Anyone else recognize the similarities between 2015 Nebraska and 2012 Michigan State?

[chicolby]

Should Nebraska be fortunate enough to beat Iowa and their bowl opponent to finish 7-6, the similarities to 2012 Michigan State will be remarkable.

Michigan State beat their last opponent to finish 6-6 and went on to beat TCU in the bowl game to finish 7-6.

Michigan State suffered losses by 1, 3, 2, 4 and 3 in addition to a 17 point loss early in the season.

If Nebraska follows form, it could bode well as in 2013, Michigan State finished 13-1 with a Rose Bowl victory over #5 ranked Stanford finishing #3 in the BCS poll behind FSU and Auburn who played in the BCS Championship.

Obviously every circumstance is unique, but this shows that next year could end up special if the team keeps buying in to what Riley and staff are coaching.

 

[NorthWillRiseAgain]

Phil Steele has a good article about teams losing(and winning) being a decent barometer for the next season.

 

[OmahaSker]

It won't be as drastic. Probably a 9-4 season or so

 

[HuskersMan34]

It won't be as drastic. Probably a 9-4 season or so

That's what I was thinking, though we could be as good as 11-2. Oregon's a tough beat, but they don't play defense and it's here.

Ohio State is a loss, Wisconsin is likely a loss because it's at Camp Randall but if we can get our offense more consistent we might actually be quite a bit better than them next year. The rest of our schedule are games we should win plus Iowa. If the way we've finished the season is an indication that the team has bought in, there's no excuse to lose to Fresno State, Wyoming, Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota or Maryland.

 

[huskerssalts]

Well the biggest thing i like against Oregon next year is Riley has played these guys almost every year in the Pac 12, he and almost the whole staff already knows these guys inside and out and Oregon doesn't have the same advantage.

The other part i like is we return almost everyone and with everything finally clicking on defense alond with our offense, we could be very good next year. My early guess is 10-2, lossing 1 of the big games and winning the other (OSU and Oregon) .

 

[SpartanJD_rivals19842]

MSUs 2012 defense was top 3 in the nation. Simply great. So, we knew that we just needed the offense to come around a little (which it did with the emergence of Cook and Langford) to be a top team.

Not sure NU has that kind of top end foundation coming back. You guys have to get better at every single position on the field, not just a few areas.

Just my .02

 

[ReuniteGondwanaland]

MSUs 2012 defense was top 3 in the nation. Simply great. So, we knew that we just needed the offense to come around a little (which it did with the emergence of Cook and Langford) to be a top team.

Not sure NU has that kind of top end foundation coming back. You guys have to get better at every single position on the field, not just a few areas.

Just my .02

Would like to argue that more but it's difficult. Knew going into 2013 that if MSU found a QB that they'd be really hard to beat. And they found Cook.

Perhaps a minor exaggeration that we need to improve at every single position. We're good this year (and next) at probably DT, WR, and would be great at PR without injury. But point taken. There's a reason we've lost games and it's not a single key like Andrew Maxwell in 2012.

"Good" news for us is that we don't graduate a lot of seniors who will be representing us on the all-conference honors teams.

 

[chicolby]

Appreciate the feedback and I agree. Sparty's 7-6 did probably have a stronger foundation overall than Nebraska has, but I would disagree a bit about needing every single position to get better.

I would argue that Nebraska's offense is likely comparable to Michigan State's defense. The offense is averaging 30+ points per game and has all key skill players returning including QB Armstrong, WR Westercamp, Pierson El, RBs Newby and Ozigbo and a couple salty O linemen.

I could say "the defense needs to come around a little" and while that's clearly no guarantee, it isn't out of the question.

 

[huskerssalts]

Agreed, our offense is like MSUs defense that year and our defense is simular to MSU offense. Key points here that have to be considered, if you want to allow the excuse or not, our defense has been beat up all year, we have had only a game a where we had all starters, there was times where all three of our linebackers where back ups and our d line hasn't been whole either. It wasn't till the MSU game till we started getting healthy again and getting people back, Rutgers was the first team that seen our whole defense back since BYU, and even then we had suspentions on starting defenders. Our defense, if it stays healthy next year could be pretty good.