ESPNU Big 12 Preview

[Cycsk]

Watching the ESPNU Big 12 Preview. 15 minutes in and no reference to us yet. Closest was saying that Oklahoma State came within a hair of the national championship.

Typical emphasis on Texas and Oklahoma at the start of the program. Even a few down years doesn't move the attention away from Texas. I can't wait until we put some good years together and earn this sort of attention for our program, not just signature wins.

 

[Cycsk]

Showed a ton of plays from Oklahoma State's win over Stanford in the bowl game. This time, they added a reference to the loss to Iowa State that kept them from playing for the national championship. One guy corrected the other when he said they had a "bend but not break" defense. He said they did have a snap last year . . . us!

 

[megamanxzero35]

They didn't talk much about Tech and KU either from what I remember. Hard to really talk a bunch about us 3 schools when we have been at the bottom of the conference the last 3 years.

 

[Cycsk]

They made a big deal about West Virginia's Geno Smith being a Heisman candidate. Gives us another opportunity to wreck someone's Heisman hopes in our last home game!

Yes, Arbuckle mentioned how risky their last game against us will be.

 

[Cycsk]

Should be called a "rearview" not a preview about this year for Baylor. They just kept talking about the loss of RGIII and Kendall Wright.

Surprised how little they talked about Kansas State after a 10 win season. Again, more a "rearview" about last year than preview of this year.

 

[Cycsk]

They acknowledge our defense with linebackers who are some of the best in the conference or even the country, but don't even mention a single player by name. They practically admit that they won't give us attention until we establish ourselves as an elite member of the conference. Duh. We know we aren't an elite team. So preview the season for us.

Maybe I'm just a "hurt little brother," but it was almost like they really wished we hadn't beaten Oklahoma State because the Big 12 would have gotten so much national championship attention.

 

[Cycsk]

Nice to hear Arbuckle mention our linebackers during his discussion of the best defensive players. I don't think he mentioned anyone else other than Jeffcoat from Texas who he picked as best.

 

[Cycsk]

They give lots of wins to the traditionally strong teams. I wish they had to give predictions of the number of games won by each team. I suspect that their predictions would be impossible because they have the top teams winning so much, but some of them have to lose to each other. A show like this gets really meaningful when they honor the fact that all these good teams have to play each other.

 

[CLONECONES]

Ubben article: Projecting every Big 12 team's 2012 record - Dallas Colleges Blog - ESPN Dallas


9. Iowa State: 4-8 (2-7): Iowa State might spring an upset to get to 5-7, but I don't see Iowa State knocking off Iowa in Iowa City, and even Tulsa in the season opener is far from a gimme. The Cyclones are underdogs at home, too. I wouldn't be shocked to see the Cyclones spring another bowl appearance on us, but I don't see six wins. ISU is good enough to win six, but not good enough for me to pick them to win six, if that makes sense.

10. Kansas: 3-9 (0-9): KU will be more competitive this year, and I feel similar to the Jayhawks as I do with Iowa State in some ways.

 

[mt85]

I predict the prognosticators are vastly underestimating Iowa State's defense. The defense is going to keep Iowa State in a position to win most of their games.

I also believe ISU will vastly improve the turnover story compared to last years team. The offense will do a much better job of protecting the ball and the defense will get more take aways then last season. Last season ISU finished 112th out of 120 in turnover margin. I predict this years team will finish with a positive turnover margin.

 

[jdoggivjc]

I guess the thing that gets me is with everyone in the media saying we have no shot at winning in Iowa City. Does Iowa even have a running back left on the roster that is not injured and out for the season?

Perhaps we won't win, but the media makes it sound like this is going to be one of Iowa's worst teams in quite some time, while ISU, on the other hand, is actually a somewhat decent team that has the misfortunes of playing an outright meat grinder of a schedule. And yet somehow we still have no chance of winning in Iowa City?

 

[vortex]

The Cyclones need to put together two or three consecutive years of 8 win seasons before they get much mention on a national scale. There are a bunch of teams out there that win 5-6 games a year. In all honesty most football fans outside of the B12 know very little about ISU, most couldn't name the head coach if you asked them. It's hard to change a lot of these factors, that's the big challenge for teams like the Cyclones.

