Nebraska is finally hiring Scott Frost as its next coach, a move that brings so much back to a program that hasn't found its footing since joining the Big Ten in 2011.
Nostalgia. Confidence. Swagger. Bringing the former Nebraska quarterback to his alma mater will evoke all of those emotions at once out of a devout fan base starving for a meal at the big-boy table. How will Frost get the Huskers get back there?
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Points. Nebraska is going to score a lot of points again. UCF led the FBS with 49.4 points per game this season (scoring 62 in an AAC championship win). Frost was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Oregon from 2009-15, a span that saw the Ducks average 600 points on offense a year.
Long before that, Frost led Nebraska to a split national championship in 1997, when the Huskers led the FBS with 46.7 points per game, two years after the legendary 1995 team averaged 53.2 points per game.
Frost is a huge difference-maker for this program when you factor that in. Here's a look at how many points per game Nebraska averaged from Frank Solich's last season in 2003 through the tenures of Bill Callahan, Bo Pelini and Mike Riley:
| YEAR | PPG | RANK |
| 2003 | 24.8 | 74 |
| 2004 | 25.0 | T-57 |
| 2005 | 24.7 | 67 |
| 2006 | 30.6 | 18 |
| 2007 | 33.4 | 29 |
| 2008 | 35.4 | 17 |
| 2009 | 25.1 | 75 |
| 2010 | 30.9 | 38 |
| 2011 | 29.2 | 50 |
| 2012 | 34.8 | 27 |
| 2013 | 31.9 | 49 |
| 2014 | 37.8 | 13 |
| 2015 | 32.8 | 43 |
| 2016 | 26.5 | 79 |
| 2017 | 25.8 | T-84 |
That's not nearly enough scoring. Nebraska ranked in the top 20 in points per game in only three of those seasons. There have been fleeting moments of success — including a trip to the Big Ten championship game in 2012 — but there's another stat that has dogged the Huskers in that stretch. They've lost four or more games every year since Solich compiled a 10-3 record in 2003.
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Athletic director Bill Moos worked with a coach who scored a bunch of points at Washington State in Mick Leach. Now he has reeled in Frost, which is a big win. The Huskers will score more points once Frost's system develops in Lincoln, and he'll have the leeway needed because of the nostalgia, confidence and swagger he brings back to the program while he puts it back together.
Frost fits, and he's the best coach available who can make this system fit at Nebraska. If there's one thing palpable when watching Frost's teams, it's this: UCF is fun to watch. A lot of fun to watch, and they score a lot of points.
At this point, Nebraska isn't built to dominate in the trenches against traditional power attacks used at Wisconsin and Iowa. The Huskers lost to those teams by a combined score of 94-31 this season. In hiring Frost, Nebraska showed it's willing to do something different in a division where the Badgers have run unopposed the last two seasons.
Nebraska will never get back to that Tom Osborne Big Eight heyday in that fashion. The Big Ten is full of big teams with big offensive linemen, but with Frost, they at least a piece of Osborne back. He's the perfect coach to lead the Huskers back to a seat at the table — but it will take time. Michigan ran the same nostalgia, confidence and swagger play with Jim Harbaugh, and the Wolverines are still finding their footing three years later.
The Huskers can find it faster in the Big Ten West, but the path to a conference championship isn't easy. Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State and Wisconsin aren't slowing down. Nebraska is going to have to earn that seat at the table, but they've finally found an identity now.
That's a good start. Score a bunch of points, and get the Blackshirts to follow. Frost made that work in 1997. He'll do it again.
