It'sNotAFakeID Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 With the start of the 2013 season way, way too far away, I thought I'd lay out some of my bold predictions for the 2013 season. Braylon Heard, Ameer Abdullah, and Imani Cross will become a three headed monster in the backfield. In the absence of Rex Burkhead, who was sidelined with a nagging knee injury for a majority of the 2012 season, Ameer Abdullah stepped up big time and posted a 1,000+ yard season, and showed Husker fans that there will be life after Rex Burkhead. He's powerful, shifty, and can hide behind the big guys in front of him. But Nebraska has more talent in the backfield than just Abdullah with Braylon Heard and Imani Cross (also Adam Taylor and Terrell Newby--but I'm expecting a redshirt for one of them, maybe both). Braylon is lightning fast and Imani Cross is a brick house. Look for Tim Beck to fully utilize the diverse talents of all three of these running backs in producing what could be the nation's #1 rushing attack in 2013. Taylor Martinez won't lead the nation in fumbles. Going into the 2012 season, the thing Taylor needed to work on most was his passing game, primarily his mechanics. So he went to see Steve Calhoun in the offseason. The result? A dramatic increase in completion percentage from 56.2% to 62%. Now, I wouldn't expect that number to increase as much next season, but I think it will increase to somewhere in the 64% range. But what this shows is that he knows his weaknesses, and he's taking a step-by-step approach to becoming a better QB. I fully expect the amount of times he fumbles next season to decrease, but there'll still be those boneheaded-"why Taylor why?" moments. The difference is those moments will be very few and far between stretches of excellent play. The Huskers won't struggle on the road. It seems that every time Nebraska was away from Memorial Stadium, records were being set, and they weren't the good kind. 600 yards @ UCLA, 63 points @ Ohio State, 70 points and 400+ yards rushing @ Indianapolis and 49 points and a monstrous passing day @ Orlando. Those are problems, and they have to stick out in the mind's of the coaching staff and the players, when they review this season. This doesn't mean that we won't drop a game on the road; we have daunting games @ Ann Arbor and @ Happy Valley that will require our players to be playing at their best. I think they will, and we won't witness record setting performances against us on the road next season. The defense will finish in the Top 25 of all defensive statistical categories (the good ones). A lot of people, myself included, are worried about where the defense is right now and what that means in projecting where the defense will be next year. But this is a bold prediction thread and this is most certainly a bold prediction. There's going to be a lot of youth and inexperience on the defensive side of the ball, but sometimes that can benefit the team. If things are simple, which to many of these younger guys, it is (cover your guy, make tackles, stop big plays, sack the QB), you are more free to use your athletic ability instead of your mental capacity to make plays. The more things you have to worry about, the harder things become. The players coming in to replace the seniors are more athletic, and should be able to cause havoc for opposing offenses. Nebraska will finish the regular season undefeated, en route to their best season under Head Coach, Bo Pelini (EZ-E). The 2013 schedule is a favorable one for Nebraska. There is no Wisconsin, there is no Ohio State. Our road games are to a struggling Minnesota, a struggling Purdue, Michigan, and a sanction riddled Penn State. Our toughest home game, of which we have eight will come against UCLA, who showed in their bowl game that they might not be as good as they were painted out to be (inconsistent). All of this points to Nebraska potentially finishing the regular season undefeated, especially if Taylor cleans up his fumbles and the defense plays with athleticism more than their minds. Finish the regular season undefeated, and guarantee this to be Bo's best season yet. Nebraska will play in a BCS Bowl Game, possibly the National Championship. This is probably the boldest of the bold predictions (still one more to come), but if we finish the regular season undefeated, we could very well meet an undefeated Ohio State in the conference championship game. If that's the case, we'll go to a BCS Bowl regardless of if we win our lose. If we can beat Urban Meyer's bromance will Braxton Miller and the Buckeyes, we could very well be going to Pasadena (and not to the Rose Bowl). The Huskers will send a team member to New York for the Heisman Trophy Ceremony. This player is more than likely Taylor Martinez, as he will more than likely spearhead the majority of our offense's production. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Ameer Abdullah there if our running attack is number one in the country and we make an appearance in the national championship game. Even if we lose to Ohio State, that should still be good enough to send Taylor to New York, a la Collin Klein. So that's all I have, Huskerboard, agree, disagree or indifferent, I would love to hear your opinions. Quote Link to comment
QMany Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I don't think 6/7 are too far fetched. I think Heisman ceremony and Top 25 defense will be the most difficult. Quote Link to comment
Undone Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Out of items 1 through 4, #4 would have the biggest positive impact. Even finishing in the top 35 of all major defensive categories would probably be enough to get us to 12-0 in the regular season. 11-1 seems pretty likely to me. And that's a good feeling. Quote Link to comment
carlfense Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 9-11 wins. At least one blow out loss. Any criticism of the flat program trajectory decried as "Bo Haterz!" We've been here before. If you expect more than that you're probably setting yourself up for yet another disappointing season. Anyways. Just like last year and the year before that . . . I sure hope that I'm wrong and the people less cynical than myself are correct. Quote Link to comment
