Tiger baksketball teams start off on right foot...
The NBC basketball teams got the 2011-2012 season off to a strong start Monday [Nov. 28] with a pair of exhibition wins over Howells.
The boys 72-68 win was particularly impressive considering Howells won this game by about 40 last year. Kale Wietfeld led the way with an impressive 44 points- which would be a school record had it been a regular game. Even thought he record still stands officially, something tells me that the school record of 41 points (set by now assistant coach Bob Hartman in 1981) might not last the season. Of course, the Howells boys entered the game with exacly three practices under their belt since less than a week earlier the Bobcats were playing in the state football championship. Their first practice was the day after Thanksgiving- four days before they played NBC.
Could the Tigers be poised for a break out year? Possibly. But coach Fred Ladehoff better have something ready to go to counter the array of junk defenses NBC is going to get thrown at them. I wouldn't be suprised to see some opponent run a triangle-and-two, with the two both chasing Wietfeld.
The NBC girls 40-36 win over Howells was equally impressive considering Howells was is the reigning Class D-1 state champion with most everyone back. The Bobcats are also ranked No. 1 in the Omaha World-Herald's preseason rankings published today.
Speaking of preseason ratings, the Tiger girls debuted at No. 6 in Class C-2. A nice placement, but that still puts them no higher than fourth in their district. If the Tigers want to get to state, they will have to fight their way through No. 1 Homer (the defending state champion and team that knocked NBC out of districts last year), No. 2 Norfolk Lutheran, and No. 4 Pender. All three of those teams have an overabundance of 6-footers and will post a tall task for a diminuative North Bend team (all puns intended).
Also on the schedule for the Tiger girls are No. 3 Aquinas, whom NBC should see in the holdiay tournuament, and Class C-1 No. 3 Wahoo. Or course, the Tigers will also likely see Pender twice during the regular season.
North Bend has a talented, experienced, senior-laden group, but if they want to reach their goals this season, they are going to have to bring their A-game every single night.
Nov. 8, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Husker notebook...
The 2011 Husker football team has been a tough one to figure out. Just when it looked like they had turned the corner with a big win against Michigan State, causing Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald to put Nebraska atop his Big Ten ratings, we fall on our face against Northwestern. This week Lee rated us in the middle of the Big Ten pack at fifth, behind both Ohio State and Michigan State, teams we've beaten in the last month.
We looked darn good in the Michigan State game, which made us forget something about this Husker team: it isn't very good. We are a deeply flawed team, especially on the defensive side of the ball. We cannot stop the run - at all - a fact Northwestern reminded us in the second half of last Saturday's game. Before the game I was chatting with a parent of a Northwestern player and I told him that we couldn't stop the run. He told me not to worry, since the Wildcats couldn't run the ball anyway. Well, they sure could against our defense.
Entering the year, many people had Nebraska losing three or four games this year. Then a valiant comeback against Ohio State and an outstanding effort against Michigan State made us start to think that maybe the Huskers were a little better than that.
Now, it seems that the Michigan State game is the fluke here, not the Northwestern game. Anyone who has tried has been able to go right through our defense for 5 or 6 yards a carry. That goes back to last year as well, but luckily for us few teams in the Big 12 were interested in trying to sustain a running game against us. In fact, we haven't been able to consistenly stop the run since 2009, when we had an all-universe defensive tackle.
For some reason, after breaking runs of 6, 8 and 11 yards on the first three plays of the game, the Spartans went away from the run. Equally confusing, when they tried to throw the ball they kept going after our All-American cornerback, and Alfonso Dennard was up to the task. For the most part, Northwestern stayed away form Dennard and instead picked on Ciante Evans and Lance Thorell, who were constantly chasing several steps behind receivers on crossing routes.
So to me, the Northwestern game was a hard jerk back to reality. Should we have lost to that team? No. Obviously the emotion was not there and two turnovers in the red zone killed us. But I think the real 2011 Husker team is a lot closer to what we saw against Northwestern rather than the one we saw against MSU.
