Which way does the TP go? If you answer this wrong, you should be banned.

For the sake of this poll, let's assume that you're in an office and share the bathroom with around 15 people. You're dropping a deuce and someone walks into the bathroom to use the urinal.

#18

I imagine I'll catch flack for this post but wanted to ask anyways. I'm a bit nonplussed by CMC et al. comments on Dekkers. Anyone infer concern about Dekkers putting it all together? I haven't felt a lot of enthusiasm between Blum and Williams, or CMC, which I guess I wanted to see between the lines of coach speak. I feel like I'm used to hearing more buzz and excited optimism around a rising starting QB, especially with his potential. Obviously it's to be expected at this time of year- you have to see it on the field, so we are holding our collective breath. He has all the tools but how quickly can he reach his potential? yada yada.

Anyone else?

Since past threads have gotten way off-track and/or closed due to unneeded hostilities, here is hope for a more civil debate on the merits of NIL – both in it’s true intent and it’s current reality.

With the annual Iowa State Fair approaching, what are your thoughts on it?

Personally, I dislike it and don't attend. Every 4-5 years I think we "should" go and then get disappointed that it's the same exact crap. When I was in 4H, it wasn't as bad, but I've seen animals before and the Varied Industries building is just a giant TV commercial.

What are your views?

I currently have 6 year old Dell 2-1 laptop that has developed a bunch of bubbles under the glass. Seems to be an issue with the touchscreens. It’s more economical to get a new computer than to stick $400-$500 in a new touchscreen for my laptop.

I’ve been given the option of a new laptop or a Surface Pro. I currently use my laptop at shows to show videos of our products, don’t have to worry about hauling a monitor/TV with me. Just looking to see what peoples experiences are with the Surface Pro.

Company I work for is letting me chose what I want. I’ve had laptops my entire work career, so a Surface would be something new to me. I know how technology changes daily with computers, so I need to look at options for each. Just want to see what people think of them.

Today marks a milestone in the life of OTN.

On this date five years ago On That Note was launched on Cyclone Fanatic. Initially, it was a joint venture between myself and cyclones500. Very soon CycloneRulzzz was coaxed into becoming a regular contributor and the now-classic 3-man rotation was born.

For some of the initial concepts and history about the birth of OTN let me offer this link to that first post:

https://cyclonefanatic.com/forum/th...kly-wednesday-music-post.229952/#post-5772641

Interesting to note that when we launched it, we stated On That Note was to be a temporary name - that certainly turned out to be wrong!

We first off want to thank all of you readers and contributors. One of the goals was to learn more about music and find some new artists to add to my favorites. There definitely was some of that and I hope the same happened to a few of you.

As this week approached, we on the OTN team had many discussions behind the scenes about which were our favorite topics. Like picking your favorite child (or in my case picking my favorite Beatles song) I have personally decided to opt out of that exercise. I did especially like some of the earlier efforts when we decided to do more in-depth explorations of artists or genres. I particularly remember doing lots and lots of research on the Iowa artists series. Those I well remember for the effort necessary to pull them together - if for nothing else.

One of my favorite aspects of the OTN experience is when a post coaxes a memory out of a poster of a particular time or event in their life when that song or album became a part of the memory. The "music as the soundtrack to my life" aspect. I know we even had that as a topic once; with some, but disappointingly few for me, responses.

The team aspect of OTN cannot be overstated. So many times we've individually had to beg off for a crisis or life demand. But each time another of the guys would jump in and take the reins for that week. I'm proud so say we've done a post EVERY week for five years, missing no weeks, EVER! That's 260 consecutive weeks. So humor us a bit as we celebrate!

This week we're not specifically looking for songs, artists or lyrics. Instead if you would chime in with your favorite topics or moments from OTN in the last 5 years we'd certainly enjoy hearing from you all. Of course, if those should happen to include a song in your post, that's definitely cool!

And lastly, keep those cards and letters coming. As you might expect, in 5 years we've covered a lot of ground. That said, we ALWAYS welcome ideas from you. We take each suggestion seriously and if we haven't used it (or sometimes even if we've had one close) we will do our best to make it happen.

Enjoy.

I hate betting on baseball, so am really chomping at the bet for football to get underway. Here are win totals and what I'm taking for the Big 12 teams this year, numbers all from Draft Kings:

West Va 5.5 (under, Neil Brown gets fired)
Oklahoma 9.5 (under, right at 9 I think)
Texas 8.5 (under, right at 8)
Oklahoma State 8.5 (over, should push for Baylor for conference title)
Kansas 2.5 (over, I think they win 3)
TCU 6.5 (under, right at 6)
Iowa State 6.5 (over, I am predicting a 7-5 season)
Kansas State 6.5 (over, unfortunately)
Texas Tech 5.5 (number seems low, I think they can win 6 or 7)
Baylor 7.5 (easiest over as the bunch, I think they win the conference)

A few more, just for fun:

Iowa 7.5 (over, Big 10 west is just too much of a joke for Kirk not to win 8 games at this point)
Alabama 10.5 (over, my pick to win it all)
Nebraska 7.5 (under, ridiculous number for Frosts last ride in Lincoln)
Georgia 10.5 (under, they take a half step back to 10-2)

Big 12 Conference Winner:

Oklahoma is the smart pick at +200 but I like the juice on Baylor at +650 so will be sprinkling some on them no doubt.

