Big Red Cobcast: Loving Scott Frost and Hating the SEC

By Patrick Janssen on 1/9/2018


I honestly can’t tell what the prevailing sentiment is. Are Nebraska fans howling for UCF to be co-national champions because anything tied to Scott Frost feels like it partially belongs to the Huskers? Or are they up in arms because they understand fairness and recognize when it’s not being employed properly?

Maybe I can’t tell because it’s a little bit of both.

The Peach Bowl was arguably the biggest Nebraska football win since the 2009 Holiday Bowl. Every snap mattered, and the fellas in gray and black felt like our own. Partially because Husker fans had watched the Knights so intently throughout the year in anticipation of Frost becoming our coach, and partly because we could recognize the attitude of play from old Husker squads.

But Husker fans are also college football historians. We recognize the Aaron Taylors of the world as much as we do any of the flashy skill position guys. So seeing a “national champion” have the opportunity to “earn” its “title” without the proper credentials burns us up inside. We knew in 1997 that Michigan didn’t deserve it, and we know now that Alabama doesn’t deserve it now.

And I’d like to think that some of that feeling stems from not just a connection to Scott Frost’s team, but also an understanding of how things are truly earned. It’s no secret that we at Big Red Cobcast Headquarters don’t admire the SEC, but let’s for a moment remove the arguments that the SEC’s early season rankings are puffed up (and thus causing early in-conference matchups to carry more weight) or that the SEC is buoyed by a relationship with, ESPN, college football’s tastemaker, that is problematic at best.

If anything, the College Football Playoff was unfair to Georgia (and Clemson). In a game of attrition, Alabama was afforded the opportunity to get rest and get healthy that those two teams weren’t because its resume wasn’t as good as the others. By virtue of winning their divisions (and their conferences), those teams (and UCF) had to take on additional risk that Alabama didn’t. Essentially Alabama was rewarded for being a lesser team. They didn’t deserve to be in the title game in 2011, either. The results don’t prove voters right. They shouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity in the first place.

(In the spirit of fairness, Nebraska didn’t deserve to be in the Rose Bowl during the 2001 season, either.)

So now here we are. Our coach and our fanbase are all carrying the same unified chip on our shoulders. As Alabama hoists what should be a program defining fifth title in nine years, we see the house of cards for what it truly is. We’ve wondered for years if Nebraska can ever get back to that point. After the last decade, who wouldn’t? But through UCF’s success and Alabama’s own charade that over half of the country can now clearly see through, I’ve never been more confident.

Now that that’s out of my system, let me remind you to take a listen to this week’s Big Red Cobcast. This week, we’re spitting hot takes all over the place. Some about UCF, Alabama and the SEC. Some about Husker recruiting. And some about SpaceX and hummingbirds. It’s a diverse offering this week.

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Janssen