Scott Frost, Adrian Martinez Weigh In On Loss To Michigan

The disappointment in the voice of Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Scott Frost was apparent in the moments after Saturday night's 32-29 primetime loss to the Michigan Wolverines.

Frost's team, who fell to 3-4 on the season, have been desperate for a signature win since the former star quarterback returned to coach his alma mater. It seemed as though it was close to happening for a bit on Saturday.

“I thought tonight was the night,” Frost said in his postgame press conference.

It wasn't. Nebraska gave the visiting Wolverines everything they could handle but it was not enough. The loss dropped Frost's Husker teams to 4-11 following a win the week before.

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Nebraska is every bit the upstart team it was billed a coming into the game and they had the Wolverines on the ropes a few times, but could not land the knockout punch. Star quarterback Adrian Martinez was a playmaking threat throughout but fumbled late in the game in a moment that allowed Michigan to take the lead and never look back.

“I feel terrible for (Martinez) and for the team,” Frost said. “Gosh, they did so many things good tonight. That was as much fun as I’ve ever had coaching a football game, with the fans the way they were and the stadium and the way we responded. They’re a damn good football team. I give them a lot of credit. So are we. I told the boys before the game, usually, those games come down to one or two plays. I don’t know if his momentum was stopped or not, but we can’t expect to get those breaks. We have to go make them.”

Michigan made the one or two plays that mattered most.

Martinez fought to get a yard on the third-and-1 play in the fourth quarter that resulted in Michigan senior safety Brad Hawkins stripping and recovering the football. The officials were slow on the whistle after plays often on Saturday night, but the Wolverines took advantage and made a play when they needed to.

“The goal, obviously, short-yardage run play, trying to get the first down,” Martinez said. “I’m not going to stand up here and make excuses for myself. I can’t be careless with the football. I thought the play was over. I was standing as I’m standing right now and I thought it was done. But, regardless of that fact, I feel a lot of responsibility and I can’t make plays like that that hurt our team.”

Michigan did an admirable job of slowing down Nebraska's explosive offense in the first half on Saturday, but water violently found its level in the second half. The Cornhuskers scored 22 points in the third quarter and the Wolverines could not get a stop. Frost addressed the changes that were made to keep Michigan's defense off balance.

“We made a few adjustments that I think helped,” Frost said. “We needed to be running a little bit of the (wrinkles) to our option plays because the base stuff, they weren’t giving us the pull and the ability for Adrian to get on the perimeter. So, we had to kind of manufacture that, popped a few things in the run game. I thought there was a great job by (offensive coordinator Matt) Lubick scheming a couple of things up that gave us big plays.”

There are players in Michigan's locker room that will note past teams of theirs would have folded under Saturday's pressure. Martinez feels the same way about how his group performed.

“It’s hard to point to what exactly changed. I’d maybe say part of it was the mentality,” Martinez said. “There was a lot of talk in the locker room, but our guys were like, ‘We’re chipping away. We know what’s going to happen. I think when we got that first touchdown, it was like, OK, floodgates are open, let’s keep hammering it home.”

Three of Nebraska's four losses this season have come at the hands of Oklahoma, Michigan State and Michigan, who will likely all be top ten teams when the AP Poll is released on Sunday afternoon. Their combined records? 18-0.

This is a bitter pill to swallow for Frost, but he has faith his team will stick together moving forward.

"This team loves each other," he said. "They love the coaches. The coaches love them. This is a tightly knit team and, gosh, I'm proud of them. We've come so far."

With the Michigan win over Nebraska, Frost is now 0-3 in his career coaching against the Wolverines with the last two taking place as the Cornhuskers head coach. The first contest, a 51-14 Wolverines victory over Central Florida, took place in 2016.

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