The hype for Nebraska football has hit a fever pitch. Whether talking about possibly finishing in the Top 10 or the College Football playoff, the Huskers are the darlings of the 2019 season. On Saturday, they will finally open the season against South Alabama.

If you believe what most people have said about the team, they should win 176-0. Because the excitement around the team has become so ridiculous, there are some national media types trying to go against the grain.

In a sign that the excitement might be well-founded, some of those analysts have admitted they couldn't, in good conscience, go against the flow.

Such was the case of Howard Griffith from the Big Ten Network.

Trying and failing to go against Nebraska

The Big Ten Network has a vested interest in the Huskers being good. The network has an interest in every team in the Big Ten being as good as possible. The better the conference, the happier the fans.

The happier the fans, the more viewers watch the network's content. When Howard Griffith and others journeyed to Lincoln, it wasn't a surprise that they were singing from the Nebraska football hymnals. But Griffith recently appeared on air to claim he was actively looking for reasons to not support Nebraska.

He says he wanted to pick anyone else to win the Western Division. "Listen, I tried to go out of my way not to pick Nebraska because I wanted to go against the (polls).

But after seeing them, I was like, 'There's no doubt'," the analyst said earlier this week on Twitter.

Husker hype train keeps rolling down the tracks

It's hard not to wonder just what's going on in Nebraska. This is a program that finished two straight seasons with a 4-8 record. The Cornhuskers won just three games against FBS opponents a year ago.

This year, Nebraska is ranked in the official AP Top 25. They are the only team in the poll that posted a losing record in 2018.

Analysts can't be blamed for looking for reasons to give the Cornhuskers a thumbs down. It should be pointed out that anyone who can predict NU is going to struggle, and be right, is going to be able to pound their chest during the season.

It appears this is why Griffith wanted to go against the grain. He wanted to be able to say he saw something no one else has this summer and fall. The fact that he went into town looking for something to use against the program and couldn't, should build some serious excitement around the team/

The Nebraska football team will kick off the 2019 season in a matter of days. It's hard to remember a time in the last 20 years where there's been this much well-founded excitement in Lincoln. Bo Pelini's return had some hype surrounding it, but that was mostly local. This time around, it seems like the national media is more hyped on Nebraska than even the fans in the state are.
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