Fired Pelini and hired Mike Riley, who will be implementing a brand new offense and defense. There will be growing pains as they adapt to the new systems, especially early in the year.

Lost their starting C and both OGs. Both starting OTs return, but they have to rebuild the middle of their OL.

Lost their all time leading WR (career leader in both receptions and yards). They have 2 returning wide receivers who have any significant game experience. One had 44 receptions last year. The other had 22 receptions. Nobody else on the roster caught more than 10 passes last year.

Lost Abdullah, their all-time #2 RB (trailed only Mike Rozier). Armstrong (QB) was the #2 rusher on the team last year. The #3 rusher (Cross) is a big bruiser type of back (6'1, 230) who rushed for 380 yards. RB is a big question mark for Nebraska in 2015.

QB is also a question mark. Tommy Armstrong is the returning starter, but coaches apparently aren't very high on him. Was outplayed by redshirt freshman in spring practice. Armstrong will likely be the starter for the opener, but Riley's system needs a good passing QB to be successful. A lot of Nebraska fans/beat writers believe the rs freshman backup could take over as starter by the time the year is over. Armstrong threw for 2600 yards with a 53% completion percentage last year. By comparison, Christian Stewart threw for 2600 yards in 8 /12 games with a 57% completion percentage. Taysom threw for 975 yards in 3 1/2 games with a 67% completion percentage. Armstrong would probably be the 3rd string QB at BYU behind Hill and Mangum if he were on our roster this fall .

Nebraska's defense is in better shape than their offense. They lost top DE (Gregory) to the NFL, but have plenty of depth on their front four. This is probably their strongest position group on the team. Their linebackers are probably their weakest position group and lost their leading tackler for 2015 (Anderson) and will be starting a lot of guys with limited experience. The secondary is very good against the pass and return most of their starters from 2014, but Nebraska gave up a ton of rushing yards and got progressively worse against the run as the season went on.

TLDR version: Nebraska's offense will probably be average at best, especially in the first game of the year. Their defense will be good against the pass, but we should be able to run the ball against them. A couple of big IFs: If JW is healthy, he could have a big day at Nebraska (as could Taysom). If Bronco can get things fixed on D, Nebraska will struggle to score. I'm not ready to predict a win yet, but this should be a game where we have a very good change to pull out a win.