Its a Panther State y'all...

[06panther10]

Wow, that was fun. Finally finished one again.

Cyclone fans, you can come here for your much deserved crow.

UNI FIGHT!

[casbern]

Wow, that was fun. Finally finished one again.

Cyclone fans, you can come here for your much deserved crow.

UNI FIGHT!

Hail Our Panthers!

[JayJ79]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

UNI is the only NCAA football team from the state of Iowa to win a game this week.
(Grand View and William Penn won also, but they are NAIA)

[casbern]

UNI is the only NCAA football team from the state of Iowa to win a game this week.
(Grand View and William Penn won also, but they are NAIA)

Don't worry. The media will make it all about ISU and U of I still.

[BryceC]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

I'm an Iowa State fan and I thought Iowa State would win, but it would be close. I was wrong, it wasn't close. Good game for uni and the fans in CF.

I will warn you about about reading too much in to Iowa State fans after this loss. This is an incredibly demoralizing loss. I guarantee there will be some truly dumb crap uttered in the next two weeks. Most fans were just hoping for a best case scenario of a bowl of any kind, that looks like an extreme long shot and its conceivable we could be staring down the barrel of a Chizik-esque season with some severe beatdowns sprinkled in. The fear is palpable and justified, and it's sep. 1st which is certainly no comfort.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

We're making fun of you because "you" still think this is demoralizing.

[ubuntuCAT]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

I'm an Iowa State fan and I thought Iowa State would win, but it would be close. I was wrong, it wasn't close. Good game for uni and the fans in CF.

I will warn you about about reading too much in to Iowa State fans after this loss. This is an incredibly demoralizing loss. I guarantee there will be some truly dumb crap uttered in the next two weeks. Most fans were just hoping for a best case scenario of a bowl of any kind, that looks like an extreme long shot and its conceivable we could be staring down the barrel of a Chizik-esque season with some severe beatdowns sprinkled in. The fear is palpable and justified, and it's sep. 1st which is certainly no comfort.

Or ISU got beat handily by a good team.

Funny part is there weren't UNI fans predicting this kind of a dominating win. ISU fans went nuts just hearing us think it would be close and have a chance.

UNI never trailed. Just think how bad it would have been if ISU wasn't +2 in turnovers. Could have easily been 35-17.

[otter]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

After we beat Drake, which we should, it will definitely a Panther State.

I can tell you how stressful it was watching the game and thinking UNI would blow it at the end....been disappointed too many times.

Great game last night. Need to work on protecting the ball, but honestly I thought UNI well rounded last night.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

It is demoralizing for them and it should be. UNI is really good, but Iowa State was planning to continue improving. This loss is not an indicator of a good season ahead for them.

[Trapped in California]

We all need to be clone fans for the rest of the season. It will only help us.

They had two weeks to prep for the annual game for last place in the state of Iowa. Good luck Paul Rhodes.

sent from my NSA monitored Samsung Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk for one percenters

[TH1974]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

We all need to be clone fans for the rest of the season. It will only help us.

Meh. .

[BryceC]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

We're making fun of you because "you" still think this is demoralizing.

Why shouldn't it be?

[Blue42]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

Why shouldn't it be?

Because despite the conventional wisdom that IA St has a far superior fball program, recent history doesn't support it.

The reality is that IA St is the 3rd or 4th best team UNI plays this year.

[panther-state]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

We're making fun of you because "you" still think this is demoralizing.

I don't see how it isn't. Sure, ISU won't be mistaken for a Big XII powerhouse but this was a program looking to build off some momentum and prepare for a step out of the cellar and into the respectable ranks of the conference.

I think all ISU fans, whether secretly or openly, acknowledge the fact that UNI has a strong football program and shouldn't be overlooked going into this opener. The optimism of beating us by 2 or more TD's was because that would reinforce that this ISU team has some real potential and could look at another bowl run despite a brutal schedule.

All of that goes out the window with this loss. Not because UNI is a bad team and they don't deserve respect, but because honestly, with all of its advantages in resources, ISU should not lose that game. And the fashion that we beat the Cyclones in, by manhandling them on the front lines despite being smaller, was especially painful for ISU fans. There was little doubt who was the better team last night as the Clones barely managed to scrape up a broken coverage TD and some FG's to go along with one legitimate scoring drive. Even those field goals felt like losses, especially when the officials gave them that fumble and ISU looked posied to punch in a score and really make things interesting.

Quite a few CycloneFanatic posters made a good point that last night is the end of that "honeymoon" period with Rhoades. Gone are the days of defending his every action and mistake like we used to see with Captain Kirk. Now he to really rise up and deliver or that seat might start to warm up a bit. He's in his 5th year at the helm and I wouldn't say they are quite where they thought they would be. The donors (big and small) aren't sure whats missing because that program has spent a lot of money to get to its current position with new contracts, facilities, etc...and yet the results are still fairly mediocre. At this point a lot of Cyclone fans are wondering what needs to happen to jump that final obstacle and break out of the mediocrity (if even that). I'm not sure I could answer that question other than better recruiting but I don't think Rhoades can be knocked for his recruiting as its generally agreed upon that he is a strong recruiter and has not only drawn a lot of players to the program but fans as well (evidenced by their ticket sales).

All of those trolls from a few days ago got a very sobering shot of reality yesterday and while they aren't quite to "the sky is falling" point I'd say this is comparable to what we experienced last basketball season before that huge revival in February. We started questioning the development of our program and the results we were getting after Jacobson and company had that Sweet 16 run. We weren't quite to the "Fire Jacobson" "This program is dead!" area but we had a nice reflection and debate on whether this program was headed in the right direction. But of course those problems magically disappear when you tack on big winning streaks.

TL;DR: Last nights loss for ISU has shown that they are at a crossroads where fans aren't sure if the program is headed where they thought it was. Just when they thought they were picking up some steam, we potentially threw a huge wrench into their plans and royally screwed up everything.

[panther-state]

Re: Its a Panther State y'all...

Because despite the conventional wisdom that IA St has a far superior fball program, recent history doesn't support it.

I have to partially disagree and say that it remains demoralizing because there is so much more at stake for ISU. Their fans won't admit it but both sides of this coin understand that this rivalry game, based one recent results, should be competitive and close. However, there is another party out there called the media and they don't know $#!t about either team other than ISU = Big XII and UNI = FCS so by default ISU should have enough advantages (financially, resources, etc...) to beat UNI and in a way that reflects that imaginary gap between BCS and non-BCS (or non-FBS) schools.

When that victory doesn't occur you get what we're seeing right now with ESPN and others, who are now all of a sudden realizing that the FCS teams aren't that far behind, especially in regards to average or below average BCS teams. The reality is that FCS teams, especially the NDSU's and UNI's, are still competitive with a majority of the FBS (sorry but I'm not quite venturing out far enough to claim that NDSU could go 4 quarters with 'Bama and some of the other elites). But the perception that the media wants to portray is that we're in the minors and we shouldn't be touching these "big-time" programs. To acknowledge that we are competitive and not just flukes is to acknowledge that all that money they pour into those bowl games and "Power 6" conferences (I'm not talking about just ESPN btw), is being spent on teams that really aren't all that great.

At least that's my take on it. We got a paycheck, a W and bragging rights last night. ISU got a nice long look in the mirror and will get plenty of ribbing from others for a good long time. Also their program looks like it hasn't progressed like they all thought after a couple of bowl appearances and some big wins against big teams.