Dave in Green

Cribbs backs Harrison, too. He says Harrison's job is to simply "knock people out," and called Harrison to tell him not to change the way he plays. Cribbs also said, "We have to be able to take those hits. That's why we're in the NFL." Cribbs Defends Harrison If you think it's odd that NFL players seem addicted to being knocked out and knocking other people out despite the fact that it has been proven to lead to irreversible brain damage, Ray Ratto does a good job of explaining why. Ray Ratto Column

The question in this poll essentially asks how Coach Ianello has done with this group of players versus what other coaches would have accomplished with the same personnel under the same conditions. So it really requires evaluating the abilities of the players and factoring that into what they've accomplished as a team under Ianello. If you think this team could have won many more games under a different head coach, then Ianello obviously deserves a poor grade. If you think this year's team was less talented overall than last year's team, then this year's record does not necessarily reflect a failing grade for Ianello, but probably no better than average at best.

Let's see now, am I in an optimistic or pessimistic mood today? In his own words, KD feels that this year's team with all it's changes is going to be better than a lot of people think, but is not "going to be our very best team." So expectations should not be for the "very best" results. But who really knows how this team will gel? We've all lived through watching a Zips team with lower expectations earn a spot in the NCAA tournament, and we've all witnessed Zips teams with higher expectations fall short. We can only guess how the season will ultimately play out for this team. This season's schedule may be a tiny bit tougher, but not out of line with recent years. So there's no doubt that anything less than 20 wins would be a big disappointment. I'm more intrigued by this team than any in recent years. First, there were all the unexpected departures along with the expected graduations. Next comes a new group of incoming players who appear to be different from previous KD recruits. Finally, the development of the returning players is always a mystery, as Conyers demonstrated last season, and Zeke's development has the potential to be the difference between a good Zips team and a great one. What I'd really like to see is a player or two step forward and be a consistently strong emotional leader on the floor -- someone who ignites the Zips when they go into one of their extended funks. Maybe Abreu can be that kind of spark plug with fearless drives to the basket, or maybe Euton popping 3s, or maybe Egner with defensive stops at one end and outrageous slams at the other. Ultimately I prefer to focus on the positives of the new players' potential as opposed to the negatives of the difficulties in getting many new, young players to mesh together as a team. So I'll take a wild guess of 22+ wins with most of the losses coming earlier in the season before the Zips gel as a team. I just hope the timing of an improving Zips team results in peaking at just the right time for a sweep at the Q.

The more I think about the Zips playing two QBs, the more I like the idea. Most intriguing is the seldom-used concept of alternating QBs on every play. That is, the QB who's not on the field stands next to the coach, and as soon as each play is over, the coach sends the other QB back onto the field after having had the opportunity to verbally give detailed instructions to him with more data than just flushing signs to the QB on the field. Two different style QBs alternating on each play just might cause some problems for the defense, and the Zips offense has proven so far this year that it could use any help it can get no matter how small.

The NFL is in business to give fans what they want to see. If the NFL thinks that fans don't want to see many players end up institutionalized with permanent brain damage from multiple concussions, they can make it stop anytime they want by making appropriate rules and then enforcing them with increasingly robust penalties. If the NFL thinks that fans want a blood sport where players who are willing to inflict brain damage on other players and even themselves should be free to deliberately make that happen, they will enable that with lax rules that encourage players to do exactly that.

How quaint. That was back in the day before internet forums, wasn't it?

The two QB system is not used successfully very often in college football. But if anyone wants a model to examine, LSU is a good one. The two QB system is producing great results this year for the Bayou Bengals, helping them pull out one unlikely win after another even though they tend to be a mistake-prone team. One of Nicely's weaknesses appears to be judgment under pressure. It's worth speculating that alternating Nicely on and off the field with Rodgers might give him a little time to collect his thoughts. One positive of a two QB system is that it adds a dimension to what the other team's defense has to prepare to face. One negative is that it can disrupt the rhythm and chemistry the rest of the offensive team has with its on-field leader. But in the case of this year's Zips, there doesn't appear to be much rhythm and chemistry to disrupt.

Thanks for confirming what the basketball bloggers have been writing. He's athletic, plays above the rim and finishes strong in the paint, but needs work on his outside shooting and free throws. Zips fans are familiar with this type of player. We've watched many of them do bad things to the Zips. It's nice to have one on our side for once, weaknesses and all.

