Captain Kangaroo

Between Chisholm and Alexander, Alexander is the short-yardage back. Chisholm is an upright, outside the tackles runner. Alexander is a low-to-the-ground power runner that hits the hole quickly.

As long as it is natural, and not forced*, I agree with giving it a try. Neither has taken control of the job thus far, so it make take evaluating them both under game conditions to see who gives us the best chance to win. * Like the Penn State game, where Butchie was kicking butt, and we were down 14-10 after one quarter...and Owens inexplicably substituted Gromek @ QB, who tossed two "pick 6's" in a span of about 30 seconds.

Thanks again for all your work, George. You are doing a fantastic job.

Amato knows what the Zips defense needs to do to win. He knows where they're at, with a pretty high resolution. And he knows he'll put it all together. A refreshing, informative 58 seconds. I liked the flashback to last season with Ianello. Broccoli Rob fed us a big steaming helping of nothing with every video segment. My favorite one was his immediate follow up to the complaints on ZN.o about is cocky, FU on-camera attitude. Some administrator subsequently forced him to bring his kids on-camera to show what a softie he was. One of the more forced, uncomfortable things I've ever witnessed. Don't think it fooled anyone.... Love Bowden. Love Amato. Love having experienced "pros" coaching our team instead of arrogant, learn-on-the-fly hackers.

Can we put Yasin Reeder in the "Burner" category? From my recollection, he didn't have many moves, but he could out-run just about anyone. Bobby Hendry? Did anyone ever catch in from behind?

I disagree with your disagreement. Breaking away from CMU's lame defenders isn't really showing breakaway speed. I think Bowden is looking for a pure speed, "Jimmy Grey" type back to complement Chisholm (long stride, size, balance and decent speed) and Alexander (between the tackles, power, excellent leg drive, decent speed). I like trying to get a legit "burner" in our backfield.

John Wayne Gacey painted some great clowns. Roman Polanski made some great movies. Ted Bundy's ovehead slam was virtually unstoppable. And pedaphile-enabler Joe Paterno won a lot of fooball games.

INSPIRATIONAL COACHING MOMENT: Coach Dale gathers his nervous team and has them measure the height of the hoop where the state finals will be played. "Ten feet," a player answers. Coach Dale reminds them that it's exactly the same height as the hoop in their tiny home gym, and is nothing to be afraid of. The players laugh and nod, ready to take on Goliath.

One missed question - "Why did you change from #44 to #7?"

That's almost as good as Dennis Helsel shouting out to the Rubber Bowl faithful "This is the greatest win in Syracuse history!" Or Tom Wistercill exclaiming "The cupboard is not bare!"

In what I feel is an ingenious game day promotion, I have learned there will be an honorary team captain for 2012 game between the 3-9 Chippewas and the 1-11 Zips. Flip that coin, and then ride off into the sunset my friend....

You'd be happier with free Great Lakes Dortmunder than Milwaukee's Best...but free beer is free beer. You can't complain. It certainly does go against the intent of the give-away to provide free tickets to a game 5 hours away against Mount Pleasant's Best. And just a head's up - If you attend any MAC road football game and hang around the gate asking "anyone have an extra ticket?", it takes about 13 seconds before someone puts a freebie in your hand. All MAC road games are free.

I would think Zeke will learn a few things from Pat too.

Must have thought CMU was playing Rob Ianello 8 times?

“Our president wants one day to see Akron right there with other big city institutions,” said Bowden. “I’d just like to see us win a conference game.”

Our biggest problem as the season wore on was lack of point guard depth. After Abreu, there was no real PG to run the offense. Some bad decisions during crunch time of the OU and Northwestern games also hurt. But it is time to forget the past and move forward....

We were already a few scholarships over our allotment. At best we're even now, but I'm pretty sure TB is banking on some further roster attrition as camp progresses.

If we are at .500, with seniors Zeke, Diggs, Gilliam, Walsh (TBD)...with Tree and Abreu...Betancourt...potentially a 6' 11" transfer from WVa...Harney...if we can't win big-time in 2012-13....we just wasted a lot of money on a 10 year contract. This is the best assembly of basketball talent the Zips have ever fielded. No excuses.

Do you think injuries and suspensions affected our start last season?

If a tree falls at MAC Media Day, is anyone there to hear it? The best possible thing to happen to this event is the participation of Terry Bowden - A nationally known media-savvy pro.

I answered your incessant "Nicely Love Affair" topic in-detail a while ago. I'm not repeating myself. My post above had nothing to do with Nicely. Zero. Give it up.

The aptly-named "Ole Miss" was the worst QB to start 12 football games in the history of UA football. Once a Coach with a clue watched 4 minutes of a spring practice, he knew what he had to do. I wish him well. But he was a terrible QB. Hence being 3rd string, behind a RS Freshman and a 5th-year 1-AA player who's thrown only slightly more game day passes than me.

His departure seems like one of those instances where Moore is less.

I will explain "Bardo 2.0" as succinctly as possible -- Bardo was very valuable in practice, and he was a 6' 9" wide body that beat on Zeke heavily during practices. Mike also gave us a 6' 9" body to lessen the effects of losing Zeke for fouls or simply giving him a breather. We missed that last season. "2.0" (instead of 1.1) is because Forsythe is a bigger body (than Mike), with seemingly better offensive skills. But he will still be essentially a 7-foot freshman. If he can give us a little more in 2012-13, in minutes and points than senior Bardo gave us 2 seasons ago, and toughen Zeke up during practices, we should all be pretty happy. Obviously we'd expect the numbers to continuously improve over his following 3 seasons, and his career numbers to exceed Mike's by a fair amount. I do not see Forsythe averaging 14 points, 12 rebounds and 25 minutes for 2012-13. Half of that would be huge.

In the next installment, Coach shows the players the money they can save by clothes shopping at Gabriel Brothers.