College Football News Preview 2020: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Nebraska Cornhuskers season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Schedule Analysis
– Nebraska Previews 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2019 Record: 5-7 overall, 3-6 in Big Ten
Head Coach: Scott Frost, 3rd year, 9-15
2019 CFN Final Opinion Ranking: 73
2019 CFN Final Season Formula Ranking: 93
2019 CFN Preview Ranking: 42
No one knows what’s going to happen to the 2020 college football season. We’ll take a general look at where each team stands – doing it without spring ball to go by – while crossing our fingers that we’ll all have some well-deserved fun this fall. Hoping you and yours are safe and healthy.
5. College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Offense 3 Things To Know
– When is this whole offense thing going to kick in? It scored 34 fewer points than the 2018 version, it finished an okay fifth in the Big Ten overall, and it actually ran well – going for over 200 yards per game – but it wasn’t a differentiating factor.
It needs a jolt of confidence. It needs to know it can close out games and come through in the clutch. That comes with experience, and that comes with getting almost the entire starting group back … sort of.
CFN in 60 Video: Nebraska Cornhuskers Preview
– Good freaking luck trying to figure out the Nebraska receiving corps. Leading receiver JD Spielman left the team for personal reasons. The hope is that he’ll be back – and he’s the main man if and when it his – but it’s been a strange and murky situation since he left in early March.
Wan’Dale Robinson could grow into a good, veteran No. 1 target if Spielman isn’t back, and he’ll need to be that with the freshmen about to take over. With all the receiver talent coming in, five wideouts hit the transfer portal. Fortunately, the young guys should be fantastic.
6-4, 225-pound JUCO transfer Omar Manning and star freshman Zavier Betts will soon be the stars of the show, Marcus Fleming will be a factor, and Alante Brown can fly.
Now they need Adrian Martinez to grow into the type of quarterback who can make them all blow up.
Noah Vedral is now at Rutgers, and Andrew Bunch is transferring out. That leaves Luke McCaffrey as the main backup behind Martinez, who has been fine, but hardly the program-changing talent to make the Scott Frost offensive machine go. When he’s on, he can take over a game by himself. Now he has to be on a whole lot more.
– Don’t get too caught up in the numbers when it comes to the Husker O line – it was fine. Martinez takes sacks because he runs a whole lot – Nebraska was last in the Big Ten in tackles for loss allowed – but the front five does need to be more consistent for the ground game. All five starters are expected back around all-star senior Brenden Jaimes at left tackle.
Martinez is the team’s most dangerous runner, but former Georgia Tech star Dedrick Mills led the way with 745 yards and ten touchdowns. He’s the featured back, receiver Wan’Dale Robinson will get his share of carries – he finished third on the team in rushing yards.
However, Robinson might be needed more at his day job as a top target, and Maurice Washington transferred out. The job is open for a No. 2 back, with redshirt freshman Rahmir Johnson and new recruit Sevion Morrison getting the longest looks.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Defense 3 Things To Know
4. College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Defense 3 Things To Know
– The offense hasn’t been as good as hoped for, but the defensive side has been the biggest disappointment so far under Scott Frost. It struggles to come up with the key stop, it’s just okay against the run, and even with decent pressure in the backfield, it hasn’t been enough after finishing tenth in the Big Ten in total defense and 11th in scoring D.
Seven of the top 14 tacklers are gone and six starters have to be replaced. It starts on the defensive front where Carlos Davis and Khalil Davis are gone – both drafted late – along with Darrion Daniels on the nose.
6-3, 340-pound Damion Daniels is a big body to anchor the interior, and there’s enough size on the ends to be okay, but losing Khalil Davis’s playmaking ability in the backfield is a problem. Senior Ben Stille is back, though, after finishing third on the team with 6.5 tackles for loss.
– The secondary did a nice job overall, but it didn’t face a whole lot of high-powered passing games. Losing top corner Lamar Jackson hurts, but senior Dicaprio Bootle is a good one returning on the other side, and safeties Cam Taylor-Britt and Marquel Dismuke are veterans who can hit a little.
– Mohamed Barry is done after leading the team with 89 tackles from his inside linebacker position, and Alex Davis is gone from the outside, but everyone else of note is back. Former JUCO transfer Will Honas is the leading returning tackler with 72 stops, and senior JoJo Domann should be one of the team’s better all-around defenders on the outside.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Top Nebraska Cornhuskers Players
College Football News Preview 2020: Top Nebraska Cornhuskers Players
Best Nebraska Cornhuskers Offensive Player
QB Adrian Martinez, Jr.
He came in with Scott Frost. He was going to take what happened under Frost at UCF to another level. He was going to blossom in his sophomore year and finally get the O going.
Instead, he got banged up, he was inconsistent, and he ended up completing just 59% of his passes for 1,956 yards and ten touchdowns with nine picks, to go along with 626 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.
Even so, the 6-2, 225-pounder still has all the talent to become special. He’s got the mobility, the leadership, and the experience now to make the program all his. With all the potential receiver talent around him, this should be when things really take off … at least, that’s what Husker fans are hoping for.
2. RB Dedrick Mills, Sr.
3. WR JD Spielman, Sr.*
4. OT Brenden Jaimes, Sr.
5. WR Wan’Dale Robinson, Soph.
*If Spielman is back with the team. Otherwise, add WR Omar Manning, Jr. to this list.
Best Nebraska Cornhuskers Defensive Player
LB JoJo Domann, Sr.
Let’s just call this a projection in a fluid situation for the honor of being Nebraska’s best defensive player.
The 6-1, 235-pound Domann is a former safety who bulked up, turned into an outside linebacker, and now has the experience and upside to be a bigger statistical star after coming up with 52 tackles with 2.5 sacks and nine tackles for loss. He’s decent in pass coverage, too, breaking up nine passes. Well past the torn ACL that cost him the 2017 season, this is when the senior should explode.
