Dylan Widger-USA TODAY Sports
Stukenholtz: This Is How It Ends
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Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it cannot possibly get any worse than this.
For all intents and purposes, the Scott Frost era ended Saturday night when Timmy Bleekrode’s 52-yard tying field goal attempt sailed wide left.
Georgia Southern, a Sun Belt program that moved up to FBS just nine seasons ago, took the lead in the final minute and upset Nebraska 45-42. NU was a 23.5-point favorite.
Nebraska’s offense was not the problem. The defense, however, allowed the most yards to an opponent in the 99-year history of Memorial Stadium.
The loss was also the first ever for Nebraska when scoring at least 35 points at Memorial Stadium. Their record prior to Saturday? 214-0.
These kinds of firsts typically precede a last. As in, possibly the last game coached by Scott Frost.
Sure, if Trev Alberts waits just three weeks, it saves the department $7.5 million. With the $1 billion Big Ten media rights deal set to arrive next year, and perhaps some big-money donors willing to bridge the gap now, why wait?
There is no on-field value to keeping Scott Frost around for any length of time when we all know how this ends. While the Huskers still have nine more games and the potential to win at least some of them, what gives you any confidence that this program coached by this man will actually do it?
Nobody wants to do the awkward dance around a lame-duck coach until Oct. 1 or longer. If the money’s there – and it is – then do it ASAP.
Nebraska has won five national championships in football. Today, that level of talent, toughness, execution and leadership feels laughably distant. Over the past two decades, the program has devolved into a national embarrassment.
How did we get here? How did Scott Frost, the “pick of the litter” according to then-Athletic Director Bill Moos, fall so far so fast?
There’s the inability to tie or win a game on the final possession or prevent the opponent from winning on theirs.
There’s the apparent lack of organization with NU calling timeout or committing a delay-of-game penalty immediately following lengthy TV commercial breaks.
There’s the terrible body language, whether he’s looking defeated or uninterested on the sidelines, or being made to apologize for getting slapped with a penalty stemming from an NCAA investigation.
There’s the six-game losing streak to start his tenure in 2018, or the six-game losing streak to end the 2021 season.
There’s the four seasons – probably soon to be five – without a bowl game, the absolute bare minimum expectation for any Power 5 head coach, let alone one at a program as storied as Nebraska.
In short, a 16-31 overall record is simply not good enough.
When Frost was hired, most Big Red observers agreed that he would need plenty of runway. He was given a seven-year contract. Let him build this back up from the foundations, we all said.
While cutting him loose in the midst of year five could be perceived as denying him that grace, nobody ever imagined the rebuild would occur without a single victory over Wisconsin or Iowa. Nobody. Frost had just gone 13-0 at Central Florida. Not even the biggest Husker hater could have dreamed up a worst-case scenario as ugly as what has transpired.
Frost had all the time, resources, goodwill, and return-of-the-prodigal-son-style stories he needed.
It just didn’t work.
So, this is how it ends, already a pair of familiar yet painful losses before all but two NFL teams even kick off their seasons.
This is how it ends, with the Blackshirts giving up 642 yards of total offense, the third-most ever by a Husker opponent, home or away.
This is how it ends, with another close loss, the 13th consecutive loss by nine points or less, an all-time record for any major college program.
This is how it ends, with a dedicated and raucous crowd trying to will their team to victory by rising to the level of urgency late into the night, but going home disappointed yet again.
This is how it ends. And every fan of this program deserves better.
- Related: HuskerMax game page
