I agree with Beijing Cat...NU is a talented team this year, but they are still a work in progress. Callahan's playcalling on saturday night completely baffled me at times...they showed a very balanced WCO to start the season, then he completely abandoned it for the USC game. It's fine to try to establish the run, but he stuck with it for WAY too long and it costed NU a lot of offensive yards at the very least and liikely some points.
NU's reasoning for optimism this year is not based entirely on "one game." Although the Michigan game is considered a big stepping stone for the program, people were mainly excited because the WCO was finally starting to hit it's stride in the final 3 games of the year.
i still see nebraska as a team that will win 9-10 games this season. they're clearly not among the true elite this season in terms of talent, but that doesn't mean that they can't achieve their goal of winning the north (which looks like a pretty good bet with the mizzou-NU game being in lincoln during homecoming this year).