The Milwaukee Post

September 27, 2013 • Milwaukee Post • 11 Melvin Gordon has plenty of upside UW running back could be something special Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon is really good. He's so good that I can't wait until he plays again for the Badgers. I don't believe I've ever wanted to see a Wisconsin football player perform as much as I want to watch Gordon run the football. He's Dwyane Wade good. It doesn't mean he's as good a football player as Wade is on the basketball court. It's just that I felt the same way about Wade when he was playing for Marquette. I couldn't wait for the next game when Wade was in college. He was so exciting and so entertaining. I don't even remember if he was the best player in the nation. I don't remember if he was the best player in the conference. I remember that before every game I would turn to George Thompson, my broadcast partner and the greatest player in Marquette history, and make the following statement. "I wonder what he is going to do tonight." He never disappointed. Every game he did something that produced a "wow" moment. It's the same way with Gordon. I can't wait for him to run the ball because he can score a touchdown on every play. Even if he doesn't score a touchdown, he can still do something special. The weird part about Gordon is that not everyone thinks so highly of his talents. He's only carrying the ball about 13 times per game. I tweeted during the Purdue game last Saturday that it's not an Easter egg hunt. There's no point in hiding Melvin Gordon. The coaching staff clearly doesn't think he's as special as I do. James White has more carries this season than Gordon. That should be against the law. White is good, but he's no Melvin Gordon. Gordon should be getting 25 touches a game. Coach Gary Andersen should find a way to get White 15 touches. His staff should have the two players on the field as often as possible. I will not use statistics to defend my position. Gordon is the leading rusher in the country, but it means nothing because two of the Badgers wins were against horrible teams. I will not use his 12-yards-percarry average as evidence that he should be the lead dog for the same reason. This is about my eyes. He has always been as fast as a track sprinter, but in the past two games he has shown running back skills that have nothing to do with straight-ahead speed. He has shown the ability to run over players. He has shown patience by waiting for the hole to open before darting to daylight. He has found ways to make significant yardage when there appeared to be no hole to run through. I am not alone. I have had a former Badgers' running back tell me that Gordon is the best running back in the history of the school. Even I will not go that far since Ron Dayne gained more yards in his career than any other running back in the history of major college football. But, I know why he said it. "HOMER" on SPORTS STEVE "The HOMER" TRUE Gordon does things that even Dayne couldn't do. The Badgers will be playing at Ohio State this weekend, and the Buckeyes have one of the best rushing defenses in the country. Even if Gordon does nothing special, I'm still all in regarding his immense talent. If Gordon has a great game, he will become the leading candidate for the Heisman trophy this season. I can't wait. (Steve "The Homer" True, host of "Homer and Thunder Show," heard from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays on 540 ESPN, can be reached at homer@espnmilwaukee.com.) Lake Michigan has changed over the years Climate, chemical threats make for significant challenges ahead By RICH ROVITO Special to The Post MILWAUKEE – Lake Michigan is crucial to the economic vitality of the Milwaukee area but invasive species, climate change and pollution pose serious threats, a group of freshwater experts said. "The one thing we know about that Great Lakes is that they are changing. The magnitude and rate of change has been dramatic in the last few years," said Val Klump, professor and associate dean of research at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences. "Lake Michigan is an entirely different ecosystem than it was even 10 years ago." The cumulative effect of the threats poses a major challenge for Lake Michigan, said Klump, who also serves as director of the Great Lakes Water Institute. He took part in a panel discussion about Lake Michigan at the recent Great Lake Restoration Conference held at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Pollution runoff and sewage effluent has led to excessive blue-green algae production in the lake, Klump said. "One of the impacts of excessive algae production is that when this material sinks to the bottom, it begins to decompose and it consumes oxygen and so we have dead zones," he said. "The data suggests that these dead zones are getting worse." Invasive species, including mussels, have invaded Lake Michigan. Zebra mussels arrived in the early 1990s, while quagga mussels came in the 2000s. "It's really the quagga mussels that have had an enormous impact the system in a very short period of time," Klump said. The mussels have altered the food chain, he added. Invasive freshwater mussels, like zebra and quagga mussels, also may have a link to avian botulism, Klump said. The mussels filter water, allowing more light that heats water and promotes algae. The mussels' waste also provides nutrients to algae. Invasive mussels may be responsible for the increase in growth of the algae cladophora, which could be tied to botulism outbreaks. Another threat to the lake stems from climate change. "Lakes, in particular, are extremely sensitive to climate," Klump said. Summertime water temperatures have increased eight degrees over the past 30 years. "By the end of the century in Wisconsin, we will have nearly two months of daytime high temperatures over 90 and nearly two weeks with high temps over 100 degrees," he said. In 2012, Wisconsin had periods of extremely warm weather. Temperatures for March and July were the warmest on record, according to Klump. At one point in summer 2012, Lake Michigan's surface water temperature rose to 80 degrees. "That's very usual," Klump said. One of the consequences of warmer temperatures is less ice cover, meaning that water evaporates more rapidly through winter. This affects water levels. "Lake Michigan hasn't seen significant ice cover for some time," Klump said. John Janssen, a professor at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, claims the bottom of Lake Michigan "isn't what it looked like 25 years ago." "There are a lot of algae on the bottom and mussels are fertilizing the algae. We have gotten whacked several times by invasives that have really changed the system," Janssen said. Zebra mussels tended to inhabit the coastal areas of Lake Michigan. The laterarriving quagga mussels go deep into the lake and inhabit soft sediment, Janssen said. The Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan has been more heavily affected by mussels because of its rocky coast, compared with the sandy coast along the Michigan coastal region. "The Wisconsin coast is rocks. This is where the mussels are thick," Janssen said. "They are 10 times as thick on rock as they are on soft sediments. We have the big impact on this side because we are so rocky, from Door County all the way down to Chicago." There are certain areas of concerns around the Great Lakes when it comes to contaminants, said Michael Carvan, associate professor at the UWM School of Freshwater Sciences. "If you look around Lake Michigan there are these areas of concern that the EPA has designated. They are contaminated and they need to be cleaned up. They all happen to be in industrial areas." Legislative action has led to the outlawing of some chemicals or changes in the way they are handled, which has allowed for the reproduction of some very sensitive fish. However, new sets of chemicals, including synthetic musks, fire retardants and certain plastics found in bottles are posing new threats. These new chemicals are being found in fish in Lake Michigan. "Obviously these chemicals have a lot of industrial benefit but we don't know what the toxic effects are and you can't really regulate what you don't know," Carvan said. New testing is designed to make data more readily available and sound, he added. Addressing any potential threats to the lake from a new class of chemicals will depend on how important legislators deem the issue, Carvan said. Problems need to be addressed before serious biological concerns arise, he added.

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