Raising the Stakes
Poker is all the rage, and has added the words "all in" to the American lexicon. If you believe all of the hype coming out of Lincoln these days, it looks like the Huskers have gone all in. Players and coaches alike are talking of Big 12 titles and BCS games. And the fans...well, I heard one person include Zach Taylor in a Heisman trophy conversation the other day. No kidding. So, we can consider the stakes for this season pretty darn high.
Is it premature to aim at conference titles and BCS games just after an 8-4 season and two years from 5-6? Maybe. But that's the nature of college football these days. Stoops created a three-year turn around at OU. USC's rise is well documented. And now, Charlie Weis takes Notre Dame back to the BCS in year one and the theme for year two is ... you guessed it -- "raising expectations". He even hung a banner in the weight room that says "9-3 isn't good enough." WOW.
So, where to I come down on expectations for the '06/'07 version of NU football? I say, win the North. Then, win it again, and again, and again.
A conference title and a BCS birth are all wrapped up in one game -- the conference title game. And, we've seen enough wacky things happen in that game to know it is fickle. So, it’s more important for NU to continually put itself in that position by winning all of your other games, and let that one game shake out. I expect success over the long term -- not just one conference title, but a plethora of North titles. That's the only way to get NU some BCS breakthroughs before 2010.
My other expectation for this year is utter domination of any team from the North division. Games against UT and at A&M will be tough. But NU needs to absolutely violate the other North squads. Send a message that this is NU's division. I'm talking Mel-Gibson-in-Braveheart type vengence ("Burn it").
If NU gets to the Big 12 title game to face OU or UT in Kansas City and loses, it will hurt. Sure, I'm no fool. But, my expectation is to win the North so many times in row that every person in the country knows that the Big 12 boils down to NU and whoever the South sends to play them. It’s a matter of going beyond "all in" to being "always in".
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