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Athlon - Will Nebraska Make a Bowl Game in Scott Frost's First Season?


I'd put us right on the fence.

We have more raw talent (on paper) than Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois, Akron, NW, and Troy (though they have good speed and are crazy athletic). However, these teams have had more time to install their systems and a few of the coaches are decent. We may also lose some of that talent we have with summer attrition.

5 teams-OSU, Wisconsin, Colorado, Troy, Iowa-will contend for their division or conference title, and I could probably throw the Michigan teams in there too.

The BIG West has some teams on the upswing that Frost will run over in time, but this year will prove tougher than some think. I say we squeak in at 7-5, which will be huge because of the extra month of practice we get.
 



I read this article two weeks ago and felt pretty strong that they were on point. And they probably still are. The spring game gave me a better feeling. I know this is all hypothetics but I think this team at this point would kick the crap out of last years team at its best point. That being said......the schedule works against us this year where as last year it worked in our favor and we still got blown out in a large part of the games. We absolutely can't have a hiccup in the pre-season or against Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois and Northwestern. Those are the games we have to play our best because we out talent each of them. Then we hope to have some upsets against the other 5 ......albeit I'm not sure Iowa would qualify as an upset if we are already at 7 or 8 wins.
 
Their number is 6, by and large, which is the number I ended up with a couple of months ago, I didn't see anything in the spring game that changes my mind. In fact, watching the OSU/MSU/BSU spring games, I thought our team looked undersized and slow, at least compared with those teams. Not only did we not look strong, we just don't tackle solidly and are not agile on blocking (except at the WR positions where they continue to block well).

I continue to think we will be lucky to go undefeated in our non conference schedule (which as Athlon says is pretty tough). Remember, we will be rolling the new car onto the track without any races in place and I don't think it will yet be finely tuned. If we lose one of the three in nonconference play, we have to find 4 wins in the very hard conference schedule. Of course, my pessimism, if you want to call it that, is based in part on the belief that we do not have talent better than most of the teams in the conference. I've never bought the board's argument that we do. Who knows - SF and coaches may prove me wrong.

My hope is for 8 wins, my expectation is for 6 wins.
 
This team has more raw talent than every team on the schedule outside of OSU, Michigan and possibly MSU. The only question is how fast SF can make them into winners. Last years team did not field 4-8 talent. This years team will not either.
 




I just really, really hope Vegas comes up with a total wins over/under of 7 or less.

Cha-ching.
 
We have a tough schedule. We will play many capable teams. Predictions are inevitable, but football seasons happen in present time. I will experience the season the same way as the coaches and players...one game at a time, believing we will have a chance to win every game we play.

SF says we will be really good in year #2, and most folks think year 2 is when SF will make his move. But we have a 2018 season to play, and I see no value in conceding a loss to any team.
 
Last edited:
BigRedAvenger said:
This team has more raw talent than every team on the schedule outside of OSU, Michigan and possibly MSU. The only question is how fast SF can make them into winners. Last years team did not field 4-8 talent. This years team will not either.
Click to expand...
I agree with this post along with a disclaimer. Raw talent is one way of putting it because the talent we have was better out of high school but largely went undeveloped relative to our competition. There is a reason young players like Spielman looked so good and players like Morgan, Pierson Els, Wilbon, OZ and the entire offensive line never seemed to perform any better as they grew older.

So the question is......how quickly can they catch those three years up. How much catch up do they need to beat the likes of Northwestern, Iowa and Purdue, Colorado yet alone Wisconsin, Michigan or Michigan State. I think we are going to see that gap closing this year but its possible it won't be enough to beat all of that first group but its also possible its enough to beat all of the first group and maybe nibble a win or two away from the second.
 




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