When you go 357 days without a win, it’s time to change it up.

The pre-game routine, the practice schedule, the tone of the halftime speech, the something. For Scott Frost, that something was the starting quarterback.

“Finally,” said probably the vast majority of Nebraska fans when Luke McCaffrey stepped onto the field to take the game’s first snap.

Finally, Frost was willing to not have Adrian Martinez start a football game. That in itself was significant. By day’s end, it became somewhat of an afterthought. Why? For one, Nebraska did the most on-brand thing it could possibly do, which was allow Penn State to nearly overcome a 21-point second-half deficit. The late drama stole the show.

More importantly, Martinez’s benching was an afterthought because McCaffrey had a decent, but unspectacular day in his first career start. His late interception was a reminder that the Huskers haven’t exactly kept a Heisman Trophy winner on the sidelines in favor of Martinez. McCaffrey’s second half was nothing to write home about (neither was Nebraska’s).

But on a day in which Nebraska needed some sort of change to spark a change in result, McCaffrey did just that.

McCaffrey, just as he was in his first 1-plus years in Lincoln, was brought in as a spark. This time, however, it wasn’t as a rotational quarterback, running back or receiver. McCaffrey was QB1.

In his first start, it was a fast start that fueled Nebraska’s first win of 2020. It was, by all accounts, a messy game that had several signs of 2 teams who entered the day winless. Careless turnovers, poor coaching decisions (James Franklin’s 56-yard field goal attempt down 21 was baffling) and some all-too-familiar coverage busts filled the day.

Did Nebraska fans care about that when McCaffrey dapped up Wan’Dale Robinson as the Huskers got their first victory formation in a calendar year? Nope.

Without McCaffrey’s early spark, that wouldn’t have happened. We saw that from the jump. Between the rollout pass to Austin Allen in traffic and even the wobbly throw that a wide-open Cade Warner missed in the end zone, McCaffrey actually put the Huskers in a spot that they’ve rarely been in against B1G teams under Frost — up multiple scores.

When Warner’s drop led to a Nebraska field goal to make it 10-0, it marked the biggest lead of the young season. When McCaffrey got credit for Zavier Betts’ receiving touchdown (pop passes are a quarterback’s best friend), it gave the Huskers 17 points a minute into the 2nd quarter … which marked their best offensive output of the season.

The bar was low, yes. In a lot of ways, McCaffrey exceeded it. He opened up the offense and played with tempo that Nebraska didn’t have with Martinez. There was a fearlessness in the ground game that lacked at times. Shoot, there was even a left-handed pass:

Again, was it pretty? Nope. Did it provide a spark? Absolutely.

That’s what was needed to stop the bleeding. And yes, 0-2 in Lincoln will always be considered “bleeding.”

Go figure that Nebraska was finally able to come out alive in a nail-biter finish. Frost entered Saturday 3-10 in 1-score games in Lincoln. Perhaps more alarming for 2020 is the fact that even with Saturday’s win, his offense has yet to score a second-half touchdown in 2020. The Huskers have been outscored 59-6 after the break. That’s the sign of a coach who isn’t making the right adjustments.

The right adjustments in general were making the switch at quarterback and making sure “Wan’Dale needs more touches” wasn’t a postgame punchline after another loss. Robinson, like McCaffrey, had a relatively unspectacular day, but he at least got 21 touches, which was more than twice as many as he had in the first 2 games combined.

That appears to be Frost’s 1-2 punch moving forward. There’s no doubt he was hoping his Year 3 quarterback was going to be part of that winning formula this year. It’s not easy for an offensive-minded coach like Frost to cut bait on a Year 3 signal-caller who started every game he was healthy for since the start of 2018. Acknowledging that changes need to be made isn’t easy for anyone, much less for someone who sometimes comes off stubborn like Frost.

Addressing the media via Zoom after Saturday’s win, Frost shared something that any casual observer could’ve deduced.

“The state needed it. The team needed it. I needed it.”

Frost admitted that making change from Martinez to McCaffrey was “one of the hardest ones I’ve ever made.” Nobody will argue with that. They would’ve argued with Frost’s logic had he not made the switch, even if it resulted in McCaffrey being part of another devastating Nebraska loss.

That didn’t happen, though. Instead what happened was Frost showed that he was willing to turn the page. It’s no longer about B1G West titles or getting Nebraska back to national relevance. Saturday was about winning a football game for the first time in 357 days.

Finally, Frost changed it up. And finally, he got the reward he was looking for.

Photo credit: Nebraska Football on Twitter