Honeymoon phase is over: Scott Frost, Nebraska football need to be a lot better

Scott Frost may have his dream job leading his alma mater’s football team, but he’s seeing that rebuilding the Nebraska football is harder than it looks.

When Scott Frost left Orlando two years ago, he was, in his eyes and that of many people living in the shadow of Walt Disney World, an undefeated national champion. The UCF Knights were on top of the mid-major college football world and Frost was the King Arthur of the Central Florida Roundtable. He left Orlando with rose-colored glasses for the coveted Nebraska Cornhuskers gig.

Frost had been the starting quarterback under Tom Osborne in the 1990s, achieving great team success in Lincoln in the 20th century. Roughly 20 years since the end of the 20th century, Nebraska finds itself as a forgettable, middle of the pack team in the Big Ten West. Nebraska just lost at home to the Indiana Hoosiers by a touchdown to fall to 4-4 on the year. What’s happening?

First, congratulations are in order for the Hoosiers. They’re going to a bowl game at 6-2! It’s as if the basketball season came early. And for a football school like Nebraska, basketball season can’t get here soon enough. While new head coach Fred Hoiberg just has to win an NCAA Tournament game to become a legend, Frost is finding that rebuilding a once-proud Nebraska program is not easy.

Nebraska still has the Wisconsin Badgers and the Iowa Hawkeyes in division play this year. The Huskers are probably not winning either of those games. That means they have to beat the Purdue Boilermakers and the Maryland Terrapins on the road to even think about achieving bowl eligibility. It could happen, but bowl season may still be a year away for Big Red.

The bummer with it all really is that the Cornhuskers are maybe the fourth-best team in their own division this year after Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in some order. As for if they are the fourth-best program in the Big Ten West, how sure are we that we can even say that at this point?

Purdue and the Northwestern Wildcats are having down years, but Jeff Brohm and Pat Fitzgerald can coach. And with the way the Illinois Fighting Illini have come together the last two weeks under Lovie Smith, who can say that program isn’t heading in the right direction finally?

Overall, 4-4 isn’t the worst thing in the world, unless you’re Nebraska, then it is the worst thing in the world. This is a college football program that used to dominate the old Big Eight Conference along with the Oklahoma Sooners, who also lost on Saturday this week. So a ton of not great for former Big Eight football goliaths this week on the gridiron.

Osborne is not walking through that door to coach this team. Recruiting has never been a more level playing field in the college football landscape. Frost will need another year or two to maybe get Nebraska back to contending in its own division. For now, it’s just another boring football team in a flyover state that doesn’t move the need in the national landscape. This is Nebraska’s reality.

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