zipboy

No question that was an issue in his 2nd and 3rd year of recruiting. I give him credit for owning up and saying that he had the wrong philosophy. That has been fixed. The last 2 classes have had excellent retention, Andre Jones got his last year back. I can't fault what is going on in the classroom now. He runs a clean program, no issues with the law. I find fault in how many games we are winning. lets also not forget the negative effects this is already having on recruiting...bad record three years running...coach who could be gone this year or next and who has little time left on his contract anyway...does a kid commit with the possibility a new coach could come in and not want him?...the entire program is affected for years to come..as odd as it may sound, if the AD keeps brookhart he may have to add a year to his contract for the sake of the long term..?Great point Lee. However in the MAC coaches only stay 5 years either way - they do well and move on or don't do well and get canned. The mediocre ones last a couple more years and then get canned. I still think with who is coming back next year we could have a very good season. Unless we get lucky and hire a young Nick Saban or Urban Myer, by switching coaches now it will be even tougher to win next year.

It sure makes it easier to let JD go next year without a big year. Brandon was ok. They had a ton of talent but lost games they never should have. Who else will be gone? I have to think that Montgomery is on the hot seat. If anyone ever regressed a program it is him. Solich probably gets let go next year if he does not do something.

No question that was an issue in his 2nd and 3rd year of recruiting. I give him credit for owning up and saying that he had the wrong philosophy. That has been fixed. The last 2 classes have had excellent retention, Andre Jones got his last year back. I can't fault what is going on in the classroom now. He runs a clean program, no issues with the law. I find fault in how many games we are winning.

I have been a a supporter of JD but next year is it for me. Hey, I liked Lee until his last year so I never like knee jerk reactions. But at some point we need to start winning games. Yes the MAC is a balanced league and many of the games are close but the good programs win more of those than they lose. We seem to lose more than we win. JD has made changes for the better in his tenure, gave up calling plays, took over special teams which have been excellent except for a few moments, changed recruiting philosophy, now will he change the D?With what is coming back next year, probably having 6 home games, having a good chance to win 3 out of 4 OOC games for the 1st time in a while, next year is make or break for me. JD is clearly not the worst in the league and clearly not the best. I give him 1 more year.

Conract runs through 2010. Will they show enough confidence to give him a 1 yr extension? Last year he berated the long snapper for losing the game, this year the kicker. Can't wait to see what happens next year.

Goes to show that ZipsNation knows what they are talking about. A poll before the season showed about 90% picking the Zips between 5-7 to 7-5. Hopefully that 1 person who said 8-4 or better will be spot on

The latest Sagarin ratings show the MAC as the #8 conference in power ratings ahead of C-USA, Sun Belt, and either WAC or Mt West (I forget now). Zips are ranked 81st. 4 wins over Big Ten teams but in the past how often would a MAC team lose their star QB and possible MAC POY candidate, go on the road and beat a Big 10 Team, or a MAC team would lose the highest player projected to be taken in the draft early in the game to a career ending injury and double up a Big 10 team, or have the 10th or 11th best MAC team win on the road against a bad Big 10 team?In the past there were always 2 really good MAC teams, Marshall and either a Toledo, WMU, or Miami would break in and there would be 2 legitimate top 25 teams. Then there would be a huge drop off and 5-6 teams would be mediocre and 3-4 teams downright horrible. Ball State is a definite top 15-20 team but the depth after that is the strongest that I can remember. There are no dogs this year. The worst you get is Toledo, Can't, or EMU all have played well OOC.Watching the UC vs WVU game last night, I thought while our bball program to me is stronger than our fball program, in my head thinking about being in the Big East someday, fball would be able to compete much quicker. Seeing how the league has peformed this year and how the Zips have played, I just think that we are so much stronger as a program than 5 years ago.Ramblings on a Sunday morning as we get ready to play a meaningful game in Nov for the 4th time in the last 5 years.

I am usually way too optimistic about attendance guesses, see my 24K prediction for Cincy earlier in the year. Even with a warm Nov evening, $1 tickets, and if us and Buffalo do not lose until that game, I see a crowd of about 12K. I hope that I am wrong, but just don't see it. And if we win, I could care less. 2 years from now, after 2 straight bowl appearances, beating a couple more BCS teams, having a game at the Info on a warm mid week Nov evening for the MAC title, I would be disappointed if it was not at least 25K, but not this year.

On Zips Live Thursday JD said that he just got a couple more verbals. He also said that he holds back a lot of offers until January, wants to see how things shake out and that has worked well in the past.

There was talk on an earlier thread about how good it would be for Ball to go undefeated even if that meant us losing in the MAC title game to them. The more a team from the MAC separates itself, the worse it is for the others. Ball has already come into the Cleveland area and gotten a few players. I would like to see them do well, but not at the expense of the Zips.

I watched the end of the CMU vs Toledo game. While the parity is pretty even with Ball being a cut above, the better teams seem find to ways to win the close ones week in and week out. Watching the last 5 minutes of CMU vs Toledo, you just kind of have the feeling that CMU would make the 3rd down play, not make a stupid mistate, etc and pull it out. Same with BG and NIU. So far we are 2-2 in those types of games this year. I imagine the next 4 will be similar type games. I just hope that we are one of the good teams that "get lucky" each week but always manage to pull it out.

Last year seemed slow as well and finished strong. That has been the program's hallmark the last few years. 7-5 and a bowl game will help a lot as well. I think JD has figured it out now, strong retention and solid players. I look for a top 4 class this year in the MAC when all is said and done.

