What’s six teams seated ahead of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, everything is still in reach for the 2024 season. At 5-1 the Huskers have showed both huge upside and tremendous downside. Freshman quarterback, Dylan Raiola had shown experience beyond his years at times landing him as a mid-season All American but has also in the past two games showed moments of need for improvement. Jacorey Barney has also earned mid-season All American honors, impressing fans and coaches with his big play ability.
The Huskers currently sit at sixth in the Big Ten standings behind Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Indiana and the team that has delt Nebraska its only loss, Illinois. With Indiana and Ohio State still on the schedule Nebraska controls its own destiny. Illinois still has Michigan, Oregon, Rutgers and a very competent Minnesota left on their schedule. They will most likely drop two and possibly three of those games, propelling the Cornhuskers level or one win ahead of them. If Nebraska wins the games it is supposed to win, the Cornhuskers could finish 10-2 or 9-3 this season with the expert projection at 8-4.
Teams such as Indiana, Rutgers, Illinois and Minnesota have been a big surprise this year but none of them have the talent this year to compete the whole season with top tier teams. With Michigan being a surprise on the not so positive side, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State are the clear leaders of the pack with Ohio State and Oregon squaring off this weekend and Penn State showing vulnerabilities there will be a clear first place leader in the Big 10 then two tiers below them. After this week, Tier Two will most likely be Oregon, Penn State, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska and Rutgers. Tier Three being the rest of the Big 10.
The next two weeks will separate the teams into contenders and pretenders. After Illinois plays Michigan and Oregon back to back and Indiana Nebraska and a tricky Washington team back to back they could pick up 1-2 losses during that time. Projections with how the Big 10 will shake out go as such:
1. Ohio State
2. Oregon
3. Penn State
4. Nebraska
5. Indiana
6. USC
7. Iowa
8. Rutgers
9. Illinois
10. Minnesota
11. Michigan
12. Maryland
13. Washington
14. Wisconsin
15. Michigan State
16. Northwestern
17. UCLA
18. Purdue
The Huskers have the second half of their season ahead of them and control their own destiny. If they can put togather complete games consistently there is only one sure loss on the schedule and could end up 10-2 fighting for that third playoff spot in the Big 10. They could also continue on their exact same path and aquire losses to Indiana, Ohio State, USC and Iowa bringing them to 7-5, but I do see them landing somewhere in the middle. We will know more after Ohio State, when I give my first half of the schedule grades before our final four games.
