Scott Frost pressed on whether play-calling duties changed in the second half

Scott Frost is used to handling the play-calling duties for the Nebraska offense, and giving that up this season has admittedly been tough for him. After watching the Cornhuskers muster just seven first-half points Saturday under the direction of first-year offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, Frost was critical of the offense in a halftime interview.

Nebraska turned things around in the second half as it went on to outscore North Dakota 31-10 to claim a 38-17 victory. Asked postgame whether there was any change in who called the plays for the second half, Frost declined to say.

“I’m not ever going to get into that,” he said. “All I’ll say is, we’ve got a lot of smart people on our staff and the more we can cooperate, the better we’re gonna be.”

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Scott Frost was in charge of the play-calling duties for his first four seasons at Nebraska, but failed to deliver a winning record in that span. That led the Cornhuskers to make a change this offseason, bringing in Whipple from Pittsburgh.

In Nebraska’s first game with Whipple calling plays, the Cornhuskers got out to a 28-17 lead against Northwestern in Week 0 before eventually losing 31-28. One of the defining calls of the game was an onside kick attempt after Nebraska’s fourth and final touchdown, which Frost later admitted he called.

Regardless of who made the calls this Saturday, however, it was a massive turnaround in the second half.

After totaling just 147 yards of offense in the first half, Nebraska nearly doubled that with 290 in the second. Running back Anthony Grant also had a monster second half as he finished with 189 rushing yards and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead 46-yard score to put the Cornhuskers back on top 24-17 in the third quarter.

The Cornhuskers will look to get their offense in order and avoid another slow start when they Georgia Southern at 7:30 p.m. ET next Saturday.

Scott Frost on giving up offensive play-calling duties

During his final media availability session before the Week 0 opener against Northwestern, Scott Frost broke down how his transition away from offensive play-calling will impact the gameday routine of everyone on staff. While he cited many benefits, Frost said he was still not at ease ahead of kickoff.

“I’d say it’s more concern,” said Frost. “It’s just something I haven’t done in a long time. But I’ve already been thinking a lot about the other things that I can add if I don’t have my head buried in a call sheet.

“It’ll be a different experience for me, but everybody else is going to be doing exactly what they’ve always done and what they’re good at. So I’m going to trust that and try to help where I can with more than one phase.”

As Frost moves into a new role and his assistants all find the new workflow balance on the field and in the box, not everything is set in stone. However, the position of the play-caller and key assistants appears to be agreed on for now.

“We’re still discussing that,” said Frost. “Whip wants to call the game from the field, so I’d imagine most of our full-time guys will be down.”

On3’s James Fletcher contributed to this report.