Talk about treacherous. Colorado will come to town in early September. But it's the Big Ten road games that really grab your attention: Michigan, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Ohio State, Iowa. For good measure, throw in a home game against Michigan State.
So, if Nebraska fans are feeling a bit edgy, it's hard to blame them. They can read metrics. ESPN last week released a statistical analysis of prominent coaching hires and how they fared with respect to point differential in their first 24 games relative to their predecessor's last 24 games. Riley, through his first 24 regular-season games at NU, has a plus-103 point differential. In comparison, during Bo Pelini's last 24 games at the school, he had a differential of plus-238 (and a record of 18-7).
Thus, the point differential through the first 24 regular-season games of the Riley era is 135 worse than the final 24 of Pelini's run.
In contrast, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh was 538 points better through his first 24 games than predecessor Brady Hoke.
That's not to say Pelini should still be Nebraska's coach. Most folks seem to know better. But Riley's 15-10 record isn't quite what the faithful had in mind.