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Did frost slam Tom Shatel?

Huskerthom

All Big 10
10 Year Member
Go to the link about the Scott Frost press conference. At about 2 minutes he is talking about QBs getting too much blame. He looks to his right and says "right Tom".

A. was that addressed at Shatel?
b. Was it in reference to 96 when all the fishwraps were coming down on SF?


What does everyone think?
 
It was a slight thrown at someone, was waiting to see if anyone had the skinny.
Well as far as I know Shatel is the only "Tom" on the press corps I am aware of. (Although I must admit that huskerThom was none too pleased with SF after the 96 season either) Also Shatel was around since 91. So it would make sense for it to be him.

Does anyone remember if he wrote a particularly harsh piece back than?
 



I was thinking about the Arizona St. debacle when they goose egged us in 96,
I gleefully called into work that night, I had a cold or something(cough, cough) and got a double gut punch on that evening. No W and no pay. Bummer.
 
Shatel mentioned this in his column today. He didn't say which of his previous columns it was in reference to, but that Frost was apparently warming up to roast Shatel when the "Face on the Barroom Floor" ceremony at the Omaha Press Club for Shatel comes up later this year.
 
Go to the link about the Scott Frost press conference. At about 2 minutes he is talking about QBs getting too much blame. He looks to his right and says "right Tom".

A. was that addressed at Shatel?
b. Was it in reference to 96 when all the fishwraps were coming down on SF?


What does everyone think?

Nah, Scott has made that expression many times, he just referred to Shatel as a member of the press. It’s not just the media that blames the quarterback too many times, or gives the quarterback too much credit, Joe Sixpack does that plenty.
 
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This is an allusion to something from WAY back, but I don't think it was a swipe at Shatel so much as a warning to be fair as Nebraska sports reporters.

Immediately after the Arizona State debacle in '96 Tom Shatel wrote an article about the game that pretty much put all of the offensive blame on Scott Frost for Nebraska's inability to move the ball. He absolutely roasted Frost. I never forgot that article because (I thought) he hit below the belt. He basically used "some Nebraska fans think" as a stand-in line for "I think ..." and he just listed everything bad about Scott Frost: chose Stanford over Nebraska, came sneaking back after Bill Walsh left and Nebraska had won a NC, hadn't been popular with teammates, and had shown a lack of leadership, consistency, etc. at QB.... Oh, and he also added this wonderful nugget at the end, (I'm paraphrasing from memory, and it was 23 years ago, so give me some slack) "... and some Nebraska fans in their darkest thoughts still blame Frost for being the one who pushed Lawrence Phillips off the rails when Phillips's ex-girlfriend spent the night in his apartment a year ago, which led to the incident where Phillips assaulted her." There was no internet at the time, but EVERYBODY was talking about that article, and many agreed with Shatel at the time.

Other than two bowl losses to Florida State following the '92 and '93 seasons and an upset at Iowa State in '92, Nebraska hadn't lost a game for four years, and the entire state was curled up in a ball and sucking its thumb while focusing on their quiet space after Arizona State had just man-handled the Huskers. Shatel was more or less playing to the mob by writing that at the time. It was a hatchet job, and Osborne was p'd off about it, and he let Shatel know it at the time. Even more revealing was that Shatel later admitted that Milt Tenopir pulled him aside on campus one day and lit him up, chewed him up, and spit him out, telling him that the multiple safeties and poor offensive performance in that game had almost solely been due to poor offensive line play, which they were finally figuring out after moving Aaron Taylor and Adam Treu around on the O-line. Tenopir told him that he owed Frost an apology, and Shatel admitted that he later did apologize to Frost for it, and he later went public about apologizing to him for it.

With all that said, I don't think that Frost was taking a shot at Shatel because he has also mentioned it since then. He has mentioned that he and Shatel had hashed things out, and Shatel was one of his biggest cheerleaders for the rest of that season and all of '97. He said that that time was when he no longer felt a sense of loyalty from the state of Nebraska because they had blamed him instead of being supportive, and it carried into the '97 season. The fans booed him against Central Florida when he returned to the game after Frankie London had led them on a scoring drive. People forget it now, but it wasn't until Frost ran roughshod over Washington in '97 that fans stopped calling for his head, wanting him benched. It was a loyalty to Osborne that he most exhibited at the time in interviews, etc. The Speech (after the '98 Orange Bowl) was all about Osborne, not Nebraska. After that night, Nebraska fans adored him, but I doubt that he as quickly got over what had happened in the prior 2 1/2 years.

