Can Nebraska ever return to Greatness

[Cornfed]

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[Huskerfollower4life]

11 minutes ago, Cornfed said:

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?????

[Scofrosghost]

13 hours ago, Guadalupe Husker said:

I’m a life long Nebraska fan. I don’t believe NU will ever win a National Championship again. When I watch top ten teams, I feel like Nebraska isn’t even close as far as speed, size and play-calling. NU hasn’t been to a bowl game in six years. The Big Ten is only going to become more difficult. Winning 7-8 games will be the norm. Occasionally they may win 9. The only way I see Nebraska being relevant is if they get lucky with NIL or they buy a team. I’m not sure the boosters will fork over that much money. 

Dude, we are a good Qb coach and a good Qb away from being a really good team. Looks like we will have both very soon.
 

lol people like you act like we are getting blown out. We are in every game we lose except for Michigan. And with a competent offense that may change too. 

[runningblind]

49 minutes ago, Scofrosghost said:

Dude, we are a good Qb coach and a good Qb away from being a really good team. Looks like we will have both very soon.
 

lol people like you act like we are getting blown out. We are in every game we lose except for Michigan. And with a competent offense that may change too. 

That was true for 2023, but it annoys me when people compare year over year by saying things like "if X changes then we are good!".  No two years are the same, and the schedule is going to get harder with the West going away and new teams being added.  The West was also worse than normal last year.   Better QB play is a must, but that doesn't mean everything else stays exactly the same from one season to the next.   Other teams change also, some get better, some get worse, we play some on the road rather than at home, on and on and on. 

[Mavric]

4 minutes ago, runningblind said:

That was true for 2023, but it annoys me when people compare year over year by saying things like "if X changes then we are good!".  No two years are the same, and the schedule is going to get harder with the West going away and new teams being added.  The West was also worse than normal last year.   Better QB play is a must, but that doesn't mean everything else stays exactly the same from one season to the next.   Other teams change also, some get better, some get worse, we play some on the road rather than at home, on and on and on. 

 

No, it's not.  Our 2024 schedule is very similar to our 2023 schedule.  And 2025 isn't much different either.

[runningblind]

11 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

No, it's not.  Our 2024 schedule is very similar to our 2023 schedule.  And 2025 isn't much different either.

You say that now, but you can't know that until the games are played.  I can't either, so I shouldn't have said that definitively, but my gut tells me it will be based on how bad the West was this year. 

[Mavric]

7 minutes ago, runningblind said:

You say that now, but you can't know that until the games are played.  I can't either, so I shouldn't have said that definitively, but my gut tells me it will be based on how bad the West was this year. 

 

And we were also pretty bad.

 

So the only way that the schedule will be harder for us is if our opponents are getting better faster than we're getting better.  That is a possibility, but one that we will all be severely disappointed in.  Even if we just all get better at the same rate, the schedule won't be any harder.

 

So the only way it will be harder is if our opponents get better and we don't.  There doesn't seem to be any rational reason for taking that position.

[gossamorharpy]

3 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

And we were also pretty bad.

 

So the only way that the schedule will be harder for us is if our opponents are getting better faster than we're getting better.  That is a possibility, but one that we will all be severely disappointed in.  Even if we just all get better at the same rate, the schedule won't be any harder.

 

So the only way it will be harder is if our opponents get better and we don't.  There doesn't seem to be any rational reason for taking that position.

I do think our schedule next year is a bit more challenging.  

 

tOSU= michigan this year.  Perhaps they can be viewed as a step down from michigan with mccord departure and some of their skill guys going to the league.  That being said, until I see ryan day completely run tOSU into the ground I'm going to assume they will remain a top 5-10 team.  Despite their lackluster year this year- USC/UCLA seem to be a more formidable opponent compared to Maryland and Michigan st we had this year. Iowa/WISCy are obvi a wash 

 

You bring up a great point in the bolded tho. One can easily make the argument that no big ten increased their odds of getting better faster than we have w/ Raiola and some key transfers/guys coming back.  Curious what our LB depth chart will look like but the line/secondary should be improved based off assumed growth and progession of our younger guys coupled with vets we have coming back.

 

 

[runningblind]

15 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

And we were also pretty bad.

 

So the only way that the schedule will be harder for us is if our opponents are getting better faster than we're getting better.  That is a possibility, but one that we will all be severely disappointed in.  Even if we just all get better at the same rate, the schedule won't be any harder.

 

So the only way it will be harder is if our opponents get better and we don't.  There doesn't seem to be any rational reason for taking that position.

Opponents that are the same from 23 and 24:

Colorado

Illinois

Purdue

Wisconsin 

Iowa

 

OOC differences:

La. Tech -> N. Iowa (should be easier)

UTEP -> N. Illinois (should be easier)

 

Conference differences:

Michigan -> OSU (Similar)

Northwestern -> Rutgers (Similar)

MSU -> Indiana (Similar)

Maryland -> UCLA (Similar)

Minnesota -> USC (Harder)

 

So while I agree it isn't light years harder on paper, from here in January, it should in fact be harder by replacing Minny on the road with USC on the road.   Our OOC cupcakes appear easier.   We also have 5 conference road games in 24, versus 4 in 23, which means more higher quality teams on the road than 23 (sub Colorado at home). 

