It's currently three days and nine hours until Iowa State University opens the 2006 football season against Toledo. We're optimistic that the defense can replace their losses and continue their winning ways, and that the offense will benefit from another year's experience and realize their full potential. Many pundits are picking ISU to finish somewhere between 4-8 and 7-5, but you've got to remember that most pundits are idiots.

Me? I'm looking at 8-4, with losses at Texas & Oklahoma, a loss to Texas Tech in Ames, and another loss in there somewhere. Can they do better than 8-4? Yes, but it will require an almost injury-free year plus a little good fortune.

The biggest strength of ISU this year? Wide receiver. Todd Blythe is a man among boys out there. I think he's got room to improve, but a 6-5 receiver with leaping skills & good speed is always a good weapon. Austin Flynn is a senior former QB who's made the transition to WR completely. He's got heart and a set of huevos big enough to haul in a dumptruck. Jon Davis, Marquis Hamilton, RJ Sumrall, Houston Jones and the tight ends Ben Barkema & Walter Nickel round out a formidable corps of receivers. Bret Meyer, the QB, has proven that he's able to get the ball downfield to any one of these guys who's open. I hope the coaching staff is willing to forsake the "run first" mentality & gives Meyer the green light to throw like a Texas Tech QB, but we'll see how that works when the season gets here.

Heck, I haven't even mentioned our secret weapon yet - redshirt sophomore EUSEPH MESSIAH. He's only 5-8 and 160#, but he had a great spring game, and he's currently my sentimental favorite on the team - mainly because I'd love to hear our play-by-play man exclaim "The MESSIAH has returned to the end zone, baby!"

Sorry about the sportstalk, Kathy, but as a fellow Cyclone I figured you'd tolerate a little boosterism on my part here. I'll make up for it, I swear - I might even read a chapter or two of Jane Austen in the near future. Hey, it could happen, right?

(sooper sekrit message to the camelids: Good luck to your Dolphins. Losing Sage Rosenfels to the Texans is a big blow (from an ISU point of view), but I think the new coach is moving in the right direction with the team)

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 09:05 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 419 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Very, very cool, Russ. I think this is a great feature, since I never seem to follow the team well during my day-to-day schedule. I, for one, hope you keep it up here.

Posted by: MRN aka "The Husband" at August 29, 2006 10:38 PM (NIqTJ)

2 Asking me to post updates on the ISU football season is like asking Br'er Rabbit if he wants you to throw him in the briar patch. Is this going to be copacetic with the Kath-meister? I don't wanna get on her bad side. You're her hubby, so she's not going to do anything disfiguring when you piss her off. Maybe beat you with a bag of oranges or somethin' like that so it doesn't leave bruises. I won't get the same consideration.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at August 31, 2006 12:47 PM (ZGpMS)

3 In a nailbiter that shouldn't have been necessary, ISU beat Toledo 45-43 in three overtimes on Thursday night. It was 23-23 at the end of regulation, and Todd Blythe scored two TD's in the overtimes. Bret Meyer was responsible for five of ISU's TD's, running in three & tossing the two to Blythe, while Stevie Hicks ran for almost 90 yards & one touchdown. The young defense looked young, and they made mistakes, but the worst mistake was by special teams. On Toledo's first touchdown, ISU blocked th extra point, but then failed to fall on the blocked ball. Toledo recovered the blocked ball in the end zone, so a big play for ISU turned into a two-point conversion for Toledo in the blink of an eye.

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at September 02, 2006 07:03 AM (vFS/o)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Step 1:

Me: You know, with all the bad news about the Iranian nuclear mess, I think it may very well be time to start considering taking some precautions - storing up rations and supplies, thinking out evacuation plans, getting papers in order - that sort of thing.

She: Hmm. Maybe.

Step 2:

Me: Of course, this would mostly be about you and the girls, since any nuke attack on downtown Dee Cee by the bad guys would more than likely take me out as well.

She: Uuuuuuuh......!!!!

See? Easy!

Posted by: Robert at 02:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 110 words, total size 1 kb.

It turns out that I will have to fly on bizness on the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

So far, this seems more creepy than worrying to me.

As anybody who's read my blog over the years knows, I'm already quite frightened of flying. But my fear is the irrational sort, the kind that makes me think the wings are going to fall off if I let go of my arm rests, not the rational sort that would make me concerned that the bad guys might try some kind of commemoration.

Whatever the case, I reckon that's going to be one quiet and subdued flight....

Posted by: Robert at 12:52 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 112 words, total size 1 kb.

I set out on my two week jaunt to Maine with a couple of biographies with which I intended to amuse myself while sitting on the porch overlooking the bay.

The first of them, which I was already about halfway through, is Georgiana: Dutches of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman. Georgiana was a prominant late-18th Century political hostess and like her Spencer descendant, the late, unlamented Princess Di, lived a glamorous high life but lacked both emotional stability and common sense.

The second was Elizabeth Longford's masterful study Wellington: The Years of the Sword.

So what did I wind up reading instead? Well, you know what summer cottages are like - various bits of flotsam and jetsom washing in and out, left there by previous tenants. For reasons which I still don't comprehend, my hand fell on a scifi murder mystery called Spider Play by one Lee Killough.

My opinion? I've finally found a book I had no hesitancy in throwing away once I'd finished it. Who reads this stuff? (Evidently not the publishers - I've never seen so many typos.) The plot was tedious and, in the end, anti-climactic. The style was clunky enough to make Tom Clancy read like Trollope. The "futuristic" language was laughable. (Apparently, in the late 21st Century a coffee pot will be called - are you sitting down? - a "caff urn".) And not even a decent snogging scene or two to liven things up!

My only excuse for finishing once I'd realized what I'd got into was that my brain was on vacation.

Posted by: Robert at 12:35 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 271 words, total size 2 kb.

Just sayin'.

Posted by: Robert at 08:35 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 4 words, total size 1 kb.