Mavric
Yoda
Just for reference, after starting 4-0 last year, we were 19th and 21st in the two polls after starting 22nd in both. 15th is probably too high - Right around 20 again I would think.
Athlon Sports: Setting First-Year Expectations for Nebraska's Mike Riley
- Thread starter Saunders
- Start date
alwayshusking
New member
Probably would depend on how we look in the 4 games. Last year we had to escape against McNeese, which stuck in voters' minds.
Saunders
Administrator
Yup. IIRC, it was also the first time in the AP poll where a team won, and dropped out of the poll.
JJ Husker
Donor
I went with 10 wins. I don't think 11 is out of the question and 9 would appear to be the low end.
The games that aren't gimmes- BYU, Miami, Wiscy, Minny, & MSU.....I think we probably drop 2 of those just because I have been conditioned to expect mediocrity over the last 15 years but, with just a few sips of the Kool-Aid, I can also see winning all of them. There are no world beaters on our regular season schedule. The only excuse for not winning all of them would be that we have a new staff and it understandably may take some time to implement all the required changes and most importantly to flush out the bunker mentality instilled by the previous regime. My hopes and expectations are high but judgment will come from the product, effort, and mentality we place on the field, not from the W-L record. Even just losing in a more respectable fashion would be enough improvement for year one in my book but I really anticipate much more than that.
The games that aren't gimmes- BYU, Miami, Wiscy, Minny, & MSU.....I think we probably drop 2 of those just because I have been conditioned to expect mediocrity over the last 15 years but, with just a few sips of the Kool-Aid, I can also see winning all of them. There are no world beaters on our regular season schedule. The only excuse for not winning all of them would be that we have a new staff and it understandably may take some time to implement all the required changes and most importantly to flush out the bunker mentality instilled by the previous regime. My hopes and expectations are high but judgment will come from the product, effort, and mentality we place on the field, not from the W-L record. Even just losing in a more respectable fashion would be enough improvement for year one in my book but I really anticipate much more than that.
Redux
Donor
Our OOC featured Miami, 2 patsies we kinda beat up and an FCS team we almost lost to.
This year we open against BYU and travel to Miami. I think 15-17 would be perfectly reasonable if we won them all and looked good doing it.
Mavric
Yoda
But we're also (likely) starting outside the Top 25 this year. Depends on where BYU is pre-season - if their in the Top 25 that would help. But even beating BYU and Miami isn't going to be enough to jump over very many teams that are also undefeated. And there aren't that many teams that will lose in the first four weeks to drop themselves.
Sargon
New member
10-2
Lame reason, but honest, is I'm tired of 4 loss seasons so I don't even want to consider another one this year. So I've put that option out of my mind (as of this morning lol) and it won't come back this year for me. Cause it'd be no fun. I'm not getting paid to be right and ignorance is bliss. Bliss is the goal.
Now...some attempt at reason.
Tommy is a 3rd year starter, he's strong, healthy, and the run threat will soften the pass D's (both play-action and scrambles)
Mike and Danny are stars at coaching QB's and scheming and play calling to best suit their personnel. Night and day from the recent past at NU.
Tommy has and will continue to rep rep rep the middle and short passes. He will be much more accurate with them beginning opening day.
Run defense will improve a lot due to scheme and s&c. This will greatly help vs. BYU, Wisky and Minny.
BYU's defense won't hold up.
Wisky will take 1 step backwards this year on both sides of the ball.
Miami will, like always, be less than dialed-in intellectually.
Minny has no star player this year (they have had a few recently)
Phil Steele picked NU at 7-1 in conference.
Lame reason, but honest, is I'm tired of 4 loss seasons so I don't even want to consider another one this year. So I've put that option out of my mind (as of this morning lol) and it won't come back this year for me. Cause it'd be no fun. I'm not getting paid to be right and ignorance is bliss. Bliss is the goal.
Now...some attempt at reason.
Tommy is a 3rd year starter, he's strong, healthy, and the run threat will soften the pass D's (both play-action and scrambles)
Mike and Danny are stars at coaching QB's and scheming and play calling to best suit their personnel. Night and day from the recent past at NU.
Tommy has and will continue to rep rep rep the middle and short passes. He will be much more accurate with them beginning opening day.
Run defense will improve a lot due to scheme and s&c. This will greatly help vs. BYU, Wisky and Minny.
BYU's defense won't hold up.
Wisky will take 1 step backwards this year on both sides of the ball.
Miami will, like always, be less than dialed-in intellectually.
Minny has no star player this year (they have had a few recently)
Phil Steele picked NU at 7-1 in conference.
True2tRA
Banned
Redux
Donor
Well by week 5 reality sets in and they will admit Vanderbilt probably isn't gonna make the playoff.
True2tRA
Banned
I can get on board with a lot of that.
I'm excited to see what this staff can do with the guys we've got on this roster.
HuskermanMike
New member
I say 10-2 this year with the losses only being by a few points. I think we lose to Minnesota in a close game and we also lose to Michigan State in a tight game. We will win against Miami because I am going to that game, if I go to BYU thats another win. In reality by Minnesota I think we lose after a tough grind and after that Michigan State we lose because of the grind of the season with week one being our only off week until the game before Iowa were we better win coming off of a bye week. I say it is a solid season and we play Ohio State in the CCG because Minny goes 9-3 with two loses in conference. Also I expect an electric atmosphere at the Michigan State game with gameday coming to lincoln that week as well.
QMany
New member
Don't forget their best OL, who went in the first round.
Mavric
Yoda
True2tRA
Banned
The elation and excitement of winning 11 games would just be phenomenal and would really launch this program in a big upward trend.
Sustaining the 9 win trend will do nothing for Coach Riley in many fans' eyes, in fact it will probably be seen as a negative.
Win less than 9 and oh boy, I can hear it all now............
Man I hope this staff is able to pull it all together quickly and clean up the mess they've been handed.
Sustaining the 9 win trend will do nothing for Coach Riley in many fans' eyes, in fact it will probably be seen as a negative.
Win less than 9 and oh boy, I can hear it all now............
Man I hope this staff is able to pull it all together quickly and clean up the mess they've been handed.
Saunders
Administrator
KU, is a mess. Nebraska is far, far from it.
Riley just took over a top 5/10 team of all time, who historically, has the most resources and is the top dog in their division. Nebraska is just down right now due to underperformance. They've got one of the easiest paths to the playoff of any P5 team in the country. They inherit a talented (if flawed) roster than still has more talent on paper than its peers. We said over most if Bo's tenure, if they could just tweak and fix the little things, we'd see an improvement of 2 wins a year.
Let's not sandbag this teams potential in order to protect our hopes of Riley (or our own predictions) as we did when Pelini took over for Callahan.
On the contrary, they haven't been handed a mess. Riley and staff have an opportunity.
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