The student news website of Omaha Central High School
Huskers improving, good things to come

huskers.com

Huskers improving, good things to come

October 6, 2016

College football in Nebraska is similar to a religion for many people throughout the state. Every Saturday when a home game is taking place, nearly 100,000 people pack into Memorial stadium to cheer on the Huskers. As expected, while the season approaches, anticipation builds and all fans should be greatly optimistic for this season.

Although last season was a disappointment for most fans, this one looks to be better. For one, Mike Riley has had his first recruiting class come arrive, it is his first chance to really select the players he feels best fit the system he wants to implement. Although it has not been long enough where Riley recruited all players on the team, we should expect the few that he has enrolled to be much better and familiar with the system than those who graduated last year. Furthermore, returning players have had more time to become familiar with his schemes and what the coaching staff expects of them on offense and defense respectively.

While the schedule is significantly tougher than it was last year, I expect a 9-2 record out of the Huskers going into the Iowa game. Any team that travels to Lincoln should expect a tough game and not many teams are able to deal with the home field advantage afforded in Memorial stadium. This is why one should expect a win against Oregon, which is really the first test of the 2016 season. Moreover, Oregon’s recruiting classes have taken a fall since Chip Kelly departed for the NFL and they have trouble with physical teams. This physicality is something that Riley would like to establish as coach.

Though the Huskers may be able to sneak out a win against the Ducks, two games where fans should expect losses are Ohio State and Wisconsin. For one, they are both road games and both have home field advantages as big as that in Lincoln. Nebraska also has a poor history against both teams, suffering a couple blowouts against each in past important games.

Nebraska also faces road tests against Northwestern and Indiana; however, Northwestern is usually a home-like atmosphere due to the ability for home fans to easily travel for that matchup. Moreover, Indiana has not had much success in past years, but fans should not sleep on this game because it may turn out to be like Illinois last year or Minnesota in past years.

All this games bring us to the end of the season in an annual black Friday matchup versus Iowa. This will be an extremely tough game; Iowa had a successful season last year, finishing with a loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl after a narrow Big Ten championship defeat to Michigan State. On the other hand, the away team in this matchup has won the past four meetings. As a result, this game is particularly hard to predict and could go either way, especially depending on the momentum and state of Iowa’s team going into that game.

Even though last season was tough and Nebraska’s worst finish since Bill Callahan’s last season, fans should expect a better one this year. Gene Chizik had a similar mediocre season before leading Auburn to a 14-0 season and eventually national championship in his second year. I am not suggesting that something this dramatic will take place; however, as the players and coaches adjust to each other with one extra year of experience, fans should be ready for a dramatic improvement from last season.

The Register • Copyright 2024 • FLEX WordPress Theme by SNOLog in

Donate to The Register
$975
$1500
Contributed
Our Goal

Comments (0)

All The Register Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *