Captain Kangaroo

Wistercill and Ianello are a combo-package. If one goes, the other goes. Wistercill is a remora on the belly of Caleb Porter and Keith Dambrot. He inherited two great coaches, and TW looks really nice smiling in their respective championship photos...but he had nothing to do with their hiring or success. Wistercill was hired to: 1.) Fill a brand new football stadium, and hire a football coach that can win games 2.) Don't screw up soccer and basketball Wistercill sabotaged Brookhart's final season, holding weekly interrogations trying to get the guy to resign over some BS secondary-level recruiting violation. If Brookhart resigned, UA would save $250k in salary. UA didn't save the $250k, but he did get rid of JD after a 3-9 season. And you know what...I don't care about how the JD firing was handled. Sausage tastes great, but you never want to see how it's made. Ditto running an Athletic Department. But we didn't get a decent coach out of the deal. We aren't better program as a result. We are worse-off than after Faust, Owens or Brookhart. Way worse. The $70million dollar stadium sits empty. Gerry Faust and Lee Owens won games at UA with crap facilities. With a budget that was far below "shoestring." Brookhart won a championship. When he lost, he was usually competitive. He beat Syracuse and NC State. Ianello is horrible. His team is reaching depths that no other UA coach has seen in decades, if ever. He's been whipped back-to-back by annually woeful K.e.n.t., who fired their coach only 11 months ago. Ianello's game-day bungling has become legendary. I'd never left a Zips football game early, until Saturday. With 15 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter, I'd seen enough. To my surprise, I saw familiar face after familiar face in the parking lot. Decade+ season ticket holders by the dozens, heading back to their vehicles before the 4th quarter began. Surreal... Wistercill made his own call with Ianello. He put all his money on black...and the ball dropped on beet-red. But instead of his money on the table, it was all our money. That sucks. The inertim AD needs to fire Wistercill first, so he doesn't have to fire his friend Rob. That's the classy thing to do. Then it all begins again. If you want Hunter Yurachek's cell, just PM me.

Yeah. No use paying any attention the University's D1-A football program. It can run itself.

Seems like one of those rare instances where both sides benefited from a change.

I will try to get everything tallied @ noon. Thanks to all for a great Chili Cookoff. I would cast my vote for Johnny's. Very balanced, with a fresh pepper flavor that seemed like they were picked minutes before tasting. Everyone's was great. Despite all the chili, chips and Old Grand Dad, not a bit of heartburn Saturday night?! Horrific football was certainly offset by the great folks in Lot 9. It's a cool community we've all created. Pregame is always the fastest 3-6 hours in the world for me...it absolutely flies by. It will be interesting to see if Ianello kills it in 2012, or if some how we keep it going.

Ole Miss has led his team to a combined 6 points in the last two games. 43 points in a single game? That's insane...must have been septuple overtime?

Or because the Hiram coach benched his star player from an extended period in the 2nd half?

Feels like the mid-80's all over again? Should I bring back my mullett?

Can you explain how negative asrcasm targeted at somone who did not graduate from UofA, does not work for UofA, has no affilation with the UofA and does not work for the ABJ covering the UofA helps this, or any discussion?? No.

I wonder how far along Terry Pluto's "Ianello the Underdog" column is? 45% complete? 82%?

The lack of football acumen is certainly not helping his relationship with the fans either.

You spoke to Faust and he said nice things about a guy. Shocker. Terry Pluto wrote a column highlighting an underdog/overachiever for a future PD edition. He told me not to tell anyone, but I just couldn't help but tell. Please keep it quiet.

Zeke had a game-changing defensive performance. And despite his 1-10 from the field, I though McClanahan played one of his better defensive games. Abreu was excellent defensively, after a shaky first 10 minutes. Not a textbook defensive performance, but I've seen a lot worse.

My favorite line from that story: Akron coach Keith Dambrot said. "It's fair. Nobody in New York wants to see us." I remember...it seems like a lifetime ago...that a Gary Trent-led OU team won the pre-season NIT. It seems like we'd have had a chance to do similar? Oh well...focus on the Titans, Dukes, Mountaineers, Vikings...plenty of meaningful, high-level games coming up soon.

No Zeke for the big Hiram game??!!

I hope you are right.

Against Hiram...put Diggs in the 6th Man role. Who cares? If we play a good team, he should start. Brett McKnight was a 6th man because he couldn't play defense or rebound. His minutes needed to be limited because of those liabilities. Diggs is arguably our best offensive threat, and undoubtedly our best perimeter defensive presence. That guy starts.

I'd buy the party line too, if I was an OU fan looking for an easy, annual 17% gift towards bowl eligibility. I used to hope K.e.n..t. would retain Pete Cordelli and Jim Corrigal for similar reasons.

Could you imagine how good the Lakers might have been if Kareem or Magic was in the 6th man role? Diggs starts. Period.

Nik has a sense-of-urgency this season. He didn't return to the Program to play in the NIT. He has the size to body-up against anyone. He will have a monster season.

Dials has a good record against BCS competition, so I like our chances.

If PN7 is the QB, we have a 53% chance of winning. If Ole Miss is QB, it drops to 3%.

She knows pre-season stuff is worthless, and it's what you do during the season that counts.

I firmly believe that if all are healthy, and the Zips are losing by 17 in the 4th quarter...and score a TD with 13 minutes remaining, Ianello will...I dunno...take a knee on the extra point?

Yes. Ianello going for the field goal at halftime, when he was in the redzone, and had 3 time outs to work with. Nicely was trying to make a play. He's getting snowed-under by 4 K.e.n.t. defenders. I can't fault him. It sucked...I wish he didn't do it...but I can't use that specific play as some sort of definitive moment.It's funny...PN7 threw a beautiful 50yard pass to Suel at the end of the Miami game...hit Suel right between the 1 and the 5 on his jersey...a sure TD...and Suel dropped it. Was that Nicely's fault? Seems so.To be fair, I'm sure some of Ole Miss' 16 incompletions (out of 19 throws) were the WR's fault too.

How can it be an inexplicable attempt if you explained why he did it? I contend it was indeed an explicable attempt.