Huskers Picked To Finish 4th In B1G West Preseason Poll

[HuskerSuperGenius]

As much as 2019 missed expectations, 2020 could over perform vs. expectations. My rationale:

1. Numbers - don’t overlook the benefit of walkon program. Say you lose a starting LB to injury or Covid, you get a Reimers type to step in.
2. QB - I think Adrian is better than 2018. Right now, after a sophomore slump there isn’t much hype. His poor 2019 was due to a variety of factors, including injury, putting on too much weight and horrendous line play. He should be the best in the West. And to reiterate, the line will be light years ahead. Even with an injury/infection or two, we have very good depth there. Which leads to...
3 Offensive line - I am a big believer than you build a team from the line out. We have a solid, and deep OL (back to numbers).
4. Receivers/TE - even though we lost Spielman my hunch is we are better and deeper than in the past. TE FOR SURE will be better given everyone is back + Vokolek. For the first time in a while we will have solid “bid body” WRs.
5. Linebacker - seriously, LB play can only go up.
6. Secondary - very solid returning pieces and lots of depth.
7. Defensive line - here is where I differ from others. While we will take a 1/2 step back on the starting DL, the starters have been in the program for a long time. They are serviceable. What makes this unit comparable to a slightly better is the depth and a rotation. Given the way we play offense you have to rotate your DL in and I think this will help should we play a reasonably full complement of games this year
8. Special teams - this will be 180 degrees better, even losing Spielman. This assumes our Aussie punter can arrive. The uptick is a variety of factors - new, fresh outlook/coaching. Much better pieces/parts in terms of punters/kickers. More depth to actually block on punt returns and kickoffs as well as cover.
9. Schedule - somehow I think long flights to the east coast will get scrapped. Our 10 (more likely 8) game season may be focused on playing on divisional games. I will be so bold as to say the furthest east type teams (PSU, Rutgers, Maryland) don’t play the furthest west teams to shorten up flights. Give me 2 servings of IA with a new QB and I think we win 2. Give me 2 servings of Wisconsin and we win 1.

Maybe it’s August koolaide but I think we over perform. And last year I thought we’d under perform the hype, though no where near to the point we did.

First, yeah its Koolaide until we start to do things better than we have the last three years.

And second, does anyone other than me long for the days when we didnt really worry about the other teams, we just worried about being Nebraska? I really miss those days .

GBR

 

[Stuck in the South]

First, yeah its Koolaide until we start to do things better than we have the last three years.

And second, does anyone other than me long for the days when we didnt really worry about the other teams, we just worried about being Nebraska? I really miss those days .

GBR

well, maybe I kept a sideways glance at the Sooners, but agree.

 

[EastOfEden]

We are a middle of the pack team without any star players. Our decorated coaching staff has not produced yet. When we recruit what looks like superior talent, we either (a) cant keep them on campus, out of trouble and eligible, or (b) can't develop them. If QB is a good test, we are way too reluctant to move to a different player once one player has been tagged with first team credentials. Our play calling is unimaginative. Special teams is hit and miss.

So yeah, fourth is a bit of a reach but maybe we can get there this year. I hope so, and I hope that we do have players who become stars and our coaching staff shines brightly and we always play the best player at the position and we dazzle in our play calling and special teams click like clock work and we keep and develop the players' talents I hope so. But it's only hope at this point.

 

[ShortSideOption]

4th is definitely warranted. But that would be a disappointment in my books. We had kids here longer than most other schools, time to capitalize.

 

[ShortSideOption]

Do these rankings compensate for our inability to retain these recruits? Again, this can be laid at the feet of our coaching staff's inability to assess our recruit's character. But are these really top 20 recruiting classes if a third of them are gone within 2 years.

This will help... 2020 isn't out yet:

2019 College Football Team Talent Composite

In order to create the most comprehensive Team Recruiting Ranking without any notion of bias, 247Sports Team Recruiting Ranking is solely based on the 247Sports Composite Rating.

247sports.com

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

4th is definitely warranted. But that would be a disappointment in my books. We had kids here longer than most other schools, time to capitalize.

I do think this is the year to get over the Iowa hump. Will we? I don't know. Will the game be played? I don't know. But this seems as good of opportunity as any in recent years to be better than Iowa.

3rd in the division is a reasonable expectation. Wisconsin is the safest pick to win the division.

EDIT: I also wouldn't be surprised if a team like Purdue or Northwestern is a surprise team and ends up competing for the #2-#3 spot in the division.

Anyhow, it still feels strange making predictions with all of the unknowns. We don't know the schedule yet. We assume (probably?) the season will at least start. But will it finish? Or if it does, will there be weeks when teams are playing a bunch of backups due to positive tests? It's unbelievably unpredictable. Would be nice if we could use a normal football season as the baseline and make predictions from there.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I do think this is the year to get over the Iowa hump. Will we? I don't know. Will the game be played? I don't know. But this seems as good of opportunity as any in recent years to be better than Iowa.