 

In 2025 we get all 3 of Michigan, USC and Penn State.  In 2026 we get Tennessee (OOC I know, still on there), plus Washington, Oregon and OSU.  Having three of the top teams on the schedule was considered a super hard schedule a couple years ago, now that is more normal with 4 better teams being added. 

 

Saying "there is no rational reason for taking that position" is just not true if you realize the conference as a whole is getting better with these 4 teams being added.   Are you telling me you believe the conference ISN'T getting more challenging with adding these 4 teams?

[BigRedBuster]

15 minutes ago, runningblind said:

Opponents that are the same from 23 and 24:

Colorado

Illinois

Purdue

Wisconsin 

Iowa

 

OOC differences:

La. Tech -> N. Iowa (should be easier)

UTEP -> N. Illinois (should be easier)

 

Conference differences:

Michigan -> OSU (Similar)

Northwestern -> Rutgers (Similar)

MSU -> Indiana (Similar)

Maryland -> UCLA (Similar)

Minnesota -> USC (Harder)

 

So while I agree it isn't light years harder on paper, from here in January, it should in fact be harder by replacing Minny on the road with USC on the road.   Our OOC cupcakes appear easier.   We also have 5 conference road games in 24, versus 4 in 23, which means more higher quality teams on the road than 23 (sub Colorado at home). 

 

In 2025 we get all 3 of Michigan, USC and Penn State.  In 2026 we get Tennessee (OOC I know, still on there), plus Washington, Oregon and OSU.  Having three of the top teams on the schedule was considered a super hard schedule a couple years ago, now that is more normal with 4 better teams being added. 

 

Saying "there is no rational reason for taking that position" is just not true if you realize the conference as a whole is getting better with these 4 teams being added.   Are you telling me you believe the conference ISN'T getting more challenging with adding these 4 teams?

You just went through the analysis yourself and realized there's just one team that's better than the one they are replacing on the schedule....and you're still hanging your hat on it's going to be harder?

 

That team ended the Pac 12 with an 8-5 record and the one it's replacing finished the Big 10 with a 6-7 record.  I don't see enough of a difference to prove next year's schedule is going to be so much harder.

[Scofrosghost]

1 hour ago, runningblind said:

That was true for 2023, but it annoys me when people compare year over year by saying things like "if X changes then we are good!".  No two years are the same, and the schedule is going to get harder with the West going away and new teams being added.  The West was also worse than normal last year.   Better QB play is a must, but that doesn't mean everything else stays exactly the same from one season to the next.   Other teams change also, some get better, some get worse, we play some on the road rather than at home, on and on and on. 

You are right in saying things change. some teams get better and some worse. And Nebraska has a habit of improving one facet while another decides to take a break.

 

Imo everything is looking better except offense. The defense is highly unlikely to take any steps back and the Oline saw gradual improvement. But with the recruiting moves this staff has made the offense should take off
 

looking at the schedule for next year, we have a real chance to beat every team on our schedule especially how Ohio State and USC played toward the end of the year. Just an optimistic take from a pessimist 
 

 

[runningblind]

58 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

You just went through the analysis yourself and realized there's just one team that's better than the one they are replacing on the schedule....and you're still hanging your hat on it's going to be harder?

 

That team ended the Pac 12 with an 8-5 record and the one it's replacing finished the Big 10 with a 6-7 record.  I don't see enough of a difference to prove next year's schedule is going to be so much harder.

Nothing is proven, I stated that as well earlier.  This started from me responding to a comment about "all we need to be better is QB play"  and my point was we can't just assume everything stays the same and we can improve QB play alone for increasing win total.   My gut tells me the conference is going to be more difficult with 4 decent to good/really good teams coming in.  I initially said it "would definitely be harder" and backed off from that a bit.  

 

I go back to my question to him there at the end though, do you really feel the conference isn't going to get better/more difficult overall with these 4 teams mixed in the schedule?  Also without the built in 6 games against the West teams. 

[BigRedBuster]

1 minute ago, runningblind said:

My gut tells me the conference is going to be more difficult with 4 decent to good/really good teams coming in.  I initially said it "would definitely be harder" and backed off from that a bit.  

 

I go back to my question to him there at the end though, do you really feel the conference isn't going to get better/more difficult overall with these 4 teams mixed in the schedule?  Also without the built in 6 games against the West teams.  

The discussion was about if Nebraska could have a better record next year with better QB play.  The problem with your question is that it's assuming we are playing all the new teams.  We aren't.  We are only playing one sort of decent team and it's replacing a sort of decent team.

 

Now, I would agree with you if your opinion is that it's going to be tougher to win the conference.  Bringing in Oregon and Washington is obviously going to give us more competition to do that against.

[Huskers93-97]

How is Washington in the Natty game wearing adidas apparel? I remember some interesting guy on the board was blaming adidas for the huskers 20 years of misery