Dirk on Hype vs. Reality

knapplc said:
I knew I'd get flamed for that. Whatever. Dirk has his fans. In certain situations, I'm one of them. To each their own.
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Flamed? That wasn't my intent. I just find it werid to dismiss an article because it could/should have been written earlier. Besides, he was plenty critical post Iowa and UCLA.

 
You're defending against something I didn't say or do. I read the article - gave him a "click" as you've latched on to.

Are you getting mad at others being mad? Because that would be weird.

 
knapplc said:
You're defending against something I didn't say or do. I read the article - gave him a "click" as you've latched on to.

Are you getting mad at others being mad? Because that would be weird.
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That would be weird.

I'm not mad.

Like I said, I agree with a lot of what he said in that article. I'm not too wild with him lumping some of the players specifically into his "mediocrity" metaphor, and he'll probably catch hell for that.

Anyway......

 
My big problem with this article is it seems Dirk thinks Nebraska fans only live in Nebraska. I live in Ohio. I hear about OSU, Lousville, Michigan, Michigan State, etc. I know how deep we are compared to the other schools. I do not live in a "Nebraska bubble" so to speak.

 
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Careful there. Anything critical of Dirk brings out the long knives in defense. Tread lightly.

 
I am actually one of the people who likes Dirk, but who is he to tell me not to get my hopes up. I don't think I can quote directly from the article, but the paragraph that says the positive thing about this game is that it brought fans back to reality really bothered me. He's like that jerk in the bar who says "see I told you they weren't any good". Yeah, I know we probably won't win a NC this year, but every year I have that little bit of hope that we are that team that goes on an unexpected run. I don't need him to pull me back down to "reality". I'm not part of the media, I don't need to have an unbiased opinion of my team. This article reminds me too much of the rival fan who gets more excitement from a Nebraska loss than a win by his own team. I still think we are going undefeated this year!

 
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Kind of disagree with the article. There was a good amount of healthy skepticism heading into this year. There was optimism but a lot of it is/was cautious. Every fanbase in the nation has some optimism that the team will be better following a disappointing season. Hardly unique to Nebraska.

I agree that the Huskers are paper thin at too many positions to feel great about this team.

 
STL Husker said:
I am actually one of the people who likes Dirk, but who is he to tell me not to get my hopes up. I don't think I can quote directly from the article, but the paragraph that says the positive thing about this game is that it brought fans back to reality really bothered me. He's like that jerk in the bar who says "see I told you they weren't any good". Yeah, I know we probably won't win a NC this year, but every year I have that little bit of hope that we are that team that goes on an unexpected run. I don't need him to pull me back down to "reality". I'm not part of the media, I don't need to have an unbiased opinion of my team. This article reminds me too much of the rival fan who gets more excitement from a Nebraska loss than a win by his own team. I still think we are going undefeated this year!
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+1

 
Some have said this would've been better if it were written last Sept. It may not have been the same article word for word but for some reason I remember something he wrote of similar content. As far as things go of this nature, its all recycled material. Change a few action words and paint a different angle of the same background and they can spit this stuff out with ease. As a reader of anything Husker related for most of my life, this article isn't something that moves my meter. Dirk or Tom or Steve, all have the ability to play this game on any level. They know when to turn the wrench as well as when to tug on the heart strings.

 
ohiocornhusker said:
My big problem with this article is it seems Dirk thinks Nebraska fans only live in Nebraska. I live in Ohio. I hear about OSU, Lousville, Michigan, Michigan State, etc. I know how deep we are compared to the other schools. I do not live in a "Nebraska bubble" so to speak.
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I live in Tulsa - no bubble here. With Suh & TM (1st year version) wee could compete wt OU, OK State now we would not be able to compete wt either one. Maybe we could compete wt pathetic Univ of Ark who we read about in the Tulsa papers. I've even seen Tulsa (not last year or how they played against OU on Sat) being a competitive team. We aren't growing. I think the art of drinking Kool Aid is fast declining in Husker land. Yes, Knapp was correct - there was more hype before the 2013 season but then again we lost to Iowa last year and it took a hail mary and a couple of other mini miracles to beat NW, Mich, and PSU - reality eventually starts to set in. The pathetic big 10 hides our weaknesses as well. I never thought we'd see a Saturday as bad as what we saw the Big 10 endure this past Saturday.

 
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I generally like Dirk's articles, especially when he brings in statistical analysis (I am a math nerd). However, the one thing I don't like about him, is that he seems to quickly move to the negative side of the story, especially with Husker football. I know there has been a lot of "good football" (I consider 9-4 season's as good football), rather than the championships seasons and "great" football that Nebraska fans were accustomed to prior to the 21st century. I guess I would rather focus on the positives of certain situations, rather than always focusing on the negative.

 
I might not agree with everything in the article, for example I in no way shape or form agree we are closer to 50 than 10 in the rankings, but he makes a very salient point at the end:

>> Before you totally bail on the Big Ten, though, remember where Michigan State stood last year after week two. The Spartans weren't ranked and they were coming off an ugly win over South Florida, in which their offense didn't score in the first 50 minutes of the game. Four months later, they won the Rose Bowl.
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knapplc said:
This article would have been better written a year ago, maybe even two. But the hard-core kool-aid drinkers are few and far between, and have been for a long time.

There's excitement and hope before the season, but this year, and even last year, the flow of kool-aid was paltry.

Also, unless Dirk's spending a LOT of time at diners across Nebraska, he's pulling this "believing the hype too much" from message boards and twitter, and frankly, I haven't seen the level of optimism heading into this season that would warrant a "pump your brakes all of Husker Nation" article like this.

Whatever. He's got to write about something.
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I agree with Knapp. And yes Dirk made his bed and sh#t in it now he can lay in it. He Has had some real douche bag comments and articles in the past.

 
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