3rd in the division is a reasonable expectation. Wisconsin is the safest pick to win the division.

Anyhow, it still feels strange making predictions with all of the unknowns. We don't know the schedule yet. We assume (probably?) the season will at least start. But will it finish? Or if it does, will there be weeks when teams are playing a bunch of backups due to positive tests? It's unbelievably unpredictable. Would be nice if we could use a normal football season as the baseline and make predictions from there.

Ya, I mean our coaches don't even really know what we have with how little spring has been and voluntary workouts. Stability will probably be the biggest factor for who does what which is why Wisconsin is probably the safest bet.

 

[HuskerWeatherman]

Ya, I mean our coaches don't even really know what we have with how little spring has been and voluntary workouts. Stability will probably be the biggest factor for who does what which is why Wisconsin is probably the safest bet.

True.

Wisconsin should be absolutely loaded on defense -- that's a great starting point. Jack Coan is a better-than-average Wisconsin quarterback. And as valuable as Jonathan Taylor was, they always plug in a solid running back.

Ranking Big Ten teams by number of returning starters in 2020

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247sports.com

According to the above article, Purdue has the most returning starters in the Big Ten. Maybe they are a darkhorse team that surprises. Their weakness is the fact that Diaco hasn't had time to install his system on defense.

 

[WestTexasHusker]

I rate us at #11 in the Big 14.

 

[Brodeboy87]

At this point in time 4th is fair and I totally understand it.

That said, the only West team with whom I see a big gap is Wisconsin. Iowa lost a number of key players, including a multi-year starter at QB and an All-American Defensive Lineman, from a team that beat us on a last-second field goal last year (and the year before). Minnesota caught lightning in a bottle last year, but they lose one of their top two WRs, two of their top three RBs, and virtually all of their front seven on defense. If - and this is always a big if with NU - the team can get its act together, we are very capable of beating both of those teams. The problem is we have also demonstrated that we are very capable of losing to Purdue and Northwestern.

In theory, every part of our offense should be better and deeper this year... QB, RB, WR, TE, and O-Line. Defense is where it gets tricky. DB play should be comparable to last season, but it's hard to say we will be better without Lamar Jackson. At LB, the temptation is to say that it can't be much worse than it was last year. If we can get even average (for the Big 10) play at LB, that would be a huge improvement. D-Line is the one position on the team that is probably trending down right now after the loss of three starters who are all in NFL camps. Special teams has to be better, right? We were brutal last year on kickoff coverage, kickoff returns, punt returns, and place kicking.

 

[Brodeboy87]

At this point in time 4th is fair and I totally understand it.

That said, the only West team with whom I see a big gap is Wisconsin. Iowa lost a number of key players, including a multi-year starter at QB and an All-American Defensive Lineman, from a team that beat us on a last-second field goal last year (and the year before). Minnesota caught lightning in a bottle last year, but they lose one of their top two WRs, two of their top three RBs, and virtually all of their front seven on defense. If - and this is always a big if with NU - the team can get its act together, we are very capable of beating both of those teams. The problem is we have also demonstrated that we are very capable of losing to Purdue and Northwestern.

In theory, every part of our offense should be better and deeper this year... QB, RB, WR, TE, and O-Line. Defense is where it gets tricky. DB play should be comparable to last season, but it's hard to say we will be better without Lamar Jackson. At LB, the temptation is to say that it can't be much worse than it was last year. If we can get even average (for the Big 10) play at LB, that would be a huge improvement. D-Line is the one position on the team that is probably trending down right now after the loss of three starters who are all in NFL camps. Special teams has to be better, right? We were brutal last year on kickoff coverage, kickoff returns, punt returns, and place kicking.

100% agree......I don't see a drop off from our secondary play at all..in fact I see us more physical this year. Lamar Jackson wasn't drafted for a reason....too many red flags especially when it came to physicality in the run game and when he got beat by a half step....tended to be grabby....anyways...GBR

 

[ShortSideOption]

True.

Wisconsin should be absolutely loaded on defense -- that's a great starting point. Jack Coan is a better-than-average Wisconsin quarterback. And as valuable as Jonathan Taylor was, they always plug in a solid running back.

Ranking Big Ten teams by number of returning starters in 2020

...

247sports.com

According to the above article, Purdue has the most returning starters in the Big Ten. Maybe they are a darkhorse team that surprises. Their weakness is the fact that Diaco hasn't had time to install his system on defense.

I'll be interested to see what happens against Purdue. They didn't get the spring to install Diaco's horrific defense. What if they shut us down a bit? Nebraska fans heads will explode lol.