It's a unique situation.
Frost would have been canned at any other school based on his record. But the whole native son thing plus the fact that the team seems to pass the eyeball test will likely earn him another season. If we make a bowl, he's kept around for another season for sure.
I also think that in the Double Secret Hush-Hush conversations between Alberts and Frost is where Frost can buy himself some more runway by promising an assistant coaching turnover. If he plays his cards right, he's pretty much guaranteed another year, so long as we don't lose out with ugly blowouts the rest of the year.
The real question is Frost's loyalty to his coaches, his recruits and his system.
Defense is looking great. As far as I'm concerned, keep Chinander around until the cows come home. He's got the Blackshirts looking like an elite unit, despite us having graduated a bunch of talent in recent years. We have a bunch of 2-3 star athletes that are playing like 5-star recruits, which tells me that player development on the defensive side of the ball is in good shape. We can look at new wrinkles or plays, but the overall system is working.
Offense is a tale of two cities. If we get another Adrian Martinez, we can continue to have big production and yardage gains. We also seem to be building a good OL pipeline and attracting under-the-radar WR and TE talent. From my perspective, though, the QB and RB rooms aren't anything elite. We have capable and serviceable players at both positions, but I don't see a lot of elite talent - yet. We have a LOT of potential in the RB room, but less on the QB side. I think Smothers can be the guy, but I'm not convinced that Frost+Coach V is the right combo to get him there. Martinez has alternatively looked like a hero and a goat, depending on the game. When we're pinning our hopes on Martinez to be clutch and not choke the game away, it tells me that the rest of the offense hasn't been developed enough. We either need much more talent in the ball carrier department (allowing a "game manager" QB) or we need a really elite QB who can distribute the ball effectively. While I enjoy the history of rushing QBs at Nebraska, my gut says that we have a deep enough RB room to allow us to grab a more traditional pocket passer.
Special Teams is a hot mess. We need an experienced SPT coach, ASAP. There's nothing really more to say here. Botched kicks, punts, returns, blocking, everything. We look more like Special Ed. than Special Teams.
If I'm Frost and I get another year, I look at hiring a SPT Coordinator and rejiggering the offensive coaches. Lawson is technically the Outside LB and SPT Coordinator, while Barrett Ruud is only the Inside LB coach. I'm looking to streamline that and put one coach over all LBs and one coach over SPT. Not sure Coach V is getting the job done with Martinez, so I look at hiring another QB coach and maybe rearranging the fact that Austin is both OL and Run Game Coordinator.