Thanks for the updates. A few comments that I heard from KD on Zips Live Thursday.1. Sullivan sprained his ankle the 2nd day of camp. He is the strongest guard that we ever had, benched 300 lbs. 2. KD wants no more than a 10 maybe 11 man rotation. That tells me we redshirt 2 or 3 guys.3. From the way KD talked without saying it, Humpty and Nic seem to be in the 10 to 11 deep. Sullivan will probably redshirt as he will have to play catch up now. KD said if McClenahan is the best shooter in the program, he needs to get minutes and Parris was working very well as well. My feeling is they redshirt 1 or both of those guys but that is up in the air.4. Nate Linhart was the guest and Joe Dunn asked him what he thought of the new guys. He was pretty high on Humpty and felt he would have the most impact of the 5 early on.

Yes, nothing too new, he just had a 5 minute talk about the Can't game and how Akron is 4-1 against Can't. Joe Dunn asked him if they should not count score and have 3 media writers look at the stats and declare the winner and that got him going. It was pretty much Can't is elitist, I hate Can't, losing the Wagon Wheel a few years ago was the worst moment of my coaching life, I want to beat those aholes every year. It was pretty inspiring. He also is a very articulate interview.On a few side notes1. His son hurt is shoulder in camp not a car accident as I think someone posted on here. What worries me is that his son had surgery on the same shoulder in high school according the Fleming. But he should be good to go this spring. They don't know where to play him. He lost about 10 lbs after the surgery, down to 200. 2. He has not seen much of the scout team defense, but going by what JD says, the young LBs look good and he named Marvase Boyd and Josh Richmond as a couple of guys who are impressive.3. One interesting comment, he talked about the mental approach and it takes different guys more time or less to figure it out. He mentioned how Jalili Carter had all the tools but mentally it just clicked a few weeks ago and he was real high on JC. 4. Shawn Lemon, a guy that kind of frustrated Fleming with his consistency and has taken his game to a new level this year. 5. No marathon this week - due to my piss poor planning, I missed my 1st Akron v Can't game in 15 years due to running around the streets of Portland last weekend. The Oregonians thought I was a madman Sat afternoon as I got the final 5 minutes of play by play over the phone and started whooping it up.

I voted a toss up. BG is too up and down to get a good read on them. If Johnson were to play, I would say Akron in a close one. I like DK, but I see our offense struggling if he get 20 carries a game. With a good ground game, Jacq looks a lot better, with a bad ground game, I worry about too much pressure on Jacq. Somehow though, I like this team's way of finding ways to stay in the game.

I heard the interview as well. I was ready to go out and hit someone after hearing him talk.

For what it is worth, latest Sagarin ratings has us 77th and 4th in the MAC. Both Army and Syracuse gave good showings yesterday. 31 Ball State A = 79.89 5 0 62.34( 123) 0 0 | 0 0 | 79.79 28 | 79.04 33 52 Bowling Green A = 74.61 2 2 75.13( 12) 0 1 | 0 1 | 74.63 50 | 73.64 53 73 Western Michigan A = 69.04 4 1 61.05( 130) 0 0 | 0 0 | 69.09 79 | 68.03 73 77 Akron A = 67.85 2 3 68.98( 53) 0 0 | 0 1 | 65.42 90 | 69.45 70 79 Central Michigan A = 67.44 3 2 67.28( 76) 0 1 | 0 1 | 68.38 83 | 65.60 87 81 Northern Illinois A = 66.53 2 2 57.63( 149) 0 0 | 0 0 | 59.97 121 | 73.34 58 93 Buffalo A = 65.08 2 3 68.47( 62) 0 0 | 0 1 | 62.34 112 | 66.98 78 114 Miami-Ohio A = 61.19 1 3 71.16( 30) 0 0 | 0 1 | 63.71 102 | 57.80 125 117 Temple A = 60.48 1 4 70.29( 36) 0 1 | 0 2 | 55.79 142 | 64.34 93 118 Toledo A = 60.44 1 3 66.67( 84) 0 0 | 0 0 | 56.10 138 | 63.92 96 131 Ohio University A = 58.53 1 4 67.27( 77) 0 0 | 0 2 | 53.45 149 | 62.67 101 145 Can't State A = 55.06 1 4 65.52( 97) 0 0 | 0 0 | 52.29 153 | 56.81 131 171 Eastern Michigan

In thinking about our 2 1/2 week buy week, I also realized that over the next 6 weeks, we only travel more than 10 miles away from Akron once.

For those that did not hear, some notes from last night. Thanks to Joe Dunn for getting those questions out.1. Stec knows he needs to get better. If he doesn't, Hildreth is ready to go. JD made it sound like Stec is at the end of his rope. We may see a change this weekend if he has a bad punt. 2. They really want to redshirt Torrence. Don't expect to see him this year. 3. Martin, the RB from Louisville is not doing much now. He named about 4 body parts where this guy has injuries. They want him full go for the spring.4. The FR LBs that are redshirting are the real deal. JD does not see a need to get a JUCO LB. These kids will be able to step in.5. Rodgers is as far along as anyone JD has seen at this age. His preparation reminds JD of Gary Kubiak. No heistation to put Rodgers in if Jacg goes down. If he does come in, he will make mistakes just from an experience factor.

I stand corrected! Google shows it was 37-0 after the 1st quarter, 5 TDs with 1 missed extra point and 1 FG. Wasn't that the game where Frye was dehydrated and had to be taken off the field?

It should be a great day, just shy of 25K.

Thanks Captain for the pictures and report!

"When it happens, it doesn't gradually happen," Robinson said of success. "It explodes. We're all battling our ass off. I'm really excited about it." If things ever get that bad, I hope that I don't hear that kind of comment from JD. This takes me back to when Lee was predicting victory over Iowa before the 35-0 1st quarter.

A fair ranking for now, has us 3rd overall in the East. We will see which 1-3 or 0-4 starts will start quitting over the next couple of weeks.

Delone Carter probably said the same thing too until last week.