Much has been made nationally of the slow starts for both new coaches and big-name programs. From Florida State’s supremely disappointing start under Willie Taggart to the latest drama for Chip Kelly at UCLA in his first year, many first-year coaches are in tough spots.

But compare programs like Florida State, UCLA and Arizona to Nebraska and the Huskers fall under a different umbrella in spite of an 0-2 start. That is the argument ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit made Wednesday.

“I’m going to cherry pick Nebraska out of the rest of the teams you mentioned because they’ve actually played and competed and just ended up losing games at the end,” he said on the Herbstreit and Fitzsimmons Podcast. “ I know the Troy game was a game they should have won. But if you watched them play, you didn’t walk away shaking your head thinking, ‘what in the world are they doing.’ I didn’t feel that way. They had a backup quarterback because the freshman (Adrian) Martinez is out. Now they’ve got Michigan. I feel like that’s a ship that’s heading in a very positive direction. They might not be getting the results, but it just feels different than what we’ve seen there in recent years.”

Nebraska (0-2) remains a big underdog against Michigan in the first Big Ten conference game under Scott Frost. Much depends on Martinez and if the true freshman is able to return. He showed improvements this week in practice, while Andrew Bunch is the other option at the position.

Herbstreit is not the only national college football voice to argue against a rush to judgement for Frost. Director of scouting for 247Sports Barton Simmons made the same point this week.

“Of all the head coaches that are off to slow starts, this is the guy that I’m least worried about,” Simmons said Tuesday on the 247Sports College Football Podcast. “Look. Colorado is a really good team. That was a really close game, coin flip kind of game. The ball fell in Colorado’s way. Tough loss but nothing to stress over. Troy, they gave up a punt-return touchdown and that was the difference in the game ultimately. Neal Brown is a giant killer, and they caught one. And they were playing with a walk-on quarterback.

“... I think they’ll be competitive in that (Michigan) game,” Simmons said. “This is a program that’s still heading in the right direction. Nothing we’ve seen is trouble. With Willie Taggart, there’s some real troubling signs. This offense just seems like he doesn’t know what he’s doing. They’re mismanaging the clock. They’re not playing hard. There’s all these red flags. None of these things are happening at Nebraska. They just haven’t won in two close games against two solid opponents.”