The ground surrounding Scott Frost when he arrived as the savior of Nebraska football in early 2018 was so large, it stretched into southern Florida.
The former Nebraska quarterback, a national champion in 1997, was not only a sure-fire hire for the program on hard times, he was quickly making the Huskers relevant again on the national scene after just a few weeks on the job. Frost had just led UCF to an undefeated season in 2017, and while his former employer was busy claiming a national title and designing banners to hang in The Bounce House, he swooped into Miami and convinced players to sign with Nebraska.
“I recall a time when Nebraska was a hot school down here,” said Andrew Ivins, a 247Sports recruiting analyst in South Florida. “I would walk into a Miami Northwestern or Miami Central, and all these kids were wearing Nebraska gear. It's like, why are they wearing Nebraska here?”
A coach at another school had the answer, Ivins recalls: “They were like, look, man, Nebraska’s s**t basically doesn’t stink down here.” At the time, the nearby Miami Hurricanes were pushing through difficult times. Sports radio and social media were filled with negative talk about the Hurricanes. Football prospects in Dade County wanted something new, something fresh. The promise of revitalizing a blueblood like the Huskers and beating the likes of Ohio State and Michigan persuaded some athletes to leave for Lincoln, Nebraska.
Nebraska's plan seemed sound at the time. In fact, it worked and the Huskers gained ground on the recruiting trail. Frost signed 14 players from Florida in four recruiting classes, including six in 2018 and seven in 2020. They ranked fourth in the Big Ten in three straight recruiting classes, presumably placing the Huskers in position to contend for championships. And who could blame him for going heavy in Florida? Frost had the name recognition, he knew well Nebraska lacks a sustainable, homegrown recruiting pipeline and he needed speed to make his super-charged offense hum.
That plan, however, has backfired. The mass influx of Florida talent has turned into a mass exodus. Seven signees have since transferred or been kicked off the team, and two more never made it to campus because of academic issues. Only one Florida native enters the Huskers’ season opener Saturday against Illinois on the projected two-deep depth chart.
The 2020 class, which ranked No. 20, has turned into a disaster zone: five of six Florida signees have transferred in a year, including two before the start of their freshman seasons. The Nos. 3, 4 and 5-ranked signees in 2020 are already gone. The 2021 recruiting class also ranked an impressive No. 20 nationally and noticeably included just one Florida signee as Frost & Co. went heavy in their own state; the five Nebraska-bred signees in 2021 were more than Frost had inked in his combined previous classes.
The attrition has left Nebraska thin at certain positions and lacking top-end talent throughout the roster. Oddsmakers in Vegas say the Huskers will win about six games this fall. Will that be considered progress? Frost is 12-20 in three seasons coaching his alma mater. Not only are the results on the field inadequate, the program is also dealing with an NCAA investigation, one inherited by new athletics director Trev Alberts, who is trying to revitalize an athletics department that has largely been irrelevant since bolting the Big 12 in 2011 to join the Big Ten.
The lifeblood of every athletics department is football. Football is the main money driver in athletics and also the biggest marketing tool for a university — and yet a tradition-rich program like Nebraska, with five national titles, is at a crossroads.
The Huskers’ sellout streak of 375 games is in danger of ending Sept. 4 against Fordham. The stretch dating back to 1962 is easily the longest stretch in college sports. Whether it is Frost Fatigue, the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic or a combination of both, the development has Nebraska officials practically begging fans to step up.
"This is really important to us,” Alberts said Wednesday on a local radio show. “This is important to our football program. It's important to our fans. We have tickets to sell, we have tickets to move.”
If we know football is what defines an athletics department and helps market the university, one must also accept recruiting is the lifeblood of a football program. All of the above are connected. One affects the other.
At Nebraska, there is a major leak in the recruiting pipeline.
At least 54 players have transferred from Nebraska since the 2019 cycle, according to the 247Sports Transfer Portal. Only 10 of those players were not evaluated and rated by 247Sports during their initial recruiting process (walk-ons). Two players, including linebacker Jamin Graham, have left in the last 10 days.
To Frost’s credit, Nebraska added 12 transfers to its roster since the 2019 cycle, including Montana receiver Samori Toure, who many project to be the Huskers’ top player this fall. With only nine commits in 2022, tied for the fewest in the Big Ten, it seems Frost plans a return to the portal to replenish the parts of his roster where recruiting failed him.
Still, the bad outweighs the good and Frost’s initial bets have not paid off, leading to a mad scramble for fill-in players in the transfer portal. The departures include the likes of 4-star safety Henry Gray, who departed before suiting up for the Huskers, and leading receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who transferred to Kentucky in the summer and figures to be the Wildcats’ top receiver this fall.
A new season that starts Saturday vs. Illinois (1 p.m. ET, FOX) renews hope for success. Never mind the Huskers are plowing through the worst era since William Jennings led the program in the early 1960s (before that sellout streak started, mind you).
“Without a doubt this is the most excited I've been about our team and the most confident,” Frost said in July. “Part of this is talent, part of that is just the character of the young men on our team and the culture surrounding the team. I'm excited for this season. We’ve got to go earn whatever respect we get and so far we haven't done enough of that, but our players are really excited to do it. We really have been focusing on the things that we needed to fix as a football team.”
If he doesn’t fix Nebraska soon, the transfer portal will be the least of Frost’s concerns.
Brandon Marcello is a national college football reporter for 247Sports. You can follow him on Twitter (@bmarcello).
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