RonzNotes Husker Ramblings

Training wheels required

If you didn't know better, you'd think Missouri started playing football two seasons ago.  The number of Freshman and Sophomores on their two deep depth chart is startling.  Many of the sophomores on offense are not letter earners - a very green group.  Defensively they have youth, but much more playing experience and seniors sprinkled in, notably at key Linebacker, Line and backfield spots.  I would seem Missouri will need to lean heavily on that defense in September while the offense gets experience.

What will Their Record be? The non-conference

One factor in a game is how the other team comes in...  after a loss, a bit win, fighting for a bowl?

I am not previewing the teams, per se, just their likely "game mood".

Florida Atlantic comes in with us as their first game.  With Howard Schennnnlenburger as coach, this team has plenty of intangibles to help them fight a good fight and not just take the money and run.

Arkansas State comes in off a rival-type game with Mississipi Valley State and has Troy and Iowa in Sept.  A smoking blow out vs. a hard fought battle in Lincoln could be crucial as they try to move up from a 6-6 season.  Don't expect this team to roll over and quit.  They beat Texas A&M in the season opener - this team will come to Lincoln looking to make history.

V-tech opens with Alabama in Atlanta, GA.  Then hosts Marshall, NU and Miami for it's September.  Either V-Tech comes in off a huge win over Bama and ranked #3 or comes in off that loss looking at a possible 1-2 start to the season with an improving Miami team coming to town.  Tech could go from sleeper national champion pick to Beamer sitting on a hot seat.  They will be very motivated regardless of the Alabama outcome and will have faced more adversity than NU.

LA - Lafayette come in after hosting Southern, Kansas State and traveling to LSU.  So, they are either 1-2 or 2-1 and playing in front of their second consecutive night game road crowd.  Expect no intimidation but a likely emotional let down- LSU is the big bully and will get plenty of attention from the ragin' cajuns since none of them probably got scholarship offers from LSU.  NU will not be their radar.  Probably the easiest of the three home non-conference games for NU to play deep into the roster and get a lot of kids on the field.  (keep that in mind if you are wagering - our scoring will likely end in the 3rd quarter).

Don't we play 2 Techs?

Why does it seem no one, I mean no one is talking about Texas Tech on the schedule?  I read more about Baylor beating us than Tech.

Hmmm...  they have beaten us 3 for 3 in the last 3 meetings.  They graduated their QB -- like that matters at Tech.  Talk about a program that reloads.  They have proven the ability to win with any QB and this kid is at least predicted to be the first one to actually throw an NFL pass someday.

Sure Crabtree is gone.  But he was a rare commodity in their system.  They don't need NFL receivers, they just need a lot of them to spread the field.

Can BO and Carl outscheme the Pirateman?  Maybe, but it wasn't really a scheme that kept us in the game last year - just better execution and frankly I don't think Tech exactly had us on the radar. 

In Texas it is very hard to convince anyone to care about a North opponent like they do about another Texas school.  That Tech O-lineman is not pissed off because NU didn't offer a scholarship, but he's sure got a chip on his shoulder when he plays Texas or A&M.

Anyway, more on Tech when I do a tour of the conference.  Any team we play 10 days after traveling to Columbia is not high on the players attention list either.

Are you feeling Lucky?

Looking back over the many seasons of success in huskerland, all the great seasons had one or two games where luck played a huge role.  In '93 we played for a national championship because KU went for two and failed.  In 97 there was that "nice catch" by Matt Davison.  Later that year, there was a key turnover when Tennessee was driving in the first half of the Orange bowl that turned a game from a close win and likely no championship into a rout. 

So, last year did we get to 9-4 and a nice bowl via some luck?  Hmmm....  the number 57 comes to mind.

I am quick to remind the overwhelming optimists about 2009 that our signature win was over KU, then Clemson and then.... KSU?  CU?  Our third biggest win was against a team that did not go to a bowl.  That is not a good sign of how we play when our strength of schedule gets factored in.

People will point out that we had "bad" luck against Texas Tech - all we had to do was not turn it over and we beat them.  Yes, we would have beat them because they missed their PAT.  Now that is luck in our favor and we just returned the favor.

So, how much luck will we need this year -- will luck beat OU or V-tech?  Probably not, since we returned a punt for a TD in LIncoln last year against Tech and couldn't win, luck is not enough out there.

I think luck helps us beat Texas Tech this year, they like to be generous and we like to give it back - remember LeKevin Smith's interception return/fumble? 

Some say it is better to be lucky than good - are we good enough yet to generate our own luck?