Systems and methods for controlling a gas turbine are disclosed. The gas turbine can include a compressor oversized in airflow capacity and one or variable blade rows to control the airflow into the compressor. The position of the variable blade rows can be controlled according to a nominal variable blade row schedule that is defined to throttle down the variable blade rows to provide nominal flow into the compressor. The positions of the variable blade rows can be adjusted from the nominal positions set forth in the variable blade row schedule pursuant to a request to operate the gas turbine system in either a controlled output mode or in a frequency compensation mode.