Why Is Everyone Predicting A Mediocre 2017 Season for Nebraska football?

[Scratchtown]

So we are an unknown, and unknown equals mediocre in the preseason. It's fair considering previous results from our team. There isn't much reason for pundits to have faith in an unknown husker team.

Really???
We have lost 6 games or more 4 times in the last 2.5 decades.

I'm not down on us but we haven't shown that we can just bounce back and reload. We've been barely above average and with the now unknowns it's easy to see why they are predicting a drop off. Honestly I think the change in personel has us primed for a breakout this season. But I can understand pundits seeing a decline rather than a breakout if you just gloss over our roster and who've we've lost. I don't think that is accurate and I could really see us being a huge surprise, and I don't mind that.

Well...those "pundits" are lazy then and just pulling crap that easy out of their back sides.

The biggest change in personnel on the team is behind center at QB. I don't believe I have read a report from a QB camp that Lee has been to even before he became a Husker that doesn't have people ranting about his talent throwing the ball. He is also tailer made for this system.

Now, I don't expect these people to all of a sudden predict we are going to win the conference. But, like I said earlier, predicting a 9-10 win season doesn't produce clicks for these articles. The radical thing to do is to predict the former juggernaut is in the tank and not going to recover.

In other words, these types of predictions are based on what is going to make the media money. Not on reality that is recognized by actually researching something.

They are lazy and it is definitely a flavor of the month mentality in the CFB world. Who are 2 of the hot coaches right now, PJ Fleck and Willie Taggart. They are going to completely reinvent their new teams and be contending for a conference championship. Nebraska plays them so naturally Nebraska is going to lose to them.

I really don't know how many games NU will win, but I will be disappointed if they win less than 8. Phil Steele has NU winning 8, which doesn't really mean much to me. He has NU losing to Wisconsin, OSU, PSU and Oregon which is pretty low hanging fruit. He is really high on Oregon turning it around.

Of those 4 the only team I feel pretty certain of a loss to is OSU. In my mind the other 3 are toss ups at this point.

Wisconsin will be good, but not any better than they have been. I like are chances at home against them. Oregon will be better, but who knows how much better I am thinking 7-5 better. I have said this for a long time about PSU. They had a great year last year and everything went their way. I just want to see them do it again.

Hey I may be selling them short against OSU. You never know.

You realize that Phil Steele is literally the ONLY person you should listen to if you are going to buy into preseason progs, right?

Any betting or predicting you or anyone does, should take Phil Steele's info VERY seriously.

 

[NUinID]

So we are an unknown, and unknown equals mediocre in the preseason. It's fair considering previous results from our team. There isn't much reason for pundits to have faith in an unknown husker team.

Really???
We have lost 6 games or more 4 times in the last 2.5 decades.

I'm not down on us but we haven't shown that we can just bounce back and reload. We've been barely above average and with the now unknowns it's easy to see why they are predicting a drop off. Honestly I think the change in personel has us primed for a breakout this season. But I can understand pundits seeing a decline rather than a breakout if you just gloss over our roster and who've we've lost. I don't think that is accurate and I could really see us being a huge surprise, and I don't mind that.

Well...those "pundits" are lazy then and just pulling crap that easy out of their back sides.

The biggest change in personnel on the team is behind center at QB. I don't believe I have read a report from a QB camp that Lee has been to even before he became a Husker that doesn't have people ranting about his talent throwing the ball. He is also tailer made for this system.

Now, I don't expect these people to all of a sudden predict we are going to win the conference. But, like I said earlier, predicting a 9-10 win season doesn't produce clicks for these articles. The radical thing to do is to predict the former juggernaut is in the tank and not going to recover.

In other words, these types of predictions are based on what is going to make the media money. Not on reality that is recognized by actually researching something.

They are lazy and it is definitely a flavor of the month mentality in the CFB world. Who are 2 of the hot coaches right now, PJ Fleck and Willie Taggart. They are going to completely reinvent their new teams and be contending for a conference championship. Nebraska plays them so naturally Nebraska is going to lose to them.

I really don't know how many games NU will win, but I will be disappointed if they win less than 8. Phil Steele has NU winning 8, which doesn't really mean much to me. He has NU losing to Wisconsin, OSU, PSU and Oregon which is pretty low hanging fruit. He is really high on Oregon turning it around.

Of those 4 the only team I feel pretty certain of a loss to is OSU. In my mind the other 3 are toss ups at this point.

Wisconsin will be good, but not any better than they have been. I like are chances at home against them. Oregon will be better, but who knows how much better I am thinking 7-5 better. I have said this for a long time about PSU. They had a great year last year and everything went their way. I just want to see them do it again.

Hey I may be selling them short against OSU. You never know.

You realize that Phil Steele is literally the ONLY person you should listen to if you are going to buy into preseason progs, right?

Any betting or predicting you or anyone does, should take Phil Steele's info VERY seriously.

