Captain Kangaroo

Gotta love statistics... Didn't opponents need to play their starters the entire game when they played the Zips this year? Were the Zips behind 66-5 in the 3rd quarter of any games this season? Were Caponi and Pressley injured for any period of time? Yeah, it was another 11-loss season. But the Zips were vastly improved in all facets of the game. We are simply digging out of such an unprecedented hole that the progress made appears invisible to all but a few.

The game was a total mismatch...Notre Dame had no business being on the same field...but...that first sideline catch by the ND receiver was a great catch, ruled incomplete even after the replay. Then the Tide's own player causes their return man to fumble the ball, and again, even after replay the ruling isn't overturned. Getting those calls right would have simply delayed the inevitable, but as someone who hates replay, they pissed me off. Why have replay if you still get the call wrong after watching it several times in slo-mo? I liked Musberger's "Jimmy The Greek/Cosell-Senior-End-of-Career Moment." The guy broadcasts for 50 years without much real identity, and now he'll forever be known as a creepy old perv. It was like Mogadore vs. St Ignatius. A 12-0 team that moved up way too high in caliber of competition and got waxed. How many draft spots did Manti Te'o drop? 15? 30? How many embarrassing whiffs by would-be ND tacklers. Is that simple spin move by 'Bama RB's really that effective? Probably not. I liked Urban Meyer's half time analysis. Emotionless...no hyperbole...stating flat-out that the beatdown would continue into the 2nd half and there was nothing Kelly could do to stop it. Bama's O-Line was awesome. They got a 5 yard surge on essentially every play. Finally - As creepy as Musberger was...he was right. Hubba hubba.

But you watch the Zips play John Carrol, Arkansas Cream-Puff and Malone (similar-level mismatches)?

I've never seen so much pregame observation regarding a game the Zips will win by 15.

Didn't Abreu have the same thing last season? If I recall correctly he was back at it in less than 2 weeks. And effective too.

Zips recent post-game: Frenchy (to KD): "Did you hear the EMU-K.entucky score?" KD: "No. What was it." Frenchy: "90 - 38." KD: "That's a problem."

If Woodson is given jersey #1 by Bowden, this will be a solid recruiting class. If someone else in this class is given #1, it will be an great class.

If Dalton Williams was K.e.n.t.'s QB, they win.

Was this the inagural episode of "When AD's Strike"? Amazing that show has run for over 30 years and still has legs.

@ Z.I.P. Justice was not served at the CSU game. But obviously he and the other Human Victory Cigars were not the subject of the original post...they rarely play anyhow. I highly doubt someone heard about Egner leaving the team and misinterpreted it. I expect some know-nothing heard something completely unrelated to the Zips basketball program and blurted-out something completely erronious. Which typically goes straight to the internet. Happy Holidays to you and Eugene!

Must have been Blake Justice?

Keener for President

I'm betting it's Luke Avsec. We'll see if he plays Sunday...

It was 12 months ago that said AD was left with said pecker in his hand. It will be REALLY interesting to see if his contract is renewed/extended this summer. I will guess - no.

"Fans don't like to hear this, but I think they've gotten spoiled at both schools," Dambrot said. "Now, they expect Gary and I to make the NCAA every year -- and maybe win a game in the tournament -- for it to be considered a success." Gary's done it. KD needs to do it. I'm not saying it is easy, and I've heard the word "tortured" used to describe being a Zips' fan more than I've heard "spoiled," but the NCAA tourney is Joe Akron's measuring stick. That, and noteworthy OOC wins.

I still don't understand why we would have a better chance for success at a lower level than 1-A? I contend we would be of equivalent record at whatever level we sunk to. And the debate is laughable anyhow. If TW would have hired a good coach instead making his own call with Ianello, we'd be winning football games and no one would care about 1-AA (no amount of marketing will ever stop me from calling it what it is). We now have a good coach. The wins will come. F 1-AA, F 1-AA, F 1-AA!!!!

People that grip about 30-whatever bowl games simply don't like football. I don't begrudge people who love the Oxygen and Lifetime cable channels. I'll watch some of Ball State tonight. I think it'll be a fun game to watch. Better than "A very special episode starring Merideth Baxter Burney..." Or Guy Fieri on his 13,974th episode of Diners Drive-in and Dives."

I think there is a 50% chance that you repeat yourself more than SeeTeeZip.

Crazy stuff?! Seems like a great pick up for the Zips. Ed Stockett is no longer a Zips commit. And this kid takes his place. Article #1 whines about Stockett's scholarship being pulled...but the article quotes Stockett as saying the decision was mutual? Article #1 Article #2

Sloppy, bad basketball Two weeks ago was roughly 18,000 miles ago for the Puffs. They still had some legs. And they had two of their better players available...guys that didn't suit up vs. the Zips. Michigan State would beat the December 2012 Zips by 15 - 20 points. A universal truth. I think - because no one really wants to talk about the game at all. The Arkansas Cream-Puff game measured only slightly higher on the interest scale than the Dayton women's game. Good for McAdams, but I will be excited when he does it against K.e.n.t., OU, even Princeton. And thank God he did, or the Zips would have nothing to hang their hat on aside from a beatdown of a dilapidated Penn State team. Since MTSU, JK has been...pretty rough. MAC tournament time, yes. We've seen that for 6 straight years. But when the coach comes out and says he's expecting to compete for an at-large NCAA bid, the fans want to see a team peaking in the NCAA tourney. Despite what anyone might say...if the Zips fall asleep in any of their next 3 games, they can easily lose. They are not Bluff Puffs.

Texas Southern will be tough. Davis is a relatively young coach who's taken different teams to the NCAA's. And the way our defensive discipline sits today, I would also worry about a team like Princeton.

It's just Zach being Zach.

Looking back at the 2002-3 K.e.n.t. team, they began the season 4-4., including unbelievable losses to Hofstra and YSU. Their players, on their own, decided to pull their heads out of their butts, quit crying atop their faded Polaroids (youngsters can ask their Grandpa what a "Polaroid" is) of Gary Waters, and play basketball to their capabilities. OU is obviously the closest parallel, having an NCAA Sweet 16-caliber team being captained by a new coach. And succumbing to the likes of Robert Morris and Winthrop. Eerily similar. Smart money in on OU to run roughshod over the MAC. The Zips have similar upside/potential. But rationalizations and scapegoats run rampant... "The referees are against us!!" "The NCAA is against us!!" "We'd have won if we had Diggs!!" (No we wouldn't. We never won with him.) "We're so young!! Wait until next year!!" "Nothing really matters until the MAC Tourney anyhow!!" (No, 1-and-done post-seasons with zero meaningful OOC wins are officially old) "Oh the seating...the seating is soooo bad!!" "Oh the student support...those students should be packing the house to see...John Carroll." "Oh, we had too many days off...how, oh how could we be expected to beat anybody??!!" "Oh you don't understand...Detroit and Coastal Carolina are really good!!" The Zips have a rare combination of talent, excuses and rationalizations. OU has talent, a resume' and some sort of tangential history. Two sailors with different stories....in essentially the same December boat. Who will turn it around in 2012-13? And who will begin their quest for a scapegoat? Stay tuned....

I think it's pretty much run from 1986 through today. C'mon, TB. Give us a nice Christmas present...or two...or 13.

Why would you say that? We had Q for two full seasons prior to this one, and we still lost every similar-caliber game. Why would this year be different?