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Ndamukong Suh was famously quoted a few years ago:
“I’m just a different breed. I hate to say that, but it’s kind of like, no athlete in the NFL is like any other person. You can’t treat everybody the same exact way. That would be unfair, but there’s guidelines that everybody needs to follow behind, so that’s more or less the understanding that I needed to see.”
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Note: projections will not include my predictions for the Big Ten basketball tournament, nor any March Madness predictions.
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The SEC championship game runner-up Georgia Bulldogs (11-2) were extended, and accepted, an invitation to the Capital One Bowl (we used to know it as the Citrus Bowl)
Sunday to face Big Ten championship game runner-up Nebraska (10-3) in Orlando, Tuesday, Jan. 1.
UGA will be HUGE favorites! They were five yards away from playing for the national title, and taking on a team that just surrendered 70 points to a 7-5 opponent.
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With a victory at Iowa, Nebraska earned at least a share of the Legends Division title and clinched a berth in the second annual Big Ten Football Championship Game. The Cornhuskers will face two-time defending Big Ten Champion Wisconsin, which won the inaugural title game last season. The Big Ten Football Championship Game will be played on Saturday, Dec. 1, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis with the winner earning the Amos Alonzo Stagg Championship Trophy and a chance to play in the Rose Bowl Game.
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Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Taylor Martinez has improved his throwing mechanics quite a bit this year. Last season they were just plain unsightly. This fall he looks and throws like a top flight college football quarterback. And the numbers back it up, as he’s tossed 15 TDs against just 4 picks, 1,615 yards and 67% completion.
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Kyler Reed will be a crucial component to the Nebraska Cornhuskers offense this fall, and his impact will go beyond the receiving stats in the box score.
Reed will be a key to the unit getting a nice offensive push forward, as they take on a league loaded with strong defensive lines. In the Big Ten, there’s a ton of great DL units: Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue and more.
The Huskers will need all hands on deck to get the offense moving forward.
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These are highly subject to change. Brady Hoke remarked at Media Day that UM was picked fifth in their division a year ago; and just outside the top 25 in the year they won their last national title- 1997.
So maybe these rankings don’t really mean all that much? Of course, that won’t stop you from reading them and commenting, right?
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On the last Friday of November in Lincoln, Neb., the college football teams from the University of Iowa and the University of Nebraska will square off in the first of what is expected to be a long and competitive and entertaining rivalry between one of the Big Ten Conference’s original member institutions and the league’s most recent addition.
It could be the beginning of a huge rivalry between the Cornhuskers and the Hawkeyes.
“It is the last regular season game, so it may have implications on the Big Ten title game which will be a week later. I have not spoken to the players on how much it will mean but it will be like every game,” said Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne.
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No absence of storylines from the 2011 “Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl” between the Green Bay Packers an the Detroit Lions. You had:
-the Lions failing to live up to expectations/Matt Stafford throwing three picks
-Green Bay winning in dominant fashion 27-8, despite playing UGLY football for a half
-The Detroit fans getting a petition passed to prevent the crappy, overrated pop act Nickelback from playing at halftime
-Would this match-up of two potentially playoff bound NFC North teams live up to night back featuring two first place teams (San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens)
However, the real story here was Ndamukong Suh getting kicked out of the game early in the second half.
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In both the present and the future these two teams matter much for Big Ten. The loser between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Michigan Wolverines is officially eliminated from the conference title. The winner stands as the #2 should Sparty falter down the stretch, and would grab the trip to Indianapolis in place of Michigan State. That’s the short term.
In the long run, these two programs will have to carry the league flag for awhile. There are only four big traditional powers in the Big Ten, and these two right here will need to step up while the other two (Ohio State and Penn State) are in disarray for a few years. Of course, the level of disarray and the fallout yet to come is a million times worse at PSU.
Coincidentally, the two scandalous league powers play each other this Saturday. While the two “clean” powers do battle with each other as well. I’m sure league officials are really glad now that Nebraska joined, and that Michigan seems to have turned the corner.
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Given what went on this past week in State College, many people worried about what might happen today in Penn State versus Nebraska. Some thought the game shouldn’t even be played; out of both respect to Jerry Sandusky’s victims and fear of public safety.
There was a bomb threat; but luckily nothing was found and there have been no major injuries reported. Thus far, no other serious incidents have made public knowledge, so it’s safe to say the game went off much better than expected.
On to actual college football. The game began with both teams joining at midfield for a pre-game prayer.
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Penn State news that actually focuses on college football? Hhmm, yeah, we’ll try.
It’s hard to think about football when you have a campus in mutiny due to the firing of one of the game’s biggest icons. And that firing was justified because of the university’s looking the other way while a defensive coordinator raped children.
It’s also harder to preview this game when Penn State cancelled their weekly press conference. But alas, we will talk about football. It’s SAD and PATHETIC that PSU is “carrying the flag” for the Big Ten conference. They’re the highest ranked team, the only team with just one-loss and the only squad undefeated in conference play.
So, until further notice they are the Big Ten’s (sigh) “best team.”
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