nilekinnick
Well-Known Member
http://www.omaha.com/huskers/blogs/...cle_bcd42778-8c8d-11e5-9916-bbad54c028db.html
By Dirk Chatelain / World-Herald staff writer
If you’re from New York or Los Angeles, if you’re flying across the country at 30,000 feet and you look down halfway through the journey, the whole landscape looks flat. Barren. Monotonous. Indistinguishable.
Only when you take time to stop do you notice the wrinkles in the land.
If you’re sitting in Alabama or Oregon or Texas, if you just started watching college football in the 21st century, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Iowa Hawkeyes are the same way.
Let’s compare the programs over the past 15 seasons, 2001-15. It’s a bit of an arbitrary starting point, but it was NU’s last elite season and Iowa’s first bowl season under Kirk Ferentz. It’s as fair a starting point as any.
In those 15 seasons, the Huskers are 126-68, a winning percentage of 64.9. The Hawkeyes are 121-66, a winning percentage of 64.7. Nothing spectacular, but almost dead even.
Their conference records in that span? Even closer.
Nebraska: 72-47
Iowa: 71-47
Here’s where it gets interesting. Here’s where you see the wrinkles.
The two programs are a case study in different ways to build (and accept) a “pretty good†college football program.
Iowa represents stability. You could argue that no college football program has changed less in 15 years (at least optically). And yet the Hawkeyes have experienced higher highs and lower lows. Struggle for a few years, build up to a breakout season, then start the cycle over. Through it all, the Hawks have maintained their blueprint.
Nebraska represents volatility. You could argue that no college football program has tried more blueprints in 15 years. Four head coaches, each a huge departure from his predecessor. And yet the Huskers have mostly experienced the same season over and over again. Nothing terrible (OK, 2007 was terrible). Nothing extraordinary.
Unlike at Iowa, there are no scrapbooks of the past 15 seasons. There will be no team reunions. But the Huskers have been relevant more often. They’ve dropped fewer games to bad teams.
Iowa owns an edge in...
Top-10 seasons:
Nebraska 1 (2001)
Iowa 4 (’02, ’03, ’04, ’09)
BCS/Major bowls:
Nebraska 1 (Rose after ’01 season)
Iowa 2 (Orange ’02, Orange ’09)
Conference championships:
Nebraska 0
Iowa 2*
* Both titles aren’t quite as they seem. The Hawks went 8-0 in ’02, but didn’t play national champion Ohio State. In ’04, they tied Michigan at 7-1, but the Wolverines won head-to-head.
Nebraska has an edge in...
Top-25 seasons:
Nebraska 9
Iowa 5
What’s preferable? Iowa’s record or Nebraska’s? I’m confident that most fans across the nation would say Iowa. Gimme the Orange Bowl memories. Gimme the Big Ten trophies.
Nebraskans, though, are trained to appreciate consistency. They can’t stand the notion of going 7-5, 6-7, 6-6 over a three-year span, as Iowa did 2005-07. Or going 34-30 over a five-year span, as Iowa did 2010-14. Prolonged mediocrity, even with the occasional top-10 season, is agony.
Iowa is the 26-year-old who chills on the couch on Saturday nights eating Cheetos and drinking Busch Light. Totally comfortable in his own skin, even if that skin hasn’t been soaped in a few days. Every once in a while, he goes to the fancy club and scores a kiss from a pretty girl. A story to tell his buddies. But most of the time, he settles for X-box or an old movie. What’s life gonna be like at 28 or 30? Ehhh, he’ll figure it out. He's content.
Nebraska is 26, too, but still chasing. Constantly looking for the bright lights. He was a big player in his early 20s. Now he sees his neighbors (Iowa, Kansas State, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado) playing X-box on a Saturday night and shakes his head. I’m going downtown to the finest clubs, he says. Even if the girls are 21 and a little out of my league. It only takes one. I’m not living like this.
Nebraska comes home at 1 a.m. and Iowa mocks him, “You do all that chasing and you never get the pretty girl.â€
“At least I’m trying, man.â€
“Stop. You're no better than us,†Iowa says. “Just accept who you are. Grab a bowl of Cheetos. Reservoir Dogs is about to start.â€
“Nah, I’m going to bed. I gotta work out in the morning.â€
Next Friday, the neighbors will meet again under strange circumstances.
Iowa is pulling into the driveway with a pretty girl (how the heck did that happen?). Nebraska is sitting on the apartment balcony, unshaven and wearing sweatpants, drinking a Jack and Coke. And there’s a moment — just a few minutes — when Nebraska has a chance to interrupt the romantic evening and ruin Iowa’s big chance.
