Frost gives some early thoughts on the off-season and talks transfer portal

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost and his wife Ashley were guests together Thursday night on the Husker Sports Network.

On top of addressing a few different football topics, Frost and his wife announced they were donating up to $125,000 to Teammates in a donor match campaign.

Teammates is a youth mentoring organization started by former Husker coach Tom Osborne that operates across the entire Midwest.

“Ashley and I would like to help Teammates Mentoring and Coach Osborne’s organization,” Frost said. “We are going to pledge today a fundraising match, and Ashley and I are committed to matching up to $125,000 from anybody that’s willing to give to Teammates.”

In her first public appearance since Scott Frost was hired at NU, Ashley Frost opened up why the Teammates organization means so much to her.

“Teammates means a lot to me because of what they do for our youth in Nebraska and across the Midwest,” Ashley Frost said. “I grew up in a home without a father figure, and I know what that’s like. I’m grateful that my kids get to grow up with a great father and a great husband in their house.

"Not every child grows up in a home with two parents. Teammates provides another person for these young people to connect with, learn from and build a relationship with. I’m hopeful that our gift will help Teammates continue to do their work for many years to come.”

As for living in Lincoln, Ashley Frost said they are very happy here raising their two young children.

“Scott has always told me the people here are always so nice, and he was right about that,” Ashley Frost said. “I love the community, I’ve meant so many good people, and developed really good friends here. I have a job that keeps me really busy, as well as two kids that keep me busy. I can’t think of a better place to raise them than here in Lincoln. I truly do feel blessed to be here.”

***Winter conditioning officially kicked off this week, but things got off to somewhat of a slow start because of the record snowfall that hit Lincoln on Monday and Tuesday.

“Anytime school is closed down, we have to be optional, instead of mandatory,” Frost said. “We still had well over 90 percent of the team show up and find their way here and get rides with each other and walk through the snow to get here. We expected to start on Monday, and we still go a really good start on it.”

***Frost gave his first public remarks about NU's most recent additions in the transfer portal, as Luke McCaffrey, Kade Warner and Wil Farniok announced they were leaving Nebraska on Tuesday.

“We were surprised,” Frost said of the recent portal news. “You always see them coming a little bit. We are doing everything we can to have the right guys in the program. To be honest with you, I love where the team is right now and I can’t spend one second worrying about kids that are not on the team. I have too many great players and great kids on the team. I want guys that want to be here and fight with me and fight with each other. We have a whole locker room full of them”

***The reality is the transfer portal is here to stay, and it's going to become a bigger part of college football.

“We aren’t the only one with kids transferring,” Frost said. “I think there are over 1,400 in the transfer portal. There’s a double-digit figure of kids leaving from a lot of places. That hurts when kids leave, but that means there are a lot more kids out there you have an opportunity to go get. I really want to give the kids in our program a chance to go through spring ball and see what they can do. Hopefully, we have the answer right here in the building. If we don’t, we’ll keep our options open.”

***Frost hit on a few injured players and their status for the spring on Thursday. He said freshman wide receiver Will Nixon is "just about 100 percent," sophomore cornerback Braxton Clark is "back to 100 percent" and junior defensive lineman Tate Wildeman "is getting better".

“I expect most of them to be back for spring ball,” Frost said.

***Finally, Frost touched on Ron Brown and what his new role will be around the football program.

“I can’t say enough about Coach Brown for who he is as a person, and also the value he brings to our program on a daily basis,” Frost said. “I’m going to kind of reassign him to get the most out of everything that he brings to the table for us. He’s as good of a coach as we have in the building and he’s a great influence on the players. We are going to try to max out what he can do by shifting him around a little bit.”