How Many Games Will the Huskers Win in 2024?
- Thread starter Mavric
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Vince R.
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deedsker
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Undone
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I was referring to the culture of the team; the psyche and the unity and the degree to which these players actually care about winning. Wasn't referring to anything at all external to the players & coaches.
Undone
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This is maybe now just turning into defining words and discussing semantics.
I'd pretty confidently say though that this team cannot manage 10 wins this season. Not with a true freshman QB and also not without a truly standout RB.
This is maybe now just turning into defining words and discussing semantics.
I'd pretty confidently say though that this team cannot manage 10 wins this season. Not with a true freshman QB and also not without a truly standout RB.
Just talking regular season, I think the ceiling is 11. They're likely not beating OSU. Every other game on the schedule appears reasonably winnable.
A fair argument can be made that last season's team SHOULD'VE won 10 games; the outliers being Michigan (no way) and Colorado (a winnable game until the 4th quarter).
Undone
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Should have won 10 games? I'm not quite getting that one.
Although we didn't really know about Chubba's groin injury that he had apparently sustained during fall camp until down the stretch of the season, heading into last season it was pretty clear we didn't have a solid QB out of three guys we could field. We also didn't have a standout running back.
Even in hindsight I can't say we should have won 10 when I look at how unbelievably terrible our QB play was. Special teams was even fairly shaky pretty much the entire season as well.
I don't know how likely 10 wins is, but it is certainly more than plausible. We were, after all, within a possession in 10 of 12 games last year.
I have more confidence in Raiola than I do the offense as a whole. I don't think he'll hold back this team, or this offense, but I think this offense may hold him back. I thought the spring was promising, but it's only a start.
As to the RB, a standout RB is not a big deal to me. If you look at most 9+ win teams with a 1000 yard back they usually have a few guys behind him that were also highly productive. Sometimes a standout RB simply means he was healthy all year. I think we need an improved running game, and we've talked about how better spacing on the offense may accomplish that, but as long as our RBs get into the 5-6 ypc range I don't think it matters if it's one guy or three.
Undone
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Those are some good discussion points, bro-man! I do think there are several great reasons to have a lot of confidence in Dylan.
One spin-off discussion would be to look at Adrian's true freshman year. True freshman and he comes out with confidence and made some great throws and clutch plays all season. Just played off of instinct and gave it a full send.
And just think about how much better Raiola is throwing the ball in all aspects than Adrian was heading into their respective first college games.
I don't think it's a very fair comparison. Remember, Adrian didn't even get to play his senior year of high school due to that injury. Raiola is getting training from the best of the best of the best. They're not on the same paths, and this freshman year will be quite different as well. Adrian was playing not only in a very different style of offense but also for a coach in his first year who was trying to figure out to make things work. Raiola gets a coach in his second year, who is not only much more experienced as a head coach, but whom is historically very good at fixing things.
Raiola would be at a disadvantage if he was coming in last year vs this year. This year there is a better coaching setup, better offensive personnel, and an offense that is learning from last year's mistakes. That's what we saw in the spring, an offense that is in the process of fixing itself.
Undone
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Everything you said was the very point I was trying to make.
I had originally said that I was worried about a true freshman QB.
Then I thought about how well Adrian actually played his first year and then thought about how much more talented Raiola is heading into his first year, bolstering your argument that maybe Raiola being a true freshman isn't all much of a detriment to this team.
Last year the QB play definitely held the team back, I don't think there's much of an argument there. I think Raiola sets the ceiling this year. If he advances in development as fast as some think then this team could put up an exceptionally high win total, with a little luck. That last part isn't usually said, but there's really a lot more teams capable of high win totals in any given year than usually suspected, they just have a smaller margin of error. The really, really talented teams can stave off a rash of injuries, overcome a bad call, and absorb turnovers better. Sometimes even win when their performance isn't as high as it should be.
With the first 4 games at home, and 5 of the first 6, we'll have a little more flexibility to figure out how things fit, especially on offense where the list of potential contributors at the skill positions is very long. Last year it was often just putting whomever was healthiest out there, but this year we could make the same call out of the same set and things play out differently depending on who gets put where.
With the first 4 games at home, and 5 of the first 6, we'll have a little more flexibility to figure out how things fit, especially on offense where the list of potential contributors at the skill positions is very long. Last year it was often just putting whomever was healthiest out there, but this year we could make the same call out of the same set and things play out differently depending on who gets put where.