Mlive: Nebraska players not all buying in to Scott Frost?
Very interesting article with quotes. Sounds like there are internal problems.
"Champions make good decisions in every single decision they have. Average people, average teams don't make those decisions. Little things lead to big things. We're going to get it right. I don't care how long it takes and what we have to do. We're going to make those little decisions matter because little decisions and little mistakes are what have cost us a couple games."
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"You're always going to have some guys on the team that resist buying in," redshirt senior offensive lineman Tanner Farmer said.
"That can be the difference between winning and losing games ... You'd be surprised how big of a difference a few guys not buying can take on a team."
Farmer said the Cornhuskers understood Frost's message: "He's pretty much saying either buy in or move out for the guy who's going to buy in."
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"This (Michigan) team is considerably better, in my opinion, than the two teams we just played and didn't beat," Frost said, referencing Colorado and Troy. "This is a huge task and we're going to have to play a perfect game and get a lot better in a week to come out on top in this one."
September 19th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
Has there ever been a substantial coaching change without "internal problems?" That is kind of a built in hazard.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
I'd argue BOTH Hoke and Harbaugh had virtually no one not buy in immediately that decided to stick around. It was part of the reason Hoke's first year and Harbaugh's first two years were so successful. Belief is powerful drug, but while the final verse may have to be written for Harbaugh still, once those initial players who believed departed for Hoke, he was a sitting duck
September 19th, 2018 at 4:19 PM ^
I'd argue Dennis Norfleet didn't buy in 100% with being moved to CB...
September 19th, 2018 at 5:00 PM ^
Kyle Bosch comes to mind
September 19th, 2018 at 5:31 PM ^
Bosch had his own demons to fight, Harbaugh probably did him a favor by not reinstating him.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^
Brady Hoke at Michigan? Lol
September 19th, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
Hoke did enjoy near unanimous buy-in when he started. There was barely any attrition from what I recall.
September 20th, 2018 at 12:52 PM ^
It's hard to not to buy into Fred Flintstone. He was a master of the early zero emissions automobile.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
Especially when you move from lovable throw pillow to hard ass winner. See Hoke to Harbaugh, now Reilly to Frost. That’s how it goes.
September 19th, 2018 at 5:58 PM ^
Yeah it shows that Hoke and Reilly are probably great people, but that obviously doesn't win you games.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:02 PM ^
"Those Who Stay Will Be Champions". How many players quit the team when Bo started in 1969? I can't remember, wasn't born and it's been a while since I read his book, but it seemed like a fair amount.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:28 PM ^
I think the author is looking for a story for game week.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:29 PM ^
It's not totally surprising. Just think, if you're a redshirt junior+, Frost is your third coach of your career there. It's hard to avoid having buy-in problems in a spot like that, especially when a lot of the players on the team were pretty upset at Pelini getting fired in the first place. Now they're juniors and seniors and getting passed by under classmen on the depth chart as Frost builds for the future.
I don't expect much of anything from Nebraska this weekend. He's got to burn that thing down and he's in the process of doing it.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
I don't see anything here that I wouldn't have expected to see. In fact, we already saw it a couple of months ago when their only 'experienced' QB quit because he didn't win the starting job. I don't see any smoke here - it will take a couple of years for Frost to get anything going with players he recruits. And he'll win the public perception contest for, at least, three years before anyone around Nebraska starts to turn on him if he hasn't shown improvement by then.
September 19th, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
So a coach who was a QB at a school gets about three years of goodwill? What if the first two seasons were pretty great?
September 20th, 2018 at 12:44 AM ^
Nebraska will show improvement sooner than 3 years:
1- the bar could not be lower
2- they can recruit JUCO transfers
3- if Frost can go undefeated at UCF he can get Nebraska to 9 wins by year 3
September 19th, 2018 at 1:31 PM ^
Some kids aren't going to buy in to new coaches.
Some kids aren't going to buy in to playing college football, period. That even happens with professionals, so I don't know why it would surprise anyone in college.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
Geez, man. This is the first season. Give it some time.
Lots of time, I mean, because I don't think Scott will do much there.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:50 PM ^
They'll be alternating with Wisconsin in the B1G championship game starting next year.
When do you think Michigan will start making it to Indianapolis every other year?
September 20th, 2018 at 12:50 AM ^
My hopes are pinned on a strong core of Detriot PAL 8th graders who should crack the starting rotation somewhere around 2025.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
Don’t worry though, at least they can take solace in out-hitting us again
/s
September 19th, 2018 at 1:32 PM ^
It's just change. I doubt it's much of a problem. I think he came in and worked the hell out of them and told them that anybody who didn't like it could leave. Pretty standard stuff I think.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:35 PM ^
See Matt Patricia.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:39 PM ^
I had a manager once who gave the "either get in line or get out of the way" speech.
I got out of the way, not the least reason for which was (you choose): 1) he misquoted Thomas Paine, 2) his ideas were childish and wrong, 3) I can't work for a guy who makes unprompted ultimatums to his entire reporting structure when they were already committed to doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.
He was eventually demoted to supervising temp workers in the warehouse.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
I dunno. It takes some gumption to give an ultimatum to the Pope.