 

[usedcarguy]

Watching the ESPNU Big 12 Preview. 15 minutes in and no reference to us yet. Closest was saying that Oklahoma State came within a hair of the national championship.

Typical emphasis on Texas and Oklahoma at the start of the program. Even a few down years doesn't move the attention away from Texas. I can't wait until we put some good years together and earn this sort of attention for our program, not just signature wins.

For heaven's sake, it's a conference preview show. I get the getting snuffed during the season, but TRUE football junkies would like an equal look at each team in each conference. It's not a "Top of the Conference" preview show or "Top Teams in Top Markets with a National Following Show." A preview show should cover ALL equally. It's not like there's enough news to cover the 24/7 programming cycle anyway. They're going to run this program about 175 times. It would be great to have an indepth look at what Charlie is doing at KU, or how Briles plans to work with a significantly emptier shelf. It would make for a much better quality of programming. And since the TV money is getting spread equally, it's certainly in ESPN's interest to build the image of the lesser knowns to enhance the quality of the product which in this case would be the conference. More story lines in the conference NEVER hurts....

 

[usedcarguy]

I don't see the league going that way at all. What I see is MUCH more parity, with the exception of KU. I really doubt they're going to go 0-fer in the conference. I see them winning one or two. I could also easily see three losses getting you a share of the conference title this year. OU turned mediocre last year in absence of two quality superstars. Texas turned that way by lacking a good QB. We'll see how TCU holds up playing a season of more physical teams.

For us, IMO it all is going to come down to QB play. If anybody remembers that 10 win KU team, that was the most significant key. They also had a solid defense. It could also happen here.

The only place we're thin is our DE's. We have three very capable players, which is certainly enough...as long as none of them get hurt. If we can average another 10 points per game, we'll be looking good. If we can only score 24 or so again, well...

 

[CrossCyed]

That preview seemed to have every Big 12 team disappointing. They don't seem to think much of our conference.

 

[jdoggivjc]

That preview seemed to have every Big 12 team disappointing. They don't seem to think much of our conference.

It's ESPN. If it's not the SEC or the Big 10, they don't care.

 

[Cycsk]

For heaven's sake, it's a conference preview show. I get the getting snuffed during the season, but TRUE football junkies would like an equal look at each team in each conference. It's not a "Top of the Conference" preview show or "Top Teams in Top Markets with a National Following Show." A preview show should cover ALL equally. It's not like there's enough news to cover the 24/7 programming cycle anyway. They're going to run this program about 175 times. It would be great to have an indepth look at what Charlie is doing at KU, or how Briles plans to work with a significantly emptier shelf. It would make for a much better quality of programming. And since the TV money is getting spread equally, it's certainly in ESPN's interest to build the image of the lesser knowns to enhance the quality of the product which in this case would be the conference. More story lines in the conference NEVER hurts....

Yes, silly me, I actually expected them to preview the teams in the Big 12. It was much more about the Big 12 as a conference unit rather than truly focusing on a preview of the teams. Seemed like they also spent way too much time talking about last year.

 

[Cyclonepride]

I predict the prognosticators are vastly underestimating Iowa State's defense. The defense is going to keep Iowa State in a position to win most of their games.

I also believe ISU will vastly improve the turnover story compared to last years team. The offense will do a much better job of protecting the ball and the defense will get more take aways then last season. Last season ISU finished 112th out of 120 in turnover margin. I predict this years team will finish with a positive turnover margin.

If our defense can perform like last year's, and the offense steps it up, there is a real chance that this team can exceed even our expectations.

 

[bosco]

They acknowledge our defense with linebackers who are some of the best in the conference or even the country, but don't even mention a single player by name. They practically admit that they won't give us attention until we establish ourselves as an elite member of the conference. Duh. We know we aren't an elite team. So preview the season for us.
Maybe I'm just a "hurt little brother," but it was almost like they really wished we hadn't
beaten Oklahoma State because the Big 12 would have gotten so much national championship attention.

That makes the win all the sweeter. It ruins the talking heads neat little picture of how they think the college landscape should turn out. I could care less what these brainless zombies think about ISU good or bad. Screw the establishment, I hope ISU makes it all burn again.

 

[BryceC]

Fsn has a great weekly big 12 show that I think starts this week. Check it out sometime.