Transcript: Scott Frost’s signing-day conference call
On general impressions of the signing class
“I think we have good pieces on the team in Lincoln. And I think they had more talent on the team last season than the record indicates. We’re excited to get to work with the guys that are already on campus in Lincoln, but adding talent certainly helps. A lot of these kids we’ve known for a long time. One thing we weren’t going to do is just find kids to fill spots. We want kids that we know can come be good people and can become good football players. We have a lot of work left to do here in January, but I’m excited about the guys we have on board. I think a lot of things will shake out after this Signing Day, so we’ll know which kids are still available and which ones we can go after.”
On how many more kids ae expected to sign in February and prioritizing early signing day commits…
“I think there’s probably 19 spots available right now, but I’d expect that number to grow a little bit. I think we’ll probably have a class of a little over 20 by the time this is all said and done. There will probably be some movement and hopefully a lot of work that we get done before the February signing period and perhaps afterwards. This is unusual with an early signing period, I think everybody was finding their way through this first year which made it even more difficult for a lot of guys that have changed jobs like we have. But again I feel good about where we are, I didn’t want to come in and try to fill a class in two weeks, because that doesn’t give us enough time to evaluate, get to know the people, and develop relationships. So there’s a lot of work left to be done but we got a god start on it and I like where we landed from a numbers standpoint.”
On Quarterback Adrian Martinez
“Well, general speaking, any freshman coming in that has a spring ball before their first fall is a huge advantage and gives them an opportunity to compete. They’re not coming in in the fall behind everybody else. I think we have a couple good quarterbacks on campus and I’m looking forward to that competition. When I was evaluating quarterbacks for this class a long time ago, Adrian was my favorite guy in the country. We didn’t think we had a chance of getting him at our previous school, but now getting to Nebraska, he was interested. I think he was like a lot of kids on offense are going to be when we have a time to get out and share our message and our vision with them, they’re seeing the coaching staff come in there, with offenses that have been at or near the top nationally every year and we’re coming off a year where we’ve got the number one scoring offense in the country. Kids are going to want to come and be a part of that and I think Adrian is one of them. He can run it, he can throw it, and he’s a very mature kid that I think is ready for the challenges in front of him.”
On junior college commits…
“Well, we don’t know the roster real well in Lincoln yet, we’re getting to know it, you know we’ve talked to a lot of people, and numbers-wise there’s some big holes. There’s a couple of positions where the number of scholarship players that we would normally want to carry, the University of Nebraska is way down on those numbers, receiver, defensive back are two of the most glaring ones. There’s just not enough guys at those positions and there are some places we need to go to work and get some kids in just to make sure we have enough kids at those positions. We’re not going to take a bunch of junior college kids, they need to be the right kids off the field, and they need to be kids that fit us and we certainly recruited several of them that fit us and are going to be the right people, and we will see where we land with them.”
On Cameron Jurgens
“Yeah, you know there are a lot of good football players in the state of Nebraska that sometimes get overlooked. Cam is a special guy and it’s no surprise to me that he wasn’t overlooked. He’s a phenomenal athlete and he’s done that on the football field, he’s done that on the basketball court and he’s done that in track and field. I think he’s an unusual talent and elite talent. We’re excited to get him. Kids like that need to stay in the state of Nebraska. I had a special connection to him right away because of who he is, where he’s from and what he’s accomplished athletically in the state. He’s a huge piece and asset for us and I’m looking forward to watching him grow.”
On advantages having entire staff come with him to Nebraska…
“Well there are going to be big advantages to keeping people together, one of the secrets to success at Nebraska for a long time was continuity and people understood the system, and the scheme, and where they fit and what the role was. It’s going to be a huge advantage for me to have people surrounding me that already know our offense, defense and how we operate. In recruiting, these guys have been working a long time to develop relationships and we still have a lot of work to do with this recruiting class. I think the more recruits get around these guys, and see what kind of men of character they are, the more they hear about our vision for where we want to take the program and where we’re trying to get it back to, I think we’ll continue to have more success and having familiarity with the guys on staff is certainly going to help.”
On assistant coach Sean Beckton and his role in recruiting
“To clear the air about a lot of that, I’ve watched a lot of coaches take the next step in the big job and either they take a few coaches along with them but they don’t take everybody or they leave people behind and they get fired. That’s not the right thing to do in my eyes, the right thing to do is to give every one of my coaches an opportunity to come and if they’re good enough to take an 0-12 program to 12-0 in two years they are good enough to coach anywhere. Because what they have accomplished at UCF is next to impossible. I didn’t recruit anybody. I took a job that I thought was the best for my staff and my family and I told them all if you want to come there’s a spot. And they all wanted to come which was flattering to me that they want to be a part of our coaching staff with me. It’s fun to have Sean Beckton, he’s one of the best men that I know. A couple of those kids were committed to him at UCF and they called him and told him that they wanted to play for him and they wanted to play for us and a few of them, a couple of them, we thought were good enough players to be really good in the Big Ten. When they called and said they wanted to come with us it was an easy decision. I think the person that Sean Beckton is, is going to get a lot of recruits that want to come play for him.”