September 19th, 2018 at 6:49 PM ^
The best advice a wise old guy gave me when I started managing my first factory 30 years ago was "if you have to tell people you are their boss - you aint."
The vast majority of the people at work come to do a good job - give them what they need, respect them - set the expectations - put them 1st - and they will make you look like the best manager in the world.
Just 2 cents...
September 19th, 2018 at 1:40 PM ^
The other thing to consider is Frost took the UCF job a year after 0-12. It's pretty hard for even the dumbest egotistical moron to think you don't need a major culture change after 0-12, so I imagine that made his job easier there as far as buy-in went. As long as he could get the Jimmies and Joes, he was good.
Nebraska has been less of a crater and more of just this slow malaise of increasing irrelevance, and a lot of players who were supposed to be good who didn't develop and a lot of coaching instability. That's tailor-made for a trickier buy-in process.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:51 PM ^
He probably had the Jimmies and Joes already. UCF won its conference title in 2012, '13 and '14. Their 2015 season was a gigantic outlier.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:09 PM ^
Right. People that mention him taking an 0-12 to 12-0 leave out a lot of context.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:52 PM ^
Quick, give me a more Nebraskan name than Tanner Farmer.
You can't.
September 19th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
Farmer Tanner?
September 19th, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^
Owen Fields.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:47 PM ^
Silo Tiller
September 19th, 2018 at 2:16 PM ^
Corn Fucker
September 19th, 2018 at 2:30 PM ^
Brilliant!
September 19th, 2018 at 7:35 PM ^
“Brilliant” doesn’t sound like a Nebraska name.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
Cornelius Kernel
September 19th, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
Butch Cobb
September 19th, 2018 at 2:51 PM ^
Scooter Tooter.
September 19th, 2018 at 3:37 PM ^
My grandma’s neighbor was named Nebras. That’s a pretty good Nebraskan name. I never found out what his last name was. I like to imagine it was “Corn.”
September 19th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^
Willa Cather
September 19th, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^
Move along. Garbage article. You aren't going to get 100 guys to all buy in to anything 100%. It's a good media narrative. Just like the Lions with Patricia. Any time you have losing you will find a media guy with this story. You can always find a guy or 2 that are disgruntled and will give you a negative quote. If not you can just make it up now it's 2018.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:00 PM ^
The same was said in Ann Arbor in 2015.
You don't "warm up" to guys like Frost or Harbaugh.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:03 PM ^
i believe the applicable term is "transition cost."
September 19th, 2018 at 2:07 PM ^
Nick Baumgarner said something interesting on his Michigan Rant podcast this week, basically saying that Nebraska fans are putting the savior tag on a guy that has a otal of 2 years and 3 games head coaching experience.
Going from UCF to Nebraska is a big leap. Like Hoke going from SDSU to Michigan. Could overwhelm him.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
Doesn't frost have coordinator experience at Oregon though? That's a pretty big gig. Hoke was never a coordinator anywhere and was HC at 2 small schools. Frost has been on a P5 trajectory and mentioned a lot, right?
I honestly don't see Frost and Hoke as similar, but maybe that's just me.
September 19th, 2018 at 8:22 PM ^
Hoke's not a jerk.
September 19th, 2018 at 2:26 PM ^
I guess, but Urban Meyer pretty much did the same thing. 2 years at Bowling Green and 2 years at Utah when it was still in the MWC. James Franklin had 3 years at Vanderbilt before moving to PSU.
Watching the product is the most important thing, and I have been impressed with his teams and how they play. I think the critical question for me is can he get recruits to go to Nebraska? And how much of a setback would a losing season be this year? He is going to have to recruit against Jimbo Fisher, Lincoln Riley, and Tom Herman in his region, and I still have my doubts Nebraska can recruit nationally without championships. He is going to have to kill it on his player evaluations this year because I don't see him pulling in a top-15 recruiting class this year.
The conference setup is an advantage for him as I think he is going to have that program at the top of the B1G West eventually. If he can get a couple upsets in the B1G Championship Game, I think it could propel them back. Look what one win over OSU and a B1G title did for James Franklin.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
True regarding what PSU's win over OSU did for them. Definitely brought them back from the dead, but even before that it was still considerably easier to recruit to Penn State than it was to Nebraska. They're on the east coast and surrounded by a lot of HS talent in PA, OH, MD, VA, NJ, and DC. A lot of great talent all within driving distance. They have built-in advantages that, barring massive population shifts over the next several generations, Nebraska will never have.
If Nebraska wants talent that can win them championships, they've got to get on a plane and go wherever they need to go. Maybe there's a couple of prospects in the Kansas City area they can drive to, but everywhere else they need to fly. For kids that don't want to be too far from home, Nebraska is going to be a very hard sell.
If Frost starts winning big games and gets them into the CFP discussion, the recruits will come. If he shows he can get kids to the NFL, the recruits will come. At the end of the day, everyone wants to play for a winner, and Frost runs an offense that's fun to watch when it's working. I think it will take some time, but he will build a contender there within 3-5 years. They just need to be patient.
September 19th, 2018 at 4:52 PM ^
And James Franklin got outcoached by Brady Hoke.
He appears to be a good recruiter, but he was on the hot seat for a reason. They lost by 39 to Michigan in 2016 for a reason. The Peter Principle on full display.