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Football Favorites, Sleepers & Surprises

T

TheGridironGuru

Redshirt
Dec 4, 2025
14
2
1
Boring day at the office, so figured I’d try to get some discussion going and hear some thoughts from around the state.

Two weeks into the season, what’s everyone thinking so far? Who are the favorites? Any sleepers out there? Biggest surprises? Any teams that are better than you expected or maybe haven’t quite lived up to expectations yet?

Obviously still really early, but always fun to hear what everyone else is seeing.
 
C

CCat20

Redshirt
Aug 10, 2026
4
0
1
Thought Aquinas would be better. Maybe it's still a learning curve for them, but watching their first two games and they don't stand out, not sure they're playing like a Top-10 team right now. They have a few playmakers in Pohl, Semin (should be an O'Neill Catholic kid), and Vandenberg. Hope to see them turn it around, and think their next three against Lyons-Decatur, Fullerton, and Lourdes will be very telling.

Buying a lot of stock in Johnson-Brock. Anytime you knock off the defending state champion it turns some heads. Pass efficiency was incredible and really like the caliber of their next two opponents in EMF and Elmwood-Murdock.

Was surprised to see Neumann beat Norfolk Catholic by as much as they did, but props to Will Sanderson and Henry Woita out of the backfield for spearheading that rushing attack following the departure of last year's seniors. A young group there in south Wahoo, I think they have a chance to make some noise.

I think the biggest surprise in the entire state right now is Blair. 2-0 to open the year with a shutout win over Gross and then a home upset of Elkhorn. If they can get another win over Plattsmouth this week, I think there's a lot of eyes on their matchup with Skutt to find out just how legit they are.
 
O

o_GI Husker

Sophomore
May 31, 2022
140
172
43
In Class B, while I expected Aurora to do ok, they have started out better than expected. Will be interesting to see how they do against some of the traditional Class B powers.

I'm a bit surprised to see Central City struggling like they have. While they lost their coach, they have a lot of talent back so will be interesting to see if they can turn things around. It's also a bit surprising to see Lakeview start out as strongly as they have given what they lost.

In C2, I would say that Mitchell is a bit of a surprise. Lots of big kids and good talent at running back and qb. They have a shot at keeping it going and making some noise. While everyone thought Ord would be good, I think there were some who thought that their OL and DL might need some time to develop but they have shown they are already good up front by dominating a couple of highly regarded C1 teams.
 
G

GoSkers3

Junior
Sep 30, 2020
490
252
63
o_GI Husker said:
In Class B, while I expected Aurora to do ok, they have started out better than expected. Will be interesting to see how they do against some of the traditional Class B powers.

I'm a bit surprised to see Central City struggling like they have. While they lost their coach, they have a lot of talent back so will be interesting to see if they can turn things around. It's also a bit surprising to see Lakeview start out as strongly as they have given what they lost.

In C2, I would say that Mitchell is a bit of a surprise. Lots of big kids and good talent at running back and qb. They have a shot at keeping it going and making some noise. While everyone thought Ord would be good, I think there were some who thought that their OL and DL might need some time to develop but they have shown they are already good up front by dominating a couple of highly regarded C1 teams.
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CC losing like they are makes me smile - grass isn't always greener on the other side. This is what happens when "some" people try to micromanage.
 
O

o_GI Husker

Sophomore
May 31, 2022
140
172
43
GoSkers3 said:
Yes, I believe they did.
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That's pretty crazy. He did a great job there. They were not good before he arrived and he took them to the state title game. They had some bad injuries which set them back last year. Tough place to coach if that's true. And the back end of their schedule is not easy. I think they have GICC, Pierce and Lakeview yet to play and all of those are towards the last part of the schedule.
 
G

GoSkers3

Junior
Sep 30, 2020
490
252
63
o_GI Husker said:
That's pretty crazy. He did a great job there. They were not good before he arrived and he took them to the state title game. They had some bad injuries which set them back last year. Tough place to coach if that's true. And the back end of their schedule is not easy. I think they have GICC, Pierce and Lakeview yet to play and all of those are towards the last part of the schedule.
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I agree with you! He had a good thing going there.
 
H

HuskerBoys12

Redshirt
Aug 24, 2017
4
5
3
I can't speak on anything about the situation in Central City but I do know that Huebert was not forced out. The community was very surprised that he decided to leave.
 
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huskbuster

huskbuster

All-Conference
Dec 1, 2012
1,393
3,355
113
D-1
Favorites - Crofton, JB and Sandy Creek. Hard to count Sandy Creek out, samething happened last year and they responded well.
Sleeper- Ravenna, good athletic team
Surprise - Centura, great to see a former 11 man team having early success
D-2
Favorites - Howells - Dodge, Shelby-RC, seems like these teams are a step above the rest.
Sleeper- Hemingford
D-3
Favorites - Central Valley and Lawrence- Nelson, both athletic teams and playing well.
Sleeper - Wausa, Fridays game vs Archangels will tell alot
Surprise - Burwell, a couple big wins early. Can they keep it going
 
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G

GoSkers3

Junior
Sep 30, 2020
490
252
63
HuskerBoys12 said:
I can't speak on anything about the situation in Central City but I do know that Huebert was not forced out. The community was very surprised that he decided to leave.
Click to expand...
I'm sure the community was surprised but not sure the whole school staff would say the same. I don't think Huebert necessarily wanted to leave CC.
 
T

TheGridironGuru

Redshirt
Dec 4, 2025
14
2
1
GoSkers3 said:
I'm sure the community was surprised but not sure the whole school staff would say the same. I don't think Huebert necessarily wanted to leave CC.
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I had heard similar rumblings about the micromanaging. I guess it doesn’t really make sense why he would want to leave unless he was looking to move up into administration.

I also feel like the whole situation left a bit of a cloud over the program, and they probably didn’t get the applicant pool they thought they would. That’s not a shot at the new coach at all either. Just a tough situation to walk into.
 
T

TheGridironGuru

Redshirt
Dec 4, 2025
14
2
1
huskbuster said:
D-1
Favorites - Crofton, JB and Sandy Creek. Hard to count Sandy Creek out, samething happened last year and they responded well.
Sleeper- Ravenna, good athletic team
Surprise - Centura, great to see a former 11 man team having early success
D-2
Favorites - Howells - Dodge, Shelby-RC, seems like these teams are a step above the rest.
Sleeper- Hemingford
D-3
Favorites - Central Valley and Lawrence- Nelson, both athletic teams and playing well.
Sleeper - Wausa, Fridays game vs Archangels will tell alot
Surprise - Burwell, a couple big wins early. Can they keep it going
Click to expand...
D-1 is extremely interesting to me now after J-B beat Sandy. I still think Sandy Creek is the best team, but some of that “aura,” as the kids would say, has been lost, especially after losing at home where they had been pretty much unstoppable.

That absolutely doesn’t mean they won’t get rolling again. If anything, it could be a great opportunity for them to refocus and respond, similar to what they did last year.

I’m also interested to see if Johnson-Brock has any kind of winning hangover after such a huge win last week. Their next two games are tough, so we should learn a lot about them pretty quickly!
 
T

TheGridironGuru

Redshirt
Dec 4, 2025
14
2
1
CCat20 said:
Thought Aquinas would be better. Maybe it's still a learning curve for them, but watching their first two games and they don't stand out, not sure they're playing like a Top-10 team right now. They have a few playmakers in Pohl, Semin (should be an O'Neill Catholic kid), and Vandenberg. Hope to see them turn it around, and think their next three against Lyons-Decatur, Fullerton, and Lourdes will be very telling.

Buying a lot of stock in Johnson-Brock. Anytime you knock off the defending state champion it turns some heads. Pass efficiency was incredible and really like the caliber of their next two opponents in EMF and Elmwood-Murdock.

Was surprised to see Neumann beat Norfolk Catholic by as much as they did, but props to Will Sanderson and Henry Woita out of the backfield for spearheading that rushing attack following the departure of last year's seniors. A young group there in south Wahoo, I think they have a chance to make some noise.

I think the biggest surprise in the entire state right now is Blair. 2-0 to open the year with a shutout win over Gross and then a home upset of Elkhorn. If they can get another win over Plattsmouth this week, I think there's a lot of eyes on their matchup with Skutt to find out just how legit they are.
Click to expand...
Love the analysis!
 
G

GoSkers3

Junior
Sep 30, 2020
490
252
63
TheGridironGuru said:
I had heard similar rumblings about the micromanaging. I guess it doesn’t really make sense why he would want to leave unless he was looking to move up into administration.

I also feel like the whole situation left a bit of a cloud over the program, and they probably didn’t get the applicant pool they thought they would. That’s not a shot at the new coach at all either. Just a tough situation to walk into.
Click to expand...
Agreed!
 
A

ACICOD is BACK

Redshirt
Jul 4, 2025
45
46
18
Word in the coaching community was that they only got two football applications.................the one they hired and an out-of-state candidate. I think the current "micromanagement" and the curious departure of the former coach kept many people away from even applying for that job.
 
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C

C8manfball

Freshman
Oct 17, 2023
47
50
13
ACICOD is BACK said:
Word in the coaching community was that they only got two football applications.................the one they hired and an out-of-state candidate. I think the current "micromanagement" and the curious departure of the former coach kept many people away from even applying for that job.
Click to expand...
The other coach candidate was in state. Won a state title few years back, has really turned around the program he is at into a powerhouse, but was looking to be closer to his family...And yes he said no due to "micromanagement".
 
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