I know a lot of folks around here are worried about this game and most think it will be a close, hard fought affair. Brommelcamp waffled on his "Iowa will go 12-0 if they can beat Indiana" prediction and is now picking the Huskers. I'll wager others in our camp will too. And it's understandable. No question Nebraska has some horses and seems to be putting it together a little bit, although I think that might also be a little fool's gold. A game they should have lost to Michigan State and a win over Rutgers? But really, all of that doesn't matter. That's all focusing on the wrong colors.
This game is going to be about Black and Gold, not Big Red and Blackshirts.
With Iowa's win over Purdue last week, I believe that so much was taken off the table for this game, and placed away behind lock and key, that it really takes the pressure off this team and will allow them to play fast and loose with reckless abandon. If there was ever a game to NOT play "not to lose," this is it. We've locked in a meeting with the east division winner next Saturday, whoever that might be. Nothing that happens tomorrow will change that. We have locked in our opportunity to win an outright Big Ten Championship and the opportunity to take it away from us is beyond Nebraska's reach. We might not even need this one to win a national championship - although I would plan as if it's Game 1 of the playoffs. But there is very little risk associated with this game.
This game is all about reward. It's time to showcase what Kirk 2.0 really is all about.
Tomorrow's game is the first opportunity, that's been earned by all the blood, sweat and tears of the first 12 weeks of the season. An opportunity, not to be squandered, but to be punctiliously, and aggressively assailed. To be executed with precision, courage and dedication to the guy next to you. It's what it means to fight, fight, fight for Iowa. And it's an opportunity to silence critics for one more week.
Tomorrow's game is about pride. It's about bragging rights. It's about recruiting, making history and achieving genuine and unadulterated greatness. It's about joining the select ranks of the unbeatens - an undefeated regular season. A sweep of trophy-games. It's about a lot of the glorious minutia that Kirk Ferentz tells the kids to put out of their minds and ignore and go play the game. It's the first part of why you play the games in the first place.
In 1982 the Hawks were coming off one of the better seasons in Iowa Football history. In early September of that year, they went into Memorial Stadium with what would eventually be an 8-4, 3rd place in the Big Ten and Peach Bowl champion team. They went in there to play another #3 ranked team in the country, just like Iowa is ranked #3 right now. They went in to play a game with a team full of great players that had yet to fully make names for themselves. Names like Turner Gill, Irving Fryer, Mike Rozier, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, Jeff Smith and Dave Riminington - some already familiar names, some that would eventually become iconic. In that game, the Hawks were systematically and efficiently dismantled by one of the truly great football teams in the last quarter century. They were helpless in the face of the onslaught and as a young boy, I remember feeling complete and utter awe at just how much disparity there was between goodness and greatness.
Tomorrow, that script flips and it's OUR turn to show Nebraska fans the difference between a good, if underachieving team, and a genuinely great one. It's an opportunity for a bunch of names that nobody knows to make a mark that will be remembered for decades.
Tomorrow's game is where you put your foot on the gas and you never let up.
It's time to kick Nebraska's ass and I've got the Hawks in this one.
This game is going to be about Black and Gold, not Big Red and Blackshirts.
With Iowa's win over Purdue last week, I believe that so much was taken off the table for this game, and placed away behind lock and key, that it really takes the pressure off this team and will allow them to play fast and loose with reckless abandon. If there was ever a game to NOT play "not to lose," this is it. We've locked in a meeting with the east division winner next Saturday, whoever that might be. Nothing that happens tomorrow will change that. We have locked in our opportunity to win an outright Big Ten Championship and the opportunity to take it away from us is beyond Nebraska's reach. We might not even need this one to win a national championship - although I would plan as if it's Game 1 of the playoffs. But there is very little risk associated with this game.
This game is all about reward. It's time to showcase what Kirk 2.0 really is all about.
Tomorrow's game is the first opportunity, that's been earned by all the blood, sweat and tears of the first 12 weeks of the season. An opportunity, not to be squandered, but to be punctiliously, and aggressively assailed. To be executed with precision, courage and dedication to the guy next to you. It's what it means to fight, fight, fight for Iowa. And it's an opportunity to silence critics for one more week.
Tomorrow's game is about pride. It's about bragging rights. It's about recruiting, making history and achieving genuine and unadulterated greatness. It's about joining the select ranks of the unbeatens - an undefeated regular season. A sweep of trophy-games. It's about a lot of the glorious minutia that Kirk Ferentz tells the kids to put out of their minds and ignore and go play the game. It's the first part of why you play the games in the first place.
In 1982 the Hawks were coming off one of the better seasons in Iowa Football history. In early September of that year, they went into Memorial Stadium with what would eventually be an 8-4, 3rd place in the Big Ten and Peach Bowl champion team. They went in there to play another #3 ranked team in the country, just like Iowa is ranked #3 right now. They went in to play a game with a team full of great players that had yet to fully make names for themselves. Names like Turner Gill, Irving Fryer, Mike Rozier, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman, Jeff Smith and Dave Riminington - some already familiar names, some that would eventually become iconic. In that game, the Hawks were systematically and efficiently dismantled by one of the truly great football teams in the last quarter century. They were helpless in the face of the onslaught and as a young boy, I remember feeling complete and utter awe at just how much disparity there was between goodness and greatness.
Tomorrow, that script flips and it's OUR turn to show Nebraska fans the difference between a good, if underachieving team, and a genuinely great one. It's an opportunity for a bunch of names that nobody knows to make a mark that will be remembered for decades.
Tomorrow's game is where you put your foot on the gas and you never let up.
It's time to kick Nebraska's ass and I've got the Hawks in this one.
