InTheZone

1st and 10 from the 26- A. Allen RUSH, up the middle, gain of 5. 2nd and 5 from the 31- P. Nicely PASS, intended for M. Suel, COMPLETE, gain of 3. 3rd and 2 from the 34- A. Allen RUSH, to the right, gain of 1. 4th and 1 from the 35- PUNT

The first sentence of this piece has me wondering. "It has been nearly nine months since Tri-Valley's Clay Cameron capped a superb high football school career." I’m not sure whether to be happy the kid went to a football school or upset that apparently he was always high. I did learn something new. Had no idea walk-ons cannot start practicing at the same time scholarship players do. Also it sounds like the kid isn't sold on being a linebacker. Preferred walk-ons always go to camp with the team and are usually treated just like scholarship players with opportunities to compete for spots. Try-out walk-ons are added after tryouts the first week of the season, and are brought in as scout team fodder. Well that just doesn't seem right. Who are teams going to use to fill out their scout team for their first game if they can't even have walk-on tryouts until the first week of the season? And doesn't this put teams whose season starts later in the year at a disadvantage? Oh most preferred walk-ons will still end up on scout team once the season starts, as will all scholarship players getting redshirted or transfers sitting out (I hear Luke Getsy was one heluva scout team QB in '04). Preferred are just given an opportunity to compete and work in during camp, whereas the tryout guys, they'll be lucky if a coach or GA ever even learns their name.... they're scout team from the start. Being on scout team for the first game sucks because those guys never get a blow in practice, but once the try-out guys come in you have more bodies to throw in there and keep guys fresh. This was a wonderful explanation, but you completely ignored the inter-squad inequity issue. I believe the only way to correct this problem is to require all teams to start their seasons on the same week. Teams can have walk-on tryouts whenever they want, most teams just wait until school starts so they don't have to pay to house, transport, and feed a bunch of guys during camp who have no chance to play. I believe the NCAA cap for guys in camp is 105, but most teams won't carry that many to camp. I'm not really sure where the inequity is?

To reply to your "real" question, I say yes. There are a lot of sports fans in the area, and they're looking for something worth supporting. There are fans who want to see a quality team, there are a zillion football fans, there are basketball fans, soccer fans, baseball fans. With football and basketball and baseball there are a lot of other teams out there and you gotta GOTTA have a good entertaining program. Going 3-9 or 3-24 isn't going to sell many tickets... For soccer, the market is wide open. But for any of these sports, if it's a good team and marketed well, they will beat a path to the U. I have been saying the same thing for weeks now about gun shooting and club baseball.

There were a lot of bandwagon jumpers there, for sure. Just looking for a winner. But judging by what a lot of fans were wearing to the games, what they were talking about there, their demographic, I have to disagree. I was there (a common theme when we talk about soccer here, if you haven't figured out yet). The Caps (short for Whitecaps) were owned by retired pro player Mike Sweeney. They played in 1997 and 98 in what was then "D3", now the USL's Second Division. In 1997 they played at Byers Field. The led D3 in attendance, breaking single game and season attendance records. They played an exhibition against the Columbus Crew and packed the place. I had season tickets. (See, there it is again). In 1998 the league threw down a rule that teams could not play on artificial turf. Mike tried to find a natural turf stadium to play in, the team bounced around the county, and attendance plummeted. Unable to secure a suitable venue for 1999, Mike decided not to field a team. This was the first D3 team in Cleveland the league screwed up. So if the soccer program wasn't limited in the number of tickets it sold last year, you don't think they could have gotten 10,000 people for the NCAA Tournament and outdrew the E Mich game? The Force use to draw 20,000 for INDOOR soccer. They drew that many to the RB for an EXHIBITION game. Been there, saw that, still got the T-shirt. I've been watching soccer for 30 years, at the local level and world wide. You better bring more than chest pounding to get something like that past me... LOL

It really doesn't matter how good a soccer team is, you'll never be able to draw more than a few thousand people to watch it. Awful football beats "great" soccer any day of the week in America.

Competing for a spot http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-3...37-9ab7888a7128

The first sentence of this piece has me wondering. "It has been nearly nine months since Tri-Valley's Clay Cameron capped a superb high football school career." I’m not sure whether to be happy the kid went to a football school or upset that apparently he was always high. I did learn something new. Had no idea walk-ons cannot start practicing at the same time scholarship players do. Also it sounds like the kid isn't sold on being a linebacker. Preferred walk-ons always go to camp with the team and are usually treated just like scholarship players with opportunities to compete for spots. Try-out walk-ons are added after tryouts the first week of the season, and are brought in as scout team fodder. Well that just doesn't seem right. Who are teams going to use to fill out their scout team for their first game if they can't even have walk-on tryouts until the first week of the season? And doesn't this put teams whose season starts later in the year at a disadvantage? Oh most preferred walk-ons will still end up on scout team once the season starts, as will all scholarship players getting redshirted or transfers sitting out (I hear Luke Getsy was one heluva scout team QB in '04). Preferred are just given an opportunity to compete and work in during camp, whereas the tryout guys, they'll be lucky if a coach or GA ever even learns their name.... they're scout team from the start. Being on scout team for the first game sucks because those guys never get a blow in practice, but once the try-out guys come in you have more bodies to throw in there and keep guys fresh.

