[NU Sports] Bad day for the Big Ten ... (fwd)

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Other than the general unreasoning hatred of Texas
> and Texans that seems 
> to pervade the North, is there any reason in
> particular for this trashing 
> of my hometown University?

OK - let me say I have nothing against Austin and hear
that it's lovely. And yes, UT is a fine institution
(and their orange is much easier on the eyes that that
other UT in Knoxville).

That said, I just don't like Texas. I've never liked
Mack Brown, the slogan "don't mess with Texas" wore
thin to me 25 years ago and I'm just tired of the
school and state getting so much hype. And yeah, the
Rose Bowl berth last year was a sore spot - it may be
that the Bowden Computer System is now the Big XII
Computer System and it gave the Horns a boost, but it
still seemed fishy to see the Horns leap Cal at the
very end to get the big money berth and spoil what
would have been a wonderful Big Ten-Pac 10 clash in
Pasadena.

I dunno - some people just hate Michigan despite it
being a fine institution, relatively clean program and
Ann Arbor being a lovely place to live. I just have
grown tired of Texas and will grow more tired each
week of what seems an inevitable run to Pasadena now
with Mack's talent finally living up to potential and
OU in a slump.

> Longhorns having been awarded the PAC-10's spot by
> the Rose Bowl committee 
> and then being ungracious enough to actually win the
> football game.

It's really amazing how similar those two games were
-- I thought OSU outplayed Texas (especially after
that first quarter blitz) on Saturday, but Tressel
turned into Carr and played it safe, settling for
field goals. When the score was 22-16 in the fourth, I
think most people watching at home just had that
feeling that the Bucks failed to put 'em away and
would pay.

> I'm pretty excited to see us play ASU.  We survived
> our first two tests, 

Yeah - it's going to be a big step up in the speed
department and how ASU's receivers will test our
secondary (and they were pretty wide open in last
year's game) ... but if we can click on offense from
the start, it could be a fun shootout in the desert.

And before we look ahead too much, the NIU-NU game was
a darn good matchup and the crowd of 35,000+ has to be
the biggest in a long time for a non conference game
at Dyche prior to the start of school. This is a nice
little regional rivalry that should be an annual game.
If we're too big-headed to make the trip to DeKalb
(although as we've discussed on the list before, we're
going to Nevada next year!), then make it a Soldier
Field game. But it's certainly a good game on the
schedule for catching the general Chicagoland fans'
interest, attendance and thrilling action.

> injuries we're pretty healthy going into ASU.  Let's
> hope it's not too hot 
> there by 9pm Central.

Maybe I've grown accustomed to the desert after a
couple months here, but it's actually quite beautiful
now in Arizona -- once the sun sets, we'll be in the
70s with zero humidity and a nice breeze. Not exactly
autumn in the midwest, but rather enjoyable.

We'll be big underdogs, but I liked the more wide open
play calling against Ohio and hopefully we can get Baz
warmed up early to start the game like he has been in
the 2nd quarters the last couple weeks. What the heck,
let's make it 3-0!

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

* * * * * * * * *
STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!


		
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