GP1

Those are ok. Don't want to see another. Praying one of those schools in each of the years buys out the contract.

I'll give the AD a pass for the schedule next year and ONLY next year. The insanity has to stop.

If UofA is going to be the cultural center of NE Ohio in the fall with the football team being a feature of the University, only 5 home games is unacceptable. There have to be six. I don't care how they get there, but there have to be 6. Three games at Liberty, Tennessee and MSU do nothing to benefit the players, students, alumni, fans and general communities around Akron. Playing games with the primary purpose of cashing checks is morally bankrupt, but we are also talking about athletic directors.

You are correct. A lot of people will be taking Friday off as Labor Day is that Monday. Going to a game the first night of an extended weekend sounds like a good time. I'm not a fan of weeknight games, but will give this one a pass.

I hated it. Back then, they painted the astroturf and it accumulated on the surface like sandpaper. If you fell on your exposed skin, it left an abrasion mark like baseball players get when they slide. The end zones were the same way.

Our blue and gold colors are fantastic. A fan can buy a piece of merchandise and it will look good with whatever else they are wearing. I prefer the Z logo. If your name is Zips, own it.

I think it is a huge fad right now. While it will always be around, I can see the volume declining over the years because I think for most kids it won't solve the problem they believe they are using it to solve, whatever that may be.

Maybe it's as simple as the TP is a fad.

First of all, I agree. Second, the lack of sell outs cannot be spun as a failure. If 18K go to a football game, have a good time, watch some good football on a day and time of the week that is convenient, that would be success as long as the Zips win over half of their games at home. Those 18K people go home and tell others what a great time they have. I don't think regular sell outs are realistic because we are seeing even P5 schools struggling to fill their stadiums (ie: OSU) for certain games. The people who go to games and have a great time get programs through a down season or two because they see the value in going to a game. I am exactly this person as it relates to Wake Forest. I've sat through some awful football at times but continued to go back because everything else around the bad football worked for me. There is nothing Wake Forest does that Akron cannot do. In fact, The Big Dialer is better than Wake's stadium in almost every way. The team has to start winning to a point that a five win minimum season is not considered reason to tear everything down and rebuild. These seasons have to be considered bumps in the road.

Perfect! He doesn't say there is a "building process". Building what? Ever notice over the past 25 years nobody ever defined what the building process was supposed to entail? Saying there is a building process is a fancy way of saying, "I have no idea what in the heck I'm doing and I'm hoping something good happens before the public figures that out." John Madden had only three rules: be on time, pay attention and play like Hell when I tell you to. Why only three? The more rules you put out, the more a person is able to break the rules so you spend all of your time trying to get the person to follow your rules instead of playing football. I like JMoorhead only has four rules. It's very simple and is how you establish a solid base in a program. There is also discussion about making the program something people in the community can look to as a source of pride through winning. Presenting a good product and winning is something the university can control. There is some discussion of attendance. Attendance is something the university can have influence over, but cannot control because it's hard to control people in a free society. It's why winning on the field isn't enough. The university has to put a full-ass effort into, on game day, making the University a cultural center point for the players, students, alumni, fans and general community. The presentation of the University as more than a football game on game day is something the University can control and needs to control. Finding ways to benefit these five groups on game day needs to be the foundation of success for the University and athletics has to be a part of it but not the only department owning this responsibility. Lastly, it's encouraging to see the University is putting various people in a forward facing position to the citizens of NE Ohio in a way that highlights the positive things going on at UofA.

We could feed Herbie a dozen sauerkraut balls and watch him have to excuse himself to go to the bathroom during the primetime broadcast. I miss sauerkraut balls. Can't get them anywhere but NE Ohio.

The more I look at and read about this coaching staff, the more I like it. I hope those who stuck around embrace this staff because the experience they get as a football players will be changing for what I hope they feel is better. The experience is going to be more challenging, physically and intellectually. This is a D-1A staff. The days of D3 coaches is over and these new guys have a lot to teach you. Embrace it. I once worked for a division leader who told the management group I worked for, "We are going to change the people or we are going to change the people." Those who stuck around need to pay close attention to this sentence.

You are correct. However, JM has proven in the past he can deal with inexperienced staffs. He was a HC on 1AA and won. There are loads of inexperienced coaches at that level. It's all how you deal with them. Probably more handholding, but that's part of the G5 choice. If one looks around the MAC, this staff's make up isn't unusual. I welcome the fresh faces eager to make a name for themselves in the coaching ranks.

I'd just like to say the Zips are not back. To what? I don't want to Zips to be back. I want them to be better than ever and they are on track to do that. If you aren't eager to see where this goes, you are a joyless human.

You are very close. Everyone gets offers now. I care about which schools are offering a guy the closer everyone gets to national signing day. The reason is a lot of players get dumped by P5 schools the closer one gets to signing day. This is part of the hard work of recruiting for G5 schools and why it's so important to get the right players. As everyone may know, I'm a big fan of Rick Neuheisel because he is a really smart guy who sees college football extremely clearly. He always says a recruit who you get right is what you are supposed to do, it's the ones you get wrong that kill your program. MAC coaches have a tight window of error with recruits so it is extremely important they know and can trust specific high school coaches around their recruiting area with feedback. Mistakes must be limited. Banking on the "star" rating systems can prove horrible for G5 programs. Recruiting isn't just about how a player interacts with coaches at a school. It's largely about gaining clarity around players from a lot of different sources and figuring out who can help you win. This is waaaaay harder to do at the G5 level than the P5 level. Bowden threw scholarships into the wind and went with anyone they stuck to. It was lazy beyond belief.