But it could be worse, right? We could be Penn State.
Oct. 26, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
The case of the missing card...
It finally happened. I drove up to Stanton Thursday for the volleyball triangular and when I got there I discovered I didn't have a memory card for my camera. Therefore, no pictures were taken that night. I did try to borrow a card from a couple of mothers, but their cards were not compatable with my camera. So when you see the pictures with the volleyball story this week, they won't be from the Stanton triangular. This will be our little secret. Actually, I never try to pass off pictures as something they're not. If I pubish an old sports picture with a story, I will aways say it's from an early game. I don't want to try to trick you and have someone look closely and figure out the picture is not from the game I say it is.
The last time this happend was at the girls basketball district final a few years back between NBC and Fort Calhoun. Nothing like not being prepared for the biggest game of the year, right? Luckily I noticed during warmups and since the game was at Midland College in Fremont, I was able to dash to Wal-Mart and get a card before the game started.
The tag line: The last two week's tag lines go together. Oct. 19 said "Looking good, Billy Ray!" and Oct. 26 said "Feeling good, Louis!" These are quotes from a movie. Do you know which one? I'll post the answer in a couple of days.
A couple of videos to share: The following is from jest.com about NBA players trying to fend for themselves during the NBA lockout. It co-stars Morse Bluff's own Joie Bauer (hint: he's the white guy).
In this linked video a member of the British Parliment is speaking about the (then) upcoming game between the Tampa Bay Bucs and Chicago Bears before their Oct. 23 game in London. At about 1:10 in, he starts to talk about how his love for American Football began. Not to spoil it, but his reason is the reason I am posting this. (I can't tell for sure on the video, but is that a familiar lapel pin he's wearing?)
Sept. 27, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Vacating...
This next week (Oct. 5) will be the annual vacation Eagle. This means our usual coverage of things will be curtailed, mainly because I will be out of town.
Tomorrow morning I will be heading in the general direction of Madison, Wisconsin, for Saturday's big match up with the Badgers. Last Saturday, while watching Wyoming march through our defense, I was convinced Wisconsin was going to beat us like a rented mule. I've come around a bit to a very cautious hopefulness. My only reason for optimism is that Wisconsin has played a very weak schedule, far weaker than ours. Perhaps they aren't as good as we all think they are. I just keep telling myself I'm going up there to enjoy the atmosphere and have a good time- if the Huskers do pull off the upset (we're 10-point underdogs as I write this) then that's just gravy. Right now, I just fear we're horrible overrated.
I do have a sneaking suspicion that whoever wins this one will have the upper hand in a possible rematch in the conference championship game though... unless they're just that much better than us and it doesn't matter. If you can't tell, I'm pretty down on the Huskers. But maybe Bo and Carl can pull off a miracle with our defense this week...
• Lady Gaga doesn't have a prominent place on my iPod, but her latest song, "You and I" has grown on me. It helps the the video, below, was filmed in Nebraska, south of Omaha. Nebraska is also a common theme throughout the song. Apparently Lady Gaga's boyfriend is from here. If you're not familiar with Gaga's work, she's weird. Prepare for weirdness (a mermaid in a barn?). I can't begin to explain what this video means, but it does have some cool shots of a Nebraska landscape we are very familiar with around here. Enjoy, and I'll talk to you next week.
Sept. 22, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
This and that...
A few random ramblings as I look for my ruffled shirt for the Homecoming dance:
• It's Homecoming weekend at North Bend, featuring a big football game between Lakeview and North Bend Friday night. You also have the cross country team making its only home appearance of the year this afternoon (Thursday), along with a home softball doubleheader against Aquinas. The volleyball team isn't at home this week (and won't be until Oct. 4), but will be playing at the David City Invite Saturday.
In case you missed my earlier tweet, the NBC Homecoming royalty candidates are: Jared Kreikemeier, Sam Lowe, Tate Emanuel, Zach Swanson, Braden McCurdy; Amy Baumert, Alyssa Brabec, Mallory Hull, McKenzie Hartman and Clarissa Hall.
