Obligatory "Is Iowa a Rival" Thread

[Flood]

3 hours ago, HUSKER 37 said:

Well said knapplic… It's like you were reading my mind...Scary 

 

Well, have you two ever been in the same room together? Might be some sort of Fight Club mental issue going on here.

[I AM FOOT FOOT]

On 11/17/2018 at 10:12 PM, knapplc said:

I don't understand Nebraska's obsession with having a "rival."

 

We don't need a rival. Every team does not have a rival. Rivalries are something that develop over time, organically. That is not what's happening here. And it sucks.

 

The main reason this Iowa "rivalry" talk happens every year is because the major news outlets that cover Nebraska football have a huge footprint in Iowa. A huge, HUGE chunk of their audience roots for Iowa, and they have to sell stories to that audience. So they stoke this fire that burns not-so-brightly for most Husker fans to further their own ends. And most fans aren't discerning enough to grasp that, so they just blithely follow along.  

 

 

To understand why Iowa may or may not be a rival, we need to understand who and what we think Nebraska is.

 

Nebraska is a team that has won five national championships in the modern era.  We have two legendary coaches, hall-of-famers, who have won multiple national championships each, both in the last 50 years. We have three Heisman Trophy winners in that span. I don't even know how many conference championships. Or divisional championships. A lot, each. Nebraska is one of the top five winningest programs in college football. Ever. We are a Baron of the sport. A pillar.

 

None of the above is an exaggeration. None is hyperbole.

 

So let's understand who and what Iowa is.  Until 2011, we didn't play them regularly. In the modern era (1965-present) Iowa has been a perennial mid-tier team in the Big Ten. They have no national championships to their name. They have no Heisman Trophy winners. They have no coaches that Nebraska would rather have. They are not in a more enviable position than Nebraska, unless you count the worst period of contemporary Nebraska football, in which Iowa has a better record.

 

But there's a problem with that metric. Because that is not how Nebraska Fan measures themselves or their team. If you want to claim Iowa as a true rival, you have to accept that what Iowa is or has is what Nebraska wants, or wants to be.

 

And that is decidedly not the case. And it has not been the case since Nebraska joined the Big Ten, or even before that.

 

And anyone making the claim that Nebraska aspires to be what Iowa is fundamentally is lying to themselves. Because we endeavor to be regularly relevant on the national stage, frequently compete for the conference title, and occasionally compete for a national championship.

 

If you claim that's not what Nebraska Football is, or wants to be, you're lying to yourself. 

 

And when you acquiesce to that concept, you cannot claim that Iowa is our rival. Because they are not that, they are not Nebraska's barrier to that, and they never have been that. Ever.

 

Iowa is no more Nebraska's rival than Minnesota. Or Northwestern. Or Wisconsin.

 

Iowa may be *a* rival. And that's fine. They're in our division, we play every year, we want to beat them.

 

But they are not *our* rival. They are not the hurdle we must overcome to achieve our goals. They're just another hurdle.

 

Finally - and sadly, for those who think Iowa is our rival - Iowa does not consider us to be their rival. They never have. They dislike us, they want to beat us, and they have disdain for us. But that is not a special or unique thing for Iowa Fan. They feel the same way about Wisconsin and Minnesota, and far moreso toward them than toward us.

 

This rivalry talk is dumb and cheap. It is not reciprocated, and it is forced and inorganic.

 

It is no different than when Dan McCarney decided on a whim that Nebraska was Colorado's rival in the 1980s.

 

Nebraska Fan disdained that designation. It was laughable.

 

And now we want to be Colorado, and make that same claim?

 

Ugh. No.

 

For god's sake, let's have more dignity than that.

Actually they have a Heisman winner in Kinnick, they named a stadium  after him and also claim a Natty from I believe in the  50s.Nothing modern era  but they do.

[Moiraine]

2 hours ago, man eating mastodon said:

Actually they have a Heisman winner in Kinnick, they named a stadium  after him and also claim a Natty from I believe in the  50s.Nothing modern era  but they do.

 

 

National championship claims don't mean much when you're 8-1-1 and LSU is 11-0.

[I AM FOOT FOOT]

2 minutes ago, Moiraine said:

 

 

National championship claims don't mean much when you're 8-1-1 and LSU is 11-0.

That's why I said  claim,I don't see it any differently than alot of teams claimed nattys.but Kinnick  did win a Heisman. 

