InTheZone

Wow, 5 games is pretty harsh, but my guess is, as I discussed above, the Suckeyes refused to suspend any of their players for the Bowl game, so the NCAA responded in kind. That's a pretty harsh penalty to pay just because you want to end your losing streak to the SEC. They rolled the dice and lost. I hope they still lose the Bowl game too!

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but does the NCAA even have the authority to suspend a player for a Bowl game? Bowl games are not NCAA sanctioned events, but rather privately staged "exhibition" games. We often see players suspended for bowl games, but I believe that is done only by the institutions or their conferences, and if it is done for an NCAA violation the NCAA will take this into consideration when handing down their own penalty. But I don't believe the NCAA has the authority to do it themselves. (An interesting side note, players who are being redshirted are allowed to play in bowl games without losing their redshirts, because it is not an NCAA game). My hope is that the Suckeyes will see their Sugar Bowl game as vastly more important than their "preseason" warm-up games for next season and won't suspend players for the Bowl game, taking their chances with what the NCAA will do in consideration of that.

Well obviously spring games should be open to the public. Spring practices... for all the reasons GP1 mentioned, absolutely not. I remember going into my sophomore year, we were having a spring practice out at the Rubber Bowl and Owens had a bunch of recruits and their parents out there watching practice. We were in Inside Drill, which always gets heated, when a linebacker and an offensive lineman got into it, ripped each other's helmets off, and started swinging right in front of where all these people where standing. Two seconds later the entire offense and defense was running over there and throwin down. I was hurt at the time and not practicing, so I was standing over away from the action taking it all in. Parents were running away in horror, mothers were screaming, and the kids were split: half were laughing and seemed to be enjoying the show, while the other half looked petrified. It was quite a scene. The fight got broken up eventually, Owens went over and made some jokes and smoothed things over with the moms in that politician sort of way he had, and practice resumed. At the end of practice, shortly after the recruits and fam were ushered out of the bowl, Owens absolutely ran the team's asses off. I don't think I ever saw him so pissed off in 5 years. I was glad I was on crutches. THAT's why you don't open spring practice to the public. There are a lot of things that happen in spring practice that goes into making a football team that's not for public eyes. And then there are also legitimate spying concerns. If OSU opens all their practices to the public, they are idiots. Spring games are fine and are just for show. You only run your basics in the spring game that everyone knows you have in the playbook anyways and the film doesn't even get evaluated by the coaches, so the guys aren't that fired up and you rarely see fights breaking out, swearing, vommiting, verbal dress downs and abuse from coaches, and all that fun stuff.

let me summarize how this usually goes down Random zn member) our band needs to do more. random band member who has a 6th sense for when someone is talking smack to the band on the internet("band kid" for short)) we work really hard!! it's hard to do what we do. we put a lot of time into it! zn) ya'll should dance. why don't you dance? band kid) we play music, and work hard. R4R) I hate the band and everything it stands for. band kid) you don't even know what your talking about R4R's GF) I marched in the 110 and am therefor better than everyone on Gods green earth, and everyone in Ohio's Pride should be ashamed of themselves for being the worst human beings on the face of the earth hundreds of band kids come out of the wood work and 20 pages later we all agree to disagree. I know this because I used to be the one with the 6th sense. Well, for what it's worth, from a former football player I always thought you guys were great and appreciated the support.

What starts?

You would be surprised how many teams come August will be sitting in film rooms watching some scragly video shot of their opening week's opponent's spring practices. When teams open up their practices to the public, it happens, and RI knows this because I'm sure they sent some GA's out in the spring when he was at ND. After all, Charlie Weis did come from the same coaching tree as Bill Belichick.

Thanks for sharing your inner self. It makes it easier to understand some of your other posts. Save it, you can keep your warm and fuzzy "I'm this really tolerant, white-guilt ridden white guy who wants everyone to know it even though I've never talked to a black person in my life" act for someone who cares. I grew up in a majority black school, my teammates were majority black throughout my entire athletic career, and those teammates are some of my closest friends in life who are like brothers to me, 3 of which were in my wedding. You're not gonna sit here and imply that I'm a racist just so you can feel all nice and politically correct, when all I did was state an obvious truth. It's because of j@ck@#$es like you that people are afraid to have honest conversations in society. Pitt has never had a black head football coach and I'm sure the fact that Haywood was black factored heavily into their decision to reach for him. I'm sure if there was a white coach in the same position, Pitt would've probably looked elsewhere or been more hesitant. Skin color is a fact of life in football coaching nowadays, with teams at all levels under pressure to hire black candidates, especially teams that have never had a black coach. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, as it's given guys like Mike Tomlin an opportunity to succeed where in the past he'd probably still be a secondary coach somewhere. This thread implied a possible analogy to RI. I was simply saying that RI is not as likely to get a big job offer after one good season like this guy did.

