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So, you rooting for Virginia Tech tonight?
Or, more to the point, rooting against Boise State?
It's understandable. This isn't college hoops, where Butler is celebrated and adopted by a nation of underdog lovers. College football is an elitist sport. We love our brand names.
The difference, too, is that an NCAA tourney underdog typically must go through a gauntlet of big-time conference teams when it makes a magical tourney run. If Boise wins tonight, it could ride a weak WAC schedule — plus Oregon State at home — to a spot in the BCS title game. Nobody outside the state of Idaho wants to see that.
No, it's not fair because Boise can't play a tough 12-game schedule. That's life for the underdog in college football. By the way, are the third- and fifth-ranked Broncos the underdog tonight?
• I had a lot of e-mail interest from Nebraska fans last week inquiring whether or not NU could keep its Friday-after-Thanksgiving spot when the Iowa series commences. Good question. Good idea, too.
Scott Chipman of the Big Ten office says Commissioner Jim Delany hasn't addressed the issue — or had reason to, probably.
Would the Hawkeyes agree to move the game up one day? Maybe. Nebraskans always liked that Friday slot because it meant national TV and it was a throwback to the Oklahoma series, which was played on Thanksgiving Day or “Black Friday.'' Big Ten games that weekend will all be on national TV. But Friday would give UI-NU a stage to themselves, ahead of Ohio State-Michigan and Wisconsin-Penn State.
• Remember this when picking apart the Blackshirts' performance: Bo Pelini's teams have always improved by late November. This defense will, too.
Linebacker Lavonte David showed effort and a nose for the ball — that can't be taught. He and Alonzo Whaley will figure out the rest.
Of bigger issue was the push up the middle. It was hard to find. It's also hard to know how spoiled we are by Ndamukong Suh last year. We'll find out in a couple of weeks. We'll find a lot of things out in a couple of weeks.
• Nice job by Husker fans giving Zac Lee a lot of love when the senior entered the game for mop-up duty. I thought that would be very awkward. The Red Sea made it a lot less awkward.
• Turner Gill just made his job that much harder. Dan Hawkins still hasn't recovered from losing to a Division I-AA team in his Colorado debut.
Kansas fans love their hoops, sure, but they've been spoiled by Mark Mangino and you wonder what he's thinking right now.
Gill probably outsmarted himself. Gill moved KU's top running back, Toben Opurum, to linebacker in fall camp. As Lawrence Journal-World columnist Tom Keegan wrote, “Opurum carries the ball 30 times Saturday night and KU scores at least two touchdowns.''
It's one game, as Gill said, but the next 11 don't get any easier.
• Looks like the Omaha Nighthawks have their first promotion to the NFL: ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports that Nighthawks offensive line coach Pat Ruel will replace the legendary Alex Gibbs in Seattle, reuniting Ruel with his former USC boss Pete Carroll.
• What do you think, Matt Leinart to the Nighthawks? Probably won't happen. At least now Eric Crouch will lose the silly title of biggest Heisman bust, a title he never should have had — Crouch was never projected to be an NFL quarterback. Former Ohio State Heisman winner Troy Smith was cut on Saturday, too.
• Colorado, Missouri, Kansas State and Iowa State looked good, not great, in their opening wins. The Big 12 North will be nobody's cakewalk. But you wonder how good any of those defenses really are, too. KSU's Daniel Thomas looks every bit the best back in the Big 12. Maybe the country, too.
• If UNK keeps beating up on UNO, the MIAA might not let the Lopers in.
Contact the writer:
444-1025, tom.shatel@owh.com
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