Will this be the year Nebraska ends its bowl game drought?
The Nebraska Cornhuskers haven’t played in a bowl game since Dec. 30, 2016, the longest drought among Power 5 teams. As painful as that is to read again, that drought could end this year and may even be likely to. According to Pro Football Focus, the Huskers have the second-easiest schedule in the newly expanded Big Ten, harder only than Indiana. Overall, PFF rates the Big Red’s strength of schedule in 2024 as 45th most difficult in the country.
While the Huskers may have long odds to win the championship, they’re much more favorable for finally making a bowl game, with PFF putting the chances at better than 65% and officially projecting 6.4 wins. Looking at the schedule, that seems plenty doable, even with some likely growing pains for the highly touted, expected starting quarterback, freshman Dylan Raiola. The Big Red open the season on Aug. 31 against UTEP before hosting Colorado and Northern Iowa the following two weeks. Nebraska also opens conference play at home against Illinois, then travels to Purdue and Rutgers before the bye week.
While starting 6-0 may be expecting too much for a team coming off a 5-7 season and likely starting a true freshman quarterback, those games are certainly all winnable, as is the game right after the bye week, at Indiana on Oct. 19.
From there, the Huskers schedule will get significantly harder, with matchups at Ohio State, USC and Iowa surrounding home games against UCLA and Wisconsin. However, even with a difficult back end of the schedule, a strong start to 2024 could make the Huskers bowl bound once again.