SB Nation User Blog: TB

If You're Looking for a Sympathetic Victim, You Could Do Better Than Nebraska

TB — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:46:47 -0000

More photos » by Amy Gutierrez - AP

Can't you just imagine him saying "You know what that was about, don't you? That's right. BCS. Dollar signs."? (AP Photo/Amy Gutierrez)

Browse more photos »

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last 48 hours -- and in some areas of the northern Great Plains, a cave would be preferable to the weather outside -- you know that Texas didn't lose to Nebraska, 13-12, in the Big 12 Championship game, played at God's Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday night. Chances are also good that you know there was a fair amount of controversy involved in the end of that game. Despite declaring that he knew full well how much time was on the clock, Colt McCoy's last pass bounced off God's Turf with somewhere between 0.3 and 0.5 seconds left on the clock. Had he put another three feet of air under the ball, no Big 12 referee could have put time back onto the clock, no matter how badly Dan Beebe and Walt Thompson wanted Texas in the national title game.

But, as you know, a second was put back on the clock, Hunter Lawrence bought himself a lifetime pass of free tail in Austin -- no small accomplishment, that -- and Texas will advance to Pasadena to play the Alabama Crimson Tide for the MNC. Such events unleashed unending wailing and gnashing of teeth to our immediate north, and not because the state is going to be buried under a foot of snow by daybreak Tuesday, but because the clock had read 0:00, their team had been ahead, and somehow they still lost.

The first of the wailing came shortly after the game, as Carl Pelini loudly instructed Texas' players and coaches that they should not be proud to accept the trophy. It continued in the locker room as Bo Pelini did his best Mark Mangino impersonation. Onward it went, as Bo, sounding a little like the kid on the playground who knows he's about to get into a fight he can't win, summoned ~~the principal~~ Tom Osborne. Dizzying heights of obvious frustration and disrespect were reached when Osborne failed to shake Beebe's hand. Today, even neutral arbiters took up the cudgel for the Huskers, while the locals tried -- and failed -- to make a single coherent point in their own defense.

Nebraska wants you to believe it's the victim in all of this. They want you to believe they got jobbed by the monied elite in Austin, who have pretty much gotten their way with everything since 1995. They want you to believe that, but they leave out the most important fact: they themselves are also the monied elite. While they will complain to no end about Texas' humongous budget and ridiculous facilities and air of entitlement, they'll hope everyone overlooks the fact that they have a budget nearly as obscene, facilities nearly as sparkling, and a fanbase that feels at least as entitled to success as Texas does. This isn't the Yankees and the Royals. This is the Yankees and the Red Sox.

Nebraska, including Osborne and Harvey Perlman, will play the role of the downtrodden for the unexamining eye of the national punditry, but we know better. We know that if Nebraska ever really wanted to do something about "the system," it would add its vote to the other eight schools who want equal revenue sharing in the conference to take money away from those greedy bastards in Austin. But Nebraska won't do so, and in fact has publicly declared that it won't do so, because it benefits from the same system it now deplores.

Look between my thumb and forefinger, Pelini, Osborne and Perlman. I think you know what it is and what it's playing for you.

Ask a K-State Blogger

TB — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:23:59 -0000

Hello, Cougar fans, this is TB from the SB Nation blog Bring On The Cats, dedicated to covering K-State. I didn't get around to asking the moderators of this excellent blog if they were interested in doing an introductory Q&A so that both sides could learn a little about the opponent, so if you have questions about K-State, post them in the comments and I'll try to answer them periodically this afternoon. We hope your fans who travel to Manhattan enjoy the trip, and are looking forward to a good game.

Does everyone remember this?

TB — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:03:55 -0000

Does everyone remember this?

While it doesn't really mean anything because the roof can be closed at Jerry World, I found it ironic that Dallas was hit with snow this week and the gametime temperature is forecast to be 35 (it's supposed to be 36 in Kansas City at gametime). Also, a portion of Texas was hit with blizzard conditions on Thursday; just imagine if such a storm had hit Friday night/Saturday morning.

Again, with the roof closed, it won't affect the game. But I sure am happy we are thinking about moving the championship game permanently to a weather paradise such as Dallas. Have fun tailgating today, Texas fans!

Kitchen: For flawed 6-1 K-State, is more work the answer?

TB — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:54:27 -0000

Kitchen: For flawed 6-1 K-State, is more work the answer?

A good, long "state of the nation" on K-State basketball right now. Maybe it's too early to say this season is at a crossroads, but with Washington State, UNLV, Xavier and Alabama coming up, we're either going to get better in a hurry or we're going to lose four games in the next month.

Open Game Thread: K-State vs. Nebraska

TB — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:36:09 -0000

Who: K-State vs. Nebraska

When: November 21, 2009 | 6:45 p.m.

