One of the most promising college football coaching hires of the late 2010s came to a sad end Sunday, when Nebraska fired Scott Frost three games into the fifth season of one of the worst coaching tenures in history. of college football, considering expectations and resources. Frost’s 16-31 record at the alma mater he quarterbacked for in the 1990s would have surprised anyone in attendance from the start.
It was December 2017, when a swaggering Frost had completed two sweeping accomplishments that seemed unmissable: a stint as Oregon’s offensive coordinator that included mentoring 2014 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Marcus Mariota in Oregon’s season as a national. finalist; and a head coaching turnaround at Central Florida, which went 12-0 in 2017 in Frost’s second season, sparked talk of a self-declared national championship and made the Frost-Nebraska rumors unstoppable.
That unmistakable drive, plus Frost’s background as a native of tiny Wood River, Neb., and as the quarterback of the last of Nebraska’s five national teams (the 1997-98 co-champions) prompted numerous football dignitaries of Nebraska. meeting in an in-person welcome from Frost as an obvious bet to lead the Cornhuskers from a pretty good comeback to a good routine. Governor Pete Ricketts declared September 1, 2018 a commemorative “Scott Frost Day” and the fanfare prompted Frost to restore the beloved program from what were considered insufficient winning percentages, such as .551 under Bill Callahan (27 -22), the . 713 under Bo Pelini (67-27) and .500 under Mike Riley (19-19), back toward Bob Devaney’s .829 (101-20-2 from 1962-1972) or Tom Osborne’s .836 ( 255). -49-3 of 1973-1997).
Instead, the storied program never reached a bowl game under Frost, going 4-8, 5-7, 3-5, 3-9 and 1-2, and develop an incredible penchant for losing close matches, a hallmark. failed training. Those started with the first losses of 2018 to Colorado 33-28 and Troy 24-19, unsuspecting signs of things to come. The record in one-score games would go to an astounding 5-22 record in one-score games, 0-8 in Frost’s fourth season in 2021, a 3-9 loss that resulted in a pay cut . The grind ended in a 45-42 home loss Saturday to Georgia Southern, which drove 75 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 36 seconds left, and whose new coach Clay Helton had similar luck in the second last September weekend. in southern California.
“I met with Coach Frost today and informed him that we are making a change in the leadership of our football program, effective immediately,” athletic director Trev Alberts, also a former Cornhusker, said in a statement . “Scott has poured his heart and soul into the Nebraska football program as both quarterback and head coach, and I appreciate his hard work and dedication.
“After the disappointing start to our season,” a 1-2 record that featured a loss to Northwestern in Ireland and a win over North Dakota, “I decided the best way forward for our program was to a change in our head coaching position. Associate Head Coach Mickey Joseph will serve as Interim Head Coach for the remainder of the 2022 season.”
Joseph, 54, a former Nebraska quarterback himself, has coached at 14 different high schools, colleges and one NFL team, including LSU from 2017 to 2021, which featured its national championship year of 2019. Joseph played quarterback for Osborne from 1988-1991, primarily as a backup, completing 55 of 124 passes for 909 yards and rushing 180 times for 1,091. Joseph becomes the first black coach in any sport at Nebraska.