Nebraska should have immediate buyer’s remorse extending Scott Frost

Scott Frost received a two-year extension from the Nebraska Cornhuskers and then got pummeled at home by the Wisconsin Badgers. What were they thinking?

We’re not in Orlando anymore. Scott Frost has given his alma mater Nebraska Cornhuskers another non-winning regular season since coming home to Lincoln. His team falls to 4-6 on the year after enduring another Big Ten beatdown on Saturday, this time from the division rival Wisconsin Badgers at Memorial Stadium, 37-21.

Losing at home to a perennial Big Ten contender like Wisconsin isn’t the worst thing in the world, but why on Planet Earth did the University of Nebraska think it was a good idea to give its second-year head coach a contract extension when he can’t even lead his alma mater to a bowl game? Frost was extended Saturday morning, only to return the favor by not giving the Badgers a game.

On paper, sure, the Cornhuskers haven’t been completely eliminated from earning a trip to a bowl game. They still have two more Big Ten games left on the schedule: at the Maryland Terrapins and home vs. the division rival Iowa Hawkeyes.

However, Nebraska is not likely to win both games and may go 4-8 in consecutive years under Frost. While Maryland is all sorts of awful under first-year head coach Mike Locksley, if anybody in the Big Ten will lose to them on the road in College Park, it might as well be Nebraska. And if you think the Cornhuskers can beat Iowa at home, you haven’t watched college football this year.

So let’s just say the Cornhuskers bounce back and beat Maryland in College Park to get to 5-6. That might be enough momentum to give them a shot against Kirk Ferentz’s defensive-minded Hawkeyes team.

However, we’re likely looking at Nebraska going 5-7 in Frost’s second season back in Lincoln. One would think they’ll regret extending a guy that went 9-15 in his first two seasons leading a college football blue-blood. Frost will have won more games in one season at UCF than he has in two full years at Nebraska.

So why did Nebraska feel the need to extend him again? It could be insecurity, as the university may think that its head coach is just as good as those already in the division. They may be very wrong in that judgment call.

P.J. Fleck has the Minnesota Golden Gophers contending for a Playoff berth, Paul Chryst wins a ton of games at Wisconsin, Ferentz and Pat Fitzgerald are institutions at Iowa and Northwestern, respectively. So they’re ahead of Frost in the Big Ten West hierarchy. Even Jeff Brohm and Lovie Smith have shown they can lead their programs to bowl games. Frost hasn’t done that yet.

At the end of the day, Nebraska plans to give Frost every opportunity to succeed. But if he does end up failing in the next few years, Nebraska may never be able to get back to blue-blood status. If its former star quarterback who led UCF to a perfect season previously in The American, then who is going to make the Cornhuskers relevant again? At least he’ll have time on his side now.

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