Dave in Green

Hard to get too excited about this game. The Zips took it seriously enough on both offense and defense to bury UAPB early, so the game was never in doubt. As predicted, Gilliam not only earned more PT (21 minutes) for his good effort against CSU, he got a start tonight and made the most of his time on the floor with great stats -- 7-9 from the floor, 2-2 on free throws, a rebound, an assist and a steal. On the flip side, he led the team in turnovers (3) and fouls (4). Again, he put effort into his D, and appears to be improving. I see him earning more and more PT as he continues to improve throughout the season. Rico continues to have a substantial wrap on his knee, and it obviously affects his movement. But since he played fairly long minutes (21), it must not be too serious. Hopefully if he does have surgery it will be minor and he will be able to bounce back quickly. Zeke is more and more confident in his offense. He's looking to shoot a fair percentage of the time rather than just kicking the ball out every time. He has a nice rhythm to his free throw now, and he's making a fair percentage. Tonight's performance makes Zeke the Zips scoring leader for the season with 95 total points and an average of 10.6 per game -- tied with Harney. Zeke's also shooting 64.8% from the field. He's much more of a complete player now. Hope to see Harney back Saturday against Florida A&M. Definitely want to see him back against YSU on Monday. YSU played Buffalo tough Saturday, losing by only 8 points at Buffalo, so I expect the Penguins to play a little tougher than some might expect. Did anyone else notice that Buffalo's Javon McCrea was 14-17 from the field against YSU? Ouch!

The latest take from CFCoachingNews.com: Mike Johnson is a former Akron quarterback that has spent most of his coaching career in NFL. He has worked for some of the best coaches in the business, but is from the west coast and most of his coaching ties are there as well. Paul Winters has been the favorite to land the job since they fired Rob Ianello. He is currently preparing for the Division II national championship against D-II powerhouse Pittsburgh State. Most believe the reason the search has taken so long is due to the playoff run that Wayne State has been on, which will conclude on Saturday. Winters has spent the last eight years as head coach at Wayne State compiling a record of 48-42. He is 12-3 this season, had one 9 win season, and one 8 win season. Winters is from Akron, he played at Akron, and coached at Akron before landing this job. He wants the job and he would excite the fan base that wants a coach that is a proven head coach. Mike Stoops, Pat Narduzzi, and Ed Warriner appear to be secondary candidates at this point, but you never know what will happen in college football today. CFCoachingNews.com

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Now we're starting to get serious. This is a great way to increase interest in Zips basketball among local fans and local HS players. I hope in addition to KD establishing more of a local basketball guru presence that they feature a different player each week, and give us a real inside look into their personalities. I'm really looking forward to this.

Math lesson for the day: Hurd was reportedly willing to pay $25k per kilo for 10 kilos of cocaine per week and $450 per pound for 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week. That's $125k per week in cocaine and $450k per week in marijuana, or $575,000 per week. Multiplied by 52 weeks, that's a grand total of $29,900,000 per year. That's $30 million per year in drug dealing, or $90 million over the 3-year length of his $5.15 million NFL contract.

It's bad enough that Hurd allegedly wanted "up to 10 kilograms of cocaine and a half-ton of marijuana per week for distribution in the Chicago area." But wait for the secondary hammers to fall on all the NFL players who were allegedly supplied by Hurd: According to a report from 670 The Score (via CBS Chicago), "Hurd was a top drug dealer in Chicago and police have a list of NFL players who were supplied drugs by the receiver, a law enforcement source told the radio station. The list is 'in the double-digits,' according to the source."

Now this is a case of an ex-MAC football player getting into big, BIG trouble. Sam Hurd arrested on federal drug charges

So you're saying the budget management question isn't applicable to Winters or any of the other candidates? Then there's no need for further discussion of the budget management point. No one appears to have an advantage or disadvantage on this point when it comes to comparing the various candidates. On to the next point.

