GP1

I don't know if this is true or not, but didn't I tell everyone this a couple of months ago? Still a lot of time to change his mind if is true.

I just think that people with decency don't like to see racism cloaked in morality. The KKK was founded on racism cloaked in morality as well.

I don't think there is any question the stadium will be completed for the 2009 season. The announcement is done and I'm not certain what everyone is waiting to hear. All they really need is to award the contract and a ground breaking ceremony.It does not take long to build a stadium because most parts of it can be completed while the foundation and supports are being completed. For example, the next time you go to a Browns or Indians game notice that about every two rows of concrete have a horizontal caulk joint. Those panels were made somewhere else close to the site and brought to the stadium and put in place by a crane. Panels can be poured and stored untill they are needed. You'll notice that the panels also have small 5" x 5" concrete patches in two places where you rest your feet. There are hooks below those patches they hook the crane up to and then patch the hook hole when the panel is set in place.18-24 months will be more than enough time to build it.

The way the MAC Championship game was won was evidence of JD being a better coach than LO. LO's teams were comically unorganized and timeouts were frequently misused in order to straighten out the mess. Being unorganized is largely the fault of the coaches. His team would have never been in a position to use all three timeouts to hold NIU to three and out and make a last minute drive to win.It's all about stability.In LO's last year, two of the seven wins were against I-AA teams. Cal Poly was terrible and we could have gotten 22 guys off of this web page to beat a dreadful Howard. Given how we schedule now, Cal Poly would be replaced by Michigan taking that team to 6-6 and another I-A team would have been added that we would have stood a good chance to lose to taking the team to 5-7. There is really no comparison between LO's last year any year since JD took over.

As many of you know, I see a lot of the sports world through the eyes of a Steelers fan. There have been many times in my life when I looked at them and thought to myself, "Self, they have no idea what they are doing". I was almost always proven wrong. There were years when I loved Cowher, and years when I hated him. Not until last year did I not care whether he stayed or left. In the end, he won 149 games in 15 years (more than any other team during that 15 years), many AFC Championship Games, two Super Bowl trips and one championship. His first two years were very difficult and he also had many difficult years and the team stuck with him for what I think was for the better. Back to the Zips.Unless there is an absolute implosion the next couple of years, it is best to stick with JD. JD inherited a program that was flat on it's back when he took over and it wasn't until he decided to start Biggs that things turned around for them. Switching coaches constantly is not the way to build a good program. Sometimes it is best to stick with what you have because the saying "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" exists for a reason.If you need another NFL analogy to make up your mind, look at the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones has taken what was once an ass kicking machine in the 1990s and basically turned it into...take your pick between the Giants, Dolphins, Panthers or Chiefs. He did it all because he couldn't stay in the shadow of a great coach like Johnson and he changed coaches constantly. Stability is the key.

Actually, it proves he can win the MAC Championship and take us to a bowl game.

I see this comment more and more often on the board and I find it just silly. We won all the games that needed to be won to get into the MACC. How is that backing in?The fact is, once in the MACC, we won the game on the field against a really good NIU team. Coaching and the play of Getsy had a lot to do with winning the MACC.Enough with the backing in already.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20070509/APS/705093074If we are doing something like this and at this intensity....good. If not.....bad.

I agree.Pat Kreger and Gary Bogue made a good team. Pat always had his eye on his next job, but Gary was committed to UA. Both brought a level of maturity to a position that requires a mature touch. A lot of people didn't like what they did with parking last year, but everyone got taken care of that need to be taken care of. I think Mike Waddell had a lot to do with stiring up some of that from afar though because he and Pat didn't see eye to eye, and some of you were more than willing and stupid enough to take the bait. It was really the type of sleazy thing I didn't think Mike would get involved with, but he did....so did his old interns. Makes me glad he is no longer here. Back to the main point.What I think we need as a leader of Development is someone who is older, but not old. Gary was really the perfect guy after Pat left. He worked the phones getting people involved better than anyone in the past....by far. The sad thing is that Gary seemed to have a very simple, but what I believe to be effective, plan for developing alumni support and building dononr dollars. Now that he is no longer working for athletics, we are off to Plan 958 in developing alumni and donor support. Time would have proven Gary right and he was willing to put the time in.In a couple of years, Mack and his crew will be gone and we will be off to Plan 959 in developing alumni and donor support.One other point that is basically a note to Dr. Proenza. Take the Athletic Development position away from the Athletic Department and give it to the Development Department where adults can supervise it. By doing so, it eliminates the ongoing turnover associated with the change in Athletic Department staff we seem to see every 2-4 years. Donors like to see the same person over and over if they like him. Donors liked Gary, there was no good reason to force him out.Have a nice day!