HuskerNationNick Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Nebraska will play in a BCS Bowl Game, possibly the National Championship. This is probably the boldest of the bold predictions (still one more to come), but if we finish the regular season undefeated, we could very well meet an undefeated Ohio State in the conference championship game. If that's the case, we'll go to a BCS Bowl regardless of if we win our lose. If we can beat Urban Meyer's bromance will Braxton Miller and the Buckeyes, we could very well be going to Pasadena (and not to the Rose Bowl). The other side of the division is still up for grabs IMO, but tOSU is still favored to win that division on my end too. I just don't see tOSU going undefeated. Meyer runs Miller too reckless, and he will be out with a season ending injury, or be too banged up to win the important games down the stretch, like Michigan, being led by a stout Gardner. Michigan will only be better than what they are this year. They will be basing their offense off of Gardner, hence why they will be going back a Pro Style. tOSU will still have the same problems they had last year, and possibly more. I think tOSU will still have tackling issues in open space and have trouble controlling the line, allowing offensive lines to push them around. Offensively, they will need someone other than Miller to be a huge danger in the backfield to go undefeated. Mark my words, they will not be undefeated. Biggest reason will be because of Meyer abusing Miller's capabilities. I don't think really any of your predictions are too bold or unrealistic. The Heisman part will be the most difficult in my opinion. Top 25 defense in a whole might be tough, but we should fair with a stout secondary (Top 5) and possibly a top 30 rush defense. On average, could pull us a top 25 defense. At the worst, we should only lose one game next year, that could be Michigan, but their offense plays into our defense very well. Will be a good game. UCLA will be an easy win. Our home and we are better. We now know how Mora runs his team. Advantage we didn't have last year. New coach, completely new style and didn't know what to expect. GBR!!!! Quote Link to comment
kchusker_chris Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 As bad as last season ended - with this schedule none of those seem too far-fetched. I don't expect many to come true, but it's certainly possible. I thought we had a ton of depth at DL going into 2011 and we came out of that season looking like swiss cheese. Knowing the offense was going to be salty, I thought with an improving defense we might turn the corner in our second year in the B1G. Didn't happen. This team surprises me each season - lately not for the better. I'm going into this season from a VERY skeptical angle. Let's hope the surprise me again and some of these come to fruition. Quote Link to comment
LumberJackSker Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 why would you set your hopes so high just hope for a 9 win seanon then if a 11 or 12 win season actually happens you could be even happier also if we hap a top 25 run defense i would be the happiest fan in the world Quote Link to comment
It'sNotAFakeID Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 I guess i should've thrown a disclaimer on this: these aren't expectations, they're bold predictions. Quote Link to comment
Mavric Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 9-11 wins. At least one blow out loss. Any criticism of the flat program trajectory decried as "Bo Haterz!" We've been here before. If you expect more than that you're probably setting yourself up for yet another disappointing season. Anyways. Just like last year and the year before that . . . I sure hope that I'm wrong and the people less cynical than myself are correct. We're talking bold predictions here. Not "things that have happened the last 10 years and will happen again" predictions. (Just really wanted a reason to use that emoticon ) Quote Link to comment
LumberJackSker Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I guess i should've thrown a disclaimer on this: these aren't expectations, they're bold predictions. i see you dont exect it to happen just predicting it....i hope all these predictions happen Quote Link to comment
NUinID Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Nebraska will play in a BCS Bowl Game, possibly the National Championship. This is probably the boldest of the bold predictions (still one more to come), but if we finish the regular season undefeated, we could very well meet an undefeated Ohio State in the conference championship game. If that's the case, we'll go to a BCS Bowl regardless of if we win our lose. If we can beat Urban Meyer's bromance will Braxton Miller and the Buckeyes, we could very well be going to Pasadena (and not to the Rose Bowl). The other side of the division is still up for grabs IMO, but tOSU is still favored to win that division on my end too. I just don't see tOSU going undefeated. Meyer runs Miller too reckless, and he will be out with a season ending injury, or be too banged up to win the important games down the stretch, like Michigan, being led by a stout Gardner. Michigan will only be better than what they are this year. They will be basing their offense off of Gardner, hence why they will be going back a Pro Style. tOSU will still have the same problems they had last year, and possibly more. I think tOSU will still have tackling issues in open space and have trouble controlling the line, allowing offensive lines to push them around. Offensively, they will need someone other than Miller to be a huge danger in the backfield to go undefeated. Mark my words, they will not be undefeated. Biggest reason will be because of Meyer abusing Miller's capabilities. I don't think really any of your predictions are too bold or unrealistic. The Heisman part will be the most difficult in my opinion. Top 25 defense in a whole might be tough, but we should fair with a stout secondary (Top 5) and possibly a top 30 rush defense. On average, could pull us a top 25 defense. At the worst, we should only lose one game next year, that could be Michigan, but their offense plays into our defense very well. Will be a good game. UCLA will be an easy win. Our home and we are better. We now know how Mora runs his team. Advantage we didn't have last year. New coach, completely new style and didn't know what to expect. GBR!!!! I tend to agree about tOSU. I think they drop a couple in the regular season. They got pretty lucky 3-4 times this year and could have lost. I still think they win their division. Michigan will be good, I don't think there defense will be as good though. MSU loses a lot on that defense and I am not seeing the offense being a ton better. Northwestern should be good, they should be a very solid team with a lot of offensive fire power. You know they will play sound, if not spectacular defense. Quote Link to comment
Count 'Bility Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Based on Nebraska's unkown's and Michigan St's losses talent-wise, Northwestern just has to be considered a legitimate threat to win the Legends. Quote Link to comment
ADS Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 So what did you put in your kool-aid? Quote Link to comment
GSG Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 So what did you put in your kool-aid? Meth 1 Quote Link to comment
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