First to do what many are already thinking about

[Rednu]

I have found that when your friends drink kool aid, it gives you unrealistic expectations. Friends don’t let friends drink and .....

 

[Bleed Red]

Colorado is proving that they are not a good football team. Their 5-0 start was probably the greatest smoke and mirrors job of all time.
Purdue is OK. 7-5 or 6-6. That's nothing that's going to get anyone worried when they see that on a schedule. Colorado would be a 1-2 loss team had they not lost Shenault. Check his numbers, he is their best receiver and runner and certainly legit. Did anyone before the season expect Purdue to have a sniff of the West championship? Northwestern?? Nobody can say they aren't BETTER than preduicted.
Troy is troy.
NW is NW...should have beaten them. Had them beat.

Wisco under performed. Right. And they were one of the beasts that NU was going to play.

Michigan is legit.

OSU isn't the national title type team we thought they were. Nobody can come away from watching their last 2 games thinking this is the OSU team they thought it would be. So teams have to be national title level to be tough?

MSU could finish 7-5. Meh. Not awesome, but i always expected this to be a greater than average chance for NU to win.

Iowa will be decent.

Seems you are interpreting my post to mean that this schedule sucks. It doesn't. But people were wetting themselves for the last 10 months worrying about how much of a killer this schedule was. The only time this 2-7 team has been outclassed is by Michigan. The "big 4/5" of Michigan, WIsco, OSU MSU and Iowa are not as good as people thought overall. That's all I'm saying. And it's entirely true.

So, basically Colorado, Purdue, NW, Michigan are all better than expected....OSU and WI a little down but still good teams....MSU, Troy, Iowa and Illinois about what was expected. I'd say that adds up to a pretty tough schedule...about like was predicted.

 

[wheat]

Gonna have to replace some production at WR, LB, RB, interior OL, and S. It will be interesting to see how the young bucks step up. Losing Morgan, Foster, and Ozigbo hurts a lot.

I'm not too worried about LB. Honas and Barry with Collin Miller and Henrich and/or Hannah should be a step forward. OLB will have Ferguson, Tannor, Dixon and maybe Domann in a hybrid role. It would be nice to find an elite pass rusher for that group in recruiting. On the OL, Jurgens has a good shot to start at center. If Benhart is ready, Farniok could slide to guard. I think Jaimes, Farniok, Bland, Wilson, Jurgens and Benhart give us a good chance to improve significantly at OL next year.

We'll need Mills to be able to step in and play at a high level at RB. Hopefully one of the other frosh RB are ready to go along with Miles to complement Washington.

The spots I am worried about are WR and S. We'll miss Morgan a lot. I was hoping Woodyard and Williams would make a bigger impact. One of those guys have to step up. Darien Chase may play right away and McCaffrey could help at WR but I'm not sure how that will work if he is our #2 QB and that seems at least somewhat likely. Increased receiving ability at TE through McGriff and Legrone could help off set some of that.

There's some young guys at safety. Deontai Williams is really good but has to get the defense down. Cam'ron Jones should be ready to roll along with Domann and a couple of others.

Overall, I think we'll be more talented and deeper next year. The schedule seems manageable but with a lot of tricky games. At Purdue will be a challenge if Brohm is still there.

I'm looking forward to the next three games but am excited for next year, too. I don't want to get expectations too out of whack but there is definitely potential to make the CCG.

 

[Vinosker]

Kool-Aid is a powerful drug.

Don't I know it! Having been born in Hastings, the first beverage to pass through my lips was cherry Koolaid

 

[707194959725]

What I see in that schedule and the improvement shown so far this year is a real good shot at winning the West.
If we go from an 0-6 start one year to playing in the CCG the next year, that's plenty of improvement for me!
Imagine continuing improvement at that rate.

 

[Big Red Shrine]

I am hoping that the Huskers win one of these last three. Two would be exceptional in my book and three would be 2019 coach of the year material in the stuff.

I’m not sure beating 3 teams with a combined 16-11 record (if I read correctly) is COY material. Great progress, yes, but we would have by that point probably beaten 3 I ranked teams.

 

[BubbaGene]

Kool-Aid is a powerful drug.

Some of us have built up quite a tolerance to this drug (and other substances).

 

[bilsker]

So, basically Colorado, Purdue, NW, Michigan are all better than expected....OSU and WI a little down but still good teams....MSU, Troy, Iowa and Illinois about what was expected. I'd say that adds up to a pretty tough schedule...about like was predicted.

Cheese n Rice....I did NOT say it wasn't a "pretty tough" schedule. I said it wasn't the beast it was made out to be.

Fwiw... Colorado sucks. As per expectations.

