At least one writer is ready to put pen to paper that Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost won’t make it to the showdown with the Iowa Hawkeyes.
It’s obviously not the craziest opinion out there. Frost is regarded as the Big Ten’s lone head coach that was squarely on the hot seat entering the 2022 season. According to the team of writers at CBS Sports, Frost earned a “5” rating of “win or be fired.”
As one of his three bold predictions in his Big Ten preview, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach predicted that Frost wouldn’t make it through the entirety of the 2022 season as the Huskers’ head coach.
One of Nebraska’s favorite sons, Frost’s tenure at his alma mater has been a disaster. The Cornhuskers have gone 15-29 in his four seasons and haven’t made a bowl game under his watch. He took a $1 million salary reduction, and his buyout gets cut in half to $7.5 million after Oct. 1. The Cornhuskers will start 3-0, but penalties and turnovers will continue to doom them during a 1-3 stretch after that. Athletic director Trev Alberts will cut him loose after a loss at Purdue on Oct. 15. – Schlabach, ESPN.
After the Huskers’ season opener, that prediction looks even more likely. Nebraska coughed up a two-score, second-half lead over Northwestern. Worse even for Frost was the decision making that led to the defeat.
After Anthony Grant’s second touchdown of the third quarter, a 46-yard gallop that put the Huskers in front 28-17, Frost and Nebraska inexplicably attempted an onside kick. Naturally, Nebraska didn’t recover said onside kick and it set up a short field that Northwestern cashed in on to quickly make it a one-score game once more.
Evan Hull scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown and Casey Thompson’s two-minute drill pass was intercepted by Xander Mueller to ice the Wildcat victory.
How it plays out from here will obviously determine Frost’s ultimate fate, but another one-score loss isn’t the start to the season any Nebraska fan was looking for. The Huskers have now lost nine consecutive one-score games and are an abysmal 5-20 in such games during Frost’s tenure.
Nebraska and Frost welcome Oklahoma in three weeks, too. Yikes. At this point, it’s not the wildest thought that Frost might get served his walking papers after the Huskers get their doors blown off by the Sooners.
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