College Football 2018: 3 Under-the-radar games in Week 2
Scott Frost‘s New First Game
In Week 1, the Colorado Buffaloes dominated their in-state rival, Colorado State, 45-13. Many agree the Pac-12 conference is wide open, and the Buffaloes are hoping to put themselves in a position to compete for the championship. In all fairness, some of the other Pac-12 teams, like say UCLA or Arizona, didn’t look so good. So calling Colorado a Pac-12 contender may be a stretch. However, they have quite the opportunity to stand out this week against Nebraska.
Playing the Cornhuskers in their home stadium isn’t ideal. But Colorado has a huge advantage in that they have already played their first game of the season, where Nebraska has not. Nearly every team makes their biggest improvements on the season between Weeks 1 and 2. Therefore, Colorado has many of the ingredients needed to steal a win from the Cornhuskers.
As for Nebraska, this game will likely mean more than it should to the college football wolrd. Where Coach Scott Frost was supposed to have his Nebraska debut against a much easier Akron team, he now faces a team who is coming off a win with a lot of momentum. Nebraska is expected to win this game by a lot of points. However practically, the Cornhuskers will likely get off to a slow start due to this being their first game of the season. So here are the possible scenarios for Nebraska and the narratives that follow:
- Scenario: Nebraska wins by 20+ Narrative: “They should have won, it’s Colorado…”:
- Scenario: Nebraska wins by less than 20 Narrative: “Scott Frost’s debut was less than impressive. Nebraska looks ahead at another rough season in the Big 10”
- Scenario: Nebraska losses. Narrative: “UCF is still winning without Scott Frost, but Nebraska loses. Was Scott Frost given too much credit?”
Colorado looks like a good team and Nebraska is unproven (as all teams are before their first game). Yes, Nebraska should win; but it is unfair to expect too much out of them in this Week 2 match-up.