In the final Nebraska spring football radio show on the Husker Sports Network Wednesday night, head coach Scott Frost reiterated the spring was productive, but his team has a long way to go.
“I thought we made a lot of ground up, we had a lot of ground to cover,” Frost said of his first spring. “It’s kind of like charging into the battlefield. You’re gonna charge only so far the first time, then you gotta group up and do it again.”
Coaches aren’t happy with where the team is, Frost said, but that’s standard. They won’t be satisfied until it’s perfect.
With practices over, Frost said he’s now meeting one-on-one with each player. He planned on doing that in January, but it was too busy with recruiting and getting settled in Lincoln.
Frost said coaches will be honest and encouraging in those meetings. So far, he’s been told by players they’re having more fun than last year.
The next step for Nebraska will be summer conditioning, which Frost says will be incredibly important. During the spring, Frost said games in the fall will be won and lost depending on how many steps the team can take in the weight room this summer.
“Weren’t happy where guys were in a conditioning and strength standpoint when we got here,” Frost said. “We had a lot of ground to cover the past winter in weight lifting to get a base to build. This summer will be more lifting and more running to get in better shape and better conditioning to improve the speed.”
Frost said the team needs to get in better shape, particularly the running backs. In a depth chart note, Frost said sophomore Tre Bryant still has “a ways to go” in terms of being healthy.
For the starting quarterback battle, Frost said the spring game won’t really be something coaches will evaluate too hard.
“We’re not going to evaluate based on that game,” Frost said. “At pretty much every position we felt like it wasn’t really fair to compare them right now. Guys were still learning schemes and making mistakes we want to evaluate everyone when everyone is at their best.”
That means despite public wave of praise for true freshman Adrian Martinez, who scored four touchdowns in the spring game, Frost is no where near close to naming him the starter over redshirt freshman Tristan Gebbia or walk-on sophomore Andrew Bunch.
Frost also cooled off some speculation about bringing in a graduate transfer quarterback. Frost said there are “no immediate plans” to add anyone to the roster by fall other than the 2018 recruiting class, who will be on campus this summer.
Frost was also asked about the Tunnel Walk. Nebraska changed the song on Saturday from the original “Sirius” for the spring game. Frost said they haven’t decided what they’ll do in the fall with the Tunnel Walk song. They might do a different song for each game, they may do the same song.
Most of the callers asking Frost questions were complimentary and usually welcomed Frost “home.”
A few brought up how fast Nebraska played on Saturday.
“I appreciate you compliment our urgency and pace, I’m not happy with it yet,” Frost said. “I thought it was good but it’s not where we want it yet.”
Like most things for Nebraska right now in Frost’s mind.
