NEBRASKA CORNHUSKERS (West
Division)
Location: Lincoln, NE
Stadium: Memorial Stadium (85,000)
Coach: Mike Riley (2nd year): 6-7 at Nebraska/99-87 overall, 4-7 v
B1G
2015 Nebraska Cornhuskers (6-7)(3-5) 2016 Nebraska
Cornhuskers
28 BYU 33 S3 Fresno State
48 South Alabama 9 S10 Wyoming
33 at Miami 36
(OT) S17 Oregon
36 Southern Mississippi 28 S24 at Northwestern
13 at Illinois 14 O1 Illinois
21 Wisconsin 23 O8
48 at Minnesota 25 O15 at Indiana
28 Northwestern 30 O22 Purdue
45 at Purdue 55 O29 at Wisconsin
39 Michigan State 38 N5 at Ohio State
31 at Rutgers 14 N12 Minnesota
20 Iowa 28 N19 Maryland
37 UCLA 29 N26 at Iowa (Friday)
(Foster Farms Bowl)
Coach Mike
Riley’s first season in Lincoln was not exactly charming. After a “Hail Mary” loss to BYU in the season
opener, the season started to spiral out of control with seven losses, albeit
by a combined 31 points. However, the
breaks seemed to go the Huskers way after they bottomed out in their loss to
Purdue, including wins against Michigan State and UCLA in the Foster farms
Bowl. Nebraska fans are hoping it’s a
signal things are looking up for the program.
The offense
will still set up around junior QB Tommy Armstrong Jr, who needs to step up and
show more consistency if the Huskers are to contend for the West Division
lead. Armstrong has good mobility and 53
TDs in his career, but also 36 interceptions and has completed barely over 50
percent of his passes. Coach Riley is
hoping the experience Armstrong has thus far will lead to a much improved
season in 2016, as Armstrong made much improvement in the latter part of last
season. The good news is, Nebraska
should be able to produce more in the running game with the return of two
quality backs in senior Terrell Newby and sophomore Devine Ozigbo. Newby was the leading rusher with 765 yards
and six TDs averaging over five yards per carry, while Ozigbo with limited
playing time, also averaged over five yards per carry and a touchdown. Nebraska also has a deep receiving corps led
by sure-handed wideout senior Jordan Westerkamp, who has 918 receiving yards
and seven TDs. Joining Westerkamp are
senior WR Alonzo Moore and junior De’Mornay Pierson-El. Moore hauled in 24 catches for 395 yards in
reserve duty a year ago and Pierson-El had 12 receptions for 111 yards and a
touchdown in limited action. Junior
Stanley Morgan and senior Brandon Reilly will add depth and be active in the
four and five wideout sets. Senior TE
Cethan Carter also figures to contribute to the Husker passing attack as he
hauled in 24 receptions for 329 yards and two scores, while providing excellent
blocking on running downs. All of this
will depend on an offensive line that has to replace four starters, with senior
center Dylan Utter the lone returnee.
Spring practice saw the emergence of sophomores Nick Gates and Jerald
Foster, who appear to have the inside track to start at LT and LG
respectively. On the other side, more
experience abounds, as senior Corey Whittaker and junior David Knevel will get
the nod at RG and RT respectively.
QB Tommy Armstrong
The Nebraska
defense will need to improve from last year, which saw it give up 27.8 points
per game (10th in the B1G), which included giving up a woeful 290.5
yards per game through the air (13th in the conference). The defensive line lost two very good
performers as Maliek Collins and Vincent Valentine left for the NFL. But, Nebraska has some able defenders here,
especially with sophomore DE Freedom Akinmoladun who led the team with 4.5
sacks a year ago. Senior Ross Dzuris
will be at the other end position. He
started the last four games last year and came up with a whopping nine tackles
for loss. Seniors Dave McMullen and
Kevin Maurice will take over in the interior (DT). McMullen, who started all 13 games a year
ago, turned in 28 tackles and seven tackles for loss while Maurice, in limited
playing time, still managed 21 tackles and three tackles for loss. Linebacker appears to be strength for Nebraska
as senior Josh Banderas and sophomore Dedrick Young are the top returnees. Banderas has 61 stops and seven tackles for
loss in 2015 and Young also chipped in 61 tackles and five stops behind the
line of scrimmage. The competition for
MLB was quite spirited, with senior Michael Rose-Ivey winning the confidence of
the coaches. He made 27 stops and three
tackles for loss as a backup last season.
Senior SS safety Nate Gerry is the anchor on the defensive side of the
ball who is a well-rounded player who led the Huskers with 79 tackles and four
interceptions last season. Junior Kieron
Williams will join him at FS and he got seven tackles as a backup. The Huskers also welcome back experienced CBs
in juniors Joshua Kalu and Chris Jones.
Kalu was second on the team in tackles with 79 to go along with five
tackles for loss , a sack, and three picks.
Jones got 25 tackles and two interceptions, playing in Nebraska’s nickel
and dime packages.
LB Josh Banderas
Todd
Broekemeier will, more than likely, assume the punting chores due to the
unfortunate passing of Sam Foltz, while junior Drew Brown had an outstanding
season, making 21 out of 27 field goal attempts with a long of 50.
Were all the
close losses a year ago just the norm for Nebraska, or was the strong finish a
sign of things to come under Coach Riley.
The non-conference matchups feature a showdown against Oregon, which
could be an early indication of how the season will go. The conference schedule featured back-to-back
road trips to Wisconsin and Ohio State, followed by the regular season finale
at Iowa. The Huskers are just 25-15 in
B1G play since joining in 2011 and just 4-7 against ranked B1G teams. Nebraska is optimistic they’ll have a winning
record this year, but that depends on better consistency in the close games.
PROJECTION: 7-5 (5-4) 4th in B1G West
No comments:
Post a Comment