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Nebraska Football: FPI sees tough road ahead in 2023

By Oliver Vandervoort

LINCOLN, NE - APRIL 22: Head coach Matt Rhule of Nebraska Cornhuskers on the field at Memorial Stadium on April 22, 2023 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images)
LINCOLN, NE - APRIL 22: Head coach Matt Rhule of Nebraska Cornhuskers on the field at Memorial Stadium on April 22, 2023 in Lincoln, Nebraska. (Photo by Steven Branscombe/Getty Images) /
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The Nebraska football team is going to be hard-pressed to make it to a bowl if the latest ESPN FPI ratings are to be believed.

There is a ton of optimism when it comes to Matt Rhule and his first Nebraska football team. However, it looks like, at the moment, the Huskers are still very much in rebuilding mode.

ESPN’s proprietary FPI rating system for the upcoming 2023 college football season sees the Cornhuskers with an outside chance at a winning record. But it appears that anything other than six wins is going to be a pretty big surprise.

While the FPI says that the Huskers aren’t going to be great, it does appear they are going to get off to a pretty fast start. After losing to Minnesota to open the season, the ratings system sees the Huskers winning their next three games.

That includes a 70 percent chance of beating Colorado. While the Buffaloes are on the rise, it appears it will be a bit before they’re considered a team that will really compete. The Nebraska football team has more than an 80 percent chance of beating both Northern Illinois and Louisiana Tech to start the season 3-1. That would already be a better start than Scott Frost ever saw.

Nebraska football struggles in Big Ten

While the 20 percent chance to beat Minnesota isn’t great, the second Big Ten game of the year is one of the hardest, according to ESPN FPI. The Huskers have just a 12.4 percent chance of logging a win against the Michigan Wolverines.

Against Illinois, the Nebraska football team is given just a 30 percent chance of victory before getting a 68 percent chance of beating Northwestern.

It appears that Purdue and Maryland are the two games that are tossups and could be the difference between a bowl berth and a 4-8 record. Both teams are basically 50/50.

Nebraska football has a 20 percent chance of beating Wisconsin and then a 40 percent chance of beating Iowa to finish out the year. And that’s how the Huskers are going to have a tough road to a bowl game in 2023.

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