I would have thought that the Spring Game would have been an important dry run for Whipple running the actual offense.
what we got, was something much different.
I guess I'm not sure how anyone could now expect a 'new' Whipple run offense, when it wasn't 'his' during the spring game.
Add to that the potential schedule changes (not sure what the B1G is doing there) and it's hard to know what to expect, other than we did get some good recruits and transfers in.
With respect to the '22 schedule. So far, it hasn't made a difference if NU was playing in Lincoln or on the road. Comparing the '22 vs. '21 schedule, these are really the changes.
Trading Fordham and Buffalo for North Dakota and Ga Southern should yield the same 2 wins for NU as last year.
Other than the home and home games, this year NU has switched Ohio State and Michigan State for Rutgers and Indiana. So "on paper" NU could have a shot at 2-0 vs. last year's 0-2.
Bottom line, NU finished the year losing 6 in a row and 7 of their last 8. Any team prone to going off on more than a 2-3 loss string will be difficult to string together 2-3-4-5 wins in a row.
If NU goes 4-4 in the conference, and 3-1 in the non-conference they would finish 7-5. It would be important if NU could take care of Ind, Pur, NW, Rut, Ill, Mn, they could squeeze out a 8-4. But history has shown NU unable under Frost to string anything good together.
7-5 or worse and SF needs to be gone.
I think the key to the whole season will be if Thompson proves to be a huge upgrade over AM, just in terms of eliminating almost all of the costly, unforced mistakes. If Thompson plays subpar and makes bonehead mistakes, NU likely goes 6-6.
I wonder how long it will take for Wynn to figure out if there really is a difference between Scott Frost and Nick Saban.