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Is honesty not acceptable?

As a coach, you never say “I inherited a mess.” You never say “my system works, we just need better players.” You don’t respond to a poor performance by your QB with “he’s great, we just need to get better around him.”

This is leadership 101 stuff. You are depending on the guys you are essentially calling chopped liver to trust you and respond to your teaching....and ultimately win games for you. Those statements don’t build trust, confidence or a team-first attitude. They sow seeds of doubt and smack of favoritism and excuse making.
 

huskernut said:
Coaches can say players need to get better till the cows come home, about the things those players can control, like conditioning, and skill. But to say it about talent, which they don't control, more than just a few times at the outset and in generalities, is counter-productive. Scott does that a lot. I think because he feels like we fans deserve an explanation. Well we don't need it. And not only is he insulting the players who don't have enough talent, he's shooting himself in the foot by de-motivating them.

It's a lot like how he keeps giving other teams bulletin board material. It just makes it harder to win. And it's completely unnecessary. There's not benefit to any of it. I hope he figures that out. Good coaches like all good managers have to maximize every single thing to maximize results.
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As I've said, talent is improved in two ways; by recruiting new players, and by improving existing ones. If those guys don't think they can improve themselves, then that's probably part of the problem. 5.0 flat isn't becoming a 4.5, but it can become a 4.8. Ziggy didn't walk in a finished product, it's still up to the players to commit to improving.
 
@LarstheRed , I think you've touched on it a couple of times in this thread. I think a large part of the issue is the attitude and temperment of the players. If you sell a recruit on the winning tradition and history of the program, he vicareously becomes a part of it without putting in the effort to match it.

When I was in Navy bootcamp in the early 80's, we had a guy go a bit stir crazy. He was lamenting he joined the Navy for the beaches and the babes. He literally complained, "Where are the babes?" Dude, you're in bootcamp. There are no babes in bootcamp.

Guys come to programs like Nebraska, make the team and get the glory without earning it. They get the parties, the babes, the attention just by going through the motions. That, to me, is the culture that has to change and Frost hints at it when he says he wants guys that prioritize football as #1. You need guys whose goals are aligned with the programs, competing with and beating the best and willing to do whatever it takes to get there. I don't think we have that right now. I suspect we're not even close, outside a couple of players.
 
LarstheRed said:
How is it that we have poor play calling? If a play fails, is it a poor play? I have a hard time blaming the play calling when I see a play that looks like a great gainer, only to be stopped for a loss or no gain by a player missing a block, or QB missing an open receiver, or a RB not running the lane the blocking is set up for. This odd notion that just because we don't try to smashmouth every play in the redzone makes the play calling wrong. How many times do other teams get walk in scores running those exact type of play on our defense? Watch the replays, because they continually show just how easy a score would have been with those 'cute' plays if guys actually do what they are supposed to.
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simple. Against Iowa he ransomething like 10 swing passes that resulted in 4-5 plays where we lost yardage. One one time did we get more than 2 yards I know you feel differently but there is a trend there and not a good one. That’s on HCSF

and fwiw Martinez has struggled to execute that play well all season.

so give it up and might as well run the ball
 



Bigger Ed said:
IMO, the most important self-improvement Frost needs to make is tempering what he says to the press.
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It's certainly important. I think Frost is very talented, and used to having success. It's often a challenge for people like that not to be so stubborn they create impediments to their own success. Some stubborness is obviously necesssary. But imo, he could stand to absorb a little of the insight of jiu-jitsu: don't rely only on assertion, but let the nature of things create opportunities to influence them to maximum effect.
 
CrabHusker said:
And how what he says is perceived by the kids on the roster and kids and parents being courted to come to Lincoln.

I’m all for accountability and if he’s OK with running off half the guys he brings in, he’ll have to deal with the consequences. Including potentially not coaching the length of his contract.
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I'm a bit surprised he doesn't follow his mentor, TO, in this regard. The only time I can recall TO saying anything remotely negative about a player is Frost himself. After the '96 ASU game and fans booing Frost and clammering for a change at QB, TO simpley said, "He's the best we have." Not anything like, "he's got to get better."
Never bag a player or even a unit in public. It's a bad example. What's to stop a player from bagging the coaches?
 
huskernut said:
It's certainly important. I think Frost is very talented, and used to having success. It's often a challenge for people like that not to be so stubborn they create impediments to their own success. Some stubborness is obviously necesssary. But imo, he could stand to absorb a little of the insight of jiu-jitsu: don't rely only on assertion, but let the nature of things create opportunities to influence them to maximum effect.
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Perfect situation for Frost to practice what he preaches and recognize he has his own faults and is working to overcome/compensate for them.
 