Let me be a politically incorrect realist for a second. Haywood got that job because of his skin tone. Had he been white, he'd still be at Miami. If Rob Ianello pulls the miraculous and has an 8-4 season next year and we go on to win the MAC, he, like JD, will still be sitting in the Stile Field House come January 2012.

They went 7-1 and won the East out right. We went 5-3 and were tied with two other teams and got into the championship game on some crazy 5th level tiebreaker. We got shutout by an AWFUL Army team that year. I don't know if there's much of a comparison.

Not entirely accurate. Donte Cloud refused to go to class and was a huge disciplinary problem. He played some his true freshman year and got kicked off the team by Brookhart, and probably would've failed out anyways, but he didn't quit. Jemall Benjamin actually seemed like a pretty good kid who was probably going to make it, until he was attacked in his sleep in the summer heading into his redshirt freshman year by some thug who had snuck into his house with a lead pipe. He ended up in intensive care, his noggin was never the same, and he couldn't get cleared to play. Didn't quit. Stephon Fuqua actually stayed, played, and was great in the classroom. If you want to say he "quit" before his senior year, I guess you could say that if you consider transferring quitting, but he transferred not because he couldn't hack it on the field or had problems with the coaches, but because he had already graduated and Akron did not offer the graduate degree that he was looking for. If ever there's a "right" reason to transfer, that's it right there. I'm not saying we should be beating down the door at Glenville, because I think a lot of those kids are the "high risk" recruits that JD had a flavor for, but of the Glenville 3 that JD recruited in his first class, you can really only say that one, Cloud, was a complete failure based on things within his own control.

Well, if you look at the season like a quiz, Rob Ianello has had to answer 7 questions. Like any good quiz, some of the questions were extremely difficult, some questions were moderate, and some questions were gimmes just to make sure even the class idiots could get a few right. So far, Rob Ianello has failed to find the right answer to any of those questions. I would say that's pretty good justification for an "F", even if we curve his score in relation to the performance of former Zips HC's, a fraternity he will hopefully be joining sooner rather than later.

I would like to think that this is Ianello being crafty, making a public statement about starting Nicely because he doesn't want Western Michigan game planning and practicing for a mobile quarterback.... but that would be giving the man far too much credit in the intelligence department. I'm sure we'll see Nicely until we're down by 30 + in the 4th quarter again.

Zip_ME your story just goes to show how arrogant, elitist, stupid, and out of touch this new staff is. Do they really think any MAC school has the budget to be sending guys down to scout out our practices? Does RI really think any MAC school feels like they NEED to catch some great secret from spying on our practices to beat the hell out of us? If I were you, I would've looked whatever gentleman who said that to you right in the eye, and told him that you were an Akron Alumni, your tuition dollars and donation money PAID for this campus and stadium, and you will walk anywhere on it that you darn well please. During the beginning of the JD era, I was completing graduate classes and used to on occasion stop by the outdoor practice field after classes to say whats up to some of the guys still on the team as well as the strength and equipment staffs, and would catch a little bit of practice. There were always students sitting and standing around the fence watching practice. Nobody gave a damn. That's not something to give a damn about. If anything, Zip_ME, that guy should've been elated that anyone still gave enough about this sorry program to even want to take a glance at what's going on at practice. I know I just violated the swearing policy, and I'm sorry, but this kinda crap and the entire attitude this staff has taken since they waltzed in here has really ticked me off. They know they've ticked people off too, and they don't care. I said it before the season started: You can be a jerk and win, and nobody cares. But if you're a jerk who's 0-7, nobody is going to tolerate that. If I had millions of dollars, I would personally take a big fat check made out to the University of Akron to Luis Proenza's office and say it was all his if he would can this bunch of clowns and the moron who hired them. They need to get the hell out of MY football program. I bled and busted my ass for Akron football. Many of you have sat through a lot of crap and driven all over the country as loyal fans in support of a bad football program. All of us have poured a lot of ourselves into Zips football. And these guys who have been here for a few months continually laugh in our faces and lose games while they're at it. I've had enough. I am now sorry I ever complained about JD Brookhart. While I always thought he was a pretty lousy coach, he was at least a great human being who went out of his way to show appreciation for all fans and alumni. I never thought I'd say this, but I wish he was still our coach today when looking at the incompetant fellow we've got. The Lemon "I'm too much of a bitch to say this to your face" text from this past spring should've told us all we needed to know about Rob Ianello. It's an excellent picture of the man from where I'm sitting.

