In South Carolina, the verdict is published by the Clerk of Court. In other words, when a jury has reached a verdict, the Clerk of Court, not a member of the jury, announces the verdict to the courtroom.

But in every jury trial – whether criminal or civil – there is no mistaking that the jury, and only the jury, is the finder of all facts.

Starting in August and running throughout the season, I will be writing a weekly column called The Verdict - presented by the Goings Law Firm. And much like a jury, I will try to base my findings and opinions on facts. But unlike a jury, I want to hear from the gallery, both what I got right and what I got wrong.

This week’s Verdict: If South Carolina fans have unrealistic expectations, it will kill this rebuild

Last Saturday, Nebraska lost to Illinois in pathetic fashion. At one point in the second half, the Cornhuskers, who were touchdown favorites, were losing 30-9. For Big Red fans, this was another verse to the same song. This is now Scott Frost’s fourth season in Lincoln. Frost was supposed to be the savior of the program. A Nebraska-native and former national championship quarterback for the Huskers, Frost was a favorite son for many Nebraska fans.

And how could he not be? College Football is an emotional and pageantry-laced sport, especially at Nebraska. The Cornhuskers value tradition, family, and principled college football. The fans want their players to be killers on the field, but gentlemen off it. They want All-Americans on Saturday and Dean’s List on Monday. For Nebraska fans, it’s all about Keith Jackson tribute videos and marching bands and the blackshirts and getting in the RV and traveling all throughout the heart of this country watching Cornhusker Football.

Scott Frost got that. And he vowed to bring Nebraska back to national prominence.

And that’s the kicker. Nebraska had fallen on shaky times, but not necessarily hard times when Frost left UCF to return home in 2018. Since the turn of the century, the Cornhuskers had only missed a bowl game three times in 18 seasons. They had won nine or more games 12 times in that same span. Bo Pelini was fired four years prior after going 9-4. Mike Riley had gone 9-4 just two years prior to Scott Frost taking over.

Scott Frost’s first three seasons have ended with four, five, and three wins, respectively. His recruiting efforts have been suspect and he has lost droves of players every year to the transfer portal. Frost knows how to coach. (He led UCF to an undefeated season in 2017.) He knows Nebraska. (Nobody knows that state or university better). Yet the Scott Frost homecoming is failing.

Nebraska Football is failing not because of their lack of history, but instead because of their proud history. Before the turn of the century, Nebraska was winning national titles. They were winning conference titles. They had numerous All-American players and NFL Draft picks. Things were different in the 1990s. Tom Osborne was running his I-Formation option attack. Quarterbacks like Tommie Frazier were running the option in high school and wanting to run the option offense under a College Football Hall-of-Famer in Tom Osborne. And the state of Nebraska, despite being sparsely populated, was producing great college football talent.

According to Omaha World Herald columnist Dirk Chatelain (a fantastic college football writer), as Nebraska modernized its offense, football program, and recruiting footprint, it lost its identity. 21st Century Nebraska no longer went after in-state foundational players. And the program suffered. As Chatelain put it, “Nebraska’s roster evolution since 1997 has increasingly abandoned ‘foundational’ players... low-maintenance recruits whose determination and unselfishness permeates the depth chart. They lead workouts in the offseason — and rallies in the fourth quarter.”

Scott Frost’s charge was to take Nebraska from consistently bowl-bound to national champions. Nebraska expected to repeat history while also following modern college football trends. And barring some miraculous turnaround, it has failed.

Nebraska’s expectations should be consistently winning seven, eight, or nine games per season with the occasional run at a Big Ten Title. And that’s what it was doing for years. But boosters and school administrators wanted more. They wanted to replay the 1990s. They were looking at the outcomes and not the reality. The reality was clear: Nebraska wasn’t filling its roster with in-state players, it wasn’t plucking bluechip recruits from the South or New Jersey, and it certainly wasn’t playing within the comfortable confines of the Big 8 (or later Big 12).

Instead, the reality was that Nebraska Football had ticked off high school coaches in Nebraska for neglecting their own, elite quarterback recruits (like Tommie Frazier) weren’t going to leave Florida to play in the cold Nebraska Novembers, and the Cornhuskers weren’t playing Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State, and Colorado anymore (all of whom had fallen on hard times by the mid-2000s). They instead are playing Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State.

Anyone not donning Big Red could have told you Nebraska’s “new reality” was 6-9 wins per season with occasional shots at conference supremacy. Nebraska continued to ignore reality, and in doing so has sunk their program into even further despair as the years go by. After yesterday’s loss, if you asked a Nebraska fan what they wanted, most would probably tell you to just get to bowl eligibility.

For weeks now I have been advocating for a high-energy Carolina fanbase. And for weeks now that message has come in the form of dismissing the doubters and refuting the national media. This week, as we head into a very exciting opening kickoff weekend, my message is wearier – “Remember Nebraska.”

Carolina Football has all the tools to be successful. Its recruiting footprint, while shared with more powers than Nebraska’s, is much more fruitful. Carolina has its new football facility. Nebraska is trying to get the funds to finish their new football facility.

Regardless of presumed advantages Carolina has over Nebraska, as Nebraska has shown, living in a fantasy is not healthy for a college football program. Reality at Nebraska was what Bo Pelini was providing. Nebraska ignored reality and is now staring down the barrel of five straight losing seasons.

For the near future, a shot at bowl eligibility, a team that gives a damn, and an occasional upset should be acceptable for Carolina fans because that is reality.

If Carolina fans can live in reality, while still supporting this program with a feverish passion, Beamer has a shot to eventually build Carolina into something greater.

But if Carolina fans ignore reality, and live in a fantasy fueled by unrealistic expectations like Nebraska has for years, the Gamecocks could fall into a vicious cycle similar to that of Nebraska. Only without the trophies and in the SEC.

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