http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/previe...van&id=2556793
Someone else already posted a link to this article in another thread, but I thought I would start a new thread about this.
Obviously, we have not earned the respect that we should have by now. A win against either KU or MU in the past 2 years would have changed that.
I think the reason we aren't mentioned is they want to put a spin on the weakness of the North... and listed the bottom 4 teams... and gave the top team, Nebraska (in their opinion) reference only to point out that they aren't as good as some of hte south teams.
How can you blame the national media for not mentioning us?
You can spin how good ISU will be two ways...
Great passing offense, reciever playmakers with a solid qb. Defense that is fast and athletic.
OR
Weak running game, injury prone RBs, Oline that gave up a lot of sacks and was less than dominating, injury to Jon Davis. Defense that lost Leaders, Berryman, Cephus, Robertson, Dobbins, Hicks, Moser, Paris.... as well as Taylor, Smith now. Kicking game that has new punter, and a decent kicker at best.
I would say the latter is probably why we aren't getting too much preseason pub right now.
I personally think it will be interesting to see how we line up this year... especially along BOTH lines. I am optimistic, but a realist and can not help but to think that our defense will get worked at times.
I'm a little confused toneloc. The entire article was TRASHING the Big 12 North and you are upset that it doesn't mention ISU? Did you actually read the article or just see "Big 12 North" and did a quick search for the words "Iowa" and "State"?
While I am not embarassed to be associated with the Big 12 North, I would be embarassed to be associated with that article. In order to stay in context with this article AND mention ISU, the writer would have to mention our lack of performance in the last 2 years and our lack of competitiveness since the big 12 began. Nothing good about the big 12 north is mentioned, therefore it can be assumed that nothing good would be mentioned about ISU had we been included. Look at our season results the last times we played the golden children of the south (Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas Tech). We don't exactly have the best track record against these teams.
You want us to contact the writer and complain that he didn't mention ISU in his Big 12 North bash? Ummm....no thanks.
I agree iowast8fan... that's basically what I was trying to get across in my post as well...
What I wrote before was just my quick reaction to reading the article and being left out again. Of course it probably wouldn't have been pretty if we had been mentioned. So lets leave Ivan alone for now.
Its hard to argue with what the article has to say, and I think its an important issue that needs some discussion. I don't think that the situation is hopeless. If teams in the North can win some games and have some consistent success nationally, we can convince some of those recruits to come to school up here.
Things like going down in front of the "12th Man" and kicking some serious a** last year are exactly what I'm talking about. Wins like that will help us steal some more of those Texas kids.
I just tried to go back and edit my original post in this thead and accidently deleted it.
I just wanted to take Ivan Maisel's e-mail address out in order to retract my call for e-mailing him. We can save our complaints for another day, although I do still resent not being mentioned.