The Nebraska Cornhuskers finished the 2015 college football season with a losing record (6-7), but their 37-29 victory over a good UCLA team in the Foster Farms Bowl has given us plenty of room for optimism going forward. Most of those losses came in heartbreaking fashion in close games, and now that this young team is growing up, a breakout season could be in order. Here are three reasons why Nebraska can win the Big Ten this season:
3) Weak Big Ten West
The Huskers need to win the division in order to have a chance to win the conference, and who will keep them from doing that? Seriously?
Wisconsin has one of the worst offenses in the country, Iowa is almost completely rebuilding their offense and Northwestern ranked last in the conference in scoring last season. Those are the biggest threats to Nebraska in the division, and none of them look like they'll have the firepower to beat the Huskers.
2) Tommy Armstrong's breakout season
Riley is known as somewhat of a quarterback whisperer. During his time as the head coach at Oregon State, Riley produced three NFL quarterbacks: Derek Anderson, Matt Moore and Sean Canfield.
It's safe to say that Riley has never had a dual-threat QB to work with quite like Tommy Armstrong. Case in point, Armstrong's 10-carry, 76-yard performance on the ground in that win win over UCLA. Give Riley a full offseason to tweak the offense to what he saw out of Tommy in 2015. Give Armstrong another year to mature and clean up his turnover problems, and all signs point to a breakout season for the talented signal caller.
1) The ball will bounce their way
Nebraska lost four games last season in the final 10 seconds of regulation or overtime. Never have we seen a team so snake-bitten by a series of late bounces quite like the Huskers. This team deserved better, especially with the heart they showed in multiple comebacks and season-defining wins over #3 Michigan State and UCLA.
If you look at season objectively, you'll see a team that was THIS CLOSE to being a fringe New Year's Six contender. With a year of lumps taken by the returning players and a giant "prove it" game to prepare for against Oregon on September 17th of next year, this team will come out of the gate next season with something to prove.
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