At what point do we stop considering Texas "underachievers" and start considering them as simply not all that good of a team. They have lost three games in their own stadium. The Nebraska win is their only win that impresses at all, and there was a lot of emotion involved in that. UCLA beat them in Austin and UCLA is not good. Its the first win ever against them, but how impressive was it actually?
Texas Tech is in last place in their division and Kansas is just not a good team.
It could be argued that, in reality, ISU's most impressive win could be the one over Northern Illinois, who is now 5-0 in the MAC and who's only other loss is to a better than expected Illinois. I'm not necessarily saying that it is more impressive than Texas, but it may not be far away. Texas has the name brand cache, but how good of a team are they actually?
So the clearly good teams that ISU has played are:
Iowa: L 35-7
Utah: L 68-27
OU: L 52-0
Mediocre teams:
Northern Illinois: W 27-10
Kansas St.: L 27-20
Texas Tech: W 52-38
Texas: W 28-21
Bad teams
UNI: W 27-0
Kansas: W 28-16
So ISU is VERY 0-3 against the clearly good teams, 3-1 against the mediocre teams, and 2-0 against the bad teams.
The next question is what category is Nebraska in? Clearly good or mediocre?
I vote that they are clearly a good team... on a roll... with revenge on their minds. 307 yards against Mizzou?? Wow!
Nebraska 51 ISU 17