Of coarse you love Phil, he is very high on Oregon this year.

Anyway, I don't really read any of the preseason mags other than the Husker Illistrated one. I know Phil is a guru, I am just not a huge stat guy, and his print is too small. I know he is right a lot of the time, but he is also wrong sometimes. Like I said his 8-4 prediction probably a pretty good one. It is definitely better than some mags. It is a realistic prediction.

 

[Red_Payne]

I don't think these pundits are "lazy;" I just think they have to make predictions for over 100 teams, so they are not going to go into depth regarding every position change for every team.

They (for the most part) are CFB pundits, not NU football pundits. The biggest thing they see regarding NU is that we are losing a 4 year starter who is NU's #1 passer in yards, TD passes, completions, and total offense. That, alone, would lead one to think that we are losing a MAJOR piece to our offense; however, I doubt they realize (or even cared to research; considering they have to get to 120+ more teams) that he didn't exactly fit Reilly's offensive scheme, and he was often prone to making bad decisions as a passer and wasn't exactly an overly accurate QB.

We are also switching Defensive schemes, which usually doesn't lead one to believe that your players will perform better, having to learn a new system. Many reasons for a non-NU fan to believe we will have a mediocre, or even bad season. However, I think many of the changes will improve this team, and I expect at least 8 wins; which, with all things considered, would be a good season in my eyes, as long as we are not getting blown out in any games (although a 21 point loss to OSU wouldn't make me cringe too hard, in all honesty).

 

[GBRFAN]

So we are an unknown, and unknown equals mediocre in the preseason. It's fair considering previous results from our team. There isn't much reason for pundits to have faith in an unknown husker team.

Really???
We have lost 6 games or more 4 times in the last 2.5 decades.

I'm not down on us but we haven't shown that we can just bounce back and reload. We've been barely above average and with the now unknowns it's easy to see why they are predicting a drop off. Honestly I think the change in personel has us primed for a breakout this season. But I can understand pundits seeing a decline rather than a breakout if you just gloss over our roster and who've we've lost. I don't think that is accurate and I could really see us being a huge surprise, and I don't mind that.

Well...those "pundits" are lazy then and just pulling crap that easy out of their back sides.

The biggest change in personnel on the team is behind center at QB. I don't believe I have read a report from a QB camp that Lee has been to even before he became a Husker that doesn't have people ranting about his talent throwing the ball. He is also tailer made for this system.

Now, I don't expect these people to all of a sudden predict we are going to win the conference. But, like I said earlier, predicting a 9-10 win season doesn't produce clicks for these articles. The radical thing to do is to predict the former juggernaut is in the tank and not going to recover.

In other words, these types of predictions are based on what is going to make the media money. Not on reality that is recognized by actually researching something.

Yes, but a lot of Vegas sites are putting the O/U for wins at around 7. They tend to know their stuff and that scares me.

it is actually 7.5 and with the juice going strong at NU it equates to much closer to 8.

 

[Blackshirt316]

Phil Steele also picked Oregon as his suprise breakout team... for LAST season. How did that work out?

He had some hits with Miami, Washington and Louisville.. but well duh.

He also had Iowa, Ole Miss, Baylor, TCU and Miami as breakout teams last season.

He also said the Pac 12 wouldn't make the cfb playoffs because both Alabama and LSU would get in jumping the P12 champ.

 

[84HuskerLaw]

I think the question posed in this discussion is a good one in some ways. One possible explanation is the 'herd' mentality that often pervades the sports realm with most pundits tending to stay within some general reach of the pack. Very few will go way out on a limb and offer radically different opinions across the broad base of teams and prognostications, etc. Sure, they will have their one or two 'dark horses' or even one Cinderella type team thrown in just to be a tad different and get the conversation going. But, on balance, there is a general concensus of opinion which is rarely all that accurate, save for those handful of the 'elites' which almost anyone who pays any attention can fairly safely predict. We all know the Bama, Ohio States, etc.

To get back to 'why Nebraska is so disregarded'? I think you can certainly consider that the Big Ten, top to bottom, is the BEST conference, haing overtaken the mighty SEC in my view. This in turn means our schedule is very challenging and would be for all but the very best teams. As already mentioned, we have not been great for a long time and good has been intermittent and all too infrequent for a LONG time. The bottom line is now that Nebraska can only win the hearts and minds of the pundits as well as many CFB fans generally by going out on the field and winning games. As we saw last year, there is a great deal of Husker support beneath the surface out there across the country. We go 7-0 and we're in the top ten and frankly we didn't have to roll over a bunch of folks to get there. Just win baby!

