Colorado vs Nebraska - Josh Pate's Preview & Prediction

Colorado plays Nebraska this Saturday do you remember where we were last year do you remember where you were last year remember where the season was so Colorado had come into the season they went to TCU Fresh Off TCU playing in the national title game and Colorado goes in there and beats him pretty handedly and this was the week two game so they're coming home hype like you would not believe and Matt rules coming in there with Nebraska and this is an old rivalry renewed and and Colorado ends up winning the game and then it's just Off to the Races like the Colorado hype machine was on full blast we started having to pay the Dion tax in college football and for those who don't remember what that is just go look it up it's it's a term we had to create for the amount of casual opinions that started to pour into the sport from people who barely can spell college football let alone have ever watched it but it was a good thing because it brought more eyeballs to the sport but man folks started to say some stupid stuff last year so post TCU win they beat Nebraska last year and we were asking is Colorado really legit well this year they're coming off a very close competitive win against North Dakota State and here we are once again asking is Colorado are they legit was that vintage North Dakota State they beat last week or was that just a ho home FCS opponent and they struggled mightily at home well we will find out here now last year in this game Colorado Nebraska Colorado won 3614 this was back in the Jeff Sims era I say back in this was last year Jeff Sims was bad at quarterback for them Nebraska had four turnovers in this game maddening to watch if you are a Nebraska backer but Nebraska also sacked shador Sanders eight times in this game and they should have success there again first thing I'm focused on here's the difference unlike last year when Nebraska got after shador they were just getting after him to take the ball to put it in Jeff Sims hands this year when they get the ball taken away it gets put in the hands of Dylan Riolo who is a true freshman quarterback who goes on the road well he's not on the road who who is in a premier environment for the first time even at home I'm kind of a national profile game for the first time you never know how a guy's going to handle that I expect he'll be okay okay but he is a much different weapon for them the first time he touched a football in that building he was a different caliber weapon for them at quarterback than anything they had had last year Isaiah ner six catches week one 121 yards in a touchdown remember that name Wyoming then to Texas Nebraska here so they can they can do a lot more when they're given the opportunity I think they will be able to do a lot more but I'll tell you what else they ought to be able to run the ball they ought to be able to run the ball really effective L shador maybe facing the toughest defense he faces all year here we'll see how that statement pans out but he's good enough shador Sanders is good enough to throw it on anyone Travis Hunter's good enough to score on anyone horn good enough to score on anyone Nebraska can force longer drives here I think one of the big Keys when you watched Colorado against North Dakota State big explosive plays they scored on was the key and they'll do that to you if you're not careful which is why Nebraska there's a fine line of playing aggressive but also being really smart and playing within your plan and I think their plan will have some aggressiveness because they've got the Personnel to do it and they certainly got the defensive coaching staff to give them a major edge here Nebraska's defensive coaching staff is a big uh tactical advantage in this game our grades in the model on these coaching staffs bear that out but also don't do it to the point where you almost got home but shador eluded you and oh there's Travis Hunter all by himself there's horn all by himself don't allow that to happen don't think they will and so if if if Colorado scores and they probably will if it's on a nine or 10 play drive so be it two or three play drive not acceptable they've also got to flip the turnover script here last year Nebraska had to be desperate because they got down and they had to throw the ball and that led to more turnovers and Jeff Sims fumbling you might end up putting Colorado in that spot this year and either you do that or we find out that shador operates seamlessly and they go into this environment and operate seamlessly and that means Nebraska's not quite ready yet uh two very Divergent paths there by the way this game screams fireworks I know it does I know a lot of folks are thinking Dylan riola coming out party shador Sanders we know what we have there it's one of the best quarterbacks in the country but let me let me just inform you the model is blinking there's a red light over here and it's blinking both defenses having a major Edge coaching wise against the opposition so we've got two-way dedge here from a coaching perspective Nebraska ran it for 222 yards in this game last year that's the game that's how you take all the variants out of it if Colorado can't stop you running and then you forc them to go on long drives to score what I just gave you the recipe for is an under I'm not betting it yet cuz I think this may hit 60 or 61 when it does I don't think it's a fireworks game as much as most other people I think will I think we may have an under here so got a true freshman quarterback in Rola and by the way Colin let's take a look what the model thinks here the fanuel line right now is Nebraska minus 7 a half uh the model is right there seven I thought it would be bigger on Nebraska but it's not um lot of points a lot of points here I think the Run game plus the defense flipping the script from last year is going to be enough I am going to take Nebraska to win this game but because that half point is showing right now at FanDuel I would take Colorado plus anything over seven so I think it'll be a competitive game I I do think Colorado will hang here more than hang I think they've got a shot to win the game and they'll be there at the end I think that there's a world where it's a blowout I don't think we live in that world but I think there's a world where that happens but I'm going to take Nebraska to win Colorado to C ever I'm more interested in the total I just want to see what happens with that I think we got a we got a lot of over money that still has time to come in [Music]