Things I know, and things I think I know:
The college football season still has time left on the clock.
So, it’s perfectly fine for Nebraska fans to look backward before they jump forward.
Same goes for Husker head coach Scott Frost. If you’re an NU fan, you hope Frost is looking hard (again) at how to improve special teams. It’s basically become an annual conversation around here, or so it seems. Granted, Bo Pelini ended his tenure in Lincoln in 2014 with NU playing strong special teams. But it’s been hit and miss ever since, and mostly miss.
As for Frost, he’s tried it at Nebraska with a full-time assistant coach heading up special teams (Jovan Dewitt in 2018 and 2019), and he tried it this season with a senior special teams analyst (Jonathan Rutledge) running the show.
It didn’t work out all that well, and it’s (again) cause for concern in part because if you’re sizing up any organization’s culture, or buy-in, you look immediately toward areas where people don’t get much credit for their work. You look to the dirty work. If an organization attacks those tasks enthusiastically and successfully, well, it indicates strength in culture.
Special teams is largely about dirty work. Nebraska has to do better in special teams if it expects to turn the corner as a program. It certainly has to do better than being 111th nationally in net punting, as is the case at the moment. That’s unacceptable. Iowa, a program NU is chasing, is fourth nationally in net punting. Why should such a lofty ranking seem like a pipe dream for the Huskers?
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