Kugler: Frost Right Man for Huskers Top Job

Aug. 31, 2018, 4 a.m. ·

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NET Television's Big Red Wrap-Up host Kevin Kugler (Photo courtesy of NET Television)

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As the Huskers open the 2018 college football season this weekend against Akron at Memorial Stadium, Husker insider Kevin Kugler thinks Scott Frost is the right man for the job at Nebraska. Kugler is the host of Big Red Wrap-Up on NET Television and told NET Radio’s Dennis Kellogg and Jack Williams that the Frost hire was more than just about a culture change.


Kevin Kugler: I think it’s more of a culture U-turn because you’re turning back to where the program was 20 years ago and that’s what you’re trying to do from a culture standpoint. You’re not trying to do that from a philosophy of play standpoint, you’re trying to do it from a culture standpoint, making the U-turn back to some of the stuff that made Nebraska great when it was great at football, when it was among the nation’s best and had an unprecedented run in the 90’s. I don’t think anybody expects 60-3 to return, but I do think part of it is a culture shift. This was a program under Mike Riley that had seen years of attrition. You’ve had so many ups and downs with this Nebraska football program. You had the tear-down initiated by Steve Pederson when he didn’t feel that nine wins a year was enough. Then you had the Bill Callahan era. Then you had the Bo Pelini era, which started to get things back a little more to where they had been but never over the hump and of course Coach Pelini had other issues that came into play. And then you go to the Mike Riley era, which was such an out-of-the-blue hire that the culture changed again. You know, you can only bend something too many times before it breaks and I think you finally got to the point where this was about to break and Scott Frost has come in and said, hold on, I know what this place used to be, I know how to get it back to that and that’s what we’re going to do.

Jack Williams: What do you think fan expectations are this season and how much leeway to you think Scott Frost has if the Huskers don’t win right way?

Kugler: I think Scott’s got plenty of leeway. He’s got plenty of leeway from his administration, which certainly helps, but I hope people understand that in some ways this is the last shot. I mean, you’re now a full generation of kids who have grown up across the country knowing Nebraska to be an okay football program. Nobody who’s playing football now, none of the 18, 19, 20, 21 year-olds who are going to play for Nebraska, were around when Nebraska was dominant in college football. So you have an entire generation that’s gone by without Nebraska football being overwhelmingly relevant on a national stage. So if you’re a fan who enters the 2018 season and says, well that team was 4-8 year last year but Scott’s back, 12 wins, you’re crazy. It would be one of the most remarkable stories in college football history. I think expectations are reasonable this year from fans because I think they understand all of those ups and downs that this program has had and Scott has to be given time to turn this thing around to where people want it to be. So I think they’ll be very patient with Scott Frost.

Dennis Kellogg: Let’s look at the quarterback position. Coming into fall camp, it looked like that was really solid. Then this last week, you’ve got a true freshman, Adrian Martinez, being named as the starter, and then you’ve got the back-up, Tristan Gebbia, leaving the program. So now that position is not so solid anymore.

Kugler: No, it’s a very thin position right now. You knew you were going to be inexperienced at that position because you had two freshmen, a true freshman and a red shirt freshman who wasn’t recruited for the system, coming into play at that position. So you knew you had some issues there to begin with. But once Tristan Gebbia didn’t get the job and departed the program on Monday, withdrew from all of his classes and is gone, you’ve got Adrian Martinez who didn’t play in his final year in high school because of a shoulder injury, and then you have a couple of walk-ons who now have the burden of carrying the mail as the back-up quarterback. There’s a lot of us who are older-school fans who kind of scratch our heads when anybody leaves a program, why aren’t you in there competing, I understand why you leave because you’re a quarterback and you’re behind another freshman, you know you’re not going to have a chance to play likely as a starting quarterback barring catastrophic injury, but it really did put the team in a bind to lose Tristan Gebbia who was the other quarterback that Nebraska’s coaches felt comfortable in if they needed him to, he could run the system and he could run it well enough for them to win games. I don’t know that you have that guy right this second outside of Adrian Martinez that has that kind of confidence. So it creates a real conundrum for Nebraska’s coaches. They’re going to have to manage this very carefully this year.

Jack Williams: You’ve had a chance to sit down and talk to Scott Frost recently and have followed the progression of his career from player to coach. Is he the right guy for this job?

