Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Rumor

The intertubes tell me that ISU lost to UNI tonight.

I'm not surprised, but since I don't subscribe to the cable company that carried the game, I didn't witness it.

I feel like FauxHawk fans who don't have the B1011 Network. Perhaps its better I didn't see it.

Peterclone

Maly Has Seen Enough Already

Ron's letting the FauxHawk bandwagon pass him by.

For
a guy who has spent years claiming not to be an SUI fan, he spends a
heck of a lot of time there, especially to watch bad teams. The press
meal must be spectacular.

Peterclone

Monday, November 26, 2007

Quick Hits

Random bits bouncing around my brain:

-I was at the Dome for UNI's insane win over UNH. Two things stuck out: how good UNI's line was, and how solid both teams were at tackling in the open field. It was rare that the first man to make contact with a reciever didn't bring him down. The problem was in covering the recievers in the first place. ISU could take lessons.

-Quick: who's last six games would you want less: KState's or Nebraska's? Each got to enjoy a blowout during their 1-5 fades, but somehow the Husker's crunching of KSU probably felt better than dumping on Baylor felt for the Wildcats.

-Selfishly, I hope Nebraska's "Win 10 games NOW" mentality keeps them in a 4-years-and-yer-gone cycle. That will only help ISU.

-How many jobs will Pinkel and Mangino be offored this winter? Why wouldn't they take any of them? Mizzou could be a great job, but if KU goes 6-6 next year, will anyone in Lawrence really care?

-Pinkel should have been not only fired for trying to turn Brad Smith into Terry Bradshaw, but should have been banned from coaching for life. He's got a North title depite himself. Huh.

-I snicker at every "Iowa's offense is from the 50's" complaints. It may be, but it sure looked great when they had NFL caliber O Lines. Going to a spread offense would only hurry the calls for the backup QB each game.

-It seems KF's inability to take the ISU game seriously will (among other things) cost him a shot at the Michigan job. How can a coach that can't beat Iowa State be trusted to beat Ohio State?

-Crazy OSU fact: Earle Bruce and John Cooper both have and use offices in the football offices in Columbus. I doubt we'll see much of Danny Mac in Ames. As much as Walden and Criner would like free office space, I don't see either of them getting it.

-If 10% of the ISU football team was involved with the police in 10 months, there would be cries from both the faculty and The Rag to fire the coach, shut down football, and implode Trice. Funny how the only complaint about the situation in IC is "a lack of oversight" or some such thing.

-You still need 20 seconds to get off a field goal without a time out.

-Calahan almost said "F.U." on his way out the door with the first half in Boulder. Fran said "F.U." by upsetting UTA. Danny Mac did the same to us last fall. Criner's boys won his last game after he was canned. Somehow I like it when that happens.

-I don't forsee much trouble selling season tickets next year. You?

Peterclone

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Rankings

As of today's Sagarin, KU has the nation's 101st toughest schedule.

ISU's? #6.

Granted, KU has beaten everyone that was lined up, but they have yet to play a team ranked in the Top 30. ISU played 5 of them. Small difference.

That changes the next two weeks: Mizzou is #9, and OU is #8.

Two games to make us believers.

FWIW- ISU finished #95. That's well south of where we want to be at the end of a season, but it sure beats the #135 or wherever they were before they beat KSU.

The possibly-no-longer-bowl-bound team from IC has fallen to #75, and only Indiana and Purdue played easier schedules in teh 1011. Maybe SUI is lucky to have 6 wins. How did they beat Illinois again?

Peterclone

Ron Goes Off The Deep End

He calls Saturday's loss to Western Michigan the worst SUI football loss.

Ever.

118 seasons of football, most below .500, and that's his nadir?

I thought old age was supposed to develop perspective, not remove it.

Besides, I thought all of SUI's "Worst Losses Ever" involved our dear Silo Tech one way or another.

Come back off the ledge of your shiney new pressbox, Ron. You'll be back. With the money that gets dumped on football in IC, you have to be.

Peterclone

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Don't Fret

The SUI footballers, despite their stunning loss to a 4-8 team from the MAC, will go bowling.

Any third tier bowl would love to have 10K satin "IOWA" jackets wandering through their city.

Bismarck North Dakota could invite SUI to play NDSU outdoors on Jan. 3rd and the stadium would be full. I don't know if that is a sign of loyalty, stupidity, or just not having enough going on in your life. Probably a bit of all three.

Wait and see. They'll go somewhere, practice for another month, give someone a better game than they should, finish 6-7, cash the check, and inspire thousands of SUI fans to predict 9, 10 and 11 win seasons in '08.

It's one of the constants of physics.

Peterclone

Thud

So much for opportunity and halftime pep talks. KU came with their A game offensively and took it to ISU. When you give 8 yards a play and only muster 3.4 yourself, it is going to be a very long day.

