Nebraska football: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for 2023

The Matt Rhule era of Nebraska football is officially upon us. The Scott Frost era was a resounding failure and the fanbase is desperate for a turnaround. I think Rhule may be the perfect guy for the job.

Rhule built Temple into a winner before taking over what seemed to be a dead Baylor program and he had a 1-11 season in year one before flipping the script and winning 11 the next season. He decided to take the money and run as he accepted the Carolina Panthers job the following offseason.

We won’t get into his NFL coaching tenure (it wasn’t pretty) but now he’ll be back trying to build up another program and Nebraska is the perfect job for him.

Year one might not be pretty, but the Cornhuskers still have a shot to go bowling.

How will Nebraska football fare in 2023?

The Matt Rhule era opens up with a tough conference battle at the end of August against Big Ten West contender Minnesota. The Gophers no longer have Tanner Morgan nor do they have Mo Ibrahim, but that shouldn’t stop them from rolling over the Cornhuskers who are entering a major rebuild.

Nebraska will at least put up a fight as Casey Thompson returns to battle it out with Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Sims. There just won’t be enough consistent offensive play in this one as Minnesota’s defense steps up for the win.

Prediction: Loss (0-1, 0-1 Big Ten)

Two historical programs undergoing serious changes will meet up in Boulder in Week 2 for one of the more intriguing battles that we’ll see in non-conference play.

Deion Sanders and Matt Rhule will take center stage in Week 2 to show which program is closer to being back and unfortunately, that answer will be Colorado as the Buffaloes will have home-field advantage and the talented added this offseason in Boulder had more immediate impact stars.

This could be a fun rivalry, though.

Prediction: Loss (0-2)