• Speaking of tweets, my report of the final score to last night's final softball game was the Eagle's 1,500th tweet. If you're not following the Eagle twitter feed, it's time you get with the times. If you're not familiar with twitter, here is some more information about what it is and what you can do with it.
• If you've been trying to follow the college conference realignment process, your head is probably spinning right now. One of the best places I've found to make sense of it and keep up with the latest scenarios is a blog called Frank the Tank's Slant. It's good reading if you're a college football fan. Says Frank on the latest development of the Pac-12's claim it's not going to expand right now: "While the Big 12 isn’t safe in a warm and fuzzy family way, it looks like it’s safe in a maximum security prison way. No one’s getting out of there even if they want to very badly."
• I'm working for a column this week about things I'm done with. I'm talking about things that have served their purpose and now they're just annoying and it's time they just fade away. One thing that will make my list is Flo from the Progressive Insurance ads. She was mildly entertaining for a while, but her shtick has worn thin now. What are you done with? Have any suggestions? Send them along to nbeagle@gmail.com or tweet me at @northbendeagle. (Is it redundant to say "at @"?)
• The tag line: I had help writing this week's tag line under the main front page Eagle flag, the help of about a three or four flies that kept flitting about and driving me nearly nuts. It's that time of year when the office fills with flies because it's so nice out that we can't stand to have our door closed, but the open door invites a lot of uninvited guests (by which I mean the flies).
• Ever since I wrote the title to this post, "This or that," that song from those Kia commercials has been running through my mind: "Now you can get with this, or you can get with that." Did you know that song, titled "The Choice is Yours," was released by the group Black Sheep in 1991 (not to be confused with Blackstreet, which I did initially- no diggity)? It's probably getting more air time on the Kia commercials that it did originally.
• Is Ndomakong Suh a villain? A very good article by ESPN about "Detroit's New Bad Boy" examines his affect on the resurgent Lions and the NFL. The former Blackshirt (not to be confused with Blackstreet) is becoming an NFL phenom, if he wasn't already. The article also talks about Suh spending time in Lincoln training with the Cornhuskers during the NFL lockout and why he chose Nebraska. It's well worth a read.
• No, I am not going to the homecoming dance, and no, I don't now or have I ever owned a ruffled shirt. Those were a hot a little before my time.
Sept. 18, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Husker notebook vs. Washington
I never like it when someone asks me to predict the score of a Husker football game. I just don't know what's going to happen, and the fun of it is watching the games to see what does happen. It's better to ask me what I think after the game (I'm usually better at predicting the score after the game too...)
Except for this week. I don't know what to think about this Nebraska team. After the first couple of weeks I had come to accept that were weren't going to be very good on offense because we were simply too young on the line. You don't win big games with sophomores and freshmen up front. At least we have our defense to carry us through and keep us competitive.
Or so I thought. During yesterday's game against Washington, I came to the realization that our defense isn't any good. So far, both Washington and Fresno State have put up season-high offensive totals against us. Fresno, who piled up 444 yards against Nebraska, managed just 323 against North Dakota this week. In their opener, they squeaked out 210 against Cal. Same with the Huskies. Washington had only 250 total yards against Eastern Washington, then 388 against Hawaii. The sprung for 420 against the Blackshirts. I never thought I'd see a Pelini defense so porous.
But then suddenly and unexpectedly, our offense starts looking like a juggernaut. Our O-line was making holes. We were pounding away for 4 to 6 yards a crack. We had actual drives, not just two no-gainers followed by a 65-yard touchdown play.
So I don't know how good (or bad) this team is. The one thing I am certain of, is that we are not the ninth best team in the country.
I was pretty discouraged about our chances for the rest of the season Saturday night. Last week I began to tell myself that I am going up to Wisconsin to enjoy the experience, and that I shouldn't let a Husker loss ruin the trip. Now I'm just hoping we don't get blown out by the Badgers.
