First game is always vanilla on offense. They will try to establish the run with basic run formations.

Slightly more runs than passes... if we are smart. Or it's going to be a long year.

Oline should dominate a transfer portal depleted Northwestern front and get the practice running the ball that is needed to win in the BIG.

They will play to win. The way to win is to grind Northwestern down.

I feel we should get a somewhat comfortable lead and start grinding out 1st downs via the run game. But if Oline under-performs and forgets to show up? All bets are off.

Show off our running back talent, as they won't stop us by the end of the game.

Our schedule is in our favor.

I struggled with this decision. We have talent, but that hasn't been our problem recently. Execution, special teams and the O-line have been our Achille's heal (in that order). If we can improve in 2 of these areas, it should be enough to get us 7 wins.

I think our offense will score a lot more points than last year and the defense will shut more teams down on 3rd downs.