As they stood together during training camp, dressed in their handle-with-care red jerseys, Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo reminded you why one quarterback received a scholarship from Michigan, the other from Eastern Illinois. The 6-foot-4 Brady seemed to tower over a replacement listed only two inches shorter, and yet their physical presence, side by side, projected a varsity-JV vibe.Maybe thats why the New England Patriots struggled to divorce themselves from a perfectly healthy Brady, who wont suit up for the teams first four games because of what the NFL said was his role in Deflategate. Coach Bill Belichick used his franchise player for the entire first half of the fourth preseason game, normally an occupational hazard too dangerous for high-end talent. The team slapped Bradys oversize image on its Gillette Stadium lighthouse. And Julian Edelman likened the quarterbacks forced departure to one of your buddies going to jail.Whens the last time a Patriot gave you a quote like that?But the good New England news is that Belichick confronted this challenge once before, on the fly, when Brady wrecked his left knee in the first game of the 2008 season. Belichick was forced to turn to Matt Cassel, who had thrown 39 passes in his first three seasons in the NFL and a mere 33 in his four seasons at USC. Cassel led the Patriots to an 11-5 season, and in one of the greatest pro football injustices of them all, still didnt do enough to earn a place in the playoffs.Now a backup for the Tennessee Titans, Cassel told ESPN.com during training camp that observing Brady for three years definitely benefited me when I took over for him. ... It was his leadership and how he didnt just speak to be heard. When he spoke there was a purpose to it. Some guys hed pull over to the side in the locker room, other guys hed get after on the field to make sure hed push them that way.Tom really understood the different personalities on the team, and that there were different ways to lead them. Tom would also meticulously pick out plays and ask the right questions about them, up until right before the game, and I think his preparation helped me through my entire career. ... It was amazing to see that. When I first got in the league I had no idea about his level of preparation. He doesnt leave any stone unturned.Starting Sunday night in Arizona, where the Patriots open against the Arizona Cardinals?without the injured Rob Gronkowski, well begin to find out if Garoppolo has been the same kind of honor student in Bradys classroom. Garoppolo is already on record saying that practice has been a smoother operation with Brady no longer hovering about. The kid clearly felt he needed every practice rep he could get.So what to expect? Cassel said that during the 2008 season, Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels did a great job tapering back [the game plan] and then adding things as we moved forward in the season when they became more comfortable with me and discovered what I was as a player.So Id tell Jimmy, Dont try to be Tom. Obviously take things from Tom and incorporate some of the things youve learned by watching him, but understand theres only one Tom Brady, and youve got to be yourself. Jimmys got great coaches around him, and theyll put him in a great position. I remember Bill as being very consistent through my four years. We had bad injuries to key players, and throughout it all he stayed consistent and coached the same and wasnt a different personality one way or another if a certain guy went down. Hes a coach who will tell you what you need to do to be successful.More than anything, Belichick is a coach who will neutralize your strengths, and cover his weaknesses, better than anyone in the league. If its unclear whether Garoppolo represents a weakness -- he looked pretty good, not great, during the preseason -- this much is certain: He is a weakness when measured against the alternative, Brady, who now fades to black.Garoppolo isnt going to Wally Pipp Brady the way Brady Wally Pipped Drew Bledsoe in 2001. But for these four games, the evidence suggests Belichick will simultaneously protect and elevate his backup-turned-starter enough to hand Brady a 3-1 record in Cleveland on Oct. 9, when Brady will surely make it 4-1 and start the Patriots rolling in an AFC East that for 15 years hasnt produced a long-term quarterback who could challenge him. Thirty-eight different men have started at least one game for the Dolphins, Jets and Bills since Brady took over for an injured Bledsoe in 2001, and 37 of them failed to help their teams win a division title (Chad Pennington won for the 2002 Jets and 2008 Dolphins).Brady is one of the divisions two indomitable forces, and its on the other one, Belichick, until he makes it back. Yeah, that could be a pretty good thing. What Ive always admired about Bill and the Patriot coaches is they have an answer for everything, and if they dont have the answer that day theyll have it the next day, said Stephen Neal, the former Patriots lineman who now works as alumni relations coordinator in the wrestling program for Cal State Bakersfield, where he was an All-American wrestler and NCAA champion who defeated, among others, Brock Lesnar. Neal never played a down of college football, and yet Belichick developed him into a Super Bowl champ who started 81 regular-season games over eight years.Football is a game of chess with live pieces, Neal said, and if you have your pieces do what youre telling them to do, youre going to win the game. It doesnt matter if the pieces are the best. It matters if the pieces obey the coaches, and the Patriots have the best coach.Belichick has had quite a chess-board run with personnel over the years, and Neals story stands