Is Nebraska Football's 2024 Hype Justified?

do you think that Nebraska's current hype is Justified or do you think that there is a sense of hype and excitement and a desire so strongly for a program for Nebraska to be back that you and I who are high on Nebraska are just drinking the Kool-Aid well when you look at Nebraska I think you have to look at Matt ru's path as well um I'll just start out with this then work my way over to the roster than the schedule Matt rule in his two previous jobs it's it's weird to see patterns like this but you know at Temple and at Baylor year two was a jump year three was a jump in win totals um year one was always rough year one was rough for Nebraska but they managed to get five wins out of possibly the worst quarterback play I've seen in a long time um with just the turnovers and and just everything I mean everything was just so poor coming out of that position and now you get a bonified starter in Dylan Rola you do and he's gonna start if he doesn't start then and Hinrich harberg is starting they're they're going to be in bad shape but when you look at Nebraska um and Matt rule they they his teams make jumps so I would expect with Nebraska for them to make a jump now when you look at their roster I think that their roster is one of the more complete rosters in the Big 10 they have they don't have a bcow running back but they have four legitimate running backs they have four legitimate wide receivers in my opinion if Malachi keman can get healthy um their offensive line is going to be up and down but they brought in Micah mzuka a higher rated player from Florida their tackle uh Bryce benhardt and their Center Ben Scott should be good and they return a lot of the defense that made uh that really made Nebraska season last year they were ranked 11 or 13th bottom line a top 15 defense they return a lot of that especially at defensive line they got uh linebacker transfer from what I remember in Stefan Thompson and then their secondary should be underrated as well so when you look at this roster it's really a really good roster and you look at Matt ru's trajectory he's he's always going to make this year two jump this year three jump not always but they they look like they are going to and then you look at their schedule I I did a a a preview on Nebraska on my channel if you want to see that um really you look at their schedule and you can be conservative and say that they'll win seven games you look at the first seven games being conservative is picking them to go six and one I think that they uh out of just off the top of my head here Colorado and Ruckers I think that they go oneon-one versus them and then they will probably win the rest of their games in the top in their first seven games so you go six and one into an Ohio State game in which they will probably lose then you have teams like UCLA which they will probably beat excuse me and then your final three games you're already looking at you already have eight wins and you have seven wins excuse me from what I'm projecting three games to win one or two games and they're at eight or nine so I agree that they are trending in the right direction is there some unjustified hype when people say that they'll win 10 games I think so because I think 10 games is a little bit too much to see from a Nebraska team that just went five and seven in such bad quarterback play I don't think you can say that Dylan Roy is a perfect quarterback and he will have some struggles he will but the especially the beginning part of that schedule UTEP Colorado Northern Iowa all teams that don't have a secondary especially with Colorado they're the only secondary player is Travis Hunter and he can get gased you know whatever God bless him because they play him every down he didn't they run some stat during the season that he ran like a bazillion yards or something like that he ran like over a million yards in one game just running back and forth it's insane generationally talented player but part of me almost wonders like out of all the players to follow Deion Sanders why would he because he could have went to any school in the country and I mean part of me gets went to Colorado because he he'll definitely play you know dual positions there he probably most other and they need him they need him to play dual positions because they don't have anyone else in the secondary to be their Corner number one they don't really have wide receivers for him to not be on the field that's we could really do a whole show on Colorado to be honest with you but um I just I can't help but not be optimist IC about Nebraska I really can't you can't tell me that Nebraska isn't going to go bowling you can't tell me that Nebraska is only going to have six wins especially with this schedule you try and find losses on that schedule I challenge any one of your listeners to find six losses on that schedule to find five losses on that schedule because there isn't they're gonna be favored in a lot of these games they're gonna be favored in probably depending on how the late season goes about eight or nine games yeah but anyway no no you you brought up really I think really good points the the only stat that I would add to what you brought up is returning production their 20th there they return 71% of their production and this isn't