Honestly, I think I would like to see us win and start to play well. That's just me though. If your sole purpose to Akron football is to wait for a coach to be fired that we just hired, stop back in three years. Haha, no that's not my sole purpose. My sole purpose is to win, but what's the point? We are just that bad, and I'm facing it. I mean I want a win, but its not like we're gonna win the MAC east or anything. I just want our coach gone. The sooner that happens, the sooner we get this turned around. If your sole purpose is for the Zips to become a winning team, then you should be open to every possible way to achieve that, including the possibility that iCoach could turn the program around if given adequate time to prove himself. But since you say you're not open to that possibility, your sole purpose does appear to be chasing away iCoach by any means, including hoping the Zips continue to lose to speed up that process. By your own words, you appear to be cheering for the Zips to continue losing to prove that you're right about iCoach, and that you would be disappointed at being proven wrong if iCoach stays on and turns the Zips into a winning team. Please correct me if I misinterpreted anything you said, and if you actually could be happy with iCoach staying on if he turned the Zips into a winner.

Reminds me of voodoo economics.

One of the reasons why some people like sports forums is because they offer an escape from the political crap that permeates so many areas of the modern world. It's really nice not to have to listen to the same crap regurgitated for the trillionth time by self-annoited political proselytizers who think they're being insightful when they're really just being inciteful and rude. I think if I had a choice between seeing profanity allowed on ZN.O or political crap, I'd pick profanity because at least it's honest. But I'd be overjoyed if the ZN.O moderators would treat political crap exactly the way they treat profanity, i.e. zero tolerance.

It's also irrelevant to me whether or not a head coach played football. Mike Leach put together a great winning record at Texas Tech. If Ianello continues to lose more games than he wins, disgruntled fans will continue to cite all the stereotypes why he shouldn't have been hired as head coach: He never played football, he had no head coaching experience, he's not a dynamic public personality, etc., etc., etc. If Ianello becomes a winning head coach, fans will become undisgruntled and forget all the stereotypes.

Players dont respect guys that aren't excited about the game (of football). I have a few inside sources on this: Ianello acts that same way at practice, he has that same tone all the time. I'm sure dressing like a 70 year old man (no offense to any on ZN.o) doesn't help his case either. And Belichick does has these things when at practice and when talking to his players, no coach is an emotionless weirdo and wins. You should become a sports consultant and try to sell that concept to ADs around the country: When choosing between two coaching candidates, always pick the more openly emotional one, because the players are going to have more respect for him than for the more reserved candidate. If you're proven to be correct on this interesting theory, you could make a fortune in consulting fees. Just be sure that you have this theory nailed, because you're going to have a lot of splainin to do to convince those with more life experience than you that you've stumbled onto something that everyone else has missed.

Looks decent in highlights against juco competition. Interesting that so many schools have at least some interest in him but not willing to make an offer. Maybe they know more than we do.

So how does Bill Belichick rate on the kumquat scale? Would anyone care about the public personality of the Zips coach if he stacked up wins like Belichick? Sorry, but it's just plain silly to me to criticize a coach for being too reserved, wearing the wrong clothing, having hair that's too straight, etc., etc. The only thing Zips fans are really concerned about is having a coach who wins more games than he loses. I'll take a nice, ripe kumquat of a coach who wins, as long as he's not a lying, cheating crook. Public personality is irrelevant.

Last season when Rodgers didn't look so hot after being thrust into the starting QB role and many were crying for Nicely's redshirt to be burned, I suggested that Rodgers needed to be given adequate opportunity to prove whether or not he could improve from game to game. Rodgers' season-ending injuring ended the QB debate and put Nicely in charge, for better or worse. Earlier this season I defended Nicely from those who wanted to focus the blame on him. QBs can't do it by themselves, and the rest of the players haven't shown much brilliance in executing the new offensive and defensive systems introduced by the new coaching staff. In short, there is a lot of blame to be shared by the players and coaches. I suggested that the Zips needed to stick with Nicely and give him a chance to grow in the new system. But as each game goes by with no significant improvements, time is running out on Nicely's opportunity to prove himself. We know he doesn't have a great supporting cast. But after making allowances for that, fans can still fairly expect to see better than they've seen at the midpoint of this season. At some point the coaching staff has to start moving the pieces around on the board to see if they can improve the performance of the team as a whole. The QB is not exempt from this. It may be after moving all the pieces around and giving others a chance to do better that the situation will be just as bad. It's hard to imagine it could be worse. But at some point when no significant progress has been shown from those getting all the PT, other players need to be given the opportunity to demonstrate whether or not they can do better under game conditions.

NIU's thorough whipping of UA is more understandable in light of their 31-17 win over Temple today. Who was it who said on this forum that NIU didn't have a passing game? Harnish was 20-25 for 209 yards, 2 TDs and no interceptions. He also rushed for 71 yards, and Spann ran for 100. NIU controlled the ball with almost a 2-1 edge in time of possession. They were 11-16 in 3rd down efficiency and 1-1 in 4th down efficiency. Fairly dominating performance even though only winning by 2 TDs. With this win, NIU is clearly established as the class of the MAC.