On the bright side, 45 was the lowest point total for KU at home this year, along the 45 the scored on Toledo. At least it wasn't the 76 they hung on the Huskers two weeks ago. KU punted 4 times, so it's not all bad. The Huskers only forced one. (Heavy, heavy sarcasm there.)

From the TV feed, (BTW- I love how Ron Franklin calls a game. He makes watching your team get blown out tolerable.) it sounds as if KU has had the perfect season: no serious injuries, a mathmatically impossible TO ratio, a very, very favorable schedule, a freshman walk-on turning into Johnny Unitas, etc. It's a fun ride when everything works.

KU is a nice team, but I suspect they are 8-4 in any other year. We will find out the next two weeks, as Mizzou and OU are far better than any of the first 10 teams KU has played.

Luck with things like TO margin and injuries has a tendency to even out year-to-year, so '08 could be rocky for KU. Ask the Hawkeyes what its like when the breaks stop going your way for a while.

On the ISU side, I can't help but look at Meyer's stats for his career and marvel: # 3 all-time in the B12 for yards, but #10 in TD's. That sums up the last 3.75 seasons with Meyer under center: lots of movement between the 20s, but too many failures in the Red Zone. How many more wins would ISU have had in that span with another TD per game? Don't answer that, it hurts too much.

But unquestionably the fouundation has been laid for better football. Jamie should move a boatload of season tickets for '08. Given the 5 game stretch in the back half of the season, Gene and crew can take any motley crew of athletes and play B12 caliber football. I am anxious to see what the staff does with their player, what they can teach over the winter and spring, and where this thing could go.

Peterclone

Friday, November 16, 2007

Cold Revenge

It feels like a lifetime ago, but KU delivered the Shiv In The Belly Loss II, back when ISU Football still had shots at North titles.

You know ABC has sent the whole week profiling every dang player and coach, digging through whatever KU calls a trophy case (probably hidden by the stack of Big 8 Basketball banners Allen Fieldhouse doesn't even have room to hang), building up a reel of tender moments to roll into not just the game against ISU, but the game against Mizzou next week and OU in the championship game. Just like they did before ISU collapsed against Mizzou and KU back when we were young and a little less bitter.

Wouldn't it be appropriate if ISU knocked KU from the Hot Team Of The Moment Mantle?

I would laugh for days.

Besides, come New Year's Weekend, only about 500 more KU fans will fly to a bowl game than ISU fans will. The Jayhawks play at Boston College on the 5th. You can't risk missing the game on the telly stuck in some airport in some warm-weather city. Where's the fun in that?

Peterclone

Why The Hell Not?

CrossCyed gives a heck of a pep talk, of sorts.

Why the hell not, indeed?

Peterclone

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Kids, Kids, Kids

A nice effort against Bradley, really it was, the kids (and I do mean kids) just don't quite yet know what they are doing.

I was pleased with the general hustle on the defensive end, even if they did get caught flat footed on pick and rolls and drives coming out of The Weave. It was one of those nights when the loose balls and crazy bunces seem to go to the other team.

On offense, Mac might as well stick with the two point, three guard lineup because nobody down low knows how to get open, catch the ball when open, or score once they get said ball.

When one of the tallest fellows on your roster only appears late to try three pointers, you've got issues inside.

Just get better each week, boys, and we'll hang with you.

Peterclone

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Keeler: Improvement

Sean makes good points.

The Minnesota comparison is interesting and apt. Plus, Brewster may or may not have been a candidate for Ames. I think we got the better guy. Gene seems sane, or at least to have played fewer snaps without a helmet.

I stand corrected on posts I made earlier in the season: this coaching staff has certainly learned how to coach 2 star recruits into holding their own against 4 and 5 star studs. That's great news.

Now we need to catch some 4's and 5's of our own. Then the fun starts.

Peterclone

ISU hoops- a step back in '07-'08?

This guy sees a step back.

I vote for a horizontal move, with better structure for the future.

Peterclone

UNI, BCS, and computers

The computing revolution begun at ISU is showing some love to UNI, which is as high as #12 in the Sagarin, if scoring margin is taken out.

Wow.

Good for them. Too bad it doesn't get them anything, but still.

Nice arguement about one BCS flaw at that link, too.

Peterclone

Field Goal Time Trial

Watching CU's fire drill of a field goal attempt reminded me of a
discussion I heard during an NFL broadcast in the last month or so
about exactly what CU tried to do.

The color man was a former
coach, and while watching an NFL team successfully execute a
no-time-outs-and-the-clock-is-rolling field goal try at the end of the
first half, coach explained exactly what we saw Saturday: A team needs
a minimum of 20 seconds in such a situation to get aFG try off before the clock runs out, ideally 22 or 23.

