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About 8 hours from tip-off and no game thread yet. Ouch. Interest must be waning. When asked about the game in Illinois this week, Tom Wistrcill responded, "The Buckeyes will definitely win this one. We're better than Northwestern. Go Team Ohio!" The rest of us, though, are focused more on DeKalb. Seems that, much as Dambrot owns some teams, NIU at least occasionally rents Dambrot. Never easy there. Zips 70-60.

Isn't he like 25? Probably just ready to be done with school

Here are some interesting Stat on offense and defense ........................... A productive lunch in my office OFFENSE: Scoring Offense - Points per game 2014 - 20.1 pts per game (108 in NCAA) 2013 - 18.4 pts per game (107 in NCAA) 2012 - 21.9 pts per game (87 in NCAA) 2011 - 11.6 pts per game (119 in NCAA) Red Zone Scoring % (TD's and FG's combined): 2014 - 71.79% (120 in NCAA) 2013 - 79.92% (78 in NCAA) 2012 - 84.85% (35 in NCAA) 2011 - 80.00 % (67 in NCAA) Third Down efficiency: 2014 - 33.73% (113 in NCAA) 2013 - 37.65% (79 in NCAA) 2012 - 38.76% (68 in NCAA) 2011 - 27.22% (120 in NCAA) Time of possession: 2014 - 29.19 min per game (84 in NCAA) 2013 - 30.02 min per game (60 in NCAA) 2012 - 28.02 Min per game (106 in NCAA) 2011 - 27.54 min per game (105 in NCAA) DEFENSE: Points given per game: 2014 - 25.2 pts per game (60 in NCAA) 2013 - 27.5 pts per game (73 in NCAA) 2012 - 37.7 pts per game (116 in NCAA) 2011 - 39.0 pts per game (117 in NCAA) Opponents red zone scoring % (TD's and FG's): 2014 - 80.00% (41 in NCAA) 2013 - 79.49% (34 in NCAA) 2012 - 85.11% (91 in NCAA) 2011- 89.09% (106 in NCAA) Opponents time of possession: 2014 - 30:40 (84 in NCAA) 2013 - 29:56 (58 in NCAA) 2012 - 31:58 (107 in NCAA) 2011 - 32:05 (105 in NCAA) Opponents third down efficiency: 2014 - 39.22% (50 in NCAA) 2013 - 42.58% (85 in NCAA) 2012 - 38.31% (48 in NCAA) 2011 - 44.44% (92 in NCAA) Turnover Margin: .......................... THIS HAS TO IMPROVE !!! 2014 - -0.3 (89 in NCAA) 2013 - -0.3 (79 in NCAA) 2012 - -1.2 (115 in NCAA) 2011 - -1.0 (114 in NCAA) LOL for what it's worth !!!! Kinda tells us what we already know ................... Although we still have a bit of work to do on defense, offense has to improve greatly in 2015 Source: http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-third-down-conversion-pct?date=2012-01-09 ****** Stats DO NOT include the Howard game*****

Beautiful facility with no fans. NIU's version of Infocision.

Without D'Orazio, we're in need of a possession receiver.

Shoulda got one 5 years ago. Rob Ianello, what would you say it is that you do here?

I've mentioned in several of my posts that I expect Akron's offense to go 'up tempo' in 2015. I got this just by reading between the lines of Coach Bowden comments and rationalizing what needs to be done to improve the offense in 2015. In 2012 our offense with Williams at QB was exciting and we moved the ball well. Problem was our D had no depth and was run over, especially after Nico got hurt in the BG game. Bowden figured going into to 2012 that we had to outscore our opponents if we wanted to win (yeah- yeah, I know, 1-11) as our D was in trouble. Problem was, this put our defense back on the field quicker and with little depth we gave up big yardage and points. In 2013 and 14 we seemed to switch out of up tempo looking for a new formula to win as our defense was gathering steam with the development of young players, Juco's, and key players from other programs. Bowden seemed to change Akron's overall strategy and wanted to control the game and clock more with the offense. Problem with that (if you could call it that) was our defense got Very Good during this time period and depth was less of a problem. Amatos group could have supported an up tempo offense that might put them back on the field quicker. This is where play calling became an issue for me in 2014. Not running the ball more (unless the opponent gave us the run) - just running more plays during the game to keep opponents defenses off balance like we did in 2012. To do this you need have a QB that knows the offense - like Dalton Williams did. Pohl knows it as he's had the coaching/practice over the years and arguably would be better prepared in 2015 to make those quick decisions needed in the 'hurry up'. That's where I see us going with the O in 2015 - up tempo - as we had success there before with this coaching staff, despite the record in 2012.

The JAR looks wonderfull when there are butts in the seats..