OMAHA (KMTV) — 3 News Now Sports Director Adam Krueger went 1-on-1 with Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos to discuss the possibility of fans at the Spring Game, the recent Husker transfers and the expectations for year four of the Scott Frost era.
Adam: When it comes to the Spring Game, since there's not an opposing team coming into Memorial Stadium, do you think that significantly helps your chances as far as getting fans in Memorial Stadium?
Moos: That's my stance and you said it very well. It's not like the week after our spring game that we're going to Michigan State to play. We will be testing. We're careful. We had the least number of positive tests this whole last fall. Our fans are dying to get into Memorial Stadium. I will stand firm that, depending on what the local health authorities say, we should have some degree of percentage of our venue available for our great fans.
Adam: Since December 2019, Nebraska football has reportedly had 25 scholarship players leave the program, 17 of those on the offensive side of the ball.
Do you think that's just an individual situation where every guy's different or do you think there's possibly that it's somewhat of a referendum on the somewhat inconsistencies of the offense the last few years?
Moos: Well, the world of transfers is the new world. I checked earlier in the week, there were 1800 football players in the transfer portal. We've had some go in and we've taken some out. I'm not a huge fan of that but it's the world we live in. If we're going to survive and we're going to move our program forward, we have to realize that we're going to have to go to that portal to get good players and we're gonna lose some good players to it, just like other schools in the Big Ten and across the country. We had other players and yes, primarily offensive players, some weren't playing. And again, in today's world, if you're not playing you look at your options. We'll have a strong roster next year and we'll have the people here who want to be here and want to help us grow as a program.
Adam: And heading into Coach Frost's 4th year, what do you think are realistic expectations for the program in 2021?
Moos: Well, I've always said that good, solid programs produce winning teams. So we've got to continue to build the program. The scoreboard should start to show that. We've seen glimmers of that. Our last game of 2020 I thought was our best game at Rutgers. Winning two of our last three in a pandemic year, we need to feel good about that and carry it forward into 2021.
Adam: Many Nebraska fans would agree Scott Frost returned to a rebuilding job at NU. However, some claim his lack of a bowl game and a 12-20 record with the Huskers isn't being judged as critically as his predecessor Mike Riley, who in his three seasons finished with a .500 overall record with two bowl games.
Is he held to a different standard because of his history at Nebraska?
Moos: I think he gets a little longer runway because he's one of ours. But at the end of the day, we've got to meet the criteria that was laid out when he was hired and in many regards we're doing that. We saw the defense last year starting to look like Blackshirts again. We had three freshman start on the offensive line against Rutgers. Really, I've always said a sign of a really solid offense is when your entire offensive line are redshirt juniors and seniors. When these freshmen have a year or two more under their belts we're going to be back to seeing The Pipeline, those kind of players again. And I hope our fans are as excited as I am for that day and it's coming soon.
