CFN.com Fearless Prediction

HuskerfaninOkieland

HuskerfaninOkieland

Heisman Trophy Winner
CFN.com

Western Kentucky (0-0) at Nebraska (0-0) Sept. 4, 7:00, TV

 

Here’s The Deal … Western Kentucky is on a 20-game losing streak, and while it improved at the end of last year losing the final three games in good battles, it was still an ugly year. The start of 2010 isn’t going to be much better with a lamb-for-a-slaughter payday as Nebraska goes on its Big 12 Farewell Tour. The Huskers have one decent non-conference game at Washington, but they’re not exactly taxing themselves before starting out the conference campaign against Kansas State in early October. If this is seen as a preseason game and a chance to get better and improve, then this game is all about getting the passing attack going to give Nebraska some semblance of a dangerous offense to go along with its frothing-at-the-mouth defense. For WKU, anything positive would be a plus as it begins its tour of games against BCS conference teams. The Hilltoppers go to Kentucky next week.

 

Why Western Kentucky Might Win: WKU might have the best running back in this game. Junior Bobby Rainey is a small, quick back who averaged 6.5 yards per carry and came on late in the year. The offensive line is hardly going to shove around the Husker defensive front, but it’s one of the team’s bigger strengths and should be able to open a few holes to get Rainey a wee bit of space. It’s not like Rainey is going to go ballistic, but he could crank out a few first downs to keep the offense moving early on. New head coach Willie Taggart is running head coach who’ll commit to the ground game, but he’ll be challenged to get anything consistently going since …

 

Why Nebraska Might Win: … Nebraska finished ninth in the nation against the run and should be at least that strong again. Sure, the line is missing a very big, very rich Heisman finalist in the middle to make things happen, but the returning players are good enough to pick up the slack in a hurry. Throw in the desire of the starting front four to prove that they can still be great without Ndamukong Suh, and sprinkle in the brutal ugliness of the WKU passing game, and the potential is there for Nebraska to gain more yards on the first two drives than the defense will allow all game long.

 

What To Watch Out For: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nebraska has quarterback issues and a bit of a controversy, but Tom Osborne could line up under center and the team would still be fine thanks to the defense. The real issue early on will be on the outside of the line where Mike Smith, a key starter on last year’s line and a part of the rotation at several spots going into this year, will be out for the season with a broken leg, while Dreu Young, a spot-starter at tight end, is done with a back problem. The Huskers have replacements, and tight end and tackle aren’t quite their most pressing problems (that would be quarterback, where Zac Lee, Cody Green, and Taylor Martinez are all battling it out), but the offense can’t afford to lose too many key players.

 

What Will Happen: WKU will be lucky to finish with positive rushing yards and will be really, really lucky to put points on the board. This is when the Husker defense starts to establish its dominance and shows that there’s no rebuilding needing to be done.

 

CFN Prediction: Nebraska 45 … Western Kentucky 0 … Line: Nebraska -37

 

Must See Rating: Season Premiere: Keeping Up with the Kardashians 5 - Eat, Pray, Love 1 … 1.5

 
Thanks for posting, I think he hits it on the head, other than Mike Smith was a backup center and really didn't have anything to do with blocking the edges.

I look for a similar outcome. I want to see Martinez get in a rhythm and show me that he can hit a pass on a 3 or 5 step drop and not only by running or scrambling. I want to see a WR (or two or three) become a go-to guy on 3rd down, one where Martinez can take his drop and throw to a spot and know that the guy will be there, see Swift/Peterson.

Again, thanks for posting!

 
WKU might have the best running back in this game.
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I just read this and literally lol'd in the awkward silence 5 minutes before my class starts. I got a lot of weird looks.

 
aspeedlin4589 said:
If WKU gets more than 30 yards rushing, I might die a little inside.
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there is a good possibility it may happen. but that's not a bad thing.Its if they get over 70 or 100 all game i will become concerned.

you can give up 30 yards rushing in just a coupe drives so long as you don't catch the offense on a sack or TFL.

 
From Bleacher Report

We’ll win. By 35. At least. That’s honestly about as in depth as I really have to get for our first game of 2010, but for those loyal readers who follow this hack-job we like to call a blog around here, I figure I’ll go a bit more in depth for our match-up against the mighty Hilltoppers, who are entering their 2nd year in NCAA Div 1-A competition (Yes, 1-A.) That last statement begs a question: can Hilltoppers in fact, be mighty?

