This event hasn’t gone to script yet, so a lot can still happen. On one side of the winners’ bracket is eighth-seeded Penn State.
However, in order for Nebraska to win today and hopefully tomorrow, players from every position on the roster will need to step up. Nebraska would return to action on Saturday at 9 a.m. against Indiana if it wins today.
“It’s the time of year where the players have to lead from the front,” Bolt stated. “They’ve got to lead on the field, they’ve got to lead with their words, they’ve got to lead with their actions and holding each other to a pretty high standard to try to win a championship.”
With eighteen teams this year, it will take a little more work to compile the Big Ten power rankings.
Seeing USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington mentioned there still seems a bit strange. When Nebraska plays both of the California teams in the crucial month of November, it will be even more bizarre.
But for the time being, prognostication season is still ongoing.
Following the conclusion of spring ball, Tom Fornelli of CBSSports and the well-liked Cover 3 Podcast placed the Huskers seventh in the league based on his estimation. Although the ranking wasn’t made with much conviction, it would indicate that Nebraska had a strong season and performed as well as some of those 7 1/2 win totals that are floating around.
“We’ve reached the portion of these rankings where you can toss these teams into a lottery ball machine, pick a random order and nearly all would be defensible,” Fornelli stated. “I’m putting Nebraska at the top not because it’s an annual tradition to get Husker fans’ hopes up, but because the addition of Dylan Raiola gives this offense a ceiling I’m not sure anybody else in this group has.”
Joel Klatt ranked the Huskers at No. 22 in his initial rankings, which we have previously discussed. Additionally, in his summer top 30, Brandon Marcello of 247Sports ranked Nebraska No. 25.
“We’ve reached the portion of these rankings where you can toss these teams into a lottery ball machine, pick a random order and nearly all would be defensible,” Fornelli wrote. “I’m putting Nebraska at the top not because it’s an annual tradition to get Husker fans’ hopes up, but because the addition of Dylan Raiola gives this offense a ceiling I’m not sure anybody else in this group has.”
We’ve already covered how Joel Klatt had the Huskers at No. 22 in his early, early rankings. Also, Brandon Marcello of 247Sports slotted Nebraska at No. 25 in his summer top 30.
I think Husker fans, in general, have done a good job of maintaining cautious optimism. There’s still that scar tissue from past years, but one advantage Nebraska could have – as Ethan Piper was pointing out while talking with Matt Rhule in his office not so long ago – is there were a lot of younger guys on the roster joined by those newcomers this year who don’t have any of those close loss wounds attached.
So a key part will be if this Husker squad doesn’t entertain those doubting thoughts late in tight games, or make excuses for being a victim when one bad play happens. As Rhule has said in interviews, just catch the snap, go block the punt, hit that in-cut and secure the rock. Go get it.
Last November’s finish was a tough punch to take in the moment, but Rhule has said there’s another side to that as NU springs forward with a mindset to change those games its way in 2024.
“That didn’t break you. Going 0-4 didn’t break you. We’re all still here. Everyone didn’t transfer. You didn’t die. People still love you,” Rhule said on Hurrdatt Sports recently. “So you know what, let’s not expect and wait for the worst to happen like those people who hear those bombs in the distance. Let’s walk down the street and take what you want.”
There will be a thin line of string between being, say, 7th in the league as Fornelli had Nebraska and, say, 15th.
I wouldn’t put Nebraska in my top 25 at this point, but understand why the Huskers are showing in spaces like that. It’s not just for clicks even though Husker fans will provide those on such rankings.
If you were a person in Boise, Idaho, ranking top 25 teams and wanted to show you know some things, you’d look at Nebraska and see top 10 defensive potential, what should be an assurance of improved QB play to some degree from the low bar last year, and that law of averages thinking that says both those things together should help even out a minus-17 turnover margin from a year ago. What if that number was just, you know, even? What does that do for an improved win total?
Let’s find out. People always talk about getting Nebraska back to a bowl game. Heck, give Husker fans the sight of a team that goes, like, plus-8 in turnover margin for one season. A lot of the other things would fall right in line with that stat in your pocket.
How much should fans get fired up about a Friday night home game?
And by fired up, I mean, perturbed since it’s always been something kind of guarded against around here to protect the night for high school football. Troy Dannen and Matt Rhule feel the same way about guarding that night, and Dannen spoke on that this week.
There’s also things beyond your control.
“We can be upset about it all we want, but we’re cashing a pretty large check from our television contract every year to set the price of that check,” Dannen said. “And so in order to fund what we want to do, you end up with a Friday night game here and there.”
That’s the long and short of it in a sentence. There are those times you can tell someone to kick rocks and there are times you keep any of those thoughts to yourself and make the most of what’s in front of you.
It’s going to happen. It’s going to be Nebraska’s 400th sellout. The positive is the Huskers have a chance to make it an electric atmosphere, even if it’s an unconventional way to celebrate a streak built almost entirely on fall Saturdays.
We all know how much juice there’s going to be for that Nebraska-Colorado game. This one will have it too, with an overflowing cup if the Huskers were to enter that game 3-0.
While talking juice, how about some Cam Juice? Props to the former Husker and now NFL standout Cam Taylor-Britt for finishing off his college degree.
He spoke to Cincinnati Bengals media about that achievement and being part of the Husker graduation ceremony this month.
Loved covering Cam while he was in Lincoln. You talk about great peer recruiters, he was one. And he and his family have always been proud to be associated with Husker football.
I remember when Cam finished his Pro Day interviews, his mom was standing nearby and she told me, “We’re going to miss this.”
The Friday night home game aside that is beyond Husker control, high school coaches in Nebraska have gotten a good sense of how much Rhule’s staff is looking locally and wanting to build those relationships.
NU has been diligent in making sure there’s a heavy awareness of those June camping opportunities for local prospects. Beyond that, Husker director of player personnel Keith Williams told us this week how much staffing Nebraska put even into the youth football camp in Omaha earlier this month.
Nebraska had 32 players and 40 staffers at that camp voluntarily. That sends a message.
Said Williams, “I think we’re doing a great job of pushing the direction of getting into the state, finding talent, also evaluating talent.”