Kugler: No question. I mean, he’s the perfect fit because he’s played here, he grew up here, he understand here. And I think understanding here is a big thing. If you don’t really understand Nebraska, it’s kind of hard to fake it, because those of us who have lived here our whole lives, we usually can gauge when somebody’s not really buying-in. You got that sense over the last couple of coaches that maybe they weren’t all-in on being in Nebraska. Scott Frost, if he has the kind of success that I think Scott will have, he’ll retire here. There’s no other college job Scott Frost will take.

Dennis Kellogg: Scott’s mentor is Tom Osborne. He’s back a little bit with the program now. How much impact or an influence do you think Coach Osborne has?

Kugler: He has as much impact as Scott wants him to have. Tom Osborne understands that a coach doesn’t need the old coach coming in and saying here’s how we do things. He dealt with that with Bob Devaney. Bob Devaney was a hands-off guy when he became the athletic director alone and let Tom Osborne coach football. He understood, if you need me, I’m over in this office, but I’m not going to be showing up every day and knocking on your door with notes to tell you how to do things. Scott knows that there is a phone call or a walk across the sideline, because Coach Osborne comes to practice every once in a while, he knows that resource is there. He’s going to use that resource. I know that Coach Osborne feels very comfortable with Scott at the helm of this program. It’s wonderful to have all of that back in sync again. It’s a resource that, quite honestly, if you have one of the greatest college football coaches of all time in your city, who was the coach of that team for so many years and enjoyed unprecedented success, if you don’t use him, you’re making a big mistake.

Jack Williams: We’re obviously seeing more fan excitement, more players around lately. Is Scott Frost more open to having former players around the program, providing whatever input they might provide?

Kugler: I think he’s open just because he knows what the program means to former players as a former player. I don’t think Mike Riley was opposed to it. I don’t think Bo Pelini was opposed to it. Bill Callahan didn’t know the former players so it was a little hard for him to manage all of those people that came in. But Scott knows a lot of these guys. He grew up watching the older guys play. He played with a bunch of these guys and he understands what it means to be a former player and why that’s important to his program and to this state. We’ve seen it already. Jason Peter and Grant Wistrom have come back and addressed the team. Steve Warren has come back and addressed the team. He’s going to rely on these guys who have gone on to great success at the next level and enjoyed great success here. He’s going to rely on those guys to be a resource for his team just like he would Coach Osborne. I don’t know that he’s more open than anybody else to having that kind of input, but I do know he has the full support of these and they’re going to do anything they can to help make this program successful.

Dennis Kellogg: How do you think Nebraska fits into the Big Ten picture this season?

Kugler: They’re a step behind. That’s just the honest truth of the situation. Ohio State is more talented and it a better team right now. Michigan has a ton of talent, maybe one of the top three defensive teams in all of college football, let alone the Big Ten. Penn State has one of the best quarterbacks in college football, Trace McSorely, and a ton of talent, a better offensive line. Wisconsin is the king of the West right now and until Nebraska can figure out a way to beat Wisconsin, they’re going to remain the king of the West. It’s a process. Nobody knows that more than Scott Frost and his coaching staff. There are tiers in the Big Ten and Nebraska is not right now at the first tier of programs in the Big Ten. They can get there, but they’re not there at the moment.

Jack Williams: How do you think this new chapter of Husker football is going to turn out?

Kugler: I think Nebraska will be competing again for conference championships. I think Nebraska will have an opportunity under Scott Frost to play in a college football playoff. I don’t believe Nebraska is going to go 60-3 in any five year stretch, but I don’t believe any college football team is going to go 60-3 in any five year stretch. There’s just too much parity and the game has changed too much to allow anybody to be that overwhelmingly dominant. We see Alabama with great dominance in college football and 60-3 is still something that’s hard to come by. Nebraska is not going to be that, but if Nebraska can regularly compete for conference, division and every once in a while, playoff berths, and I think if you’re Nebraska fans right now after everything that’s happened, kind of wandering in the wilderness since playing in that National Championship game in 2001, a couple of quick chances with Bo Pelini in ’09 and in 2010 with the Big 12 championships, but that inconsistent program, I think the consistency is back for Nebraska and I think that’s one thing that should make fans very happy.