Nebraska fires coach Scott Frost, but other programs also in hot water - Sports Illustrated
The Cornhuskers will pay (handsomely) for their denial around their now-former coach, but they aren’t the only program in hot water after Week 2.
www.si.com
Cliffs:
Lance Leipold
Chris Klieman
Matt Campbell
Mark Stoops
Forde-Yard Dash: Scott Frost's Dismissal by Nebraska Long Overdue
by Pat Forde, SI.com
Now, Frost is finally out, and the school didn’t even get to save the money its fans had been congratulating themselves on. (Fans rooting for athletic department revenue is one of the more deviously clever tricks College Sports Inc. has played on itself.) His buyout was scheduled to drop to $7.5 million on Oct. 1, but the situation was so bad, Nebraska couldn’t even wait that long.
The choice to hire Frost made perfect sense and carried a load of promise—he was 18-7 at UCF and coming off a 13-0 season; he was a Nebraska hero who understood the program and the state; he had cut his teeth with Chip Kelly at Oregon and coached an entertaining brand of offense.
Then none of it worked. And instead of recognizing that, the Cornhuskers went into denial.
He started 0–6 to begin his Nebraska tenure in 2018, and everyone blamed it on the previous staff leaving Frost nothing to work with. His second season: a 5-7 slog that included no big wins, but athletic director Bill Moos still gave in to the dumbest of all administrative impulses and awarded Frost with an extension that drove up the buyout price. The 2020 COVID pandemic-affected season was a weird disappointment (3-5) and last season was a complete debacle—the Huskers went 3-9 and somehow still stood by their guy.
Now, he’s finally gone with an absolutely cringey record (16-31, worst at Nebraska since Bill Jennings from 1957-’61). It’s even worse upon close inspection: just 10 victories in conference play, despite being in the far easier of the two Big Ten divisions; zero non-conference wins against Power 5 opponents; and a career-killing eight-game losing streak against FBS competition. Georgia Southern on Saturday night was the last straw, but the straw had been piled higher than 100 hay bales by then.
Nebraska now faces a second wake-up call: trying to sell a program of declining prestige without a ready-made ideal candidate like Frost was. It’s never going back to the Tom Osborne days of dominance, but it’s not a flat-out bad job. The place has incredible fan backing, which can be important in the name, image and likeness era—people are likely to invest monetarily as much as they have emotionally, and that can help offset the disadvantages posed by geography and home-state demographics.
So, who would want the job? If Nebraska wants to raid its old conference, there are a few compelling possibilities in the Big 12.
Matt Campbell (2), Cockeye State. He’s done one of the hardest things in college football—turning Cockeye State into a consistent winner. Campbell has an active streak of five straight winning seasons, which last happened from 1923-’27. He’s a midwestern guy who does most of his recruiting within that area. In his seventh season in Ames, and with the Big 12 fighting to maintain competitive relevance, he could be ready to make a move. He’s also just 42 years old, which means his best years likely are ahead of him.
Lance Leipold (3), Kansas. It took far too long for a Power 5 program to hire Leipold, who was a ridiculous winner at the Division III level and then quickly transitioned to FBS success at Buffalo. The former Frank Solich assistant at Nebraska simply knows how to build solid programs in tough places, as evidenced by the Jayhawks’ 2–0 season start and upset of West Virginia on Saturday. Watching Frost’s teams habitually sabotage themselves is essentially the antithesis of the Leipold experience. He could have a nice run in Lawrence, but what football coach would rather be at Kansas (and in the Big 12) than Nebraska (and the Big Ten)?
Chris Klieman (4), Kansas State. Like Campbell and Leipold, Klieman is a Midwesterner with an established track record of huge success on a lower level. Klieman helped continue the North Dakota State FCS dynasty, and has done good work for the past three-plus seasons at K-State. He might have his best team in Manhattan this year after getting off to an authoritative 2–0 start. Like the two names above him, the financial realities of the Big 12 vs. the Big Ten could add to the attraction of Nebraska.