like they return all of their great defense or all of their bad offense but the other side completely lack they're top 35 in both and they return More than 70% of their production on both the offense and the defense and they bring back Tristan alvano and Brian buchini at kicker and punter respectively so they have roster continuity they're balanced on the roster they have staff continuity they returned Marcus sadder field and Tony white Matt Rule and they Matt rule even made some staff changes and in upgrades that I thought were quite necessary and they brought in a top 25 overall recruiting class and an SP plus give you a sneak peek of Bill Connelly's ratings here Nebraska's ranked fairly highly as well Nebraska per SP plus is is 40th now that may not sound great but with their schedule I mean playing utet playing Colorado Northern Iowa Illinois at Purdue Rutgers by at Indiana at Ohio State UCLA USC Wisconsin and Iowa you look at their their opponents Ohio State's second in Sp plus you have to go all the way down to USC to find their next opponent 21st SP plus iow is 22nd UCLA is 26th which I think is too high but that's because they used priors and Wisconsin's 27th and all those teams except for Ohio State are only six points or less Superior to Nebraska on a like projected win margin on a neutral field and Nebraska will host some of those teams Nebraska will go on the road against some of those teams they'll travel to play some but they have like you said a fairly easy schedule especially at the beginning which will allow them to grow as a unit and mature before they play the Ohio States and USC Wisconsin and Iowa which is a really a brutal final three game stretch I'd say for anyone outside of the top four five teams in the country and they could be favored don't you thinking at most 11 of their games I mean USC if they're bad and Nebraska's just buzzing especially with their run game and and defense they could be favored over the Trojans they could certainly be favored over Wisconsin and they could certainly be favored over Iowa they could be but especially with Iowa too Iowa doesn't have that bad of a schedule so I think Iowa's also going to be around where Nebraska is they're going to get these wins that against inferior opponents so I don't know uh I think that I don't think that they're going to be in 11 of their games I think they'll be favored about favored in about n or 10 I I think I think Wisconsin has a good team this year Wisconsin we're getting off topic here um but that'll be a very fun game to watch I think USC style of play is going to hurt Nebraska especially the way that they run up points um in a secondary that got burned a little bit last year I think back I think back to uh the Michigan State game Colorado game um even the Maryland game right even the Maryland game Maryland had some good receivers so I think USC's style of play might give them an edge but again these are toss-up games these last three games it's flip a coin really especially if all four teams are including Nebraska are are doing well that probably won't be true um you USC might not be doing well Wisconsin might have a Miss uh mishap but I I just want to end with this uh when it comes to Nebraska and we talked about Player Development and um all this other stuff beforehand with the elite teams I think Nebraska is is almost there um I think they're near Elite in Player Development in um they're already there in recruiting um so I think that um their staff they have an elite staff as well um if they can hang on to Tony white for one more year they might be just Elite flat out I mean Tony white is such I was so surprised when he did not get a job as a head coach um and then I think Matt rule just is a Flatout great head coach as well when it comes to college you cannot take the the Carolina Panthers and say oh look at how bad this guy is as a head coach that's just it's just ridiculous when people bring up Matt rouette Carolina because the NFL is such a different game um and yes Nebraska is still Nebraska I see that in the chat but you you also gotta see um Scott Frost is still Scott Frost and those teams I think that you have to wipe the Slate clean with Nebraska um after Scott Frost because um because Matt rule is just such a different animal he's so um attention detailed oriented and I mean and Nebraska does a good job marketing too they um they put out the videos they put out offseason hype which gets all of us riled up and I mean you look at their practices they are working on on not throwing interceptions on not fumbling the ball and especially with Dylan Rola too which he should start he doesn't throw interceptions so um when it comes to that especially in the spring game to we saw some really good signs of that as well the one interception that R th uh threw was off the receiver's hands was not his fault and last year when Jeff Sims came into the game I think he threw like two or three interceptions people should have people should have seen that coming but Nebraska hype as we've been saying you know um but anyway we should I should hand this over no you're you're good I mean you're I I think you're knocking down every Point very well very very well um Jeff Sims for example it sounds like you thought entering last year that he wasn't going to be good is that