Cornflakes is abso-tooting-lutely nuts

by JLew on Jul 24, 2009 6:00 AM CDT in Corn Flakes

Nebraska has been chosen as the favorite to win the Big 12 North Division according to the league's football preseason poll, voted on by media representatives who cover the conference.

Mike DeArnold has this to say about that pick-

The Cornhuskers have an inexperienced quarterback, lost just as much as Missouri on offense, don’t have a running back of the caliber of MU’s Derrick Washington. Shouting The Blackshirts Are Back! seems based more on t he hope that Bo Pelini is a defensive genius rather than a first-year college head coach that was simply better than Bill Callahan. Here’s one: those people picking Nebraska to win the Big 12 North are abso-tooting-lutely nuts

He gets taken to the interweb woodshed in the comments section. Double Extra Point rips this better than I ever could, and Husker Mike finishes up the retort quite nicely

You can see part of the ESPN College Football Live show here.

Last week’s exposure on ESPN’s College Football Live was a tasty appetizer for the main course, which won’t be served for another 45 days when Nebraska hosts Florida Atlantic. In the meantime, Husker fans will have to settle for reports beginning next week from Big 12 Football Media Days in Dallas and the Nebraska Football Fan Day Aug. 8 at Memorial Stadium.

The Big 12's toughest nonconference games - Big 12 - ESPN

#1 Nebraska at Virginia Tech, Sept. 19: Bo Pelini's toughest nonconference road game to date. The Hokies are ranked no lower than 14th nationally in any preseason magazine I've seen yet and will be a tremendous challenge in Blacksburg. In order to win, the Cornhuskers will have to keep Virginia Tech's defense and special teams in check and hope for a break or two.

Tim Griffin picks Nebraska - VT as the top non-con Big 12 game. He picks a number of others as well, in fact, everyone Big 12 team is mentioned except one. Guess who's a bigger pansy than Bill Snyder!!!! I hope it bites them in the long run.

Speaking of cupcakes, Kansas begins a two-year series against Georgia Tech at Lawrence in 2010, highlighting the Jayhawks’ future football schedules. And that's the only highlight.

Rivals.com College Football - Rivals.com 120 Countdown: No. 27 Nebraska

SEC fortunes strengthened by new TV deals

Mike Slive props his feet on the coffee table in his office, leans back in his chair and gets comfortable. The Southeastern Conference commissioner has several reasons to be so relaxed on a recent midsummer morning. For one, the league secured 15-year television deals with CBS and ESPN, a few months before the economy was officially declared in recession.

But don't worry I'm sure ESPN won't go and root for SEC teams, it's not like they'll be making money on them or anything...

ESPN Regional has arranged for station clearances for over-the-air broadcasts of a package of SEC games this season in Big 12 markets like Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Wichita, Kan.

...

No other conference can match the SEC's mainstream national assault -- even with the availability of the Big Ten Network on some satellite systems.

Oh that's awesome...

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Here's a question:

And I honestly don’t mean this in a confrontational way. Clearly Mike Dearmond went 18 miles too far with the rhetoric (pretty sure that was intentional and got the reaction he was going for), but at the most basic level, is he wrong?

Nebraska DID lose as much offensively as Missouri, Derrick Washington IS more proven than Roy Helu (at least in the only ways we can compare them right now—yards and TDs…clearly they’ll both be leaned on more this year than last, and who knows how either will respond), and since Nebraska gave up 1.5 points per game MORE than Missouri did versus common opponents in 2008 (all of which came after the NU-MU game, when Nebraska supposedly turned things around defensively), the hope for the defense really is still just in the “hope” stage.

Clearly Dearmond was trying to stir people up, and it worked. And while I don’t think it’s nuts for somebody to pick NU (they’re certainly one of three teams who have a chance—my stat nerd projections have NU and KU at 5-3, MU at 4-4, and I’m leaning on projections because they remove my clear pro-MU bias), the elements of what he said weren’t that far off.

Then again, I got called “arrogant” last night by a CU fan because my stats didn’t like them, so whaddo I know… :-)

Rock M Nation
Thrust nunchuk upward!

by Bill C. on Jul 24, 2009 8:48 AM CDT reply actions

I don't think

that at the most basic level he is wrong. Everybody has wishful/hopeful projections of their team heading into fall – that’s just another reason that college football is so much more fun than the NFL – you have not a clue what a 18-21 year old young man are going to do once they hit the field.

I believe Husker fans are underestimating what Swift and Peterson meant to last year’s offense as well – so are pundits. Having two receivers who can continually get open and catch the ball is worth as much as a running back that averages 5.5 ypc.

Now – having said all that….

Last season – Missouri had a coaching staff that’s been together unchanged for eight seasons. Nebraska was on their first year. This year, you made a huge number of changes – specifically to both coordinators. We have the same staff as last year.

I don’t think you can underestimate how important that it – consistency in coaching. And the reason why Husker fans are looking at our defense as potentially very good is because we realize that last year the team was still in the process of learning it AND they left a lot of potential (key word there) talent sitting on the bench being redshirted.

Obviously, nothing is proven, but I believe the North winner will finish at 5-3 this season, it’s just a matter of where those three losses come. It’s going to be a really fun season.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!
Twitter!
cornnation@gmail.com

by Jon Johnston on Jul 24, 2009 12:12 PM CDT reply actions

As a Missouri fan, I ABSOLUTELY understand the importance of consistency...

…and I’d be pretty worried if the new offensive coordinator hadn’t basically been serving as co-coordinator for the last eight years. The mindset, approach, etc., won’t change even 1%. The mindset WILL change on the defense somewhat—Steckel’s seemingly a more aggressive mind, for better or worse—but again, he’s been on this staff as long as Eberflus was. Change is scary, but this this is as little change as is humanly possible.

And yeah, I absolutely think 5-3 wins the North. No doubt.

Rock M Nation
Thrust nunchuk upward!

by Bill C. on Jul 24, 2009 4:21 PM CDT up reply actions