With debate raging over Boise State's schedule and merits of playing in the BCS championship game, it's worth revisiting Perlman's statement. Would the Broncos -- or TCU or Utah, for that matter -- really prove that much more by playing Nebraska's 2010 schedule?
So far, No. 3 Boise State has beaten two ranked foes (Virginia Tech and Oregon State). If No. 25 Nevada continues its torrid play over the next two months, the Broncos could well face a third ranked team on Nov. 26. Meanwhile, the sixth-ranked Huskers could feasibly end up playing ... none.
Having opened the season with wins over heavyweights Western Kentucky (0-4), Idaho (2-2), Washington (1-2) and FCS member South Dakota State, the Huskers open Big 12 play next Thursday at 4-0 Kansas State, which is currently listed among the "others receiving votes" in both major polls. Nebraska's marquee game figured to come the following week against Texas, but the Longhorns' disastrous 34-12 loss to UCLA last week may have ruined that possibility. Texas plummeted from seventh to 21st in the AP poll, and it's fair to assume the 'Horns will drop out completely if they fall to No. 8 Oklahoma this weekend.
Scheduling
Head-to-Head CollegeBCS.com ratings in parentheses.
Nebraska
W. Kentucky (116)
Idaho (86)
Washington (75)
S. Dakota State (N/A)
Kansas St. (26)
Texas (15)
Oklahoma St. (25)
Missouri (21)
Iowa St. (55)
Kansas (72)
Texas A&M (34)
Colorado (50)
Average rating: 58*
Boise State
Va. Tech (35)
Wyoming (85)
Oregon St. (36)
New Mexico St. (117)
Toledo (48)
San Jose St. (89)
La. Tech (98)
Hawaii (73)
Idaho (86)
Fresno St. (49)
Nevada (24)
Utah St. (105)
Average ranking: 70.4
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Friday, October 1, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
South Dakota State Blog Post of the Week
By Matt Zimmer
I really dislike the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
I always have. It was sort of a rite of passage in my family, to root against the Huskers on Saturdays, but then a friend of the family started taking us to games and certain people in the family were converted.
I was not.
I didn't like the boring red jerseys, and the even boringer white helmets with the tiny 'N' on the side.
I didn't like Tom Osborne. It's nothing personal, I just have a general disdain for sacred cows. It's fairly certain that by saying I dislike Tom Osborne, I'll get some hate mail from conservative folks who will equate such a statement to Godlessness or a general evil, but the fact is, I just think it's silly that the guy is treated like royalty in that state and among followers of the team. He's just a football coach. A football coach who recruited Lawrence Phillips. And Jason Peter. And Mark Vedral. And Shevin Wiggins.
It's not Osborne I dislike, really, it's the idea that he is unimpeachable that I dislike.
I dislike the way the Huskers play football. They are, and always have been, a boring football team, running a boring offense that is more similar to what you would see in high school football than what you'd see in the NFL.
They won with it in the 80s and 90s, but Osborne wisely got out when the speed and athleticism of the SEC got to the point that you could no longer win a national championship by running the I-formation behind a big offensive line. The Huskers didn't begin fading as a program because of Osborne's retirement, the rest of the nation simply passed them by.
Bill Callahan was a failure as the Huskers coach, and most of his ideas were, in hindsight, terrible, but I do think he was onto something in trying to drag the Nebraska offense into the 21st century. He just wasn't a good enough coach to do that succesfully.
I dislike the whole "blackshirts" thing. It's stupid. It's just a nickname for their defense. Whether it's good or bad. Guess what? Every team that plays football has a defense. You should have to do something special to have a nickname (at least, something more special than wear black shirts in practice). It would be one thing if they played some unique style of defense, or were known for inventing some kind of widely-used scheme, but nope, it's just another name for their defense. Their plain-old, regular-ass defense.
If you're a Husker fan reading this and you're getting ornery, think of it this way: It'd be pretty damn annoying if every other football team went around calling their defense the yellowshirts, or whiteshirts, or purpleshirts, or whatever, wouldn't it? There is nothing anymore special about the Husker defense than anyone else's, so the nickname is freakin' dumb.