Feel free to share some of yours!

Weights have been updated. O'Rien Vance is a big boy. McDonald down to 236.

A gathering of preseason bowl projections from various outlets

Link: CollegeFootballNews.com

Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Iowa State vs. Nebraska

=====================

Link: Sporting News

Guaranteed Rate Bowl
Iowa State vs. Nebraska

=====================

Link: Athlon Sports

Armed Forces Bowl
Iowa State vs. Houston

My twitter timeline is flooded with this exact same tweet from a bunch of football players, not sure what this is yet

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I understand PFF grades can be controversial... however, I do think outside of getting the grades directly from the coaching staff (which will never happen) it's about the best analysis you can get for a player's down to down performance. There are also very limited stats for offensive linemen so it is tricky to evaluate without some kind of grading system.

I took a look at our PFF grades for our offense overall and did a deeper dive on the Offensive Line since I believe this group is critical to our performance going forward and was a significant (negative) outlier in our grading since Campbell's first season (2016).


Offensive PFF Grades by Position*

Offensive Line: Past 3 yrs vs. Pre-Campbell -11.7
8 Yr Avg (2014-2021): 66.2
2014-2015 (pre-Campbell): 74.8
2016-2021 (Campbell): 63.1
2019-2021: 63.1

Wide Receivers: Past 3 yrs vs. Pre-Campbell +5.1
8 Yr Avg (2014-2021): 65.5
2014-2015 (pre-Campbell): 60.6
2016-2021 (Campbell): 67.9
2019-2021: 65.7

Tight End: Past 3 yrs vs. Pre-Campbell +14.3
8 Yr Avg (2014-2021): 67.2
2014-2015 (pre-Campbell): 61.3
2016-2021 (Campbell): 68.3
2019-2021: 75.5

Running Back: Past 3 yrs vs. Pre-Campbell: +12.5
8 Yr Avg (2014-2021): 73.1
2014-2015 (pre-Campbell): 64.1
2016-2021 (Campbell): 76.2
2019-2021: 76.6


Quarter Back: Past 3 yrs vs. Pre-Campbell: +11.2
8 Yr Avg (2014-2021): 74.0
2014-2015 (pre-Campbell): 67.5
2016-2021 (Campbell): 76.3
2019-2021: 78.7

Overall, strong gains across almost all positions on offense, except offensive line where we took a pretty significant step back since 2015.

Offensive Line Grading Analysis:
First, I took a look at our progression the last 8 years. A couple things jumped out.

1) Our best year was 2015 when we ranked #20 nationally in average overall grades on the offensive line (78.2 avg grade).

2) Since 2015, we have only had a player grade out over 70 three times (Brian Bobek 2016, Patrick Scoggins 2016, and Trevor Downing 2021). In both 2014 and 2015 our average OL grade was over 70. In 2015 five offensive linemen graded out over 70, and in 2014 four grade out over 70.

3) Finally, none of the Offensive Linemen brought in from the 2016 class forward, have graded out above the 2014-2015 average grade of 74.8 (best grade was Trevor Downing 72.9 in 2021). The best offensive line grade since 2015 was Patrick Scoggins in 2016 but he was a JUCO in the class of 2015).



Next, I took our Offensive Line grades by season and compared them to Kansas State, Iowa, and the P5 Average Grades:


Every year since 2015 (when we ranked #20 overall) we have graded out below the P5 average on the offensive line. KSU has the highest 8 year average grade in the B12 (#10 overall, OU is #11). Iowa has the highest 8 year average offensive line grade and is consistently in the top 10 year to year. Outside of 2020, KSU has consistently been in the top 10-20.


My Take Away:

1) Offensive Line Must Improve
2) We have had some of the greatest success in program history with limitations on OL
3) I have faith that Campbell will get this turned around; when that happens we win 10+


*NOTE: PFF NCAA grades only go back to 2014. So the data sets cover 2014-2021. The average grades are based on (snap count * grade for each player)/(total snaps) = Avg Grade Per Snap. I removed players with fewer than 100 snaps on the offensive line or fewer than 4 games with playing time; for skill positions I eliminated players with fewer than 50 snaps and fewer than 4 games on offense to focus on players with significant contributions each year.

Thoughts after two days spent with Iowa State football players last week and Matt Campbell's comments on Sunday's podcast.

My router is down on the main level and my office is on the second floor. My router is a good router and I have had it for about 4 years. Is there a life span of these things that get slower and slower? What should I do to increase the speed upstairs at my house. Any help would be appreciated.

Enjoy!

4 star DE A. Williams decommits from Nebraska to sign with Auburn. Must hve been outbid, or else he realized how bad it is be in Nebraska.