I remain optimistic about this fall and think 10 wins is quite attainable but ONLY if we remain exceptionally healthy and we don't lose the rest of our receiving corpse to drug busts or something. There are many other teams in similar position, although the lack of depth is perhaps less acute than at NU. In my view, barring injury to QBs, we should be BETTER at that position on balance, although we will clearly lack that 'something out of nothing' playmaking we've had for so many years. Arguably, our QBs will have more 'make something good out of something' consistantly. Realistically, our running back QBs have had as many nothing out of something plays as the contrary. There is every reason to believe our special teams will be much improved (can't be much worse in many ways) and our defense has the chance to become more aggressive and athletic. We MUST have a pass rush unlike anything since Suh left. The back seven should be OK.

Our RBs and TEs have the necessary talent to play ''good' football, although none appear to be game changers. It may turn out that we have a 'no name' offense and no name defense and the special teams make the biggest splash. Assuming this team has heart and never quits, we should win no less than 9 and could find our way into the Big Ten title game, preferably not replaying those dame Buckeyes. Reality is that we might pull off the upset of the year vs OSU once, but twice seems beyond reach of any vivid imaginations.

 

[suh_fan93]

 

[Hunter94]

Plenty of unknowns, for sure, but I feel better at almost every position than last season. Sue me.

i feel better too, but we are missing experience, that's the biggest issue.......these guys could be good........next year.

 

[Mavric]

I love it when teams like Wisconsin and Michigan State, both of whom recruit lower rated classes than us, just 'reload' on both sides of the ball...but when it comes for us to do that...even though we have higher ranked talent...no one in the media thinks we'll do it.

Athlon picks Michigan State to be 4-5 in conference and 6-6 overall so they're not exactly high on them either.

Wisconsin returns 8 starters on offense so they're not having to reload. And they return about six starters on defense and they've been able to maintain a pretty good defense for quite a few years.

So I don't think your comparison really means much.

 

[Hoosker]

I think people are sleeping on Tanner Lee. Obviously there are other factors at play, but he's a major unknown, even to a lot of Husker fans.

He could be the next Sam Keller. He could be the next Zac Taylor.

I tend to lean more towards Zac Taylor, but I've been drinking Kool-Aid since birth.

Nothing to do but wait and see, unfortunately.

And I love how people just assume that the defense will take a step back because we're shifting schemes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we just spent another offseason trimming the fat and hired a top shelf DC in his place.

I know the scheme change won't be a seamless transition by any means, but I don't think we're going to suffer like the national guys say we will.

Oregon should tell us quite a bit about how good of a fit Bob Diaco is at Nebraska.

 

[southernoregonhusker]

I think people are sleeping on Tanner Lee. Obviously there are other factors at play, but he's a major unknown, even to a lot of Husker fans.

He could be the next Sam Keller. He could be the next Zac Taylor.

I tend to lean more towards Zac Taylor, but I've been drinking Kool-Aid since birth.

Nothing to do but wait and see, unfortunately.

And I love how people just assume that the defense will take a step back because we're shifting schemes.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but we just spent another offseason trimming the fat and hired a top shelf DC in his place.

I know the scheme change won't be a seamless transition by any means, but I don't think we're going to suffer like the national guys say we will.

Oregon should tell us quite a bit about how good of a fit Bob Diaco is at Nebraska.

Oregon will go through their own growing pains with a new staff and system.

 

[Saunders]

Phil Steele also picked Oregon as his suprise breakout team... for LAST season. How did that work out?

He had some hits with Miami, Washington and Louisville.. but well duh.

He also had Iowa, Ole Miss, Baylor, TCU and Miami as breakout teams last season.

He also said the Pac 12 wouldn't make the cfb playoffs because both Alabama and LSU would get in jumping the P12 champ.

Steele predicted Oregon to finish unranked and had them slotted 3rd in their division.

Iowa was predicted the consensus Big West winner, with Nebraska 2nd, and Wisconsin 3rd. Everyone got that wrong.

 

[NM11046]

Give me underrated heading into a season all day long. I like the ability to impress and prove people wrong much more than being ranked highly and being a disappointment. Use it as motivation.

 

[Saunders]

I love it when teams like Wisconsin and Michigan State, both of whom recruit lower rated classes than us, just 'reload' on both sides of the ball...but when it comes for us to do that...even though we have higher ranked talent...no one in the media thinks we'll do it.

Athlon picks Michigan State to be 4-5 in conference and 6-6 overall so they're not exactly high on them either.

Wisconsin returns 8 starters on offense so they're not having to reload. And they return about six starters on defense and they've been able to maintain a pretty good defense for quite a few years.

So I don't think your comparison really means much.

Wisconsin's offense was pretty bad last year, and defense was pretty good (duh). I think the offense will get a bit better, while the defense regresses with the loss of guys like TJ Watt and D.C. Dave Aranda. The new D.C. Jim Leonard was an AA Safety at Wisconsin, but he's only been coaching for a couple years, so a dropoff is almost assured.

 

[Saunders]

Give me underrated heading into a season all day long. I like the ability to impress and prove people wrong much more than being ranked highly and being a disappointment. Use it as motivation.

That's my hope!