For the past week, new Nebraska coach Scott Frost sat in the living rooms of prospective recruits and sold his vision of Husker football.
How’d he do? If an NFL Hall of Fame coach had to guess, quite well.
Tony Dungy has had Frost sit in his living room to recruit his son, Eric, who eventually picked Oregon in 2010. Frost was Eric’s position coach. Dad was impressed with Frost that evening, and ever since. The two have kept in frequent touch over the years.
Dungy, like so many others, is a big Frost fan.
“I could talk about Scott for hours,” Dungy said Thursday. The NFL on NBC studio analyst was gracious to talk for 20 minutes before Thursday night’s Saints-Falcons game. The key takeaways from the conversation — we’ll go more in-depth in the Monday Rewind — was that Frost had excellent mentors (Tom Osborne, Mike Tomlin and Chip Kelly among them), a “really good teaching demeanor” and a commanding presence among athletes. When Dungy would visit Oregon to visit his son, he saw it.
“Players just gravitate to him every time I came to see him,” said Dungy, who made 11 NFL playoff appearances over six seasons with Tampa Bay and seven with Indianapolis. “And it didn’t matter which position. Defensive linemen, running backs, they’d just come to his office. He’s a leader. You could tell right away how respected he was.”
Sunday and Monday, we’ll explore a few more aspects of NU’s new coach. On Sunday, we’ll have two stories: One from Evan Bland about a key break Frost got in his coaching career — talking to the man who gave it to him — and another from Dirk Chatelain about the fishbowl that awaits the guarded Frost, who comes back to a place where so many have a story about him (and thus presume to know what he’s all about.) Then, Monday, more from Dungy, who knows Frost as a parent of a player and as a mentor who thinks Nebraska got a great coach.
Tom Osborne
After spending two seasons of his college playing career at Stanford learning from Bill Walsh, Frost followed with three years of offensive education under Osborne at Nebraska. Frost redshirted in 1995, then was the Huskers' starting quarterback in 1996 and '97, with NU leading the nation in total offense (513.7 yards per game) and scoring (47.1 points) his senior season. When Osborne visited UCF during preseason practice in August, Frost told the Orlando Sentinel: “He’s my hero in this business, to be honest with you, and any time I get to spend time with him or listen to him talk, there is a lot of wisdom in that mind. I appreciate him for who he is as a football coach.”
Parcells was the head coach when the New York Jets used a 1998 third-round draft pick on a college quarterback that they planned to convert to a safety. Frost played the 1998 and '99 seasons under Parcells, who was also serving as the Jets' general manager.
Football coaching influences through the years? Scott Frost had many — and big names, too
Scott Frost wasn't hurting for big-name mentors through his football playing and coaching career. A look at some of the people who influenced Frost — named head coach at Nebraska on Saturday — along the way.
Tom Osborne
After spending two seasons of his college playing career at Stanford learning from Bill Walsh, Frost followed with three years of offensive education under Osborne at Nebraska. Frost redshirted in 1995, then was the Huskers' starting quarterback in 1996 and '97, with NU leading the nation in total offense (513.7 yards per game) and scoring (47.1 points) his senior season. When Osborne visited UCF during preseason practice in August, Frost told the Orlando Sentinel: “He’s my hero in this business, to be honest with you, and any time I get to spend time with him or listen to him talk, there is a lot of wisdom in that mind. I appreciate him for who he is as a football coach.”
JEFF BUNDY/THE WORLD-HERALD
Bill Parcells
Parcells was the head coach when the New York Jets used a 1998 third-round draft pick on a college quarterback that they planned to convert to a safety. Frost played the 1998 and '99 seasons under Parcells, who was also serving as the Jets' general manager.