I've looked at TB's record pretty closely. So has every losing FBS program in the country. Even the most desperate losing FBS programs looking for a winning coach to turn their programs around have all passed on him. Why? You'd think at least one of them would be "better than that." TB on Wikipedia

I like that analogy better than my own. I thought the football team budget management question was related to comparing the experience of the various candidates for the UA head coaching position. Which of the current candidates has more experience as a head coach at any level managing a team budget of any level?

Harney did not participate in yesterday's practice. Hopefully it will end up being no more than a 2-game suspension and we'll see him play Saturday.

@skip-zip, yes, I saw EXHIBIT A. I agree that bashing is not productive. But I would differentiate between bashing and discussing. I see nothing wrong with discussing Winters' pros and cons. Intelligent discussion requires that different sides present different pro and con points, objectively consider all points, and be open to changing their opinions if someone presents a more compelling position. Taking just one point here, there's a good discussion going on about budget management. You rightfully point out that a lower level head coach manages a smaller budget than higher level head coaches. How much of a handicap is this in reality? It's already been pointed out that managing a football program budget is in principle the same process, regardless of whether it's 6 figures or 7 figures. It happens all the time in large corporations where a manager who proves he can manage a fair-sized budget is promoted to a position of managing a much larger budget. Another point to consider is that someone without any head coaching experience would have no experience managing a team budget of any size. That would give a lower level head coach an experience advantage over a higher level coordinator, at least in the area of managing a team budget. The only candidates who might have a budget management advantage over Winters would be those who were head coaches at a higher level with a higher budget than he managed. So my question to you is whether you would acknowledge the budget experience advantage that Winters has over the coordinators who've been mentioned as candidates? If you see any flaws in that logic, please feel free to point them out for further discussion. If you acknowledge the budget experience points above, we can move on to discussing another point.

It was him. It was regarding local recruits and how it'd essentially be foolish to assume that they'd even consider somewhere like akron. He was a total a-hole in the comments section and was insanely unprofessional. You mean like it would be foolish to assume that a local journalism student with any talent would consider working somewhere like Akron for the ABJ?

I have a special interest in Egner at UA vs. Henniger at Can't because I attended several Jackson HS games to do some amateur scouting of the two. My final HS scouting report was that Egner was the right player of the two for UA to recruit for his athleticism and defensive game, and that Henniger, the son of a minister, would probably help raise the player character level at Can't. So far neither player has set the world on fire. It's interesting to compare their limited stats on StatSheet.com and see where they are today. Henniger, the offensive force at Jackson HS, has the edge on offensive stats, while Egner, the defensive force at Jackson HS, is leading those categories in college. Lots of time left for these two players to establish themselves in their respective programs. But here's where they stand right now: Egner vs. Henniger on StatSheet.com

@ZipRoo, you keep pushing Bowden as a better option than Winters. In a previous post, you said you'd "offer Terry Bowden the moon." Terry Bowden has been a D2 coach at the University of North Alabama for the last few years, and hasn't come close to getting to the D2 championship game. He was hired by UNA at a salary of only $100k per year. Any FBS school could have easily offered enough money to hire him away from UNA at any time. Other than his last name, can you explain what you see in Terry Bowden that should cause UA to go after a coach that no other FBS school in the country has any interest in?

@skip-zip, thanks for the thoughtful reply. I get it that a lot of fans get emotional over the choice of a new head coach based on years of frustration with the performance of past coaches and teams. I'm just trying to look at it from a more detached viewpoint, weighing the pros and cons of the various candidates, trying to understand how those pros and cons would be relevant at UA and in the MAC, trying to figure out which candidates are not likely to come to Akron even if offered, etc. I see where there are valid questions about whether Winters' body of work has made him more or less likely to turn the Zips into consistent winners than some of the other candidates who've been mentioned. I think when we get into an emotional debate where one side is trying to "prove" a candidate is worthy and the other side is trying to "prove" that candidate is unworthy, it can sometimes ratchet up to the point that the candidate's credentials are unrealistically puffed up or totally trashed. The truth lies somewhere between, and that's what I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to dial out the emotional element and focus on the more objective comments from forum members about the various candidates.

