The Nebraska football culture needs fixing. That’s actually been clear for quite a while now. It’s even more apparent these days, despite claims from former head coach Scott Frost that cleaning up the culture was his aim all along.
When Thomas Fidone strode to the stadium on Monday morning, he probably didn’t realize that he’d be underlining just how bad things got and how badly change was needed. Of course, it’s possible his comments were what they were because he absolutely knew that Nebraska football fans needed to know exactly how bad things got before Matt Rhule arrived.
Fidone’s comments were centered on his injury and how long it took for him to get back. Apparently, Nebraska football coaches were as frustrated as he was that it was taking as long as it did to get back on the field. However, for reasons passing understanding, they blamed Fidone for how long it took, even while the team’s own medical professionals were telling me he wasn’t ready.
"“They wanted me to play and I was getting kind of yelled at on the sideline for not being able to play. I couldn’t. I wasn’t medically released, which is probably the best decision in the long run. But if they had told me to suit up and play, I would have been out there.”"
Nebraska Football: Thomas Fidone claims shed more light on toxic culture
The coaches yelled at him. For not playing when he hadn’t been cleared. During games.
Fidone didn’t say which coaches specifically yelled at him. Though it’s not hard to connect the dots when you consider that it was Mickey Joseph who finally made it clear that Fidone was done for the year.
Yes, perhaps I am jumping to conclusions that this was Scott Frost and his guys. But it doesn’t seem like that big a leap. There’s been plenty of talk about how bad things got under Frost. Missed practices, missed meetings. Missed recruiting visits. Even just being a bad member of the Nebraska football community.
It’s not hard to believe that in the heat of a season that started going wrong right from the start, that Frost might have been desperate to get a player of Fidone’s talents on the field. He didn’t show any compunction of throwing people under the bus to the media. He turned on his offensive coordinator in the first game. It’s not hard to believe that he was desperate enough to get mad at Fidone. There were plenty of staff members who might have behaved similarly.
Culture change under Rhule
It’s no longer a surprise that things weren’t going well for the Nebraska football team at this point. After all, Frost was fired in week 3 of the season. The question at this point is whether or not the culture is actually going to change under Rhule.
So far so good in that regard, though there isn’t much to judge it on just yet. It’s worth pointing out that while said Fidone is moving around well enough that it looks like he was never injured, the Nebraska football team is also going to be cautious. In that regard, it appears the new coaching staff is handling things the way they always should have been.