Nebraska coach Scott Frost met with the media following his team’s 26-17 loss to Ohio State. Frost spoke about disappointment in the results so far, Adrian Martinez’s injury status, the offensive struggles and much more.
Here is the full transcript from his time with the media.
On kicking a field goal down 23-17 instead of going for it:
“Yeah, I kind of made that decision before the third down call. We were in four-down mode that whole drive and we called plays on third down to make sure we’re getting manageable fours. We had a good play call and before that I said let’s take a shot to hit one here. We had the shallow cross the drive in the first half. We had a third and eight, I think, and I ran a play to try to get to a point to go for it on fourth down. You kind of make that decision on third down. And at that point in the game early in the fourth quarter, the way our defense was playing, I thought a field goal would suffice.”
On the field goal being missed:
“That was a chip shot. He’s been kicking really well. Of course, I want it back now but that’s second guessing yourself. But again, to try and make it a three-point game. That’s the right football decision. Whether it’s the right situational decision knowing what I know now I would’ve done something else.”
On the special teams performance:
“Again, you’ll never get me to run down one kid. I would never do that. These are my guys. I love them. But it isn’t special teams right now.”
On Nebraska’s pass protection:
“Not good enough. They’re really good. I should’ve started this whole thing with that. They have elite talent at every position. I thought our secondary, they gave up a lot of yards to one kid but them battling to that caliber of kid was impressive. That caliber of running back, giving up the rushing yards we did. Man, these guys are fighters. There are some things we are not doing well enough. And I think at this point in the season everybody sees those things and one of them is pass protection. We just got to be better. We called too many max protections, boots, extra guys in. That limits us to what we can call and limits the routes we can run. We got to keep working. We have some guys banged up. In general, people get on Adrian pretty hard, sometimes he deserves it, sometimes we have to do a better job and protection is one of them.”
On quarterback Adrian Martinez:
“Listen again. I’ve been on the high side and the low side around here. Adrian’s been playing with a broken jaw and a high ankle sprain. I feel good going into the bye week saying that. He’s shown a lot of grit and toughness. Those two things are obviously going to make you a little bit of a different player. I agree with you in the second half, I thought he took off running more.”
On the potential to use Logan Smothers and disappointment in the results:
“Logan is coming along. I got a ton of confidence in Logan. Right now, you’re crazy if you think I’m not playing the guy who gives us the best chance to win. You’re taking a good player off the field to do that. We talk about those things. I’m disappointed. I hate losing more than anyone in that locker room. But man, I love being the coach here. I love these kids. They battled through a lot. This is going to pop at Nebraska. It just is. We’re doing too many good things right. We have too many good young kids. We’re putting ourselves in position to win games and not making a play or not catching a break. The guys I feel bad for are the seniors. A lot of those guys have poured everything they have into this game. Those guys are the heart and soul. I feel bad for them. The rest of these young guys, they’re doing a lot of really promising things.”
On how the defensive performance stacks up within the season:
“Hard to say. Hard to say you played better than the Michigan State game. This isn’t against a bad opponent. This Ohio State team can go to the playoff. Ryan [Day] does an unbelievable job with those guys. The caliber of players they have on offense, I was really impressed with the defense. The secondary in particular, we gave up the long one and the one kid had a lot of plays but those are some elite receivers.”
On Adrian Martinez’s injury situation:
“He had about three decisions. I’ll let him talk more about it more with his decision to do it. He had three decisions, one that would’ve kept him out for a while, one for the season and one to just go. He showed his love for the team when making that decision.”
On the team being eliminated from bowl contention:
“Listen, I bleed for Nebraska. I bleed for this. We’re giving everything we have and pouring everything we have into this. Nobody’s more disappointed than me that it hasn’t happened yet. But there’s too many good things happening for us to not get over this hump. You guys wrote about it, I let the captains talk to the team after the game. I told them to not hang their heads. They should be proud of the way they played. They keep putting themselves in position to win against really good competition. We’re doing a lot of things right. They just got to keep doing them. Keep putting ourselves in position to win games. The one thing I’ll be critical of myself and the team is if we play with that much spirit in every game, we have a few more wins. When you go through a grind of a season, it’s tough to play your absolute best every single game but I never want us to look back. There were guys jumping around the bench and sideline. That’s the passion Nebraska fans want to see.”
On if being an underdog changes his decision making:
“I made a decision in the first half on a 3rd and 7 or 8, to try and run the ball where I put us in position to go for it on fourth down. Earlier in that drive we had a 3rd and 5 and we had a play call we liked. It worked but we didn’t convert. Those are decisions when something doesn’t work you question it and if we complete the ball and he walks in the end zone, you’re happy. I was also trusting in defense at that point. It’s hindsight. We can question that a lot. You can’t say we’ve lost games because of clock management and those types of things. That one I question myself. If we hit the play, we’re not talking about it.”
Greg is the Recruiting Analyst for Hail Varsity and has covered Husker athletics since 2013. He has always had a passion for sports while growing up in the Chicago area. As he got older and had to hang up his cleats and sneakers, he realized his passion for sports went beyond just watching and attending games. He has covered many events from the Rose Bowl to championship boxing matches. If he’s not talking sports, he’s hovering over his grill. He is married to an amazing woman, Kim, and they have a dog that barks when Greg yells at the TV during games.