If anything Frost's jab on Saturday was probably meant as a warning shot across the bow for other journalists to not trash Noah Vedral. He was drawing parallels to Frost's experiences, so be wary! It makes sense that Frost would have thought of that time and that example as a a parallel to being overly critical of Vedral last year since he had also transferred back to Nebraska after going elsewhere and (according to the coaches) was blamed unfairly last year for some poor play that was more the result of the situation that he was in and the personnel who surrounded him more than his individual QB play.
 
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It never bothered me that Scott went to Stanford to learn and play for Walsh (one of the best) or that he returned to Nebraska after Walsh left. It didn't bother me that he was with LP's ex-girlfriend. What bothered me was that it sounded like he didn't even try to stop LP. I know LP is/was a tough s.o.b. and would have probably kicked Scott's arse but, I think Scott should have tried to fight him off and not let LP be dragging her down the stairs. Now, maybe he did try to stop LP but that never came out.

I still think it was kind of a shot at Shatel though. :)
 
This is an allusion to something from WAY back, but I don't think it was a swipe at Shatel so much as a warning to be fair as Nebraska sports reporters.

Immediately after the Arizona State debacle in '96 Tom Shatel wrote an article about the game that pretty much put all of the offensive blame on Scott Frost for Nebraska's inability to move the ball. He absolutely roasted Frost. I never forgot that article because (I thought) he hit below the belt. He basically used "some Nebraska fans think" as a stand-in line for "I think ..." and he just listed everything bad about Scott Frost: chose Stanford over Nebraska, came sneaking back after Bill Walsh left and Nebraska had won a NC, hadn't been popular with teammates, and had shown a lack of leadership, consistency, etc. at QB.... Oh, and he also added this wonderful nugget at the end, (I'm paraphrasing from memory, and it was 23 years ago, so give me some slack) "... and some Nebraska fans in their darkest thoughts still blame Frost for being the one who pushed Lawrence Phillips off the rails when Phillips's ex-girlfriend spent the night in his apartment a year ago, which led to the incident where Phillips assaulted her." There was no internet at the time, but EVERYBODY was talking about that article, and many agreed with Shatel at the time.

Other than two bowl losses to Florida State following the '92 and '93 seasons and an upset at Iowa State in '92, Nebraska hadn't lost a game for four years, and the entire state was curled up in a ball and sucking its thumb while focusing on their quiet space after Arizona State had just man-handled the Huskers. Shatel was more or less playing to the mob by writing that at the time. It was a hatchet job, and Osborne was p'd off about it, and he let Shatel know it at the time. Even more revealing was that Shatel later admitted that Milt Tenopir pulled him aside on campus one day and lit him up, chewed him up, and spit him out, telling him that the multiple safeties and poor offensive performance in that game had almost solely been due to poor offensive line play, which they were finally figuring out after moving Aaron Taylor and Adam Treu around on the O-line. Tenopir told him that he owed Frost an apology, and Shatel admitted that he later did apologize to Frost for it, and he later went public about apologizing to him for it.

With all that said, I don't think that Frost was taking a shot at Shatel because he has also mentioned it since then. He said that that was the time when he no longer felt a sense of loyalty to the state of Nebraska because they had blamed him instead of being supportive. It had been just before the Arizona State game that the fans had booed him against Central Florida when he returned to the game after Frankie London had led them on a scoring drive. He has mentioned that he and Shatel had hashed things out, and Shatel was one of his biggest cheerleaders for the rest of that season and all of '97. People forget it now, but it wasn't until Frost ran roughshod over Washington in '97 that fans stopped calling for his head, wanting him benched.

If anything Frost's jab was probably meant as a warning shot across the bow for other journalists to not trash Noah Vedral. He was drawing parallels to Frost's experiences, so be wary! It makes sense that Frost would have thought of that time and that example as a a parallel to being overly critical of Vedral last year since he had also transferred back to Nebraska after going elsewhere and (according to the coaches) was blamed unfairly last year for some poor play that was more the result of the situation that he was in and the personnel who surrounded him more than his individual QB play.
I may not be following your highlighted comment as intended but Arizona State was the 1996 season and Central Florida was 1997.
 



