Obligatory "Is Iowa a Rival" Thread

Is Iowa a Rivalry for Nebraska?

  • Total voters
    193
JJ Husker said:
No Iowa game will have the same crowd juice as a CU game….or Wisconsin or Michigan or tOSU or USC or Miami etc.  There are 2 factors missing for Iowa.

1- You have to Hate them and feel disrespected by the other team to get that super electric atmosphere. Sure nobody likes Iowa but the hate just isn’t at the required level for most fans. It’s hard to really really hate them when in the back of your mind you sort of feel sorry for them. No CFB fan wishes their team was more like Iowa. Maybe short term or in certain aspects but absolutely nobody wants to watch that paint dry week in and week out.

2- The expectation is always to beat them. For the crowd to get that juiced, there needs to be a bit of a feeling that your team may not win. Iowa is sooo bland and boring. It’s hard to not feel a W is in the bag as long as we don’t beat ourselves. Nebraska fan can’t get that riled up when all you have to do to win is play halfway competent football.
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This is what I was trying to say.

Iowa is lame, losing to them is embarrassing and almost never because they are actually good but just because NU is bad.  Even during the "great" Iowa seasons the spreads have always been 7 points or less.  

Beating them is nothing to be impressed about it.  NU almost beat them last year with a 10th string QB.  

 
teachercd said:
This is what I was trying to say.

Iowa is lame, losing to them is embarrassing and almost never because they are actually good but just because NU is bad.  Even during the "great" Iowa seasons the spreads have always been 7 points or less.  

Beating them is nothing to be impressed about it.  NU almost beat them last year with a 10th string QB.  
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Here’s the thing. 
 

This is where CU used to be for us back in the old big 8. I remember when McCartney came in and put a bullseye on us. So many husker fans down played them like we do Iowa now. 
 

Now, that’s different. Yes, @JJ Husker has a point about the hatred. But, that can change. 
 

First, we have to start kicking the crap out of them on a regular basis….and, get rid of that stupid Hero’s trophy. 
 

Then, we will see more hostility from Iowa fans. 

 
BigRedBuster said:
Here’s the thing. 
 

This is where CU used to be for us back in the old big 8. I remember when McCartney came in and put a bullseye on us. So many husker fans down played them like we do Iowa now. 
 

Now, that’s different. Yes, @JJ Husker has a point about the hatred. But, that can change. 
 

First, we have to start kicking the crap out of them on a regular basis….and, get rid of that stupid Hero’s trophy. 
 

Then, we will see more hostility from Iowa fans. 
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Yeah, that could be.

 
BigRedBuster said:
Here’s the thing. 
 

This is where CU used to be for us back in the old big 8. I remember when McCartney came in and put a bullseye on us. So many husker fans down played them like we do Iowa now. 
 

Now, that’s different. Yes, @JJ Husker has a point about the hatred. But, that can change. 
 

First, we have to start kicking the crap out of them on a regular basis….and, get rid of that stupid Hero’s trophy. 
 

Then, we will see more hostility from Iowa fans. 
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Oh sure, it can change. And I’m not really saying it isn’t a rivalry already. But to see the same level of game day juice as last week’s CU game, it just takes more factors.

 
Iowa is the closest thing in the B1G we have to a rival. They don’t *feel* like a rival to me, but then neither does any other team. I was a pre teen and teen when we were beating everyone, and Oklahoma sucked at the time. To me it was more about which teams’ fans/players seemed the most annoying. That was Missouri, KSU, and Colorado. They were not actually a threat to beat us. We did have that annoying Iowa fan that accused Nebraska of not doing the corny wave thing (yes it is corny), so that helped a little. But the problem with Iowa is they’ve owned us. We need to start winning more. Close games are good for a rivalry but when you’re 3-8 going into the game it just doesn’t mean much. 

What will make it feel more like a rivalry is when Nebraska has a good record, starts to win > 40% of the time (I’m drinking the kool aid so I think it’ll be a lot more), and when we start keeping each other out of important games. I think maybe we kept Iowa out of the B1G championship 2 years ago (maybe?). They kept us out of a bowl game last year but we had already lost 4 games in a row. And even with how horribly we’ve sucked, I still don’t feel a bowl game is a big enough game for me to hate Iowa for keeping us out of it. 

I just want us to start a win streak against them before Ferentz retires. 

I do like the game and it’s my favorite conference game we have, and I’m glad the dumb a$$ idea to move it off of Good Friday was stopped.

 
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Maybe Brian wasn't the problem on offense after all. Midway through the 2nd quarter, Iowa has ten points against Troy, and leads by three.

Troy has the opportunity to go into halftime with the lead.

 
I don’t blame players too much yet for not thinking about the 2 minute warning. But on 2nd down with around 2:15 left, Iowa’s receiver caught the ball 2 yards short of the 1st down marker and ran to get out of bounds instead of trying for the 1st down, and it looked like he had a chance. It was 1 on 1. Then they let the clock run to 2 minutes anyway. 

There was no reason for him to rush out of bounds instead of trying to get the 1st down if they weren’t going to use the extra secs he gained from doing it. 

I think with a boring a$$ team like Iowa, it should be required that they are at least smart with the details. Or with a coach who has been doing it for that long. 

 
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The Troy kickoff return TD potentially happened because the Iowa guy didn’t fight for that first down because he was worried about the clock that they didn’t even end up using. 

 
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BigRedBuster said:
First, we have to start kicking the crap out of them on a regular basis….and, get rid of that stupid Hero’s trophy. 
 

Then, we will see more hostility from Iowa fans. 
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The bold is the most important thing IMO.  I can't stand forced crap, and this has put a damper on the whole thing for me.  I was excited about all the random trophy games in the B1G when we joined, but now everyone in an admin role hates fun like the broken chair trophy.  Stuff like that is what used to make college football great, but of course we have to force corporate sponsored BS instead. 

 
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runningblind said:
The bold is the most important thing IMO.  I can't stand forced crap, and this has put a damper on the whole thing for me.  I was excited about all the random trophy games in the B1G when we joined, but now everyone in an admin role hates fun like the broken chair trophy.  Stuff like that is what used to make college football great, but of course we have to force corporate sponsored BS instead. 
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I mean if you are gonna force stuff force it right.  The trophy should be a bronze stalk of corn.  Something both states have in common.  Like Paul Bunyan's axe with Min and Wisc.  

 
runningblind said:
The bold is the most important thing IMO.  I can't stand forced crap, and this has put a damper on the whole thing for me.  I was excited about all the random trophy games in the B1G when we joined, but now everyone in an admin role hates fun like the broken chair trophy.  Stuff like that is what used to make college football great, but of course we have to force corporate sponsored BS instead. 
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I was just looking up the chair trophy yesterday. That still annoys me quite a bit.

 
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