knapplc

So Iowa doesn't expect to beat Nebraska? Iowa doesn't expect to beat Wiskey or Michigan State? That's a poor way to enter a season, don't you think? I think any program worth their salt should expect to beat every team on their schedule. That doesn't increase pressure on a team, it's just an appropriate mindset heading into the game. If you don't expect to beat every team you play, you're going to lose games you should win.

The all-time record is 26-12-2 in Nebraska's favor. We've won the last three games by a combined total of 126-27, a streak that spans three decades. In the last 50 years we've won five out of six, with an average score of 36-10. Iowa's lone win in the past half-century was a 10-7 victory in 1981. I don't think the mental block goes the other way.

It'll come as no shock that our three-headed monster on defense has placed in Athlon's first team All-Big Ten Defense. Frankly, any publication that doesn't have Crick, David and Dennard in their first team isn't worth the electrons they pushed around to create it. Only one first-teamer on offense. This is a problem that Beck needs to fix. Here are the first teams: First-team Offense QB Denard Robinson, Michigan RB Edwin Baker, Michigan State RB Montee Ball, Wisconsin WR Jeremy Ebert, Northwestern WR Derek Moye, Penn State TE Kyler Reed, Nebraska C Mike Brewster, Ohio State OL Jeff Allen, Illinois OL Joel Foreman, Michigan State OL Riley Reiff, Iowa OL Ricky Wagner, Wisconsin First-team Defense DL Vince Browne, Northwestern DL Jared Crick, Nebraska DL John Simon, Ohio State DL Jerel Worthy, Michigan State LB Lavonte David, Nebraska LB Michael Mauti, Penn State LB Mike Taylor, Wisconsin CB Alfonzo Dennard, Nebraska CB Shaun Prater, Iowa S Brian Peters, Northwestern S Trenton Robinson, Michigan State No special teamers on the first or second string. Rex made second-string on offense, and overall we had seven first- and second-teamers. Only Sparty had more first teamers on offense and defense than Nebraska, with five. That comes courtesy of kick-return specialist Keshawn Martin, a blazer who finished 11th in the nation in punt returns last year and 84th overall in all-purpose rushing yards. Sparty had two first-teamers on offense and two on defense. It'll be interesting to see how we match up with that. LINK

I would love to see Buffett put in an endowment for the University when he passes, but I think you're right that he won't give any money to the Athletic Department. But I'm not going to hold my breath for any kind of endowment, and I hope Warren lives another 20 years. The dude is cool. Frankly, it's his money, and he doesn't owe the state or the University a dime. I hope he blows it all on charity or something that will make him happy. I've always been pretty blase about other people's money. Let 'em keep it. It's not mine.

Let them get pissed. They were organizing methods of cheating over on BuckeyePlanet when this thing started.

According to businessofcollegesports.com, Nebraska football was the 13th most-profitable program in the nation last year: Rank School Revenue Expenses Profit 1 University of Texas $93,942,815 $25,112,331 $68,830,484 2 Univ. of Georgia $70,838,539 $18,308,654 $52,529,885 3 Penn State Univ. $70,208,584 $19,780,939 $50,427,645 4 Univ. of Michigan $63,189,417 $18,328,233 $44,861,184 5 Univ. of Florida $68,715,750 $24,457,557 $44,258,193 6 Louisiana State Univ. $68,819,806 $25,566,520 $43,253,286 7 Univ. of Alabama $71,884,525 $31,118,134 $40,766,391 8 Univ. of Tennessee $56,593,946 $17,357,345 $39,236,601 9 Auburn Univ. $66,162,720 $27,911,713 $38,251,007 10 University of Oklahoma $58,295,888 $20,150,769 $38,145,119 11 Univ. of South Carolina $58,266,159 $22,794,211 $35,471,948 12 Notre Dame $64,163,063 $29,490,788 $34,672,275 13 University of Nebraska $49,928,228 $17,843,849 $32,084,379 *** 14 Ohio State Univ. $63,750,000 $31,763,036 $31,986,964 15 Univ. of Iowa $45,854,764 $18,468,732 $27,386,032

We're up 53-47. Barring a ridiculous turnaround, we've got this in the bag. Yet another testament to the dedication of Husker fans and their online voting skills. Way to go, guys.

Why does everyone have to push the "rivalry" button all the time? Just because there are a bunch of posts here doesn't mean this is suddenly a rivalry. It means there's someone here who's fun to talk football with. When the Huskies fans show up in force in September again, that won't make it a rivalry. Same with the Buckeyes fans, the Michigan fans, the PSU fans, etc.