[Moiraine]

2 minutes ago, man eating mastodon said:

That's why I said  claim,I don't see it any differently than alot of teams claimed nattys.but Kinnick  did win a Heisman. 

 

 

It's different than us 'cause we don't have to lower ourselves to that level
 

[Branno]

Iowa won’t be our rival until we can beat them. 

[jager]

We aren’t even their rival. We have to be able to beat them.

I’m still holding out for this year, but definitely next year.

[Mavric]

 

[Huskers93-97]

A rival doesn’t have to be Nebraska vs Oklahoma. Battling it out for who plays for the natty every year. There are a lot of rivals with teams who are not both elite but for whatever reason the games are hard fought and both teams up their games.

 

Maybe i I just know too many Iowa fans 

 

michigan and ohio state state have each other. Penn state is on the other side of the division. Historically everyone in the west is not on our level. Wisconsin, Iowa etc are all the same 

[huskerfan74]

On 11/22/2018 at 4:55 PM, Moiraine said:

 

 

Disagree.

Still disagree....

[Moiraine]

26 minutes ago, huskerfan74 said:

Still disagree....

 

 

Why wouldn't I? It's pretty ludicrous to think Nebraska needed to play the "game of the year" to beat Iowa. Iowa's not elite and Nebraska's not terrible. It wasn't a scenario where an underdog needs to play the "game of the year" to win. Nebraska may have a bad record but anyone who watched the 5 games before the Iowa game knew the record was not indicative of the current team. Nebraska needed 1 more play to go their way. We made mistakes yet were still only one play from OT and maybe even winning the game in regulation. We never needed to have some miracle/best game to beat Iowa. We needed to play well, but not perfect or even near perfect imho.

[Badger_kid1989]

We could take Iowa any day if the ref$ weren't paid off

[Moiraine]

11 minutes ago, Badger_kid1989 said:

We could take Iowa any day if the ref$ weren't paid off

 

 

You're not cut out for this.

[grapevine7]

Four points.  One, a rivalry game will definitely help Nebraska.  OSU-UM, OU-UT, FSU-UF, AL-AU, UW-WSU, and so on.  Even ND, a national program, seemingly above the rivalry fray, has USC as their big game.  Nebraska does not need the rivalry to excel, but it definitely helps.

 

But the second point is this -- it's troubling that Iowa is being made to be our rival because they are a mediocre program.  And even more troubling that we've gone 3-5 against them since we joined the B10.  Except for one year, Iowa has not been that great of a team.  Even their undefeated regular season was held together with duct tape and baling wire.  And yet, the state of our program has been less -- in some respects, much lesser -- than Iowa.  As a result, the annual Nebraska-Iowa game has not come close to achieving national prominence, in spite of the Black Friday setting.  If Iowa had national prominence, it would be a totally different thing -- we would desire that rivalry.

 

Third -- Nebraska's first step towards achieving national prominence is beating Iowa, not because they are our rival, nor because we want them to be our rival, but because they've beaten us 5 out of the last 6 years.  Frankly, it should have been 6 out of 6.  That needs to change - Nebraska needs to beat Iowa in 2019 - PERIOD.  Perhaps some might think this gives too much emphasis to the next Iowa game - so be it.... Beating Iowa has to one of the first benchmarks for Frost going forward.

 

One final point -- I've heard and seen the chirping out of some of our players before this last game.  Sure, confidence is nice, but whiteboard material for the opposition appears silly, and reflects poorly on Nebraska.  God, it's so pathetic.  It's now the off-season - boys need to shut-up and hit the weight room.  Speak softly and carry a big stick.  

[4skers89]

4 hours ago, grapevine7 said:

Four points.  One, a rivalry game will definitely help Nebraska.  OSU-UM, OU-UT, FSU-UF, AL-AU, UW-WSU, and so on.  Even ND, a national program, seemingly above the rivalry fray, has USC as their big game.  Nebraska does not need the rivalry to excel, but it definitely helps.

In all of the halftime breaks of other games, ESPN dedicated maybe 10 seconds showing the NU-IA highlights and I think it was just the last field goal.  I don't think Fox mentioned our game at all.  Meanwhile, for the past week I've seen Fox advertise "the game" ad nauseam.  This is free advertisement for the school.  I'm not sure NU-IA will garner as much attention as both need to be good and the game means playing for the West title.  Rivalries definitely help.