It sounds as if Maurice Washington will not be a Nebraska Cornhusker much longer. But, until that happens, he’s technically a part of the team, even if he’s not really on the team right now.
“Maurice and I are going to have another conversation,” Scott Frost said Thursday, via the Omaha World-Herald. “I think if he does want to come back there’s going to be a lot of things he needs to do to earn his team’s trust back and our trust back. We’ll see where it goes from there.”
Washington has a pending court case in which he’s been charged with a felony from allegedly posting revenge-porn of a then-15-year-old girl, but Frost separated Washington from the team since then and said this latest dust up was not related to that. So what is the reason Washington isn’t on the team right now?
Frost isn’t saying. He was asked Thursday if he regrets any aspect of his handling of this situation and said he did not.
“Listen, Coach Osborne was this way. He wasn’t quick to crumple kids up and throw them away,” Frost said. “Some of the kids that are in some of these situations, if they’re gone and out of this program, that road doesn’t lead to very many good places. As long as I’m here, I’m going to try to help these young men as much as I can. That’s the promise I make to their parents when I sit in their living room and tell them we’re going to try to help them no matter what.”
The charitable way to view that is Washington’s life will be better off as a member of Nebraska’s football program than not. The cynical view is that, should Nebraska cut ties, someone else will pick him up, and why should (Insert California Mid-Major here) benefit from his talent and not Nebraska?
Either way, the smart view is that Washington most likely will not carry the ball for Nebraska again.