The Off-Season is Over - Let the Games Begin

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the regular season.

It’s been nearly 9 months since we last saw the Huskers, fake punting and 3-yard-diving their way to a coma-inducing 17-14 loss over a team that really really didn’t want to be in the spectacular metropolis of Dallas at 10am on a New Year’s morning. This past off-season has brought us Volleyball mania (which never really ended), yet another nail in the Husker baseball coffin, a flying Dixie cup, a new Husker offensive coordinator, a controversial big 12 North prediction and a whole bunch of Mo Purify scraps with the law. We’ve heard outlandish claims that Wake Forest “Isn’t that good” and “our defensive backfield is going to be much better.” (I will agree however it can’t get much worse).

With all of that behind us, the off-season is officially over, and it is time to strap it on. (And no, not the way you and your Uncle Frank from Albion use the term). Obviously my predictions are a bit unorthodox, but I’m sure you’ll find that win or lose, I will still find ways to mock you and call out the greatest fans in college football as the frauds they are.

As you will see in the next couple of days…game week is about to begin and it’s about to become very difficult to ignore just where my allegiances are.

* If you visit blogs from around the Big 12, you may notice a thing called “The Big 12 Blogger Roundtable” being floated around. It’s basically different guys answering the same question from different perspectives. As you know, I’m friendly with even Husker bloggers, so I don’t have really anything against them or any other amateur sportswriter that chooses to answer the questions.

However, if you haven’t noticed, I don’t like conformity, and I especially don’t like things like structure, good grammar or spelling. However, in the spirit of the Blogger roundtable let me tell you some things that I guarantee you will see this year at some point or another.

1) Texas will lose to somebody they shouldn’t. I’m not saying they’re not the best team in the league, because they probably are. However, Mack Brown still runs that team and nobody can ruin 5-star talent (in the south that is) like Mack. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still loaded, but it’s going to fall on his shoulders..which isn’t a good thing for UT fans.

2) Iowa State will not be as bad as you think.

3) Oklahoma State is good, but not as good as you think.

4) Kansas State will continue to baffle people. Unlike many fans and bloggers in the conference, I’m not a Ron Prince hater, nor am I convinced K-State is headed back into the depths of the early 80’s. You don’t have a run like they did, and just piss it away in a couple of season. To me, they’re going to go as far as Josh Freeman can take them. Oh, and they’ve also got a bunch of good defensive players that are damn good that nobody has hardly ever heard of. It’s easy to lose track of KSU out in the middle of nowhere, but there’s no reason anybody should overlook them.

5) Mark Mangino…regardless of not having any talent at all on defense and a couple of circus midgets fighting for the starting QB spot will outcoach 2/3rd of the coaches he goes up against. God knows I’m no KU apologist, and they suck beyond belief…but the fat man knows his X’s and O’s and that should scare just about anybody who goes up against him. That is especially true for ex NFL flunky’s who like to wear wire glasses to make themselves look smarter, while he’s running another incomplete rollout on 4th and goal from the 1.

6) Missouri will lose to somebody they shouldn’t. Yes, I know. Water is wet. Grass is green. The Tigers are absolutely loaded, but the “Woe is us” mentality will live on until somebody grabs the pope and does one serious exorcism. Trap games this year include road games at K-State and Colorado, as well as the giant mother of all trap games next week against Illinois. Yes, I know the Illini haven’t beaten anybody worth a damn in about 5 years, but the same could have been said for Mizzou in 2002 when a skinny nobody named Brad Smith worked over the orange and blue.

7) Nebraska will have another arrest by October 1st.

8) Oklahoma will beat the holy hell out of Miami by 17 points.

9) Texas Tech will have their worst season in years. Mike Leach’s act is old.

10) Texas A&M will have a shot at the South title on Thanksgiving…only to have it come crashing down the next day.

* Following up from my last post, is there anything funnier than local media going on and on about how they can’t believe JC Keller wasn’t named a captain by the GRF© yesterday? I’m not going to rehash it, but just because you “give great interviews” and play the most important position on the field doesn’t mean you have the personality and leadership skills necessary to be captain. Do any of these guys even know what the hell captains DO on a team? Do they think captains automatically are the guy in the middle of the huddle in pre-game yelling, “What time is it!?!?!” as three or four 5’7” DB’s jump on the pile from 13 yards away.

Captains make sure you go to class. Captains recommend internal discipline actions. Captains communicate instructions to the refs when the coach is on the other side of the field. Captains lead…period. For ANYBODY to speculate why a guy wasn’t chosen is either dumb, stupid or just throwing out stuff for the sake of conversation. Besides…doesn’t it really flippin matter who the hell holds study group on Tuesday nights? This is what blows goats about this time of the year. Take any sort of news out of camp, and then have a 25 minute interview with some Gretna Breeze reporter flunky as to why it happened.

Luckily…the off-season is complete.

I think you’re gonna like this coming week around here.

AJ