But then Sunday, I was surprised to read the rather upbeat and hopeful tone in World-Herald columns by Tom Shatel and Dirk Chatelain. The Journal-Star's Steve Sipple was also waxing ecstatic about our newfound potency on offense. So maybe I was being a little too negative, I thought. Maybe our defense will come around. Maybe Andrew Green won't always look like Bambi on ice when covering a flag pattern.
Most people attributed the fourth quarter to a team letting its foot off the gas pedal after building a 37-17 lead. I just saw a defense getting torched repeatedly. Let's hope we get some things figured out before our Oct. 1 date in Madison.
• Did you notice some differences in Taylor Martinez's running of the option? If you will recall my Sept. 4 Web Log, I talked about several things Martinez and offensive coordinator Tim Beck could do to get better timing on the option. Namely, incorporate a reverse pivot or a drop step delay to let his fullback and/or pitch back get out in front of him. Martinez did both Saturday. Clearly, Beck is a loyal Web Log reader.
• There was a lot of purple in town. I even stopped into the Haymarket bar where the Washington alumni association was hosting a pregame party. There I had some fun, friendly conversations with a lot of purple-clad folk. While looking at the light mist falling, I made the comment that I hoped it didn't rain too much during the game. One Huskie fan retorted, "Rain? This isn't rain." Right, I reminded myself, these people are from Seattle.
Sept. 14, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Cringing at mistakes...
I know mistakes happen in any publication, but it burns me up when typos or other mistakes make their way into the Eagle. If you ever see one... keep it to yourself. Pointing it out to me will just anger me (at myself for not catching it, not at you for pointing it out). While I hate mistakes, I'd rather not know about them because by the time they're in the paper, there's nothing that can be done if fix it. If you really want to do some good by pointing out mistakes, show up at the Eagle office around 8 p.m. on Monday and you can help proof. Of course, if the mistake is important, such as a wrong telephone number or a relevant factual error, please let us know so we can issue a correction. But if it's just a typo such as transposed letters or a meaningless misspelling, there's nothing it can do but ruin my day.
Some little typos are bound to slip through. It's the major mistakes, especially in headlines, that get to me. This week I found two of them. One I'm not going to mention. After all, if you didn't notice it on your own, why go out of the way to point out our flaws to you? The other is the headline of the Eagle Football Challenge, which is the same as last week. I didn't change it when I changed the rest of the contest content. Sometimes you get so caught up in proofing the minor stuff that you miss the major screw ups staring you in the face. And of course, by "you" I mean "me."
The tag line: I'm going to try to make this a running feature of the Eagle Web Log. Each week there is a little tag line under the main Eagle flag at the top of page one, a little saying that changes week to week. Sometimes the meaning of the saying is more obvious than other times. So as a bonus to our Web Log readers, I'll try to explain the meaning behind the tag line each week, if possible, just in case you didn't get it. This week's "We're a big play newspaper" is a reference to the Nebraska Husker offense, which struggles to scrape out a first down against I-AA opponents, but is good for a few 60+ yard touchdowns per game. So far, anyway.
Coming up: Two North Bend churches have recently selected new pastors: the Presbyterians and Lutherans. Interestingly enough, both have decided to hire their interim pastors on a permanent basis. In next week's paper (Sept. 21) we'll profile Rev. Calvin L'Heureux, the "new" Lutheran minister, who was officially installed this past Sunday (Sept. 11). We'll also profile the Presbyterians' Rev. Neal Allen sometime down the line, probably around the time he is officially installed.
Sept. 8, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Behind the Big 12 music...
Speaking of the Big 12 imploding, here's a funny piece about the Big 12 done in the style of a VH1 Behind the Music interview. There's some harsh language, but it's a pretty good depiction of the life and times of the band of misfits known as the Big 12.
Sept. 7, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Exploring super conferences, or When getting bigger means getting smaller...
