Editor’s note: Ryan O’Gara and Connor O’Gara grew up following sports in suburban Chicago. The brothers, separated by 20 months, debated about their favorite teams and players so often that their father would often have to remind them, “This isn’t PTI.” Each Friday, they’re bringing that debate to you, centered around the Big Ten and college football as a whole.

This week’s debate: Should Scott Frost get another year at Nebraska?

RYAN: I’ll answer this one in Spanish: “No.” (Forgive me for stealing your saying.)

I just don’t see the case for him getting another year, other than Nebraska not wanting to start all over and just hoping that the 5th year is the charm. Frost hasn’t done anything that would lead me to believe that a turnaround is coming.

First off, Frost has not led Nebraska to a bowl game since being hired in 2018. Do you know how many of the 63 Power 5 teams haven’t been to a bowl in that span? Just 8 (Nebraska, Rutgers, Maryland, Texas Tech, Kansas, Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona). After this season, that number will probably be 3 or 4 (Nebraska, Arizona and Kansas are locks, plus I’m guessing the loser of Rutgers and Maryland in Week 13, unless the loser can pull an upset before then). That’s a very bad group to be in.

It’s kind of unbelievable when you think about it. Nebraska plays in the Big Ten West, which is by far the easier side in the B1G. Granted, Frost does have to face Ohio State every year, but that’s one game. He also gets to face Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern every year, which are programs that he should beat every time. And yet, he is 5-7 in those games.

Since Frost was hired, we’ve seen non-blueblood programs like Minnesota, Northwestern and Indiana all reach the top 10 in the country. All 3 teams have finished a season in the top 12. Michigan State is on its way to joining that group. Nebraska, meanwhile, has played 2 games as a ranked team in Frost’s tenure — the season opener against South Alabama in 2019 and Week 2 in 2019 at Colorado, a game in which Nebraska blew a 17-0 halftime lead. That’s it. Just 2 games when it was an overhyped, overrated team.

Nebraska hasn’t beaten a single ranked team in Frost’s tenure. I would argue that it hasn’t even beaten a pretty good team. This year, Nebraska is 3-6 with a single Power 5 win, over Northwestern at home. The Huskers will be underdogs in their last 3 games — against No. 5 Ohio State, No. 21 Wisconsin and No. 22 Iowa — which means they will probably finish 3-9 (and 4-8 at best, though that is a stretch).

Even if this debate were involving a school like Illinois, Purdue or Indiana where the standards aren’t as high and there is always a basketball season to look forward to, I would still say that Frost hasn’t done nearly enough to merit another year.

But at Nebraska? Where the football team is by far the most important thing in the state? Heck no.

CONNOR: Wow. How dare you take one of my phrases and use it against me. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I suppose.

I can’t believe I’m actually typing this, but yes, Scott Frost should get another year. To be clear, that’s totally different than saying I think he absolutely will get another year. It’s also not the same thing as saying I think he’s being unfairly criticized. Everything is fair at this point. He makes north of $5 million and is 5-18 in 1-score games. He passed on Joe Burrow for Adrian Martinez, he’s about to have a losing B1G record for the 4th time in as many years and honestly, I don’t have much optimism that he’ll turn things around in 2022.

So why on earth should Trev Alberts run it back? A few reasons.

Paying a coach $20 million to go away is no joke. It’s a whole lot more when we talk about firing a staff, plus paying buyouts to hire a new staff. Auburn forked over that kind of cash, as did Texas. That’s all about booster momentum. It wouldn’t be stunning if Nebraska already had the funds to make Frost go away.

But what if that’s not the route Nebraska wants to go and there is indeed a Tennessee-like plan to justify firing him with cause because of potential NCAA violations in an effort to avoid paying that buyout? We talked a lot in the preseason about that possibility when Frost was accused of having illegal off-campus practices during COVID. That whole thing reeked of a program with internal forces working against its head coach. But go ask Tennessee how that’s going with Jeremy Pruitt. It’s currently involved in a messy lawsuit — the NCAA investigation just concluded on Thursday — and it’s clouding what’s actually been a somewhat promising Year 1 for Josh Heupel in Knoxville.

LSU could’ve absolutely made a case to fire Ed Orgeron with cause after his role as a defendant in an ongoing Title IX lawsuit against the university. Scott Woodward decided, eh, let’s just pay him his $17 million and be done with it. The headache isn’t worth it.

Speaking of LSU, look at the market right now. We’re in the first week of November, and there are already openings at LSU, USC, TCU and Texas Tech. We’ll wait and see what happens at places like Florida, Miami (FL), Virginia Tech and Arizona State. There are a lot of solid Power 5 jobs that could be vacant. I hate to break this to Nebraska, but the market wouldn’t be favorable. Frost was locked in on coming to Lincoln, and he was Bill Moos’ choice No. 1, No. 1A, No. 1B, etc. I know the facility upgrades are coming, but if I’m Alberts, I’m not crazy about being in that second tier of job openings.

