I write this as a proud University of Pittsburgh alum and a college football fan of fifty years. Those 50 years as fan have been mostly miserable to mediocre. In the last 40 years the football team is an average, year in, year out, 6-5. 6-5 for 40 produces boredom, which is corrosive but spares you torture. The most exquisite pain of sports fandom is reasonable expectations unrequited. I know of no other fan base that has experienced this most painful of sports fan pain than Nebraska fans the last four years.
Scott Frost was the most celebrated young coach at the time, the It guy, a Nebraska alum and player, and Nebraska got him. The expectations were not unreasonable--immediate recruiting nous and success on the field. His first, to this day I think his most heralded, recruit was Taylor Martinez, a kid from California. Frost's first year, maybe it's two, you get numb after awhile, was a horror show, or were horror shows. He lost like his first six games.
Until this year there were few signs that Frost was getting the program "over the hump". There was the excruciating loss at Colorado a couple of years ago, and it seems to me, I may be wrong, that Frost's teams promptly tanked after those few near misses. I know they never got over the hump. This year started out like all of Frost's others with the horrific, and looking more horrific every week, error-filled, inept performance in the opening loss to Illinoise. They then won a couple of cupcake games that damn with their faint praise. The close loss at #3 Oklahoma was surprising but, every dog has its day, and covering the spread doesn't show up in the W-L columns. But then came another close loss on the road to a ranked team, Michigan State. Alright, what's going on here Corn? They manifestly did not tank after the OU close call. And then, they murdalized Northwestern 56-7, in a series where every other game played had been razor close. Weren't hanging their heads after two close losses to ranked teams, they DESTROYED Northwestern. Now you get hope, a sports definition of which may be "expectations reach." Undefeated and number 9 Michigan, but in Lincoln. And the House took notice, installing MI as a minor favorite. And they had a late lead and they had the ball...and then Taylor Martinez, the voodoo doll for the Scott Frost era, fumbled, turned it over again, as he had done in previous games. And that was game. Nebraska has to win a game like this already.
I really haven't had this feeling as a Pitt fan and it's hard for me to imagine how Nebraska fans take it. I know them, I know enough of them, there will be no Taylor Martinez death threats, no chants as there were from the Oklahoma faithful, "We want Caleb!" when Spencer Rattler had, once again in this mystifying season, lost his venom and threw an INT, and then fumbled on a promising OU drive. The Fort Worth pencil who wrote that that was the turning point of the game was dead on. Lincoln Riley yanked the Heisman front-runner, and soon-to-be NFL millionaire for his backup. And that won OU the game. My sense is Scott Frost sees only Taylor Martinez, flawed though he demonstrably is, and that he has no backup. That's on Frost. This is Martinez' last year, I'm quite sure, it seems like he's been there a decade. What will Frost do next season when his first born is off to NFL tryouts or Canada? You have to have a backup. When things go wrong or when the inevitable happens in tackle football, the QB gets hurt, you have to have somebody else ready to be steady. James Franklin should have had someone, Ta'Quan Roberson or someone ready to go. Manifestly James did not and it cost him a game he was winning pretty handily and should have won.
Of course it's hard in college ball to just plug in a replacement at the most important position. There is not the deep depth in college that there is in the pros. The backups are younger than young and have no game experience. Champions do it.
Pitt's starting QB in 1976 was Robert Haygood. Haygood got hurt, was out for the rest of the season, in an early game. Johnny Majors turned to his backup Matt Cavanaugh. Pitt won the national championship.
A year later. I remember... Pitt was dominating Notre Dame in Pitt Stadium in 1977, had just scored the go-ahead TD when national championship QB Matt Cavanaugh was pile-driven by, I still remember his name, Willie Fry, and knocked out of the game. Jackie Sherrill put in backup, I remember his name too, Wayne Adams. Young, callow Wayne, you could almost see his knees knocking together on the field. The kid was so nervous he literally could not handle the snaps from center cleanly. Fumbled them, dove on them, or ND players recovered them. Pitt lost of course. More importantly the game scarred a young man for life. Wayne transferred, unable to handle the humiliation, and disappeared so completely it was like he went into the witness protection program. Jackie shouldn't have put one of his youngsters in that position. He should have had somebody ready to go.
In 2008 Cincinnati starting quarterback Dustin Grutza got hurt in the second game of the season. "Bearcats" head coach Brian Kelly put in Tony Pike. Pike got knocked out in the fourth game of the season. Kelly put in Zach Collaros. Cincinnati was Big East champion that year. Now you're not going to tell me that 2008 Cincinnati had greater resources to have competent backups in place than 1977 Pittsburgh or 2021 PSU.
James Franklin should have had someone ready to step in for Sean Clifford. Jackie didn't; James didn't, it cost both of them games, and ruined one young man. Scott Frost should have had somebody pushing Taylor Martinez all of these years, yanked Taylor at times, like today, but apparently Scott had nobody, or saw nobody, and now he has lost again and Nebraska fans know the unknowable pain again.
Good night. Oh! before signing off TEXAS A&M HUNG ON TO BEAT ALABAMA 41-38. There is justice occasionally. The University of Georgia will be the new NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE NATION TOMORROW!
