Nebraska fired Scott Frost Sunday following a 1-2 start to the season including an embarrassing home loss to Georgia Southern Saturday night. Here are five candidates who could realistically be targeted to become the next Huskers’ coach:

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Meyer is one of the greatest college football coaches of all time winning national championships at Florida and Ohio State and never having a losing season during stops with the Buckeyes, the Gators, Bowling Green and Utah. He has compiled a 187-32 overall record and while coaching 58 games in the Big Ten at Ohio State, he won 54 of them. He is still just 58 years old and has significant Midwest ties. Meyer is also a huge name and would bring immediate legitimacy and recruiting chops to the Huskers.

There are significant risks though. Meyer’s time at Florida and Ohio State had turmoil and controversy. It seems to follow him wherever he goes. Health problems have also been a concern and those took him away from coaching at the collegiate level as well.

Meyer returned for one season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, finished 2-11, had numerous negative incidents and had one of the shortest NFL coaching careers in history.

There’s no question Meyer is a football savant who has incredible competitive drive, has a winning track record in college and might want one more shot at resurrecting his career. He’s also been someone who famously took jobs where winning on a massive scale was built-in a little for him (Florida instead of Notre Dame because of academic requirements and recruiting territory and Ohio State because it’s Ohio State) so that could be a challenge for the Huskers.

Alabama coach Nick Saban has made it another priority of his to resurrect the coaching careers of others who have failed in some way. Lane Kiffin. Steve Sarkisian. And now it could be Bill O’Brien, who most likely won’t be Alabama’s offensive coordinator forever.

O’Brien has worked with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in New England. He took over an impossible situation at Penn State following the Jerry Sandusky scandal and did admirable work. He was the coach and general manager of the Houston Texans. Now at Alabama, O’Brien has worked side-by-side with Heisman winner Bryce Young.

Does O’Brien jump at a significant and historic program like Nebraska if it’s offered to him - with all the benefits of coaching the Huskers but also all of the challenges? The question also needs to be asked if O’Brien feels he could get the Alabama job after Nick Saban, 70, decides to retire at some point in the future and whether staying in Tuscaloosa for that length of time is worth it.

Mullen has worked with some of the best college quarterbacks of the last two decades and developed them into even better players, he took Mississippi State to No. 1 in the country and made the Bulldogs more than competitive in the SEC and he is a brilliant offensive play-caller who could bring a fresh approach to the Huskers. At only 50 years old, Mullen has also recruited to a tough college town - Starkville - to get elite talent and could bring a similar recruiting approach to Lincoln.

But there are some things to watch as well. After being handed the keys at Florida, his teams went 10-3 and 11-2 in his first two seasons but then back-slid and went 8-4 and 5-6 before he was fired. There have also been rumors that Mullen is far more interested in the Xs and Os and not the daily recruiting grind demanded of college football coaches. Whether that’s a fair accusation or not could be debated.

Fickell has done an absolutely phenomenal job at Cincinnati and took the Bearcats to the College Football Playoff last season. After a 4-8 first season, Cincinnati has gone 11-2, 11-3, 9-1 and 13-1 under his command and the culture of battle-tested, tough-minded but also fun to watch teams at Cincinnati is special.

Rumors circulated when the USC job opened that Fickell was a top candidate, maybe the top candidate, but his family was apprehensive to move away from the Midwest for California. The Nebraska job would allow them to stay in the Midwest, close to their roots in Ohio, while upgrading the historic relevance of the program. One does wonder, though, if Fickell is looking even closer to home at the Ohio State or Michigan jobs if they were to ever open with Jim Harbaugh or Ryan Day looking at possible NFL jobs at some point.

If Nebraska wants to stay young and with an offensive mind then there might not be a better option than Lebby, who did fantastic work at UCF and Ole Miss and is now at Oklahoma in the same role as offensive coordinator. The Huskers would be taking a major chance because Lebby has no heading coaching experience but he might be one of the sharpest young minds in the game and Nebraska could be getting a steal if the decision-makers decide to go this route.

There have been success stories and the other kind as well of administrators taking someone with no head coaching experience and putting them in as coach. It could definitely work but it brings inherent risks as well. Lebby is a phenomenal offensive coordinator and play-caller and will get his chance to run a program somewhere. Will it be Nebraska?