***Macwesties * Thur. Aug. 31, 2023 * NCAAF College Football Plays***

Quote Originally Posted by iamhuge:

Nebraska +7.5 Minnesota   Goodbye Frosty, hello Matt Rhule.  If the Cornhuskers can’t win with Rhule at the helm, they might as well drop down to FCS.  Rhule has won coaching at Temple and Baylor.  Both of those jobs were complete reclaimation projects.  At Nebraska, he’ll be hitting the ground running.  Talk about teams going in opposite directions.  PJ Fleck’s Gophers are a hot mess right now with all of the chatter about his ruthless coaching practices.  Talk about “row your boat”?  How about “hit me on the head with an oar”. The Cornhuskers are going back to old school football, which is perfect for the Big 10.  They are re-installing a fullback and will huddle up between plays.  Their QB is the starter transfer from Georgie Tech, Jeff Sims, who is a dual threat guy.    He’s not named Martinez, but he’s still pretty good.  Three of their four running backs also return.  Overall, fifteen starters return (7 Offense/8 Defense) so Rhule has something to work with. Last season, the Gophers won this contest 20-13 behind the legs of all world Mohamed Ibrahim but this year he’s gone.  Speaking of bye bye, the Gophers also need to replace experienced NFL bound Tanner Morgan.  So last year, Minnesota didn’t cover this spread with two phenomenal offensive weapons.  Their inexperienced QB, Athan Kaliakmanis, only completed 54% of his passes last year.  There are still starting jobs up for grabs, particularly on the O Line.    This is going to be a tough game for the Gophers.  But why ask me?  This is what PJ Fleck said:  “They’re very talented, they’re big, they’re strong,” Fleck said of Nebraska. “A lot of guys have played a lot of years for him. They’re a very experienced team. And then they’ve added a lot of players from the transfer portal that have played a lot of football elsewhere. They present a lot of challenges and like I said, you know that I have a ton of respect for Matt and what he’s been able to accomplish in his career and, and he always gets the most out of his team, no matter what year it is.” My expectation is a low scoring slug fest.  Nebraska will certainly be better than they were last year and Minnesota has a lot of question marks.  I see Nebraska doing better in this game than they did last year, which means taking the points for the cover makes sense.