WAY TOO EARLY 2023 NEBRASKA FOOTBALL RECORD PREDICTION; CAN MATT RHULE GET TO A BOWL GAME?

Intro there's been so much excitement these last two months that I honestly forgot how bad this team was these past five years it's like we're watching One Long episode of extreme hoe makeover with Matt rule as the host and after he tore up the carpet on the stairs and laid down the wood flooring he went over the top and built out a completely separate garage for the golf cart I can't say I blame him though because in year one he'll face some of the toughest coaches in the country and the depth in the big tens is as good as it's ever been I love the fact that he added there were 30 new players to the roster but the question is will that be enough I know we're still 200 something days away from game one but I heard time flies when you're having fun so today I'm running through the entire 2023 schedule to give you my early prediction for how things might go in rules first year and I'll give you my thoughts on the new alternate jersey that got leaked on Twitter but what's up guys I'm Connor Hayden and this is corn crazed if you're a fan of Nebraska or the Big Ten make sure you hit the Subscribe button below low because we're less than 75 away from 17 000 and if you think of bowl games on the table next season hit the like button now to help us get to one thousand but now let's get into it [Applause] I'm sure you've heard that this year Alternate jersey thoughts Memorial Stadium will celebrate its 100th anniversary and that of course means a special Jersey for one of the home games usually we don't get to see any alternate uniforms until sometime in August but yesterday on Twitter this guy Andrew posted a picture that shows a classic Nebraska Jersey with a Memorial Stadium patch some text on the sleeve stripes and a blue outline around the numbers the words on the stripes are cool touch since they were taken from the original Four Towers of the stadium but the blue outline was a little confusing apparently the first game played Memorial Stadium all the way back in 1923 was against Oklahoma who also wears a red jersey and since white ones weren't a thing back then Nebraska had the blue ones they wore instead and that team ended up beating OU 24-0 as weird as the blue outline looks on the red I love what it represents and I think incorporating blue was a really good idea but if I'm being completely honest I think it Adidas should have just made an all-blue jersey for the game kinda like the Lakers have for their throwback uniform but unfortunately my opinion doesn't matter so because they already made these there's no going back and I'm sure once we see it on with the helmet and the pants they'll look fine and hopefully the 2023 team can honor the guys who wore blue and get a win when they Rock these new alternates the other Prediction night on the live stream some of you asked for a way too early record prediction but I hadn't given it too much thought at that point and if I'm going to give you any sort of prediction I gotta do my research so today I did and I'll do another one of these in July once we have an idea of who's starting and what these other teams are going to look like since there's still a lot of unknowns but as of today we have a decent idea of what all these coaches are working with only one of the school's Matt rule faces in year one finished in the top 25 this year but outside of Illinois and maybe Purdue I expect everybody on this schedule to be better in 2023. now let's kick this thing off with game one and that's a Thursday night in August at Minnesota PJ Flex won nine or more games three out of the last four years so it's safe to say he found a winning formula they're going to be better off at QB now that Tanner Morgan's gone and caliac Manus has full control the running back room loses Ibrahim but they gain the number seven back from the portal and Sean Tyler 3 we have the top four receivers return and they brought in two group of five starters from the portal so that room will take a huge step forward and the line loses three out of five starters but they return both tight ends who prove to be decent blockers this offense could be as good as it was back in 2018 just based off a talent if the new coordinators can get it figured out quick but the D only returns six starters and that's where the weakness lies this one will be a dog fight but with so many returners on a team that's geared up to win nine games for the third year in a row I gotta guess Minnesota comes out ready in their home opener and pulls off the win in week two Nebraska travels to Boulder to play Colorado who will likely be coming off a loss at TCU but either way the fans are going to be hyped up for Dion's first home game and a chance to beat Nebraska for the third time in a row the problem is the new South's building their roster from scratch and although they've got some great DBS a really good quarterback and coaches who've had success in the past