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2004 vs. 2005


GP1

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I'm going to post a few facts about the 2004 and 2005 schedules, make a few comments and ask for your input. Below are the win loss records for the teams we have played the past two seasons. (Sorry about the look below, I can't get the two season to break out in columns. It is supposed to be a side by side comparison of the two seasons.)2004 2005Penn State 4-7 Purdue 5-6Middle Tenn. SU 5-6 Middle Tenn SU 4-7Virginia 8-3 Northern Illinois 7-4Can't State 5-6 Central Michigan 6-5Northern Illinois 8-3 Buffalo 1-10Buffalo 2-9 Miami 7-4UCF 0-11 Army 4-7Ball State 2-9 BGSU 6-5Marshall 6-5 Ball State 4-7Ohio 4-7 Ohio 4-7Miami 8-3 Can't State 1-10Total 52-69 (42%) Total 49-72 (40.5%)Wins/team 4.72 Wins/team 4.45The real question is, Why 6-5 both seasons? Most on this board would say that the talent level of the 2004 season was better than 2005, I'll reluctantly concede that point.. I really don't see much of a drop off in production at any position between the two seasons. I actually think the two teams would be evenly matched in a game and the 2005 team would beat the 2004 team the majority of the time because they had more winners on the team.Someone also wrote that the leadership on the 2004 team "pulled the team up by the scruff of their necks" to turn the season around after the first five games. That is laughable at best. The reason the 2004 team pulled the season together after the first five games when they went 1-4 is the schedule was easier the last six games. The first five games, our opponents finished at 30-25 (54.5%) and the final six games our opponents finished at 22-44 (33.3%). Only two of the six had winning records and the four losers only had four wins tops. Let's not forget also that the insertion of Biggs into the starting line up was the impetus for turning that season around. As bad as most on this board want to, don't kid yourself about "leadership" from the players that season.The first five teams we played in 2005 had a total record of 23-32 (41.8%) and the Zips went 3-2 against them. A simple ratio would tell you even though their opponents finished at a lesser winning percentage than the previous season, the percent increase in the Zips winning outweighs the opponents winning percentages. The last six had a total record of 26-40 (39.4%) and the Zips went 3-3 against them.I think we can all agree that there were a couple of game here or there both seasons that could have gone the other way if things worked out differently, but it is what it is.We all know my opinion on the seniors from the 2004 team. I believe they were all a bunch of underachieving losers. The only reason that season seemed like a success at the end was the long winning streak, but when they played an above average team at the end of the year for the divisional championship, they pooped down their legs.We all had a lot of frustration with the 2005 team, IMHO, because the losing was so spread out. It made the team seem worse than what it really was. Some of you were even calling for the usually program killing move of replacing the starting QB with a D-II QB. I think we are all gald that didn't happen now. In all fairness though, I think the 2005 team also underachieved in losing to Army and Ball State.Getting back to the question of the role of scheduling. In 2005, there was not a week off and I think that killed the team mid season. We were able to get our feet in the last two games with the week day games giving them a little break. I would hope that as the new schedules are formulated, some consideration would be given to having a week off during the season.I'll open it up for comments now. How important is scheduling? What were the differences in two seasons with identical records? Did leadership play a role? How should Akron set up future schedules to allow for rest? Am I missing something in the statistics above? Let's get some discussion going on this football page. It doesn't seem like there is much interest in the basketball team the way there is in the football program right now. That's too bad because the basketball team is playing great.That's it....the wife is spending the night in Cleveland with three of her friends and I was feeling a little bored. Time to get some Donatos (sp?).

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My initial thoughts in reading this.Scheduling can only be looked at as a one piece of the puzzle for a team. I have become a strong believer that the "single cause" theory is horse shit no matter what you apply it to. Factors to take into account in both seasons.2004:-Entirely new coaching staff and new system. You fail to even mention this in your arguement for why the '04 team sucks (I've infered over a number of posts that this is your opinion, if it is not I apologize). It is hard at any level to bring in a first time head coach, a new coaching staff, a new offensive system and a new defensive system and make it work right away. I doubt it would have had much affect at Penn State or Virginia but I will say that if those players had more experience in the system we win against Middle Tennessee and that NIU game is a lot closer.-The Biggs factor. You do mention this in your arguement but when Biggs got in there the offense was better. Kudos to J.D. for recognizing this and sticking with it although I would argue that he seemed to foget it early on during the '05 season.-Graduation of top WR talent. We all know that Hixon was a superb reciever and that it took J.D. coming in to figure out that he was better as a WR than a S. But having your starting S from the season before come in and be your #1 WR is never a good thing in the West Coast offense.-Regardless of what you want to say, the senior leadership of the '04 team was insturmental in bringing that team up, if from no other prespective than from morale. It is well documented that after Virginia/NIU weeks this team was in the dumps and on the verge of packing it in. The SENIORS on the team stepped up and helped to keep that from happening. Say what you will about them as players, but please do not disrespect what they did from a leadership prespective.2005:-Getsy injury. Yeah, I know he was never really "officially" on the injury report. I think we've all seen though that he hurt himself at the CMU game and it effected the offense through the middle of the season. It lead a lot of us (myself at the forefront) to call for Ferguson and I still maintain that whatever flaws Ferguson had wouldn't have hurt us as much as leaving Getsy in there to throw ducks around for a month. Just put Luke on the injury report for a few weeks and let him get healthy. Make sure he knows it is still his job, but that we can't have him back there with a bad hand. It isn't a matter of rattling his confidence or anything. Just a matter of letting him get healthy quicker. You let him heal properly and we probably win that Ball State game and don't need tons of help to get into the MACC game in the end.-Newcomers at key positions. Both on the line and at QB. It wasn't until seasons end that the offensive line really got the point where it could be considered "adequate" and even that is a stretch. Any yards that Biggs got on the ground and any good passes that Getsy got off were generally of their own making b/c that offensive line wasn't giving them a lot of help. Then there was the rash of false start, holding and personal foul penalties that plagued them as a unit. Needless to say I will be one looking for improvement there next season.Those are just a few things to ADD to scheduling. Obviously if you play the top 11 teams in the country from start to finish of your schedule you are more likely to go 0-11. If you play the 11 worst teams in the country you are more likely to go 11-0. But like they always say "You've got to play the game." And in all honesty, when you look at 3 more wins than loses overall in 2004 and the fact that the last 5 games from each season are only within 1 combined win from each other it is hard to say that there were a whole lot of differences in the two. Just my thoughts.

