LINCOLN – Nebraska's 45-42 loss to Georgia Southern on Saturday night was as debilitating as defeats come.
This loss could signal the end of the Scott Frost Era – as our Inside Nebraska staff analyzed after the game.
If Saturday was the final time that Frost will be at Memorial Stadium as the head coach of the program, then his final press conference will be memorable.
Here is the full transcript of everything that Frost said at the podium after the loss to the Golden Eagles:
Opening Statement
"That one hurt. We win as a team, lose as a team, and we got beat today. I think we got out-schemed, didn’t have an answer. On one side of the ball we could’ve played better, in some other areas too. They got after us."
On what went wrong defensively
"They ran a lot of what we’d seen. I don’t think we won very many 1-on-1 matchups. Just looking at it, they got inside of us on slants when it was supposed to be inside technique. Broke a couple tackles. I said at halftime we don’t have enough eyes on the ball in a couple of our coverages, and guys not running well after the ball enough. There were some tunnel screens on us that we didn’t get back out of it on the defensive line. That’s not supposed to happen."
On if there is still progress in program
"Certainly didn’t expect that tonight. I thought we would perform a lot better than that. Felt really good about our defense going into the season. Felt good about our offense. I knew it would take a while as an offense to start clicking. I thought they did pretty well tonight. I thought the defense made a lot of progress last week. That was a major setback."
On making the third-quarter decision to punt on fourth down
"I did. It was fourth and short. At that point in the game, we weren’t going to win until we got a stop anyway. Turns out we got the lead, and put ourselves into a position to win and didn’t get it done."
On the defense adjusting on the fly
"We have a lot to look at. Looking forward to getting in the film room and looking at it. Spending some more time with the defense and seeing what we can get fixed. I think in that game, we probably had a notion we could do pretty well in some of our base calls, and we needed to mix up the looks a little bit because they were getting in the right thing for what we were in. We didn’t execute great."
On offensive vs. defensive production
“We win together, and we lose together. There are obviously guys that are frustrated. All of us are frustrated after that one. I give them a lot of credit, and I give Clay [Helton] a lot of credit. We can’t let it divide us. You know, I think in the first game the offense could’ve played better and won, but we gave up too many points. In the second game, I think the offense struggled in the first half and the defense held us in it, so we have to play more complete games and that wasn’t even close.”
On outside noise
“We have to make sure it doesn’t seep into players. I haven’t listened to any of it for a long time and we need to make sure they don’t. There’s a lot of games left in the season and this group can do well.”
On Casey Thompson’s performance
“He made some big plays and I thought he played well, 42 points should be enough to win almost every game you play. But again, we win together and lose together, and the offense could’ve scored once more too for sure. When you win, it’s as a team and when you lose it’s as a team, so you have to keep it together.”
On the play of the defense
“We win together and lose together. I was excited with what I saw in the fall. I don’t think we got off blocks very well, we got blocked up front, and didn’t get off blocks well enough. I expect more out of the group that I’ve been seeing for a long time.”
On one-score games
“It’s funny, the new guys in the program don’t even remember those things. The old guys, I don’t think we have that attitude right now. We just simply didn’t get a stop. We had a lot of chances to get a stop and we didn’t get a stop. Special teams played well enough for sure. You can’t give up that many yards and that many points and win many games.”
On the message to fans after the game
“I just appreciate it. It’s fun being here and I’m blessed to be the coach here. I love this state and this program. I’m fighting with everything I have, and so is the rest of the coaching staff. We do the “March to Victory” and everything. I know there’s questions and negativity out there, but the people that I see at those things and the fans staying, it’s unbelievable. I appreciate the people that are with us.”
