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Nebraska is really bad. The Huskers continued to be really bad when they dropped to 0-4 with a 42-28 loss at home to Purdue on Saturday.
Before that game, in the wake of a blowout loss at Michigan, Scott Frost tried to gin up some optimism for the Purdue game.
“This was a really good team,” Frost told reporters right after losing to the Wolverines, “and we get a game that we could win next week.”
The subtext was clear enough (and not really untrue): Michigan’s better than Purdue. Plus the Huskers would be playing at home against the Boilermakers.
Clearly, Purdue got wind of Frost’s comment.
It's clear that Purdue used Frost's "winnable game" quote for motivation. Here, a player walks right by Frost making it clear his message was received. #Huskers pic.twitter.com/1oOKZoRXik
— Dan Corey (@DanCorey1011) September 30, 2018
That’s Frost shaking hands with Boilers coach Jeff Brohm right after losing, and that’s Purdue running back Markell Jones quipping in Frost’s direction “winnable game.”
Brohm had already noted that Purdue heard what Frost said.
“I think that obviously he was talking after a loss that he didn’t like very much. So I get it,” he said earlier in the week. ”But no, I think everything that’s said is heard, and our team needs to respond and understand that we’ve got to show up ready to play and this team will be licking their chops trying to get us.”
It’s the second week in a row Nebraska’s suffered some sort of embarrassment over something it had previously said about the other team.
In 2016, after a blowout loss in Ann Arbor while Frost coached UCF, he said his team “outhit” the Wolverines, who needed to run cheap run plays at the end of the game just to get to 100 ground yards against their AAC foes, who were then just coming off a winless season.
After Nebraska hired Frost for this season, Huskers athletic director Bill Moos said Michigan (along with Ohio State) was “running a little bit scared” of the Huskers.
The Wolverines took the “outhit” comment to heart, in particular, and said so after the game. Jim Harbaugh called a particularly merciless game, which included trying to throw a long touchdown on fourth-and-long while up 39-0 with seconds left in the first half.