Scott Frost fires back in defense of Mark Whipple in response to Pat Narduzzi

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost defended his new offensive coordinator at Big Ten Media Days after Mark Whipple’s former boss called him out on a podcast last week. Pat Narduzzi said Whipple refused to run the ball at Pitt, despite the OC helping the Panthers to an 11-3 finish.

“If we score as many points as they did last year, I don’t care if we run it, throw it or kick it,” Frost said at media days.

Whipple caught some strays Wednesday night when Pat Narduzzi opened up about his performance as Panthers offensive coordinator.

Whipple worked under Narduzzi from 2019-21 before taking the job at Nebraska under Frost. During a podcast interview on Bazzy’s Black and Gold Banter, Narduzzi called him “stubborn.”

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“Our old offensive coordinator had no desire to run the ball,” Narduzzi said, via Outsider’s Dustin Schutte. “Everybody knew it. He was stubborn. Wake Forest was 118th in run defense and we threw the ball every down. When we ran it, we ran it for 10 yards but that wasn’t good enough.”

Nebraska struggles to score in 2021

Last year under Whipple, Kenny Pickett became a Heisman Trophy finalist and the first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2022 NFL Draft. Pittsburgh put together an impressive season, punching a ticket to the Peach Bowl against Michigan State.

While Pitt was No. 8 in total offense in 2021, Nebraska was 22nd but finished 3-9 overall. The issue for the Cornhuskers was getting the ball in the endzone, as evidenced by their 27.9 points scored average.

In the Panthers’ two regular-season losses last season, the offense put up 93 rushing yards on 24 attempts versus Western Michigan and 68 yards on 23 attempts versus Miami. The lack of a run game may have factored in but turnovers were also costly in those matchups.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.