Well, and I'm not even 100% confident in our starting three. LaVonte David is a no-brainer. Put the guy on the field and watch him go. Will Compton seemed to get better as the season progressed last year, as he recovered from his early leg injury. By the end of last season I'd say he was performing as well or better than he did in 2009. Sean Fisher is a mystery, due to losing the entire season to a broken leg. I'm not a fan of rumors but there's one going around about him that wouldn't be good if true (work ethic), but bottom line is, he's more potential than anything right now. After these guys we have Alonzo Whaley, who was adequate early on last year before David took full control of the position. For the last couple of years we've been running that Peso hybrid stuff a lot, so we haven't really had three LBs on the field most of the time. If we had to go to that this year for the bulk of the season, I'd say our starting three would be David, Compton and Fisher, with Whaley backing them up, and after that it's a crapshoot. We have some "names" as true Freshman (David Santos & Max Pirman), but of course they're wholly untested at this level. We'll see how our LB corps holds up as the season progresses.

I even forgot a couple of guys when I ran off that list of DTs. Jay Guy and Kevin Williams, as I was just reminded. We have a DEEEEEEEP D Line. Crazy deep. If only we had such good depth at LB, I'd be much more confident heading into this season.

Dude. Stanzi was the #12 QB last year in Pass Efficiency, #28 in total passing yards, #52 in completions per game, #34 in passing yards per game, #46 in Total Offense, #33 in Points Responsible For.... etc, etc. Stanzi was a hell of a QB, and has the stats to back that up. Vandy has none of those stats. He has the same thing Florida Atlantic's third-string QB has right now - potential. Let's not get carried away here. Exactly. Vandy is a better qb. The stats may not show it, but it does not change the fact. I'll believe it when I see it. Vandenberg has an uglier delivery than Stanzi and he has ZERO mobility. I'm not joking when I say it's murder to be a pocket QB against Nebraska's pass rush. I don't care how good your O Line is, they're not going to keep an immobile QB on his feet all game. Heck, Gabbert is at least somewhat "mobile" and we plastered him several times last year, and Mizzou has an O Line I'd compare to Iowa's any day of the week.

Rex's QB Rating = 396.0 I didn't even know it could get that high.

Dude. Stanzi was the #12 QB last year in Pass Efficiency, #28 in total passing yards, #52 in completions per game, #34 in passing yards per game, #46 in Total Offense, #33 in Points Responsible For.... etc, etc. Stanzi was a hell of a QB, and has the stats to back that up. Vandy has none of those stats. He has the same thing Florida Atlantic's third-string QB has right now - potential. Let's not get carried away here.

This is most certainly true. And to add to this, late in the season is where you find out about your depth. We had great depth at RB last year with Rexy when Roy got dinged up. Our RBs had fine seasons, with Roy well over 1,000 yards and Rex just 50 yards short. But to expand on that point about depth, and specifically Iowa's O Line vs. Nebraska's D Line, we are legit two-deep at DE with The Stache and (probably) EMart, backed up by Josh Williams and Jason Ankrah. At DT we have an embarrassment of riches between Crick/Steinkuhler, T.Mo/Thad Randle, and Chase Rome/Todd Peat. That's a more-than-legit two-deep, with talent at the third level. I have no idea how truly deep Iowa's O Line is, but I'll put our D Line up against them any day, no worries.

I would almost guarantee that's not the reason. I would bet they're voting for OSU for two reasons: 1, they actually believe our only tradition is touching the horseshoe or 2, they're still smarting over the butt-whooping we put on Florida and Miami in the 90s.

It's flipped a couple of times in the past couple of hours. We were ahead, then tied at 50% for a while, then the Buckeyes jumped ahead, and now we're back in the lead 51/49. I need to shoot myself. I know how dumb this thing is, I know it's a farce, and yet I just spent the last 30 minutes creating a spreadsheet showing the actual votes and percentages of all 50 states, D.C. and the "international" vote. If this were remotely accurate, Nebraska would be leading this poll 58,222-32,236, or 64%-36%. There were, at the time I started counting, 90,458 total votes on the map, not 61k and change like ESPN showed. The number they're showing is an average of each state's percentage of votes. This is blatantly stupid, because Nebraska's 96%/4% split actually counts for more than Ohio's 89%/11% split. Which is dumb, because Nebraska's 96%/4% gives the Huskers 4,321 votes while Ohio's 89%/11% split gives the Buckeyes 6,133 votes. Six thousand votes should carry more weight than four thousand. I just wasted 30 minutes of my life on this. Embarrassing.

I can explain that in four words, courtesy of Ron White: "You can't fix stupid." There are just people who think they can say/do anything to a guy like Suh, and that he'll never react like a human. I have no idea what went down, but I'm guessing Suh was provoked, and/or the other dude threw a punch. The other guy would be lucky as hell if Suh never threw a punch in return, because without pads, if he connects he could shatter your skull.