 

If anyone would like to Google (or Bing, whatever) an answer for that, let me know. If you actually succeed, you’ll receive a Seeing Red autographed Zima coozy. Save that one for your collection kiddies.

 

I’m done filling up space here. Let’s get down to it.

 

Defense

 

The Hilltoppers play a base 4-3, Cover 2 scheme. Nothing earth shattering there. Neither is the fact they they gave up an average of 478 yards per game, 7 yards per play, and 39.5 points per game in 2009. This includes 68 points to the offensive juggernaut that is North Texas and 62 to Middle Tennessee. In the Topper’s defense, MTSU did receive a few votes in the Coach’s Poll to be included in the Top 25. Like four votes, I think. But seriously, North Texas is the only thing you need to know.

 

The defense is anchored by their DE’s (they call one of the ends the LEO position, for Left End…seriously??) The right DE is spot is played by Junior Jared Clendenin at 6’5″, 265 and the LEO spot *ahem* is occupied by Sophomore Quanterus Smith. At 6’3″, 239 he is definitely undersized for a DE and it appears they use him as the de-facto edge/speed rusher. I wouldn’t know, since I’ve never watched WKU play football. I assume taking a nap or eating a turkey sub would be more gratifying and more healthy for me at the same time. I would expect them to bring pressure from this side early and often. But seriously it’s not going to matter. I assure you. We are 33 lbs heavier per man across our OL, we’re more powerful, we’re faster, and we are simply just going to do whatever the hell we want to do to them.

 

Their linebackers all average 6’0″ and 232 lbs per man. In other words…they’re thick. Big and thick. Raise your hand if you think that adds up to “speed and lateral pursuit sideline to sideline.” Their names are not important. Suffice it to say that our OL is going to get to the second level often and oftener enough that these guys will find themselves unable to make plays. Our backs are going to be able to run right by and around them. Everything about their LB corps screams “mismatch” in our favor.

 

I can’t say much about their secondary, except that they’re a little on the light side and they seem to possess some quickness. Expect them all to be abused at will by Paul, Kinnie, and McNeil and it won’t make a difference who starts for us at QB on Saturday. The Good Guys will find the holes, seams, and frequently be running around so wide open that it should look like a 7 on 7 drill. If we don’t roll up somewhere in the neighborhood of 500+ yards on these clowns, our offensive staff needs to be beaten severely around the head, neck, and shoulders.

 

Offense

 

The offense for the Toppers isn’t much better than their defense. Seriously. They averaged 20.4 points per game, to go along with 147.9 passing and 172.8 rushing. Now you know why they lost all their games last year. 20 points per game flat isn’t going to cut it when your defense is giving up nearly 40 per game. Simple math there boys and girls.

 

They apparently switched schemes this year to a Pro Style/West Coast based offense from their Spread Zone/Read Option running game of last year. Okay, I confess. I did watch them play that Tennessee game last year where they just got shellacked. That’s how I know. They return starters at the RB, QB, and TE spots respectively and their #1 WR from last year is gone. That honor now falls upon Quinterrance Cooper, who had a whopping 20 receptions for 151 yards and no TD’s in 2009. But hey, he’s experienced. Their leading receiver entering this year is actually their tight end Jack Doyle, who hauled in 37 receptions for 365 yards and 1 TD. Marcus Vasquez will start at the other WR spot for them and had 19 catches for 176 yards and 2 TD’s last year. Really this is much to do about nothing, as they are simply no match for our secondary. Prince and Alfonso will blanket the receivers, their TE will find no space which will allow our DL even more time to twist their OL into various forms of orgami. If there’s actually a chance a team could have negative yards passing, this might be the game you see it in.

 

The biggest threats on offense for the Toppers is their RB Bobby Rainey and their QB Kawaun Jakes. Those two were their number #1 and #2 rushers last year with 939 yards and 355 yards respectively. Of course that was out of their spread scheme. With the switch to the West Coast offense, I expect lots of problems. Lots. Like oodles. Our line and backers should eat these guys whole. I fully expect our second string defense to be in at the start of the 3rd quarter and wouldn’t be surprised if they’re subbing in at the middle of the 2nd.

 

 

 

In short: this game is going to look a lot like their game against Tennessee last year. It’s going to be ugly.

 

Make sure you enjoy every minute of it.

 

Huskers 60. Hilltoppers 3.

 

 
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