Going to the AFC Championship your first year and winning a Super Bowl your second year makes you a good NFL QB.The year before Ben went to the Steelers, they were awful (6-10). There were almost no changes in the team and they went 15-1 with Ben the next year. Ben has been the difference in the Steelers performance. Ben is a winner, case closed.The difference between the Steeler's Super Bowl season and last season was Ben losing half his brain in a motorcycle accident before the season started. Randle El was the biggest loss and that wasn't even that big of a loss. He only caught something like 33 passes his last year with the Steelers. Bettis? All that guy was doing his last couple of years was taking the ball and fall down when he got to the line.The point that Pluto makes is just stupid because nobody knows what might have happened. What if Ben went to Cleveland and went 9-7 and didn't make the playoffs? What if Frye gets drafted and never sees the field with another team, which would probably have been the case. Some of you have to understand that things are almost always exactly as they appear. The "what if" game is just a sad game that losers play. Pluto is the typical Cleveland sports fan crybaby.Every year, eveyone in the media attempts to find the best team in the AFC North and every year they look past Pittsburgh to more sexy teams like Baltimore and Cincy. Most of the time they are wrong. The Steelers will be a playoff team this season. As bad as they were last year they still went 8-8 and were in the playoff chase until the end.I don't know who the best MAC QB has been in the past 20 years, but Pennington, Limpwich and Roethlisberger are the three best during that period. What they did at their schools speaks for itself. Nobody comes close. In the background are people like Frye, Gradkowski, etc., but they are not at the top.

Interesting that Getsy broke something like 25 school records in 24 games. I always thought Luke was a much better player than he was ever given credit for being on this board. It will be interesting to see if he can stay with the 49ers. All Chase Blackburn needed was a chance and look what happened to him. Maybe the same can happen for Luke. I hope so.

Come on now bro, had Mike Waddell produced the exact same piece you would be gushing about leadership, creativity and all sorts of things. People on the board would think that Churchill came out of the grave and moved to Akron to be AD. A lot of what you say is true on the administration subject, but at least come clean about this so others know where you are coming from. Give credit where credit is due....you're not the only one either.

Charlie has a career losing record since his freshman year of college. What makes anyone think he can "win" anything?In almost every case, things are exactly as they appear to be. That rule should be applied to Frye.I haven't typed this much about Frye in years. Kind of fun in a way when things just come naturally.

Which means what?I know the comparison is always to Manning, which is a complete joke. Pluto did he same thing a few days ago. It's laughable.

Good post. Since I'm taking goofing off to a new level today, there are a couple points I would like to expand upon. Trivisano.....Instead of saying Mike Trivisano, you should say Bernie Kosar. I think Triv and Kosar are still close and I think he gets his opinions of NFL players from Bernie. In fact, I think Triv would give Bernie a bl*w j*b if Bernie asked for one. OK, that isn't fair, he would probably stop at a hand job. Anyhow, I have yet to hear an NFL veteran say they would take Frye over even a scrub like Anderson. That really says something. I listened to a game on the radio one day and anyone listening could tell that Doug Dieken (sp?) was sickened by Frye's play. Gary Baxter likes Anderson much better than Frye. I think Baxter was a nine year NFL player and Doug D. had a long career also. These guys know what they are talking about. Triv is just a boob with a microphone.I've been dying for someone to make your second point and you came through for me. The idea that Frye has to compete for the starting position leaves Frye in dangerous and uncharted waters. Even going back to his days at UofA, he didn't earn the starting job, it was given to him. Owens basically gave him the starting job in order to get "his best 11 guys on the field". There was no meaningful competition in any spring practice for the job. Had Sparks not hurt his leg against OU, there would be no Frye in the NFL today. Fast forward to the NFL. Frye didn't earn the job in Cleveland, it was given to him. Dilfer didn't get along with Carthon and he was benched and Frye was given the job.There is no way that Frye shows he is better than BQ when the competition starts. I'm not certain that if the competition was head-to-head against Anderson that Frye wins the back-up spot. Anderson looks like an NFL QB...Frye looks like a moonshine running hillbilly just trying to stay one step ahead of the cops but isn't sure how to do it. Contract considerations will keep Frye with Cleveland though.bigzipguy mentioned a few topics ago that he thinks Frye's luck has run out. I think he is 100% correct.