The reason the Huskers (and their fans) are so annoying, is because it's the only team in the entire state.
Nebraska has no major pro sports teams, and, because it's - depending on where you are in the state - roughly the same distance away from Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Denver, there is no consensus team or teams that they adopt, in the way that the Dakotas - at least on the east side of the states, have largely adopted the Twins and to a lesser extent, the Vikings.
The University of Nebraska is the only Division I school in the state and it always has been. Nebraska-Omaha, Nebraska-Kearney, Wayne State and the numerous private schools in the GPAC, have their share of fans, but because they're at a lower level, their fans are ALSO Husker fans.
This means that the Nebraska football team is, to put it somewhat crudely but not incorrectly, the one and only team for the people of the state.
And to an outsider, that is annoying. I'm not saying it's wrong - it isn't. I'm generally of the opinion that if you are a true sports fan, you root for the team that is your default home team. If you don't, you'd better have a really good reason.
But when you get that many like-minded people together, all agreeing on the fact that the country would be a better place if Tom Osborne were president, and all (giggle) saying with a serious face that this year's team is going to win a national championship, all while wearing ugly red shirts that are two sizes too small, well, it's enough to make you really want them to fail.
More Hate continued in the comments section....
I really dislike the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
I always have. It was sort of a rite of passage in my family, to root against the Huskers on Saturdays, but then a friend of the family started taking us to games and certain people in the family were converted.
I was not.
I didn't like the boring red jerseys, and the even boringer white helmets with the tiny 'N' on the side.
I didn't like Tom Osborne. It's nothing personal, I just have a general disdain for sacred cows. It's fairly certain that by saying I dislike Tom Osborne, I'll get some hate mail from conservative folks who will equate such a statement to Godlessness or a general evil, but the fact is, I just think it's silly that the guy is treated like royalty in that state and among followers of the team. He's just a football coach. A football coach who recruited Lawrence Phillips. And Jason Peter. And Mark Vedral. And Shevin Wiggins.
It's not Osborne I dislike, really, it's the idea that he is unimpeachable that I dislike.
I dislike the way the Huskers play football. They are, and always have been, a boring football team, running a boring offense that is more similar to what you would see in high school football than what you'd see in the NFL.
They won with it in the 80s and 90s, but Osborne wisely got out when the speed and athleticism of the SEC got to the point that you could no longer win a national championship by running the I-formation behind a big offensive line. The Huskers didn't begin fading as a program because of Osborne's retirement, the rest of the nation simply passed them by.
Bill Callahan was a failure as the Huskers coach, and most of his ideas were, in hindsight, terrible, but I do think he was onto something in trying to drag the Nebraska offense into the 21st century. He just wasn't a good enough coach to do that succesfully.
I dislike the whole "blackshirts" thing. It's stupid. It's just a nickname for their defense. Whether it's good or bad. Guess what? Every team that plays football has a defense. You should have to do something special to have a nickname (at least, something more special than wear black shirts in practice). It would be one thing if they played some unique style of defense, or were known for inventing some kind of widely-used scheme, but nope, it's just another name for their defense. Their plain-old, regular-ass defense.
If you're a Husker fan reading this and you're getting ornery, think of it this way: It'd be pretty damn annoying if every other football team went around calling their defense the yellowshirts, or whiteshirts, or purpleshirts, or whatever, wouldn't it? There is nothing anymore special about the Husker defense than anyone else's, so the nickname is freakin' dumb.
The reason the Huskers (and their fans) are so annoying, is because it's the only team in the entire state.
Nebraska has no major pro sports teams, and, because it's - depending on where you are in the state - roughly the same distance away from Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Denver, there is no consensus team or teams that they adopt, in the way that the Dakotas - at least on the east side of the states, have largely adopted the Twins and to a lesser extent, the Vikings.