On his thoughts on the early signing period:
“I think the early signing period overall is good. The kids out in the country that don’t want to be involved with some of the ugly parts of recruiting and want to get it over with are going to sign early, the kids that really know where they want to be, and that’s going to keep them from being involved in the circus that’s going to take place in January. It’s probably good that, after you get your early signees, you know what spots you still have to fill and what kids are still out there and you can focus on those. So, for those reasons, I like it. It’s tough this year for us moving, because it made it harder with only two weeks to secure the first part of your signing class, and that was difficult, not to mention while we were still trying to coach a team in a bowl game down here. But I feel good about where we are. I wouldn’t have wanted to sign a whole recruiting class and fill it all up in these first two weeks because I think we’re going to have a real opportunity in January to get out and see a lot more kids. We’re going to know who’s still uncommitted and who we need to target. I think once those kids get a chance to be around us and meet our staff, we’re going to have a lot of opportunities to sign some more good kids.”
On the recruitment of quarterback Adrian Martinez:
“I just think he’s a kid of really high character. I think he comes from a great family. I think they approached the recruiting process the right way. They gathered all the information that they needed to gather in order to make a smart decision. They developed relationships with a lot of people, but I think at the end of the day, the relationships that we had with him and the opportunities that we have at Nebraska, to play in our offense and be around us ended up winning. He’s a kid that I’ve gotten to know really well in a short amount of time. I’m excited about him. I’m excited about spending time with him and his family. They’re great people, and that’s what we want in a program. Not just good players, but high character kids.”
On whether Martinez will compete for playing time right away:
“Yeah. Every single one of these kids is going to have an opportunity to compete. We’re going to play the best players, whether they’re from Florida or California or Nebraska, whether they’re seniors or freshmen, I don’t care. We’re going to play the best kids. But every one of them is going to have to earn it, and everyone’s going to have to come in and outperform the other people on campus. Competition is healthy. At every single position, the competition is going to start over, because there’s going to be a new set of coaches, new eyes on them. He’s going to have as good an opportunity as anybody, but he’s going to have to play better than the other kids on campus.”
On the walk-on program:
“I flew back to Lincoln last Wednesday to talk to a group of kids. We’ve offered some walk-ons spots. I think we’ll probably have some more to offer. The response has been great. I’m looking forward to the talent we can add to the program through the walk-on program. That’s part of what made Nebraska great in the past. When I was the quarterback at Nebraska, not much attention was paid to these recruiting classes, but I can’t imagine Nebraska ever had a top-10 recruiting class. Nebraska won because we got a lot of kids on campus that cared about Nebraska. They went to work in the weight room, got a lot of reps on the field and Nebraska developed the players better than anybody else. That’s where we’re going to get to. It’s going to be a process. A walk-on or scholarship player, they’re going to get the same opportunity. I fully believe there are kids that are hopefully going to walk-on next fall and, after a year or two in our weight room and on the practice field, are going to develop into good players and starters for us. That’s an important part of what made Nebraska great and it’s an important part of what will make Nebraska great again.”
On recruiting junior college players:
“We’re going to take the right kids. Sometimes the right kids are high school kids and sometimes they ended up somewhere else. I don’t want to make a living off junior college players, but if they’re good kids and we think they can play and add to what we’re doing, we’re going to give them an opportunity. I think you’re crazy if you rule out any options or any methods of getting players that can help you win football games. Like I said, we have to make sure they’re the right people and they’re good people and good enough players to help us, but if they check all those boxes, we’re certainly going to recruit them, whether they’re at a high school or a junior college. ”
On injuries or player departures:
“No, I’m not aware of any . I’m sure there will be attrition. There always is, but I haven’t been on the ground in Lincoln long enough to know all those things. We’ll deal with those as they come, but I don’t know any of that yet.”
On developing players:
“I think that as a staff we believe in our way of doing things. We believe in getting them in the weight room and letting them develop and be strong and athletic and healthy. We believe in the way we practice kids and we believe in the culture that we’re going to bring. All the kids that buy into that. I have no doubt that they’re going to be better football players a year from now than they are right now. I don’t want to talk about any individuals, but I think as a whole, the kids are really going to have a lot of fun playing for us, playing in our schemes and we’re going to make them better. The ones that don’t want to work are going to get left behind, but the ones that do are going to develop and become a lot better for it.”
On the advantage early enrollees have:
“I’ve been doing this awhile and we’re going to give freshmen every opportunity to play. Sometimes spring ball helps you get familiar with schemes, so it’s not all brand new for you in the fall. So I think it is an advantage, but I’ve seen guys that come in early that don’t play their first year and I see guys that show up in August that do play. I think it’s an advantage, but it’s not an insurmountable head start if kids come in late. This is a process. I think fans are too impatient now. They think you’re going to solve all the problems on a roster in a program by going out and getting this kid or that kid and putting him in the plan. There’s a lot of work to be done and I can see now why Coach Osborne always said, ‘He’s a good player,’ and would never give him any more shining endorsement than that because I think people get a little bit too excited about the stars behind a kid’s name.’ We’re looking for kids that are good football players, good people, that we know can develop and fit in our schemes and then we’re going to get them inserted into our process and our way of doing things and I know what the result is going to be at the end of that, but there’s not quick fixes. The fixes are going to come through a lot of work, effort and a coming together of the football team, so that we’re all going in the same direction and working towards the same goals. That’s the process that we’re going to get started right away in January.”
Courtesy of Nebraska Athletics