First a comment about completion percentage. This is how Frye made a name for himself at Akron and how he will stay in the league as a back-up player at least for a couple more years. Completing one pass after another to a guy five yards in front of him is his game. How many of you Browns fans know that the Frye/Winslow combination broke the Newsome record for catches in a year? It should make you Browns fans sick to know that the record of a great Hall of Famer like Newsome was broken by those two. The point is that completions to tight ends do not win NFL games and they didn't win games at Akron. They get first downs now and then while moving the ball between the 20s, but they don't win games for you. Big plays do.Yards per attempt. This statistic describes a risk taker. The greater risk taken, the greater chance of big plays. The Wall Street Journal did a study last December about this statistic (they do strange sports statistics on Fridays). In the previous four Super Bowls, the winning QB was the league leader in this category. When they published the story, Tony Romo was on a roll with Dallas and was leading the league in yards per attempt (I don't know how he ended up with a poor December though). Yards per completion was the most common statistic between the four winners. Since Frye doesn't throw the ball down field, or take a risk, he can never lead the league in this statistic and will never be a winner in the NFL. It's really no more complicated than that.As far as you Browns fans wanting to come over and root for the Steelers, I would just like to say....thanks, but no thanks. We have enough of you already.

My point is not that $6.25 is too much for parking. My point is the $25.00 is incorrect. They held the price of last year's parking passes, but shortend the season by 20%.Beyond that - Parking on Game Day last year was $3.00. I would assume it is $3.00 again this year. Maybe it is $4.00? Hell...maybe they go to $5.00. Why is it cheaper to pay to park on Game Day than it is if you pre-pay? In every other walk of life, if you pay early, you get a better price, not a worse price.Based upon a $4.00/game parking cost, you are paying $9.00 extra for a season's parking if you pay early? Explain that to me. The reason that parking costs more in advance is because the University is trying to make what amounts to only a couple of dollars on parking. For every little stub from the parking pass that you hand in when you park, the city turns that into UofA and the University must pay the city whatever the cost of parking is. So last year, parking was $5 per game in advance. $3 of that went to the city and UofA only got $2. Hoban High School makes more money on parking than Akron does. Just take a second and think of that insanity.Let's assume that the city charges $4 to park this year per game. At $6.25 per game, UofA only makes $2.25 per parking pass. Reduced to a parking pass costing $4 through UofA, they would make nothing in an adjusted per game scenario. Backwards is exactly the direction we don't want to go.UofA only ownes the Rubber Bowl and something like one or two feet around the Bowl. Everything that goes on out there requires permits (the cost I don't know). I really don't think that $25 per season is too much to ask if it helps in the costs of putting on the event. Most people spend more than $2 per week on vending machine costs at work.

No, I'm just poiniting out what a great value going to an Akron game is compared to other schools.

The miscalculation of the price is funny. I didn't have such luck. It would have brought a good laugh.There is actually no mention of Lot 3 beiing anything other than General Parking. Perhaps lot 4 will be used for the high end donors. I could really care less about what they do with parking at that dump. Two years and it is all over anyhow.The map shows the end zone seating as black and not some shade of blue. I thought it was pretty clear myself.Are we really back to the point where paying $6.25 per game to park at a Division I-A football game is too much to pay? If we are, all the winning in the world will not right the ship and we are doomed to the bottom. If there is no mention of parking at Cleveland Stadium, that means purchasing parking in advance is not available. The purpose of a marketing piece is not to tell people what isn't available. I'm sure the lots in Cleveland will be more than available that day.Who should be doing the proofing?In general, good nitpicking. I'd give it a B-, but I'd give this piece a solid B. I'd give it a B+ if some of the pieces did not have math problems.This piece should only be the beginning of a larger sales and marketing campaign. Depending on mailers to sell is for chumps. Mack needs to get out himself and sell this program. It's one thing to have the sales tool, it's another to be able to go out and sell something (not try to sell something, but actually get orders). That's what separates the men from the boys (unemployed) in my world.