Of course, all it takes is one. The big theme surrounding Frost’s arrival and tenure was that if the Wood River native and former Nebraska national championship winner couldn’t succeed in Lincoln, then who could? I think that’s bogus, honestly. But there isn’t that no-doubter candidate who would make a ton of sense, either. Could one pop up in the interview process? Sure, and for all we know, Alberts has been working behind the scenes to do his own vetting. Either way, I hope that’s what he’s been doing.

I just look at those factors and wonder if the timing isn’t quite there yet. Let’s see what Frost can do with a new quarterback for the first time.

Oh, wait. Adrian Martinez still has another year of eligibility? Woof.

Ok, new proposal. Let’s see what Frost can do if he pulls some NIL strings (legal or illegal) to start plucking transfers left and right. If he can do that in the next … I don’t know … 3 weeks? Then he keeps his job.

This thing isn’t changing overnight whether Frost is fired or not. I’d either try to wait for that buyout to drop OR I’d wait for an NCAA investigation to conclude to avoid the legal mess that Tennessee is in.

RYAN: I don’t even like the using the 5-18 in 1-score games stat at this point, because I feel like it’s giving Frost too much credit. When the phrase 1-score game is used, I think it implies that the game could’ve gone either way, that one play could’ve flipped the outcome. But there have been too many games this year where that has not been the case at all. Nebraska trailed Illinois, Minnesota and Purdue by double digits in the final minutes before scoring a late TD to make it a 1-score game, and outside of recovering an onside kick or some wild finish, the Huskers did not have a chance to win those games. And I’m not even including the Oklahoma game when Nebraska was down double digits in the fourth quarter and scored with 5:38 left to cut the deficit to 7.

The dumbest part of Frost’s tenure was hitching his wagon to Adrian Martinez, who is in his 4th year starting but hasn’t shown any signs that he is capable of taking the next step. There are always plenty of excuses, like his weapons aren’t good enough, but it’s just tiresome at this point.

The most frustrating part of this is that Nebraska is actually decent this year! It has the No. 2 offense in the B1G, averaging 468 yards per game. It has the No. 7 defense in the B1G, and I don’t even think that is doing the Blackshirts justice. So how is Nebraska 1-5 in conference play and last in the West? Sloppy mistakes on special teams, poor decisions from the QB, penalties at the absolute worst times. It’s all the little things with Nebraska. That’s coaching. That’s attention to detail. The fact that Frost is having these problems in his fourth season is mind boggling. That stuff should’ve been taken care of in the first half of his first season.

I know the fans are insanely loyal to Frost, but the longer it drags out, the more you risk isolating one of the most dedicated, passionate fan bases in college football. They deserve better.

I’m not going to pretend like I have some insider info on whether the boosters can make it happen, but I’d guess that they can get it done, if they want.

Also, who cares about LSU being open? Next year, it could be Florida and a whole group of other programs. There’s always going to be competition. I wouldn’t worry about them. Worry about getting this program back on track, because finishing last in the Big Ten is inexcusable.

CONNOR: I don’t even disagree with you on any of that. You’re right in that it’s been totally unacceptable and a proud fanbase deserves better. I bring up the market because I worry that Alberts is going to end up with his third choice and that new hire is instantly going to be questioned by that proud fanbase. Maybe that’d be the case next year, too. It dug Mike Riley a hole before he even hit the podium.

I almost would like to see Frost swing for the fences and turn his offense over to a new quarterback and offensive coordinator. Take a step back and maybe just focus on being more of a CEO. I want to see that version of him and determine if it’s as frustrating as this one. Who knows? Maybe it’s exactly what he needs. Or maybe he needs to go back to being a Group of 5 coach to figure out the right way he wants to develop a program.

I heard from a former Nebraska player that Frost is too dated with his approach to training. The Sports Illustrated report from a few months ago that Frost “didn’t impress” Florida when he met with its administration in 2017 is interesting. What did they know that we didn’t? That he wasn’t doing his due diligence to evaluate players? That he didn’t really know how to manage a staff? That he struggled when games were actually close and he wasn’t up 28 points like he was at UCF?

Frost clearly has his issues, and I suppose that wouldn’t change if he came back for Year 5. The ship has sailed on him being a savior. But could Alberts talk him into a Jim Harbaugh-type restructuring of his contract? Everybody told Warde Manuel to fire Harbaugh and instead, he’s got one of the best bargains in college football. I’m not saying that Frost would be capable of that type of upside, but is there perhaps a creative way to turn it into a largely incentive-based contract knowing that Alberts has all the power? Maybe.

My guess is that he’s gone at season’s end. But that’s the scenario of him returning for Year 5 that I wouldn’t totally hate.

RYAN: I mean, if Harbaugh — a coach with 4 double-digit win seasons as a Power 5 coach, not to mention a trip to the Super Bowl in the NFL — is willing to humble himself after 1 bad season, Frost can do the same after 4. Lower the salary, lower the buyout and maybe you could strike gold like Michigan. But I’m still doubtful that would happen. Harbaugh had an off year, while Frost is on his fourth off year.

I think if Frost does return, it can’t be with Adrian Martinez as his QB. There’s just no need to run it back for a 5th year of this combo.