Carriker Chronicles: Nebraska Is 5-1. Is This Team Different? Plus the Rhule Rumors

Adam Carriker poses a lot of questions in this episode of the Carriker Chronicles! First of all, Matt Rhule is already in the middle of rumors swirling about him going to Penn State. Adam shares a conversation he had with Matt Rhule a while back directly related to this very subject! Also, this Nebraska team is 5-1 and ranked, but is this Nebraska team different?! Adam talks about how Nebraska football’s schedule up to this point is actually tougher than most people realize. It’s certainly not an incredibly difficult schedule as an overall whole, but they played four Power Four teams that have a combined winning percentage of 67% for their games so far this year. Last year Nebraska was 5-1 as well to start the year, and the Four Power four teams that had played up to the middle of the season last year had a combined winning percentage of 52% of their games by the end of the season.

There’s a lot of football left to play, but Michigan will probably end the season ranked, Michigan State is the only team without a winning record at 3-3, which is still .500 and Adam is convinced that Maryland is better than most people realize. The same exact thing that Adam said after Nebraska played Cincinnati, who is now 5-1 and ranked one spot ahead of Nebraska, for some reason, at 24th in the country.

Adam talks about Nebraska’s sloppy and ugly play that they’ve had so far this year, but he also explains just how young this team is. Remember, they were the youngest team in the entire Big Ten conference coming into this season. Very different from Matt Rhule’s year three at Temple and at Baylor where he had a majority of juniors and seniors playing and over 80% of his starters returned.

When do you think of Nebraska’s top players this year, guys like Dylan Raiola, Emmett Johnson, Jacory Barney, Nyziah Hunter, the entire defensive line with the exception of one senior, the entire running back room, Luke Lindenmeyer, and more… Every single one of those guys should be back next year. And then in the case of Raiola, Barney and Hunter, they’re not even juniors, they’re all underclassmen. Matt Rhule wanted the jump that he typically has as a coach maybe one year away. That being said, Adam points out that the floor for Nebraska football this season is no longer 6-6 like he had thought it was before this season. The floor is now 8-4. All Nebraska has to do is win half the remaining games and they’ll be 8-4 in the regular season with a potential to get a win in a bowl game.

The goal is obviously much higher than that. Nebraska is a 5½-point favorite at Minnesota and will be a double-digit favorite at home versus Northwestern. It is realistic that Nebraska could be 7-1 heading into November. Adam will not engage in College Football Playoff talk unless that point comes. But if it does come, and it is realistic, Nebraska could be 7-1 heading into November and could only go .500 in November and still be 9-3, with the potential 10th win in a bowl game. This is all very realistic. The remaining schedule for Nebraska is not a killer, but it is more unpredictable than before. No one really knows what to make of UCLA, Northwestern or Penn State at this point.

Minnesota and Iowa are good football teams. Nebraska has more talent than them but has not been able to beat them in the recent past, will this year be different?! USC may be the only ranked team Nebraska plays the rest of this season potentially.

Adam talks about how this team is young, how young players improve at a faster rate than older players, and while there’s been a lot of sloppy football, what he really likes is the mental approach. The grittiness, the mental toughness, and the fact that they’ve already won twice as many one-score games as they’ve lost this year. These were all things that would have been flipped in the past. In fact, there’s a case to be made that instead of being 3-1 versus their four Power Four opponents so far, those are the types of games Nebraska would’ve lost in the past and they could’ve easily been 1-3 in the same four games, which would drastically change Nebraska’s current record and trajectory of the rest of the season.

Tune in to see if Adam Carriker truly thinks this Nebraska team is different or if they’re a year a way or in this day and age of the transfer portal and NIL, if any of those guys will actually be here next year!

Also, with the rumors of Matt Rhule going to Penn State, Adam Carriker had a conversation a while back with Matt Rhule about this very topic! Tune in to hear as Adam shares the exact details of that conversation and this can’t-miss episode of the Carriker Chronicles!

Hit the play button below, Go Big Red, and always remember to throw the bones!

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