FYI......from the folks at the Big Red Network blog....pretty much nails it....
Read more here:
http://bigrednetwork.com/story/new_coaches_on_the_schedule_for_2012/
The early read on the 2012 schedule was that Nebraska was going to be facing a lot of bowl teams. Not only had the Big Ten just sent ten teams to bowl games, but Southern Miss (11-2), Arkansas State (10-2), and UCLA (6-7) all had postseason plans. Now the carryover from last season to next season is far less apparent. The Bruins fired their coach and the Golden Eagles and Red Wolves saw theirs get hired away. Within the conference, Ohio State and Penn State are replacing head coaches which means the Huskers will now face (at least) five coaches in their first year as head man at their school.
For Southern Miss and Arkansas State that's probably a bad thing. The Golden Eagles lost Larry Fedora to North Carolina. The Red Wolves lost Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss. Trying to defend a conference championship is hard enough with the same coach, but adapting to a new one makes it that much more challenging. You could debate whether replacing Paterno is a positive or negative for Penn State (putting aside the horrors that took place there). From a purely football perspective, the Nittany Lions were having a nice season before controversy exploded.
Ohio State seems to clearly have upgraded their head coach. The game in Columbus now just got that much tougher.
You'd still call Nebraska's schedule for next season a very difficult one. Chances are that it will again rank as one of the toughest in the country. But all this coach swapping probably nets out to an easier road than it may have appeared a few weeks ago for NU.
Read more here:
http://bigrednetwork.com/story/new_coaches_on_the_schedule_for_2012/