Sports Illustrated has an All-Time NBA greats poll up. One of the questions is which small forward you'd want, and both Bird and Dirk are options. Unsurprisingly, Bird is dominating. LINK Here are my answers: Jordan Wilt Chamberlain Kevin Garnett Bird Jordan Tough choice but I went with Stockton. Magic is, not surprisingly, running away with this, though. Reggie Miller as three-point specialist. Dude was a stone-cold assassin from behind the arc. Derrick Rose as my under-22 nucleus. Bulls homerism, but he's worthy. I went with Phil Jackson as my coach. More Bulls homerism, but he's also worthy.

Meh. Ordinarily I'd be all up-in-arms over this, but this "poll" is so screwed up, from the way they're counting votes to the total FAIL on the actual tradition to the fact that this whole thing is actually a big advertisement for NCAA Football 12, that I frankly don't care. Let the Buckeyes win this and move on. The less Nebraska is associated with this thing the better.

I won't disagree with your assessment of Nebraska's problems, and I'd even go so far as to say you've undersold them. We have a lot of potential problems. If we get them all fixed, that'll warrant Coach of the Year consideration for Pelini, IMVHO. The issue at Iowa isn't just RB, it's QB, too. Who's your signal-caller going to be, Vandenberg? The guy is a sub-.500 passer with three career TDs and five INTs. I'm not seeing reasons for the optimism you're displaying here. Specifically against Nebraska, this guy is a pocket passer. If he stays in the pocket, I don't care how good that O Line is at Iowa, we'll eat this guy for lunch. Immobile QBs are fresh meat for the Blackshirts. That's probably the single biggest thing the Big Ten needs to learn about Nebraska – there is NO ROOM for immobility at QB against this defense. None. I spent a lot of time trying to explain this to Washington Husky fans last September before we played "Heisman Trophy Candidate" Jake Locker in Seattle. They would have none of it, no matter how specifically I broke it down (as in, Locker MUST release the ball in under three seconds every play or get plastered). They remained confident they had this game in the bag…and we nearly killed Locker. Same thing with the Vandals fans and Nate Enderle. This is why Husker fans are telling you we'll be surprised if Iowa scores 20 points against the Blackshirts. Frankly, if Vandenberg isn't able to muster any kind of passing game and we can load up on the run, I don't like Iowa's chances at all.

Fear the pineapple.

So.... this is a video game ranking? Doesn't seem like something that has a lot of merit in the real world, unless I'm missing something.

Can you explain how these results will be represented in your final product? This is not remotely scientific, nor is it representative of anything official. How do you plan on describing how you arrived at the "best games in Memorial Stadium History," or the "best plays?"

Maybe not exactly like Wiskey, but really close. You dont think Iowa can slide a little in passing? You dont think after the decimation at RB last year, they have restocked and the running game will vastly improve? I mean 70th, really, another number Iowa fans can hold their heads low about. Iowa seems to have issues at RB, but I think the gods have been happy lately and we are about due for another record breaker. You dont think being able to run opens up the door for the play action, making it easier to get into the endzone? Thats what those numbers say! Besides, I have watched teams in the B10 for along time, this years Iowa team has the right amount of this and that, now I am just curious what KF does with it. Of course all of those things are possible. It's possible Iowa could have a brilliant season and jump to the top ten in every offensive category. But it's not likely, and that's where I'm questioning these bold predictions you're making. Similarly, Nebraska has some awesome players at key positions. We have a QB who can be the fastest guy on the field in most every game we play, and who has the skills to be a top passer as well. We have a RB who has already dominated games. We have a TE that can both block and out-run most anyone, LB or DB, who covers him. We have another TE who has already proven to be a devastating, game-changing blocker. We have a WR who has already proven to be a clutch receiver, who has a big body and who has all kinds of talent. We have a host of other WRs who boast blazing speed and gaudy recruiting stars. Each of the guys I'm talking about was on our team last year. The same team that bumbled its way through half the season, barely scoring against A&M, Washington (the bowl game), 5-7 Texas and SDSU. Most of these guys were responsible for these numbers: Nebraska Rushing O - 9th (led both the Big XII and the B1G) Passing O - 113th (last in both the Big XII and the B1G) Scoring O - 44th Total O - 39th Now, it is definitely possible that Nebraska will improve on those numbers, and I hope we do, but I'm never going to tell you that it's definitely going to happen. I'll walk you down the evidence of why I think it'll happen, but at this point I don't have any. Maybe by the time we play I'll have something, but by that time you'll likely be able to see it for yourself.

Sam McKewon. Best sports writer in Nebraska.