This is how neighbors become enemies.
By Dirk Chatelain / World-Herald staff writer
If you’re from New York or Los Angeles, if you’re flying across the country at 30,000 feet and you look down halfway through the journey, the whole landscape looks flat. Barren. Monotonous. Indistinguishable.
Only when you take time to stop do you notice the wrinkles in the land.
If you’re sitting in Alabama or Oregon or Texas, if you just started watching college football in the 21st century, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Iowa Hawkeyes are the same way.
Let’s compare the programs over the past 15 seasons, 2001-15. It’s a bit of an arbitrary starting point, but it was NU’s last elite season and Iowa’s first bowl season under Kirk Ferentz. It’s as fair a starting point as any.
In those 15 seasons, the Huskers are 126-68, a winning percentage of 64.9. The Hawkeyes are 121-66, a winning percentage of 64.7. Nothing spectacular, but almost dead even.
Their conference records in that span? Even closer.
Nebraska: 72-47
Iowa: 71-47
Here’s where it gets interesting. Here’s where you see the wrinkles.
The two programs are a case study in different ways to build (and accept) a “pretty good†college football program.
Iowa represents stability. You could argue that no college football program has changed less in 15 years (at least optically). And yet the Hawkeyes have experienced higher highs and lower lows. Struggle for a few years, build up to a breakout season, then start the cycle over. Through it all, the Hawks have maintained their blueprint.
Nebraska represents volatility. You could argue that no college football program has tried more blueprints in 15 years. Four head coaches, each a huge departure from his predecessor. And yet the Huskers have mostly experienced the same season over and over again. Nothing terrible (OK, 2007 was terrible). Nothing extraordinary.
Unlike at Iowa, there are no scrapbooks of the past 15 seasons. There will be no team reunions. But the Huskers have been relevant more often. They’ve dropped fewer games to bad teams.
Iowa owns an edge in...
Top-10 seasons:
Nebraska 1 (2001)
Iowa 4 (’02, ’03, ’04, ’09)
BCS/Major bowls:
Nebraska 1 (Rose after ’01 season)
Iowa 2 (Orange ’02, Orange ’09)
Conference championships:
Nebraska 0
Iowa 2*
* Both titles aren’t quite as they seem. The Hawks went 8-0 in ’02, but didn’t play national champion Ohio State. In ’04, they tied Michigan at 7-1, but the Wolverines won head-to-head.
Nebraska has an edge in...
Top-25 seasons:
Nebraska 9
Iowa 5
What’s preferable? Iowa’s record or Nebraska’s? I’m confident that most fans across the nation would say Iowa. Gimme the Orange Bowl memories. Gimme the Big Ten trophies.
Nebraskans, though, are trained to appreciate consistency. They can’t stand the notion of going 7-5, 6-7, 6-6 over a three-year span, as Iowa did 2005-07. Or going 34-30 over a five-year span, as Iowa did 2010-14. Prolonged mediocrity, even with the occasional top-10 season, is agony.
Iowa is the 26-year-old who chills on the couch on Saturday nights eating Cheetos and drinking Busch Light. Totally comfortable in his own skin, even if that skin hasn’t been soaped in a few days. Every once in a while, he goes to the fancy club and scores a kiss from a pretty girl. A story to tell his buddies. But most of the time, he settles for X-box or an old movie. What’s life gonna be like at 28 or 30? Ehhh, he’ll figure it out. He's content.
Nebraska is 26, too, but still chasing. Constantly looking for the bright lights. He was a big player in his early 20s. Now he sees his neighbors (Iowa, Kansas State, Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado) playing X-box on a Saturday night and shakes his head. I’m going downtown to the finest clubs, he says. Even if the girls are 21 and a little out of my league. It only takes one. I’m not living like this.
Nebraska comes home at 1 a.m. and Iowa mocks him, “You do all that chasing and you never get the pretty girl.â€
“At least I’m trying, man.â€
“Stop. You're no better than us,†Iowa says. “Just accept who you are. Grab a bowl of Cheetos. Reservoir Dogs is about to start.â€
“Nah, I’m going to bed. I gotta work out in the morning.â€
Next Friday, the neighbors will meet again under strange circumstances.
Iowa is pulling into the driveway with a pretty girl (how the heck did that happen?). Nebraska is sitting on the apartment balcony, unshaven and wearing sweatpants, drinking a Jack and Coke. And there’s a moment — just a few minutes — when Nebraska has a chance to interrupt the romantic evening and ruin Iowa’s big chance.
This is how neighbors become enemies.