Bigger Ed said:
I'm a bit surprised he doesn't follow his mentor, TO, in this regard. The only time I can recall TO saying anything remotely negative about a player is Frost himself. After the '96 ASU game and fans booing Frost and clammering for a change at QB, TO simpley said, "He's the best we have." Not anything like, "he's got to get better."
Never bag a player or even a unit in public. It's a bad example. What's to stop a player from bagging the coaches?
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‘We need to improve’ is never a bad thing to say and is usually 100% accurate.

Get rid of the ‘Our guys’ crap and embrace every kid on the roster. If they shouldn’t be playing, sit them. If they’re the best we have, but not good enough, say the staff needs to do a better job putting the kids in a position to succeed. Kids know when they screw up and don’t need their head coach talking about it in the media.
 




WestTexasHusker said:
SF has made a number of off-the-field blunders that have made his job considerably harder.
  • Making numerous bold statements about the rest of the conference that have supplied locker room material for all teams, for the duration of his tenure.
  • Continuing to bag on his players for lack of talent, week after week.
  • Blaming culture, when some decent coaching would have been the difference.
I’ll get blasted for making the comparison, but some of this is eerily similar to the Callahan years.
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You're not wrong.
 
dallasblackshirt said:
simple. Against Iowa he ransomething like 10 swing passes that resulted in 4-5 plays where we lost yardage. One one time did we get more than 2 yards I know you feel differently but there is a trend there and not a good one. That’s on HCSF

and fwiw Martinez has struggled to execute that play well all season.

so give it up and might as well run the ball
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So you think we are designed to go toe to toe with Iowa's defense just running the ball? Apparently you don't see the advantage of moving defenders out of the point of attack. Heck, even Matt Millen pointed out that makes defending the offense much harder. I'll agree it's insanely frustrating watching those plays continually blown up, and what makes it worse, is we didn't just suck blocking with one guy, heck, we tried half the guys on the offense to make the necessary blocks, and they all failed. Hixson, Wilson, Farn, Mazour, Williams, Stoll, all those guys failed to make blocks that would have lead to some decent yards. You'd think someone would have tripped up the defender just by mistake if nothing else. And as others mentioned, AM isn't putting the ball where it should be. Personally, I'd rather have tried someone else making that throw than scrapped the play. The play had opportunity if executed.
 
CrabHusker said:
‘We need to improve’ is never a bad thing to say and is usually 100% accurate.

Get rid of the ‘Our guys’ crap and embrace every kid on the roster. If they shouldn’t be playing, sit them. If they’re the best we have, but not good enough, say the staff needs to do a better job putting the kids in a position to succeed. Kids know when they screw up and don’t need their head coach talking about it in the media.
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Perfect example:
Press: "Why did Martinez run out of bounds and stop the clock?"
What Frost should have said, whether true or not, "That's on me. I didn't communicate to him that we were no longer in attack mode but run-out-the-clock mode." If you're willing to fall on the sword for your players, they'll be more likely to run through a brick wall for you.
 
LarstheRed said:
So you think we are designed to go toe to toe with Iowa's defense just running the ball? Apparently you don't see the advantage of moving defenders out of the point of attack. Heck, even Matt Millen pointed out that makes defending the offense much harder. I'll agree it's insanely frustrating watching those plays continually blown up, and what makes it worse, is we didn't just suck blocking with one guy, heck, we tried half the guys on the offense to make the necessary blocks, and they all failed. Hixson, Wilson, Farn, Mazour, Williams, Stoll, all those guys failed to make blocks that would have lead to some decent yards. You'd think someone would have tripped up the defender just by mistake if nothing else. And as others mentioned, AM isn't putting the ball where it should be. Personally, I'd rather have tried someone else making that throw than scrapped the play. The play had opportunity if executed.
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Your question is answered by our run of three and outs once pinned back in our own end. You can’t just run the ball right at Iowa over and over unless your OL is dominant (which ours isn’t). There needs to be some variety and we need to be able to execute those varieties.

The fact our QB is as ineffective throwing lateral passes and screens as he is throwing downfield is a real head scratcher. He threw them well last year, too, so there’s that. 2019 was just one big season of let’s see what we can fail to do from every single area of the team at the most inopportune time to do it.
 



Bigger Ed said:
Perfect example:
Press: "Why did Martinez run out of bounds and stop the clock?"
What Frost should have said, whether true or not, "That's on me. I didn't communicate to him that we were no longer in attack mode but run-out-the-clock mode." If you're willing to fall on the sword for your players, they'll be more likely to run through a brick wall for you.
Click to expand...

True story.

My best guys in business are the ones who made an honest mistake and I took the bullets for. You figure out pretty quick who’s really your guy and who’s not when you do that.
 

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