With the implosion of the Big 12 looking more and more possible, there's been plenty of talk out there about where this all ends. Many speculate that when the dust settles, we'll be left with four 16-team "super" conferences. If that indeed comes to pass, it will be really interesting to see how this would work for football scheduling.
For one thing, going bigger would really mean going smaller. A 16-team conference would in reality be more like going back to 8-team conferences. I don't know how the Big Ten would handle this. A team would play seven games within its division. I'm guessing you'd still have one permanent cross over game (for no other reason that to protect the holy Michigan-Ohio State game) then the ninth game would be a floating crossover game against the other division. That means you would play certain teams in your own conference no more than once every seven years... and at home once every 14 years. And to think some Big Ten teams complained about taking two-year breaks in one of their 27 "rivalry" games.
So really, the only teams that matter are the teams in your division.... which is why I say 16-team conferences are really more like 8-team conferences.
Of course there are other ways to go about this. The Big Ten could realign the divisions so Michigan and Ohio State are in the same division and float both non-division games.
Or, as has been discussed in other places, you go with four pods of four teams instead of two divisions. This would leave room for six floating games, allowing the possibility of playing every team in the conference every two years (or twice in a four-year span). You'd play the other three teams in your pod and two teams in each of the other three pods. But then how do you pick the two teams who play in the conference title game? I'm assuming the NCAA doesn't allow for conference semi-final games.
I hope one of the solutions is not to go to a 10-game (or more) conference schedule. Heck, I'd rather stay at 8 than go to the 9-game model. I like the variety of playing different teams from around the nation.
Super conferences would be very hard to work out when it comes to football scheduling. That's why I think the 12-team model is actually the best for conference play. In fact, (and I know this is a phrase rarely uttered) I like how the Big 12 did it, you know, back when it actually had 12 teams. You play all the teams in your division (five games) and half of the other teams in the other division (three more games) for a total of eight conference games. The only thing I would change from the Big 12 model is that I'd switch the non-divisional games every year, so you never go more than a year without playing any one team in your conference (in the Big 12, you went two years without playing non-divisional foes).
As you can see, there's a lot to work out and a lot of tough decisions to be made, which is one reason we may not see 16-team conferences any time soon.
Sept. 4, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Husker notebook...
For everyone who was predicting that Nebraska's new offense under Tim Beck would look like 2007 Kansas, where Beck was the passing-game coordinator for a 12-1 Orange Bowl team, I guess you can throw that theory out the window. The 2011 Huskers looked a lot more like 1987 Nebraska than 2007 Kansas. We saw a lot of I-formation. We saw a lot of option. I'm sure a lot of Husker purists and traditionalists were loving it.
Fig. 1 (good) Fig. 2 (bad)
The problem is that we are really bad at the option right now. As a former quarterback coach who specialized in the option, I saw us doing some things Saturday that I wouldn't allow from a high school JV quarterback. One of the primary things I noticed was quarterback Taylor Martinez trying to stretch the option too wide. You always coach an option quarterback to attack the inside shoulder of the read man. In the illustrations at right, 'X' is the read man, the man left unblocked who will be, in this case, the pitch key. In Figure 1, the quarterback attacks the inside shoulder of the read man. The read man has to make a decision. Does he pinch down on the quarterback, or does he float out with the pitch man (in this example, the I-back)?
If the quarterback reads that the read man (X) is pinching down to tackle him, he pitches the ball to the I-back. The quarterback's job is to make sure defender X is now out of the play. The quarterback must make X commit to tackling the QB. If the QB pitches too soon, it allows the read man to still make a play on the pitch man. When the read man dictates a pitch, quarterbacks are coached to break down, step toward the pitch man as the pitch is made, and to fade toward the pitch man to soften the blow of the defender. Breaking down is important not only for the accuracy of the pitch, but if you run into the defender at full speed, it's going to hurt. I always told my quarterbacks that if the didn't get hit after pitching the ball, then they didn't do their job. If the defender hits the quarterback, then it is too late for him to make a play on the pitch man. Of course, if the read man floats wide, the quarterback keeps the ball and cuts up the field.
