Over The Pylon

Zeke Chapman had better be good, because his future as a male model is 0%

Oh, offseason. You make it so difficult to be a smarmy blogger with your slow news trickle. Once the spring game ends, the amount of information coming out of Muncie about the Cardinals slows to a snail’s pace. Truthfully, that’s the normal pace of most programs this time of year, save for the super elite or the super thuggish. As BSU is neither of those, we are left with small table scraps of information. Here’s what’s been happening since we last checked in with your Cardinal Nation news…

• BSU Hires Corey Bass as the Director of Football Operations
  Jay Steilberg’s replacement comes to Muncie leading the operations side of the house with significant Elon experience, and a presumable air of familiarity with Pete Lembo, considering that’s the guy who hired him. Welcome to Thunderdome, C-Bass.
• Stanimal Now Has a New Ship to Play Iceberg Slalom With
  Siena Heights University in Michigan has “hired” Stan Parrish as a volunteer assistant coach. Now, some might be wondering why that job is in Stan’s wheelhouse, and I can give you 700,000 reasons why he’d take a non-paying job. (That’s the amount of the settlement Parrish got from BSU in case you weren’t paying attention) While there is a small part of me and an even bigger part of the fanbase that would like to trash Stan for his couple of years of head coaching ineptitude, I will instead focus on the years he spent as a coordinator that were by any measure possible successful. Some people are cut out to be the guy at the top and some aren’t. Good luck to Stan in his new gig.
• Orlando Sentinel Says Ball State is #20!
  Oh… wait a second. That’s #20 from the bottom. My mistake. The Sentinel has the Cards at #101 in their countdown, meaning there are 19 teams worse than us according to a beacon of a dying medium. Forgive me for not taking it seriously. It’s sort of akin to a cobbler or coppersmith giving me career advice. Translation: This means approximately nothing.
• Zeke Chapman Signs with the Basketball Cards
  The last time I truly focused a measurable amount of energy on the basketball Cards, Tim Buckley was the head coach and Ronnie Thompson hadn’t yet slipped racist notes under his own door to void his contract. Head coach Billy Taylor is apparently building a respectable program in Muncie, and considering he just signed Zeke Chapman I am officially driving the Billy Bus and drinking the Cardinal Kool Aid. Is Zeke Chapman all that good? I honestly have no idea. The fact that he signed with a MAC school gives a little perspective to that, but maybe he found a gem. The real reason why I have already proclaimed Zeke Chapman “OTP’s Guy” going forward… his father Rex Chapman as a Kentucky player provided me my first basketball memories when he dropped 26 on Louisville en route to a 30 point beatdown of the Cardinals in 1986. That lit the fire of the Kentucky passion, the Louisville hatred, and my affection for the Chapman clan. Welcome Zeke to Funcie. If you’re even 25% as good as your father I see good things in your future. Chi-Omega good things if you catch my drift.

So that’s the news that’s come out in the last couple weeks. Upcoming in OTPville are our 2011 opponent previews and other assorted goodies. And who knows… I may even be able to rouse RV up for another podcast. I won’t hold my breath on that one.

Go Cards!

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