in 2013.
He helped turn Marcus Mariota into a Heisman winner and was instrumental in building the team that played for the national championship in 2014. That run of success was a big reason why UCF took a chance on Frost, and his arrival immediately turned around the Knights offense. Their productivity more than doubled in 2016, as UCF scored 28.8 points per game.
Even more impressively, the Knights nearly doubled their scoring average again in 2017. On their way to an 11-0 regular season and a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game, UCF led the nation in scoring with an average of more than 48 points per game. In two years, Frost created a juggernaut that scores nearly five more touchdowns per game than it did during its nadir year in 2015. He could quickly rebuild a once-proud Nebraska offense.
2. Scott Frost will have access to better talent than he has at UCF
One reason why Frost could turn things around nearly immediately at Nebraska is the fact that the Cornhuskers recruit a higher level of talent than he enjoys at UCF. While he has managed to mold players like McKenzie Milton and Adrian Killins Jr. into the most prolific offense in football this season, Frost could do even more with the caliber of player that comes to Lincoln.
Over the past five years, UCF has averaged the 68th-best recruiting classes in the nation. For a Group of Five school, that is hardly something to scoff about. But over that same span of time, Nebraska has finished no lower than 35th in recruiting according to the 247sports composite rankings and has averaged the 27th-best recruiting class in any given year.
That jump in talent level, coupled with the heralded walk-on pipeline in Lincoln, would provide Frost with an immediate nucleus on which to build his particular brand of up-tempo football. If he brings along Erik Chinander, the second-year defensive coordinator that has the Knights ranked 27th in the country in scoring defense, the fabled Blackshirts defense could return as well.
We saw what his offenses did at Oregon, a team that recruits around the same level as Nebraska has in recent seasons. In Lincoln, he could engineer a rapid turnaround on both ends of the scoreboard thanks to a boost in the talent with which he’d get to work.
3. Nebraska has the advantage of playing in the Big Ten West
Let’s face it. When Nebraska joined the Big Ten in 2011, they were expected to become one of the teams to rival storied programs like Michigan and Ohio State. The original configuration of the expanded two-division Big Ten put the Cornhuskers in the Legends division alongside the Wolverines, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota, and Northwestern.
In that setup, Nebraska actually fared quite well. The Cornhuskers reached the Big Ten championship game in 2012, and were regular contenders in the league. Once the conference scrapped its much-mocked division format in favor of geographical designations, it seemed like the Huskers would fare even better in the West.
That hasn’t been the case, though, as instability at the coaching position has rendered that advantage moot. But even though Nebraska has failed to capitalize over the past four years, it is nevertheless at a distinct advantage in its current division. They are a sleeping giant that could quickly take charge of a division where Wisconsin and Iowa present the greatest challenges on an annual basis.
Frost could quickly turn around the Huskers’ fortunes in a division where he wouldn’t have to compete with the Buckeyes, Wolverines, Spartans, or Nittany Lions for a trip to Indianapolis. If Nebraska can begin to play up to its potential, it is the sort of powerhouse that could dominate a division that lacks another program with its level of historical cachet.
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.
5. There’s no place like home for a top-tier head coach like Frost
While alma maters can be a double-edged sword for a head coach, few fan bases seem willing to embrace one of their own like Nebraska fans are ready to love Frost once again. He is part of the storied link to the Tom Osborne era in Lincoln. He has the pedigree and the credentials to restore glory to the Huskers in a way that seems almost preordained.
Frost has been talked about as a future Nebraska head coach back when he was still at Oregon. He has built a track record for success in his first two years at the head of a program after taking over at UCF. And his arrival in Lincoln would be a breath of fresh air for a deeply devoted group of fans who have endured the pitfalls of recent years.
The greatest coach in school history, Tom Osborne, was a Nebraska native, born and raised in Hastings. Frost has a similar background, having led Wood River High School to state playoffs as a junior and a senior.
Next: 5 coaches that aren't taking over at your school
Bear Bryant famously said when asked why he left Texas A&M to take over Alabama, “Mama called, and when Mama calls, then you just have to come running.” If the interest at Nebraska is as high as reports currently indicate, Frost will almost certainly heed the call. And if he does come running back to his home state, he could write another chapter in the storied history of the Huskers by engineering a quick turnaround for the dormant powerhouse.