From Stewart Mandel's MAILbag
Nebraska this year will have two games against top powers (at USC and Texas at home) to prove that they are back as a top-notch program. One, how do you think they will do in those games? And two, will Nebraska this year return to the top of crop in the Big 12 like it's used to?
-- Mike Bilesimo, Pittsburgh
I learned my lesson about trying to predict the outcome of games several months in advance with last year's Ohio State-Texas game. So I'm not going there. As for Nebraska in general, obviously the Huskers have got to be considered the preseason favorite in the Big 12 North. It's hard to believe, but Nebraska, once an annual national title contender, hasn't even won its division in seven years. But with quarterback Zac Taylor having a full year in Bill Callahan's West Coast offense under his belt and with some of Callahan's highly touted 2005 recruits ready to contribute, I certainly think the Huskers will be much improved.
That said, If I'm a Nebraska fan I'd still temper my enthusiasm just a bit. If you think the Huskers are suddenly going to leap back into the nation's elite this season, I think you're reading waaaay too much into one lopsided victory over a mediocre Colorado team and an admittedly exciting Alamo Bowl victory over a five-loss Michigan team. Let's not forget that only weeks before, the Huskers were losing 40-15 to Kansas and 41-24 to Missouri. The end-of-season run certainly showed signs of progress, but for Nebraska to beat a USC or Texas, its running game is going to have to improve immeasurably from a year ago, and the defense is going to have take the step up from decent to dominant. On paper, the defense certainly has the potential to do just that. I'm more skeptical about the running game. I-backs Marlon Lucky and Cody Glenn looked good in the spring game, but let's wait and see how they and their blockers do when the games count before making any grand proclamations.
-- Mike Bilesimo, Pittsburgh
I learned my lesson about trying to predict the outcome of games several months in advance with last year's Ohio State-Texas game. So I'm not going there. As for Nebraska in general, obviously the Huskers have got to be considered the preseason favorite in the Big 12 North. It's hard to believe, but Nebraska, once an annual national title contender, hasn't even won its division in seven years. But with quarterback Zac Taylor having a full year in Bill Callahan's West Coast offense under his belt and with some of Callahan's highly touted 2005 recruits ready to contribute, I certainly think the Huskers will be much improved.
That said, If I'm a Nebraska fan I'd still temper my enthusiasm just a bit. If you think the Huskers are suddenly going to leap back into the nation's elite this season, I think you're reading waaaay too much into one lopsided victory over a mediocre Colorado team and an admittedly exciting Alamo Bowl victory over a five-loss Michigan team. Let's not forget that only weeks before, the Huskers were losing 40-15 to Kansas and 41-24 to Missouri. The end-of-season run certainly showed signs of progress, but for Nebraska to beat a USC or Texas, its running game is going to have to improve immeasurably from a year ago, and the defense is going to have take the step up from decent to dominant. On paper, the defense certainly has the potential to do just that. I'm more skeptical about the running game. I-backs Marlon Lucky and Cody Glenn looked good in the spring game, but let's wait and see how they and their blockers do when the games count before making any grand proclamations.
posted by G-Money at 2:01 PM
1 Comments:
This was a very smart answer by Stew. As excited as I am about this season and how good we could be, I'm starting to realize that we also could be pretty medicore if things don't fall into place. The end of last season was nice, but we didn't excatly beat the '95 Huskers at the Alamo, it was a 7-5 Michigan team. And we did suffer some bad losses. Here's hoping that we did turn a leaf in our last 3 games and that there's no turning back.
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