A whole bunch of things have to happen in that time: the offense needs to get off the field; FG
unit onto the field, lineup and set; kicker run 35 or 40 yards, find
his mark and set; and the officials need to get the ball from the
offensive player who couldn't get out of bounds, mark the spot, get
another ball to the hash, set it, get the original ball off the field,
check the down and distance marker, get back into their correct
position for aFG try, get the offense set, and start the play clock. That is a bunch of crap in a small amount of time.

As
I recall, the Buffs tried to do all that not in 25 or 20 seconds but
12. 12! Half the recommended time. Honestly, it probably took the far
side guard 10 seconds to run from the sideline to his spot and get into
his stance. If the refs really wanted to get picky, I bet CU had
offensive players still scrambling to the sideline at the snap, leaving
them with too many men on the field. It looked like a hockey line
change gone bad. In other words, there was no way CU could legally make
the play work. They were going against the laws of football physics,
and they lost- literally.

Given the way the refs have influenced the end of the last two season home closers, Mizzou can't too excited about being the Senior Day opponent in '08, no?

Peterclone

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Unhappy Campers

For the second week in a row, an unexpected road loss to ISU has the fans grumpy with their coaches.

The groups have three things in common:

- they think ISU is worse than Baylor
- they lost to said team on the road
- they have second-year coaches they already want to throw under the bus.

Check out the comments to the story wrap up at the Boulder Daily Camera. The Hawkins Honeymoon is definately over for some fans. Doing things differently is always hard to sell.

We saw the same things coming from KSU over Prince's performance last week. Prince, still over .500 in just his second year, has a warm seat because he isn't 10-2 and in the BCS. Apparrently that is where we are at, now: BCS or bust. Every Year.

I hope we can avoid that. Granted, we need some more wins to overinflate our expectations, but still, can we collectively check ourselves for the next couple of years?

Oh, nice comeback fellas. That showed some tasty moxie. Nice "court awareness" by the CU long snapper, too. Very savvy, and it almost worked. Twice.

Somehow I feel that was a tiny bit of payback for the '95 loss to CU when Ricky Neweasel went for two with a minute left to push the final margin to 22 because the line on the game was 21. Subtle, Ricky, very subtle. Why was I the least surprised person in America that he was busted for betting on college sports while working as a college coach?

Another 10 or 12 similar gut wrenching losses for the Buff and we might be even.

Even though it has only been two years since ISU beat Okie State, a$m, KSU and CU in succession, it still seems very far away. It's nice to have a winning streak to tallk about.

Peterclone

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Win #2 Rehash

This KSU blog had someinteresting nuggets:


- the story that was linked was titled "Abomination in Ames". (A little strong I think. It's not like KSU was Top Ten or anything.)
- ISU is an inferior team (can't say I disagree)
- ISU is better than Baylor because it took advantage of a lousy KSU first half (That's something)
- KSU seriously thought it had a shot at the North Title going into Ames. (Really? The Cats were essentially two games out of the title hunt, needing MUCH help in getting that title. I guess the losingest program in college football history has bigger aspirations than just a bowl trip now.)
- KSU fans are pissy because Prince, with the impressive resume of 22 games as a head coach, is only 12-10. (For the record, I'll be doing handsprings if Gene is 2 games over .500 in his third year.)

Winning is just like making money: as soon as you make $50, you want $55. Even KSU, so long the joke, now is unhappy with anything less than a title shot. We can learn from that.

Peterclone

Saturday, November 03, 2007

That Didn't Take Long

freelucca.com

This story is what, three days old and there's a website?

Man, I love the internet.

Again, if Lucca was in Lawrence the NCAA wouldn't have even opened a file. Can't bring down a TV ratings star.

Peterclone

Sometimes The Other Shoe Doesn't Drop

Up 28-10 with 6 minutes left in the third, the clock stopped moving, or so it seemed. Every ISU fan at, listening or watching the game was waiting to see how this specific version of the same tourtuous movie called "Cyclone Second Half Collapses" would play out.

Just this year we witnessed disaster at Toledo, slow measured failure at Lincoln and Columbia, an exertion of better talent in a loss to OU. Yet the Cyclones managed to find a way to win by not giving everything they had gained back.

KSU's fourth quarter resulted in 28 plays and 154 yards, but they ended with a missed FG, a failed fourth and goal, an INT, and the end of the game. Painful as hell to watch from the Cyclone standpoint, but the scoreboard is what matters: exactly 0 points scored in crunch time. Victory.

That game will sell season tickets for '08. A solid game on both sides of the ball against a team that should end up bowling. Everyone can agree that progress is being made, that growth is happening before our eyes.

If the staff can replace the departing with better talent and increased depth, days like this will be more common.

Peterclone