After yet another setback, Huskers just want to play
Scott Frost didn’t even try to hide his frustration during Monday’s weekly Zoom press conference, as he’d clearly already had enough of a 2020 season that was thrown off course after just one week.
Following the longest offseason in program history due to the country’s COVID-19 pandemic, the Huskers saw their scheduled home opener vs. Wisconsin canceled entirely when the Badgers opted not to play out of concern over several positive coronavirus cases.
Frost said NU did its best to use the sudden bye week to refine some details and jump on preparations for this week’s game at Northwestern, and they even held a team "scary movie night" on Halloween.
But the reality of the situation is Nebraska is a frustrated team that just wants a chance to play football, now more so than ever.
“We’ve officially set a record for the most practices with only one game under your belt in the history of college football. There’s no question about that…” Frost said. “It’s kind of Murphy’s Law right now, missing a game, missing a home game, all the things that are happening…
“They’ve wanted to play. They see us fighting to try to get them to play. We’ve kind of failed at every turn, but they just want to be on the field. I think they feel like maybe people are out to get them or have an ax to grind against them a little bit.”
The players credited Frost and his staff for handling the chaotic circumstances as best as possible, with junior quarterback Adrian Martinez saying the coaches had been “unwavering” throughout all of the ups and downs.
But they admitted that everyone was feeling anxious about losing even more of an already shortened season due to no fault of their own.
“I would say our guys are kind of used to adjusting on the fly. It’s been that type of year,” Martinez said. “This isn’t the first hurdle or the first adversity that we’ve seen this year, so we’re going to keep chugging along.
“We immediately moved on to Northwestern, and that was kind of where our heads were at. Our team really hit that in stride, and we’ve been dialed in on those guys.”
The bright side of the situation was that Nebraska had an additional five days to prepare for Northwestern, especially during a week in which all teams will take Tuesday off for Election Day.
In the Huskers’ eyes, though, that’s about as far as the positives go for the latest setback in a “broken” 2020 season.
“To this point, the kids are kind of like I am; they’re kind of calloused to the whole thing…” Frost said. “More than anything, they just want to be on the field competing. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to this weekend…
“I think our program is ready to turn a big-time corner, but it’s tough to if we’re given circumstances where we can’t get on the field and get better.”