Fwiw, USC just had its Husker roundtable and between the 2 hosts and Dan Hoppen, Josh Harvey, and Mike Schaffer (I think),they gave out position grades to all positions and to the coaches. 3 equals a division championship caliber team, 4 being conference championship caliber,and 5 being national championship caliber.
As the team sits right now,they gave the team a 3.04 score. They pointed to this being a building year looking forward to next year being the make or break year. On a side note 4 of the 5 panelists gave the QB position a 2 grade, 1 panelist gave it a 3.
So, they could be wrong and the team could over achieve or progress, but I think that we need to not get too down on the team if they don't win the conference.