Where: Lincoln, Neb. | Memorial Stadium (81,067)

Media: 1350 KMAN | ESPN

This is it. Win, and we go to Dallas to play the Big 12 South champion in the conference championship game, with a bowl to follow. Lose, and it's on to basketball season.

Go Cats!

Edited by Panjandrum to add this video to get everyone all "pumped up-y"...

Five Questions With Corn Nation

TB — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:28:57 -0000

It's the Big 12 North Championship game today when K-State travels to Lincoln to take on Nebraska. To get a little more information on the Huskers from those who follow them most closely, I turned to the trio at Corn Nation for more info. Questions and answers are below.

BOTC: Roy Helu has looked a lot better in the last couple games. Is he finally healthy?

Mike: Healthier, perhaps. After the Oklahoma game, Helu talked about playing for the team instead of for himself, and while he didn't phrase it this way, he's decided to grit it out and play through the pain. If you watch him block in pass protection, it's obvious that his shoulder's no where near 100%. (Another good reason to leave a fullback and a tight end or two in on pass protection.) Helu left the field in Lawrence holding his arm again, and his arm was wrapped up in the post game press conference, so we're all hoping he didn't aggravate the issue last week.

JLew: Healthy yes? 100% no. Burkhead maybe back after a broken foot, he's been cleared to play so he may be able to take some of the load off Helu.

Corn Blight/Jon J: Something certainly changed. Bo Pelini and the rest of his staff talk about injuries the way people hide their crazy uncles, so the only real way to know someone's injured is if they're out for the season or carried off on a stretcher.

Helu is a big key to the Husker offense, although true freshman Rex Burkhead might be back for this game. He's missed several games due to a foot injury, and provided a huge lift to the offense earlier in the season.

BOTC: Last week, KU apparently unlocked some serious magic and kept the Husker d-line in check. What did they do?

Mike: Todd Reesing is the most experienced quarterback NU has faced this year, and it showed. He didn't wilt in the face of pressure. Carl Pelini dialed down the pressure as a result of some Reesing scrambles, and that limited the pressure after the first quarter. Considering that NU held KU to 0 first downs in the first quarter, I wonder if that might not have been a mistake.

JLew: NU changed the approach some, Pelini explains- "That's on me. I slowed them down. (Kansas) got out on a couple quarterback draws. I thought we could cover on the back end. I thought we needed to handle (KU quarterback Todd) Reesing with the front four, and when you're trying to handle six gaps with four guys, you got to be a little more controlled in your pass rush.

Even then KU didn't run the ball particularly well. The defense also seemed to come down after a lights out game against OU.

CB/Jon J: Kansas played a darned good game on offense. They switched between misdirection and running quarterback draws with Reesing, who did a good impersonation of his old playmaking self. The playcalling was just enough to confound the Husker defensive line.

BOTC: What has been Nebraska's biggest problem on offense this year?

Mike: I think there are two problems at the heart: (1) Injuries at I-back. Roy Helu has been banged up and Rex Burkhead has been out for over a month. Even Dontrayeveous Robinson got banged up late against Baylor. Nobody has that much depth to handle that rash of injuries and not be limited. (2) Lack of talent at wide receiver. We're learning just how good Nate Swift and Todd Peterson were last season now that they're gone. Their backups have failed miserably, and Nebraska has resorted to playing a juco transfer and a center fielder from the baseball team. Niles Paul is really the only playmaker at receiver, and while he's made some incredible plays, his two fumbles against Texas Tech and Iowa State changed those ballgames.

JLew: See Mike's answer, and I'll add finding an identity. NU started the year trying to run a West-coast spread offense, which they couldn't do against better teams with our talent at WR. Now NU seems to have settled into a heavy formation, I-Back, play-action, bootleg offense.

CB/Jon J: For me the biggest issue is the offensive line. They've played decently, but had way too many mistakes this season. Holding calls brought back a touchdown pass against Virginia Tech that would have won the game, personal foul penalties have cost the Huskers badly when deep in red zone territory, and numerous false starts. Dumb stuff, really. Most of the line is made up of Bill Callahan recruits so they're big and slow. The current coaching staff can only do so much to correct that problem.

BOTC: Pretend you're the coach for a minute (you have to wear an oversized sweatshirt and chew your gum really hard while you answer this question): Do you let Adi Kunalic kick it deep, banking on a touchback and risking that he misses and Brandon Banks gets a shot at a return, or do you squib it to keep it out of Banks' hands?

Mike: Start off trying to get it in the end zone. Then kick it out of bounds if you have to.

JLew: Hmmm predicted 10-15mph winds from the South. So half the time Adi should be able to clear the endzone. Other than that I think Pelini will challenge his special teams to stop Banks, and kick it deep.

