Huskers have high hopes for second year under Frost

BOULDER» Coming into the 2018 season, there was so much excitement about the beginning of the Scott Frost era at Nebraska that it was almost cruel to Cornhuskers fans that they had to wait an extra week.

Fans packed Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., for the opener against Akron and roared at the open kickoff. But that was it. Severe weather forced the game to be halted, fans were eventually sent home and the game was never played.

A week later, 89,853 fans poured into the seats for Frost’s actual debut as Nebraska head coach, only to watch former Big 12 rival Colorado steal a 33-28 victory in the waning moments.

It took seven games for the Huskers to get their first win under Frost, a Wood River, Neb., native and former Nebraska quarterback.

This year, there’s a load of hype again, but perhaps with more substance behind it. Nebraska is coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons and visits Boulder on Sept. 7.

Despite consecutive losing seasons for the first time since six in a row from 1956-61, Nebraska comes into this year as a legitimate contender to win the Big Ten West Division. In fact, Phil Steele, Athlon and Street & Smith’s all project the Cornhuskers as the West winner.

“I know we’re a lot better team than we were a year ago at this time,” Frost told The Athletic recently.

Part of that is due to Frost. He won a national championship as the Huskers’ quarterback in 1997. He was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon in 2014 when Marcus Mariota won the Heisman Trophy. Frost then became the head coach at Central Florida in 2016 and took it from 0-12 the year before to 13-0 in 2017.

Frost is a proven winner, but he had to change the culture in Lincoln. It didn’t happen overnight, but there’s belief that the Huskers are getting there.

“People are seeing the same things as Coach Frost in this program,” linebacker Mohamed Barry told The Athletic. “They see it in themselves. We’re not there yet, but I’m just in love with this team because of the buy-in.”

In addition to the buy-in, Nebraska expects to be better because of quarterback Adrian Martinez.

Now a true sophomore, Martinez made his collegiate debut against CU and, despite the loss, was stellar. He threw for a touchdown and ran for two scores against the Buffs. Frost believes Martinez could be one of the best quarterbacks to come through Lincoln.

Injured late in the game against CU, Martinez missed most of the next two games. By the second half of the year, he and the Huskers were rolling along. They were one of the most improved teams in the country from September to November. Now, they’re expected to be one of the most improved teams in the country from last year to this year.

“We finished in a good place last year,” Frost said in a recent interview with Rivals.com. “We certainly went through a heck of a lot of pitfalls and bumps to get there. The key for us is to start where we left off, from a culture standpoint, from an attitude standpoint and from a competitive standpoint. We were a good enough team at the end of last year to play with or beat about anybody we played. We need to make sure we start there Game 1.”