LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) — Nebraska fired Scott Frost on Sunday, the situation at the once-proud football program was so dire that athletic director Trev Alberts made the move just three weeks before the coach’s contract sale deal was halved.
The Cornhuskers lost 45-42 at home Saturday night to Georgia Southern as a three-touchdown favorite and the student section sang “Fire Frost” at the end of the game.
Frost was 16-31 three games into his fifth season, and his .340 win ratio was the second-worst among Nebraska coaches to last more than four years.
Assistant head coach Mickey Joseph was named interim coach for the remainder of the season. The Huskers play No. 6 Oklahoma at home this week.
Joseph, 54, is Nebraska’s first black head coach in any sport and one of four new hires this season. Like Frost, he is a former Nebraska quarterback who played from 1988-1991.
“I met with Coach Frost this morning and informed him that we are making a change in leadership of our football program, effective immediately,” Alberts said in a statement. “Scott put his heart and soul into the Nebraska football program as both quarterback and head coach, and I appreciate his work and dedication.
“After the disappointing start to our season, I’ve decided the best way forward for our program is to change our position as head coach.”
Joseph returned to Nebraska as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator after coaching receivers at LSU from 2017-21. He was also LSU’s assistant head coach for the last two seasons there.
Alberts made a surprising move last November when he announced he was bringing Frost back after a 3-9 season. Frost fired four offensive assistants, had his salary cut from $5 million to $4 million, and agreed that his Oct. 1 buyout should go from $15 million to $7.5 million.
At first there was no talk of a negotiated solution. Aside from that, Nebraska is sacrificing millions of dollars to cut the umbilical cord now.
Apparently Alberts had seen enough. The Huskers opened the season with a 31-28 loss to Northwestern of Ireland, fought their way into the fourth quarter before beating FCS North Dakota 38-17, and then conceded 642 yards while beating a team from the Lost Sun Belt Conference in Georgia Southern.
The 47-year-old coach’s spectacular failure was never foreseeable as he left central Florida as America’s hottest coach.
The story for his tenure was delicious as Frost returned to his home state and the school he helped as a quarterback in the 1997 national championship.
He had taken over a program in Central Florida that ended 0-12 in 2015, and two years later he was leading the Golden Knights to a 13-0 record and a Peach Bowl win over Auburn.
Frost, who grew up in Wood River 90 minutes west of Lincoln, was hailed as the program’s savior when former athletic director Bill Moos signed him to a seven-year, $35 million deal.
Moos boasted that he got “the pick of the toss” in the 2017-18 coaching cycle and that the Big Ten powers “would be scared” once Frost got the Huskers on track. When asked if he might need to adapt his style to the Big Ten, Frost responded that he hoped the Big Ten would have to adapt to him instead.
What followed was more than four seasons of underperforming and undisciplined play — and discontent among a loyal fanbase desperate for a return to some semblance of the program’s glory days.
There was never any indication it would happen under freezing conditions. His Huskers were famous for losing tight games – 22 of their 31 losses were decided by eight points or fewer – and being beaten as double-digit favorites.
The Frost Era was Nebraska’s worst since Bill Jennings was 15-34-1 (.310) in the five years before Hall of Famer coaches Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne reigned over four decades of sustained success that included five national championships and 22 conferences brought titles.
The Huskers have gone through five coaches since Osborne’s retirement in 1997, and they are a shell of their former selves. They haven’t won a conference championship since 1999 and haven’t won more than five games in a season since going 9-4 in 2016 under Mike Riley.
Frost was 10-26 in Big Ten games and, worse, 6-18 against West Division opponents. His teams never won more than three conference games in a season or finished higher than fifth place in the seven-man West.
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