Nebraska Cornhuskers Betting - 2011 Nebraska Cornhuskers College Football Preview
In their maiden voyage in the Big Ten Conference, the Nebraska Cornhuskers bring back a total of 14 starters, seven on each side of the football. The 2011 offense will return quarterback Taylor Martinez, who showed signs of stardom as well as freshman struggles last season. The offense improved greatly over from 2009 to the 2010 and the Huskers will look to Martinez to continue that development this season. Head coach Bo Pelini leads the nation in wins among third-year coaches with 29. Despite the success, and back-to-back trips to the Big 12 Championship Game, Pelini is just 2-3 in the month of December. He’s also just 1-5 against top-10 teams since taking over in Lincoln. While the Huskers have struggled at finishing seasons, that shouldn’t take away from the success that Pelini has had. The Huskers are seeking their third straight ten-win season.
Pelini has resurrected the Blackshirt Nebraska defense, which took a pronounced holiday during the era of Pelini’s ill-fated successor, former Oakland Raider coach and current NFL assistant Bill Callahan. Under Callahan, Nebraska was easy to pounce on from a sports betting perspective. The Huskers allowed 70 points to Texas Tech and got bombed in similar fashion by the likes of Kansas and Missouri. Even MLB baseball betting gurus knew the Huskers were horrid on defense half a decade ago. The precipitous nature of Nebraska’s fall from grace, particularly the marked departure from the Blackshirts’ performances under elite defensive coordinator Charlie McBride during the Tom Osborne reign of excellence, made Nebraska fans irate, and when Callahan couldn’t back up a Big 12 Championship Game appearance in 2006 with anything else of substance or quality, the roof caved in on him very quickly. Pelini, a defense-first coach with extensive experience as a defensive coordinator at places such as Oklahoma and LSU, seemed like the perfect fit for Nebraska, and while his emotional volatility has often embarrassed the program, Nebraska is winning nine games each season, doing enough to keep itself in the college football conversation.
A year after finishing first in the country in points allowed, the Nebraska defense followed up with top five performances in passing yards allowed, competed passes against, and pass efficiency defense. Jared Crick, Cameron Meredith, Baker Steinkuhler, Lavonte David, and Alfonzo Dennard return to Lincoln for the 2011 campaign with at least 13 starts under their belts.
The Huskers have three straight contests at Memorial Stadium to open the season, with Fresno State and Washington chief among them. Nebraska will open Big Ten play on the road in Madison, taking on Wisconsin. A week later, the first game conference home game as a member of the Big Ten brings Ohio State to town. Road contests to Penn State and MIchigan in mid November are also on the docket. It’s going to be very tough for Nebraska to go from a watered-down Big 12 North Division to the Big Ten and expect the same high level of results; Nebraska came within a small margin of winning the Big 12 title last season before Oklahoma wrested away the league crown in the fourth quarter. There is a deeper field of teams in the Big Ten, so while Nebraska will be very good in 2011, don’t expect the Huskers to rise straight to the top spot in the Big Ten’s 12-team kingdom. That’s the best sports bet you can make.