I may not be following your highlighted comment as intended but Arizona State was the 1996 season and Central Florida was 1997.
No, it's my fault. I rewrote a couple of sentences there and didn't write a transition. I'll redo it now. The UCF snippet was supposed to be preceding the '97 UW game snippet.
 
This is an allusion to something from WAY back, but I don't think it was a swipe at Shatel so much as a warning to be fair as Nebraska sports reporters.

Immediately after the Arizona State debacle in '96 Tom Shatel wrote an article about the game that pretty much put all of the offensive blame on Scott Frost for Nebraska's inability to move the ball. He absolutely roasted Frost. I never forgot that article because (I thought) he hit below the belt. He basically used "some Nebraska fans think" as a stand-in line for "I think ..." and he just listed everything bad about Scott Frost: chose Stanford over Nebraska, came sneaking back after Bill Walsh left and Nebraska had won a NC, hadn't been popular with teammates, and had shown a lack of leadership, consistency, etc. at QB.... Oh, and he also added this wonderful nugget at the end, (I'm paraphrasing from memory, and it was 23 years ago, so give me some slack) "... and some Nebraska fans in their darkest thoughts still blame Frost for being the one who pushed Lawrence Phillips off the rails when Phillips's ex-girlfriend spent the night in his apartment a year ago, which led to the incident where Phillips assaulted her." There was no internet at the time, but EVERYBODY was talking about that article, and many agreed with Shatel at the time.

Other than two bowl losses to Florida State following the '92 and '93 seasons and an upset at Iowa State in '92, Nebraska hadn't lost a game for four years, and the entire state was curled up in a ball and sucking its thumb while focusing on their quiet space after Arizona State had just man-handled the Huskers. Shatel was more or less playing to the mob by writing that at the time. It was a hatchet job, and Osborne was p'd off about it, and he let Shatel know it at the time. Even more revealing was that Shatel later admitted that Milt Tenopir pulled him aside on campus one day and lit him up, chewed him up, and spit him out, telling him that the multiple safeties and poor offensive performance in that game had almost solely been due to poor offensive line play, which they were finally figuring out after moving Aaron Taylor and Adam Treu around on the O-line. Tenopir told him that he owed Frost an apology, and Shatel admitted that he later did apologize to Frost for it, and he later went public about apologizing to him for it.

With all that said, I don't think that Frost was taking a shot at Shatel because he has also mentioned it since then. He has mentioned that he and Shatel had hashed things out, and Shatel was one of his biggest cheerleaders for the rest of that season and all of '97. He said that that time was when he no longer felt a sense of loyalty from the state of Nebraska because they had blamed him instead of being supportive, and it carried into the '97 season. The fans booed him against Central Florida when he returned to the game after Frankie London had led them on a scoring drive. People forget it now, but it wasn't until Frost ran roughshod over Washington in '97 that fans stopped calling for his head, wanting him benched. It was a loyalty to Osborne that he most exhibited at the time in interviews, etc. The Speech (after the '98 Orange Bowl) was all about Osborne, not Nebraska. After that night, Nebraska fans adored him, but I doubt that he as quickly got over what had happened in the prior 2 1/2 years.

If anything Frost's jab on Saturday was probably meant as a warning shot across the bow for other journalists to not trash Noah Vedral. He was drawing parallels to Frost's experiences, so be wary! It makes sense that Frost would have thought of that time and that example as a a parallel to being overly critical of Vedral last year since he had also transferred back to Nebraska after going elsewhere and (according to the coaches) was blamed unfairly last year for some poor play that was more the result of the situation that he was in and the personnel who surrounded him more than his individual QB play.
I thought there was something like that I remembered hearing at the time. Since i lived in CA and it was pre everything available in the internet. I only heard about it did not actually have a chance to read the article. For the record when someone does you wrong it may forgiven, does not mean it is forgotten. An example would be, that if your friend steals money from you. You may well forgive them. However, you will probably not ever trust them with money again.
 

