I hate this so much. Recently BYU has had Tennessee and Notre dame do the same. Pisses me off.
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The only thing ESPNâs indices power is the ESPN hype machine.
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My post had zero to do with the ESPN Power index
I was agreeing with you.
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We need to all support the B12. The better it does the better for us.
But here is to wishing B10 beats UT and derails Manning Heisman bid.
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Absolutely
Unfortunately, ESPN will just change the narrative to how UT and Manning overcame early defeat to learn and improve on the season thus more deserving of a CFP top 4 spot and heisman.
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Itâs early in todayâs preseason game and all 3 have contributed so far. Pretty cool to see 3 wrs from the same university on the same nfl team. Theyâll all make the 53 as well.
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Really good deal that they ended up in Houston of all places. I legitimately already enjoyed watching the Texans since you got CJ Stroud, even before Hutch was playing a whole lot.
Plus, most serious ISU fans have Sunday ticket mostly to follow our guys. I watch 49ers and Jets games pretty regularly, and now Texans will be watched a lot more as well. So it gives me something else to talk about on this forum. Always a good thing.
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Random tidbit:
Iowa State and Kansas St will have finished 4 games before TCU kicks off for its 2nd game.
Standings can have a 4-0 and 3-1 teams along side a 1-0 (hopefully) team.
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Just Released as ISUâs Week 0 Starters:
Pos/Name/(Home State)
**BOLD indicates returning starters IMO, several other players are close to that but I made judgement calls, and I tried to be strict but fair
QB Rocco Becht (Florida)
RB1 Carson Hansen (Minnesota)
RB2 Abu Sama III (Iowa)
TE1 Ben Brahmer (Nebraska)
TE2 Gabe Burkle (Iowa)
FB Tyler Moore (Iowa)
WRX1 Chase Sowell (Texas)
WRX2 Dominic Overby (Utah)
WRZ1 Brett Eskildsen (Texas)
WRZ2 Carson Brown (Iowa)
SLOT Xavier Townsend (Florida)
LT James Neal 6â6 325 (Georgia)
LG Trevor Buhr 6â4 325 (Missouri)
C/RG Dylan Barrett 6â5 325 (Illinois)
C/RG Brendan Black 6â4 320 (Florida)
RT Tyler Miller 6â9 335 (Iowa)
LEO Tamatoa McDonough 6â5 265 (N. Carolina)
NG Dominique Orange 6â4 325 (Missouri)
DE Zaimir Hawk 6â3 305 (New Jersey)
DE Ike Ezeogu 6â5 285 (Missouri)
OLB Caleb Bacon (Iowa)
MLB Kooper Ebel (Iowa)
OLB Will McLaughlin (Iowa)
STAR Marcus Neal (Missouri)
FS Jamison Patton (Iowa)
SS Jeremiah Cooper (Texas)
CB Jontez Williams (Florida)
CB Tre Bell (Missouri)
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That is a lot of returning starters. No wonder you guys rated so high
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We are severely overrated.
Having a lot of returning starters is GOOD when they are on the up and up (young guys with talent) or are/were solid-great players in previous years. Rocco is a gamer but I have questions about his decision making, which really didnât improve last year, and his ability to make the passing offense productive without 2 of the best receivers in school history. Having most of the line back (FYI not all of the bolded players were starters for this team last yearâŠsome were transfers and some started in previous years) isnât exactly a positive when the unit (mostly) stinks. Cyclone fans have been hoping for for years the unit would/could turn it around. Weâve had âtalentedâ guys (that really werenât) and had several returning starters before, only for the issues to persists. We brought Ryan Clanton over from UNI (who had 2 first round lineman during his tenure there) but we really havenât been better.
Our best returnees are the RBs, Brahmer (unfulfilled promise), Bacon (if healthy), Orange, Cooper and Williams. I guess Iâll add Rocco here as heâs not chopped liver, but Iâm not sold on his development or ability to make/trust his reads. Ebel showed some promise in the 2nd half, but that unit (without Bacon) was a train wreck. Maybe McLoughlin can make some improvements but I wasnât impressed.