Great to see the humor acknowledged and appreciated. I hope you're also open-minded enough to understand that your description of your reaction to Winters might strike some as just as emotional in a negative way as those you are calling out for being emotional in their optimism for Winters. If being part of a group that fails at something precludes that person from ever being successful under different circumstances, then there are no qualified candidates. In fact, Winters' work at OC appears to be the most successful part of the failed staff that lives on so vividly in your memory.

I keep hearing faint echoes of this from various sources. But those sources don't have a record of being consistently accurate. I rate it a faint possibility.

UAPB puts a lot of pressure on the ball handlers, forcing 19 UM turnovers and prompting the following remark from Coach Beilein: "It will be, officially, the last game we will ever win when we have 19 turnovers -- this year," Beilein said. "I don't predict that happening again." Zips need to play against teams like UAPB to improve their ball handling under pressure, or it could really bite them in postseason play. If Ibitayo is going to be the backup PG, he needs to be able to play against teams like UAPB to get used to college level ball pressure. An interesting comment at the end of the ESPN story gives an insight into how lucrative it can be for a small school to play lots of road games: UAPB will play at Akron on Thursday night. The long stretch without a home game is fairly common for the Southwestern Athletic Conference school. A couple seasons ago -- at the end of a similar stretch away from home -- UAPB's athletic director estimated the school had earned about $800,000 by playing all those road games, about one-fourth of the athletic department's total revenue. ESPN Story

I suspect his longterm goal is to be head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Going home to Arkansas.

Was looking for a comment about Mike Johnson and didn't see him mentioned. What did Dr Z see that we're missing?

Every losing program is looking for qualified guys who've turned programs around. There are more losing programs than there are qualified guys who've turned programs around. Which of the many losing programs are more attractive to the limited number of qualified guys who've turned programs around? Where does UA rank in attractiveness on that long list of losing programs? How much can you make up for lack of attractiveness with extra cash? How much extra cash do you have at your disposal to throw at a qualified guy who's turned programs around to lure him away from more attractive programs? When should you take advantage of an intangible advantage such as a guy with good credentials who wants to turn your program around more than any other losing program because he loves the school, loves the city, loves the area? Tough questions for fans on a sports forum, let alone a head coach search team.

I would have probably used the word brilliant, but like DaveIG might say, your data is incomplete. I'd say there are brilliant ideas and dumb ideas, and they can come from anyone -- often from the same person. Back on topic, I'm afraid the little Tressel detour may have taken some minds off getting the right coach for UA and onto the game of getting a name coach. None of the other name coaches mentioned to date would create a fraction of the buzz that Tressel would have created in Akron and throughout Ohio. Are we getting so desperate that we'd take a name coach that not a single FBS school in the country has any interest in? For those who think a big college coaching name would make a difference, maybe you could convince Winters to have his name legally changed to Bowden or Stoops. Let's face it, there are so many Stoops and Bowdens associated with college football that most casual fans wouldn't realize that Paul Winters ..... I mean Paul Bowden or Paul Stoops ..... was not really part of those famous coaching families. Here's the resume that has it all -- the name, the position, the stats, the national award nominations: Paul Bowden (or Stoops) is a veteran college football offensive coordinator who ran an FBS offense that ranked 7th nationally in passing offense (311.3 yards per game), 9th nationally in total offense (470.2 ypg) and 11th nationally in scoring offense (36.2 ppg). He has twice been nominated for the Broyles Award, a national honor recognizing the nation’s top FBS assistant coach.

Terry Bowden was hired in 2009 as the head coach at little D2 University of North Alabama for the miserly sum of $100k per year. Every FBS school in the country has had a chance to hire him away at a bargain price over the last couple of years. Either they're all stupid or they all know something.