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Couple not-so-enthusiastic outside opinions of the 2018 Huskers


I kinda get the attitude of the NW writer but they barely beat us last year and it's a sign of intellectual laziness to be a football writer for a Big Ten team and not be vaguely aware of the culture/coaching issues at Nebraska last year.

I still think 7 or 8 wins would constitute a good year but I also have a feeling underestimating the Huskers will be a mistake. It's perfectly ok with me if everyone outside the program has low expectations, though.
 



First article I didn't think was too bad. The second guy, well, I can feel that 'We are an elite Big 10 conference team (academically)' attitude coming through in his writing. Could NW win, sure they could, but easier than expected? I think not. Again, I will say that I expect the grass at that stadium to be the longest it will be all year. Someone needs to let goats out on the field before the game to trim it up a bit.
 
Again, I don't think from the outside looking in (non-Husker fan) there's much to get worried about. All the things that made Vegas give our 2017 pause in year 3 of a coach coming off a 9 win season are still there. New QB (with less experience, we will be playing someone who hasn't started a college game before), new defensive coordinator, new head coach who bring a new offensive coordinator.

As fans I have no problem with our optimism, but there will be some bad times this season. This staff is all about rebuilding confidence. They started in the weight room, then there's some quotes that are coming out where they are really building these kids up and giving me some pause. There's some work to do.
 
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Weak arguments by them, but not unlike some of ours. Nobody really knows until we play. That's part of the beauty of the game - it's unpredictable.

If it was truly predictable it would be math. And nobody fills stadiums to watch people do math. ;)
 




Blind squirrels searching for nuts. They're desperately hoping that their predictions will be correct even though deep down inside they know NU will soon be a force to be reckoned with every year in the forseeable future.
Like HCSF said, "better get us now".
 
Most of the prediction people base the predictions off of returning starters and last year's performance. I remember one year (90s) Washington was ranked #2 or #3 preseason because of the number of returning starters. I believe after three weeks they were 0-3 and not in the top 25.
 
I would expect nothing less for NU outsiders - given what they saw last year - I can't blame them at all. That being said, I think we will "show some things". (beat up on the zips and buffs - close win against Troy) in our first 3 games. I think we will be receiving poll votes (not top-25) by the time Michigan week arrives, and there will be hype, excitement, and butterflies, outsiders will notice and that game will have alot of eyes
 
wheat said:
I kinda get the attitude of the NW writer but they barely beat us last year and it's a sign of intellectual laziness to be a football writer for a Big Ten team and not be vaguely aware of the culture/coaching issues at Nebraska last year.

I still think 7 or 8 wins would constitute a good year but I also have a feeling underestimating the Huskers will be a mistake. It's perfectly ok with me if everyone outside the program has low expectations, though.
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It amazes me that some writers look at the win/loss record and assume NU has no talent and from there fire off a prediction. NU's problem last year was not a talent issue but for some reason some writers just don't get that.

We have better talent than Northwestern, but more often than not we got out coached by them. Don't see that as an issue going forward.
 



Warzone said:
Most of the prediction people base the predictions off of returning starters and last year's performance. I remember one year (90s) Washington was ranked #2 or #3 preseason because of the number of returning starters. I believe after three weeks they were 0-3 and not in the top 25.
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I get what you are saying, but if you are giving an example from 30 years ago how that wasn't a good indication, it kind of validates that returning starters coming back from a good team is usually a pretty good indicator of next seasons success. There will always be exceptions, but more often than not it's the rule. Conversely, one of the reasons i'm not as worried about Troy is because they lose everyone. Again, there's always exceptions where the new people come in and are even better. But Phil Steele who has been pretty good at predicting uses it for a reason, experience matters.

Last thing to your point, I do remember one time everyone was super high on UTSA (I think that's who Larry Coker coached for) because they returned everyone. But they were coming off a losing season, so I didn't understand how magically that was a great indicator of them being good the following year. They returned a bunch of mediocre players.
 

Northwestern could be very good this year, and they have the advantage of frequently sneaking up on teams better than they. And that grass field does make a difference. Purdue loses what made it really good last year - a very good defensive line. So time will tell whether they slip or stay where they finished last year.Predictions that each will beat Nebraska are not unrealistic, but cocky predictions are irritating.

But I suspect that fans for each team could say the same thing about their talent -- namely, that their team has more talent than other teams and that all they need is to be coached up. I've always thought talent was less important than how you play the game, but sometimes, there is way too much talent on one team to think it will lose to another. Neither Northwestern nor Purdue are in that category compared with NU.
 
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