Aggressive Scheduling

Longtime readers- both of you- know that I'm a long time fan of aggressive scheduling. I would rather go after someone good a be battle hardened than blow out the lesser and not learn anything, assuming you have the horses to do it.

It appears KJ has the same philosophy in wrestling schedules.

Bravo. I hope the boys wrestle each match like they are there to win, not to get high scores from the Hungarian judge who appreciates their technical merit. There are no style points.

Peter

Dan the Villain?

I guess the 2002 game still leaves a mark.

Peter

Influence

I've always thought that a sign of a healthy wrestling program is having a few alumni around who are training for Olympic and World-level tournaments to help influence the effort and teaching of the college kids.

Having a couple of Paulsons in the room is a good thing.

Peter

Advantage

In business school the talk about something called competitive advantage. It means figuring out what your strengths are vs. your competitor's weaknesses and exploiting both.

Which brings us to the spread offense.

I agree that its a good idea, as the current Cyclone team isn't going to have much success lining up and trying to overpower anyone. Someday, maybe, but not now.

Peter

Red Crows?

Really?

That's all the better you can do?

At least Goblas took a tiny bit of thought.

A 42-10 prediction? I'm not surprised.

Peter

Back Handed Compliments

Rock M Nation has some rather nice compliments in a "for a 2-10 team they weren't that bad" kind of way.

Peter

Ranking the Games

I think that going down the schedule and assigning a w/l to each one is too much of a crapshoot, so I prefer to rank the games from most likely to be a win to the least.

North Dakota State
Army
at Kent State
Colorado
Baylor
at Kansas State (KC)
Iowa
at Kansas
at a$m
at Mizzou
at Nebraska
Okie State

I put my over/under at 4.

It seemed the biggest problem with the previous staff was game planning 'the perfect scheme' instead of the scheme your players could pull off. I've had more than one commentator use the a$m game as an example of that issue. Since the Rhodes staff seems to understand what it means to coach the underdog, we should be at least 2 games better than '08 based on that alone.

A few random thoughts about each game.

I expect NDSU to be close and sometimes heartburn-inducing. The Bison will score on at least one of the following: Pick 6 INT, totally blown pass coverage on an otherwise ordinary play, or a breakdown in special teams leading to a punt or KO return for 6. Anytime you switch to a new system there are bound to be breakdowns.

Army has moved a 6'10" lineman to tight end. Watching the chess match of that matchup will be worth the ticket. We will all remember how effective the triple option can be when run properly (i.e. Nebraska in the 90's), and what a failure it was under Walden.

If the program has improved at all the fact that this is a roadie shouldn't matter. It did matter on the last road trip to a MAC school, a choke job at Toledo.

We've matched up well against the Buffs the last two years and last two in Ames, so why not?

The effort against Baylor cannot be as bad as last year.

Too many unknowns about either ISU or KSU to have much confidence in predicting a win. Playing at Arrowhead lowers our odds.

As usual, ISU will not win this game- the question will be if Iowa loses it. The Best Program To Never Win A National Championship* has a funny knack of getting a case of tight helmet when they leave Johnson County.

KU will play the whole game this year.

a$m has way too much raw talent to lose this one at home. I think.

The most talented Mizzou team ever lost 4 games last year, and lost a bunch of talent. Exactly how much is TBA.

You don't lose 14 in a row in Lincoln by accident. ISU's chance to break that streak may have closed.

OSU could be the #3 team in the B12 South and #5 in the NCAA. Scary good.

Peter

*According to Iowa fan.

Root For and Against

To riff on this topic, the CFB teams I root for other than ISU:

Va Tech. I've been impressed with how Beamer built a program from nothing with a hard-nosed, lunch pail philosophy. Still too many programs downplay the difference good special teams can make. Serious academic school.

Washington State. Perennial underdog in-state and in-conference.

Arizona State. Great mascot and colors. Warm weather. Another little brother.

Okie State (seeing a trend?) will always play in a Sooner Shadow.

Wisconsin. Love the crowd enthusiasm and The Fifth Quarter. Takes their Marching Band seriously.

Against:

Texas- like the Yankees I get a laugh every time The Team With The Most Talent fails.

Notre Dame- I get a laugh every time the school with it's own TV network fails, which is often lately.

Florida State- can't stand the tomahawk chop song. Ugh.

Oregon- for crimes against football fashion.

Kansas- In my universe, a school can be good in either hoops or football, not both. Choose.

Peter

Random Bits

Summary from CR Gazette. Money quote: "This is an underdog offense."

Also from the Gazette: notes about the depth chart.

ESPN compares ISU to a$m for being worse off after firing long-time coaches.

ISU might be an upset victim at Kent State.

Strong points from ESPN.

The Jack is not very popular.

The fate of SUI's season may be sealed in September.

A nice look at the B12 North.

That's enough for tonight.

Peter

This Explains A Lot

Anyone who wonders why ISU struggles in sports only has to look at this list.

Revenue equals winning, which equals revenue. It's that simple.

Peter

Big Surprise

For the third year in a row, ISU has been picked to finish last in the North.

Only one way to change perceptions like that: Win some games.

Peter

Something New

ISU Volleyball begins the season ranked #11.

Mentally, I'm not used to the thought of good volleyball. But like the idea of good WBB, I'll get used to it.

Peter