CB/Jon J: Depends on the wind, really, what kind of weather hits Memorial Stadium Saturday night. If it's calm and the wind isn't swirling, I'm kicking it deep.

BOTC: Finally, most Husker fans are pretty confident that this game will be won if NU plays well, but what about that spread? Will the Huskers cover a 16.5-point spread?

Mike: I think they can; they've shown the ability to move the ball at times. The biggest concern to me is turnover margin; KSU is 2nd in the Big XII in this statistic, and Nebraska has had issues throughout Big XII play with ball security. If NU takes care of the ball, I think they can win this game handily. If KSU forces turnovers, all bets are off.

JLew: NU has had no turnovers in the OU and the KU games. Against Baylor Green the freshman QB had a pick 6. So the last couple of games NU has taken care of the ball pretty well. On the other hand, KSU's defense has been able to force some with some hard hits. I don't think I'd take the Huskers in this one. I wouldn't surprised if they covered, but I wouldn't bet on it.

CB/Jon J: The point spread is 16.5 points? Who the hell bets real money on this stuff, nutballs and addicts?

Thanks again to the guys from Corn Nation for answering our questions.

Ask a K-State Blogger

TB — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:40:03 -0000

Y'all probably know the drill by now. TB from the SB Nation blog Bring On The Cats here to answer your questions as we gear up for this weekend's game to decide who plays in Dallas for the Big 12 Championship.

Before firing away, you may want to check my postgame post after the Missouri game, as it has a few thoughts on this weekend's tilt in Lincoln. Other than that post, your questions in the comments and I'll get to them as soon as I can.

Postgame Reaction: Missouri

TB — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:22:06 -0000

by Charlie Riedel - AP

K-State's Daniel Thomas couldn't shake free very often, and Missouri downed the Wildcats to put a damper on K-State's bowl hopes. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

View full size photo »

Sorry this is late, and for the fact that it's going to be fairly short. It's been a busy time for the BOTC administration.

K-State's 38-12 loss to Missouri was disappointing for a number of reasons. Obviously, we lost a chance to get bowl eligible, and we lost a chance to win the North without beating Nebraska in Lincoln (of course, Nebraska took that chance away a few hours later by beating KU, but still).

More disappointing than those problems, however, was the way we lost the game. The offensive game plan for Missouri was, if not perplexingly simple, then perplexingly rigid. Our offensive identity is to line up, run the ball with Daniel Thomas, and occasionally find Brandon Banks, Attrail Snipes and Lamark Brown on short, controlled routes. That's fine, but it was clear from the beginning yesterday that Missouri -- a pretty good defense against the run -- was going to sell out to stop Daniel Thomas. On top of that, the Tigers looked vulnerable to screens and other short passes last week against Baylor and, looking at their defensive alignment on most plays yesterday, would have been vulnerable to them again this week. In fact, we had some success early in the game with swing passes to Banks, et al., but it seemed like once we threw a couple of those, we had to hurry back to the rushing game that only averaged 2.6 yards per carry on the game.

It was also frustrating to see the offense unable to finish drives. Three of Josh Cherry's field goals came on drives that got into the red zone. Against a team with the offensive talent Missouri has, three points won't cut it. Again, we were overly reliant on the running game, which was frustrating because we could have dinked-and-dunked our way to more success.

And all that's to say nothing of the elephant in the room: Banks' fumble in the second quarter. It should have been a perfect play. Banks catches a pass on third and four for a seven yard gain to Missouri's one yard line. If he goes out of bounds, we have the ball at the one yard line, and we can line up with two tight ends, Braden Wilson, and Daniel Thomas three times and we probably put six on the board to take a 10-3 lead. But Banks, trying to make a play, reaches the ball out and fumbles it into and out of the end zone for a Missouri touchback. Missouri, particularly Danario Alexander, were more than happy to take the ball down and score a touchdown, and instead of leading by seven, the Cats trailed by seven.

Speaking of Alexander, what a game. It's frustrating that our tackling fundamentals broke down a couple times and he turned pedestrian plays into big gains. It's frustrating that Tysyn Hartman missed what could have been an interception on Alexander's first touchdown (although, really, you have to give him credit, that was a helluva catch). But, overall the defense wasn't that bad. I know the final numbers don't look that great, but when the game was still in question, which was basically all the way until Alexander broke the 80 yarder to make it 24-12, the defense mostly did what it needed to do to keep us in the game. Despite a shaky first drive, it stiffened and forced a Mizzou FG. It forced a big three-and-out deep in Mizzou's territory on the Tigers' second drive, setting up what should have been a touchdown drive. They forced another three-and-out on Mizzou's second drive of the second quarter. They forced another three-and-out on Mizzou's first drive of the second half. That should have been enough for our offense to put more points on the board and either take a lead or tie it up.

