Nebraska Football: Huskers jump back into contention in 2019
By Cullen Jekel
October: Northwestern, at Minnesota, OPEN, Indiana
As you may have noticed at the end of the last slide, I included records for three other Big Ten West teams: the Northwestern Wildcats, Wisconsin Badgers, and Minnesota Gophers. The reason for doing that is because I’m predicting those will be the three teams who will challenge Nebraska for the right to lose to the Big Ten East winner in the Big Ten Championship Game.
For a very quick recap, heading into October, the Badgers will have an uphill battle after falling to both the Michigan Wolverines and Northwestern. Northwestern will lose its opener at Stanford, but then also drop its September 21st home game against the Michigan State Spartans. Meanwhile, the Gophers are sitting pretty, undefeated after knocking such foes as…the Purdue Boilermakers.
Things get really interesting for the Big Ten West when September gives way to October. For Nebraska, they wrap up their first string of seven games by hosting Northwestern and traveling to Minnesota. I expect Nebraska to take care of the Wildcats before losing to the Gophers.
As will be more fully explained later, that game in Minnesota is one of two linchpin games for the Huskers. If they pull that out, the Big Ten West could be theirs. There will be another opportunity for Nebraska to cement the division title, though, regardless of the outcome of this October 12th tilt.
Finally, Nebraska gets an open date before hosting the Indiana Hoosiers. Despite being a conference road game, the Huskers should have no problem obtain the W as October closes.
As for the other three:
- Northwestern loses a Friday night battle against Ohio State before defeating Iowa.
- Wisconsin beats up on Kent State, Michigan State and Illinois before losing in Columbus.
- Minnesota keeps the good vibes flowing, defeating Big 10 bottom-feeders Illinois, Rutgers, and Maryland in addition to knocking off Nebraska.