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Better Know An Opponent: Nebraska
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Better Know An Opponent: Nebraska

This is the fourth in an 11-part series highlighting 5 things you may not know about Mizzou’s opponents in the 2009 football season. Please keep in mind that while everything below is true, it’s meant in jest.

Part One – Illinois

Part Two – Bowling Green

Part Three -- Nevada

Today’s profile: The Nebraska Cornhuskers

(Note: again, abbreviated. Get used to the five fun fact version of Better Know. Just sayin’.)

1) Maybe it’s the searing rivalry between Missouri and Nebraska, but I guess I never realized exactly how good a school Nebraska is. I’m not joking: the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is, believe it or not, a truly outstanding school. A land-grant institution created through the Morrill Act in 1869, Nebraska was the first college west of the Mississippi River to grant a Ph. D, and was also the first Western college with a psychology lab. Heck, they even invented a subject: ecology. That’s quite a resume they’ve got working.

But for every brilliant mind, there’s some dude who goes and ruins it. Consider the newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan. In 2008, the University’s Publications Board recognized another newspaper as an affiliated publication, this one satirical. And of course, this type of incisive, witty banter has to have a killer name, right? After all, funny is their business!

The name of that newspaper? The Dailyer Nebraskan. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what is killing the print media.

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SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT! Football Outsiders Almanac on the horizon

FO has posted my Big 12 South preview from the book as a tease. Go check it out.

(And yes, there are some already-corrected errors in there. Kellen Heard is no longer with ATM, Travis Lewis was a freshman last year, etc.)

comment about 10 hours ago Rockmnation_tiny The Boy comment 0 comments 0 recs

Something very cool about seeing non-Mizzou fans make highlight videos of Mizzou players. (Via)

comment about 10 hours ago Rockmnation_tiny The Boy comment 4 comments 0 recs

Mizzou Links, 7-2-09

Dennis Dodd, you've messed up.  This is a downright sane, rational Big 12 North preview you've put together...now we know that you really can be a decent writer when you want to be...which will be all the more frustrating the next time you write an insane piece of drivel.

Gabe Dearmond's Powered Up column returns, and he brings up a pretty interesting point:

To be honest—and if Blaine is reading this I don't think it's going to be much of a surprise to him—Gabbert is the biggest reason most are predicting the Tigers to have a down year. It's not really offensive to him. He just has one problem: He's not Chase Daniel.

Now, first of all, that's kind of ironic. I mean, Chase Daniel was downgraded his entire life because he wasn't Blaine Gabbert. By that, I mean he wasn't 6-foot-5, 230 pounds with a rifle attached to his right shoulder. Now, the Tigers have that guy that you look at and think, "NFL quarterback," and he's the reason Missouri isn't supposed to be any good.

And while we're talking PowerMizzou, here are a couple of basketball recruiting links.  First, Chaminade's Bradley Beal is tiring of recruiting and would like to make a decision, but considering how he's been rumored a heavy Kansas (or maybe Florida) lean for a while, the longer he drags this out, the better it is for Mizzou's slim chances.  Beal's kinda like a big deal, having just been ranked #7 in the Rivals 2011 rankings.  Oh yeah, and for PM subscribers, be sure to check on the big-time visitor Mizzou secretly hostd this week...

The esteemed Senator Blutarsky has put together a solid set of quotes on the latest BCS hearings and rumblings...which, even though I'm all for a playoff, has gotten pretty damn tiresome knowing that not even the pro-playoff people have anybody's true best interests in mind...

Dave Matter has begun his previews of the rest of the country...first up, ACC and Conference USA.  For the record, here are my BTBS projections for those two conferences...

ACC

Atlantic

Clemson 9-3 (6-2) - Gator Bowl
Boston College 9-3 (6-2) - Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State 8-4 (6-2) - Emerald Bowl
Wake Forest 8-4 (4-4) - Music City Bowl
N.C. State 7-5 (3-5) - Meineke Car Care Bowl
Maryland 4-8 (2-6)

Coastal

Georgia Tech 10-2 (7-1) - Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech 10-2 (7-1) - Chick-Fil-A Bowl
Miami-FL 6-6 (4-4) - GMAC Bowl
North Carolina 5-7 (2-6)
Virginia 3-9 (1-7)
Duke 2-10 (0-8)

ACC Championship

Georgia Tech > Clemson

Conference USA

East

Southern Miss 10-2 (8-0) - Liberty Bowl
Marshall 7-5 (5-3) - New Orleans Bowl
Central Florida 6-6 (4-4)
East Carolina 5-7 (4-4)
Memphis 1-11 (0-8)

West

Tulsa 9-3 (7-1) - Armed Forces Bowl
UTEP 8-4 (6-2) - Hawaii Bowl
Houston 6-6 (5-3) - St. Petersburg Bowl
SMU 6-6 (4-4) - Papajohns.com Bowl
Rice 2-10 (1-7)
Tulane 2-10 (0-8)

CUSA Championship

Southern Miss > Tulsa

Finally, a hearty congrats to Mike Alden, this year's Kiwanis Don Faurot Sports Person of the Year Award winner.

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Nebraska: Beyond the Box Score Preseason Defensive Preview

Yesterday: The Offense

Before we get to the defense, an aside.

