Iowa's Schedule, Worst to Best: No. 7 Nebraska

I'm on vacation, but the Hlog is not. Through the power of time-stamping, while I'm gone this blog will publish a ranking of Iowa's 12 football games in 2013 in terms of being interesting.

To see the teams that have already been ranked, click here and scroll. If you have qualms about these rankings that are strong enough to turn your face hot pink, may I suggest you also go on vacation. May I suggest Bora Bora?

No. 7. Nebraska. Nov. 29, Game #12

Really? Iowa-Nebraska isn't in the top half of the most-interesting games on Iowa's schedule? Really?

Well, this is my list, not yours. The comments section lets you air me out for my foolish notions. If someone approves the comments while I'm gone, that is.

But here's what has happened. The dullness of the first two Hawkeyes-Huskers games since Nebraska joined the Big Ten has warped my feeling about this game. Also, I'm not convinced that by Game #12, this game will be as potentially entertaining as several others on Iowa's slate.

Now, should the Hawkeyes defeat Michigan six days earlier in Iowa City, that would inject a lot of life into this post-Thanksgiving event. Likewise, if the Huskers are playing for a second-straight Legends Division title in front of a home crowd, that would pump up the volume in Lincoln.

But until these two teams have a true Friday fracas, I'll withhold my enthusiasm.

Something that also tempers my personal excitement for this game is this: Two years ago our Gazette crew drove to Lincoln from Cedar Rapids on Thanksgiving night. We wandered around the Haymarket district downtown (which normally is a very nice place to find a meal or a libation) and had a devil of a time finding somewhere serving food. It was as if Lincoln treated Thanksgiving as, well, a holiday.

We ended up in a bar eating from a pseudo-buffet that had burgers and hot dogs, and watched the NFL Network's game (Baltimore-San Francisco, I think) on a big screen. You would never have known a Cornhuskers game was going to swallow up the city in just several hours time.

Just three months earlier, I had driven across Nebraska for the first time. I pulled off in Lincoln and ate at a Popeye's Chicken. It's funny how much better some chains are when your city doesn't have one. If Cedar Rapids had a Popeye's, I'd probably avoid it with scorn. But give me a Popeye's out of town, and I am there.

And now, Steely Dan and "Black Friday."