Blue White Illustrated

Cornhuskers are the fourth-winningest program in all of college football, and that proud history can't help but instill a feeling of optimism at the outset of every season, a belief that the talent exists to turn the best-case scenario into reality. Maybe they wouldn't be competing for the College Football Playoff this fall, but surely they would be going bowling somewhere and perhaps setting themselves up for bigger things in coach Mike Riley's fourth season. That was the hope, anyway. "I thought we would be a balanced team with the run-pass and… I anticipated also a balance between offense and defense," Riley said. "I don't know if I could say we would be more like Wisconsin; there is probably somewhere in-between there. … But I certainly anticipated a season where we would be more balanced and score bet- ter." None of those things have happened, and now it's almost a foregone conclusion that there won't be a fourth season for Riley. The man who had hired him, athletic di- rector Shawn Eichorst, was fired in Sep- tember. His replacement, former Washington State AD Bill Moos, has said only that he won't make any decisions about the fate of the coaching staff until after the season. That's not a good sign, and it's an indication of how quickly Riley's star has fallen. Since winning their first seven games in 2016, the Cornhuskers have gone 6-10, and six of their losses have been by two touchdowns or more. With Tulane transfer Tanner Lee step- ping in for Armstrong, the Huskers were inconsistent on offense in their first 10 games of the 2017 season. And while in- consistency is bad under any circum- stances, this was an especially unfortunate year in which to take a step backward, be- cause opponents were having their way with the Huskers' revamped defense. Ne- braska gave up 36 points and just under 500 yards in a victory over Arkansas State to open the season and followed it up by al- lowing Oregon to score six first-half touchdowns en route to a 42-35 Ducks win in Eugene. Then came a 21-17 home loss to Northern Illinois that no one saw coming, and after that shaky nonconference start, the team dropped four of its first seven Big Ten games, including blowout losses to Wisconsin (38-17), Ohio State (56-14) and Minnesota (54-21). And now comes a road trip to 13th- ranked Penn State. "We'll have our work cut out for us for sure," Riley said. Lee, a junior from Destrehan, La., has had an up-and-down season. He's fourth in the Big Ten in passing with an average of 253.9 yards per game, but his completion rate – 57.2 percent – is seventh-best among the league's top 10 passers, and he's thrown a league-high 13 interceptions. Whether Lee will play against Penn State was an open question at midweek. He was injured in the second quarter of the Min- nesota game and after developing a mi- graine-related headache at halftime, he did not return. He's now in the concussion protocol, and it was unknown as of Wednesday morning whether he would re- ceive medical clearance to play. If he's unavailable, the Cornhuskers will turn to redshirt freshman Patrick O'Brien. A former four-star prospect from San Juan Capistrano, Calif., O'Brien came on in re- lief of Lee against Minnesota. The Huskers were trailing by 23 points late in the third quarter, so they couldn't afford to chip away with the running game. They had to throw, and the Gophers knew it, yet O'Brien still completed 12 of 18 passes for 137 yards. He also ran for 41 yards, although those gains were negated by 41 yards in losses on six sacks. "It was a horrible time to have to play in the game where you're just passing almost all the time," Riley said. "They're teeing off N O V E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2 NATE BAUER 8-2 | Penn State tends to do pretty well against one-dimensional offenses, and Nebraska has one of those, with a big disparity between its running and passing games. This Nebraska team hasn't scored a lot of points during the Big Ten season, and that doesn't bode well, especially when you consider how many points the Cornhuskers' defense has given up. Rain in the forecast could slow down Penn State to a certain degree, but I don't envision it as being enough to produce what Nebraska would need to come away with the upset win on the road. | PENN STATE 38, NEBRASKA 13 PHIL GROSZ 8-2 | If quarterback Tanner Lee is unable to play in Saturday's game against Penn State, Nebraska in my opinion has less than a 10 percent chance of pulling off an upset over the Nittany Lions. Offensively, the Cornhuskers are a one-dimensional football team depending solely on the arm of Lee. Nebraska's pass offense ranks third in the Big Ten, but the running game is weak, with averages of 115.6 yards per game and a meager 3.6 per carry. Defensively, the Cornhuskers are 14th in the Big Ten against the run, and their past four op- ponents (Ohio State, Northwestern, Purdue and Minnesota) have averaged 294 yards per game on the ground. Even a struggling Penn State running game has a legitimate chance of rushing for over 200 yards this weekend. This could easily be Mike Riley's second-to-last game as Nebraska's head football coach. | PENN STATE 49, NEBRASKA 10 MATT HERB 9-1 | Nebraska gave up 409 rushing yards to Minnesota last week, but it's hard to feel confident in the Nittany Lions' ability to generate yards on the ground after yet another poor showing, this one against Rutgers. It's a little easier to feel confident in their ability to throw the ball. Trace McSorley and company have frequently capital- ized on the obsessive attention that opposing defenses have paid to Saquon Barkley. DaeSean Hamilton and Mike Gesicki are both enjoying fine seasons and will have a chance to be heroes in their final game in Beaver Stadium. And if the Lions can get Barkley going in what is undoubtedly his last home game for Penn State, this should be a victory. | PENN STATE 35, NEBRASKA 17 TIM OWEN 9-1 | With a defense that allows an average of 412.0 yards and 32.5 points per game – only Maryland is worse in the Big Ten – this isn't like the Nebraska teams of old. The offense isn't much better, with an average of just 25.1 points per game. The Cornhuskers certainly don't have the firepower to keep pace with this Penn State team. So no matter what previous trends suggest – the Huskers hold a 9-7 edge in the series, having won the past four games between the two teams – all signs point toward a Nit- tany Lion victory. | PENN STATE 38, NEBRASKA 21 RYAN SNYDER 8-2 | Ohio State put up 56 points on Nebraska last month, and that game was in Lincoln. Now, the Cornhuskers have nothing to play for. Oh, and it's Senior Day for Penn State. The Lions win big. | PENN STATE 45, NEBRASKA 17 S T A F F P R E D I C T I O N S

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