2012 schedule W/L

I don't see a team on the schedule that we can't beat, but with that said there are 5 games that we could come out flat against & get pounded.

 
IF we can fix the mental mistakes we saw last year ie drops, poor tackling and blocking and everything else stays the same (production, rushing etc) we are at least 2 games better than last year.

We were in the UM game until we mentally collapsed. I also think we were in the Wisky game until Beck went all George Sieffert and started calling plays like Martinez was Joe Montana. NW, the D completely failed us. The O was on all day. It wasn't our lack of athleticism, it was our mental breakdowns and poor coaching. ie Beck admitting he was stubborn.

I really think that Bo will have worked to find a way to stop the likes of Miller and Robinson. He found a way to make the spread offenses in the BigXII tame. I really think the physicality and the speed (of the slow B1G) caught him and the rest of the staff asleep at the wheel.

A better defensive secondary will allow a lot more flexibility for Bo's schemes. Paps and Joseph both wanting to blitz more is a good thing. A defensive line that wants to attack for a change is a good thing. A improved Martinez (healthy and otherwise) is a good thing. Marrow and Cross (I hope) to spell Rex is a good thing. The new mentality of the team, as spoken about by Rex, will help. No more roller coaster, be ready for every game.

We are under the radar this year. We might just surprise some folks. Bottom line, 10-2 is obtainable, unfortunately so is 8-4.

 
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KC Cowboy said:
Can't believe someone hasn't predicted this yet, but our only two losses will be back to back, at Ohio St. and Wisky at home. Bo will have his linebackers corralling shoelaces, and heaven knows he can't throw those jump balls all game.
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Losing our first two conference games would be demoralizing. I don't know if the team is mentally tough enough to bounce back from that. I do think we'll have 2 losses this year and those two losses will be between OSU, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Your scenario is probably the best because winning that head to head against Michigan will be paramount to entering the Big Ten Championship game, given their easier conference schedule. But again, it worries me that they aren't mentally tough enough to bounce back from something like that.

 
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Bucky said:
BIGREDIOWAN said:
Bucky said:
I stopped reading here.

BIGREDIOWAN said:
Sept 29th: Wisky at NU (Win) Mainly because of questions at ... their offensive line
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:lol: You have some questions that need to be answered on the offensive side, but the same could be said for last season on some level and look how that turned out. I think it's going to be Wisky and Michigan in the Big 10 Championship and only because Ohio State can't be there. Obviously I think Michigan takes it all............
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Questions on the offensive side? Undeniable.

On the offensive line? Never.

We don't rebuild, we just go to the cow-pastures and throw a jersey at the next 6'7" 320lb kid. :D
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Hey, that was our motto when we won national championships. I guess it is now your team's motto and you are winning...a respectable amount of games. :)

 
opened this thread and koolaid drained out the bottom of my laptop. amusing how 7 months of offseason can change perception so drastically. the tone was very different in january/february. T-Mart in California must have been the deciding factor for most of you huh. i guess time heals all wounds, or at least clouds exposed/recurring deficiencies.

 
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Southern Miss - Win --- not easy, but a solid win

UCLA - Win --- here is a tough call --- close game

Arkansas State - Win

Idaho State - Win

Wisconsin - loss --- may be close... but, probably not that close

Ohio State- Loss --- may be close... but, probably not that close

Northwestern - Win

Michigan - Loss --- not close

Michigan State- loss --- but close

Penn State- Win

Minnesota - Win

Iowa - Win

this has us at 8-4 regular season... and at 4-4 in conference --- this seems most probable at this point. The next most plausible scenario is a surprise win over say Wisconsin or Michigan State and end up at 9-3 (5-3) --- but that may as well be canceled out by a surprise loss (we have one most years) to someone we should beat... returning us to 8-4.

So... 8-4 or, perhaps 9-3. better than 9-3 is really, really unlikely. Worse than 8-4 is somewhat unlikely.

an 8-4 along the lines I predict would place NU 3rd in division and 5th in conference --- and place us on the bubble of being ranked going into the bowl season (between 22-28 or so nationally).

 
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.

 
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Southern Miss - I don't know. Maybe a win

UCLA - Could be as difficult as the South Carolina bowl game. No way to predict this.

Arkansas State - probably a win, but if we haven't gotten all our kinks worked out, a close win

Idaho State - the only game I see a near-guarantee of the backups playing significant minutes

Wisconsin - If we slow down Ball, we have a chance. If he rushes for 150 yards, we don't win this game.

Ohio State - The Shoe is as intimidating a place to play as there is in the B1G. Urban will have these guys ready to play. More than likely a loss.

Northwestern - We suck at "revenge games." Who knows if we can corral Kolter. Tossup.

Michigan - Most likely a loss. Hoke has these guys ready to go every single game. We could win if Coach Kaz brings his magic to Lincoln, but it's a tall order.

Michigan State - This will be a grinder, and will test our endurance. The fifth straight very difficult game, on the road. Could be a mirror image of last year's game in Lincoln.

