Steele Speaks: Nebraska 2nd in Big 12 North

Just got my copy of that bible o' footbaw Phil Steele's College Football Preview 2008. Immediately I flipped to the Nebraska portion and, in a mild surprise, saw that he had the Cornhuskers slated for second in the Big 12 North, one spot behind Missouri and one ahead of Kansas.

Here's a snippet--in that abbreviation heavy, waste no words, maybe chop up a few sentences into fragments voice we've come to love--from Steele's final analysis for the 2008 Huskers:

"...Pelini steps into a good situation. Despite having just 11 returning starters and 28 letterman lost. Switching the offense to more of a run-based attack means the D should be on the field less and therefore be much improved. The Huskers play 5 teams that were in Jan bowls last year but they make my Most Improved List which means they should go from a losing season to a bowl."

As for that Most Improved list, Nebraska checks in at #12. (For the record: Notre Dame is Steele's #1 Most Improved team.)

Big 12 Unit Rankings? They are as follows: QB 8, RB 1, REC 7, OL 4, DL 3, LB 11, DB 8, ST 6, CH 11.

Overall, Nebraska checks in at #43 on the preseason rankings list, behind Missouri (#7) and Kansas (#30).

Now that my weekend is shot, I'll probably be back with more from the great bible o' footbaw once I have a chance to actually digest some of the information.

Finally, Trace Adkins Will Pay for Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

I’m going to beat the hell out of Trace Adkins this fall. Thanks to Athlon Sports, I may finally get retribution for “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and I’d be lying if I were to say it hasn’t totally brightened my outlook for the fall.

I picked up a copy of Athlon’s 2008 preview the other day--not because it’s any good but because it was there and Phil Steele’s wasn’t—and there was Trace Adkins pointing at me with a football in his hand. He seemed to be saying: “Hey, you, I played football at Louisiana Tech and am responsible for some of the worst music videos ever released. Despite all that, I bet I can pick college football games better than ya’ll.”

I refuse to believe this. Now, I had my ups and downs in terms of overall record last year in my various pick’em leagues but if I can’t beat a man who is responsible for this then, to borrow the title from the best Waylon Jennings song nobody likes, I think I’m gonna kill myself.

I’m passionate about a number of things but my two areas of particular fervor are college football and real country music. When Big & Rich open College Gameday each Saturday I take it as a personal offense, my brain says rage. In less than two minutes, week in and week out, they’re able to desecrate not one but two of my sacred cows and I’m powerless to stop it.

Previously, Trace Adkins had just offended my country sensibilities but now he’s walking on the fightin’ side of me. As we learned in Hoosiers, there's two kinds of dumb: a guy who gets naked and runs around in the snow and barks at the moon, and the guy who does the same thing in your living room. First one don't matter. The second one you're kinda forced to deal with.

I now have to deal with Trace Adkins. The good news is that we all have a chance to knock him off. We can humiliate him they way Kansas will his alma mater in week two.

I don’t know yet if we’re picking against the spread (hopefully) or straight-up (lame), but I do know that I will beat Trace Adkins this season. I have to beat Trace Adkins. Everything I believe on depends on it.

For those of you actually interested in the Nebraska content of the Athlon preview I picked up, they have the Cornhuskers ranked as the 41st best team in the country, picked to finish 4th in the Big 12 North behind Mizzou, KU and CU. In terms of schedule, they predict wins against WMU, SJU, New Mexico St., ISU and Baylor; losses against Va. Tech, Mizzou, Tech, OU and KU. That puts Nebraska at 5-5 heading into the final two games of the season which are “swing games” against KSU and CU.

Here’s what they had to say about the hiring of Bo Pelini:

“While there are plenty of examples of big-name schools hiring coaches without
experience (Mark Richt at Georgia, Bob Stoops at Oklahoma), it’s a bit of a
gamble for a school like Nebraska to hire someone who has never run his own
program. Pelini might end up being a great hire, but Jim Grobe, who has enjoyed
tremendous success at Wake Forest, or former Husker star Turner Gill, who is
doing a fine job at Buffalo, seemed to make a bit more sense.”

Huh? Everything else pertaining to Nebraska you've already read a thousand times over.