2019 Pundit Predictions

[WyoHusker56]

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

Dicaprio Bootle led the B1G in forced incompletion rate and was 7th in the nation at 27.1% with 15 passes defended. Granted he didn't grab an interception last year, but I'm guessing that changes this year. He was also 3rd team All B1G. Jackson had 7 passes defended and 2 interceptions and his play improved markedly after he was benched. I am guessing your starters will be Terrell Smith and Coney Durr? Smith had 1 interception and 8 passes defended, Durr had 2 interceptions and 5 passes defended.

If anything you could argue we are even at CB, but Bootle gets the edge as the best of the four. I don't see the argument that Minnesota has better CB.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Dicaprio Bootle led the B1G in forced incompletion rate and was 7th in the nation at 27.1% with 15 passes defended. Granted he didn't grab an interception last year, but I'm guessing that changes this year. He was also 3rd team All B1G. Jackson had 7 passes defended and 2 interceptions and his play improved markedly after he was benched. I am guessing your starters will be Terrell Smith and Coney Durr? Smith had 1 interception and 8 passes defended, Durr had 2 interceptions and 5 passes defended.

If anything you could argue we are even at CB, but Bootle gets the edge as the best of the four. I don't see the argument that Minnesota has better CB.

I would say we will see  our CBs fair much better in the passing game this year because the front 7 will be better.  Put that on top of the greatly improved team mentality.  

 

[Husker in WI]

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.

Fair points, and I think it just emphasizes how little we tend to know about opposing teams. I don't even know who Olson and Andries are, and if I had to pick the best 3 lineman across the teams I'd give you Faalale and take Brendan Jaimes and Boe Wilson. Technically I have a little more ground to stand on there as both the Nebraska guys were honorable mention all-conference last year while the Minnesota guys were not - but I'll freely admit I have no idea how good those guys are and honorable mentions aren't much to go on as far as awards. I'm probably also factoring injury problems too heavily for Smith and Brooks at RB, but you might be focusing too much on what they could do when healthy. Some guys don't fully come back from knee/foot problems.

We're obviously slower to believe the sudden defensive improvement for Minnesota is sustainable, and I'm sure quicker to believe in our second half improvements and counting on a year 2 jump that isn't a guarantee. It's finally going to be a fun division over the next few years, I don't think anyone other than Illinois is trending down.

 

[NUinID]

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.

I am not sure I agree with some of this.  

One thing that is huge and I mean huge in Nebraska's favor is QB.  It is not just an edge it is a game changing edge.  You know as well as everyone on this board that a great QB can be the difference between a great team and an average team.  Very few teams overcome a QB being "functional" as you put it to post a great season.  I don't think you know enough about McCaffery , that's Ed's son and Christian's little brother, or Noah Vedral as back ups.  No they are not AM, but I would take them over Morgan.  

I would actually give NU the edge at TE also.  They have a really good bunch.  I would say the unit when all said and done this year will be at least top 3 in the conference. 

I truly don't know much about Minnesota's secondary but I do know that Nebraska's will be a strength this year.  

I guess  the only place I really give Minnesota the edge is at RB and WR.  I give the Gophers the edge at RB because they are a known commodity and they are solid if not flashy.  Nebraska's RB room is pretty young, it is talented but pretty much untested.    Minny has a couple of really good WR, but they don't have a great QB to get them the ball.  NU will have a lot of depth.  

They don't play till what game 7.  A lot can happen in the first 6 games of the season.  Lets just see what happens . 

 

[BigRedBuster]

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

This really is something that is a mistake.  90% of the teams out there really have no clue how good their back up QB is.  So, almost nobody has proven depth at QB.

BUT....I believe we have as close as you can come to having good depth without actually seeing it on the field.  We have quite possibly the premier QB in the conference starting.  Behind him, we have  true freshman QB that could possibly be as good as our starter was as a Freshman if he's called upon because of injury.  Behind both of those, we have an athletic smart kid that knows the system very well and can be very serviceable.

I'm very comfortable with our QB situation and if 2AM goes down, I'm confident we won't see such a big drop off that we will lose a bunch of games because of it.

 

[everybody knows my name]

This really is something that is a mistake.  90% of the teams out there really have no clue how good their back up QB is.  So, almost nobody has proven depth at QB.