What bothered me was that it sounded like he didn't even try to stop LP. I know LP is/was a tough s.o.b. and would have probably kicked Scott's arse but, I think Scott should have tried to fight him off and not let LP be dragging her down the stairs. Now, maybe he did try to stop LP but that never came out.
There are only two people still alive who were there in that apartment on that night, and neither is talking about it, and neither likely ever will. I have taught a lot of history classes over the year, and one of the things that I'm always trying to get my students to understand is that people didn't know then what we know now, and it's not reasonable to act as though they should have known. That's how I see this situation. It is easy, now, ex post facto to look back and see that Lawrence Phillips wasn't safe around women when he was angry, but was there any public awareness of that at the time? I wasn't aware of any incidents before that, and I still haven't heard of any. Since Frost and Phillips weren't likely to have spent much time together outside of what was necessary in practices (and even that would have been very minimal as Frost was on the scout team that year), how would he have known?

What Frost would have known at the time was that Phillips had a nasty temper and had been disciplined for fighting his own teammates in practice. Based on the interviews from teammates in the Lawrence Phillips documentary, it was clear that THEY thought that Phillips was coming after Frost that night, and they think that Phillips likely would have tried to kill him, which we now know wasn't far-fetched. Here's why I give Frost the benefit of the doubt: What in his past could have possibly prepared him to react in that moment to assume that Lawrence was going to hurt her like he did? For those of us who have been around people with violence issues, it's easy to think that others should recognize the signs of a victim or an abuser, but those who have not been around it are often naive about it. Unless there are things hidden that haven't been mentioned, didn't Frost have about as idyllic of a childhood is would have been possible at the time? It's doubtful that even his two years at Stanford included much time with people with the potential for violence that Phillips had. If you lived in a quiet small town your whole life, and then you're suddenly in a situation where a violent teammate is yelling at you and threatening you, and then scales the outside of an apartment building to come after you, isn't it asking a lot of that person to take stock of that situation and recognize that the girl was as much at risk, or more, than he was? I grew up in a similar sort of rural community to Frost, and I'm only a few years older, and I hate to admit that I probably would have reacted very similarly. I saw at least a couple fights per year when I was in high school between people I knew over some girl, but I never saw any guy that I knew ever hit a girl or hurt her physically. I don't think that it's a stretch to say that that might not have entered his mind at the time. Isn't it even possible that the girl told him to get away until he cooled down? Again, nobody is talking about it, and they probably never will, but I'm not aware of any evidence that she was ever afraid of Phillips prior to that night. (Fwiw, I'm purposefully not saying her name because she deserves a life apart from that night following her forever.)

If you're looking for nits to pick in order to criticize him, I've wondered how he responded after Phillips dragged her out of the apartment. If Phillips grabbed her by the hair and dragged her down the stairs as has been asserted, how did he respond when he heard that she was in trouble? What happened at the bottom of the stairs that led to the scuffle where she got bashed against the mailboxes? Why did Phillips run away at that point? We don't know.

Here's what I do know: His experience that night has reshaped his life. Frost spent time with Ron Brown after that incident, and it was the start of a process that led to his life of faith. When I hear Frost's comments about how he doesn't want recruits who don't respect women, I personally hear echos of that night in his words. I don't think that he ever wants a player on his team like Phillips, and I'm pretty sure that he never wants to put one of his players or any Nebraska co-eds in the situation that he was in that night. He doesn't need to explicitly say that to see that he means it.

How did it affect him later? Did you ever see the aftermath of the Legarrette Blount punching incident at Boise State? Ever notice Frost at the end of that ugly episode? I'll put a link to the clip below. Be sure to look for the blonde haired Oregon coach around the 30-second mark who is putting himself between an irate and out-of-control Blount and some obnoxious Boise State fans who were trying to get him to lose his mind and start something more. Coincidence? Even if Frost acted less than chivalrous that night in 1995 when a crazed psycho crawled up the side of his building and broke into his apartment through the balcony door, Frost was 20 years old at the time. Is there anybody reading this who can seriously cast the first stone at him? I can't.

I still think it was kind of a shot at Shatel though.

We'll probably be able to figure that out, eventually. If they're on good terms, it wasn't; if they're not, it probably was. I don't see Shatel being able to stay quiet about it, either way.

Here's the video of the Blount punching incident and its aftermath. Look for Frost at about the 30-second mark.

 

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