vermeil a cyclone?

The Chiefs tried to regain some offensive firepower this week by signing Chan Gailey. We haven't been stellar on that side of the ball since Dick Vermeil was around. Well. The old man has been spotted at the East/West Shrine Bowl game practices wearing an ISU CYCLONES HAT!!!

How sweet is that? Not sure how or why he got it. I did hear that when Vermeil was still coaching our Chiefs, Jim Criner would help him out in preseason drills, so who knows?

Anyways, there was a post on AP the other day that got my attention, relating offense/defensive rankings to each other. Here are a couple of interesting graphs. (Well, interesting to me)

Above is somewhat of a copy of arrowhead pride's graph. But I put white lines in for years we made the playoffs. I learned nothing except that a lot of different styles of team can make the playoffs. Anybody else learn anything besides: "man, our offense sucked last year!"?

This one is just showing where we have ranked in the Takeaway/Giveaway ratio. The yellow dots are years we made the playoffs, and the red dots are years we didn't. The yellow line is our average T/G ratio ranking when we make the playoffs, and the red line is for when we didn't.

Nothing really groundbreaking here, it's amazing that in 1999 we didn't make the playoffs with that ratio. That was Gunther's first year after Marty resigned. The freakin Raiders beat us with a FG in OT to make us finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs.

the mayor is the man

"The Mayor" Fred Hoiberg is showing off some of that Iowa State University excellence by, well, being himself. (link). I think the column speaks for itself, but I think it's safe to say that no one makes me more proud to be a Cyclone than Fred.

suckage

It has been a while since I've written on here, my bad.

A lot of things have happened since my last post.

The Chiefs:

Croyle started his first game, hurt his back, then missed his first game. (which happened to be the game I was at against SD in Arrowhead). He may start this weekend against the Donkeys.
Now the Chiefs are all but out of the playoff race, and Kolby Smith is our starting running back. Cool, huh? Oh ya, we fired our second kicker of the year after he blew another game or two for us. Pitiful.

There aren't very many good things I can say about the Chiefs, but one of them is that Jared Allen is still an animal. He has like 12.5 million sacks this year and actually caught a TD pass last weekend. If I wasn't so hammered inside that stadium I probably would have witnessed it with my own two eyes, but I didn't figure it out till it came over the load speaker that he was the one that caught it. Damned Black Velvet.

One more thing on the Chiefs, D-Bo is being touted by ESPN as being NEXT. As in -- just wait he will be a stud. Well, he already is a stud and if anybody wants to buy me a gift, a #82 jersey (Bowe not Hall) would be shweet.


It's the Cyclones' turn now:

More suckage. Our basketball team sucks. I am so embarrassed and disappointed and pissed. I watch all the games, and for some reason I watch them till the end. It's like I'm a masochist. I must like to feel pain, although is doesn't turn me on... I don't know what I am then. Just a Cyclone fan I guess.

So, we will be at the bar Saturday afternoon cheering our bball team on against Iowa like we always do. Can't wait. I better pull a Bodeen and keep a broken beer bottle in my back pocket. Just as long as nobody chokes me.

Outside of the two big sports, we are looking a'ight:

ISU Women's basketball? -- Still solid, added to our HUGE Cy-Hawk lead last night.
ISU Volleyball? Sweet Sixteen
ISU Wrestling? Ranked #1

Ahh wrestling. Beat Minny to take the number one spot in the country. Isn't Cael a freaking animal? We wrestle the freaking Hawks this Sunday in Ames, and the little babies over there are already making excuses for the beat down they are about to receive. One of the more humorous ones is how they are pissed about our new seating arrangement in Hilton. Basically, Cael decided to put up a huge curtain, cut Hilton in half, and make it more intimate, more intimidating. Great, huh?

Well hawk fans think that we are doing it to keep them out. They think we are throwing money away in empty seats because we know that the hawk fans will take over Hilton. Freaking. Bull. Shit.

READ THIS:

Last home dual vs Iowa (12/05): 6,682 -- 46% of capacity (14,356)

This weekend: 9,000 -- 100% of capacity (9,000)

What seems to be the problem? We aren't throwing money away, we are throwing trash away, which is the Hawk fans who want to be there to see their team take on the best wrestling team in the country.

things

Just a few thoughts for today quick --

• What is wrong with Hawkeyes? Look here. 3 FB players questioned in a sexual assault case. This will be a tough one for the spin-meisters over there to sweep under the rug. At least it will be tough AFTER the bowl game, you know Cap'n Kirk will be free and clear till then. This just convinced another 1000 young families not to let their daughters go to that school. I should start a facebook group.
  
• Big game this weekend, on the road at Kansas. It's on ABC, here is the coverage map: (click to enlarge)
• On the road tonight at Bradley, this was a home and home with them. Last year we played at home -- NO WAIT -- we didn't, we played down here at The Well, and lost. What a crock. Same thing happened a couple years back with Ohio State, lost at The Well, then lost on the road against Oden.
  

colors for dummies

That's right, it has come to this. I am having trouble explaining to certain hawk fans what our colors are. They are NOT McDonald's colors, and the color Cardinal is nothing close to the color pink.

This is cardinal and gold, from the ISU marketing web site's athletic palette:


This is red and yellow, like McDonald's:


There is a huge difference. Anybody that can't see that is blind. I can't believe that I have to talk about this, but there it was. That should answer all questions. Also -- ISU may be going to back to the original darker red and darker gold very soon, as in next season. Back to our roots, brother!

tailgate the state

Jamie is taking his show on the road with his 2007 Cyclone Tailgate Tour.

I am all for this. ISU has the best NCAA FB tailgating in the Midwest, and I am all about showing it off. I just hope it doesn't hurt Herky fans' feelings, us rubbing it in their face that we have a better tailgating team than they do. I guess it's nothing they didn't already know.

Anyways, here are the dates and locations:
Cedar Rapids (May 30)
Davenport (May 31)
Sioux City (June 4)
Council Bluffs (June 5)
Mason City (June 11)
Waterloo (June 12)

They will also be in Ames (Aug 19) and Des Moines (Aug 2), but that's really not much of a tour, seeing how they are right next door.

Maybe next year we should start hitting up other states. You know, go nation-wide and stuff. We have done it before (KC, Norman, etc.) on our own, except we didn't have fancy title, or fliers to hand out. This year, Cael can drive the van, while we do keg stands in back with GMac and Pollard.

Honestly though, I can't believe they planned this without counting us in!!! Do they plan on using our van without even asking?


I will let them of course, but I would appreciate a letter, or an email, or at least a phone call to give me a heads up. Maybe they talked to Gleason...

I am pretty sure that I want to go to the Mason City one, maybe get a campsite, or actually tailgate for it, although the van probably won't be making the trip. Everybody is invited, should be a drunken good cyclone time. I am always looking for excuses to wear as much cyclone apparel as I can in a weekend.