[NU Sports] Sunday Thoughts

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> Nothing that Illinois would like better than to
> knock off NU and probably eny us a bowl bid.

I'm not sure about that. The Illini have never really
seen us a rival - more of a nuisance. Kind of like
Michigan views MSU, except unlike Sparty, we're
winning our rivalry game recently.:)

Illinois likes to fancy the Wolverines and Buckeyes as
their rivals and they have a natural rivalry with the
Badgers that carries over from the Packers-Bears (at
least we're on their radar - their other designated
rival, IU, is only a rival for hoops).

I hope we can sneak up on the Illini, but I do think
they'll be ready given how they've lost this game so
much recently. Plus, they probably have a Citrus Bowl
bid coming to them if they win, so they'll be ready.

Our Sweet Sioux games recently have been fun shootout
and I expect another with two great offenses. The
difference will be whose drives stall with turnovers
and punts. We need to get some takeaways and not
settle for field goals and we have the potential to
pull off the upset.

It'll be interesting to see who we need to cheer for
next weekend. Obviously we need to win and we need
MSU, Indiana and Iowa to lose. That would be the easy
was as a 7-5 team goes ahead of 6-6 teams. But if one
or more of them win, there might still be some
at-large spots open if we can get to 7 wins. The SEC
and Big Ten each look to have 10 eligible teams but we
already have our 10 with six wins, so getting #7 would
be huge as a lot of teams elsewhere are still at 5 or
look to be stuck on 6.

We'll just have to win the game and see what happens.

GO CATS!!! KEEP SWEET SIOUX!!!
-SjT

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

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