2019 Pundit Predictions

[WyoHusker56]

26 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

MSN: Nebraska Sucks and Watch Out for Minnesota (or something like that)

 

"Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska.

The college football world is having a love affair with a team that went 4-8 last season and has massive question marks on defense coming into the season, but..."

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaafb/college-football-2019-five-dangerous-teams-no-one-is-talking-about/ar-AAFJrar?ocid=ientp

 

Definitely going to be keeping an eye on Minnesota leading up to our match up. I agree they are set up to seemingly surprise people even if it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

[everybody knows my name]

13 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

The sentence you leave with elipses points ends with "it just seems like a matter of time until the pivot to greatness is made" lol

 

Yeah, there's no question when you read it that the "but" is going to be that Nebraska is turning it around.  I think that my Gophers are a step ahead of Nebraska in building something special, but we have to work extra hard to stay ahead, because Nebraska is (not this year but maybe next) going to turn the corner and be great soon.

[Nebfanatic]

5 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

Yeah, there's no question when you read it that the "but" is going to be that Nebraska is turning it around.  I think that my Gophers are a step ahead of Nebraska in building something special, but we have to work extra hard to stay ahead, because Nebraska is (not this year but maybe next) going to turn the corner and be great soon.

Y'all are going to have a great year but I would hesitate to say you are a step ahead. Coaches at least equal we have better QB and better team talent. We are both in year 2 since Fleck needed year 0

[everybody knows my name]

2 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

Y'all are going to have a great year but I would hesitate to say you are a step ahead. Coaches at least equal we have better QB and better team talent. We are both in year 2 since Fleck needed year 0

 

When you say you have better team talent you're going by recruiting rankings, not performance on the field.  I think if you stacked them up position-by-position, based on performance, Minnesota comes out on top.  You do have a better QB, though.

[4skers89]

4 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

Yeah, there's no question when you read it that the "but" is going to be that Nebraska is turning it around.  I think that my Gophers are a step ahead of Nebraska in building something special, but we have to work extra hard to stay ahead, because Nebraska is (not this year but maybe next) going to turn the corner and be great soon.

Before reading the article I thought the sentence would end with "but what about the pesky gophers".   Minny was all over the place with wins and losses last season so I don't know what to expect this season.

[NUinID]

16 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

 

Don't think I've seen an msn article in a decade! I'm sure they are very good though, definitely not just picking Minnesota to be different and attract clicks.

 

In all seriousness though I'm surprised Minnesota isn't a trendier pick, they've got a path to win the West. I think the main problem is the other teams have either done that relatively recently (Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern) or have exciting young players and young coaches (Nebraska, Purdue). Minnesota absolutely has talent, but regardless of how good he is Tyler Johnson is less exciting than Rondale Moore or Adrian Martinez.

 

Yesterday on the last day of Sharp and Benning they had their "analytics guy" on to talk B1G football.  He was high on Nebraska and Iowa with NW and Wisconsin and Purdue at the next level.  He wasn't actually that high on Minnesota, he had them picked 6th.   This guy is really high on QB play. 

 

Personally I think Minnesota because of their easy crossover schedule has to be thought of as a west contender. 

 

I think Wisconsin struggles for the same reason they finally have to play more than one of the big boys from the other side.  Wisconsin's defense is going to struggle some I think this year.  They don't have the studs at Lb like they have had.  For 3-4 years running they trotted 4 guys that looked exactly the same out on the field.  All of them were 6'3" 240 could run and had a nasty streak.  TJ Edwards was really the only one that looked like that last year and now he is gone.  They don't have the WR to take the pressure off of Taylor either.  He'll get his yards but is going to take a pounding this year.  I love the fact that Nebraska gets them in game 10 right after playing Iowa.  I don't see Wisconsin at any better than 8-4. I think that is top end for them.  

 

I see 8-4 for Nebraska as I said earlier, but I think that is the low end.  I don't think they lose more than 4 games.  

[Husker in WI]

4 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

When you say you have better team talent you're going by recruiting rankings, not performance on the field.  I think if you stacked them up position-by-position there's no question that Minnesota comes out on top.  You do have a better QB, though.

 

Where is Minnesota better other than WR and S? I think this is a case where neither team has a lot of proven players, so each fanbase is going to prefer their own team. We all believe the young players on our own team are going to be great, and we have no idea who the guys on the other teams are outside of past contributors and a few highly touted recruits.