The first sentence of this piece has me wondering. "It has been nearly nine months since Tri-Valley's Clay Cameron capped a superb high football school career." I’m not sure whether to be happy the kid went to a football school or upset that apparently he was always high. I did learn something new. Had no idea walk-ons cannot start practicing at the same time scholarship players do. Also it sounds like the kid isn't sold on being a linebacker. Preferred walk-ons always go to camp with the team and are usually treated just like scholarship players with opportunities to compete for spots. Try-out walk-ons are added after tryouts the first week of the season, and are brought in as scout team fodder.

Definitely not a "dead" issue. The new prez wants a team on the field by 2012. http://www.cleveland.com/sports/csu/index...._cleveland.html

if Cleveland State adds football like they've talked about, it would be in our best interest for them to be FCS. Right now, if we could ever get this ship heading in the right direction, we would have a monopoly on big time NEO college football. We don't need to start competing with CSU. Can't will always be a joke in football.

I agree that five years ago the stadium was chosen do exactly what you say. The problem is college football is changing faster than anyone thought. Soon there will be no more FBS or FCS. It will be different levels in college football named whatever they name it. If the super conferences force the creation of a division between FBS and FCS, so be it. I would love for the Zips to be part of it. We could compete well at that level with what we have. We'll never be able to compete with the super conference schools with what we currently have. I disagree. If we get a new arena built soon for basketball at 9-11,000 capacity (and I'm all for working with the city and putting it downtown, which is pretty much campus anyways), then our facilities will be on par or superior to many BCS schools (who'd have ever thought we'd be able to say THAT ten years ago?). All we need is a winner in football and the fan support will come.

Basketball had no problem getting their outing together. http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_...TCLID=204961412

Was it the football staff or the athletic department? I hope it wasn't the staff. The Athletic Department has had nothing to do with the outing recently. It's all organized by the football office, and Ianello said the hell with it.

I'm sorry, but they wouldn't have "killed" anyone in the MAC last year. They would've competed, but lost their fair share of games.

Maybe. There's no one left in the athletic department from when he was at Akron. Who would he contact? Would the new athletics people even care? Having an NFL QB, who actually played here, host a camp for junior high and high school kids on our campus would be a pretty big recruiting tool to just throw away. I would hope the athletic department would "care" and wouldn't be that incompetent, but given recent history, who knows.

Hmmm.... never thought of the fact that the school might be dumb enough to give the cold shoulder to our only alumni NFL QB, but who knows at this point...

at ASHLAND. http://athletics.ashland.edu/M-Football/do...s/Camp1_000.pdf Scroll to page 2 on the PDF. C'mon Chuck, I understand wanting to help out Coach O, but do something for the school you ACTUALLY WENT TO once and a while.

It just depends on the guy. I played with guys who tore their ACL and were never the same, and I also saw guys come back from it as good as new. A lot of it depends on how hard the guy is willing to work in rehab. For a recent Zips example, Alex Allen blew out his knee and came back fine. He seems like the kind of guy who probably worked his tail off in rehab. Hix is the same kind of guy. His career isn't over, IMO.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/...re-of-severity/ Got his foot caught on the turf, which can cause some pretty nasty, and sometimes career ending (see Jamir Miller) injuries. Let's hope Hix is ok.

Do I sense a hint of sarcasm...

Inquiring minds want to know!!!!!!

This article has nothing to do with the quality of our marketing department, and everything to do with our administration's (ie Proenza's) commitment to providing top notch facilities and support. Our marketing department blows.

Most seniors could miss a semester of school and still be eligible in the fall, especially if its a 5th year senior. A player needs to have completed about 72 hours heading into his 4th season. It's entirely plausible that Mr. Carter had already completed that requirement before missing the spring semester, or he could've taken classes at another community college for credit that would then transfer. Just because he missed the spring doesn't mean he won't be eligible.

As much as some people would like to crown Nicely savior and star, he has done nothing yet to show he is worthy of that title. He played mediocre at best in his starts last year, and looked below average in the spring game. He has some tools but a lot of QB's have the tools, he hasn't shown himself to be a solid starter yet. If I'm a QB looking to transfer I think Akron makes a lot of sense. There's a reason Nicely ended up at a MAC school and this kid ended up in the Big 10.

I'd take him in a heartbeat. John Ferguson was a big time recruit for us at QB the same way Nicely was. A BCS transfer came in and beat him out for the job, and that worked out pretty well. And there's a connection there with our DC. Get him in.