Your hopes for this season

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HuskerExpat

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Just to keep things in perspective, I was wondering what everyone was hoping for at the beginning of the year. I thought we needed to do three things to have a successful season.

1. Win the division

2. Beat the teams we should beat

3. Beat a team we're not expected to beat

We might be about to accomplish 1. We failed 2 by losing to Iowa State, but the manner in which we lost that was pretty flukish, so not the end of the world. I'm not sure if beating Oklahoma satisfies 3, but maybe. Certainly a win at VTech would have qualified, but one horrible mistake changed the outcome of that game.

So I think we're still on track for what I think were realistic expectations for our team this year.

What were your realistic expectations?

 
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I was pretty much thinking 1-3 as well.

Before the season I figured a win over Va Tech or Oklahoma would satisfy 3.

I included the Sun Belt, Baylor, Iowa State, CU, K State, KU, and Mizzou in number 2. I didn't think any of those teams would really be worth a damn, except for KU, but I figured we'd still beat them.

Texas Tech was a toss-up for me. I'm not happy about the way they lost, but I also am not surprised they lost.

In the summer, if you had told me they would be 7-3 in November, I wouldn't have been surprised. The only weird thing is that stupid ISU game. sh#t.

 
Beating Oklahoma absolutely satisfies #3. NOBODY thought we had a chance to this year. Landry Jones or not. 2 out of 3 ain't bad - but we'd better win out.

 
Back in the August I caught a lot of flack for the following comment below. I tried to warn people about the NU is back epidemic that was sweeping Huskerland.

In 2008, Nebraska was 9-4 with the bowl win.

If we take out the bowl opponent, Clemson, the combined record of NU opponents in 2008 was 85-68.

Those same opponents had a combined record of 86-68 the year before. Without Clemson, six of those teams were in 2008 bowl games and five of those teams were at bowls in 2007.

When you look at the combined record of those opponents that NU lost to had a record of 43-12 in 2008 and 43-10 in 2007.

The opponents that NU defeated had a combined record of 42-56 in 2008 and 43-56 in 2007.

What these numbers tell me is that if Nebraska shows no improvement or even slides a little bit, they will lose to all the teams that had double digit wins and defeat the teams that didn't.

In order to say the “SKERS” are back

I need to see the Huskers win one of these four games this year: Virginia Tech, Missouri, Texas Tech, or Oklahoma.

In addition to that, they can't slip up on any of the other games. It they do they are going to have to steal two of the big games.

In 2009, NU opponents have a combined 2008 record of 86-67.

A double digit win season starts to put Nebraska in the same sentence as Texas Tech, Texas, and Oklahoma.

SEP 5 Florida Atlantic | Finished 6-6 (4-3)

SEP 12 Arkansas State | Finished 6-6 (4-3)

SEP 19 @ Virginia Tech | Last year 10 - 4 Record

SEP 26 La. Lafayette | Finished 6-6 (5-2)

OCT 3, 2009 - @ Missouri | Finished 10 - 4 (5-3)

OCT 17 Texas Tech | Finished 11- 2 (7-1)

OCT 24 Iowa State | Finished 2-10 (0-8)

OCT 31 @ Baylor*** | Finished 4-8 (2-6)

NOV 7 Oklahoma | Finished 12-2 (7-1)

NOV 14 @ Kansas | Finished 8-5 (4-4)

NOV 21 Kansas State | Finished 5-7 (2-6)

NOV 27 @ Colorado | Finished 5-7 (2-6)

***: Don’t be to sure

BOLD: Time with more than 10 wins

Note all three none conference game are against the Sun Belt Conference (Florida Atlantic and Arkansas State were tied for third place)

Based on my statement above we didn't get better (Strictly wins and loses) None of our opponents will have 10 win regular seasons. We still have a chance to knock off a 10 win team in Texas. We also lost 2 games we shouldn't have lost. Yes we beat MU 2-4 in conference and 6 - 4 overall and Oklahoma 4 - 2 in conference and 6 - 4 overall. But I don't know about those wins justifying #3

 
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I agree with the OP assessment. I figured we would split VT and OU and lose another two games along the way. So currently we are at my threshold for losses to be taken. I certainly did not see the ISU game coming, but as the OP said that was flukey and wont likely happen agian in my lifetime. For me to feel satisfied we must win these next two games and make a good showing in the B12 CCG.

 
I remember feeling pretty satisfied at the end of last season, but thinking that the drop off in offensive skill players suggested the '09 team shouldn't be expected to do better and could easily do worse.