I'm in an interesting position here.  Nebraska is absolutely in the North's top tier of teams (as has been covered previously, there appears to be a rather large "proven talent" divide between KU/NU/MU and KSU/ISU/CU), and if they can win in Lawrence or Columbia (or maybe even if they can't), they can take the North.  As you'll read below, the defense should be incrementally better while the offense could be incrementally worse, and while there are few true stars (Ndamukong Suh, Roy Helu, maybe Mike McNeill or a defensive end), there is decent experience at RB, DL, and DB.  And Bo Pelini certainly acquitted himself relatively well in year #1.

As I've mentioned previously, my problem comes with expectations and with the casual nature that national-level analysts continue to just assume that Nebraska is now "back" despite little evidence to support that.  Since making the national title game in 2001, Nebraska has gone just 28-28 in conference with a point differential of -68.  As means of comparison, here are the North standings in that time frame:

Big 12 North Standings, 2002-08
Team Record Pt. Diff
Missouri 29-27 +235
Nebraska 28-28 -68
Colorado 27-29 -104
Kansas State 25-31 +189
Kansas 22-34 -297
Iowa State 15-41 -718


(Yes, that's right--ONE North team is over .500 combined in the last seven seasons--barely--and the North is, as a whole, 44 games under .500 in that span.  Granted, Iowa State is responsible for 26 of those games, but...well...Baylor and their 10-46 record still reside in the South, and the division has still managed to be 44 games over .500.  Yikes.)

Anyway, the frustration here lies in the fact that, every year we get to hear about Nebraska being "back" and Colorado being a "sleeper," and yet Missouri, who has been a smidge better than both of them over a 7-year (not just 2-year) span, is pronounced dead at the first possible moment.  Just odd.  But the good news is, as always, this is the offseason.  The real season will give us all the answers we're arguing about or getting annoyed about at the moment.

/aside

Anyhoo, time to talk defense.


Nebraska pulled off an interesting feat in 2008.  While winning six of seven games to end the season, they gave up 29.1 points per game in that span (23.7 in the wins), and yet the basis for most of their North title predictions this offseason come from how good the defense is going to be.  They gave up 35 points to Virginia Tech, who had the #79 offense in the country (according to S&P+).  They gave up 52 to Missouri and 62 to Oklahoma...37 to Texas Tech (not bad, actually)...35 to Kansas...28 to Kansas State...an egregious 31 to Colorado (S&P+ rank: 114th)...and yet the defense is going to carry them to the North title?  Never mind how disrespectful that is for Kansas (and to a lesser extent, Missouri) fans to hear...how disrespectful is that to Joe Ganz?  Nate Swift?  Roy Helu Jr.?  These were the guys who, along with Ndamukong Suh's big plays, carried the Huskers to a strong 2008 finish.

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Rock M Roundtable!

1 - It's Nebraska Week on Rock M!  When you hear the words "Nebraska Football," what is your first thought (person, year, game, whatever...)?

2 - Will NU win the North in 2009?  Tell me why or why not.

3 - Here's their schedule.  Give me an at-first-glance prediction for overall record.

9/5 - Florida Atlantic
9/12 - Arkansas State
9/19 - at Virginia Tech
9/26 - UL-Lafayette
10/8 - at Missouri
10/17 - Texas Tech
10/24 - Iowa State
10/31 - at Baylor
11/7 - Oklahoma
11/14 - at Kansas
11/21 - Kansas State
11/27 - at Colorado

4 - The NBA draft is over, and the baseball team on the western side of the state is official dead in the water (more or less).  What's going to occupy the sports part of your brain for the next two months and four days?  Baseball?  Soccer?  College football mags?

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With Custom Conferences, if you and your friends want to recreate the old Big 8 you can move schools around to get those old Big 8 schools together in the same conference and see how things would play out with today's teams.

Ben Haumiller, NCAA 10 designer for EA Sports (via). Love this feature. Mizzou fans can re-create the Big 8 and avoid any future title games...Texas fans can move their team to the ACC...everybody wins...

comment 1 day ago Rockmnation_tiny The Boy comment 7 comments 0 recs

Mizzou Links, 7-1-09

How the hell is it July already???  Not complaining, mind you...just amazed...

Talk about agonizing...it seems like Mizzou signee Keith Dewitt has been waiting for his ACT score for about 12 months now (okay, three weeks).  The Trib checks in on both how he's doing and how much longer he (and we) have to wait.

Thanks again, PowerMizzou, for the summer content.  We've got three new recruiting articles to look at--one for an old name, one for a new, and one for a Missouri DE who just became a lot more important to the class with the commitment of Matt Hoch to Iowa.

It's no longer Illinois week, but Hail to the Orange still has a pretty nice breakdown of the Illini Defensive Line...

Pretty neat opportunity for a couple of Mizzou Soccer players: seniors Meghan Pfeiffer and Crystal Wagner were invited to join the US's <23 national squad in England.

So after all of the Henry Family drama of the last couple of days, I guess this settles everything?

Finally...funny stuff from Nunes Magician...

78-0, USA? Jesus Christ, don't we have mercy rules?  It's the French, for God's sake.  They're dainty and full of pastries.  Oh, and then there's this:

America's Team racked up 610 total offensive yards against France's 7...

SWEET MOTHER!  The French team averaged 0.1 yard-per-play!  We are the worst hosts ever.

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