For years, I’ve heard national sports commentators — among them Colin Cowherd, formerly of ESPN Radio and now with Fox Sports Radio — call Nebraska football fans “delusional” because they expect too much from the Huskers. To hear them tell it, every Nebraska fan thinks the Huskers should be in the Top 10 and compete for national championship severy year. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard Cowherd and his ilk say, “It’s not the ‘90s anymore.”
On the other hand, earlier this month, I heard Derrick “DP” Pearson of 93.7 “The Ticket” FM in Lincoln admonish Nebraska fans for their too-low expectations. Peterson alluded to Nebraska’s five national titles and dozens of conference championships and said something to the effect of “You’re happy with just a 6-6 record and a bowl game? Are you kidding me? This is Nebraska!”
Today’s pregame survey tells me that for the majority of Nebraska fans, there’s a lot of middle ground between those extremes to occupy, although there are plenty of opinions about whether or not we’re being too hard on coach Scott Frost and his 2021 team, which was 3-5 heading into the Purdue game. The vast majority I spoke with think Frost should be retained as head coach if the team continues to do about as well as it’s done over the course of this season. Although I didn’t specifically track that, there’s no question in my mind that more than 90 percent of them favor bringing Frost back next fall, but there’s plenty of sentiment to change a few assistant coaches.
During my childhood years, Bob Devaney set the bar high and Tom Osborne kept it there during my young adulthood. Nobody I knew was satisfied with anything less than a nine-win season from the Huskers, and for a quarter century, Osborne delivered every year. Yet until 1992, plenty of dissatisfied fans still blustered about firing him. Yes, it seems amazing to me now.
Moving to the Frost era, as I talk with Husker fans and read the HuskerMax Forums the last couple of seasons, my sense is that most now would be satisfied with nothing more than a 6-6 season and a bowl game because for the first time since 1960, Nebraska is in danger of going through its fifth consecutive losing season, four of them under Frost.
By definition, we all think our own expectations are right on the money, but what do Husker fans think of each other’s expectations for Frost in 2021? Are wins and losses what matter most? Do Husker fans see and appreciate significant improvement that’s not showing up on the scoreboard?
On a sunny Saturday in late October before the Purdue game, I asked 100 Husker fans this question: “What’s your perception of other Husker fans and their expectations for Frost and his team this year? Are they too high, too low or about right?”
A clear majority — 54 percent — said in general, Husker fans’ expectations for Frost and his team are just about right. In general, they indicated that a 6-6 finish and a bowl game with noticeable improvement at season’s end should be the expectation for 2021 (not necessarily in the future), because of what is generally considered to be the mess Frost inherited from Mike Riley, and the tougher competition Frost faces compared to Osborne’s Big Eight schedules.
“The media is crazy, and perceptions are way out of control,” is the common sentiment. “Internet fans are different than regular fans,” I heard more than once. “We are more forgiving.”
“The ones who say Frost should be fired now are dead wrong,” said Jake Herman of Omaha.
As for the rest of the survey, 32 percent said that Husker fans’ current expectations for Frost and his team are too high, while 14 percent said current expectations are too low.
The minority was certainly vocal, though. They are sick and tired of the “at-least-we-didn’t-get-blown-out” mentality, and many of them believe that if it were anyone at the helm but favorite son Frost, who quarterbacked the Huskers to the 1997 national championship, he would likely have already been fired.
“We have a fourth-year coach and we have a fourth-year starting quarterback. A bowl game in itself should never be the goal,” said a man who identified himself as a Lincoln native, a longtime Husker fan and the proprietor of the Bidrowski Brothers podcast. “Give me Bo Pelini back and I’d take that all day. I love this team, and I want to win every game we play. I’m allowed to be disappointed when we play poorly.”
Another man, who said he was a former HuskerMax Forums member, said, “If we don’t fire Frost, our expectations our too low.”
Over the last five years, I’ve never had as many people speak at length about any pregame topic as I did today. Most of them were strongly in favor of Frost, but many felt that his feet should be held to the fire, and that he should replace an assistant coach or two at season’s end. Yet in general, the prevailing opinion was that Frost needs, and deserves, more time.
“Talk radio is half the problem,” said Mike Johnson of Kearney, a season ticket holder since 1978 who said he hasn’t missed a home game since 1991. “We heard on the radio driving home from the Illinois game that we might as well burn down the stadium. There’s a loud minority that gets too much credit. Husker fans, most of us anyway, are realistic. We know it’s going to take a little more time. Should we fire Frost and burn down everything now? Absolutely not.”
Several fans see a generational divide in the response to Husker football. The older generation, which witnessed the Devaney-Osborne success, expects to win a lot, probably eight or nine wins a year, said a man who described himself as a Millennial. “My generation would like to win, but has no expectation of it,” he said. “The younger generation, they just don’t care.”
While that last statement seems to be a clear warning signal to Trev Alberts, it sounds like there’s relatively little pressure from Husker Nation for him to take any drastic action in the next year.
“I think we’re a pretty smart fan base,” said James Laville of Omaha. “My friends and I, we were kids in the ‘90s, and we were spoiled. I went to school at the end of the Callahan years and the beginning of Pelini, and the vibe was different then, but the expectations were still high. But after the Riley years, our expectations dropped. Everybody got excited when Scott came back, but now we’re kind of just numb.”
It sounded to me like the majority are anxiously waiting for their personal investment in the Husker football program to pay off in good feelings again.
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