 Mike HlasHi, I'm Gazette/TheGazette.com sports columnist Mike Hlas. This is the Hlog. We will meet here, discuss things, and then go [...] |
|
Email the author
Hlastradamus: All-in with Iowa and Nebraska
Did you listen to Hlastradamus last week? If so, where is his taste for feeding you Michigan State to cover the spread (and, ahem, win) at Ohio State last week?
If not, listen up. The prophet has returned, with brilliance in tow.
Iowa +4 vs. Penn State. They call this “free money” in some corners of the universe.
The Hawkeyes were 7-point underdogs against the Nittany Lions in 2008. Iowa won by 1.
The Hawkeyes were 8-point underdogs against the Nittany Lions in 2009. Iowa won by 11.
The Hawkeyes were 7-point favorites against the Nittany Lions in 2010. Iowa won by 21.
Penn State is 0-4 against the spread in 2011.
Do you see a trend here?
And here’s another:
Nebraska -11 vs Ohio State. That’s a lot of points. An enormous number of points. But Nebraska will be highly motivated in its first Big Ten game in Lincoln. And Ohio State has all sorts of goblins and hobgoblims hanging over it this year.
And for you good believers, a bonus pick:
Purdue -10.5 vs. Minnesota. Purdue does not impress the oracle in the slightest. But Gophers Coach Jerry Kill impresses Hlastradamus even less with these comments he made this week, no matter how totally true they may be:
We’re not athletically gifted enough. We’re getting slower. You have to recruit tough, you don’t make them tough. You have to recruit tacklers.”
“We can’t practice the way I’m used to practicing. We don’t have the bodies in our program. We’re not gifted enough. We can’t do what we’ve done defensively. We got to quit trying to, because we can’t. We got to simplify some things.”
“We’re not disciplined off the field. I spend more time babysitting than coaching.”
You can’t say that. You got the job because things were a mess. You don’t go from Northern Illinois to Minnesota if the Gophers have a competent roster in place. If Minnesota is doing all right and the head coach leaves for some reason, they promote an assistant to keep things going all right.
If you’re the Gophers, you continue the roll-over-and-play-dead act you displayed in a 58-0 loss at Michigan last Saturday.
Purdue, which has been a meek bunch itself, gets a reprieve. This week.
-u20042.png?1366232523)
This is not your father’s Nebraska. This is more like Woody Allen’s Nebraska. They might lose this game by being bludgeoned to death with off-tackle runs.
This is not your father’s OSU, which can’t even run off-tackle.
I was completely wrong in my OSU-MSU pick. The way Cousins played, OSU should have won by 31-10.
There will be a horrendous bloodletting in Lincoln. Nebraska will need to show the world its loss to Wisconsin was not reflective of how good Pelini’s team can be.
Memo to the Hawks: there had better be gishy-goshy Gopher guts all over the field by the time you’re done with Minnesota.
This is not MY father’s anything. He went to Northwestern State Colege of Louisiana, who might have a better team than Minnesota this year.