Prior to the season, the Hail Varsity Staff published our season predictions concerning win totals, statistical leaders and some over/unders. As you can probably imagine, there were some pretty bad whiffs. However, we nailed some of them as well.
Let’s take a look back at those predictions to see how Greg Smith, Derek Peterson, Brandon Vogel and myself fared.
Welcome to Whose Guess Is It Anyway?, where everything was a bad prediction and the points don’t matter.
Regular season Wins
GS: 10
DP: 10
BV: 8
JP: 9
Actual: 4
Brandon was the closest to the actual total and he guessed twice as many wins as what Nebraska finished with. The best line of the whole post came from Greg, though.
Smith: “The catalyst for me going double-digit wins is Bob Diaco, not Tanner Lee. Diaco’s impact will be felt immediately.”
Welp.
No points for this one.
Record against Wisconsin, Penn State and Ohio State
GS: 1-2
DP: 2-1
BV: 1-2
JP: 1-2
Actual: 0-3
Once again, we all missed on this one. All four of us had Nebraska beating Wisconsin and Derek thought Nebraska would beat Ohio State as well. No points.
Upset Watch
GS: Minnesota
DP: Purdue
BV: Arkansas State
JP: Minnesota
Actual: Northern Illinois, Minnesota
Finally, we have a hit! Greg and I both highlighted Minnesota, although I didn’t feel great about it. Nobody picked the Huskers to lose to the Huskies, though. One point each for Greg and me.
Leading Tackler
GS: Chris Weber (96)
DP: Joshua Kalu (93)
BV: Joshua Kalu (84)
JP: Chris Weber (97)
Actual: Chris Weber (87)
Kalu did miss three games, but he was still only fifth in tackles per game, finishing with 47. Greg and I both picked the right player while Brandon got the closest to the number and was the only one who didn’t go over. Points for everyone but Derek.
Better Year: Offensive or Defensive Line
GS: DL
DP: DL
BV: DL
JP: DL
Actual: DL
The defensive line wasn’t great by any means, but the offensive line was a disaster. Points for everyone.
Offensive MVP
GS: Tanner Lee
DP: Tanner Lee
BV: Cole Conrad
JP: Tanner Lee
Actual: Tanner Lee? Stanley Morgan Jr.? J.D. Spielman?
It’s hard to pinpoint one offensive MVP on a team that struggled so much offensively at times, but I know it’s not Cole Conrad. Lee, Morgan and Spielman all looked like stars at times but also had rough patches. I’ll award a point here for the Lee guesses because of the amount of responsibility he had on his shoulders with the lack of run game and adequate pass protection.
Defensive MVP
GS: Joshua Kalu
DP: Joshua Kalu
BV: Chris Weber
JP: Chris Weber
Actual: Chris Weber
It’s tough to pick any one standout on one of the worst defenses in Nebraska history, but “nobody” wasn’t really an option at the start of the year. Ben Stille showed some serious flashes, but I don’t think he saw enough snaps to be called the most valuable player on the defense. Carlos Davis looked like a master early but his play tailed off a bit. I’m going with Weber by default. Points for Brandon and me.
Biggest Surprise
GS: Tyler Hoppes
DP: Eric Lee Jr.
BV: J.D. Spielman
JP: Carlos Davis
Actual: J.D. Spielman
A lot of people were high on Spielman, but I don’t know that I saw anyone who thought he might flirt with the school receiving record as a freshman. Props to Brandon for this pick.
Now, time for Over/Unders.
3,568 yards for Tanner Lee
GS: Over
DP: Over
BV: Under
JP: Under
Actual: Under (3,143)
Points for Brandon and me. I think we all underestimated the rust factor that Lee had to work through early in the season.
0.5 running backs with 200 carries
GS: Under
DP: Under
BV: Under
JP: Under
Actual: Under (Devine Ozigbo, 129)
This one was easy. Perhaps Tre Bryant could have gotten there had he stayed healthy, but even with him out there I’m not sure how much Nebraska would have been able to establish the ground game with how the offensive line played for most of the season. Points all around.
0.5 receivers with 40 catches
GS: Over
DP: Over
BV: Over
JP: Over
Actual: Over (Stanley Morgan, 61; J.D. Spielman, 55; De’Mornay Pierson-El, 45)
This was another easy one based on Mike Riley’s history and the talent on the roster. The interesting thing is that none of us mentioned Spielman by name. All of us expected Morgan to pass that mark easily, so that made it an automatic over. Greg didn’t specify, but expected more than one to get there. Brandon and I both mentioned Hoppes (didn’t get to 40 but did break the record for receptions by a tight end with 34) and I tossed out Pierson-El as well. Another round of points on me.
Two special teams touchdowns
GS: Under
DP: Over
BV: Over
JP: Under
Actual: Under
J.D. Spielman returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown on his first touch as a Husker. Since then, zilch. Points for Greg and me.
Final Tally
We were all pretty terrible with some of our predictions, but according to my totally unbiased scoring, I was the most accurate prognosticator on the staff with eight points. Greg was right behind me with seven points (but I feel like that statement about Diaco should count as -5, at the least), then Brandon with six and Derek with four.
Hopefully we do better next year.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
