The Nebraska football season is exactly 40 days away and here are three bold predictions for the Cornhuskers in Matt Rhule’s first season.
Nebraska football fans have been drinking the Kool-Aid hard with the 2023 season fast approaching. Matt Rhule has been doing exciting things in the offseason, particularly when it comes to the 2024 recruiting class.
That doesn’t have anything to do with the upcoming season. It still gets fans excited though and after some really solid additions late in the 2023 cycle, as well as in the transfer portal, optimism is renewed in Nebraska.
Not every Nebraska football fan is buying the Rhule-Aid. Some are wary after pundits called Scott Frost the perfect hire. People have said the same thing about Rhule but in 40 days, we’ll get our first glimpse about the new Nebraska football program.
Here are three bold predictions for the 2023 Nebraska Cornhuskers football season.
Nebraska is going bowling
That’s the first question that most people ask about the Huskers in 2023 — are they going to finally go bowling again?
Nebraska has the longest streak of not making a bowl game among Power-5 teams and this season, that drought will come to an end.
The schedule isn’t easy. But it’s not incredibly difficult either. The back-to-back road games against Minnesota and Colorado isn’t an easy start, but if the Huskers can win one of those two games, they should be in a good spot.
A 3-0 non-conference record is important. That’s very doable and would take a lot of pressure off going into Big Ten play. Nebraska football has been good enough to play in a bowl game the past two seasons but won just seven games total because it couldn’t stop beating itself.
That won’t happen as much this season and the Huskers will get back to the postseason.
The Huskers will truck Colorado
One of the most exciting non-conference games in the 2023 college football season is going to be Nebraska against Colorado.
The two teams had a heated rivalry back in the days of the Big 8 and the Big 12. They met in back-to-back games early in the Frost era and Colorado won both times.
This time around, Colorado has a lot of work to do. Deion Sanders jettisoned most of the program and added about 50 transfers. Travis Hunter is dynamic though and his son is a pretty good quarterback too.
Colorado will be better. But I don’t know that will be able to hang with a Nebraska team that’s better than people realize. When I say truck, I should preface that — but I think the Huskers will win the game by double digits and it will be a 2-3 score game most of the way.
Nebraska is going to be better in the trenches than people realize and the Huskers will prove it in Boulder.
Jeff Sims will fulfill his potential
One of the reasons I’m so confident in the idea of Nebraska football making a bowl game is the new starting quarterback Jeff Sims.
Sims was stuck in a mediocre program at Georgia Tech and it showed. He will be surrounded by talent at Nebraska, even if people don’t want to realize the Huskers have talent.
Thomas Fidone has a bright future if he can stay healthy, plus transfer Billie Kemp is a guy that should lead the Huskers in receptions. Add top-100 freshman Malachi Coleman, as well as former four-star Zavier Betts, Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda, as well as Marcus Washington, and Sims is just going to have to play point guard.
As long as the offensive line holds up and he starts for 12 games, he might have a good enough season to entertain the NFL draft. I’m not sure if Sims will leave, but my guess is that he plays well enough to earn some sort of postseason honors in the Big Ten after accounting for over 3,000 total yards and 30 total touchdowns (approximately) next season.