We size up Wednesday’s news day at Nebraska and more in this week’s 3-2-1 column.

We size up Wednesday’s news day at Nebraska and more in this week’s 3-2-1 column.

1 – Brett McMurphy has a source that has an ax to grind against Scott Frost

If we have learned anything over the last six months, college football reporter Brett McMurphy clearly has a source with an ax to grind either against Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost or the leadership structure around him.

Let’s go back to March. McMurphy was leaked in-house information about NU potentially exploring ways to get out of playing No. 2 preseason ranked Oklahoma in 2021. Once the report got out, Frost and Nebraska’s leadership had egg all over their face. It was a very bad day for the Husker Athletic department in the social media world.

Then fast forward to Aug. 18. McMurphy was leaked information about an NCAA investigation going on about NU illegally using their analysts, on top of being made aware of possible illegal workouts that may have taken place before student-athletes were allowed to train on campus.

The leakage of this information was well-timed. Somebody with an ax to grind, no different than the person that leaked the Bo Pelini audio to Deadspin back in 2013, was out to get Frost. This was a calculated hit. A well-timed hit.

Frost and his team are nearly a week away from starting the 2021 season, and they have a real shot to start out 3-0 for the first time since 2016.

What will come out of the news from Wednesday? It’s hard to say, but there’s no question this was a calculated leak from someone with an ax to grind.

2 – The potential illegal usage of analysts is the only open NCAA investigation

Right now, there is only one thing being investigated by the NCAA at Nebraska – the potential illegal usage of analysts.

What that means is you can only have so many onfield coaches at a practice – your assistant coaches, head coach and graduate assistants. Analysts are limited in what they can do. It’s an extreme gray area in college football, as Power Five programs everywhere have loaded up with additional coaches keeping them under the analyst tag.

In 2020, Nebraska did not have a full-time special teams coach on staff. Instead, they used analyst Jonathan Rutledge. The Huskers were the only school in the Big Ten that did not have one of their full-time 10 assistant coaches carrying a special teams coordinator title under their name.

This alone probably raised some red flags around the league. Who was coaching NU’s special teams on the field if they only had an analyst?

This is what the NCAA is looking at. I’m also told there are currently over 10 Power Five programs right now around college football being looked at for something similar.

3 – Everything NU did in the spring/summer of 2020 was run through their compliance department

Did Nebraska push the envelope in what they did over the months of May and June of 2020? Absolutely. But Frost was very transparent about the entire process.

He wanted his guys back in Lincoln in a safe, controlled space. They provided COVID-19 testing for their team and strict protocols the minute they got back to Lincoln. Dave Ellis and NU’s nutrition staff also provided meals for the entire Athletic Department in a safe, drive-up fashion.

The players arranged an off-site facility they paid money to use in order to safely train and lift weights. It was no different than paying for a gym membership. All of this was run through Nebraska’s compliance department at that time.

It will be interesting what comes out of McMurphy’s report about the possibility of conducting illegal workouts because the NCAA is not currently looking at that, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

1 – What could potentially come out of the NCAA investigation?

So what could come out of all this? Well, first off, it’s a secondary violation. Michigan and Rich Rodriguez faced something like this over 10 years ago.

The penalty was the loss of practice time. Meaning, you might have to shave down some time off your 20-hour practice/workout week. How much time? Michigan lost 130 total hours over a two-year period.

You could also potentially lose some days of recruiting on the road. As of today, this would probably be the worst-case scenario that comes out of a secondary violation.

2 – Why did Trev Alberts not know about this right away?

I think a lot of people were surprised when NU Athletic Director Trev Alberts said on Wednesday he was not aware of any of the violations at Nebraska before he took the job.

Should that come as a surprise? No. When you are interviewing for a job and going through that process, typically you aren’t going to be made aware of something like this.

The key now is Alberts has taken charge of the situation. I commend him for getting out in front of the cameras on Wednesday vs. just hiding behind a statement. Alberts is very much a “hands-on” AD and he’s not going to hide in his office on days like Wednesday.

Later this week Nebraska will probably announce their 2021 captains. There are lots of quality options this year. In my opinion, there are too many good leaders on this team to have just four captains.

I predict you will see six Husker captains in 2021.

Sean Callahan can be reached at sean@huskeronline.com and he can be heard each day at 6:45 am and 5:05 pm on Big Red Radio 1110 KFAB in Omaha during the football season. He can also be seen on KETV Channel 7 in Omaha during the fall and each week he appears on NET’s Big Red Wrap-Tuesday’s at 7 pm.