If Scott Frost is fired as Nebraska football head coach, Trev Alberts should target the one man capable of turning around the Huskers — Urban Meyer.
Nebraska football fans were hoping that they could avoid the Scott Frost hot-seat talk in 2022, but after one week and one painful loss, his seat is hotter than ever.
The decision by Frost to onside kick up 11 and the 31-28 loss that it led to makes it seem more clear than ever that the end of the road is near.
Nebraska football has lost seven games in a row and nine of the last 10. The one game it won during that stretch was over Northwestern (56-7) last season. So the team — the only one Nebraska has beaten since last October — by 49 — just beat the Huskers to open the season.
Sounds about right.
The Frost buyout drops down a little bit after Oct. 1 and after the Oklahoma game, we’ll have all the answers we need.
One thing I do know is that close losses won’t save a job. Frost is 15-30. He’s never won three straight games and hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record since 2018. Frost has never beaten a ranked opponent and well, if he didn’t play for Tom Osborne and win a national title in 1997, he wouldn’t be the head coach anymore.
It’s time to rectify the mistake. However, many Frost defenders ask, who could do better than Frost?
First off — just about anyone. There are dozens of competent head coaches in the FBS that would be an immediate upgrade. Hell, any coach in the Big Ten would be better. ANY.
The problem is that fans and athletic directors want to win the press conference instead of winning games. I’ve been saying Jim Leonhard would be a great candidate.
Luke Fickell and Matt Campbell have also been thrown out as options. Fickell won’t happen. I just don’t see it and Campbell would be perfect but I doubt he leaves Ames for Lincoln.
So what next? Well, I think Nebraska football might have lucked into the perfect candidate, only if the Huskers are able to look past a few things, but in order to win, it might be time to make a deal with the devil, as in Urban Meyer.
Why Urban Meyer should be Nebraska football’s No. 1 target
I know his name is mud right now. But people will forget. He’s going to be on the Big Noon Kickoff show for Fox and he’ll get the itch to coach again.
Things went terribly in Jacksonville and my guess is that he doesn’t want his coaching career to end that way. Just because a guy can’t make it in the NFL, doesn’t mean he can’t win in college.
Look at Steve Spurrier. He was awful with the Redskins, then went to South Carolina and led a dormant program to a bunch of double-digit win seasons. What he did there was incredible.
And I think Urban Meyer could do the same for Nebraska football.
Outside of the Jags, the man has won everywhere. He’s coached at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida, and Ohio State and never won fewer than eight games and only five times in 17 years on the sideline did he win fewer than 10.
I get that Meyer isn’t exactly a personality fit for Nebraska, but here’s my question: Do you want a nice head coach or a head coach who can win?
If nice is what you want, then Mike Riley could have stayed. He was a great guy, he just couldn’t win football games, but even he wasn’t as bad as Scott Frost.
The thing is, Nebraska football could be turned around in a heartbeat by someone like Meyer and he is someone who could be enticed by the tradition of Nebraska (and a crapton of money).
Nebraska would need to make him the highest-paid coach in all of college football and you know what, he’d be worth every penny.
Meyer is a recruiting machine and he would get dudes to Nebraska. He would have them winning eight or nine games next season and probably the Big Ten West within a year or two.
Hell, under Urban Meyer, Nebraska football would run the Big Ten West. He took an Ohio State team that went 6-6 and went 12-0. That’s how good he is.
And yes, I realize he wouldn’t stay long. Meyer isn’t going to be a head coach for a decade. His health would probably see to that. But even if Meyer spent 4-5 years at Nebraska and rebuilt it, the program could have a legit future again.
The last two head coaches have left Nebraska in tatters. Frost doesn’t know how to win in the Big Ten, but Meyer surely does, and frankly, outside of Nebraska, what big-name program is coming after him?
I know Nebraska has struggled for a long time, but I wonder if Meyer might view it as his next great challenge and a chance to prove once and for all, he’s as elite as they come.
It’s probably far-fetched but honestly, I feel like there’s a better chance of swaying Urban Meyer than Fickell.
And one thing I know for sure is that if Urban Meyer was Nebraska football’s head coach, the losing would stop immediately, so when (not if) Frost is fired, Trev Alberts should put on the full-court press for Meyer, the one head coach guaranteed to restore the Huskers.