 

I could see an argument for RB, but I'd call that a push at best. Ibrahim obviously had more yards than Washington, but he just had more opportunities. The YPC is similar and receiving definitely in Washington's favor.

 

Minny probab'y has the best individual d-lineman in Coughlin, but outside of Safety I'd still take Nebraska's position groups across the board. You'd probably do the opposite, but then it's not really "no question." I'd actually even take our safeties (I do love Winfield, but he's really the only guy), but I can recognize that's blind optimism more than anything objective.

[everybody knows my name]

1 minute ago, Husker in WI said:

 

Where is Minnesota better other than WR and S? I think this is a case where neither team has a lot of proven players, so each fanbase is going to prefer their own team. We all believe the young players on our own team are going to be great, and we have no idea who the guys on the other teams are outside of past contributors and a few highly touted recruits.

 

I could see an argument for RB, but I'd call that a push at best. Ibrahim obviously had more yards than Washington, but he just had more opportunities. The YPC is similar and receiving definitely in Washington's favor.

 

Minny probab'y has the best individual d-lineman in Coughlin, but outside of Safety I'd still take Nebraska's position groups across the board. You'd probably do the opposite, but then it's not really "no question." I'd actually even take our safeties (I do love Winfield, but he's really the only guy), but I can recognize that's blind optimism more than anything objective.

 

Offense

QB: edge Nebraska - no question your guy is a weapon, while our guy (Morgan) is functional.  Neither team has great depth.

OL: edge Minnesota - we were okay for half of 2018, then tremendous when Faalele started playing.  Between the two teams I think the three best OL (Connor Olson, Blaise Andries, Daniel Faalale) are all Gophers.

RB: edge Minnesota - Ibrahim exceeded 1000 yards as a freshman, then there's Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks - those three are all killers.

TE: even

WR: edge Minnesota - I like Spielman a lot, but he's only one guy.  You're going to miss Stanley Morgan a lot.  Tyler Johnson is better than Spielman, Rashod Bateman is better than Johnson was at the same point in his career, and Demetrius Douglas and Chris Autman-Bell both have great potential.

 

Defense

DL: edge Nebraska - but only slightly.  You have better talent overall, while we have the best individual player in Coughlin.

LB: edge Minnesota - our boys are going to excel this year.  Thomas Barber and Kamal Martin are experienced and both will probably see the field in the NFL, and Thomas Rush looks like the next big thing.  Your LB corps is pretty good, could be very good, but not equal to ours in 2019.

CB: edge Minnesota - this wasn't a strength for either team last year, but we cleaned up our schemes and got much better in the last few games.  Your CB performance needs to improve; ours already did.

S: What you said is fair.  Winfield is probably the best Safety in the B1G, but nobody knows it yet.  The balance of this group favors Nebraska, but Winfield is a huge wildcard.  edge Minnesota.

 

Special Teams

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your kicking game is nothing special and neither is ours.  But we excelled last year in the return game.

[brophog]

1 minute ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

Offense

QB: edge Nebraska - no question your guy is a weapon, while our guy (Morgan) is functional.  Neither team has great depth.

OL: edge Minnesota - we were okay for half of 2018, then tremendous when Faalele started playing.  Between the two teams I think the three best OL (Connor Olson, Blaise Andries, Daniel Faalale) are all Gophers.

RB: edge Minnesota - Ibrahim exceeded 1000 yards as a freshman, then there's Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks - those three are all killers.

TE: even

WR: edge Minnesota - I like Spielman a lot, but he's only one guy.  You're going to miss Stanley Morgan a lot.  Tyler Johnson is better than Spielman, Rashod Bateman is better than Johnson was at the same point in his career, and Demetrius Douglas and Chris Autman-Bell both have great potential.

 

Defense

DL: edge Nebraska - but only slightly.  You have better talent overall, while we have the best individual player in Coughlin.

LB: edge Minnesota - our boys are going to excel this year.  Thomas Barber and Kamal Martin are experienced and both will probably see the field in the NFL, and Thomas Rush looks like the next big thing.  Your LB corps is pretty good, could be very good, but not equal to ours in 2019.

CB: edge Minnesota - this wasn't a strength for either team last year, but we cleaned up our schemes and got much better in the last few games.  Your CB performance needs to improve; ours already did.

S: What you said is fair.  Winfield is probably the best Safety in the B1G, but nobody knows it yet.  The balance of this group favors Nebraska, but Winfield is a huge wildcard.  edge Minnesota.

 

Special Teams

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your kicking game is nothing special and neither is ours.  But we excelled last year in the return game.

