knapplc

But you're not a top 15 program for the 00s, you're #22. Your rank at #15 is that arbitrary three-year range that means nothing. That's the problem with Iowa Football - up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down - it's like a roller coaster. 70s - 48th 80s - 26th 90s - 37th 00s - 22nd 10s - ?? I can say with reasonable confidence that, even with Ohio State's impending troubles, that they will almost certainly rank higher for this decade than Iowa. Why? Because they have the funds, the boosters, the fan support and the history that will keep recruits coming back. That's a huge advantage that a program like Ohio State has that an Iowa doesn't. Same reason Nebraska won so many recruiting battles against Missouri, even when the kids were from Missouri. Sure, Missouri would produce a decent team here and there, but when you go on a recruiting trip to Missouri you're not going to be shown the National Championship Trophy Room, or the Heisman Room, or anything like it. There's a certain cachet that some programs have and some don't. OSU has it. Nebraska has it. Michigan, downtrodden though they are at the moment, has it. If you're a betting man and someone offers you a bet on who will win the National Championship first, Iowa or Michigan, take Michigan. Take Ohio State. Take Nebraska. You're being a blind homer if you take the Hawkeyes.

You really don't understand the difference between a program with long-term success compared to a program who, once in a while, has a good recruiting class or two and turns out a couple of good teams? You're basically talking about one recruiting cycle. Let's see what happens now that you've lost a three-year starter at QB. Further, you're breaking this down to the last three seasons to prove a point - a more arbitrary number couldn't be imaginable. Why not take the last 12 seasons? Or the last 7? Or the last 16? Why not just talk about last season alone, where Iowa was the last of all three schools? And while we're imagining what would have happened if just one more pass was caught for Iowa in 2009, imagine also if one more were dropped against Michigan State, Arkansas State, Michigan and Northern Iowa - all Hawkeye wins by three points or less. Suddenly you're staring down the barrel of a six-loss season and your whole argument falls apart.

This is the difference between a successful program's fans and an average program's fans. An Ohio State fan has every reason to expect to beat every team he plays. Sure, some games they should anticipate will be harder than others, but if you don't have confidence that OSU will beat Iowa every time they play, OSU has a major problem. OSU is 33-6-1 vs Iowa in the past forty years, if I did my research right, and 45-14-3 all time. With a lopsided history like that, Iowa wins can best be described as, "even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes."

I miss the 90s defenses. They would give up some big plays on busts or when the opponent guessed right, but that aggressive, in-your-face style of defense was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. A whole team of Ndamukong Suhs ripping up the opponent rather than just one or two guys. Memories.

I think the OSU/NU defensive comparisons are appropriate. I think both teams rely on athleticism and speed moreso than what I typically see in the Big Ten. If Big Ten teams want to imagine what it'll be like to play the Blackshirts, imagine playing OSU's defense. It's similar.

What's wrong with celebrating the 2009 defense? You're telling me that if your team's defense was... 9th in Rushing Defense 1st in Pass Efficiency Defense 1st in Scoring Defense 7th in Total Defense ...that you wouldn't recall that with pride two years later? This year's Blackshirts have the potential to be near these numbers, even more so than 2010, with legit first team All-Americans at each level. There's traditional good defense that you see in the Big Ten, and there's great defense that doesn't come along all that often. 2009 was great defense. 2011 has a chance at being great. I don't think saying so is out of line.

Not sure what to think about these things. The Offense and Defense have their own gloves, and they may be pretty cool. They may be kinda cheesy, too. I guess I'll have to wait until I see them on TV, which is what they're designed for. Warning - pics are ginormous. OFFENSIVE TEAM GLOVES DEFENSIVE TEAM GLOVES

I have never seen the entire GotC. I would love to watch it sometime. If I ever break down and buy a game on DVD, that'll probably be the one I get.

She was still doing the bus tour? I haven't seen coverage of it for a while, so I figured it ended like last week sometime. She's going to have some well-crafted reason not to run, and not to be someone's veep, and once the actual nominee is named she'll go back to commenting from the sidelines. She'll get back onto Fox in some consultant capacity or something. The primary goal for her next few steps will be to position herself as a voice to which her supporters need to keep listening, but who just, for whatever reason, cannot run for the presidency. That way she saves credibility (with her supporters, don't bother correcting me) and keeps their ears. Regardless, I don't see her fame lasting much beyond whatever deal she works following the next election. Her looks will fade as she ages (she's 47), and once she loses curb appeal and has to rely solely on the substance of her statements, it's over.

We're bored and want something to talk about. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

They went 11-2 last year and shared the Big Ten title, and they return seven starters on offense and six on defense. So it's probably mostly legit.