Plus one from outside the geographic footprint:
Mark Stoops (5), Kentucky. John Calipari says Kentucky is a basketball school. You know what is a football school? Nebraska. If, after 10 overachieving years in Lexington, Stoops wants to experience being the big man on campus, Lincoln offers that opportunity. Nebraska also offers a winnable division, as opposed to ramming your head into the brick wall that is Georgia. Stoops has done monster recruiting work in the Midwest, albeit more in the Michigan and Ohio area than further west. He could be driving up his asking price as we speak with what could be UK’s biggest season in decades, but money cannot be any object for Nebraska at this point.
by Pat Forde, SI.com
First Quarter: Frost Melts
Bringing Scott Frost back for a fifth season at Nebraska (1) was a bad idea from the moment it was conceptualized. Continuing on a vague, hope-over-realism course with a person who had clearly documented he could not get the job done and doomed this 2022 season to exactly the start it has had: 1–2, with both losses coming as a double-digit favorite. Shuffling the staff and hitting the transfer portal wasn’t a plan; it amounted to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.Now, Frost is finally out, and the school didn’t even get to save the money its fans had been congratulating themselves on. (Fans rooting for athletic department revenue is one of the more deviously clever tricks College Sports Inc. has played on itself.) His buyout was scheduled to drop to $7.5 million on Oct. 1, but the situation was so bad, Nebraska couldn’t even wait that long.
The choice to hire Frost made perfect sense and carried a load of promise—he was 18-7 at UCF and coming off a 13-0 season; he was a Nebraska hero who understood the program and the state; he had cut his teeth with Chip Kelly at Oregon and coached an entertaining brand of offense.
Then none of it worked. And instead of recognizing that, the Cornhuskers went into denial.
He started 0–6 to begin his Nebraska tenure in 2018, and everyone blamed it on the previous staff leaving Frost nothing to work with. His second season: a 5-7 slog that included no big wins, but athletic director Bill Moos still gave in to the dumbest of all administrative impulses and awarded Frost with an extension that drove up the buyout price. The 2020 COVID pandemic-affected season was a weird disappointment (3-5) and last season was a complete debacle—the Huskers went 3-9 and somehow still stood by their guy.
Now, he’s finally gone with an absolutely cringey record (16-31, worst at Nebraska since Bill Jennings from 1957-’61). It’s even worse upon close inspection: just 10 victories in conference play, despite being in the far easier of the two Big Ten divisions; zero non-conference wins against Power 5 opponents; and a career-killing eight-game losing streak against FBS competition. Georgia Southern on Saturday night was the last straw, but the straw had been piled higher than 100 hay bales by then.
Nebraska now faces a second wake-up call: trying to sell a program of declining prestige without a ready-made ideal candidate like Frost was. It’s never going back to the Tom Osborne days of dominance, but it’s not a flat-out bad job. The place has incredible fan backing, which can be important in the name, image and likeness era—people are likely to invest monetarily as much as they have emotionally, and that can help offset the disadvantages posed by geography and home-state demographics.
So, who would want the job? If Nebraska wants to raid its old conference, there are a few compelling possibilities in the Big 12.
Matt Campbell (2), Cockeye State. He’s done one of the hardest things in college football—turning Cockeye State into a consistent winner. Campbell has an active streak of five straight winning seasons, which last happened from 1923-’27. He’s a midwestern guy who does most of his recruiting within that area. In his seventh season in Ames, and with the Big 12 fighting to maintain competitive relevance, he could be ready to make a move. He’s also just 42 years old, which means his best years likely are ahead of him.
Lance Leipold (3), Kansas. It took far too long for a Power 5 program to hire Leipold, who was a ridiculous winner at the Division III level and then quickly transitioned to FBS success at Buffalo. The former Frank Solich assistant at Nebraska simply knows how to build solid programs in tough places, as evidenced by the Jayhawks’ 2–0 season start and upset of West Virginia on Saturday. Watching Frost’s teams habitually sabotage themselves is essentially the antithesis of the Leipold experience. He could have a nice run in Lawrence, but what football coach would rather be at Kansas (and in the Big 12) than Nebraska (and the Big Ten)?
Chris Klieman (4), Kansas State. Like Campbell and Leipold, Klieman is a Midwesterner with an established track record of huge success on a lower level. Klieman helped continue the North Dakota State FCS dynasty, and has done good work for the past three-plus seasons at K-State. He might have his best team in Manhattan this year after getting off to an authoritative 2–0 start. Like the two names above him, the financial realities of the Big 12 vs. the Big Ten could add to the attraction of Nebraska.
Plus one from outside the geographic footprint:
Mark Stoops (5), Kentucky. John Calipari says Kentucky is a basketball school. You know what is a football school? Nebraska. If, after 10 overachieving years in Lexington, Stoops wants to experience being the big man on campus, Lincoln offers that opportunity. Nebraska also offers a winnable division, as opposed to ramming your head into the brick wall that is Georgia. Stoops has done monster recruiting work in the Midwest, albeit more in the Michigan and Ohio area than further west. He could be driving up his asking price as we speak with what could be UK’s biggest season in decades, but money cannot be any object for Nebraska at this point.
