Nebraska Football: How many games can Huskers realistically win?

Nebraska football is 0-3 for the first time in several decades and fans went from being pumped for this season to now wondering how many games the Cornhuskers can actually win this year.

An 0-3 start is as bad a start as Nebraska football could have had to start the Scott Frost era. The first two games at least saw the Huskers right in the thick of the game, but falling just short. Their shellacking at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines was another story, however, and it wasn’t fun to watch.

Three games are in the books now for the Cornhuskers and fans have to start wondering what the final win total will be for the 2018 squad. The good news is that Nebraska recently added a make-up game after their opener against Akron was canceled. The new opponent will be Bethune Cookman of the Mid-Eastern Atlanta Conference.

While Nebraska fans might ask “Is that really an automatic win?”, I’m sure they’re joking. If Nebraska loses to Bethune Cookman, then perhaps it’s time to disband the football program (kidding, of course).

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Other than that newly scheduled game against Bethune Cookman, what other games do the Cornhuskers have a realistic shot at winning? They play Purdue next weekend and could have a shot in that one. Purdue did play Missouri close in week three and blew out the 23rd ranked Boston College Eagles this past weekend. Not a sure thing for Nebraska at all, but at least it’ll be played in Lincoln.

Northwestern is a few weeks after that game and despite being on the road, that’s another game the Huskers could win. Northwestern is 1-2 this season with their only win coming against Purdue in the season opener. They’ve lost to Duke and Akron (maybe Nebraska dodged a bullet by not having to play the Zips).

Illinois would have been a realistic win for the Huskers, but after seeing the Fighting Illini hang with Penn State for three quarters, maybe the Lovie Smith-led squad is going to be tougher than we thought (even though the Nittany Lions hung 35 points on the Illini in the fourth quarter).

That game is in Nebraska though, so the Cornhuskers should have the edge, depending on how the next few weeks shake out. Hopefully it’s a winnable game for Big Red.

The rest of the schedule is pretty brutal, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Nebraska win even fewer than four games (their win total last year). Losing to Colorado and Troy wasn’t just bad because they were losses, but it took what should have been two winnable games for the Cornhuskers.

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So, to sum up, here are the games Nebraska could realistically win:

Purdue – September 29th
at Northwestern – October 13th
Bethune Cookman – October 27th
Illinois – November 10th

Nebraska will really have to battle back to get out of this hole they’ve dug themselves in, but it isn’t going to be easy. Winning six games and making a bowl game would be a miracle now, but maybe this team will figure things out and start to roll.

With tougher teams like Wisconsin, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Iowa still on the schedule, Nebraska is going to have their work cut out for them. Let’s hope this is rock bottom and things don’t get any worse.

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