Apparently the troll is stuffed, as he changed/removed his bio and information. So I suppose trolls aren't the Joey Chestnut's of attention...whowouldathunk? Joey Chestnut.

Exactly. She's making big bucks with all of this. That gravy train ends when she has to get up in those debates and actually speak about the issues at hand. This is where the Palin schtick fails, and she knows it after 2008. She's not good at that kind of thing; she's good at exactly what she's doing - the folksy "awww-shucks" kind of clips and soundbites, the homespun goodness of her Discovery Channel show and dropping rah-rah America catchphrases.

I watched the video. He made some decent throws. He was also bailed out by his WRs several times on passes he shouldn't have thrown. We'll see how he does this year. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying there are no facts to support your lofty conclusions. Yet.

Nice straw man. The main person here who hasn't moved on is Lee Barfknecht. Why? Because he needed a story for his deadline, so he fabricated something. Something that, not surprisingly, reflected poorly on Husker fans, because that's Lee's schtick. So we have some doofuses who booed Texas at the CWS. Cry me a river. You will NEVER, EVER find a fan base that is 100% free from booing an opponent. What you will find, right here in Lincoln, Nebraska, is a fan base that has a vast majority who will treat an opponent with class and respect. Barf chooses, in his column, to ignore that and speak to the lowest common denominator as if they are representative of the fan base. Guess what? He knows as well as you and I that no matter what you say to those folks, they won't conform. It's a fool's errand, and Barf is that fool - needing a story to earn his bread, no doubt - who takes up that errand. So support him all you want. You're speaking about the minority as if they are the majority. It's a straw man argument, and it has no bearing on this fan base.

James Vandenberg chews iron and spits nails. James Vandenberg didn't win the starting job. He ripped the still-beating heart out of his rival's chest and took the job. James Vandenberg was a better quarterback than Ricky Stanzi, but he's just so gosh-darned polite he let Ricky play. James Vandenberg will accept the Heisman trophy in August, but only if they offer it nicely. James Vandenberg's right arm is registered with the Iowa City police as a lethal weapon.

Nebraska has 6,200 votes in the early going. That's more than the total number of votes in the Clemson/Michigan and the FSU/LSU battle.

I don't think JFK commented on the subject.

Very likely a better qb. See, I can play this game, too. We have a better everything to replace everyone we lost. We have a better: RB to replace Helu WR to replace Paul WR to replace McNeill OG to replace Williams OG to replace Henry OT to replace Jones PK to replace Henery On defense we have a better: DE to replace Allen CB to replace Hagg CB to replace Amukamara SS to replace Thenarse FS to replace Gomes Everyone at every position we lost is being replaced by a better player. No, I don't have stats to prove anything, nor do I have film or plays as examples or games in general to point to, but you have to believe me that they're all better. Why? Because. See? This is an easy game to play. But the fact is, we're not going to replace Amukamara, Hagg or Gomes on defense. Those guys were all-world. Sure, the new guys will be good, but realistically will they be as good? Couldn't tell you. Nor can I tell you that Burkhead is going to surpass Helu, or that any of our O Line youngsters are going to be better than Williams, Henry or Jones. Nor can I tell you that we're ever going to find a better kicker than Henery. Actually, scratch that - we will never find a better kicker than Henery. Bad example. But this whole assertion that Vandenberg is going to be better than Ricky Stanzi.... well, you're just going to have to accept the fact that none of us are buying what you're selling. We'll pretend we're from Missouri on this one - Show Me.

Thank God I never took that job offer at The Brazilian.

I wonder if they're going to put the map of the states back up. They took a LOT of grief from people checking out the actual votes.

Congratulations! I would have tried to sign up for this, but I can't travel to Indy like they want. You'll have to keep us informed about this.

You are doing a LOT of projecting here. I could just as easily say that Kirk Ferentz is all stressed out because he hasn't won the Big Ten in six years and that Iowa fans are all stressed out because they now have to play Nebraska every year, a team that has dominated them over the years. There are 1,000 theories about this season that you could put forth. None of them are more accurate than any other. I can tell you that in the last couple of interactions I've had with Bo he's been very relaxed, joking around, not stressed at all, so from my purely anecdotal experience, your theory that he's under more stress doesn't hold up.

They changed it to "Tunnel Walk" too. I guess ESPN heard you, knapplc. Lord knows I bitched enough about it on their comment section. I'm a whiny bastard.

Well, we won. We beat Script Ohio, and now we're on to face the Sooner Schooner. Here's the stoopid link: LINK