Big Red Recap:
I'll be damned. I'll admit it. I did not expect Nebraska to beat UCLA (Even though I did say if the score was going to be within a touchdown or whatever then Nebraska would have a sure-fire edge). The defense held it's ground (and UCLA decided to not exploit our defense for whatever reason). The special teams made some good plays, and our offense hardly turned the ball over! Wait...you're saying Armstrong threw the ball less than 20 times? (his season average ended up being 30 attempts per game). And we...hang on; ran the ball three times as much with our two tanks and everyone else that's significantly better than Tommy's arm? Wow. Like I said, I'll be damned. I didn't think that kind of combination would actually win a game.
That last part was extreme sarcasm by the way, I'm not sure how well that travels over the internet. This was shades of last year's Dallas Cowboys when they held Tony Romo to a career low in terms of throwing the ball and ran the damn ball with DeMarco Murray as they ripped their way to a 12-4 record (and a decent playoff run, until, of course, Dez didn't catch it. I don't blame him with Romo throwing). I'm just saying it must be a coincidence that if you don't give a guy that's prone to turnovers the opportunity to turn the ball over, then you'll see less turnovers and more long term success. It's science I tell you! Now again, I can't rip on Armstrong (or Romo it seems) too much, as we have seen in both instances that without Armstrong we'll lose to a shitty team (cue Purdue) and without Romo the Cowboys can't do a damn thing (cue this entire season when Romo got injured). What is done is done though, Nebraska ended the year with a 6-7, still losing, record. Which is interesting to note, as Nebraska was 5-7 coming into their bowl game (a losing record), yet they ended up with a similar record than a team who entered 6-6 (a non-losing record) who would end up losing their bowl game. Weird how the world works. It still wasn't the 9-win ideal season that every Nebraska fan is used to (in fact I still say it was worse given our schedule and team talent should have been a minimum 7 wins). But there is some hope. Sure we lose our two tanks (Cross and Janovich) but we still have Newby who has shown improvement (he's no Abdullah by ANY means) and our new tank Ozigbo is showing some great promise to fill in the shoes of Cross and Janovich. Westerkamp should be returning, and Morgan Jr. has shown to be one heck of a freshman receiver. On defense, it really can't get any worse than it was this year. The secondary will have more experience, and the only major name we're losing up front is Gangwish. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about a guy named De'Mornay.
Way too early prediction for 2016: 10-2 (7-2) (Yes, I have currently slated an upset of Oregon at home, which unfortunately might not be as great of a game as it'll seem now. Still will be one hell of a game to go to. Better be a night game.)
