JoJo Domann was a Blackshirt through and through. Battled injuries, stayed through a coaching change, and endured throughout one of the darkest periods in Nebraska football history.

Now he’s in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts. This week, he went on 93.7 The Ticket to talk with Husker alums Jay Foreman and Kenny Wilhite. Domann talked about his transition to the NFL, but eventually the conversation turned back to Scott Frost.

What went wrong under the former head coach?

“Honest to God it’s authentic leadership,” Domann said after thinking on the answer for a beat. “Whatever sauce they had going at UCF — the humbleness, the drive, the system they had in place there — they must have gotten away from it here. It just felt like they were just trying to say the right things and they wanted guys to do the right… do it their way and maybe overlooked the bigger picture of what’s the best way?”

Domann joked about the 3-9 record in 2021 and the common refrain that Nebraska was the best bad team in football. From an Xs and Os standpoint, Frost clearly had something there to work with. But it became more and more apparent as the years went on that the issues plaguing Nebraska were cultural, deeper than just scheming things up on Saturdays.

“How you talk to your players is everything,” Domann continued. “We’re like a sponge. We’re soaking up everything you’re saying. We’re believing you because we’ve been trained and conditioned to believe you. If you’re not leading with authenticity and being 100% genuine in everything you do, you’re leading a whole team down this sideways path.

“It just felt like one, two, three, a handful of things weren’t authentic, weren’t genuine. And, over time, those things stack up. You take one step off your path, you can take one step back on. But you take one step off your path and you don’t realize you’re off your path, you take 100 more steps and now you’re way off your path. And that’s kind of what it felt like happened at Nebraska.”

Wilhite asked Domann if there was someone on the staff or inside the football offices in Memorial Stadium who he felt like he could go to if he needed someone to open up to, and Domann replied no.

He mentioned Ron Brown as the closest resource. The longtime Husker staffer was NU’s director of player development from 2018-20 before moving into an analyst role in 2021 and 2022. He’s now the program’s director of player support and outreach.

But in terms of on-field assistants, Domann said there wasn’t someone on staff he felt like he could “authentically open up to and be completely heard and seen without judgment.” He said he felt like he walked on eggshells inside the team facilities.

Frost was fired during the 2022 season, departing with a 16-31 record in 4 seasons and part of a fifth. Matt Rhule has the task now of rebuilding the program Frost left behind.

The full interview with Domann can be seen below: