Captain Kangaroo

Late Friday night I gave Blair Danner a call to see if there was a slot left for the Zips Basketball Golf Outing yesterday. Luckily there was a foursome in need of a hacker like myself. So, like about 130+ other Zips fans, I woke up at the unGodly hour of 5:45am and headed down to Raintree.I played with a good group of guys. Two were pretty rabid Zips hoops fans, the other was a former Zips golfer from my UA era ('84-'89). We finished -10, which wasn't too shabby. I think -16 won it?But the day really wasn't about golf. Even though football season is only a week away, it was fun to get the banter started regarding the upcoming hoops season. I've never really had much luck establishing any repore with the basketball staff. Football staff? Those guys have always been EXTREMELY helpful to the ZipsNation. But the couple emails I'd sent to the Basketball staff always seemed to have met with the same virus that infected the Microsoft Outlook "Reply" button of so many UA Athletics Department computers.And the few times KD had shown up at past Golf Outings, Mike Thomas' golf cart wisked him through the course like Dale Earnhart Jr. driving the Pope Mobile. If you were lucky, you caught a glimpse.This Outing, the basketball staff was COMPLETELY accessible. KD was great. Jeff Boals probably spent 25 minutes after the lunch just talking to my buddy and I about anything from recruits to eligibility to his 39minutes of PT during his Freshman year at OU. All the guys were great. I'll do my best to follow up on that and get the ZipsNation hoops coverage on par with the detail provided in the football section for the upcoming season.The Outing itself was fun. My group didn't drink any beer...ok, I did but the other three guys abstained... so I thought maybe the basketball crowd wasn't as party-oriented as the football outing crew. Buy at days end the kegs located throughout the course were floating, so SOMEONE out there was hitting the kegs-n-eggs? As rabid a fans as the two guys I golfed with were, both season ticket holders in the lower JAR section, neither had heard of ZipsNation. To me that was pretty surprising. Sweet, black mock-turtleneck golf shirt with an embroidered Zips Basketball logo as an entry gift. VERY nice!ZipWatcher spoke to a lot more staff members than I did, so I'll leave it up to him to discuss any player-oriented details gleaned from the day. He's better than me at that stuff.I'll throw out that much more is expected from Jimmy Conyers this year. His defense is apparently really coming along. He had the expected adjustment problems last season, coming off a year away from competitive hoops. But he's ready to go in 2007-8, and he's definitely on track to get his 4th year of eligibility back.KD also mentioned that, of his 12 recruits, 11 of them will get their degrees. If may take a while for some, because they've elected to play professionally instead of finishing. But all eleven will graduate. Matt Futch is playing pro basketball in Mexico, BTW.KD also mentioned that the Zips offer unlimited summer school to incoming Freshman. Having a player with 6 credits under their belt is a huge advantage in keeping them on track to graduate and keeping them eligible. Of course, this costs money. He also mentioned that the Zips need money for road game charter flights. He brought up how great it was that, for the Binghampton game this year, the Zips tipped off at 7pm, and were back on campus by midnight the same night. They missed zero class time. The more they can do that, the better it is for the kids and the program. You know the additional $325,000 OSU isn't paying us to play in two weeks. That could have paid for all of that. And much more.Great event! It will be held again the 4th Saturday in August (23rd) 2008. I highly recommend it.If anyone esle was at the event and has some comments, please post them!

This is the previous tailgate thread. Click for Tailgate InfoI still don't know where I'll set up shop. Maybe here, maybe the muny lot. A parking deck seems pretty sterile? Is it really a decent place to fire up a grill? Is the atmosphere good...or is it just like...well...grilling in a parking garage?

Yes you can. It is somewhere between $650,000 and $700,000. The math isn't that difficult.

I wish Mack would have told OSU, loud and proud wherever he could get some press, to F-off. There's no one that could side with OSU on this one, unless you're a pathetic shill for their program. We should play there for free. GOD, it is such an F-ing privilege to play in the Horseshoe. There's no excuse for us to take 1/2 the pay-out of Youngstown State or K.e.n.t!! None whatsoever!! F-ing dirtbags. Total F-ing dirtbags. I hope we never schedule them again. If we do, I'm not going.

My opinion, based on a grand total of one scrimmage watched:Jacquemain and Jackson are both better-than-average passers. Jackson is more elusive. However, he defaults to running too soon. Jacquemain gives his receivers a chance to finish their routes.I think that slight edge in overall pocket poise outweighs the couple plays where Jackson's footwork might come into play.If the offense sputters under Jacquemain and needs a spark, that's when Jackson will probably get a chance. BTW -- I hate the term "He can manage the game." Give me a guy that can put the ball in the endzone and move the chains.

Anyone else have fla.shbacks to:Butchie leading us to a 14-10 1st quarter score at Penn State, then Owens puts Gromek in, and...21-10...28-10...35-10...in the blink of an eye.

A well-researched "scoop" blows up in someone's face. Glad that's never happened to me! Great job on covering the practices throughout August, Mike. Outstanding information.

I agree. If we could have held this group together for another 6 years we would have crushed the Buckeyes this year. Stupid NCAA eligibility rules...

Domonkos might be useful as a kick off guy, but that's about it. If I see him trot on to the field to duck-hook a 40 yarder this season I'll scream. Igor has been underwhelming thusfar, but at least his kicks sail end-over-end and don't rotate sideways.Either way, we need a kicker that makes 75-80% of his kicks. Not 33%.

You think? Winthrop, Dayton, Temple, Wyoming, Oregon State or Colorado State plus a Bracket Buster game doesn't constitute a solid non-conference schedule? What more could you ask for?

Monorail comes from the Latin "Mono," meaning "one," and "rail," meaning..."rail."Great episode.

Click for Bain

Click for ColumnHopefully the BC game goes as well as the Minnesota game last year.

Balaam is not eligible this fall. At least that's what I was told last week. Unlike some of the other "casualties" he is going to stay in school and expects to be cleared to play in the spring.Brinson signed up for classes in the spring, but aparently lost interest. Barring some act of God, he's not going to be a Zip.

Derrick Alston (#33) was a great RB. Had 100+ rushing yards against Tennessee back in 1990?I like the Chuck Webb reference. At times he was a man amongst boys.It is a shame that a lot of the aforementioned guys don't remain close to the program. I see Hilk and Buddenberg at the golf outings, but a lot of the other guys have dropped off the face of the earth. Too bad. Whether they realize it or not, they are a big reason why we finally are getting REAL 1-A facilities and a genuine commitment to 1-A football. They all have a legit reason to have moved on from UA...the clowns we've seen over the past 20 years that control the athletics department have been pretty forgettable, to say the least...but these guys layed the groundwork for the dramatic upgrades that are going to happen over the next couple years and I wish they'd actively be a part of it. I wish the University would reach out to these guys. They deserve it.

Hilk and Moten were two of the top 5 LB's of that era. Maybe the top 2?Buddenberg's a top 5 OL.I can't put Clark on an All-anything team. 1 year in a Zips football uniform + 3 in an orange jump suit gets him no recognition in my book.I wonder what his rap sheet is now-a-days? And "Smokin' Crack" Mack Warren? And Marcus Reliford, who was much more adept at breaking through off-campus housing windows than breaking through any opponents defensive lines? Yes...Faust took too many chances.

I couldn't disagree more. Dwight was the best DB we've had in the past 15 years, and was an absolute "shut down" corner. He was the best I've seen in a Zips uniform. He pretty much single-handedly won several games during his career. It is unfathomable how bad some of Lee Owens' defenses would have been without him.That 40-below-zero game @ K.e.n.t his senior year was one of the most impressive individual performances I've ever seen in college football. Too bad there were only about 261 people there to witness it.Vic Greene...maybe Bobby Lyons were at his level...but that's about it.Dwight Smith Ruled/Rules

No freshman were featured in the scrimmage. It really seemed focused on "which QB can lead this team" than anything else. Williams will get a lot of touches this year, trust me. People in-the-know can't say enough good things about his play thusfar.