among his personal favorites. The Patriots coach used a fourth-round pick to replace an all-time great kicker (Adam Vinatieri) with someone who turned out to be just as good (Stephen Gostkowski). He molded a running college quarterback, Edelman, into a star NFL receiver, and, when injuries made it necessary, converted Edelman and Troy Brown into temporary defensive backs.Hes not asking Garoppolo to do anything of the sort here. In fact, Belichick is merely asking his quarterback to do something he has done his entire football life; Garoppolo did break Tony Romos records at Eastern Illinois and did become a second-round pick in 2014. He knows what hes doing, and so do his coaches. Given Belichicks history with Cassel, and McDaniels comments on how the Patriots wont overextend their new first-stringer, the Patriots might start out with an approach as conservative as Ann Coulter.Will it work, especially without a healthy Gronk? Hey, life would be so much easier with Brady under center rather than under suspension. Though the Patriots believe that they can replace his leadership by committee, and that Garoppolo has the requisite toughness to survive and even thrive in his first career starts, they know No. 10 wont match up with No. 12, not even close.But they still have Belichick, and a system of crisis management that seems to weather all storms. The Patriots were 18-1 and Super Bowl runners-up in their Spygate season, and they are 14-5 with a Super Bowl championship and AFC title game appearance since the dawn of Deflategate.If youre looking for a read on what the Patriots will do in the first quarter of 2016, heres another place to look: Belichick started 3-1 without Brady in 2008, when the quarterback wasnt coming back. The best bet says New England will lose in Arizona on Sunday night, beat the Dolphins, Texans and Bills at home, and then hand the ball to the tall, dimpled guy who knows how to take it from there. Cheap Predators Jerseys . He just needed to be his best twisting, turning acrobatic self. "I didnt need to be anybody else, I just needed to be myself and be aggressive," said Burks, who scored a career-high 34 points to spark the Utah Jazz to a 118-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Wholesale Custom Predators Shirts . 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He had made a hundred for Canterbury but had otherwise played only a handful of List A games. Four years on, at the end of New Zealands tour of India this season, Latham was the sides highest run-getter - 244 runs at a strike rate of nearly 90 - in the five-match one-day series.The son of Rocking Rod Latham, who is remembered for his attacking batting in the 1992 World Cup, has always been known for his more orthodox style of play.Id probably say Im more of a traditionalist than a flamboyant [batsman], Latham says. Im probably more technically correct than maybe he was, but its cool to look back and see what he did in the game and now see what I am doing.He believes his father is more suited to T20 than him. During the World Cup he played, in 92, [Mark] Greatbatch started something off, I guess, and it is pretty cool to look back and see the way he played.Latham was about 15 when he decided to commit to a future in cricket over rugby, after he made a New Zealand Under-19 side to tour England. He and his older brother Matt used to play rugby and cricket growing up, and being an All Black was a childhood dream, but the cricket call-up changed things. I suppose when your name is put for New Zealand, thats where the dream started, he says. So I decided to finish rugby and put all my time to cricket. I think that was a good decision.Rod coached his sons teams when they were young, but Latham now relies on his father more for parental-type advice than for coaching. Hess [Mike Hesson] and Craig McMillan here, and Bob Carter and Paul Wiseman back home are the coaches I have worked with growing up. They are the guys I talk to a lot about batting and have a lot of sessions [with] back home.I suppose its nice to lean on his [Rod Lathams] advice. When something is going wrong, because he has been at that level, been there done that, he knows the pressures of international cricket.Unlike his father, who got his first chance at international cricket when he was nearly 30, Latham junior was only 19 when he won his first New Zealand cap. But an earlier start didnt mean an easier one. Latham batted in every position from one to nine, and was the teams reserve wicketkeeper, without ever being a certainty in the XI.It was nice to get that opportunity at an early age and have a taste for it early on and see the standard of where I needed to get there, Latham says. I suppose that was a unique situation [batting from one to nine]. I was sort of a utility guy; I wasnt necessarily first choice in the team, but managed to fill a lot of spots, whether it was at the top of the order or in the middle or with the gloves.The ride got smoother when he made his Test debut. New Zealand had been struggling to find a consistent opening combination and Latham gave them some relief with three 70-plus scores in his first five Test innings, in the West Indies in 2014. In each of those innings Latham batted for four hours or longer. Later that year he scored his maiden Test hundred, against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, and followed it up with another century in the next Test, in Sharjah.When you miss out, that makes you hungry to get back in the side, and its only in the last couple of years that I have been a full member of the side, he says. Its been really nice I got the opportunity to open, and I certainly feel that position suits my game a lot, and its been a good couple of years.This period has also been