Eight or nine Husker wins and a full stadium this fall? Moos confident in what he calls ‘realistic expectations’

Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos has a couple of numbers in mind for what Husker fans will see this fall at Memorial Stadium.

The first is not actually a number at all but, to put it simply, a word: Full. 

That’s what Moos anticipates in terms of the stadium’s capacity, though it will depend also on the advice of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department. Still, Moos said he thinks the Athletic Department will have a normal season-ticketing process, which will start soon, and that he hopes to be back to “normal” this fall.

“We’ll get back to business as usual in 2021 and I’m confident we’re going to be able to continue our sellout streak,” Moos said. 

When those folks do file into the big house on Stadium Drive this fall, Moos expects them to watch a football team that admittedly faces a tough schedule, but also one that takes a big step forward under fourth-year coach Scott Frost.

Moos pegged his expectations well north of .500 for Frost in 2021 despite a loaded slate.

“We’ve got a lot better depth, a lot better experience, we have a solid coaching staff that is primarily intact and a real good feeling about the prospects of being competitive in every game this fall,” Moos said. “It would be great to get into that eight, nine-win (range) and start getting back into the picture of a conference championship and talking about more postseason. I think in Year 4 with Scott Frost, that’s a realistic expectation.

“But as I said before, we’re going to have to bring it every game and we’re going to have to — and this is important — protect our home field. This has got to be the toughest place to play in the Big Ten and have people fear it. That comes by how hard we play as a team, but also our great fans, who make the thrill of a home game in Memorial Stadium something that is unmatched.”

Moos didn’t put those numbers down as an ultimatum, but he and Frost did both say earlier this year that Nebraska should be ready at this point to compete for the Big Ten West Division title.

“As I’m sure our listeners know, we have both Michigan and Ohio State this year, albeit at home, and we also play at Oklahoma, which is being talked about as possibly being a contender for a national championship this season,” Moos said. “Then you start building in Wisconsin and Iowa and Northwestern, and we have not fared well against Illinois and others. We’ve got Michigan State. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

Moos also said the Athletic Department continues to look into the possibility of moving a Nov. 13 home game against FCS Southeast Louisiana up to Sept. 4, but nothing has been finalized yet.

The athletic director said NU has had conversations with Southeast Louisiana, but that team does have a game scheduled against North Alabama on Sept. 4.

“We’re hopeful that we can do some more jockeying and have a game on (Sept.) 4th,” Moos said.