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Nebraska vs. Akron fearless prediction and game preview.

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, September 1
Game Time: 8:00 pm ET
Venue: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NE
Network: FOX

– 2018 CFN Preview
Akron Preview | Nebraska Preview

Nebraska (0-0) vs. Akron (0-0) Game Preview

The 1997 Nebraska Cornhuskers started out the season with a. 59-14 whacking of Akron. The Husker quarterback was pretty good.

Scott Frost connected on 7-of-13 passes for 67 yards and ran 11 times for a team-high 123 yards and three scores as the first step in a 13-0 season.

No one’s thinking the 2018 Husker team is about to go on a national championship run after facing the Zips, but it needs to be a fun debut for a program that’s way overdue to be great again.

Akron is coming off a MAC East champion season, and unlike the Huskers, it went bowling.

Terry Bowden’s team – like past versions – should be just savvy enough to find a way to hang around bowl eligibility all year, and it shouldn’t be a total pushover. However, it started last season with a 52-0 loss to Penn State, and ended it with a 50-3 Boca Raton loss to Florida Atlantic.

The Husker faithful wouldn’t mind if their team hangs 50 on the board to open things up.

One Reason Why Akron Will Win

Yeah, the defense had some massive problems, and the team was able to get by on a whole lot of close wins over bad teams – and a super-timely one over Ohio – but nine starters are back including all four up front.

The run defense has to be far, far better – especially against what Nebraska might want to do from the start – but Ulysees Gilbert and the linebacking corps should be fantastic.

The depth might be lacking and the overall talent can’t stack up, but don’t be shocked if the D is annoyingly-solid more often than Big Red fans might like considering Nebraska needs to get used to the new offense and the new parts.

One Reason Why Nebraska Will Win

Akron won’t have much of an offense. Nebraska’s defense might need a bit of work, but it should look great against this Zip group.

The skill players just aren’t there for an Akron offense that finished last in the MAC in rushing and isn’t going to make a massive push up right away.

The Nebraska offense just needs to score on the first few drives, and that should be enough.

The Husker defense needs a pass rush, and it has to come up with stronger plays on key passing downs, but with most of the top tacklers returning against an attack with no pop, it’ll be good enough. It won’t be a rock, but for one week, it’ll be the late 1990s all over again on that side of the ball.

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What’s Going To Happen

Nebraska will roll at will.

Superstar freshman quarterback Adrian Martinez, and other top option Tristan Gebbia will each look fantastic, the pace will be fast, and even though Akron is okay, it’s about to run into a buzzsaw.

It might be just a wee bit of a mirage, but after so much mediocrity and so many down moments over the last few seasons, it’ll be cathartic.