Gaps

While this team has a surplus of heart, they had a deficit of talent, and that kept them from winning the close games: K State, Nebraska, Mizzou.

But there is no question the program took more steps forward. And that's all we ask.

Get busy in the weight room, fellas.

Peter

Do Or Die

The situation against Mizzou is pretty simple: Win and get a bowl trip. Lose and start off-season workouts.

I expect Maximum Effort for the Clones- I just hope its enough to get them over the top.

Frankly, I've never liked the job Pinkel has done. He should have been banned from coaching for trying to turn Brad Smith into Peyton Manning. Idiot.

Mizzou 28, ISU 24.

Peter

Ownership

Read this. Now.

It says everything I would hope for moving forward. We're in good hands.

Peter

Banana Peel

All I ask of Cyclone Football is to beat the teams that, at the end of the year, are behind them in the standings and rankings. Barring a dramatic switcheroo, Colorado falls into the "should beat" category.

I am as surprised as anyone that Hawkins didn't work out- I thought his hire was brilliant. He sure loved playing ISU- 20% of his B12 wins came against us. That's 2 of 10. In four and a half seasons. Ouch.

But considering what has gone down in Boulder this week, a collapse by our Clones wouldn't surprise me at all. It's one thing to be loose when you are the underdog.

It's time for ISU to learn to play as the favorite.

ISU 28-24.

Peter

Gusto

After all of the years of complaining that Danny Mac was too conservative, we must applaud playing to win.

Be sure to buy lots of Iowa gas on your road trips, Husker fan.

Peter

Unis

Doing something like this would be an abomination:




Just say no.

Peter

Fascinating

Want a full breakdown of A-Rob's winning TD versus Texas? Burnt Orange Nation has it for you.

That kind of analysis is both fascinating and disturbing. Where do people find the time?

Peter

Bullet Dodged

Saturday's win over KU was the kind of game previous Cyclone teams would have lost. This crew seems to have a good head on its shoulders, and doesn't go into the fetal position at the first sign of trouble. The third quarter was what we expected the first quarter to be like, but at least they got it done and kept KU at bay the rest of the way.

That said, KU gave ISU lots of help. Turner Gill was a complete chicken s**t for not running a couple of plays at the end of the first half, and his playing-not-to-lose made ISU's second half work a bit easier. That's what you get with Rookies. He'd better be a recruiting monster or his tenure in Lawrence won't be pretty.

Thoughts on the final Nebraska game later.

Peter

Gameplan

If I was a coach forced to play my third string QB, with no backup, my plan would be pretty simple:

Run the ball. A Lot.
Quick passes, three step drop kinds of stuff.
Roll-outs to avoid the rush.
Run some more.

Don't expect to see deep drop backs, looking to throw deep. Quick manageable stuff, which will ideally get the ball out of the QB's hand.

Sacks may be scarce- but important.

Peter

Wonk

For the football wonks in the crowd, CPR gets into some of the nuts and bolts of how his team prepares.

Peter

Trap

Iowa State must now avoid the kind of mentality against Kansas that got Texas in trouble against Iowa State.

Granted, I don't know how you can't get geared up to play a team you have lost 5 in a row and six of seven against, but it happens.

When you get a chance to thump a team that's down on its luck, man, thump 'em.

Peter

Taking the Over

I marvel at the resiliency required to survive two successive beatdowns, then win what should have been another beatdown.

I also marvel at the amazing waste of talent that is Texas when they think they can just pull on the jersey and win. Had the Longhorns not been so impressed with themselves, perhaps they would have covered to 20.5 spread with ease.

Iowa State will never match the talent at a school like Texas- and they don't have to. As long as they find enough talent that still caries a chip on their shoulder, that want to prove to everyone they are good enough to play, they will win enough games.

I prefer my team to overachieve than underachieve. Today they were way, way over.

Peter

Sad

Five games left to play and their season is already over.

Better luck next year.

Peter

Austin

While I don't think ISU will come close to winning in Austin- the talent gulf will always be too big versus the Longhorns- I think we'll see a much closer game than the last two weeks.

Utah and OU had statements to make, and they were clearly motivated to do so. Texas made their statement last week in Lincoln. The Horns are notorious for playing down to the level of their competition, and I can't see them giving their best effort against a team that has been crushed the last two week.

ISU loses, but only by 14 or so.

Peter

Bullet Dodged

Even with the fiasco that was Chiz, I think ISU dodged a bullet by not being able to woo Brewster. Good thing he thought enough of himself not to work for such a downtrodden program as Iowa State. He's a man with upside!

Once in a great while I am prophetic.

Peter

Beatdown

On one hand its a simple "You don't have the horses to run with us" kind of thing.

But there's also a touch of "Don't even think you can compete with us long term" to games like that.

I hope the 28 redshirts understand the hill they are presently climbing.

The advantage to the new round-robin schedule is an annual test against against the Sooners and Longhorns. We will be able to measure our progress (or lack thereof) pretty easily.

Peter

Memories

Why did only 43K come to the Utah game? Because Cyclone fans have long, long memories.

Considering the number of times we've collectively had our spirits crushed in just the last 10 years, I'm surprised more than friends and family bother going. 43K for a sure loss is a ticket-selling miracle.

To look at it another way, the Hard Core Base has grown 20% in the last 10 years. Remarkable.

It's going to take several years of consistent winning to get the casual fan to buy in.

And to all you dorks with a stadium seating fetish, the last thing ISU needs is 15K more lousy seats. Don't bowl the south end until tickets are hard to get.

On the comparisons to what happens in Iowa City: with three times the fan base, why did it take this long to sell out a season? Why do so few SUI fans go to games? If SUI fan bought tickets at the same rate as ISU fan, Kinnick would seat 100K+.

Winning football will fix this. Not getting blown out is a good first step.

Peter

The Gap

Utah illustrated the gap between a team that can win some games and a
team that can win a National Championship.

ISU is OK as long as they stay away from the Top 10.

Peter

Surprises

I probably can't add much to ISU's shocking win over Tech other than I'm still dazed by the WTF feeling of that night. It was all so unexpected.

We should all be thankful that Tech spent most of the first half trying to exploit something in ISU's run defense that wasn't there. Tech's offense never got on track until they went back to the pass-first offense they are all most comfortable with.

The stunning part of the win was that everything seemed to come together all at once. The offense clicked. The defense tackled and got stops when they needed them. Most of the crazy plays broke ISU's way.

(Trivia: the last time I saw an onside kick returned for a TD was in Ames in 1990. OU pulled the trick.)

Nothing sells tickets like winning. Hopefully the fellas can deliver the same kind of performance against the Utes.

Peter

Celebrate

Cyclone fans, celebrate tonight's win over UNI. Given how bad the offense has become, it may be the last for the year.

The MO is this: Blitz every play. Our QB's won't make you pay.

We can't develop fresh linemen fast enough.

Random trivia- ISU has had 3 shutouts in their last 10 seasons. Two were against UNI. The other was Baylor, back in '01.

Not that they need it, but Tech had the week off to prepare. Super.

Peter