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WHAT YOU PEOPLE ARE FORGETTING (OR NEVER EXPERIENCED) IS THE CHANGE IN LINGO--I.E. A 1-8 CALL IN ONE SYSTEM MAY MEAN A SWEEP TO END-- IN ANOTHER SYSTEM IT MAY MEAN A Q'BACK SNEAK OFF TACK,.END--GUARD ETC. ASSOCATING A CALL FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER CAN (AND DOES) CAUSE A HESITATION (THINKING), HENCE TIME FOR DEFENSE TO ACT. FROM THE SOUND OF THINGS MOST OF YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYD THE GAME. SAMO - SAMO FOR BB. SO UNLESS YOU HAVE EVER PLAYED THE GAME I WOULD NOT THROW MANY STONES.WITHG BALL AMMUNITION LOCK AND LOAD. :D

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WHAT YOU PEOPLE ARE FORGETTING (OR NEVER EXPERIENCED) IS THE CHANGE IN LINGO--I.E. A 1-8 CALL IN ONE SYSTEM MAY MEAN A SWEEP TO END-- IN ANOTHER SYSTEM IT MAY MEAN A Q'BACK SNEAK OFF TACK,.END--GUARD ETC. ASSOCATING A CALL FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER CAN (AND DOES) CAUSE A HESITATION (THINKING), HENCE TIME FOR DEFENSE TO ACT. FROM THE SOUND OF THINGS MOST OF YOU HAVE NEVER PLAYD THE GAME. SAMO - SAMO FOR BB. SO UNLESS YOU HAVE EVER PLAYED THE GAME I WOULD NOT THROW MANY STONES.WITHG BALL AMMUNITION LOCK AND LOAD. :D
Kind of part of what I was getting at with my point about the coaching staff/systems in '04. Thanks for expounding on that a little though.
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My initial thoughts in reading this.Scheduling can only be looked at as a one piece of the puzzle for a team. I have become a strong believer that the "single cause" theory is horse shit no matter what you apply it to. Factors to take into account in both seasons.2004:-Entirely new coaching staff and new system. You fail to even mention this in your arguement for why the '04 team sucks (I've infered over a number of posts that this is your opinion, if it is not I apologize). It is hard at any level to bring in a first time head coach, a new coaching staff, a new offensive system and a new defensive system and make it work right away. I doubt it would have had much affect at Penn State or Virginia but I will say that if those players had more experience in the system we win against Middle Tennessee and that NIU game is a lot closer.-The Biggs factor. You do mention this in your arguement but when Biggs got in there the offense was better. Kudos to J.D. for recognizing this and sticking with it although I would argue that he seemed to foget it early on during the '05 season.-Graduation of top WR talent. We all know that Hixon was a superb reciever and that it took J.D. coming in to figure out that he was better as a WR than a S. But having your starting S from the season before come in and be your #1 WR is never a good thing in the West Coast offense.-Regardless of what you want to say, the senior leadership of the '04 team was insturmental in bringing that team up, if from no other prespective than from morale. It is well documented that after Virginia/NIU weeks this team was in the dumps and on the verge of packing it in. The SENIORS on the team stepped up and helped to keep that from happening. Say what you will about them as players, but please do not disrespect what they did from a leadership prespective.2005:-Getsy injury. Yeah, I know he was never really "officially" on the injury report. I think we've all seen though that he hurt himself at the CMU game and it effected the offense through the middle of the season. It lead a lot of us (myself at the forefront) to call for Ferguson and I still maintain that whatever flaws Ferguson had wouldn't have hurt us as much as leaving Getsy in there to throw ducks around for a month. Just put Luke on the injury report for a few weeks and let him get healthy. Make sure he knows it is still his job, but that we can't have him back there with a bad hand. It isn't a matter of rattling his confidence or anything. Just a matter of letting him get healthy quicker. You let him heal properly and we probably win that Ball State game and don't need tons of help to get into the MACC game in the end.-Newcomers at key positions. Both on the line and at QB. It wasn't until seasons end that the offensive line really got the point where it could be considered "adequate" and even that is a stretch. Any yards that Biggs got on the ground and any good passes that Getsy got off were generally of their own making b/c that offensive line wasn't giving them a lot of help. Then there was the rash of false start, holding and personal foul penalties that plagued them as a unit. Needless to say I will be one looking for improvement there next season.Those are just a few things to ADD to scheduling. Obviously if you play the top 11 teams in the country from start to finish of your schedule you are more likely to go 0-11. If you play the 11 worst teams in the country you are more likely to go 11-0. But like they always say "You've got to play the game." And in all honesty, when you look at 3 more wins than loses overall in 2004 and the fact that the last 5 games from each season are only within 1 combined win from each other it is hard to say that there were a whole lot of differences in the two. Just my thoughts.
A very well thought out post. Well done. :thumb: I totally forgot about the Getsy hand injury during the CMU game. It could explain a lot about the mid season misery.
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