Hilltop

Hard to determine until the season gets rolling. Ohio St. had a lot of turn over and Urban is due for a down year if history repeats. Penn St. isn't anointed back yet in many peoples view. The toughest game that matters the most to Nebraska is Wisconsin in my book. That game is crucial to our chances of winning the west and they should be as good or better than they were last year.

This has been a routine scapegoat around here for years, and is popular at other universities, too. People like to ignore the less glamorous parts of the team (i.e. of the offensive line) while paying far too much attention to what the quarterback does. Part of that is the nature of the position but also the average fan's football knowledge - it's often easier to tell when a quarterback does something wrong over other positions, especially in the moment. Frankly judging someones football knowledge based on a post is ridiculous. Yes, a bad quarterback can create more losses just as much as a great quarterback can generate more wins on a mediocre team. You won't find a sports analyst, coach, AD ...etc that wouldn't agree with that statement.

Don't want anything handed to us but NW at 5? I just don't see it personally.

I certainly am not blaming TA for the losses. I am just stating that Tommy was one of the main limiting factors to the past 2 years teams. From a coaching standpoint, your play calling is frustrating and limited. His lack of accuracy and poor decision making, as pointed out previously, made many other positions jobs much harder. Rough QB play also has a negative effect on team moral... including the defense. If you don't have confidence in your QB you don't typically have the right mindset for championship football. There was a reason he wasn't voted a captain. Have no idea if the next guy will be the fix but I'm sure excited to see if he is.

The talent gap is a moot point if we had a QB the last 2 years. Put a 60%+ guy under center and we win 10 or 11 games both years. Riley critics have to ask themselves- is there a coach in the country that could have compensated for Tommy's play? Sure hope the fan base can give Riley a fair shake with his recruits.

It may be different across the country but in my small sample area the "kids" would rank Adidas last and Nike 1st by a mile out of Nike, UA, and Adidas. My son is really into the style trends and spends a good chunk of his pay checks on clothing and shoes. I am pretty sure he doesn't own a single thing from Adidas.

Nebraska football is a business. All of the above stated arguments only have merit if you can draw them down to a conclusion of more revenue. A switch makes sense right now from a money standpoint for several of reasons; * Adidas isn't as popular right now so a good change would lead to higher merchandise sales over the next several years. * A change to UA or Nike would be popular with recruits. Bringing in better recruits = more wins = more attention and sales. * A change in brand would make most people go buy updated clothing- resulting in a quick spike in sales. Most of us old fuddy duddies aren't the ones spending the money so our opinions down't hold as much money weight. We buy stuff but not at the volume that the 15-25 year old kids do. I like Adidas but my 17 year old says its "garbage"... That generations opinion matters.

It's humorous how many on here are bagging on the past two years performances. The tools MR had to work with were just not up to par with what is needed in this conference. Armstrong was bad... really bad. Yes, occasionally his YOLO bombs would land in a lucky spot but can you imagine trying to coach that? I for one give the guy a couple mulligans based on what he had to start with. This is year one in my book. If the product on the field doesn't yield results by 2019 then we have reason to tell the guy to kick rocks...

I watched the spring game again last night without a lot of distractions. Lee and Gebbia were on target with about 85% of their passes while POB was at about 75%. Quite a few dropped passes that didn't help Gebbias numbers or he likely would have lead in %. All three looked like solid QBs but TG looks to have a lot more top side potential than POB. I sure hope he is patient enough to wait a couple years to start as a RS Sophomore. I'm guessing he beats POB out for the number 2 next year... if not the number 1. The bad thing about him performing so well so early is that he will get plenty of back door, illegal, recruiting trying to pull him away.

All speculating aside, I feel better about this team than I have felt in years. It just feels like they could do great things this year. The schedule is a little scary but it wouldn't surprise me if they won the west this year. I can't say I had the same feeling the last few years. It's amazing how much optimism can come from have great options under center. GBR

I'm guilty as well- but a group of adults trying to guess the outcome of a group of teenagers is laughable. As the father of a 17 year old being recruited for baseball I can tell you all these "kids" don't know the answers to most of our guesses. The fact that he is working hard is awesome... just hope he doesn't get distracted. I think the possibility of transfers, continued hard work, putting on weight, etc will be partly determined by team success and atmosphere/culture. I believe great players will stick around if it feels good and opportunity to shine is a possibility. I believe our recent basketball departures are a result of internal issues combined with lack of excitement in the program due to poor court performance. Put simply- Kids want to be part of something winning and heading somewhere. Our football team needs to win to keep the roster together.

I'm the type that typically supports 100% of the time....It is getting pretty hard to stand behind the man right now. He has everything available to him with the facilities, fans, top bb conference, etc... No excuses in my book. He is either the right guy or he isn't.

Looking at the schedule, and trying to remove emotion or bias, I can see why they have this predicted. I put us a little better with worst case 7-5 and best case 10-2 for regular season. We have to remember that so many of these numbers generated have Vegas betting behind them. Then the authors twist the numbers to their benefit to get emotional responses from readers. The current Vegas number for Nebraska wins in 2017 (over under) is 8.5. If I were betting, I would have to take under 8.5 this year due to schedule and so many new elements to our team. 8 or more wins, to me, is a success this year- if the development on the field leaves us feeling like the next year will be a step forward.

As the father of a current high school player, and another who will soon be playing, I hate the Friday night games. It isn't one out of every three of 4 years as people keep mentioning. It is 3 or 4 out of every 5 years with one of those being a home game. I'm really hoping that Nebraska schools schedule those games on Thursday or Saturday but time will tell. My family never misses a game so to be forced to miss a game is a big deal to us. I also think this could potentially end the sellout streak as well. I know many people who attend every home game that would be forced to take a day off work- not possible for all involved. I'm not normally a negative person but to me the "silver lining" on these isn't worth the cost imo.

May be a long shot but I wouldn't count Gebbia out of the running. POB and TL may be taking a back seat. Not unheard of in this day and age to see a true freshman win the job and shock the world on the field. Not saying Gebbia is Johnny Manziel .... But he could be?