Dave in Green

In which area of the game will he make the most bone-headed calls: offense, defense, or special teams?Let's start with the first bad call, which was to allow the team bus to leave Akron.

@Yaznasty, you have cited a long list of observations primarily from the Palestinian view. I've read about them before, and believe they have some merit.As Doug points out, there are honestly different views of everything, and sometimes the views are 180 degrees opposed.For each and every point you cited, there is a corresponding Israeli viewpoint, and those also have some merit.Point is that a neutral party trying to objectively listen to both sides and examine all the evidence would likely come to the conclusion that neither side is entirely right or entirely wrong.That's the conclusion I've come to, and I consider myself to be reasonably fair and open-minded on most issues. I don't automatically come down on one side or another because of religion, ethnicity, or the like. I really do try to look at all aspects of a situation and try to understand how I would feel and how I would react if put into a similar situation.If I were an Israeli living in a small country surrounded by many larger countries calling for my country's death, I would be reluctant to compromise on anything without everyone first agreeing that my country has a right to exist. It does not encourage compromise when others are calling for the death of my country.If I were a Palestinian living in limbo surrounded by people who I thought were taking away my ancestral lands, I would be reluctant to compromise on anything without first being assured that I could have a legitimately recognized country on my ancestral lands. It does not encourage compromise when others are building permanent settlements on my ancestral lands.There are only three options available here:* Continue on the current path of no compromise and no solution to people on both sides slowly suffering and under constant threat of injury or death from sporadic hostile action.* Enter all-out war until one side or the other ceases to be a viable force.* Earnestly seek compromise that allows everyone to live together in dignity and peace.The third and final option is the one that most reasonable people want. But no one really knows how to get there.Unfortunately, I believe that there are many forces at work trying for various reasons to scuttle any peace process and keep the area in eternal turmoil and conflict.Whichever side one may think is most responsible for the problems, I personally don't think it does a lot of good to line up behind one side and loudly and angrily try to pin all the blame on the other side.There's way too much polarization in all aspects of the world today. I think it would be more productive for everyone, no matter which side they may have a tendency to support, to try harder to see and understand the situation from the perspective of the other side.

USA Today doesn't make it easy to find stories more than a day old on their website, but I managed to dig it up through Google search. Good read.Is ESPN the main force behind realignment in college sports?

@Yaznasty, I agree with you completely that the best way to get a comprehensive view on anything is to explore multiple sources and arrive at your own conclusions. There are many different perspectives on every issue, and none by itself is likely to be 100% accurate. But it does take a lot of time, and none of us has the time to thoroughly research all the important issues on our own. Ultimately, we have to try to find readily available sources of information that prove over time to be more accurate than others on many different subjects.On the subject of the Middle East, I've done of a lot of reading from a lot of different sources over the years and have not reached the same conclusion that you have -- that the government of Israel is primarily responsible for most of the problems in the area. Even if Israel did not exist, Middle Eastern countries would still be warring with each other and creating innocent victims. The recent wars between Iran and Iraq and invasion of Kuwait by Iraq are only the most recent examples. The various tribes and religious sects in the area and within each country's borders have been warring with each other for centuries.As a country, Israel is essentially the newest neighbor in a very tough neighborhood where the weak are regularly trampled by the strong. The Jewish people, who primarily populate Israel, learned a very tough lesson in Nazi Germany. They cannot afford to be weak in a tough neighborhood full of bullies. The very survival of Israel and its citizens relies on a strong self-defense.Now, it's certainly fair to question whether the government of Israel has gone too far in some of its actions intended to protect its citizens. There's a diversity of opinion among Israeli citizens on the best course of action to secure peace in the area. Unlike its neighbors, Israel is a democracy, so the citizens regularly elect different political parties with different philosophies in search of the best route to peace.But no matter what Israel does, the fact remains that they live in a tough neighborhood full of bullies where violence is a common solution to disagreements. Until that attitude changes among all parties, and until every country in the area agrees that every other country in the area has the right to exist, there will continue to be conflict.I'm interested in everyone's views on the Middle East. I think it's in everyone's best interests to explore all reasonable courses of action to end the perpetual conflict in the area, as the danger of a regional conflict growing into a global war continues to increase.

It's over. This loss really hurts.

Zips have outshot MSU 17-5 and are losing with less than a minute left.

Tough game. Zips have outshot MSU 10-1 at the 70-minute mark, and still no score.

0-0 at the end of the first period. Only 1 shot by MSU and 3 by the Zips. MSU with a big lead on fouls, 9-2.