The University of Nebraska is the only Division I school in the state and it always has been. Nebraska-Omaha, Nebraska-Kearney, Wayne State and the numerous private schools in the GPAC, have their share of fans, but because they're at a lower level, their fans are ALSO Husker fans.
This means that the Nebraska football team is, to put it somewhat crudely but not incorrectly, the one and only team for the people of the state.
And to an outsider, that is annoying. I'm not saying it's wrong - it isn't. I'm generally of the opinion that if you are a true sports fan, you root for the team that is your default home team. If you don't, you'd better have a really good reason.
But when you get that many like-minded people together, all agreeing on the fact that the country would be a better place if Tom Osborne were president, and all (giggle) saying with a serious face that this year's team is going to win a national championship, all while wearing ugly red shirts that are two sizes too small, well, it's enough to make you really want them to fail.
More Hate continued in the comments section....
Monday, September 27, 2010
New Mexico to Fire Coach and Hire Mike Leach
A former executive producer of University of New Mexico Lobo TV sports programming and long-time news producer for KRQE-TV in Albuquerque reported yesterday on his Facebook page that UNM will fire football coach Mike Locksley and hire Mike Leach as Locksley’s replacement after the Lobos play in-state rival New Mexico State on Oct. 9
New Mexico’s football radio broadcast flagship KOB-AM reportedly then picked up the Facebook entry from Gerges Scott, who is now a crisis communications consultant. KOB-FM subsequently mentioned its sister station’s report about the Locksley’s firing on its Twitter page:
“Rumors coming from our sister station 770 KKOB that UNM Lobos football coach Mike Locksley will be fired after the game at NMSU on October 9th, and replaced with ANOTHER controversial coach!”
Click on Comments for entire story...
New Mexico’s football radio broadcast flagship KOB-AM reportedly then picked up the Facebook entry from Gerges Scott, who is now a crisis communications consultant. KOB-FM subsequently mentioned its sister station’s report about the Locksley’s firing on its Twitter page:
“Rumors coming from our sister station 770 KKOB that UNM Lobos football coach Mike Locksley will be fired after the game at NMSU on October 9th, and replaced with ANOTHER controversial coach!”
Click on Comments for entire story...
Going for 2
USC football coach Lane Kiffin has quietly employed an extra point strategy this season that is, in college football’s modern era, unprecedented.
Despite have a healthy, competent placekicker, Kiffin has attempted two-point conversions on half of the USC’s 14 touchdowns so far this season. The pattern of those attempts has been indiscriminate, as Kiffin leaves the decision up to backup quarterback Mitch Mustain. Mustain’s job is to read the defense before the conversion play and if he thinks the opposing formation is conducive for a two-point try, the Trojans attempt it.
So far the result has been a miserable success rate, with the Trojans converting on just two of those seven tries.
Click on Comments to read the rest of the story...
Despite have a healthy, competent placekicker, Kiffin has attempted two-point conversions on half of the USC’s 14 touchdowns so far this season. The pattern of those attempts has been indiscriminate, as Kiffin leaves the decision up to backup quarterback Mitch Mustain. Mustain’s job is to read the defense before the conversion play and if he thinks the opposing formation is conducive for a two-point try, the Trojans attempt it.
So far the result has been a miserable success rate, with the Trojans converting on just two of those seven tries.
Click on Comments to read the rest of the story...
Gill Bans Phones/Girlfriends
Turner Gill has banned players from not only using cellphones on game days, but the day before kickoff . When the team plays on a Saturday, players turn in their phones to KU coaches on Friday morning. They get them back after the game.
Also in the players’ manual is a rule that states that KU’s players cannot be with girls past 10 p.m. on any night. That means either having a girl over or being at her house.
Though Gill told the players that the rule was difficult to enforce, he explained the penalty would be more severe if a KU player was involved with an incident and it was discovered that the player had broken the policy.
Player reaction to Gill’s policies haven’t exactly been overwhelmingly positive. Veteran KU receiver Daymond Patterson said, “I think everybody was just like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it without my cell phone. I think everybody was just kind of in shock, because we hadn’t had anything like that here in the past years.”
