Wisconsin Badgers: Early 2020 game-by-game projections, Part 4
By James Bowers
The last time Nebraska won a national title, Scott Frost wore the grass-stained red uniform of the quarterback that made it all happen. He was 22 then. Now, it’s 22 years later and he finds himself in his third season the head coach of that same Husker program. It would be a storybook scenario, if the Husker program was not in the state it now.
In his two seasons as the starting quarterback for the Cornhuskers, Frost engineered 24 victories. His first pair of campaigns as the head coach has yielded only nine wins and 2018 was abysmal. Left with a bare cupboard following the disastrous tenure of Mike Riley, Frost’s team started 0-6 on the way to a 4-8 mark, unable to defeat even Troy of the Sun Belt. Freshman Adrian Martinez showed promise nevertheless and fans were cautiously optimistic for 2019.
Their optimism was pretty well-founded through the first six games, only a blown-lead overtime loss against Colorado and to-be-expected shellacking by Ohio State dampened Husker spirits. Nebraska carried a 4-2 record into Minneapolis, where the finest Gopher team in decades handed the Huskers a harsh defeat.
Nobody was prepared for what happened the following week in West Lafayette. The Huskers squandered a 10-0 first quarter lead and began to tussle with the 2-5 Boilermakers. The fourth quarter had fans on the edge of their seats, with the Huskers taking a 20-17 advantage with 12:30 to play in the game before the Boilers’ King Doerue and Nebraska’s Martinez traded touchdown runs.
With 4:21 left and ahead 27-24, it appeared the Huskers would escape Ross-Ade Stadium with the win. Purdue signal-caller Jack Plummer had to start a drive for a winning or tying score from his own 18 and while Nebraska hoped he would make the errors typical of an often hurt redshirt freshman, to their dismay he answered the bell leading the Boilers on a 82-yard offensive. David Bell scored from nine yards out, and Nebraska failed to counter, falling to Purdue 31-27.
The loss could symbolize the season; the Huskers feeling like they had put the woes behind them only to fall short. Nebraska was only able to win once more against a very weak Maryland team and stayed home at bowl time for a third consecutive year. Frost was not feeling very triumphant.
Wisconsin, in particular, pushed Nebraska around en route to a 37-21 win.
It’s 2020 and the Huskers want to get back to the sort of perch they occupied for decades under Tom Osborne and Bob Devanney. There are no quick fixes, but if Frost can’t take the Cornhuskers bowling, there is a chance he could be cleaning his things out of his office at the end of the season.
Martinez returns along with the bulk of his offensive cast-mates such as Wandale Robinson and Dedrick Mills. It should be noted that the Huskers actually outscored their 2019 opponents 336-333, so the continuity is good for the team.
The defense has many more question marks, with a lot of newcomers coming into play for the Blackshirts.
The Wisconsin defense was able to keep Martinez and company from putting them in real danger last year. Add to that the emotions of a senior day setting, and Wisconsin has two very bright feathers in their cap ahead of this game.
Prediction: Wisconsin wins (10-1)