It's hard to beat Thanksgiving weekend when it comes to a football feast.   That's not just because Thanksgiving may just be the best holiday there is — simply for the food and a full day and night of pigskin to pig out.   It's rivalry week for the FBS and opening playoff weekend for the FCS.   In this holiday version of Happy Hour, John Gaskins and Trent Singer sink their teeth into a sublime menu with their "Thirsty Thanksgiving Football Forecast."   Will the Jackrabbits and Coyotes — both trending up and both coming off playoff-clinching wins in their regular season finales — both beat the stuffing out of their first round opponents at home?   Will the Hawkeyes make the Huskers look like turkeys for the 10th time in their last 11 Black Friday battles? Will it be all gravy for Kalen DeBoer in the Iron Bowl (Alabama at Auburn) and Jimmy Rogers in the two-team Pac 12 Title Tilt Part 2 against Oregon State?    Will Max Brosmer and the Vikings get mashed like potatoes in Seattle? Will the Chiefs get on a roll in Dallas? Will the Packers be a piece of cake (or pumpkin pie) for the Lions?     After the forecast feast, kick back with your favorite cocktail as you hear about the winning casserole Travis Johansen has whipped up in Vermillion over the last seven weeks. The Coyotes have been as hot as an oven in these "must win" games, but how can they prevent themselves from cooling off after a bye week before the playoffs?   It would help to stay healthy. Johansen fills us in on the status of key starters like L.J. Phillips, Wyatt Lawson, Zach Witte, and Brock Woolf. Plus, a preview of the same Drake Bulldogs the Coyotes creamed in September.   Finally, dessert. It is saltier than it is sweet. Nebraska vs. Iowa has become a bitter, hard-hitting Black Friday brawl since the Huskers joined the Big Ten in 2011.   Few people are more qualified to depict the nature of the raucous rivalry better than Travis Justice, who hosts a daily morning show and weekly Hawkeye postgame show in Des Moines while also hosting a weekly Huskers podcast. He grew up in Iowa a Hawkeyes fan, then worked in both TV and radio in Omaha covering the Huskers for over 15 years and has done these Hawkeye shows and Huskers podcasts for over a decade.   The schools and fan bases don't exactly like each other. Nebraska owns five national championships to Iowa's zero (well, unless you want to count the 7-1-1 outfit in 1958 that topped the Football Writers Association of America's final poll). The Hawkeyes simply own the Huskers. Iowa has won nine of the last ten meetings — the last seven of which have been decided by a touchdown or less.   Both are 7-4 and going bowling. Both have mobile quarterbacks and have played a boatload of nip-and-tuck, white knuckle games.   Will it be the winningest quarterback in Div. I history, senior ex-Jackrabbit Mark Gronowski, piloting another down-the-stretch Hawkeye heartbreaker, or freshman T.J. Lateef turning the tide of the series in just his third career start?    Or perhaps it comes down to a bruising defensive hit that forces a turnover or a field-flipping, game-changing punt return. Or, for the third straight year, a field goal in the final seconds.   Iowa has won these last two games 13-10 on the latter. We'll see if Kirk Ferentz's stoic three-hour stare turns into a smile once again or Nebraska, for just the second time since 2014, makes Ferentz frown.   Gobble, gobble.

Ver todos los episodios