{"id":9415,"date":"2017-12-04T10:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=9415"},"modified":"2017-12-04T00:57:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T06:57:59","slug":"give-me-liberty-or-give-me-wait-a-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2017\/12\/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-wait-a-minute\/","title":{"rendered":"Give me Liberty or give me…wait a minute"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nDecember 30, 2012:<\/strong> Scene from the parade on Beale Street a day before the 2012 Liberty Bowl. Will ISU fans overwhelm Memphis again for an underwhelming bowl assignment?<\/em><\/p>\n

Once Iowa State got bowl-eligible this season, hopes were high. A bowl is better than no bowl, or at least theoretically so, and there was a chance to play somewhere warm for the second time in a decade. There was a good chance of a power-conference bowl opponent for the first time since 2009 and the second time in seven bowls, or third if you count 2011 Rutgers in the Big East.<\/p>\n

But instead, it’s the worst-case bowl scenario: A return to the Liberty Bowl playing essentially a road game against Memphis. Memphis was last seen lighting up the scoreboard in a double-OT loss to newly named Nebraska governor<\/del>\u00a0corn god<\/del> heartthrob Scott Frost. This is the second time ISU will play a lower-tier bowl game against the local team, after the 2002 Humanitarian bowl in Boise, or third if you count playing Rutgers at Yankee Stadium.<\/p>\n

Am I being overly critical? Entirely possibly! But when multiple sites projected us in Florida, a state ISU has never played a bowl game in, against Notre Dame, a team ISU has never played, I feel let down.<\/p>\n

The build-up to the 2012 Liberty Bowl was big. Cyclones flooded Beale Street.<\/a> The gnawing disappointment of playing a non-power opponent \u2014 in a rematch, at that \u2014 was staved off until about the second quarter.\u00a0Then Iowa State proceeded to roll over and die<\/a> in the cold \u2014 just like the previous year in the Pinstripe Bowl, except now it was also raining.<\/p>\n

And speaking of bowl games in cold places…<\/p>\n

\n

Please, Iowa fans, quit asking me which day is the Pinstripe Bowl's Beach Day.<\/p>\n

— Mike Hlas (@Hlas) December 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n