College football season is finally here and for the Hilltoppers they have a lot to prove coming off of a winless campaign in their first fully fledged FBS season. The mountain gets harder to climb to kick off the 2010 season with a trip to Lincoln, NE to take on the eighth ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Nebraska is ranked eighth in the country for a reason; they are deep and talented on offense, defense, and special teams. The only big question mark they have coming into the season is the quarterback position, and Coach Pelini is keeping that answer on the down low.
This will be a learning experience for WKU in dealing with the crowd noise at Memorial Stadium and playing a team with superior talent. One advantage for the Hilltoppers is they are under new leadership that is incorporating new offensive and defensive systems which means there is not a lot of game film for the Nebraska coaching staff to break down.
This will be a success for WKU if:
The new 4-3 defense can penetrate the line of scrimmage against a deep and talented Cornhuskers offensive line. Getting quarterback pressures, minimizing long runs, and creating some three and outs will be a major victory for the defense. With Nebraska running wider offensive line splits, which places the defense 4-5 feet further from the quarterback, getting sacks will be a tough task.
The Hilltopper offensive line can hold the Black shirt defense off enough to create some positive running plays and give Kawaun Jakes enough time to run through his progressions on pass attempts. With the depth and talent on the Nebraska defense, I believe Jakes will be running more than he will be passing.
The special teams unit can prevent touchdown returns on kickoffs and punts. This is WKU’s biggest weakness and will be tested often, expect Nebraska returner Niles Paul to break a sweat because his day will be busy.
If the Hilltoppers can gain over 200 yards of offense, hold Nebraska under 50 points, and not allow a big return on special teams will serve as a huge positive for WKU as they kick off a new season under first year head coach Willie Taggart. Getting out of this game healthy and having actual game experience running the West Coast offense and 4-3 defense will give the Hilltoppers the confidence to know they can compete in the Sun Belt Conference this season.
Yes, the losing streak will be 21 in a row but they will be one game closer to ending it.
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