Husker Football

Nebraska vs. Iowa State And The Critics

Which team is for real?

by Ed Howard

October 07, 2000

Nebraska and Iowa State face each other today in a football game that could be a season-maker for either squad.

If Nebraska wins big, it will get the monkey of doubt off its back, at least for awhile. If Iowa State wins, the season will automatically be declared a success. The ISU staff probably won't even bitch about the goalposts coming down.

The loser is going to take a hard, hard fall - emotionally, and in the eyes of the college football world.

This is the day that puts one question to both teams:

"Are you for real, or have you been lucky and overrated so far?"

Despite being ranked No. 1 in the coaches poll and No. 2 in the AP poll, Nebraska has been the Rodney Dangerfield of major college powers this season. NU is not getting much respect.

The Huskers are 4-0 and 1-0 in the Big 12. Still, some fans, and lots of Husker critics, have questioned whether NU has the stuff to bring home a national championship - or whether the Huskers should even be thought of as in the race for the title. How does that happen to a team that is 4-0? We'll explain later.

Iowa State is 4-0 and 1-0 in the Big 12. Coach Dan McCarney says, one way and another, that he believes this team is for real. If so, it will be the first such squad Iowa State has fielded in a very, very long time. The Cyclones have gotten the job done on offense, courtesy of good, fundamental blocking and running back Ennis Haywood and his 157-yard-per-game rushing average.

An odd reality is at work where the Huskers are concerned. If Nebraska doesn't stomp you into the ground, you get credit for being pretty darned good, by golly. But if Nebraska doesn't stomp you into the ground, Nebraska gets chided as being not all that good.

As future sportswriters often say while trying to get through high school English: "Huh?"

The on-field problems of the NU defensive and special teams units have given rise to most of that criticism from the off-field types. Both of those Husker units are suffering to some degree from comparison. For the last four or five years, Nebraska's defensive units were so powerful that they could be counted on regularly to score a touchdown or two. This year's team is manned by less experience players and it shows.

Of course, Nebraska's defensive problems are generally much smaller than those of Iowa State. The Cyclones have been giving up just over 144 yards per-game to the rush. Nebraska, led by the passing, running and pitch-out artistry of Eric Crouch, having been rolling 355 rushing yards on its opponents.

For Nebraska, tackle Loran Kaiser is hurt and star linebacker Carlos Polk is hurting. The central question today is whether NU can handle the Cyclones without the hyper-tongued, hard-hitting Polk.

Nebraska's offense, with fellows named Buckhalter and Alexander and Miller and others in the backfield, is always expected to come through. And it has, so far.

Nebraska's special teams have given up far too much yardage on kickoff and punt returns,including a couple of touchdowns. They have failed to secure really good field position for NU, and they have too often failed to deny good field position to the opposition.

The Huskers' victories over San Jose State, Notre Dame, Iowa and Missouri have not been sufficiently convincing - not for Coach Frank Solich and his staff, the players, the fans or, obviously, some of the writers and sportscasters involved in the AP poll.

Interestingly, the number of interesting things that have the potential to happen in the polls in the coming week are almost limitless.

What if Nebraska wallops undefeated Iowa State, and AP No. 1 Florida State loses to, or has a hard time with, No. 7 Miami - is Nebraska No. 1 in the AP poll again? If FSU loses and Nebraska wins ugly over Iowa State, what happens? You can figure out your own combination of possibilities. Given the number of games that pit top teams against other top teams today, you could boggle your mind from now until Lee Corso buttons his lip, and still not have them all figured out.

Nebraska, like many teams, proclaims its theory that each game is the most important one of the season on that day. It's hard to argue with that view in principle. But when you consider that only the No. 1 and No. 2 teams play for the national championship, any game in which even the style of a victory could influence whether you hang on to one of those slots is, maybe, just a little bit bigger than some others.

A side note:

Watch for Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney to straddle the old goalpost at Ames today. Cheney's staff announced he would attend the game, and some tailgate parties before the kickoff. Cheney is a native of Nebraska, Given that Nebraska is counted into the Republican column automatically, Cheney ought to give NU fans and the homestate some piddling pat on the head, soundbite wise. Then again, Iowa could be important to the coming election, so Cheney could safely take Nebraska for granted and cuddle up to the Iowa mob.