I wonder what Alex Sullivan ever did in his life to have his inagural thread hijacked in such an ugly mannner? It must have been pretty bad, whatever it was...

You gotta have faith...

Allen didn't play. Williams and Kennedy pretty much split carries in the first two quarters. Walker had several carries throughout the scrimmage.If you held a gun to my head I'd say Kennedy looked the best. But Williams never really had a chance. Any time Williams got a hand off, he was immediately snowed-under.It seemed like this scrimmage was much more about seeing what the QB's could do than running the ball.

I took the morning off work to check out today's scrimmage. Here's what I saw -Jacquemain and Jackson split 90% of the snaps. Rodgers got a few token plays with the 3rd teamers, as did #14. I don't see any way Rodgers is in the starting QB picture. Nada. Zip.Jacquemain started off rough. Some wobbly passes and two that were batted down. Jackson was equally shaky, with a bat-down to his credit too.Jackson also had a bad hand-off to Williams in the red zone that resulted in a turn over.The QB play seemed to pick up significantly in the 2nd quarter. Jackson converted a couple 3rd and 15+ yards on some nice passes. Later he hit Jabari on a nice 40 yard bomb in the front corner of the endzone. Jacquemain responed with a nice 20 yard strike into tight coverage, and a 30 yard TD pass to Sandilands shortly therafter. He also hit Fuqua on a nice 30 yard post for a TD.After settling down, both QB's moved the ball pretty easily. I think it's easy to say translates to our defense being bad, but it is tough to play D when the QB's are wearing red jerseys. Overall, the offense seems ahead of the defense.Devanso Tate had some great knock-downs. He played well.Tuzze had a few nice totes and blocked well.Marquinn Davis and Simkovich both wore red "injury" jerseys.Best run of the day was a 30 yarder by Kennedy. He didn't play after the first half and had an ice pack saran-wrapped to his thigh afterwards. No major injuries incurred in the scrimmage, which is good news. Jabari had several drops and bobbles to go with his 40 yard TD catch from Jackson. He looks to be the same, inconsistent guy we've seen for the past 3 years. Speaking of the same guy we've seen for the past few years...There is no way Domonkos is our kicker this year. He was awful. His 51 yarder barely made it to the goal line and he duck-hooked a 35 yarder. Igor's kicks didn't score much better, but he was at least close (3 feet below the goal post on his 51 yarder and about 2 feet below the cross bar on his 45 yarder). He also nailed a 36 yarder with plenty of room to spare. He's an upgrade over McClain. But, I was really hoping for more considering his HS accolades. Campbell kicked some XP's, but no FG's.Poindexter looked great. It wouldn't shock me if he ended up our #1 TE.The Zips' Beacon beat writer showed up at the end of practice. There was some construction on Exchange, across from Shrank South. I'm sure he just got caught up in the traffic or he'd have been there earlier. My opinion on QB? Based on this scrimmage I'd take my chances with Jacquemain. He matches Jackson in arm strength. He can run better than people give him credit for (he ran one in from 30yds out today). He also puts a nice touch on the ball. Jacquemain seems more trustworthy in the red zone too. That said, Jackson played well today too. Nice 3rd and long conversions. Nice TD tosses to Jabari and Merce. But he seemed to try to do too much with his legs. The way he holds the ball, I think that will lead to some fumbles.I wouldn't pout if Jackson wins the job. But I think if JD is serious about having the player that makes the fewest mistakes winning the battle, I think that's the edge that puts Jacquemain over the top.

I thought my wife and I were the only ones to remember Nerim Gembolai? Averaged something like 30ppg/15+rpg out of HS. He played 1 game for the Zips before quitting, I believe.

Would you trade them for Treg Lee and Jay Burson?

If you're complaing about getting $25.00 seats to the game at Browns Stadium included in your season ticket package, then I don't think anything will ever satisfy you.As I described above: The only possible mistake the University could have made here is to not give the season ticket holder the option of paying an extra $10.00 or $20.00 per ticket to sit nearer to the middle. And if they did that...everyone would have still chosen the $25.00 tickets anyhow.Man...it isn't like they stuck anyone in the upper-level. I don't get it...