Purdue...people were saying 8 wins. Probably won't happen.

OSU and wisco..."a little down". That alone makes my point.

 

[CrabHusker]

I'm not diving into 2019 until this season is in the books.

We've got three games left and an entire off season of high jinks to follow.

This will get more and more interesting.

 

[David3464]

Looks like many guys never learn. They put the ‘fan’ in fanatic. Just based on this year and the players we have, there are huge question marks next year at WR, RB, OL, DL, DB, LB’s. That’s a lot. Especially when the defense is still really iffy with everything we’ve seen.

Looking at next year, it looks like a 7 to 8 win season. That would be great progress from this start. I’ll go with 7-5 with a bowl win to finish us at 8-5. Too many variables on defense for me to go much higher until I actually start seeing better play on the field. B1G is won and lost on both lines. We’ve got a long way to go in both, if we’re looking at things realistically compared to other teams we’re playing.

 

[gardenjam]

Looks like many guys never learn. They put the ‘fan’ in fanatic. Just based on this year and the players we have, there are huge question marks next year at WR, RB, OL, DL, DB, LB’s. That’s a lot. Especially when the defense is still really iffy with everything we’ve seen.

Looking at next year, it looks like a 7 to 8 win season. That would be great progress from this start. I’ll go with 7-5 with a bowl win to finish us at 8-5. Too many variables on defense for me to go much higher until I actually start seeing better play on the field. B1G is won and lost on both lines. We’ve got a long way to go in both, if we’re looking at things realistically compared to other teams we’re playing.

I'd be surprised if we had more than 3 regular season losses next year.

 

[NewYorksker]

Kool-Aid is a powerful drug.

You should dilute it a little with vodka

 

[Hville]

Cheese n Rice....I did NOT say it wasn't a "pretty tough" schedule. I said it wasn't the beast it was made out to be.

Fwiw... Colorado sucks. As per expectations.

Purdue...people were saying 8 wins. Probably won't happen.

OSU and wisco..."a little down". That alone makes my point.

You bring out only the opposite outliers. FWIW Colorado has already won more than the original predictors thought. The average pollsters there were predicting our schedule said Purdue would be improved. They are exceeding most schedule expectations. OSU is still ranked 10th and has one loss. Wiscy is down. Northwestern is going to win the West. Iowa is performing better than expected and were ranked till last week.

Yep......we didn't have the 2nd toughest schedule but we are in the top 10 percent. Most people would still call it brutal. Your narrative is its average. Now I know you are going to say "I didn't say it was average" but the bottom line is you used your narrative of it not being as brutal as a negative towards what this team has faced this year as if to say it wasn't that bad. You argued that narrative in the pre-season and you are continuing to argue it in spite of the facts.

Id go on record saying that by the time we end the regular season we will have achieved a tougher SOS that any Nebraska team in the last 30 years and most of those games were on the road so we can use whatever terminology you want but 99% would say its awful tough. Especially since the context of the discussion is based on next years schedule which is a cupcake compared to this one.

 

[Pop Corn]

I’m not sure beating 3 teams with a combined 16-11 record (if I read correctly) is COY material. Great progress, yes, but we would have by that point probably beaten 3 I ranked teams.

Not sure I got the message across that I was trying to convey. What I was trying to imply is that if the Huskers manage to win the last three games this year it would set Frost up for COY next year --- 2019.

 

[NUinID]

You bring out only the opposite outliers. FWIW Colorado has already won more than the original predictors thought. The average pollsters there were predicting our schedule said Purdue would be improved. They are exceeding most schedule expectations. OSU is still ranked 10th and has one loss. Wiscy is down. Northwestern is going to win the West. Iowa is performing better than expected and were ranked till last week.

Yep......we didn't have the 2nd toughest schedule but we are in the top 10 percent. Most people would still call it brutal. Your narrative is its average. Now I know you are going to say "I didn't say it was average" but the bottom line is you used your narrative of it not being as brutal as a negative towards what this team has faced this year as if to say it wasn't that bad. You argued that narrative in the pre-season and you are continuing to argue it in spite of the facts.

Id go on record saying that by the time we end the regular season we will have achieved a tougher SOS that any Nebraska team in the last 30 years and most of those games were on the road so we can use whatever terminology you want but 99% would say its awful tough. Especially since the context of the discussion is based on next years schedule which is a cupcake compared to this one.

good post. Bils like to downplay the schedule but it has been plenty tough. Colorado has not just lost their #1 WR Schenault, but they were missing their top 3 receivers when they played Arizona last week.

I would call the NU schedule this year a grinder of a schedule. We aren't playing OSU, Michigan, Alabama, and Clemson but it is a grind.