If the defender who forced the quarterback to pitch the ball then makes the tackle on the pitch man, that is a sign of a poorly executed option. Unfortunately, that's what I saw several times Saturday. The problem is, Martinez would not attack the inside shoulder of the read man. Instead, he would stretch the play out by going too wide (as in Fig. 2). This allows the read man to not only pressure the quarterback into making the pitch, but it lets him naturally proceed to make a play on the pitch man since he is already running in that direction. This is allowing one defender to defend two offensive players, which ruins the numbers advantage you are trying to create with an option play.
Of course, another factor in a good option play is your offensive line. If the quarterback is forced to bow away from the line of scrimmage because the offensive line isn't getting a push, it makes it harder for the QB to take a good angle on his read man. There is a very good chance this played some role in Saturday's lackluster option game, because our line was unable to do much against the small Div. I-AA line it was playing against. Not a good sign.
There are a few people still bouncing around the north stadium offices that have more knowledge of option football in their national-championship-ring-bearing finger that I have in my whole body, so there's a good chance much of these problems can be ironed out. Plus, now they have some good game film to emphasize to players what needs to be done and why it needs to be done.
A few other notes and observations from Saturday's season opener:
• How about Brett Maher? It looks like Nebraska's Class A pole vault record holder can kick a little too. Seeing him nail field goals of 50 and 48 yards, plus his booming punts and kickoffs, was a great relief for Big Red fans going through Alex Henery withdrawal.
• Man, do I love me some Damion Stafford.
• In my opinion the player that we miss the most from last year is DeJon Gomes. Time after time Saturday UTC receivers were running open on short crossing routes with Justin Blachford three steps behind them. Gomes lived on snuffing out these crossing routes. Right now, that appears to be the weak spot on our defense (along with covering backs in the flats). Blachford doesn't look like he is capable in filling Gomes' nickleback shoes. Hopefully, Ciante Evans or Andrew Green gets moved into that spot once Alfonzo Dennard returns. Or maybe one of the safeties like the aforementioned Damion Stafford.
• Another problem with the sprint option we tried to run: Martinez is just too darned fast. Of course, that's a good problem to have, but his fullback, who is supposed to be a lead blocker on a sprint option (where there's no dive fake), couldn't get out in front of him. Watch Martinez's long sprint option for a touchdown down the left sideline (where Burkhead went the wrong way). The fullback is trailing Martinez from the very snap. Either we will have to offset the fullback to playside, send him in a shuffle motion just before the snap, or most likely, Martinez will have to take a longer delay before he starts sprinting. Watch Tommie Fraizer run the sprint option. Upon taking the snap, he would pivot and pause a brief second before starting down the line. This allows the fullback to get out in front and the I-back to get in proper pitch relationship. Another alternative, which we used with Tommie and others as well, is to have the quarterback reverse pivot after getting the snap.
• I watched the game on DVR when I got home. I was not impressed at all with the Big Ten Network's production of the game. I think Kevin Kugler did a great job announcing, but the camera work was terrible. On may plays the camera is zoomed out way too much. I was trying to watch replays of some of the line play, and you couldn't really see what was going on because we were so far away. Plus, the camera work was often shaky and lost track of the ball. It was like the BTN hired college interns to do its camera work. It sure didn't look very professional. And as for Ahman Green's sideline reporting: man, he was a great running back.
• Nebraska fans are always on the lookout for the next name to howl along the lines of "Suuuuuuuuuhhhh" and "Ruuuuuuuuuudd." I nominate "Cooooooooooooooooop" for Corey Cooper. I was hoping it would get its start when the redshirt freshman made a big tackle on the 3-yard line on kickoff coverage. We'll have to work on that.
• And finally, just get Jamal Turner the damn ball!
Sept. 1, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Tiger netters get rated...
