CFN really, really, really early B1G schedule breakdowns

[papersun87]

Why is everyone so afraid of Northwestern? The thing that really has hurt Nebraska against them the last 3 years is gone. Cain Colter has used up his eligibility. They will be a decent FB team that needs to be taken seriously, but if they are taken seriously they should be a win.

Because while they may not be explosive, they're a solid team who plays hard, disciplined football and doesn't make stupid mistakes (y'know, besides leaving Westerkamp alone in the end zone). Nebraska's sloppy, penalty- and turnover-prone, and teams like Northwestern will always present a thread to teams like Nebraska.

If anyone's interested I crunched some numbers (specifically, Bill Connelly's F/+ projections) and assembled a chart analyzing strength of schedule for the B1G teams in 2014. http://nocoastbias.c...4-b1g-sos-proj/

Connor Cook is a sophomore you guys. Michigan State has a top tier defense every year. I think people will begin to realize how under rated Cook is soon enough.

lol

Edit. I misread "under rated" as "over rated" because I am an idiot. This post is correct and I change to meaning of my "lol" to "lol yeah, we're screwed."

 

[Excel]

Might be the first time I've seen Wisconsin picked so highly when I feel that they shouldn't be. Too many defensive losses. I'll be happy with 10-2 but could see 9-3 happening again. Definite losses to LSU. Might lose to either Iowa or Nebraska and knowing us we'll probably drop another game we shouldn't. That said, I still think we can win the west. Probably a 40-50% chance.

 

[huskered17]

Saunders 45. I was thinking along the same lines. Those type teams we used to own. {Miami not so much}. Different era different coaches I know. We have what I think is a good defense, that's starting to figure out how to play Bo's style. I think the offense is set, as long as we cut way down on the turnovers. That can be fixed. 3 loses next season will be a big disappoint, I think. At least it will be to me.

GBR!!!

 

[Mavric]

I guess I'm in the minority here. I think that the B1G gave us one of the tougher league schedules they could have. With all of the uncertainty on this squad, there are quite a few games I think are toss ups.

really? i'm not sure you could come up with a schedule that is easier. maybe flip the home/away games I guess - but the teams on this schedule are as weak as any schedule we will ever get in the B1G.

Why? Because we don't play Ohio State?

We have last year's Rose Bowl champion on the road, plus last year's #3 team (away), #4 team (away) and #6 team (home). Considering we were #5, we play four of the top five teams we could have played and three of them are on the road. And there were three really bad teams in the conference last year plus two newbies that aren't exepected to be at the top so we were bound to get several of the jumbled mess at the bottom.

We're going to play most of those regardless...they're in our division. Sure, we could have switched out MSU with Indiana or something...but come on, this is about as easy as it will ever get for us. We play last years #12 team, last years #11 team, last years #10 team, last years #8 team, plus Rutgers. So based on last year, we got the 3 worst, plus 1 of the new comers and Minnesota (home). That should be the equivalent of handing us a 5-0 record. That leaves 3 others, 2 of which are in our division so we're playing them every year anyways, and 1 is after a bye. And I like the idea of opening up conference play with a solid team like MSU. Should set the tone for the season.

Like I said, the home/away could have been switched up and made it a little easier - but it would have almost been doing us a disservice. Look what handing Ohio State an 8-0 record last year did for them.

There are eight conference games - six in your own division, two from the other. In the supposedly easily superior East division are the two best teams from last year (MSU, tOSU), two mid level teams that we beat last year (Mich, PSU) and a jumbled mess at the bottom (IU, Mary, RU). I doubt we would have ever had MSU/OSU in the same year on an eight game schedule (we do in 2018 on a nine game schedule when we have MSU-OSU-Mich). So they gave us the conference champ from last year and one from the bottom tier. It could have been tougher if we had either Mich or PSU instead of Rutgers but it could have been quite a bit easier if we traded MSU for anyone but tOSU, especially if it would have been IU or RU. So it's basically middle-of-the road if not slightly above.

 

[hskrfan4life]

Saunders 45. I was thinking along the same lines. Those type teams we used to own. {Miami not so much}. Different era different coaches I know. We have what I think is a good defense, that's starting to figure out how to play Bo's style. I think the offense is set, as long as we cut way down on the turnovers. That can be fixed. 3 loses next season will be a big disappoint, I think. At least it will be to me.

GBR!!!

Same for me. I think we should not have 3 losses.