2. CB DiCaprio Bootle, Sr.
3. S Cam Taylor-Britt, Jr.
4. LB Will Honas, Sr.
5. S Marquel Dismuke, Sr.
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Keys To The Season
College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The Nebraska Cornhuskers Offense
Keep the offense moving, and then keep it moving some more. It’s not just about the yards with this team so far. It was able to roll up huge numbers against Indiana, Colorado, and even Wisconsin, and it didn’t matter in any of those three losses.
It’s not even totally about turnovers, either. They mattered in the loss to Colorado, but they couldn’t stop giving the ball away against South Alabama, Maryland and Illinois and managed to win.
Last year, and going forward, it’s about converting on third downs, and doing it over and over and over again.
Northwestern was totally and completely miserable, and it almost beat the Huskers be keeping the score low and controlling the tempo. That was the only time all of last year that Nebraska won when it was under 40% on third down conversions.
The team was 1-5 when under the 40% mark, and while that didn’t matter a whole lot in blowout losses to Ohio State and Minnesota, not keeping the defense off the field was a big deal in the brutal-close losses to Colorado, Purdue and Iowa.
Biggest Key To The Nebraska Cornhuskers Defense
A clutch stop would be really, really nice. In 2018, allowing teams to drive at will was more of the problem. The defense held more often, but the more trips meant more points.
Last season, Nebraska allowed didn’t all all that many trips inside the red zone – at least not compared to the rest of the normal college football world – but it gave up automatic points every time a team was able to drive deep.
The Huskers were 122nd in the nation in red zone defense, allowing teams to convert 91% of the time.
Indiana was able to get inside the 20 six times, scored on all six trips, and got five touchdowns – Nebraska lost.
Purdue got into the red zone four times, scored four touchdowns – Nebraska lost.
Overall, the team was 1-6 last year and is 2-10 under Scott Frost when teams converted on every trip inside the red zone – both wins were over Illinois – and is 7-2 when teams converted 75% of the time or fewer.
Key Nebraska Cornhuskers Player To A Successful Season
PK Connor Culp, Sr.
Or sophomore Chase Contreraz, or redshirt freshman Game Heins, or freshman Tyler Crawford, or someone to rely on who can kick a field goal on a consistent basis.
Barret Pickering was the guy, but he got hurt. Dylan Jorgensen is transferring. In all, six players attempted a field goal for Nebraska last year, combining to hit 12-of-20.
For a team that played SO many close games – 12 over the last two years decided by seven points or fewer – every made field goal matters.
Culp comes in from LSU after losing the job and not doing anything for the last two years, but he hit 11-of-16 field goals for the 2018 team.
Key Game To The Nebraska Cornhuskers Season
Purdue, Sept. 5
2016 was the last time the Huskers got off to at least a 2-0 start.
With Central Michigan to follow the opener against Purdue, and with South Dakota State after that, it has to happen already. This has to be when the team gets rolling early.
Cincinnati, at Northwestern, Illinois, at Rutgers. If Nebraska can just stop tripping all over itself, it should be – more like it has to be – at least 5-2 to start the year, and there’s no real excuse to not be bowl eligible by Halloween.
It might be all about positive momentum with this program – there hasn’t been a lick of that under Scott Frost so far. That’s not happening if the Huskers lose to Purdue for the third year in a row.
– Nebraska Cornhuskers Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 Nebraska Fun Stats
– Field Goals: Opponents 15-of-16 – Nebraska 12-of-20
– Fumbles: Nebraska 27 (lost 12) – Opponents 17 (lost 10)
– 1959-1961 – The last time Nebraska went three straight years without a bowl game
NEXT: College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
1. College Football News Preview 2020: Nebraska Cornhuskers Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
CFN in 60 Video: Nebraska Cornhuskers Preview
There hasn’t been a run of Nebraska football this bad since the mid-to-late 1950s into 1961. From 1962 on, the program turned into a perennial juggernaut with 48 seasons of nine wins or more up until 2017.
Scott Frost had a rebuilding job to do, but it’s Nebraska. It’s in the program’s DNA to be in the mix for national championships, and it can’t even come up with a winning season lately.
The Huskers haven’t been in the same mix as Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, or even Michigan, and there’s a worse reality than that. Only three Big Ten programs have failed to make a bowl game over the last three years, and they’re the three new guys.
Rutgers, Maryland, and Nebraska.
But all the pain and suffering is about to end, and potentially in a big way.
Set The Nebraska Cornhuskers Regular Season Win Total At … 7.5
Bet at BetMGM Win Total Line: 6.5
Sort of like Minnesota last year, Nebraska has a nice early schedule to fatten up on. It’s not as breezy as the Gophers enjoyed, but there’s no excuse to be anything less than 5-2 over the first seven games, and it’s likely the team will be favored in each of the first seven games.
The offense should be explosive with all the new receiver talent coming in – to go along with the backfield of QB Adrian Martinez and RB Dedrick Mills – and the defense should be just good enough to get by, even if it’s not fantastic.
But the Huskers have to stop screwing up.
The penalties that that were such a killer in 2018 slowed down in 2019, but who gets five kicks blocked? Struggles closing – like in the loss to Colorado – problems on both sides in the red zone, issues in pass protection, mediocre special teams …
The Huskers have to be tighter.
But they’ll go bowling. They’ll go into the Halloween date at Ohio State still alive in the Big Ten chase, and they’ll be a tougher out over the final month.
This might not be the Big Red Machine that Husker fans so desperately want, but Frost and the program will pull up out of the nosedive.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Schedule Analysis