beating a Matt rule-led team that returns multiple starters on defense and what I'd expect to be a pretty strong Run game sounds like a Monumental task with what I think will be limited depth on both sides of the line Dion has potential to make a bowl game in year one but he has to win this game specifically if he wants a chance since the Pac-12 schedule is pretty damn hard but in reality it won't be easy for him and I think Nebraska wears them down at the end and wins by more than the touchdown Northern Illinois is a great warm-up game for anybody in the Big Ten they take transfers who played backup roles at schools like Kansas Michigan State and Iowa but get it to start right away in the mac and their offense runs the ball as much as Wisconsin or Minnesota so the risk of getting upset at home is relatively low since they're not built to play from behind nothing's free but if this staff's halfway competent it's going to be over before the fourth quarter starts Louisiana Tech comes to Lincoln for the first time since 2006 and they're bringing the coldest Crawford with them Sunny Cumby landed Hank bachmeyer from the portal after he threw for over 6 000 yards at Boise State and they returned two of the top four receivers from last year's team their running back hit almost a thousand yards as a redshirt freshman last year so the offense has potential to put points up I just can't imagine another Georgia Southern situation now that the defense will be so much better prepared to defend a strong passing game and the roster's fast and Cumby's an Innovative of mine but they won't be able to stop Anthony Grant or AJ Allen in Nebraska will pick up their second group of five wins to build their confidence before a real battle imagine Nebraska sitting at three and one coming off a two or three game win streak Michigan's a top three team nationally and has to go back to Memorial Stadium for another game under the lights do you have hope or is harbatsu beastly after back to back Big Ten championships without seeing what a three-in-one Nebraska team looks like I'm just gonna assume we're still talking about a six-win team and say Michigan's a little too much to handle Blake Quorum and Donovan Edwards are both back JJ McCarthy returns two of his top three receivers the offense pulled two starters from Arizona State and Stanford to fill in on the line and the already good defense got deeper with Ernest Heisman at linebacker and a defensive end from Coastal Carolina there's no doubt Matt rule will have his team prepared and can make this one competitive but Harbaugh is no stranger to Big Time Road games in a top five upset still just a fantasy at this point Brett bilima had the best season he could ask for in only his second year at Illinois and getting the brass at home is going to be another huge blessing Chase Brown and his brother both left for the NFL and DC Ryan Walters moved on to Purdue but there's going to be plenty left over to make for another run at seven or eight wins at this point Illinois will have already played Kansas Penn State and Purdue so Ole Miss transfer QB Luke Altmeyer is going to be in sync with his receivers and ready to score on a shootout if he has to but if you watched Illinois play in their bowl game you saw how much worse that offense was without brown at running back and the defense took a huge step back without their star DC calling the plays I'm sure they'll get to six wins again and I think bilima is building something special but Nebraska is not losing to this team three years in a row and the offense will have the depth of QB that they lacked in the last one to pull this one out on the road Northwestern is such a tricky team to predict they're good when you expect them to be bad and they're bad when you expect them to be good or at least that's how it's worked in the past Fitz is one of the most consistent coaches in the the Big Ten but his assistants haven't done enough to get his team back into the winning conversation they hired the former North Dakota State defensive coordinator who was named the FCS coordinator of the year in 2021 but he's inheriting scraps after the best guys on D either graduated or left for the draft and the biggest weapons on offense either went pro or transferred out and they've only added one guy from the portal so far which has to be the fewest for anybody in the entire conference it took really bad coaching to lose to a Northwestern team last season who only won one game all year and I'm gonna guess that Trend continues they don't have the talent to compete against these upgraded Big Ten West coaches and Nebraska's speed should cause some serious problems it won't be hard to get most of the team motivated for this since it was so painful to lose in Ireland last year so I'm expecting a statement when at home just like we saw back in 2021. Purdue flips from a high octane offense to a lockdown defensive focused team with Ryan Walter we got to watch Trey Palmer go for almost 300 yards