It's a waste of time worrying about changing the opinions of wackos and those who are easily influenced by wackos because they're either not likely to get it or they just plain don't want to. Thoughtful, intelligent people really don't pay much attention to wackos on internet forums. If you politely lay out all the facts about the comparative severity of the Can't and UA player transgressions and the way each team responded in a simple A-B comparison, intelligent people reading the forum will get it. At UA, the team suspends players for a game for missing a class. At Can't, the team suspends players for a game for DUI and worse. Verifiable factual data is a powerful weapon against goofy claims.

If B McKnight wants it bad enough, he will find a way to work himself into condition during the suspension (assuming the suspension keeps him out of team workouts). I'll bet his dad could come up with a few ideas to help him out. On the other hand, if he doesn't want it bad enough, there's plenty of frontcourt help on the way that needs experience and seasoning.

Thanks, Zipmeister. It all makes sense to me now that you've fleshed out some of the details.

I'll bet that's exactly what B McKnight said after his father "discussed" this with him. While not what you'd like to see from a senior team leader, let's hope it turns into a positive motivation rather than putting him in a season-long funk. In the short term, this will give all the incoming frontcourt recruits more PT early on -- not necessarily a bad thing.

You had me going there .....

Wow, you're really taking this seriously, aren't you? I thought we were having a little fun here. I mean, how boring would it be if I'd played it straight had simply asked: Do you have some inside information that leads you to believe that this player left the team because "he obviously feels this program is a mess," or are you just speculating? You have to remember that some people actually read sports forums primarily to learn factual information, and the way some of the posts are worded, it's not possible to separate fact from speculation without asking. Anyway, I apologize for creating such a stir. It was not my intent to start a fight.

Now that it's been established that your mind reading ability is not yet perfected, here's the honest answer that was in my mind awaiting your read: I don't recall the specifics of every player I've heard about dropping out of a sports program. Everyone who follows sports reads news on an almost daily basis of some teenager dropping out of some sport for a variety of different reasons. Odds are that more than one non-redshirt freshman football player has left after playing exactly 4 games sometime somewhere. But, as you knew when you posed the question, it's not the type of data typical sports fans can cite from memory. Whether or not anyone can cite specific instances that exactly match this one to the tiniest detail is not really relevant to the point that one would have to be a mind reader to say that the specific reason why a Zips player left the team is because he "obviously feels this program is a mess." We all know that a player has left the football program, and we all know that the football program is a mess right now. What we don't really know are the personal reasons why this player chose to leave the program. Honest people simply admit they don't know things they don't know.

The soccer team is great, and many people would come to watch them play in a cornfield. The football team is awful, and fewer and fewer people are coming to watch them play in a nice, new, on-campus stadium. The basketball team is neither great nor awful. But they're certainly an above average team drawing below average crowds to a below average facility. New basketball facilities alone might help draw a few additional fans, but likely not a major increase. They might also help a little on recruiting, where the quality of the facilities might make the difference to talented recruits between choosing to sign with the Zips or similar programs at other schools with much nicer facilities. Attracting another top recruit or two might make the basketball program a little stronger and produce more wins, which in turn might be expected to draw more fans. Regularly winning big games in nice facilities in front of sell-out crowds is everyone's dream for any sports program. These factors are all interdependent to some degree. The question is, what's the best path to achieving critical mass? UA was forced to build a new football stadium. The Rubber Bowl was crumbling and repairs would have been prohibitively costly. The alternative would have been to drop football entirely. So we know that UA is committed to maintaining a football program in the coming years, though we don't yet know at what level. UA did not have to build new soccer facilities. But having the best college soccer program in the country with sell-out crowds merited new facilities. Fortunately, soccer facilities are relatively inexpensive compared with football and basketball. Having climbed all the way to the top of the sport of soccer, it would have been ludicrous for UA not to make the modest investment required to help retain the top coach, top recruits and top ranking. We know that some schools with modest or no football programs have invested heavily in basketball and become national powers (Gonzaga, Butler, etc.). But there are no guarantees. It's possible to blow a lot of money on sports facilities and not get the rest of the equation right to become a national power. We don't really know where UA stands on this. If the longterm commitment is to maintain the basketball program at its current level, then just keep re-signing KD and make some modest improvements to the JAR before it falls to the level of the Rubber Bowl and scares lots of fans and recruits away. If the longterm commitment is to grow the basketball program to a high level, new facilities have to be somewhere in the picture. It's not only fair to discuss what the new facilities should be like and how soon they should be built, it's mandatory as part of any plan to grow the program.