2025 Season Prediction POLL Thread

[TGHusker]

I did go back andf watch a little of the U of Cinncy game. We seemed to be pretty vanilla on D.

I wonder how much we aren't showing on both D and O and won't reveal it until Michigan ? I hope there is some stuff in the bag!

 

[Hilltop]

I wonder how much we aren't showing on both D and O and won't reveal it until Michigan ? I hope there is some stuff in the bag!

I think most teams start off fairly conservative- even the proven good teams. Look at Texas and Ohio State - very vanilla on both sides of the ball. First game of the year is tough to make judgements on. I think we will see quite a bit more from both sides of the ball going forward but I wouldn't expect Nebraska to expose too much prior to the Michigan game.

 

[hskrpwr13]

I think the size of our interior D-line is a problem. That won't be solved with better technique and experience.

 

[Hilltop]

I think the size of our interior D-line is a problem. That won't be solved with better technique and experience.

I thought so too after losing Ty and Nash but we aren't small this year- actually fairly average for the B1G. We were just bigger than average last year. Add in our D end size and we actually average about the same as last year overall.

It was game 1- I'm going to take a wait and see approach. I'm hopeful that they look better with a few more games under their belt.

 

[Mavric]

I wonder how much we aren't showing on both D and O and won't reveal it until Michigan ? I hope there is some stuff in the bag!

It seems like this has been the story (hope?) almost every year since I can remember. I don't know that there's ever been much truth to it. At least as far as actively hiding things. You're always going add things as the year goes along and have a new wrinkle for opponents. But if we were saving much - especially on offense - and almost lost, that's some poor decision-making.

 

[Mavric]

 

[jager]

It seems like this has been the story (hope?) almost every year since I can remember. I don't know that there's ever been much truth to it. At least as far as actively hiding things. You're always going add things as the year goes along and have a new wrinkle for opponents. But if we were saving much - especially on offense - and almost lost, that's some poor decision-making.

completely agree with this. Just go and BEAT the opponent, don't over think it. You can always tweak or scheme for specific teams.

 

[Husker_In_WI]

I think we also tend to equate poor outcomes with being "vanilla," when it reality the 2 yard run or the 7 yard catch might have come on novel concepts. We didn't throw the kitchen sink at them, but there were sim pressures, disguised coverages, and a lot of stunts on defense. First play of the game we lined up 3 high, rotated 2 guys down right before the snap and brought Singleton on a blitz.

Holgorsen also keeps things vanilla by design, he's big on repping core concepts a lot of times so they can be executed against a lot of defensive looks. So I'd agree with the offense being relatively basic, but it's going to be all year. We will see more deep shots against different defenses, and some plays will pop for more yardage. But if anything was held back it was due to the style of defense Cincy played, not an attempt to "save" things for later opponents. Wrinkles also tend to be pretty specific to the defense you're attacking, so any wrinkles for Cincy probably wouldn't work against Michigan whether they saw them ahead of time or not.

 

[XtraXtra]

It seems like this has been the story (hope?) almost every year since I can remember. I don't know that there's ever been much truth to it. At least as far as actively hiding things. You're always going add things as the year goes along and have a new wrinkle for opponents. But if we were saving much - especially on offense - and almost lost, that's some poor decision-making.

I'm guessing it's more of how much of the playbook they've installed and feel good about executing as well - rather than hiding anything. It's early season and I'm sure we'll see more plays & schemes on both sides of the ball as the season progresses.

 

[Undone]

This is actually a really cool talking point. Because it means that, assuming that their metrics are even remotely accurate and that we win the other two non-conference games, that we have:

• An 87% chance of going 7-5 for the regular season.
• A 65% chance of going 8-4 for the regular season.
• A 36% chance of going 9-3 for the regular season.

Honestly to me that seems spot-on, as much as none of us want to hear it.

 

[Hilltop]

This is actually a really cool talking point. Because it means that, assuming that their metrics are even remotely accurate and that we win the other two non-conference games, that we have:

• An 87% chance of going 7-5 for the regular season.
• A 65% chance of going 8-4 for the regular season.
• A 36% chance of going 9-3 for the regular season.

Honestly to me that seems spot-on, as much as none of us want to hear it.

Going to leave that 13% chance out? Come on, 10-2 is still on the table lol.

 

[presidentjlh]

Going to leave that 13% chance out? Come on, 10-2 is still on the table lol.

Unless and until we lose, I believe 12-0 is still on the table.

 

[RedDenver]

This is actually a really cool talking point. Because it means that, assuming that their metrics are even remotely accurate and that we win the other two non-conference games, that we have:

• An 87% chance of going 7-5 for the regular season.
• A 65% chance of going 8-4 for the regular season.
• A 36% chance of going 9-3 for the regular season.

Honestly to me that seems spot-on, as much as none of us want to hear it.

Minor quibble, those odds are for getting at least that many wins. So the model predicts us having an 87% chance of going 7-5 or better, etc.

 

[Undone]

Minor quibble, those odds are for getting at least that many wins. So the model predicts us having an 87% chance of going 7-5 or better, etc.

Right, agreed. That's just not generally really how we phrase these record prediction conversations though.

At any rate, if I go back to Frost's disaster of a 3-9 season, I would have felt really good about there being an 87% chance of 7-5 being the floor.

There'll always be those stragglers who say w3'Re SEtTiNg ouR eXpecTaTIonS toO loW, etc. But regardless, Rhule has upped the expected floor.

It just sucks that White left for Florida State, and then that guys like Butler and Princewill left too. Really hurting our chances of being a good team this season.

 

[Mavric]