Friday September 28, 2012 - The View From Section EE

Last week was homecoming for Brianna. She has been looking forward to it for quite a while now. She had mentioned weeks ago about some "Raider football player" that helps in her class. She said she knew he was a player because he wore his jersey in her class. So I had taken that day off, so I told her we could go to the game. Turns out she realizes that kids tend to run free at the games and that is all she did for a half of a football game. I don't think she even stood there enough to look for her class room helper.

We did sign her up to be a little cheerleader. She had a camp after school to learn her cheers. She seemed to catch on pretty fast and told me a couple of them that night. As the week moved on, she kept acting like she didn't want to go to the pep rally or the game to perform the cheers. Maybe she has lost some of her outgoing personality and is becoming more shy. So we arrive at the pep rally and as soon as she was signed in and got her t-shirt on, she was in the middle of the group and showing signs of the original Brianna. Once it was time to line up and perform, she was right out there.

She lined up next to Morgan, on our side of the gym. Everything was chaos, until the cheerleaders lined the kids up in their proper age groups and placed them throughout the gym. Turns out Brianna is in the front row, but on the opposite side of the gym. So no good pictures, but she looked like she had a great time. Then the next day was the football game. As soon as we got there, she was gone with her friends getting ready to line up. This time, we moved to the side of the field that she stood on at the pep rally. The girls come walking onto the field and just our luck, Bri is on the opposite side from us. So once again, she looks like she is having a good time, but we were unable to get a good picture of her.

Prediction:

Well, I am 2-0 on the season in picking wins. Two weeks ago, I was pretty close to picking this score right! Too bad I didn't take that luck to the Casey's in Bondurant this week and pick up a Powerball. The Western Illinois game was what Cyclone fans needed, an easy win where we aren't sweating it out until the end. Unfortunately, the ISU offense turned the ball over too much and still left a lot to be desired. That makes tomorrows game that much more intriguing.

ISU has beaten Texas Tech the last two years. Last year, Texas Tech was coming off a huge win at Oklahoma and they laid an egg, the rest of the year. So far they have played a very weak schedule and their offensive and defensive numbers do not tell us what this team will be like.

The ISU defense has not given up a touchdown since the 4th quarter of the Tulsa game, nearly 4 weeks ago. I feel the ISU defense is very underrated and they will continue to surprise a lot of people and that will begin with a stingy performance against an offense that some are saying can put up a lot of points in a hurry. The problem is they haven't played anyone of this caliber, so I think Tech is held to 10 points and they score their only touchdown close to halftime.

The ISU offense will most likely turn the ball over too much, again, but I think the defense shuts Tech down for the win. The key on offense is ISU needs to run the ball, and run the ball well. They ran all over Tech last year in Lubbock, and I do not see why they cant do that again. This game could be a shootout like it was two years ago in Ames, but I see too many offensive mistakes for ISU to score a ton of points and the ISU defense will prevent Tech from going crazy.

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