That's all I have for the game itself. Hit the jump for a few thoughts going into next week.

While Nebraska is nothing special on offense, I still don't have a very good feeling going into this game in Lincoln next week. Our offensive game plan this week didn't take advantage of Missouri's weakness, and our defense was unable to force a turnover. If that happens next weekend in Lincoln, we'll lose, plain and simple. Against Nebraska, it's going to be very easy to figure out early whether we will have a chance to win or not. If we turn the ball over, we're done. If Banks doesn't get a chance/can't break a kick for a big play or a touchdown, we're done. If we let Roy Helu run wild on us, we're done.

On the other hand, if we force a few turnovers by Zac Lee and the Husker offense, or get a big three-and-out deep in NU's territory to flip the field position, or if Bill Snyder and the offensive coaching staff have a few tricks up their sleeve for the Huskers, we may just sneak into Lincoln and come away with a win. You can never just count on getting a win in Lincoln -- unless you're Texas -- but if nothing else, it's good to know that we're not going up there just hoping not to lose by 40.

So, ladies and gentlemen, after eleven games, it all comes down to this. We go to Lincoln on Saturday and one of two things will happen. Either we'll win, in which case we would collect our fourth outright Big 12 North championship and become bowl eligible, or we'll lose, in which case the season is over. While I don't really like our chances, Nebraska is not the unbeatable juggernaut it used to be, and as we have been saying the last few years about the Big 12 CCG: even if you're a big underdog, the favorite still has to play 60 minutes of football against you, and anything can happen.

Kitchen: K-State defensive coaches should get COY honors

TB — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:09:22 -0000

Kitchen: K-State defensive coaches should get COY honors

The usual from Kitchen: a good read. Check out today's offering, too, about Missouri's players-only meeting this week. Let's hope it's two weeks in a row that a players-only meeting resulted in a loss to K-State.

An Attempt to Sort Out the Big 12 North Scenarios

TB — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:36:33 -0000

Now that each team is down to two or three games remaining, it's a little more manageable to look at what remains and figure out how things may play out. Nothing about this is guaranteed to be right, and if you see something that I've missed, make a comment explaining the mistake. I'm going to break this down by the record it will take to win the North, then by what each team must have happen to win it at that record. First, the current standings:

K-State: 4-2 (Missouri, @Nebraska)

Nebraska: 3-2 (@KU, K-State, @Colorado)

Colorado: 2-3 (@Iowa State, @Oklahoma State, Nebraska)

Iowa State: 2-4 (Colorado, @Missouri)

KU: 1-4 (Nebraska, @Texas, Missouri)

Missouri: 1-4 (@K-State, Iowa State, KU)

Winning Record: 6-2 (Teams still in the running: K-State, Nebraska)

K-State: Go 2-0

If K-State gets to 6-2, then it wins the division. By winning both remaining games to get to 6-2, by necessity Nebraska must lose a game and thus cannot get to 6-2.

Nebraska: Go 3-0

If Nebraska goes 3-0, then the same as above is true. It will win the division because K-State cannot also get to 6-2.

Every other school already has at least three losses.

Winning Record: 5-3 (Teams still in the running: K-State, Nebraska, Colorado)

K-State: Go 1-1

If K-State goes 1-1 and that win is over Nebraska, it wins the division. Even if CU went 3-0 to close the season, K-State would win the three-way tiebreaker by virtue of its wins over NU and CU.

If K-State goes 1-1 and that win is over Missouri, then it needs Nebraska to lose its road games to KU and CU -- or -- it would need CU to win out and make it a three-way tie. If it's a three-way tie in that scenario, then K-State wins because it would be 4-1 against the rest of the division, while NU and CU would be 3-2.

Nebraska: Go 2-1

If Nebraska goes 2-1 and those two wins are over K-State and CU, then the Huskers win the division.

If NU's two wins are over KU and K-State, then it needs CU to lose one of its three remaining games.

In this scenario, Nebraska must beat K-State, because if it doesn't, the Wildcats win the division.

Colorado: Go 3-0*

Colorado can get to 5-3 by winning out, but it would need K-State to go 0-2 because K-State has the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Winning record: 4-4 (All teams can still get to 4-4)

While each team can still get to 4-4, it's impossible to have a six-way tie at that record because some of the four-loss teams play each other. Also, Nebraska still has to win one more game to assure itself a 4-4 record, while Colorado has to win two to reach that plateau. I'm going to omit an extended discussion of this scenario, because it seems pretty unlikely at this point that 4-4 will be the best record in the division, and it would take forever to go through every possible scenario.