



The opening-season record itself may not be one to put on a billboard, but Bill Moos was highly complimentary on Thursday of Scott Frost's first year at Nebraska, and confident about the Huskers being in position to chase championships soon in the future too.

During an interview with Husker247 about his overview of the 2018 football season that was, the Nebraska athletics director noted in particular how Frost's staff showed strong leadership even after the 0-6 start.

"Once we got into the season, there was never a panic – stayed the course," Moos said. "He has a plan. It's a proven plan. And it was a matter of transitioning a team, many of whom were on their third head coach in their career, along with younger guys who were just getting their first taste of major college football. And it took some time."

But Moos was encouraged by the shift he saw after the Huskers picked up their first win of the season against Minnesota on Oct. 20, ending a 10-game losing streak for the program and beginning a 4-2 run to the finish line with the losses coming 36-31 at Ohio State and 31-28 at Iowa.

"There became a hunger to get more, and that's a real good sign," Moos added. "When you step away from it and look back, in the last seven games we had three losses, and two of them came on the last play of the game. And the other one was at Ohio State where we dominated that game in the first half and had our chances to win it right up until the end."

Frost took the 0-6 start to his first Husker season hard, with perhaps the most frustrating Saturday of all when his team blew a 10-point lead in the final minutes at Northwestern, ultimately losing 34-31 in overtime.

"I'm kind of running out of words to tell them, other than just stick together," Frost said in the postgame.

Since he's been here in Lincoln, Moos has stressed the importance of giving room for his coaches to just coach during the season, and stayed true to that thinking in this case.

For the A.D., he wasn't going to bother Frost much during that time, and anything he did say during those weeks was all about offering support.

"I don't spend a lot of time down on the football floor. I don't go to practices. I know what he's about and I know what the master plan is," Moos said. "And I knew that it was going to be a process. I was just supportive any way I could: adding positions, focusing on a lot of the infrastructure of the program in a variety of different areas. And of course, in scheduling, and everything. I have my job and I know he was doing his, and I didn't need to go sit around and discuss it with him for an hour. I know what his schedule is like and he respects mine."

While acknowledging "we're still in a building process," Moos doesn't think the Huskers are that far away from being able to compete for championships. He likes what's going in with recruiting to go with the continued development of current players. He also believes Big Ten scheduling has evened out more from what it was in 2018 when NU had crossover road games against Ohio State and Michigan in the same year, as well as a home against Michigan State – all top-15 teams to start the year.

"A lot of positive signs there, I believe, to get us to 6-plus wins and start getting back into that postseason, giving us extra practices, and getting ourselves back into the conversation year-by-year," Moos said. "As we go on through the Scott Frost era, I see us doing nothing but continually getting better each year. And I'll think we'll see it next year. But within Year 3 or 4, we should be in the conversation for conference championships and bowl games that are higher tier."

Moos was impressed with Husker fans staying by their team as Nebraska tries to work toward that tier.

He points out that the Huskers endured about every weather condition possible at home games this past year, including an opener against Akron that was called off due to lighting. Moos and his staff are "just wrapping up conversations" with Akron officials about any kind of payment the Zips still might be owed for that game that never was. He believes the talks have been cordial.

"I think we have a mutual respect and we're working through some numbers here that hopefully will be accepted by both parties. We're not quite there yet," Moos said. "I don't know that we could have done anything different ... You're at the mercy of the weather, and the officials' steadfast insistence that we can't play. So it's not an everyday occurrence, but there wasn't a lot more we could do."

While that gets settled, there are other detailed matters to continue to work on, like improving the amenities in the North and South Stadiums for fans on game days. "Getting people comfortably to their seats, I think that's a little bit overdue, and something that we need to address."

There is also the continued project of making it so the Huskers can take about 150 on the football roster – a number Frost has publicly said he'd like to have.

Honestly, the Huskers aren't that far from that mark now. The last figures Moos had showed the roster at 138.

"With that, there are challenges in regards to where we house them with lockers, and is the weight room large enough? Training Table? Training room? Those present some challenges there, along with the numbers, to keep us in compliance without having to make major decisions into cutting or adding programs – which I'm not going to do. I think we can get to 150 and we have enough wiggle room to get there .... and provide more opportunities for walk-ons to come in and be developed and contribute to our future success."

A lot of things had to be addressed over the last year, and Moos will say the Huskers are still in the midst of addressing many of them.

But the Husker athletic director has a strong feeling about the foundation that was set into heading into Year 2. He sees improvement in everything from winter workouts, to practice schedules, to the spring football gains, to improvements in strength and conditioning and nutrition.

"They didn't come as a surprise to me," Moos said of Frost's staff. "They just confirmed to me why I knew he was the right guy for the job."