Football's back, and other games

A new era begins tomorrow at 2:30 pm when Mike Riley coaches his first game as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The turbulent reign of Bo Pelini is over. Bo always won games but didn't win enough BIG games. He also alienated part of the fan base with his temper and outbursts on the field directed at officials, coaches and his own players. Mike Riley is his antithesis. Reported to be one of the nicest guys in football, his personality is the furthest thing away from Bo Pelini's you could find and I'm sure that played a significant role in his hiring.

Riley comes here from Oregon State where his success was limited. Oregon State is a member of the PAC 12 conference which is rated the second toughest conference in the nation, followed by the Big 10 at third. So the conferences are comparable. Oregon State lost six of its last seven games last year and their defense gave up an average of 37.4 points during that streak. The Blackshirt defense of old was only a distant memory for Nebraska fans last year and since Riley brought almost all of his coaching staff with him, seeing significant improvement in that area is a stretch.

But I think it will be more fun to watch the Huskers play this year because the cameras won't be focused on Pelini after every controversial call or bad play like they've done for the past several years because the network people knew that Pelini was going to blow up sooner or later and they didn't want to miss it. Riley's not a blow up kind of guy so we can concentrate on plays and execution rather than Pelini's inability to exercise any personal self-control and I think that will be a plus for fans.

We open with a tough opponent tomorrow in the likes of Brigham Young University. They were 8-4 last year and averaged scoring 36.1 for all 12 regular season games. The defeated Texas 41-7 in Austin, Texas and lost in double overtime to Memphis, 55-48, in last year's Miami Peach Bowl. They come to Lincoln led by their senior quarterback, Taysom Hill who ended last year with a season-ending leg injury but is expected to be fine as the new football season starts. Hill is a runner as well as a passer and his scrambling ability keep defenses nervous all game long and I'm sure that's what we'll see from him tomorrow.

Nebraska is a seven-point favorite and based on BYU coming to town with a senior dual-threat quarterback and a prolific offense to compete against Nebraska's so-so defense, I believe the smart play is to take the points.

The other game being played is the one by Donald Trump. Trump pledged yesterday that he will not run on a third party ticket if he doesn't get the Republican nomination. He had to do that to satisfy the Republican establishment as well as get on the ballot for some of the primaries. But Trump's not beholden to anybody so if his polling numbers stay strong and the party finds a way to sneak an establishment candidate is as the nominee rather than Trump, you better believe he'll run as a third party candidate regardless of what he told people on Thursday. Trump is all about Trump. He has always been that way and nothing's going to change that. He didn't know if he had enough fire in the belly to run for President but once he got his feet wet and felt the unwavering support for a small but loud portion of the Republican electorate, he responded to it because it stroked his ego and made him feel that his long standing analysis of himself as being the greatest was accurate. He'll be running for President in November of 2016, either as the Republican nominee or as a third party candidate because the love affair he's having with himself won't let him NOT run!