Does that mean we would get veto rights on the next coaching hire? Ya know, I grew up Baptist, and in the Baptist church, when a new pastor is being hired, there's a search committee that goes out and finds their favorite candidate, but then the congregation has to vote to confirm him. I think that would be a great principle for college football. Let the AD find a candidate, and then let the season ticket holders have a vote to confirm the guy. This gives the fans veto power over totally inept "brother-in-law" hires like this one, and some responsibility in the coaching search process. Then, if the guy flops, the only place fans can point the finger is right back at themselves.

How about instead of buying season tix next year, we all take that money and contribute it to a fund to buy out Rob Ianello's contract? That would do far more good for the football program than buying tickets again.

I see some commentator over there is taking credit for having always thought Terry Bowden was the man for the job, whereas I'm sure he got the idea by reading my thoughts on here. Regardless, that would've been a home run hire. As it is, we've not only struck out, we've fallen over and planted our face in the dirt while doing it. Any booster who can step up and offer to help buy this clown's contract out should be considered the savior of the program in my book. Oh, and Rasor should stick to sniffing around the locker room for inside information and leave the analysis of what's good for this program to others.

I apologize... I guess I always post with the mindset that I'm talking to a bunch of grown men who have heard everything under the sun anyways, but I understand that it's in the best interest of the site to remain "family friendly." I'll try to do better.

A lot of big time programs shy away from JUCO QB's unless they're desperate, and that's our advantage. Ianello needs to contact him, give him his first firm offer, give him some guarantees, make hiim comfortable, and get him in here in January. The best thing RI could do would be to send him Nicely's lowlight film from the first five games with the title "This will be your competition for the starting job".

http://rivals.yahoo.com/footballrecruiting...k-Stoudt-113602 6'5 225, Pro-Style QB, Ohio boy, JUCO, will be ready to go for the spring semester and spring practice . What more do you want? You can't watch his film and not know he is a huge upgrade over Patrick Nicely. He doesn't have a firm offer yet, so if Ianello has any sense about him, he'll offer him tomorrow, promise him his shot, and lock him up. Even if he turns out to be nothing, we need competition and we need OPTIONS. The more guys with the ability to play we bring in, the more likely we'll find one who will pan out. This guy's a great start.

Speaking of the SunBelt though, can we get a few more of those on our schedule? The SunBelt should be the MAC's best out of conference friend. Why take the risk of a humiliating loss to a 1-AA team when you can play a team just as bad but with the percieved legitimacy of the 1-A brand?

MTSU was 4-8 in both 2002 and 2003 and went 5-6 when they beat us in 2004. The following year when we beat them in 2005, they went 4-7. http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/2196 No doubt that a turn around this year would be a miracle, and is highly unlikely. My only point was that it's not impossible, and we've been here before and turned it around. This season doesn't have to be the biggest diaster in Zips football history, as we've had equally bad starts before, but it certainly will be if people don't start stepping up and stepping out and taking responsibility for and control of this runaway train.

You have to remember the time period. Penn State sucked in 2004, and was coming off bad year in 2003. I believe they won 3 more games in 2004, so I think they're a fair comparison to Syracuse 2010. Virginia was better than Kentucky this year, but not by much. MTSU has had success since 2004, but that year they were just recently turned 1-A and didn't do much that year or the next. It was certainly looked at as an easy win when it was scheduled, much like GW.

He was probably drunk. The guy's an alcoholic and a completely classless moron. He has quite a reputation around the coaching profession, and bashing his former team is right in line with that. He sucked as a coordinator here and I'm sure he sucks as a linebackers coach there. How does it feel, Mr. Fleming, to be over 50 years old and stuck as a position coach at Can't State, having made no progress whatsoever as a coach in the last 25 years of your career? All success we had as a defense in 2004 and 2005 was a result of Associate Head Coach and LB's coach Matt Wallerstedt. Fleming was the coordinator, but all the guys I talked to said Wallerstedt was the one designing the game plans and running defensive meetings. I think we all saw the result when Wallerstedt left after the '05 season. The defense went from a top 25 ranking to god awful in a very short period of time. When left to his own devices, Fleming showed what an incompetent bozo and failure as a coach he really was. He deserves to be an assistant coach at Can't State and Can't State deserves him.

Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark??