The football offseason is here, and hope for the following football season is once again brimming in Lincoln, Neb.

The Cornhusker football team has made significant strides under Bo Pelini, who will begin his fifth season as Nebraska's head coach next fall. However, the past two years have been mildly disappointing to Husker fans given the team's fast start in Pelini's first two seasons.

Let's take a look at five areas the Huskers must significantly improve in over the spring and summer to take the next step and become a championship team.

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It's the middle of February. More than likely, Nebraska fans are sitting someplace with snow on the ground, pining for September to arrive and for it to bring back another season of football glories.

So how do Nebraska fans keep warm in the meantime? One tried-and-true method is to look at future schedules and imagine how much fun those games will be. 

In the spirit of helpfulness, I've boiled down the five games that Nebraska fans should be most looking forward to over the next few years. So hunker down, take a sip of your Big Red Hot Chocolate (be thankful you're not a K-State fan—purple hot cocoa? Ew!) and think about these five upcoming Nebraska contests.

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While most people associate the option offense with Nebraska Cornhusker football, NU has a storied defensive history as well.

The legacy of the Blackshirts is known throughout college football, and that legacy has helped Nebraska win conference and national championships.

So let's take a look through the history books, and see who are the greatest Blackshirts in Nebraska history.

UPDATE: As many of you have pointed out, Rich Glover is a glaring omission to this list. You all are absolutely right, and not including Glover was a huge own goal on my part. My apologies. Thanks to you all for helping to keep me honest!

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Lavonte David is one of the best linebackers in Nebraska football history. So why are some scouts from the NFL talking about moving the star linebacker to safety?

David stands 6'1" and 225 pounds. NFL teams consider that to be too small to be an every-down linebacker in the NFL. David is small when you compare him to some of the NFL top linebackers. Ray Lewis is 6'1", just like David, but Lewis is 250 pounds.

So would the pounding that a NFL schedule takes a player’s body be too much for David to take? I don’t think so.

I know that safeties do not take the abuse that linebackers do in the NFL, but David is not a safety. He is extremely good at covering pass receivers, but playing the position of safety is a lot more than that.

I believe any team who drafted David with the intentions of moving him to the safety position would be making a mistake. David has the best knowledge of the game I have ever seen from a Nebraska linebacker and the Cornhuskers have had many talented linebackers in their history.

Trev Alberts won the Butkus Award for the best linebacker in College Football. He was the No. 5 overall pick in the 1994 NFL draft. In my opinion, Alberts was not as good as David.

David’s draft status will be decided this week at the NFL Combine where he will work out with the other linebackers. If David has a good workout, he could move up the draft boards and convince teams that he should stay a linebacker.

The most important skill a linebacker can possess is his ability to make tackles and David is a tackling machine. He holds the Nebraska single season record for tackles with 152. Any NFL team that overlooks his tackling ability, because of his size, would be making a mistake.

David will be passed over by teams in the NFL Draft, but when the draft class is evaluated three or four years in the future, I am sure David will be considered one of the steals, assuming the team that drafts him plays him at the linebacker position.

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College football is unique amongst the country's major sports in that a team's schedule can dictate the fortunes of a season. There is not even a hint of schedule balance, and a team with less talent but an easier schedule could be seen as having a better chance for success in a season.

That means if Nebraska ends up with an easier schedule than some of its conference rivals, it has a better chance to win its division and make the title game. So, let's take a look at the relative strengths of schedule for each team in the B1G, from easiest to toughest, so we can have some idea where Nebraska fits in.

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