Nebraska football: Huskers comments bring excitement and red flags

Nebraska football players spoke at the first press conference of fall camp and made comments that were both exciting and a little alarming.

Freedom Akinmoladun, Luke Gifford, and Tanner Farmer, among others made some comments on Thursday that should get plenty of Nebraska football fans revved up. Speaking during the first press conference to open fall camp, the players were all smiles and all kinds of excitement.

A large part of the talk was about how much better things have been since Scott Frost took the helm. To listen to the players talk, Frost has already saved the program, without having to coach a game.

Akinmoladun noted the change in attitude first. “Everyone wants to win. It’s a change from previous years.”

Gifford made similar comments. “A lot of trust had to be gained back. Last year, guys were second-guessing each other. I don’t feel like there was much trust between us and the coaches last year.” The linebacker then added, “This staff has done a great job of rebuilding that.”

It is of course, nice to see players coming out and saying how much better things are. It’s good to see they feel like things are going to be different from here on out.

Tanner Farmer had a quote that should make every Cornhusker fan in the country happy merely because of all the negative feelings that have surrounded this program the last decade or so.

"“This has been truly special this offseason. They (Frost’s staff) really make it seem like a family.”"

If you don’t get pumped up for the first game of the season after reading those quotes, there’s something wrong with you, or you’re not a Husker fan.

On the other hand, something was gnawing at me while reading those comments. I was thrilled to see them, but they also gave me an uneasy feeling.

Why wasn’t I just able to smile and nod move on? I think this quote crystallized it for me:

The players that are all very busy bashing the previous staff are the same ones “declined bigger weights,” when they were working out. And we wonder why the team went 4-8?

Nebraska Cornhuskers Football

Yes, the previous coaching staff was a disaster. From top to bottom, it’s apparent there was a lot being done wrong by the people who were teaching this team. The bottom line is though, the players have to be held accountable here too.

They are the ones who went out on the field and played some truly terrible football at times. Maybe a lot of that poor play was because of a lack of trust in the staff.

Maybe it was because the coaches couldn’t get the players to figure out a way to adjust. But it’s clear there were some players that just didn’t have the “want to.”

The Cornhuskers were 4-8 last year. Both the offensive and defensive line got pushed all over the field on more than one occasion. And yet players were lifting less weight than they should have been, not -as Gifford points out – because they were too weak, but because they just didn’t want to lift more.

For now, all we can do is sit and wait and watch. Everyone should be hoping Scott Frost and company really repaired that aspect of the Nebraska football program but when this team hits a bump in the road, remember that it’s not that easy to completely change an entire team’s attitude overnight.