That being said, I started drinking the Kool-Aid with a healthy Helu and a Zac Lee who appeared already up to speed in his early starts and would only get better. But those Tech and Iowa State losses (and the Baylor and Oklahoma wins) were the offensive equivalent of those horrific defensive meltdowns in '07. For that reason alone this season is a dissapointment. But if they close out the North, don't lose too badly to Texas, and go out on a high with a decent bowl game I will feel at least as good as last year.

This team can't possibly feel cocky about Kansas State and Colorado. The level of focus and discipline will be the real test of Pelini.

 
We are extremely close to having a one lose season. and other than ISU, the other two loses are forgivable. the only problem with this season is that even when we win, we did not play like we should have won. i think we will be pretty pleased at the end of the season, with a lot of hope and excitement for next year.

 
NoKoolAidForME said:
Based on my statement above we didn't get better (Strictly wins and loses) None of our opponents will have 10 win regular seasons. We still have a chance to knock off a 10 win team in Texas. We also lost 2 games we shouldn't have lost. Yes we beat MU 2-4 in conference and 6 - 4 overall and Oklahoma 4 - 2 in conference and 6 - 4 overall. But I don't know about those wins justifying #3
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I basically agree with what you've said, but you have to consider a few things. The season isn't over yet. We haven't been embarrassed by anyone yet. Losing to Vtech by one player's mental fart on one play isn't even in the same stratosphere as the way we lost to Oklahoma last year. If we can finish this year without being embarrassed like that, it will be a huge step forward, notwithstanding the records of the teams we played...

 
3rd year in a row of superb coaching the defense by Bo.

Worst year I've ever seen coaching the offense. SW and the wco gotta go.

 
bshirt said:
Worst year I've ever seen coaching the offense. SW and the wco gotta go.
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SW is a good OC the offense is no where near it was last year but look at what we lost

2 good QB'S. Ganz to graduation and Spano to injury

2 good HB'S. Lucky to graduation Castile to decipline

2 best WR'S. Peterson and Swift to graduation

2 best OL'S. Murtha and Slauson to graduation

Show me any OC in the nation that could sustain any type of good offense after loosing all that.

As for the original question my expectations were for a 9-3 in the regular season and win the divison didn't get there the way I expected but we could still do it. And don't forget the team is 5 points away from being 9-1 right now. If we were 9-1 we could be having serious talks about a nc next year

 
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my expectations for this team was for us to transcend from meritocracy to back to excellence.

no that may seem a tall order but i see it fulfilled in some ways.

to start the Defense has thus far played excellent and very smart football most of the time. and through out the year has shown improvement.

I can echo the same for our special teams, steady improvement but far from i think it will be soon.

my only real gripe is, like most fans, our offense. But over time i have come to believe this a result of not bad personnel or bad coaching. but the evolution of the game. Defenses have come to solve the spread and its intricacies. as seen around the nation offenses like Florida, Texas, as well as Texas Tech's all have struggled to put up the epic amount of points on a consistent basis like they did last year.

So, in hind sight i see this a year of improvement in the program, alot of my hopes have materialized or are in the process of doing so.

 
I can't remember exactly what I was thinking for this season...

I believe I wanted to see us competitive in all games with continued effort and improvement. North division title was optional for me.

The defense has definitely come along better than I expected. The offense not so much, but can see now I was greatly underestimating what the loss of some good players from last season would mean. Still, if the offense puts in good shows these next couple games, I'll feel better there.

I think I felt like an 8 win regular season was most likely, followed by a 9 win, and then a possible 7 win. We're definitely more than capable of winning our last two, so that's looking good.

 
Heading into the season:

I thought we would beat the Sun Belt Teams, Kansas, K-State, Colorado, ISU and Baylor. I thought we had a good shot to beat Missouri, Texas Tech and Virginia Tech. I thought we would lose to Oklahoma.

I thought our defense would be not just good, but incredible. I thought our DTs would be the best in the country and our DEs would be wreaking havoc throughout the backfield. I thought our

I thought our offense would be fine, with a mix of Spread and Zone Read. I thought our TEs were going to be a HUGE part of our passing game, creating mismatches across the field.

I thought Helu had something to prove as the feature back - could he stay healthy, did all that extra weight equate to durability, etc.

I thought Bo would have at least one more sideline meltdown that cost us 15 yards.

I thought Watson had the offense figured out walking into the season this year.

I thought we would play a rematch against Oklahoma for the conference championship.

 
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