[Husker] A Bold Prediction

[Duane Feldman]

From: "rczeranko at juno.com" rczeranko at juno.com

I am predicting that Coach Pelini will follow in Coach Osborne's foot steps and not win less than 9 games a season.

I am further predicting that Nebraska will be playing in the Big-XII Championship game next year and will win in it in two years. Nebraska will begin to dominate the North winning it 80% of the time.

The Big Red is back!

Rob Czeranko 
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Ron, you are an optimistic kool-aid drinking, rose-colored glasses wearning Husker fan.  
So am I.

Let's face it, we have almost accomplished the goal of 9 wins and a North championship in Bo's first year  Not even I predicted a North co-championship in year 1 and I was pretty optimistic about the season going in.  (I said this was a self-correcting 9-4 season as NU had the talent to repeat two seasons ago and four losses would put us in a bowl that is very winnable. (Had we won 9 games in the regular season, a tougher bowl game would have likely resulted in a bowl loss).  Thus 9-4.

Next year, I don't see anyone who should share the B12N with us.  Missouri will be rebuilding everywhere and lose all of their "difference makers."  KU and CU return their starting QB's and a nucleus of players, but nothing overwhelming from teams that didn't do as well as we did this year.  ISU and KSU are not likely to do well next year (although ISU bears watching).  

KU will again have three guaranteed B12S losses (UTx, OU and TT) to go with any B12N losses so they are essentially out of the picture.  MU gets us at home so that is an issue and I will need to look harder at their team but they start a new QB (as do we) but lose a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.  They will probably contend but not win the North.  Colorado is the biggest competition in the North.  They return their QB, RB's and they built a lot of depth with the injuries they endured this year.  It could be close, but I think NU pulls it out.

NU - Without undergoing a position analysis (I sure miss Doug on this list), I believe most positions will actually be stronger next year except the all-important QB position.  Helu, Q and Mendoza need to learn to pass protect in the off season, but we essentially have the ball-carrying portion of the position experienced and getting better every year (can you say Roy Helu?).  The receivers don't worry me too much.  Last year we lost Nunn and Purify and now Swift and Peterson.  Next year we will be talking about how to replace Holt, but will be glad Cooper and Paul are returning.  The OL will continue to get better each year with at least five starters returning (Smith, Burke, Jones, Hickman, and Williams [seems like I'm forgetting someone]) and Henry is joining the group as a "new" starter.  Throw in the KSU transfer (Derek Meyer) who started for KSU as a freshman into the mix as well.  And TE returns McNeil who is on track to break or tie the TE
 reception record at NU.  With an off-season to work on his strength, he could turn into one of the best all-round TE's Nebraska has had.  QB is the obvious wild card, but Taylor is the last QB we've had who was more than a one year starter for us, and Watson is great at developing new QB's.  Witt, Lee, Spano or Green will come up with a credible season for us.

The Defense is where I get optimistic.  The dline has a rejuvinated Turner to replace Potter, Steinkuler, Moore and Crick to replace Steinkuler, a more experienced Allen, and Suh who will get better and better.  Look for 40-45 sacks next year from this line.

The LB's won't be a group of cast offs and misfits.  The starters will probably come from Dillard, Lawrence, Compton and Fischer with Stafford, Holt, Washington, and May backing them up (among others).  From famine to feast.  Look for a tremendous (I know, the word evokes memories of Solich) improvement in the LB core.  

The secondary will suffer from the loss of Murillo, but Hagg, Dennard, West, Prince A all return with a year of experience and some redshirt players who will join the CB mix.  But most important is the return of Blue who as showing some skills before his injury.  Long-term, I think Blue and Dennard are the starters with Hagg and Prince A as nickle and dime backs.  A move of West to Free Safety is possible, if not probable.  West would join Thenarse and Asante at safety along with redshirts PJ Smith and Leverson.  I suspect that Bo will find a way to get the safeties to "get it" like they did when Bo addressed them directly after the first two big play CU drives.  After Bo "talked to" the secondary, they gave up fewer yards the rest of the game then they did on the first four plays!  Imagine what bowl, spring and fall practices will do to improve this group.

Overall, I expect a top 40 defense and #1 or #2 D in the Big 12 (I think the B12 offenses are too good to allow for a top 20 defense.  I expect a top four offense (B12) again - even with a new QB.

But Nebraska ended up with a top four offense and defense in the conference last year.  Why weren't we one of the top three or four teams?  Mistakes, turnovers, penalties and special teams play.  Expect a focus on these areas in the next nine months.  We were #1 in penalties and had the least penalties against.  We were last in conference in turnover margin.  Near last in net punting.  Consider the ramifications of reversing these standings!  Pelini can only improve a finite number of areas at one time and now he can address these issues.

We should make the top four teams next year in conference and Big 12 North Champ.

Kool Aid anyone??

Duane Feldman