BYU

[The Dude]

Should be a great game. BYU was a Heisman-QB-candidate-injury away from a 10- (or even 11- or 12-) win season last year, and I expect they will light up a defense adjusting to a new scheme. Regardless of whether Pelini or Riley led our team onto the field, this game was going to be a challenge.

Our front 7 on defense will be weak and lack depth. I'm optimistic Riley's attacking scheme will help some, but the better teams on the schedule should be able to fend off our attacks. Our lack of depth means BYU's offense will open up holes in the defense by the 2nd half, and BYU will win by 10 points.

I am very optimistic for the Riley era, but this first season will not be a cake walk.

And we also would have won 12 games if we played that joke of a schedule they had. What's your point? BYU is an average team at best with a decent schedule.

He explicitly said this game is going to be a challenge. I think that's his point.
I think if BYU plays like they did against Texas last year, and we play like we did against MacNeese State (or Wisconsin or Michigan State or Minnesota or Iowa, ect.), it's entirely possible they could kick the sh#t out of us.

Personally, I would be more worried of Bo were still here.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

Hey, there is a reason the line is where it is...most people think this game will be close. I love the line if it stays under -7

 

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

New system or not, the fact they have a qb that is fast as sh#t and can throw should scare any husker fans. We have been historically terrible at dealing with them.

 

[alwayshusking]

It'll be a tough game, especially when you consider it's the opener for a new coach. Hill is a better runner than passer imo. Hopefully we can force him to beat us through the air. I feel better about this new defensive scheme doing that than Bo's. This would be a bad matchup for Bo's defenses. They are a more explosive version of Minnesota with Hill back.

 

[knapplc]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I get what you are saying Knapp...but if NU loses to BYU...you and I both know that there will be majorly strong reactions.

 

[KazLong]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

 

[KazLong]

I get what you are saying Knapp...but if NU loses to BYU...you and I both know that there will be majorly strong reactions.

If it happens, expect the Pelini, fans to come back and want to relitigate it.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I get what you are saying Knapp...but if NU loses to BYU...you and I both know that there will be majorly strong reactions.

If it happens, expect the Pelini, fans to come back and want to relitigate it.

If it is some ugly loss where they look all out of sorts, it will get a very ugly reaction from a lot of people. But, I don't see it happening. I see a Husker win 24-17

 

[jsneb83]

I think this will have a Wyoming 2013 feel to it, where this will be BYU's "Super Bowl" and they will be devoting their entire off season to this game. At least this time we don't have much film on the new schemes.

 

[zoogs]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

I share some of these concerns, but I really hope 2015 is not a throwaway year. That will really be getting off on the wrong foot for Riley. Let's at least (approximately) hold serve, if not demonstrate clear improvement.

 

[Saunders]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

I share some of these concerns, but I really hope 2015 is not a throwaway year. That will really be getting off on the wrong foot for Riley. Let's at least (approximately) hold serve, if not demonstrate clear improvement.

Yup. That sounds eerily familiar to 2004 and Callahan's attitude towards rebuilding. We aren't devoid of talent like we were 11 years ago, not by a long shot. On paper we've got more raw talent than everyone save Miami. Even if we lose to that and our talent peers (MSU and UW), that still lives 9 wins over lesser talented teams. When I hear guys like Sipple talk about Minnesota winning the west, I roll my eyes, because it sounds like they are sandbagging already. I fully expect 8+ wins this year in the regular season.

 

[SuperBigFan69]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

I share some of these concerns, but I really hope 2015 is not a throwaway year. That will really be getting off on the wrong foot for Riley. Let's at least (approximately) hold serve, if not demonstrate clear improvement.

Yup. That sounds eerily familiar to 2004 and Callahan's attitude towards rebuilding. We aren't devoid of talent like we were 11 years ago, not by a long shot. On paper we've got more raw talent than everyone save Miami. Even if we lose to that and our talent peers (MSU and UW), that still lives 9 wins over lesser talented teams. When I hear guys like Sipple talk about Minnesota winning the west, I roll my eyes, because it sounds like they are sandbagging already. I fully expect 8+ wins this year in the regular season.

Saunders, what do you mean by sandbagging? Are you saying you think Sipple is already trying to kind of make excuses for Riley?

 

[BigRedBuster]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

I share some of these concerns, but I really hope 2015 is not a throwaway year. That will really be getting off on the wrong foot for Riley. Let's at least (approximately) hold serve, if not demonstrate clear improvement.

I share some of the same concerns as Knapp but where he is pessimistic, I'm optimistic. We have talent on this team and they have played football before. It's not like Riley is coming into a program that has absolutely no clue how to win games. This team has lost some games over the last few years. However, they have also won one heck of a lot of them also.

Yes, Ameer is gone. But, we also have some very good talent at that position coming back.

Yes, maybe our QB isn't as polished as theirs. But, he also has won us some games and is battle tested. It's not like he is making his first start in college.

Yes, we are somewhat rebuilding our O line. However, I believe we are doing so with equal or better talent than our starters of last year (as a group) along with better coaching.

yes, our linebacker is shaky. But, it's not like we don't have talent there. We just don't have depth. If we can get through fall camp without major injuries to this group, we should be fine at least for the first game.

Now, I agree that if we lose, I'm not going to get all worked up and pissy. It's the first game of a new coach's era. It's a crap shoot how that first game is going to go. I will be frustrated if it's a "throw away year". I don't see a reason why we can't win 8-10 games this year and if so, I don't consider that a "throw away" year.

 

[Redux]

I must be the only person expecting this to be a loss. BYU holds all the cards here: Established schemes on both sides of the ball, no chaos in the program, they've beaten more-talented teams recently (Texas), their guys are older and bigger, and they have no major depth issues that I'm aware of.

We have a shake (at best) LB corps, we're rebuilding our O-Line, we're replacing a generational talent at RB with what appears to be a RB-by-committee, we have to learn new schemes on both sides of the ball, our guys are still dealing with the mentality of the Pelini Era, and our QB is light-years behind theirs.

I'm expecting to lose this game. I won't be surprised if we lose big.

I also won't be worried about it, won't criticize Riley at all if we do, and won't use it as any kind of benchmark to judge how the Riley Era will go here. There's just so much stacked against us, so much going on aside from this game, that I frankly don't care if we lose, and I don't expect us to win.

This game is really meaningless. Anyone who loses their minds over a loss, or goes batsh*t insane over a win, is fooling themselves. This rebuilding period will take a while. 2015 is a throw-away year.

I almost gagged when you said Texas was more talented than us. More talent on roster yes, actually using said talent is debatable.

And I would hardly call this game meaningless. Its the season opener and the first game in 7 years We don't know what to expect. Maybe it isn't a great indicator of whats to come, but it is the catalyst for ehat we do this year. Rebuilidng season or not we need somethung to hang our coen cob hats on.