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Nebraska coach Scott Frost watches from the sideline during his team's game against Colorado.(Photo: Bruce Thorson, USA TODAY Sports)
Hype puts reality in Lincoln, Neb., And reality won. Reality always wins, even against this hype.
This is hype multiplier to the nth power, the one that sometimes does not have a place like Nebraska. Scott Frost will do this to you: He'll get the Nebraska football program to believe it can be something after a generation of doing nothing, which is pretty powerful stuff.
In that big picture, the hype is justified. Frost was and is a dream hire. It's safer today to say he will achieve great things at his alma mater than to say he'll crash and burn.
In the meantime, reality's still undefeated. A slight dose came to Nebraska and showed how it is going to go: tough, a slog, without any breaks, without any shortcuts and, for at least a little while, as many losses as wins. In a few years, maybe, the Cornhuskers will look back on Saturday's 33-28 loss to Colorado and ask: We lost to these guys? If you're surprised today it's because you ignored the truth of the situation.
Frost has been saying that it's going to happen, sometimes loudly but often just on the margins of a conversation, that this whole thing was going to take time. It's why he took the job in the first place. Nebraska was a great place to be, but what a really good title-winning quarterback was the goodwill. His leash is longer than any other coach in the country. Florida and Tennessee might have said the right things, but Frost always knew the score. Feel it better than it's got it in Lincoln.
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Gold worse, in a way. The hype has been out of control since the day Frost signed his name on the dotted line. It was inevitable that days like Saturday would happen – but that did not stop the blurring of the truth of the situation. Losing at home to Colorado validates what it is an average team that will steadily get better. This is not going to be like Central Florida. Or it will, just not the UCF you're thinking of: Try UCF in 2016, not 2017.
He even said it to USA TODAY Sports from Big Ten media days in Chicago. We need to get our place in place, he said, but Nebraska will be "competing for our side," meaning the Big Ten West, next season. This year, Nebraska should take six wins – if the Cornhuskers can get it – and be happy.
But there were positive signs on Saturday, which would have been a crippling blow to the Cornhuskers' bowl chances.
It was more likely to be expected, racking up 565 yards in total yards and rushing for 329 yards, a program-best since Sept. 27, 2014. In Frost's first game, Nebraska rushed for more yardage than in any Mike Riley's game failed three-year tenure. So that's a positive sign.
Newcomers made their marks at the skill positions. Running back Maurice Washington had a play or two that spoke to his bright future. A few additions on the defensive side had their moments. And quarterback Adrian Martinez was as expected: The freshman was not cowed by the scene in his first start, and showed the fate of athleticism and a runner and deep touch to a national level. And then he got hurt.
The severity of Martinez's knee injury is not so bad, so Frost did say postgame that the word "semi-encouraging," a modified sentence only a football coach would say. The depth behind Martinez has been a worry since freshman Tristan Gebbia transferred to Oregon State. Now it's a major concern, one that would alter the Cornhuskers' projected results in the run through Big Ten play.
That matters, but it does not matter. This is a one-year-old thing for Nebraska but a long-term plan. A win against Colorado would not have changed that. Nor does a loss. The season is not changing that. Do not worry about Scott Frost and the Cornhuskers. Just do not ignore reality.
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