If someone wanted a free family plan, all they would need to do is buy it and four tickets to OSU at $60 each, sell the OSU tickets for $90 each on eBay (you could probably get more) and pay for the family plan.Kangaroo Craig is exactly correct. If anything, Akron doesn't charge enough for tickets. I was on the Georgia Tech web page and there is a $100 per seat charge for their equivalent of the Z-Fund for each ticket bought regardless of where it is. $400 per seat if you want seat backs in a "club" area.

They have a base of about 4,100 season ticket holders. 2,000 by June 1.

OK, It was pretty stupid on my part. I should have figured this out the first time I opened it. Jabari and the football behind him is page 1. Knowing that, I've gone from thinking this is a good piece, to thinking it is a really good piece. Much better than what we have seen in the past.I would have moved page 3 to page 6 and page 4 to page 7. Other than that, it will take some real nitpicking to take this apart, so let the nitpicking begin.

Just picked up my season ticket renewal form out of the mail.I like it because....:1. The address page says "Roo Town this is your team". Good spin on the Fear The Roo plagiarism. Background of downtown Akron also reminds those living in Akron, but no history with UofA know the team is part of their community. The more inclusive the better. This should have been attempted years ago.2. It clearly states how one gets tickets to the Army and OSU games.3. The letter from the coach is part of the packet. Also, the letter is well written and points out the fact that Can't, CMU (MAC Champions) and OU (East Champions) are coming to the RB. That is actually a good point. Makes the schedule seem better than what it really is. Those who don't follow it closely will be impressed.4. For once, everything seems to be spelled right.5. Photographs look good and professional.6. Uses the logos of the teams coming to the RB as part of the packet.7. For those of you who love free things, free stadium cushion (one per ticket) is included to protect your ass from fiberglass. The free cushions would probably provide more valuable protection than handing out free condoms in the students section.8. Excellent personalization on the seat cushion page.9. The form sets a deadline.10. A decision about where parking will be assigned is included. Things I don't like.....:1. The form opens up funny as if they printed it backward. Someone with a third grade education could overcome this hurdle though. (five minutes later) Now I understand why it opens up the way it does.....maybe....2. Back to opening it up. I do think that somehow it was printed improperly, but it all still makes sense if you don't pay attention to the page numbering. Don't open it up on the perforated line, try using the two tape pieces. Actually, I think it is printed upside down. You'll have to decide for yourself.3. For $100 last year, someone could go to a pregame and half-time party outside of the RB as part of the $100. The parking this year makes sense if that is still included and is important to the school for people to attend. Would be nice to know.4. If someone had a wheelchair or a walker, there has never been information on how that person could get a disabled parking space. I'm surprised a public institution is not forced to put this on the mailer by bureaucrats.

This is an ideal situation for Andy. Three words......Super Bowl contender. Making the playoffs gives the player an additional source of income in addition to having a chance to win the Super Bowl.I don't know what the offensive line situation is for NO, but being a contender last year probably gives them a pretty solid line. Even if Andy plays as a back up player, he will still get some playing time during games. If they have a solid line, Andy will look even better. It opens the door for a long career as he could stay with NO in a few years, or he could get valuable experience and go to another team.Dwight Smith found himself in this exact situation a few years ago when he went to Tampa Bay.

I can't believe I'm defending a Notre Dame player, but here it goes.The fact that BQ went to two straight BCS games is a miracle in and of itself. Notre Dame is an average college football program right now that would be a middle of the pack Big Ten team. Without Quinn, they are a sub 50% team. ND had better hope that the cupcakes they are scheduling are really cupcakes because there is no talent there and that fat oaf of a coach thinks too much like an NFL coach to really get things turned around. As far as him not winning the big game, Mike Golic (yes, I know he is a ND graduate) did a great study on his performance in big games and compared it to the QB from LSU. BQ actually did well in most of his big games and even better than JR. Could someone please tell me a big game that Frye won?I can't believe you Browns fans. This is the best draft the Browns have had in......well, I really can't remember and you folks can't even be happy about it.