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Phil Steele says no dice for Huskers in AP


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Let me fine tune a slight difference between pressure and expectation.

 

Our bigger problem is expectation.

 

Nobody expected Nebraska to beat Texas in 2009. We played inspired and came :01 away from beating the #3 team.

 

Everybody expected Nebraska to extract years of revenge on a mediocre, unranked Texas team at home in 2010, and we looked stiff and distracted on both side of the ball, and lost a soul-crusher.

 

We've looked better in our bowl games against SEC teams that we weren't expected to beat, than we have against the Iowa States and Northwesterns on our schedule.

 

I think a lot of us expected a dogfight in the 2012 CCG against Wisconsin, but we were also buying Rose Bowl tickets. That was a singular moment where Nebraska was expected to return to prominence against a 5 loss team it had beaten before. I don't think anyone expected an embarrassment.

 

Plenty of exceptions to this observation, but there's a magic sweet spot of fast, loose, focused and confident that some teams can summon in big games. Nebraska is not one of them.

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Rankings shouldn't happen till October. They are there to help push television. Winning takes care of rankings. Especially now only needing to finish 4th to get a shot.

 

I completely agree with this. Especially when you consider how often times a teams pre season ranking effects their post season ranking. A good example would be last year and all the two loss SEC teams remains highly ranked due to the fact that they started the season ranked much higher than they should have been. Rankings should be earned and figured at a later date after we've seen some competition. It's really a disaster of a system and nobody even talks about it much.

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Rankings shouldn't happen till October. They are there to help push television. Winning takes care of rankings. Especially now only needing to finish 4th to get a shot.

 

I completely agree with this. Especially when you consider how often times a teams pre season ranking effects their post season ranking. A good example would be last year and all the two loss SEC teams remains highly ranked due to the fact that they started the season ranked much higher than they should have been. Rankings should be earned and figured at a later date after we've seen some competition. It's really a disaster of a system and nobody even talks about it much.

 

Eh, I think people talk about it a lot. ESPN certainly does. It's always part of the debate about polls, and polls are mostly what we have to talk about between games. I've heard guys on ESPN advocating for a four or five week moritorium before the first rankings of the season. That would be the first binding rankings. Athalon is certainly free to rank whenever they want. And the fact that college football fans can't wait to see those pre-season magazines on the shelves, which used to come out in August but now come out in June, suggest we really kinda love pre-season rankings.

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Rankings shouldn't happen till October. They are there to help push television. Winning takes care of rankings. Especially now only needing to finish 4th to get a shot.

 

I completely agree with this. Especially when you consider how often times a teams pre season ranking effects their post season ranking. A good example would be last year and all the two loss SEC teams remains highly ranked due to the fact that they started the season ranked much higher than they should have been. Rankings should be earned and figured at a later date after we've seen some competition. It's really a disaster of a system and nobody even talks about it much.

 

Eh, I think people talk about it a lot. ESPN certainly does. It's always part of the debate about polls, and polls are mostly what we have to talk about between games. I've heard guys on ESPN advocating for a four or five week moritorium before the first rankings of the season. That would be the first binding rankings. Athalon is certainly free to rank whenever they want. And the fact that college football fans can't wait to see those pre-season magazines on the shelves, which used to come out in August but now come out in June, suggest we really kinda love pre-season rankings.

 

Okay, I guess I hadn't heard much talk of it is how I should have said that. I agree though four or five weeks, heck maybe even more just to give a few conference games to judge everyone by. It is funny though. Everyone loves to see who puts us where on their list every year. Nebraska is just yearning for some national respect again. I think we have been given the benefit of the doubt for quite some time to be honest. Of course, now this year we get no respect pre season, and this will be the year we will earn it. I hope not being ranked doesn't make the hole too hard to climb out of. That's of course if tis Steele guy is even right about this.

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Those who stated in this thread that "we have to earn it" are in my opinion right on! Yep, even though most of us are homers, you have to admit from all that we have seen in the recent past, we have under performed "according to our (fans) expectations". It matters very little where we start because we have proved nothing yet. Auburn last year is a good example of how it is done <-- perform each week like it matters (just win)! Things then will take shape if we have done so. I have never been a fan of early polls and to me, it takes until week 7 to have a reasonably good understanding of where everyone sits. eyeswear2allthatsholy

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It is simple mathematics:

 

12 Wins, No Losses by December 6th

 

Win a glorious, earth rocking game against tOSU on December 6th.

 

We will be ranked very well.

It would be so much fun as a fan for the team to be undefeated late in the season and be in that conversation. Even the Baylors and Kansas States of the world get all the attention when they're undefeated late in the season. With the new format, it would be an even bigger deal.

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