We are maaayyybbeee an 8-4 team, but one that shouldnât be ranked this highly. If the offensive line shows up, our transfer WRs produce, our offensive schema takes a step, Rocco develops, and the front 7 makes stridesâŠmaybe this team is a mid-teens ranked team (best case). That doesnât seem very realistic to me, so I will believe it when I see it.
Last yearâs team was far better (on paper) than this yearâs team. The OL looked stronger, the secondary was stronger, the DL was stronger (up the middle anyway), and WR was a top 8-10 group (at worst) in college football. The only positions that look stronger on paper right now are LB (which was comically weak to begin with), RB, and maybe (if not probably) TE. And the guys we lost??? Higgins, Noel, Porter, Onyedim (transfer), Purchase and Miller? Those were probably 6 of our top 9 guys on the team.
I think itâs up to the OL and the front 7 on defense as they are the areas that we could (potentially improve the most). If that doesnât materialize we are a 8-4/7-5 team thatâs probably competitive in all but 1-2 losses.
If we had a better offensive schema (its clear Campbell is half the problem as Mouser did a lot of the same stupid stuff previous OCs have done under HMC), with good route trees and misdirection, Iâd feel a little more optimistic about the offense. But hoping otherâs teams scraps can be half of what Noel and Higgins were is a tough task. And even with those guys, the offense wasnât always dynamic (Rocco, OL, and above issues).
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I reserved the right to bold them to my own criteria as I see fit. My criteria was returning starters at ISU or guys of that caliber that give equal value to what a returning ISU starter would look like. This was for the benefit of easy sorting at a glance for our conference brethren.
Whether or not they are returning starter caliber players from a unit that is âgoodâ or not is not part of my criteria, merely that there is some starting-caliber known quantity at ISU to having them in the week 0 starting lineup.
I gave the nod to Neal and Buhr. Neal obviously was a starter in the past, as you mentioned. As far as transfers on the Oline, im not sure who youâre referring to. Dylan Barrett is the only one listed who was a transfer, but that was before last season and Barrett is a returning starter from last yearâs squad. Neal was a JUCO at one point, but you already correctly stated he is a former starter prior to last yr. Perhaps you thought I was referring to Barrettâs brother who just transferred in this year? Not sure.
I thought about denoting transfers, but I decided against it an effort to keep it brief and more simplistic for our Big 12 fans FWIW. I did NOT bold any new transfers as returning starters due to their starting at their previous school last year (as you see with Sowell). Nor did I bold guys like Hawk, Ezeogu, or Patton despite them being returning rotational guys who have played a lot. This is obviously a step up for them, which Iâm sure you will agree.
For both football and basketball I take your optimism and zrfâs pessimism and assume the truth is in the middle
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Bummer for Tech
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Having the o line back is huge
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Lol nice strategy. well, itâs definitely better than ZRFâs pessimism. 
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Lol donât get him started on this one! It is true tho that the O-line is never very good. Thatâs pretty common knowledge and universally held at this point.
But it canât hurt, and hope springs eternal!
Thereâs a lot of continuity in general. There are ONLY 2 incoming transfers listed above on offense and 2 on defense, respectively, in total!
The rest are internally developed guys by a wide margin. Almost all of them were HS recruits. Including Dom Overby, who I mentioned to you earlier @BYUcougarfan . Heâs 100% gonna play a lot. My earlier predictions for the starters (and the 2 deep) were very very accurate. Not even that I like all of the picks or agree with them necessarily.
I think people often confuse what I think vs. what I think our coaches are going to do for being the same thing. I actually prefer to keep it strictly the latter with my ISU posts. Of course, those things often align, but itâs far from all the time. I wouldnât post my more âextreme or controversialâ negative opinions about ISU publicly. I save that for KSU and the university of iowa
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