marked by Lathams increasing prowess overseas - four of his five Test hundreds have come outside New Zealand. On the difficult tour of India, not only did Latham do well in the ODIs, he was also easily New Zealands best batsman in the Tests. He occupied the crease for 18 hours, nearly six and a half more than the captain, Kane Williamson, second on the list, did.Latham cant quite explain his success abroad, but says he formulates a game plan and sticks to it.As soon as I go outside my game plan, thats when things seem to go wrong. For me, especially at the Test level, its about sticking it out there and spending as much time at the crease [as possible].So what is his game plan?I dont want let too much into my secret, but its having shots you want to score from certain bowlers.Obviously, as youve seen here [in India] and in the UAE, I love playing the sweep shot. Its one of my favourite shots and a shot that seems to work really well for me.I wouldnt say Ive put a massive focus on it. Its just a shot that comes naturally to me. I probably find playing that easier than going down the ground.Latham places emphasis also on emotional equanimity, especiallly in conditions where there is either exaggerated swing or turn.dddddddddddd The attritional nature of his game, he says, requires both physical and mental fitness. Its about sticking to your game plan and believing in that plan to work, [even if] you have faced 30 dots, he says. You have to keep calm. What happened the ball before doesnt matter now. Youve got to regroup and focus on the next ball. The more times you can do that then it means hopefully you can score a lot of runs.Ive done a little bit of work growing up in certain camps and winter-training groups arranged by New Zealand Cricket, a bit of mental stuff.He says the conditions in India were the toughest he has faced and that its difficult to replicate this sort of environment while training back at home.If you look at the scores I got in the Test matches [three fifties without a hundred], maybe I did run out of steam a little bit. I dont think you can train for that back home in conditions that are so different. Its about staying hydrated and being as fit as possible.When you want to win games of cricket, you need those big scores. I have been in that position a lot this tour, and hopefully whenever I am in that position next time, I can kick on. Its about doing things for longer over here. If you can keep [the bowlers] out for as long as possible, they are human and they will bowl bad balls. I suppose thats the biggest learning for me - trying to do things for a little bit longer.But its not that Latham altered his technique to get runs in the ODIs. What he altered was his mindset, while playing county cricket for Kent earlier this year. I wouldnt say I have done a huge focus on one-day cricket. Its been more just groove the technical thing. Its more of a mindset change than a technical change, he says. I was lucky enough to go over and play county cricket this year and found it really good just playing day in and day out and not training too much.You are itching to play all three formats. For me, thats been a big thing coming over here and improving my strike rate early on. Not necessarily my strike rate, but just a little more intent at the crease. I feel like Ive done that recently well.New Zealands journey to the World Cup final last year played an important role as well in kindling Lathams desire to be a regular in the ODI set-up. Though part of the World Cup squad, he didnt get a game. But he wouldnt trade the experience for anything. We had a hell of a side out there. It was an amazing six weeks for us. When you are in your own tricky situations, you draw experiences from them and believe that things can be done. Its very motivating to want to play 50-over cricket.As a young keeper, Latham grew up idolising Adam Gilchrist and Brendon McCullum, and he says it was surreal when he first got to share the dressing room with McCullum. More recently, Latham has benefited from his interactions with Williamson and Hesson.Over the last two to three years, its been a nice time for New Zealand cricket. We have played some very good cricket and its an amazing culture weve got there. There are no rules or anything like that - we are all adults. What Brendon and Kane, and all of those guys, have brought to this group is belief.With Kane [the conversations are] probably more about batting, and Kane is quite hooked about batting. I suppose weve got a similar sort of mindset on things and just to share ideas and see what hes working on. A lot of things have come in handy - I am not going to say what, but its just good to chat about cricket; its a game we all love and we are all trying to better.When its pointed out that some of his shots, like the back-foot punch, bear likeness to Kumar Sangakkaras, Latham smiles and says he has read people say as much on social media. Hes another one I have looked up to. Its about trying to take little things they do and have your own spring on things. Id certainly love to sit down with him, if I ever get a chance, and just talk batting.Latham says outside of cricket hes a quiet person who loves to spend time outdoors, mostly playing golf. But hed also like to be a role model for youngsters in the way former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw was for him. He has been pretty inspirational for a lot of New Zealanders, winning two World Cups back to back, and what he has done as a player is pretty cool.If I carry on playing for the Black Caps, hopefully I can inspire people and they can look up to me. And it goes for everyone. We are all trying to do our best for our country and the support we get is amazing. Hopefully that continues. ' ' '