[Note - I was tempted to make the headline “NU Leads The Big Ten West” because technically, Northwestern won “The Battle for NU”. I couldn’t do it.]

We are two thirds the way through college football season and once again nearly nothing is what we thought it would be when the 2018 season started. The idea that Nebraska would have a losing streak and start out with the worst season in its history is easily the biggest shock of the season in the Big Ten conference.

Right now the Northwestern Wildcats lead the Big Ten West. They are at 5 – 1 in conference, ahead of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Purdue, who are all tied at 3 – 2. Wisconsin was the clear-cut leader to win the Big Ten West before the season began. It wasn’t even close. Even most optimistic Husker fans had to know they were lying to themselves when they hoped Nebraska could win the West this season.

Iowa’s biggest win right now is Iowa State. Wisconsin’s big win is... Iowa? At least Northwestern has knocked off two ranked teams; Michigan State and Wisconsin.

Northwestern gets an out of conference game this weekend against #3 Notre Dame. After that, it’s Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. What a potential mess for the Big Ten.

Michigan sits atop the Big Ten East at 5 – 0. Everyone wrote them off at the beginning of the season when they lost to Notre Dame. Ohio State looked like world beaters the beginning of the season and now look vulnerable – very vulnerable – after getting smoked by Purdue. The Wolverines to Penn State this weekend, then play Rutgers and Indiana before the big game against the Buckeyes.

Michigan remains the

November should be an amazing month as always.

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Mrs. CN and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary Sunday. If congratulations are in order, they could be for her for having this much patience. For me, well, I married way above my station and I think that’s a helluva accomplishment.

We went shopping, we went out to dinner and then we went to a movie, First Man. Ryan Gosling stars as Neil Armstrong - the movie is about Armstrong and the trip to the moon.

The movie was excellent. I might be biased. The moon landing happened when I was seven years old. I want to say that I remember watching it on live television, but it may be that I’ve seen that sequence of Armstrong stepping off the lunar lander so many times that I have convinced myself I watched it live. I was enthralled by the idea of going into space when I was a child. Astronauts were real life superheroes.

I built models of the Saturn V rocket. In fourth or fifth grade, I took my models and did a presentation in front of my class describing how the model the rockets would separate and explained the entire process of going to the moon.

I’m not sure why I had such a fascination with flight from a very early age. You’ve got your “train guys”, your “car guys”, and then you’ve got your “plane guys”. The car guys were probably the most realistic and down-to-earth of all of us. The plane guys were just the opposite. I’m sure if we did a Venn diagram of all these “guys”, that there wouldn’t be a lot of overlap. As everyone got older, both had extremes who were insane enough to not care much about getting killed if only they could experience the limits of their machines.

“First Man” did an excellent job of creating tension. It used silence better than any movie I can recall.

There were not a lot of people in the theatre we attended, and someone left their cell phone on. We hear their texts chime as the movie is going on, including one that comes one second after the theatre asks everyone to turn their phones off. This always amazes me - that people are that rude, or that addicted. There is a switch on your phone to put it in silent mode. Life will go on whether you’re sitting in a theatre or not, and if your texts or calls are so damned important, maybe don’t go to a movie, okay, asshole?

“First Man” gave you a realistic depiction of what it might’ve been like to be in the Apollo space capsule as it launched and the journey to the moon. Claustrophobic. Incredibly tense. The men that did it, and those that were earlier test pilots had to be the most incredibly resilient humans that you could find. How you would keep your mind your wits about you is beyond comprehension for the rest of us.

The moon landing occurred in 1969. We’re just a few months away from 2019 - 50 years have passed. Technology has changed a lot, obviously, but otherwise, we’re still the same humans we were in 1969. “First Man” is subtle in showing that nothing has changed.

Go see it.

Unless you’re a car guy. There are other movies for you. I’m not sure what the train guys do these days.

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News

Rams’ Zac Taylor listed as favorite to be Browns’ next head coach
According to BetOnline.ag, Rams quarterbacks coach Zac Taylor is the favorite to be hired by the Browns to replace Jackson. Sean McVay, for some reason, is tied for the fourth-best odds to be hired by Cleveland. Obviously, there’s no chance McVay is going to the Browns, which makes his name shocking, to say the least.

Florida State’s NCAA record bowl streak might end FOR REAL in 2018 - SBNation.com

Florida State has played in a bowl game 36 years in a row. That’s the longest streak ever. The Seminoles passed Nebraska in 2017, long after the Huskers’ 35-in-a-row spell from 1969 to 2003 had come to a close. We know that’s a record because we have visual evidence that FSU played in all of those bowl games.

Nebraska still holds this record.

2018 bowl game eligibility: Here are your team’s odds of making it - SBNation.com

Nebraska 2% 1% 1%

We’re moving on up!

Urban Meyer says he will return in 2019, more from Monday press conference - Land-Grant Holy Land

Maybe it was a good thing that the Buckeyes had a week off following the disaster in West Lafayette.

Urbz says he’ll return. Like he was going to return to every job he’d had before Ohio State. Maybe he’ll have health issues. Who knows?

Three things to know about Notre Dame - Inside NU
A late-season non-conference matchup under the lights

Purdue Football: Bowl Chances Decrease by 12% - Hammer and Rails
We still have a really good chance of getting into a bowl game.

No. 2 Hoosiers down No. 12 Michigan State 1-0 in OT, finish B1G play undefeated - The Crimson Quarry
Justin Rennicks gives IU the win with a golden goal in the 2017 NCAA Quarterfinal rematch

8 teams that could beat Alabama - SBNation.com
The Tide are wildly good, but they’re not invincible.

LSU vs. Alabama is primetime for Baton Rouge law enforcement | SI.com
In the craziest incident he’s ever seen, Dempre was working as a plainclothes officer in LSU’s student section when he sprung into action during a crowd-surfing incident involving Mike the Tiger. “Not the real tiger,” Dempre explains, “but the cheerleader in the mascot suit.” Students passed the mascot from the field level to the top of the student section, where deputies intervened with Mike just a couple of rows from toppling 200 feet out of the stadium. “They were going to throw him off!” Dempre says. “We had to grab him.”

Then There’s This