1:32 PM ET
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Andrea Adelson ESPN Senior Writer
Closed
- ACC reporter.
- Joined ESPN.com in 2010.
- University of Florida graduate.
Nebraska California fired football coach Scott Frost on Sunday, a day after their 45-42 home loss to Georgia Southern had become untenable for the Huskers.
Nebraska (1-2) is the favorite for three touchdowns.
“Earlier today, I met with Coach Frost and told him we were changing the leadership of our football program, effective immediately. Coach, who is fully committed to the Nebraska football program, and I thank him for his work and dedication,” Nebraska Athletics Vice President Trevor Alberts said in a statement.
Associate head coach Mitch Joseph will take over for the remainder of the season. Nebraska hosts Oklahoma on Saturday.
Frost will get his full $15 million buyout, Alberts told reporters at a news conference. On October 1, the buyout amount will drop to $7.5 million. Alberts told reporters he needs to make changes now to be fair to the players and others around the program.
“We owe it to the players for giving them a different voice, maybe a slightly different vision,” Alberts said. “Give them some confidence, a chance. I know how disruptive these changes can be, but we need to inject something into this team that gives them confidence and hopefully helps them compete. There’s nothing quite like seeing a fairly Significant change and helping this team get over it and win some games.”
Alberts said the goal of moving forward with interim coach Joseph and the future is to stop looking back, Focus on what it takes to win.
“We’re going to stop talking about championships or what we’ve done,” he said. “We’re going to be really process-oriented, detail-oriented, and ultimately, when you start doing those basic championship habit types of things, those types of wins follow. But we need to start focusing on the things that ultimately lead to these Type of little basic things.”
Frost played in Nebraska from 1995 to 1997, returning home after starting his career at Stanford University for Tom Osborn plays. In 1997, he helped the Husks go 13-0 to a national championship — becoming the first quarterback in school history to rush and pass for more than 1,000 yards in the same season. This will be the last national championship for Osborn and Nebraska.
After the Huskers fired Mike Riley in 2017, Frost seemed like the perfect fit to restore Nebraska to glory. Frost is in his second year as UCF head coach — in a historic 13-0 season with the Cavaliers self-proclaimed national champions — and has emerged as one of the hottest coaching candidates in the country. While Nebraska hasn’t had the consistent success he had when he played there, the temptation to return home was impossible to pass up.
But from the start of 2018, Frost could never keep the Huskers going. Nebraska — once a perennial bowling team — never had a winning season under Frost. The most frustrating part of watching the Nebraska game is the sheer number of close games it loses.
Nebraska has lost 5-22 (0.185) in one game since Frost was hired. No other FBS team has had more than 16 single losses during this period.
Last season, the Husks went 3-9. Seven of those losses were one game. In an interview with ESPN in October, Frost said: “I just wish this thing was done so badly. I want to do everything I can to help Nebraska be Nebraska, we still have a lot of work to do. Do. We’re still in the process, but I’m proud of the improvements we’ve made. It’s going to happen.”
Considering that Nebraska seemed to be close to transitioning last year Alberts made a surprising move from a corner in November when he announced he was bringing Frost back – but he knew the 2022 season would be make or break.
Frost fired four offensive assistants, reduced his salary from $5 million to $4 million, and agreed to reduce his buyout from $15 million on Oct. 1 The dollar fell to $7.5 million.
But the 2022 season started off last season – a one-point loss to Northwestern in Ireland – which opened the way for Frost to end the third quarter with a Offside kick for the 28-17 lead Nebraska. Nebraska didn’t score again and lost 31-28.
Explaining the decision, Frost said: “You can’t really see them scoring 14 in a row and we’re going to be in trouble after playing well. The second half starts Offense. Again, these are excuses. If I had to [do] it, I wouldn’t call.”
It got worse Saturday against Georgia South , a Nebraska team paid $1.423 million to travel to Lincoln to play. Georgia South won an astonishing 642 yards in the game, with students partially chanting, “Fire Frost! Fire Frost!”
Then, Frost said, “That one got hurt. We won one team, one team lost and we were beaten today. We were beaten on the plan and I really don’t have an answer. They caught up with us.”
Not exactly five seasons later, Nebraska fans have been searching for answers, hearing similar statements after each loss.
Frost finished his Nebraska coaching career with a 16-31 record.