BUT....I believe we have as close as you can come to having good depth without actually seeing it on the field.  We have quite possibly the premier QB in the conference starting.  Behind him, we have  true freshman QB that could possibly be as good as our starter was as a Freshman if he's called upon because of injury.  Behind both of those, we have an athletic smart kid that knows the system very well and can be very serviceable.

I'm very comfortable with our QB situation and if 2AM goes down, I'm confident we won't see such a big drop off that we will lose a bunch of games because of it.

This is a reach.  If they're unproven, then the only thing you have to hang your hat on is that you think your backups are good.  I could play that game too, but what's the point?  Both teams have backup QBs who the coaches thought enough of to recruit them and offer them scholarships, but who haven't proved a thing on the field.

 

[MyBloodIsRed16]

 

[BigRedBuster]

This is a reach.  If they're unproven, then the only thing you have to hang your hat on is that you think your backups are good.  I could play that game too, but what's the point?  Both teams have backup QBs who the coaches thought enough of to recruit them and offer them scholarships, but who haven't proved a thing on the field.

Yeah.....but I drink red cool aid. 

 

[NUinID]

This is a reach.  If they're unproven, then the only thing you have to hang your hat on is that you think your backups are good.  I could play that game too, but what's the point?  Both teams have backup QBs who the coaches thought enough of to recruit them and offer them scholarships, but who haven't proved a thing on the field.

I don't think it is a reach at all.  Noah Vedral backed up Makenzie Milton at UCF as a true freshman and got quite a bit of PT time.  We know what he can do their is tape from 2 years ago showing what he can do.  Luke McCaffery is getting rave reviews so far, there is a lot being said about how much his throwing has improved.  I agree with Buster this is about as comfortable I have felt about QB in about 10 years.  

 

[Blackshirt316]

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.

Nebraska's secondary allowed opponents a 57.11% completion percentage last year. While not great thats a top 40 ranking despite a front 7 providing virtually zero pass rush.

Minnesota meanwhile, allowed opponents a 64.79% completion percentage. 117th worst in the nation.

And before you bring up the Gophers change at DC...

Over the final 3 games of the season Nebraska's secondary improved to a sparkling 45.74% cpa which puts them at #4 in the country over that span while Minnesota's cpa barely dipped at all, improving to just 63.64 - still well outside the top 100.

Minnesota's secondary isn't even in the same ballpark as Nebraska's.

 

[brophog]

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.

Scores are a second order stat, so they aren’t good at telling me why something happened, mostly just that it happened. I’m really only interested in the why and how repeatable something is.

 

[hskrfan4life]

Nebraska's secondary allowed opponents a 57.11% completion percentage last year. While not great thats a top 40 ranking despite a front 7 providing virtually zero pass rush.

Minnesota meanwhile, allowed opponents a 64.79% completion percentage. 117th worst in the nation.

And before you bring up the Gophers change at DC...

Over the final 3 games of the season Nebraska's secondary improved to a sparkling 45.74% cpa which puts them at #4 in the country over that span while Minnesota's cpa barely dipped at all, improving to just 63.64 - still well outside the top 100.

Minnesota's secondary isn't even in the same ballpark as Nebraska's.

That doesn't matter though because they have a new defensive coordinator remember? 

 

[Vince R.]

I don't even think Tyler Johnson is definitively better than JD. He is the better pro-prospect, but JD beats him in overall production in the last two years, and last years stats comparison would have been even closer had JD not gotten hurt. In addition, you add Noa and Wandale. Nebraska just has better overall prospects down the line that if they play to their potential or close to it, they get the nod. Also, despite Stanley having 1,000 yards last year, he wasn't the best fit for the O. Nebraska will be just fine without him. 

 

[brophog]

I don’t see the point comparing Johnson and JD. They’re both at the “just let me have one” standard. Phenomenal players in their own right.

Now, the Nebraska offense was a whole, that’s going to surprise those that aren’t paying attention. It's going to see a proper year 2 jump, and that jumping off point was already regularly producing 500 yard games.

 

[everybody knows my name]

I don’t see the point comparing Johnson and JD. They’re both at the “just let me have one” standard. Phenomenal players in their own right.

Now, the Nebraska offense was a whole, that’s going to surprise those that aren’t paying attention. It's going to see a proper year 2 jump, and that jumping off point was already regularly producing 500 yard games.

It's impossible for Nebraska's offensive to surprise anyone, with all the yapping you Husker fans do.  We already know that you have a Heisman-quality quarterback and the best WR in the Big Ten!