by himself in West Lafayette last year but that new staff won't tolerate performances like that going forward I can already see this one playing out with a slow downhill run game from both sides and big plays from the defense helping the offense get good field position but in reality it's all going to come down to who has the better quarterback that won't make the crucial mistake Hudson card beat out and then backed up Casey Thompson at Texas and now we might have the chance to watch those two go head to head against each other and what'll be one of the most important games of the season for both of these teams in pursuit of a bowl game for their first year head coach Nebraska was awful last year and still almost won this one on the road so getting Purdue at home with completely new staffs on both sides makes me want to put my money on the coach with more experience Matt rules been here before and when it comes to winning a one score game I gotta fade the guy who's younger and has less experience so I'm gonna go with Nebraska again it's not fair but Nebraska's got to go to East Lansing for the second time in a row and Michigan State totally crumbled after Mel Tucker's 11 win transfer portal year but he hit it hard again and that team's bound to take a step forward it's really hard to predict what that depth chart will look like because they've got 15 guys coming in from the portal and they've got nine four-star incoming freshmen so I'm not going to waste my time speculating Michigan State's probably an eight or nine win team in 2023 and playing them on the roads always been tough for any Nebraska coach I don't think it's going to be ugly but in a way too early prediction I'm calling this one a loss Maryland's another tough team to predict because of how many weapons they lose to the draft and not knowing which of the transfer portal guys can make an immediate impact they landed transfers from Tennessee West Virginia Miami and LSU who could all start immediately and I don't think tally is coming back to win less than eight games they lost their OC of Arkansas but they still want to throw the ball so my guess is they find a guy with a strong passing attack from a smaller school but either way the 335 is perfect for games against schools like Maryland and they won't have the defense to shut down Nebraska's run or the pass so I'd like to very confidently pencil in a win here the fact is Luke fickle's an amazing coach and if Nebraska didn't get Matt rule I hope they would have gone after him now I still prefer rule but that guy's got a serious resume and Wisconsin does too they return just enough on both sides of the ball to make him the favorite in the west next year and they got plenty of portal pickups that were pretty special too they're building the offense to look more like Ohio States and they've got the offensive line to pull it off if the OC can keep attracting QBs like Tanner Mordecai who threw for over 3 500 yards in each of the last two years as SMU Wisconsin's not a rebuild it's a remodel so as much as I'd love to see rule beat fickle in year one I think a road match will prove to be too tough and we'll have to wait till 2024 to see that happen the grand finale takes place in Lincoln this time in Iowa led by Kade McNamara and I don't really know who else comes to Lincoln to try and take back the heroes trophy but at this point the team's been battle tested they've already seen the high-powered passing offenses and they've gone against lockdown defenses four or five times this year alone the worst Nebraska team in over 60 years took Iowa down on the road two months ago to break whatever curse was put on him when Mike Riley got hired and now that all is right in the world this is just another game against another average Big Ten West opponent Nebraska caps off the year with another win on senior day and Anthony Grant runs for 350 yards or something like that to make sure Iowa realizes their reign of terror has officially come to an end that puts Nebraska at 8-4 which I know sounds freaking ridiculous at this point but this schedule is pretty damn weak again and even with all the drama from last season the team was literally only two plays away from winning X and making a bowl game the staff doesn't have to be Outro perfect they just got to have the team well prepared and well conditioned and then make sure they call the right plays and they'll overachieve in their first year in Lincoln but I want to know what you think so let me know in the comments below do you see eight wins on this schedule or is Nebraska still just a four-win team until proven otherwise can Matt rule upset a top 25 team in year one or is his drought going to continue and how do you feel about the new alternates because I know the blue is a little crazy but I think it might look better when we see the whole uniform put together now I gotta go pack for my flight in the morning so thank you for being here and I'll see you in the next one go Big Red [Music]