So, if we can't believe what we read in the media, where do we go for factual data on which to form an educated opinion? For example, where did you get the data that led you to the conclusion that the government of Israel is primarily to blame for the problems in the Middle East?

You should have been on a Steelers forum when Cowher coached. Especially before Ben. Cowher didn't make as big as bonehead calls as i"Coach", but he did make as many weekly.If you Google "Bill Cowher" + bonehead you get about 13,700 results.I've already said my favorite college football coach is Les Miles.If you Google "Les Miles" + bonehead you get about 16,500 results.As a bona fide bonehead football fan, I like that in a coach.

Doug, here are the internet results I got for the following Google search terms:"Death to Saudi Arabia" = 71 results"Death to Iran" = About 32,600 results"Death to Palestine" = About 53,900 results"Death to Israel" = About 4,930,000 results

Fearless prediction: Ianello will make at least one call that will be questioned on ZN.o.

Awesome offensive display. First play of the game was a 100-yard kickoff return. Final stats of 59 combined first downs, 1,117 yards combined total offense, and a 63-60 win for NIU. Final play was a Toledo 14-yard pass followed by a lateral and another 15-yard gain to the NIU 25-yard line in field goal position as time expired.

60-56, no, 63-60. Holy crap!

Server hiccup.

What exactly does "death to Israel" mean to those who utter the words? Is it a political statement about destroying a country or a religious statement representing "holy war" on people practicing a different religion?A USA Today article quotes the following:Via e-mail to Inside Higher Ed, Pino gave his rationale as follows: "What I spoke was for the sake of the children of Palestine, and no other reason. The only politics I have are 'There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His Messenger.' " Asked about the controversy over his comments, he quoted the Koran: "They try to put out the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will allow nothing but the perfection of that light, though the disbelievers dislike it."USA Today StoryIf people with different religious beliefs cannot exist side-by-side in peace with respect for each other's beliefs, there is little room for negotiation or solution to religious-based discord.

The reason I'm OK with going for the first 2-point conversion is precisely because no one expected it. It was not the "standard" thing to do in this situation, as so many people have so eloquently made clear in this and other threads. That and the CMU defensive setup combined to make it a much higher percentage play than normal.The advantage a 2-point score would have created at that point would have been that the Zips could then have won the game with a TD and extra point plus two field goals instead of having to score two TDs and two extra points to win. This all assumes, of course, that CMU doesn't score again. That was not clear at this point in the game, so going for more points made sense for a number of reasons.

Thread on this subject already started here.But thanks for the new link with more details. Love the mug shot.

Aha! Sounds like someone was making a defensive maneuver to avoid someone from another school reading your joking comment and reporting it as something serious. Could have even been a UA employee reading the forum who did it. Of course, nothing would have come out of it as nothing wrong has been done. But it could have been a pain filling out the paperwork.Welcome back, GameChngr44! Never lose your sense of humor.

ALL head football coaches use the P word. Every single one of them. Try a Google search for the terms process + football + coach and you'll find that every big-name winning football coach will show up in the more than 18 million hits.

Gamechngr44, what would really be unfortunate would be for you to allow one misguided reaction from one forum member to cause you to disappear from this forum. You have lots of friends here who totally get your wicked sense of humor and understood you were joking about the ticket situation. I know I speak for many when I say I hope you will think this over and reconsider, as we would really miss having you here with us, especially during the basketball season to lead cheers for the team.

The subject of going for 1 point for the tie and OT or 2 points for the win is carried out on football discussion forums hundreds of times per season. Each case is slightly different due to different circumstances, and reasonable cases can be made for and against each point of view.The bottom line for some Zips fans is that their coach called a play that they believe was either slightly more or slightly less likely to result in a win, depending on how they interpret the circumstances of this team and this game.The bottom line for others is that a coach often criticized for being overly conservative has started rolling the dice more often and making unpredictable calls, which could lead to more wins in the long run.I don't see any side convincing the others that they are more correct in their beliefs. So I don't see this as a winnable debate, but just a discussion of different beliefs.

I did not intend to put major emphasis on the overall size of the facility, but wanted the focus to stay on the distance between the basketball court and the first row of permanent seats. The proximity of the first row of permanent seats from the basketball court and the steepness of the rows of seats as they go up really define the basketball viewing experience.

A little Zips respect from the mid-major coaches:Mid-Major Top 25

You can see from the photo at the link below how far back the permanent seating is for basketball at Consol Energy Center. It looks like a glorified version of the Q -- nice, big facility for all kinds of events that draw more than 10k spectators, but nowhere near tight and intimate enough for a mid-major college basketball team.Consol Energy Center Basketball Seating Photo