In the summer of 1992, Scott Frost made the quick trip to Lincoln to attend football camp. He was headed into his senior season at Wood River High, a campaign that would end in the Class C-1 semifinals before Frost headed to Stanford to begin his college career.
As it turns out, that was a period of change for Nebraska at quarterback. Mickey Joseph began the 1991 season as the starting quarterback, but Keithen McCant took over as the season went along. Then in 1992, Mike Grant started the first five games before true freshman Tommie Frazier took the helm.
Frost, of course, would enter the picture later, after transferring back to Lincoln, but that summer in 1992, he was just a highly sought-after high school option quarterback.
Little did he know at the time that he’d have a future connection with one of the fullbacks at the summer camp: Brighton (Colorado) High’s Bryan Applewhite.
Applewhite went on to play at Northern Colorado before beginning a coaching career that, after several stops, last month delivered him back in Lincoln as Frost’s new running backs coach at Nebraska.
Applewhite was the final piece to an offensive coaching staff rebuild for Frost when the hire was formalized Jan. 13.
“Believe it or not, I didn’t remember it, but Bryan was at the same Big Red Football School in 1992 that I was at,†Frost said recently. “So we’ve talked about that, staying at the dorm over here. I don’t remember if we were in Harper Schramm Smith or Abel-Sandoz, but staying in the dorms for six days and going to football camp.â€
The two have run into each other over the nearly three decades since as longtime coaches do, on the recruiting trail and at offseason coaching conventions.
Now, they’re back in Lincoln together and Frost is relying on Applewhite, Joseph, offensive line coach Donovan Raiola and offensive coordinator Mark Whipple — along with fifth-year tight ends coach Sean Beckton — to jump-start the Husker offense in 2022.
Some of that will be schematic — Frost talked about the blast of fresh ideas and also the challenges of getting everybody to “speak the same language†in the meeting room — but much of it will be about taking the talent on the roster and maximizing its collective output.
“I’m already really impressed with (Applewhite), and I think what Mickey and Bryan are going to demand — and Donny — out of the kids at their positions hopefully helps us a bunch,†Frost said.
That was a recurring theme for Frost when he spoke with reporters Wednesday. He liked what Nebraska’s running backs did in 2021 and the talent of the group, but wanted to see more on both fronts. He believes in the young corps of offensive linemen — a group that overall struggled mightily last fall — and said, “I think the talent is there,†and added NU has "some guys coming back that played a whole bunch last year that I’m looking forward to having Donny work with to see if we can make some strides."
Frost also thinks that the new wide receivers in NU’s program along with Joseph can push a returning trio of Omar Manning, Zavier Betts and Oliver Martin to new heights, too. Each showed ability in 2021, but also each at times was not on the field in critical situations for varying reasons.
“We want to see consistency. Those guys all had flashes of brilliance last year at certain times and had other times when it wasn’t what we expected,†Frost said. “Experience is certainly going to help with that and hopefully Mickey helps with that. They’re going to have a lot of guys on their heels and chasing them with Isaiah (Garcia-Castaneda) here and with some of the other additions that we’ve made, Trey (Palmer) and some of the other guys.
“If they’re not doing the right thing, somebody else is going to be on the field, and that’s the way it’s going to be with every position.â€
Palmer, Garcia-Castaneda and freshman Victor Jones Jr. are on campus for spring ball, and then Bonner and Decoldest Crawford get to town in late May or early June.
At running back, junior college transfer Anthony Grant is already enrolled. Applewhite recruited four-star running back Ajay Allen, the Louisiana native who signed with NU on Wednesday and will get to campus May or June alongside Emmett Johnson, but he also got a chance to see Grant on his official visit and was complimentary of the work he did at New Mexico Military Institute.
"Anthony's an explosive kid. He has tremendous vision," Applewhite said last month of the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder. "He has incredible instincts. He's tough. He's got great hands out of the backfield. I was just tickled to death, excited to get the opportunity to work with him."
So the new offensive staff will begin to get a clearer picture in March of exactly what they are working with and what, if anything, remains missing. For Joseph, it will be about pushing the returning guys and integrating the transfers. For Applewhite, it will be about starting to establish a pecking order among five guys here now, understanding two more will join later, too. For Raiola, it’s about first figuring out what each guy is and then where he might fit into the puzzle. Then, how many more guys does he need to find in the portal as the spring progresses?
Those questions and many more need to be answered as the next phase of the offseason begins, but Frost said Wednesday he feels good about what’s happened so far.
“It is kind of exciting with the new coaches we have in the building and new players we have in the building,†Frost said. “It has a little different feel. We’ve been getting back to work as a football team and had the guys in the weight room and on the field running a little bit. I’m excited about that, too. There seems to be some energy injected into everything we’re doing because some of the new faces.â€
Keeping up with the transfer portal. Here's who the Huskers have coming to Lincoln