Penn State - Win. Shouldn't be all that hard, unless we have a big hangover from Sparty.

Minnesota - Win. Slow Gray down and this shouldn't be much of a contest.

Iowa - Unless Vandenberg suddenly developed track-star speed in the offseason, this will be another win. Immobile QBs wither and die in front of Bo's defense.

Big Ten Championship - depends on how we do in tossup games. Even if we make it, can we get over our Big Game hump? Wouldn't dream of predicting a berth here, let alone a win.

Bowl Game - I have no doubt we'll go to a bowl. We'll have at least three wins in our non-con, and we'll sweep Penn State, Minnesota and Iowa. Who/where we'll play is anyone's guess, and which Husker team shows up is a complete mystery.

 
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
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This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.

 
knapplc said:
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
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This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.
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knapplc said:
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
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This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.
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the point about the NU offense being rather easy to prepare for is seemingly legit. The NU offense is quite predictable and is very personnel package dependent. This is a problem. Another potential problem is what an ex-Washington defensive player told me in a hotel after our bowl loss to Washington --- and that was that they (the UW defense) were convinced that once Martinez was hit hard in a game, his performance from that point forward was diminished (he would be hesitant, shaky, lose his timing, etc.).

To the point. Wisconsin is well coached defensively, is disciplined and physical on both sides of the ball. They have the perfect mix for an anti-NU machine. The Huskers will have a real hard time even hanging close to Wisconsin. If the two teams this year played 10 times, I'd predict the Badgers win 8 of them. Our O will struggle against them and their O will ground and pound us to death.

 
robsker said:
knapplc said:
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
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This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.
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knapplc said:
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
Click to expand...
This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.
Click to expand...
the point about the NU offense being rather easy to prepare for is seemingly legit. The NU offense is quite predictable and is very personnel package dependent. This is a problem. Another potential problem is what an ex-Washington defensive player told me in a hotel after our bowl loss to Washington --- and that was that they (the UW defense) were convinced that once Martinez was hit hard in a game, his performance from that point forward was diminished (he would be hesitant, shaky, lose his timing, etc.).

To the point. Wisconsin is well coached defensively, is disciplined and physical on both sides of the ball. They have the perfect mix for an anti-NU machine. The Huskers will have a real hard time even hanging close to Wisconsin. If the two teams this year played 10 times, I'd predict the Badgers win 8 of them. Our O will struggle against them and their O will ground and pound us to death.
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Our players admitted to not even knowing what was going on offensively during most of the year, not knowing what the game plan was. Lots of comments about not knowing where to line up or what their assignment was. I think you guys are being a little unrealistic thinking we can totally change our offense and not go through some growing pains. Your not even accounting for that. Most of these guys have never played in the same offense for more then one season. Thinking things are going to be the same as last year is shortsided. They were jamming this offense down the players throats this time last year. This year they can work on the details of the offense, getting lots of reps...reps reps and more reps, and they had all off season to study and watch film. Last year they were just trying to line up right and run the right basic play. Beck said they had to be pretty basic last year.

Couple that with playing a new team every week, and not knowing how they were going to defend us, Im shocked we won 9 games.

 
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I love how other teams can just reload the best Qbs they have ever had, or reload 1st round lineman, record setting WRs, but when we lose players theres no way we can replace them.

Comes from paying more attention to our team. If you go on a Wisky board or Michigan board they are the same way, they are nervous as well.

 
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knapplc said:
HuskerFowler said:
Wisconsin and Michigan St will not be that good this year. Michigan St will be better of the 2 because of their D. They dont recruit well enough to be able to reload what they lost. Wisconsin will struggle. Some Michigan fans are worried they lost too much to be as good as last year.
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This is all well and good about Wisconsin, but they beat us easily last year. Remember their defense saying how the Husker game was the easiest offense they had prepared for all year? They ran four base sets and shut us down. We will have to be FAR better to beat these guys. They won't drop off much, they'll have five road-graders up front and Ball bursting through the holes they create. Our linebackers will have to be spot on every time and not get suckered by misdirection.

Wiscy will be doing what they've always done in this game. We'll still be developing our methods. There's a lot to be said about the consistency they'll come in with.
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I'm not quite so easily convinced. I'm sure there are elements of truth to this - we had a bunch of freshmen and sophomores on the field in only their fifth game in a new system so I'm sure we didn't have a full package - but we had over 200 yards of offense in the first half and were leading with two minutes to go. Not that we were a Juggernaut by any stretch but it's pretty easy after the fact to say things like this. It wasn't until the turnovers cropped up and we got out of our game that the tide turned (and in a hurry).

Not that we don't have to get better but we were far from physically outclassed.

 
Southern Miss - Win

UCLA - Win

Arkansas State - Win

Idaho State - Win

Wisconsin - Win/Loss but leaning towards win.

Ohio State - Loss

Northwestern - Win/Loss but leaning towards loss.

Michigan - Loss

Michigan State- Loss

Penn State- Win

Minnesota - Win

Iowa - Win

8-4

If there are actually Pelini haters out there I expect them to be vocal in October.

 
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