 

How in the hell did you only win 7 games?

[everybody knows my name]

Just now, brophog said:

 

How in the hell did you only win 7 games?

 

We had a very, very bad defensive coordinator.  We lost major blowouts to Maryland, Nebraska, and Illinois.

[BigRedBuster]

@Husker in WI and @everybody knows my name....great discussion.  That's what I love about college football and wish we had more discussions like this.

 

Every fan should be excited about their team this time of year and be optimistic.  It's great that in a couple weeks, we actually get to start seeing if any of us know what the heck we are talking about.

 

FYI...I really don't know anything about Minny's team.  However, I firmly believe our O line will be greatly improved.  They are bigger, stronger and more athletic than we have seen in a number of years.  The scheme will also put them in a much better position to succeed.  I also think, because our D line will be good, our LBs will all of a sudden look much better.  

Overall, we will be a much more physical and mentally tough team.  This will basically make it look like we are more athletic across the board.

 

Now, I'll go back to sipping my cool aid and ever clear.  

[Nebfanatic]

18 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

Offense

QB: edge Nebraska - no question your guy is a weapon, while our guy (Morgan) is functional.  Neither team has great depth.

OL: edge Minnesota - we were okay for half of 2018, then tremendous when Faalele started playing.  Between the two teams I think the three best OL (Connor Olson, Blaise Andries, Daniel Faalale) are all Gophers.

RB: edge Minnesota - Ibrahim exceeded 1000 yards as a freshman, then there's Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks - those three are all killers.

TE: even

WR: edge Minnesota - I like Spielman a lot, but he's only one guy.  You're going to miss Stanley Morgan a lot.  Tyler Johnson is better than Spielman, Rashod Bateman is better than Johnson was at the same point in his career, and Demetrius Douglas and Chris Autman-Bell both have great potential.

 

Defense

DL: edge Nebraska - but only slightly.  You have better talent overall, while we have the best individual player in Coughlin.

LB: edge Minnesota - our boys are going to excel this year.  Thomas Barber and Kamal Martin are experienced and both will probably see the field in the NFL, and Thomas Rush looks like the next big thing.  Your LB corps is pretty good, could be very good, but not equal to ours in 2019.

CB: edge Minnesota - this wasn't a strength for either team last year, but we cleaned up our schemes and got much better in the last few games.  Your CB performance needs to improve; ours already did.

S: What you said is fair.  Winfield is probably the best Safety in the B1G, but nobody knows it yet.  The balance of this group favors Nebraska, but Winfield is a huge wildcard.  edge Minnesota.

 

Special Teams

Correct me if I'm wrong, but your kicking game is nothing special and neither is ours.  But we excelled last year in the return game.

If you think your CBs improved down the stretch and ours didn't you weren't paying attention. One of my many gripes with this list but its the biggest one. Husker corners performed very well in the last 6 games and I expect them to be one of the best duos in the BIG this season.

 

Aside from that, I think teams will be taken by surprise a bit by our team speed this year. I think we will be a fair amount faster than we have been in some time. 

[everybody knows my name]

28 minutes ago, Nebfanatic said:

If you think your CBs improved down the stretch and ours didn't you weren't paying attention. One of my many gripes with this list but its the biggest one. Husker corners performed very well in the last 6 games and I expect them to be one of the best duos in the BIG this season.

 

Aside from that, I think teams will be taken by surprise a bit by our team speed this year. I think we will be a fair amount faster than we have been in some time. 

 

What you need to do then, is provide your own analysis that shows more knowledge of both teams than mine did.

[brophog]

49 minutes ago, everybody knows my name said:

 

We had a very, very bad defensive coordinator. 

 

That held Iowa and Ohio St to under 3 yards per rush. Some of those kinds of stats between the two DCs has made me very leery of that explanation as I looked at teams this offseason.

[everybody knows my name]

15 minutes ago, brophog said:

 

That held Iowa and Ohio St to under 3 yards per rush. Some of those kinds of stats between the two DCs has made me very leery of that explanation as I looked at teams this offseason.

 

Every defense has better games and worse games.  But when you give up  42, 48, 30, 53, 31, and 55 points in consecutive games, it's a trend.

 

Husker fans seem to think that hanging 53 on the Gophers last year was something great, but two weeks later Illinois scored 55 on us.  Illinois!  No wonder Robb Smith got fired.  Then they gave up 10, 24, 15, and 10 in the remaining four games.  That's a trend, too.