Mark Mangino, who led an astonishing revival of the Jayhawk football program, until he was unceremoniously fired by now-ousted athletic director Lew Perkins, did not have such restrictions on players the previous eight seasons in Lawrence.
Last season Mangino actually addressed the girlfriend issue to McCollough:
“We don’t talk to players about who their girlfriend should be, what they should look like, all that. I’m telling you, our coaches aren’t sitting up here until 10:30, 11 o’ clock at night worried about our players’ girlfriends.”
Jayhawk player Lubbock Smith also noted at the time, “I don’t listen to my girlfriend when it comes to football. I listen to my coaches.”
The funny thing about Gill’s phone ban is that he has no such embargo on computers, so players can while away their time on laptops - communicating every bit as readily as they do on cellphone. Including in the locker room.
While there’s nothing wrong with Gill installing a curfew for player social activities and instituting what is largely a symbolic ban on cellphones to promote team unity, the moves might not go over too well with recruits.
And so far KU’s results on the field give no indication that policing the data plans of players is of much use.
Also in the players’ manual is a rule that states that KU’s players cannot be with girls past 10 p.m. on any night. That means either having a girl over or being at her house.
Though Gill told the players that the rule was difficult to enforce, he explained the penalty would be more severe if a KU player was involved with an incident and it was discovered that the player had broken the policy.
Player reaction to Gill’s policies haven’t exactly been overwhelmingly positive. Veteran KU receiver Daymond Patterson said, “I think everybody was just like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it without my cell phone. I think everybody was just kind of in shock, because we hadn’t had anything like that here in the past years.”
Mark Mangino, who led an astonishing revival of the Jayhawk football program, until he was unceremoniously fired by now-ousted athletic director Lew Perkins, did not have such restrictions on players the previous eight seasons in Lawrence.
Last season Mangino actually addressed the girlfriend issue to McCollough:
“We don’t talk to players about who their girlfriend should be, what they should look like, all that. I’m telling you, our coaches aren’t sitting up here until 10:30, 11 o’ clock at night worried about our players’ girlfriends.”
Jayhawk player Lubbock Smith also noted at the time, “I don’t listen to my girlfriend when it comes to football. I listen to my coaches.”
The funny thing about Gill’s phone ban is that he has no such embargo on computers, so players can while away their time on laptops - communicating every bit as readily as they do on cellphone. Including in the locker room.
While there’s nothing wrong with Gill installing a curfew for player social activities and instituting what is largely a symbolic ban on cellphones to promote team unity, the moves might not go over too well with recruits.
And so far KU’s results on the field give no indication that policing the data plans of players is of much use.
Even God Hates KSU
Dark, swirling clouds seemed to envelop Kansas State's stadium during a delay of almost 1 1/2 hours in Saturday's game against Central Florida.
The game was stopped early in the first quarter because of lightning that accompanied a storm system rapidly bearing down on the area.
For the next 20 minutes or so, fans watched the strange-looking clouds roll in from the northwest.
On the horizon, they seemed almost to touch the ground. When they reached the stadium, they were dark and angry-looking. They seemed to be boiling in the sky like a dark liquid bubbling in a pot. The rotation suggested the formation of funnel clouds.
Finally, heavy rain began. By the time play was resumed after a delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes, officials said more than half an inch of rain had fallen.
The game was stopped early in the first quarter because of lightning that accompanied a storm system rapidly bearing down on the area.
For the next 20 minutes or so, fans watched the strange-looking clouds roll in from the northwest.
On the horizon, they seemed almost to touch the ground. When they reached the stadium, they were dark and angry-looking. They seemed to be boiling in the sky like a dark liquid bubbling in a pot. The rotation suggested the formation of funnel clouds.
Finally, heavy rain began. By the time play was resumed after a delay of 1 hour, 26 minutes, officials said more than half an inch of rain had fallen.
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