Nebraska year in review: Alberts’ choices on Frost, Hoiberg became the story in 2021-22 | Huskers

Alberts, having the same option four months into his tenure, declined to do the same.

Instead, he received a plan from Frost that included firing most of his assistants on offense and the coach accepted a $1 million salary reduction.

“The university is taking a risk in bringing Scott back,” Alberts said. “There’s a risk. Scott, I thought it was important we mitigate some of our risk with him taking a risk. At the end of the day, there’s no guarantee for success.”

Around a table in his office, Alberts spoke one day before the tipoff of the Nebraska men’s basketball season.

By the end of that campaign, Alberts would be having much the same conversation about Fred Hoiberg. New coaching staff. Reduced salary. Same coach.

“Within reason, this is going to be a place that supports coaches — period,” Alberts said of Hoiberg’s retention in late February.

Depending on who Alberts might have hired to replace Frost and Hoiberg, those decisions saved NU perhaps $20 million in buyouts that can be used for other things, like paying student-athletes for academic progress or beginning to reimagine Memorial Stadium. Alberts’ choices — and his first year, in general — also became the story of Nebraska athletics in 2021-22.

Yes, the volleyball team advanced to the national title match before losing to Wisconsin. Yes, the women’s basketball and softball teams made strong runs to the NCAA Tournament that solidified coaches Amy Williams and Rhonda Revelle. Yes, NU’s wrestling team behind a historically good senior class surged to fifth at nationals.

But the overall performance of Nebraska teams resulted in the school’s worst-ever finish (49th) in the Directors’ Cup. And the biggest story remained: Football (3-9) and men’s basketball (10-22) won 25% and 31.25% of their respective games, and the highly touted well-paid coaches kept their jobs.

“Obviously, the season has not gone the way any of us expected or hoped, and it’s very discouraging,” Hoiberg said the week he was retained. “It’s been a very, very difficult year — as difficult as I’ve ever been through — and to have the support of Trev means the world to me.”

Alberts took the job in mid-July 2021, filling the vacuum left by Bill Moos’ exit.

Upon starting as AD, Alberts learned of an ongoing NCAA investigation into Frost’s use of a special teams analyst — Frost received a five-day suspension and show cause order in the spring for it — and inherited a long Memorial Stadium sellout streak on the ropes due to poor play, the pandemic and an aging stadium that Alberts wants to overhaul.

To keep the streak intact, NU and Alberts created The Red Carpet Experience, which matches donor tickets to underserved youth. As for the stadium, Alberts and his team crafted a massive survey and published the results. Fans want alcohol and bigger seats, according to the polls.

“We’re behind in some key areas because we haven’t had the courage to address some of these very sensitive and hard topics,” Alberts said in September of the stadium’s outdated amenities.

NU administrative “apparatus,” Alberts has said repeatedly since arriving from Omaha, needed to be as good as he wants his coaches to be.

Frost hadn’t enjoyed the level of support and guidance, Alberts intimated, he deserved as a still-young coach. Frost fired several long-time assistants — including three who had been with him six years — to hire Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mark Whipple and another former Husker quarterback Mickey Joseph to jump-start recruiting and coach receivers. Frost made additional changes in the recruiting offices that, so far, have helped Nebraska grab 13 commits for the 2023 class.

Hoiberg isn’t new to the head coaching gig — he coached five years at Iowa State and four years in the NBA — but he, too, has hit the reset button, jettisoning his lead assistant Matt Abdelmassih and Doc Sadler, the former NU coach turned special assistant whose role had been greatly reduced by the end of his time in Lincoln.

Both the football and men’s basketball teams hit big reset buttons on their rosters, too, cranking the transfer portal turnstile with regularity. The Husker football team added 15 new players. In men’s basketball, three, but it’s possible that trio — Sam Griesel, Emmanuel Bandoumel and Juwan Gary — find their way into the starting lineup.

Alberts has preached optimism for both high-profile programs. Football kicks off in less than 50 days with a game against Northwestern in Ireland. The AD’s comments have filled in for Frost, who has been media silent for roughly three months.

“I don’t think Scott is throwing darts at a dart board and hoping something works,” Alberts said.

Something might have to work, though. For Frost and Hoiberg. Grace, in a business of wins and losses, has its limits.