One of the most overhyped college football teams in the country coming into the season was the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Multiple outlets all but handed the Big Ten West title to rising star head coach Scott Frost back in the summer. This was going to be the year that things returned to normal in Lincoln.

In Las Vegas, sportsbooks posted pretty strong numbers on the Nebraska season win total (8.5 or 9), all but suggesting the Huskers should win over 70 percent of their games in year two of the Frost era. The Westgate Superbook opened quarterback Adrian Martinez at 6-to-1 to win the Heisman Trophy and also gave Nebraska the seventh-best odds to win the national championship at 25-to-1.

And guess what? Nebraska hasn’t lived up to the hype out of the gate. It happens.

So does this for some reason.

Any sane person would know that a 34-31 road loss at Colorado in overtime is not grounds for firing a coach. Especially one that took UCF from a no-win team to a no-loss team in two seasons. No two programs are the same and no rebuilding job is either.

The good thing for us is that dissent and disappointment lead to betting value.

So now is an ideal time to buy low on Nebraska.

Three weeks ago, the Huskers would have been about a three-touchdown favorite at home against Northern Illinois but after a heartbreaker in Boulder, Circa Sports opened UNL at -14. Kenny White’s College Football Power Ratings have Nebraska winning the game 36-15.

Returning home to play against a mid-major should be just what the doctor prescribed for Nebraska. A smelling salt moment this early in the season can go one of two ways. You either make excuses and sulk about it or you correct it and lay the wood the very next week.

We’re banking on Nebraska being too big, too fast and too skilled for Northern Illinois. We’re confident that Martinez won’t fumble the ball three times like he did in Boulder. And we know that the Huskers have the horses to go up big on the Huskies and keep their foot on the gas.

 

PICK: Nebraska -14

 

Brandon is a professional bettor and has a staff of bettors who release picks on brandonwittmeyer.com

You can follow him on Twitter @BettorBW.