The North Bend Central volleyball team showed up in the Omaha World-Herald's preseason ratings published today, and if the ratings hold true throughout the season, there could be a very interesting - and tough - postseason ahead.
The Tigers start the year at No. 9 in Class C-2. Flanking NBC in the rankings are a pair of sub-district foes in Yutan, ranked 8th, and Bergan, ranked No. 10. Whoever comes out of that sub may have to face another rated foe as No. 6 Shelby/Rising City sits on the other side of the district. To summarize, that four rated teams in North Bend's district. That figure doesn't even include David City Aquinas, who also sits on the other side of the district along with Shelby. The Monarchs aren't rated, but they have a pair of 6-foot hitters that are bound to give any team fits.
North Bend could face Bergan as early as this Saturday in the Northeast Nebraska Classic. Also participating in that tournament is the top-ranked team in C-2, Norfolk Lutheran, as well as West Point CC, ranked No. 4 in Class D-1.
Other ranked teams of interest to North Bend include EHC rival Wisner-Pilger, who checks in at No. 9 in Class C-1. Columbus Scotus, who will be visiting town for the North Bend Invite Sept. 10, is No. 3 in C-1. That probably the lowest ranking the Shamrocks have brought into North Bend in quite some time. Another rated local team, though not one that NBC plays, is Dodge, who is ranked No. 2 in Class D-2.
August 31, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
Oh, you silly Wildcats...
This should go over well with college students.
I have some cousins that attended Kansas State. On occasion we trade some good-natured ribbing regarding allegiances to our former Big 12 North alma maters. Last time one of my cousins and some of his friends came up for a game in Lincoln, the best they could muster was making fun of Lil' Red. He is a silly blow-up doll of a mascot they claimed, while forcing themselves to laugh a little too hard. Honestly, they could not have said anything that could have offended me less. First of all, Lil' Red isn't our main mascot. He was invented to entertain kids, and he does that quite well. Plus, the blow-up mascot is pretty common. I've seen them at high schools.
But seriously, K-State fans making fun of Nebraska's athletic department promotions is like throwing stones when you live in a house made of bubbles. That's right, it's not even made of anything as strong as glass. Their house is made of bubbles. I say this because no university in the land comes up with as many bad ideas as Kansas State.
Their latest is "Ecokat," pictured at the right. I am not making this up. Someone at Kansas State thought this would be a good idea to promote recycling (her costume is made up of 90 percent "repurposed" materials, by the way) and green living. Some administrator thought this was just the thing to spur college kids into giving a hoot and not polluting.
This isn't the first tragically bad idea Kansas State has come up with. No they are old hats at being national punch lines. Remember this little gem? (And yes, the cutting edge graphics and production was done in 2007, not in 1982).
This was actually produced and approved by the KSU athletic department, not a gag video made my a Kansas fan. I can't wait till they see what they come up with next.
August 26, 2011 - Nathan Arneal
The beginning of the end for ESPN?
The summer hiatus for the Eagle Web Log is over. One of the issues I've been thinking about over the past few months is my slowly growing dislike of ESPN. This was probably brough on by ESPN's $300 million investment in the Longhorn Network. Not just because I pull an eye muscle rolling my eyes everytime I heard something about Texas, but because it really makes me question how ESPN can portray itself as an objective reporter of sports news when it is so financially tied to well being of specific schools, such as Texas.
If Texas is involved in a Miami-style NCAA crime spree, do you think ESPN would give the story the coverage it deserves? When providing commentary on who the best teams on an episode of College Football Live or College Gameday, do you think ESPN might give a little more attention to the Longhorns than their on-field performance deserves, knowing that the more interest there is in Texas, the better chance the network can recoup its investment in the LHN?
I am pondering a future Banks column on my growing distrust of the "Worldwide Leader."
In the meantime, here's an interesting take claiming that the decline of ESPN's influence in the sports world has already begun. I disagreed with some of it- perhaps you'll still be able to see my comment below the story- but I agree and hope that ESPN's monopoly will soon be ending.
This should go over well with college students.