correct I was I was bought in with the hype I I mean Nebraska's hyped up every year by the way in the chat hype does not equal results in my opinion I just want to make that clear um but hype does help you see what's going on with the team especially with videos that a university puts out it marketing um they help you see what's inside of a program and when you look strictly at the roster anyway sorry I'm getting off topic but um anyway I just think that Nebraska they are trending in the right direction you cannot say that they're not you can't say that they're not trending in the right direction at this point in time their roster is just so well-rounded and the schedule is just so easy for them um it's hard not to get excited yeah the only thing that I would push back on just to steal man the argument that they aren't back is they pivoted in their identity toward the end of last season even when they had a good QB or a serviceable QB play against Wisconsin and Iowa they still found ways to to blow games and their schedule well easy I mean last year's schedule outside of Michigan was very easy the West was weak and they they they just couldn't they couldn't take it and whether it's Colorado whether it's USC or Wisconsin obviously Ohio State but even maybe Purdue all those teams I mentioned have quick receivers and especially in the case of Wisconsin USC Colorado and again obviously OSU they have deep receiver rooms and they have at least above average to Elite quarterbacks to go along with them and that's Nebraska's nightmare is a team that can throw over the top that has depth at receiver and especially in the case of USC and I'd say Purdue with that air raid and Wisconsin too I mean even Colorado they'll they'll love to get the ball out fairly quick quickly um but that's really it I agree with you that they're trending in the right direction and whether it's looking at Matt ru's past resume we're looking at recruiting returning production um there's also the Freshman QB element which I'd say for most programs would be a red flag but rola's very talented and he doesn't throw picks and he was very accurate in the spring game against a defense that he's very composed too yes that's what I saw out of it I noticed that as well very comfortable in the pocket almost has a momes like like where Mahomes is always bouncing around he's not this Elite Scrambler but like he he he he has enough elusiveness to not get sacked basically to keep his team on schedule he has that now Adrien Martinez started as a true freshman but Martinez is completely different at least in the aspect of he's a better athlete than riola is way better legs but he is not polished nearly to the same degree as Rola is as a passer and riola will probably have a better overall Supporting Cast than Martinez did in 2018 when he started as a true freshman also that was just a completely different offensive system as well true Nebraska they've they didn't put people around Adrien Martinez very much um but they're putting a lot of talent around Dylan Rola on the offensive line as well I mean that's what's going to help him out is if he stays upright with the running backs they have four legitimate running backs yeah dou do Johnson Irvin Jr and Johnson again right the Johnson and Johnson Bros but NE like I said neither all of them aren't Elite but put together they make an elite uh running back room in my opinion the wide receivers looked really good in the spring game I mean this offense looks to be really good um yeah and the final point I will say when you talked about those air rid offenses if the one the one point though is that Nebraska's defensive line will be really really good that's true and and they will get to the quarterback so if Colorado can get the ball out quickly if Purdue can get the ball out out quickly yes they will have some success on this defense but if they hold the ball like shador Sanders got sacked eight or nine times against Nebraska's defense uh Hudson card last year with Purdue this is this was last year um had a very tough time because he hold the ball for a second too long and Nebraska's defense was right there Nash hutmacher um on the interior Ty Robinson Jamari Butler Prince wellam Mellen I mean lots of talented guys yeah um yeah hense Hut mocker is he's he's an elite defensive tackle not just in the Big 10 but nationally I think that I I I think we covered that very well I mean if you think Nebraska is pure Kool-Aid and hype yet again um I respectfully disagree I understand where you're coming from but look I mean look at this team even if you think they're overhyped there is some truth to the hype because I think you look at everything whether it's their schedule how the teams on their schedule are projected to do or what's just going on with Nebraska as a period alone as a program sorry alone you'll see that they're getting better and I'd say their their floor this year is going bowling thank you all so much for watching this clip of touchdown talk remember to like this video subscribe to the channel click the notification Bell and comment your reaction down below that way college football with Sam can continue to grow and you can get the best experience out of college football content on YouTube I would like to give 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