NCAAF - Scott Frost Era Dawns Over Nebraska

by DS Williamson

The Nebraska Cornhuskers got the prize coach from last season. Scott Frost, a former star quarterback with Nebraska, coached the Central Florida Knights to an undefeated regular season and an upset victory over the Auburn Tigers in the Peach Bowl. Auburn was the third best team from the loaded SEC last season. It’s apparent that Frost knows what he’s doing. But, knowing what you’re doing doesn’t always translate to victories in college football. There’s still factors like player talent and strength of schedule

Nebraska’s offense will be better…will it be good enough The Nebraska Cornuskers averaged 385.0 yards per game last season, a decent enough output for 87th in the nation that aligned with their moderate scoring average of 25.8 points per game. Again, a respectable number in the Big Ten conference where often an emphasis is put onto rushing the football.

Scott Frost landing in Lincoln will change all that. At Central Florida, Frost, who was also the offensive coordinator at Oregon before becoming head coach at UCF, created an attack that averaged an awesome 530.9 yards per game. The Knights scored 48.2 points on average. Central Florida ranked fifth in average total yards per matchup. It ranked first in points per.

Nebraska fans shouldn’t expect Frost to get the Cornhuskers’ offense close to 48, heck, close to 35, points every Saturday. But, any step up from the lackluster offense Nebraska has displayed the past 2 seasons is a big step up.

The key for Nebraska will be how the offensive line responds to Frost’s rushing attack. Don’t get me wrong, Frost’s system is a spread system. However, like what Chip Kelly taught him at Oregon, spread offenses work best when rushers can get loose.

That means a lot of pulling guards, and tackles pushing out defensive ends. If one Adrian Martinez or Tristan Gebbia, the two freshman quarterbacks, can effectively run Frost’s system, Nebraska’s offense will surprise.

The good news for Frost is that even if the offense has growing pains, the defense should be much better this season than last season.

Nebraska’s defense might be one of the better units in the Big Ten West Division The Cornhuskers’ defense should be much better this season. The reason is because when Scott Frost left Central Florida he took his defensive coordinator, Erik Chinander, with him. If you don’t know who Chinander is, you will by the end of this season, trust me.

Chinander’s defense at Central Florida had 32 takeaways last season. That ranked second in the nation. Overall, Chinander’s D took the ball away 58 times in 26 games. Nebraska played a bend but don’t break system in 2017. That led to the Cornhuskers allowing 34.6 points per game, so there was a lot of breaking and bending.

Nebraska will be ultra-aggressive this year. They’ll give up big plays, but they’ll also force way more turnovers and win a couple of games for the Nebraska faithful. That’s good news because the schedule is ridiculous in a really bad way.

Nebraska’s schedule is brutal Hey, Scott Frost, welcome back to the Big Ten! We’re going to roll out the welcome mat with one of the toughest schedules in the nation. So, have fun buddy because it should be a roller coaster.

That’s what I imagine the bigwigs at the Big Ten thinking once Scott Frost took the job at Nebraska. It’s difficult to find a more brutal schedule. Akron, Colorado, and Troy, Nebraska’s first 3 games should be wins.

But, the Cornhuskers are at Michigan, at Wisconsin, at Northwestern, at Ohio State, and at Iowa. Nebraska must also battle Michigan State at home, and Purdue at home. Best case scenario? Frost and Chinander lead Nebraska to 7 wins.

The more likely scenario is that Frost and Chinander lead the Cornhuskers to 5 wins  out of the gate with a lot of victories against the spread. Keep that in mind when thinking about betting against Nebraska this season.