InTheZone

Back in my day as a Zips athlete, you could always find a track-ho that was ready to go

I know, who really cares right? But it's a slow offseason, so let's get some predictions on where hopefully the last of JD's "big recruit" bums turns up.

Unfortunately for us he'll be coaching a QB there that's a heckuva lot better than any he was ever going to coach here. It seems a lot of the smaller schools around us are consistently having better QB's than us (Cundiff from Ashland also comes to mind), and perhaps this is because most BCS transfers go D2 so they don't have to sit out, but I think it has more to do the fact that our previous HC was just a horrible evaluator of talent and by default a horrible recruiter. In all of JD's 6 recruiting classes he never signed one QB that was really worth a damn. His first 3 years he was lucky enough to inherit Frye and then have Getsy transfer in. Brooky signed a pretty high number of QBs, and not one of them panned out, with the exception of maybe Nicely, but honestly I think he'll be ok at best, not on the level of Frye or Getsy. Let's hope Ianello can reverse the trend and go out and find us a diamond in the rough somewhere. Go JUCO or entice transfers that burned a redshirt and lost a QB battle if you have to.

Not eligible to participate until summer camp. Apparently monster hands are no good for picking up pencils, operating calculators, and/or turning pages? If you were not eligible for the fall of 2009, you cannot participate in spring ball. I hear his fall UA classwork was fine. He should be good to go this summer. People forget kids like Jimmy Conyers, Darryl Roberts and Andre Jones were non-qualifiers too. It doesn't preclude them being a successful student athlete. Kiki Gonzales too. Some of our best players have been non-qualifiers. Non-qualifier does not automatically = lazy. Some of the kids worked their ass off in the classroom and just couldn't get the test scores to be eligible. Those kinds of kids almost always work out. The non-qualifiers I would avoid and that ole JD seemed to have a taste for were the guys who had fine test scores and couldn't make the GRADES in high school. That hints at laziness and lack of desire.

Does your football/penis envy have to come through on every thread?

Especially given the fact that Harris wouldn't give him a release, which meant Akron had to wait a year to give him a scholarship. This forced him to pay out of state tuition in his first year here when he was sitting out and running the scout team, not to mention he had to cover his own living expenses. I don't know, but if a guy set me back 20k just because he wanted to be a d#@k, I'd have some "hard feelings".

The only one I can think of in the last 20 years is OSU-commit Dennis Kennedy, and that's probably a stretch considering he only had one good season.

Have we ever had a "big name" recruit that landed here actually live up to the hype?

You had to see this coming, it's what RichRod ran at WVU. The 3-3-5 can work and has at some schools, but you HAVE to have some absolute animals up front. We had some linebacker sized DE's and DT's that were completely incapable of holding their ground against double teams and we never had a nose that could create penetration in the middle outside of Kiki Gonzales, in who's time we did have a top ranked defense (2005). The scheme can work, you just have to have the right personnel, and a mid-major like Akron is incapable of recruiting that type of personnel. It can be a good defense for a BCS school like Michigan.

So after last night's embarassment, does Dave in Green want to try arguing with me again about how bad we and the MAC as a whole suck?? I agree, the MAC should start with trying to be better than the Suburban League and we can work our way up from there.... So far all Dambrot has done in his tenure here is get us one measily conference championship in a shitty conference and pad his regular season win column with shitty opponents. I don't know about the rest of you, but if I'm going to keep driving an hour each way to watch Zips basketball, I'm expecting more.

So what are we thinking sitting here in March boys, we looking at a quick turn around or a rebuilding process next year? Obviously we'll have a better idea after spring ball and summer when we know this team better and we also know who makes grades in the Spring, but let's hear some gut feelings and expectations... Feel free to post the schedule and predict scores. I'll chime in later with my always spot on analysis (I mean, I don't wanna brag but if you pull up the 2005 preseason predictions I believe I was the only one to predict a MAC Championship, and I believe I've predicted a losing season every season after that, no big deal )

Completely agreed. It's not like Ianello based an entire recruiting class on "50-50 chances" like ole JD did his first few seasons. It's one kid out of 25, and why not take the chance? If he gets here and on the field, SCORE! If not, we've lost one scholarship out of 25 that probably otherwise would've went to a kid that would've had a 50-50 chance of ever being an impact player anyways. I'm all about us taking one "chance" a year on getting a talent like this, so long as it doesn't slip back into JD Brookhart "Best Recruiting Class in the MAC" mode.

I think anyone can average 21 points a game when they also average 40 shots, know what I mean Derrick?

Yeah a lot of questions here. I thought I remembered seeing him on the sidelines at one of the games at Info this year in his normal capacity (warmups and the "get back" coach once the game starts) but maybe I'm not remembering correctly. I used to keep in regular contact with him and have his number, but I don't really feel it's appropriate to text the guy "hey, long time no talk to. so when exactly did you get fired..."

http://www.uakron.edu/president/docs/Perso...tions-Dec09.pdfScroll down to "Office of the President" and look at the date of seperation.

Here's some news, Temple has yet to win the MAC East, so they really aren't a bench mark. (Great season this year, I would have traded records in a heartbeat and schedules, since it was quite obvious the MAC padded it for them). But they aren't Marshall. But I do like the "expecting" to win the MAC East. They should be "expecting" to run the table in the East. It shows me that he is trying to change the attitude.Lol, you don't think the team would've said they expected to win the MAC East last year if asked? I'm sure there's a newspaper article out there somewhere with someone saying they expected to win the MAC East, and from 2008, 2007, 2006....And the month long "hell week" is nothing new. Brooky did the same thing when he got here. Like I said earlier, standard "weeding out" practice.Well the difference being, I had a chance to talk Allen, Balaam, and a couple of the other guys before the season started. They had no belief in Jacq, so no, I don't think they would have said it. I think they wanted to, but I don't think they expected it.And I appreciate the "that's all been done before". I know it has, it was one of the things Faust and Owens talked about. And it's normal management behavior. Set expectations early. The difference here is that I think he is actually getting buy in. If transfers stay below 10 after the spring practice, then I would say he sold the team on his idealogy and that is a lot better jumping off point then if he has to wait to develop his guys to take over the leadership roles.I'm just telling you, all this "new attitude and expectations" bullshit is a bad re-run that has happened over and over and over again in this program. Right now there's probably 1/3 guys who are pumped about the new staff, 1/3 of guys who hate the new staff and miss Brooky and the boys, and 1/3 who aren't sure yet. None of this rhetoric and "buying in" talk means two shits. We'll find out in the fall if the guy can actually coach, and that's all that matters.

They/you are right, individual sports are 1% as important as team sports in the big picture. The Wall Street Journal is a great publication and to even have the conference mentioned in it is good as many people will see that article. You crack me up!He should've put a disclaimer in there.... The WSJ is a great publication if you aren't a left coast liberal whack job. There ya go, better now?

Here's some news, Temple has yet to win the MAC East, so they really aren't a bench mark. (Great season this year, I would have traded records in a heartbeat and schedules, since it was quite obvious the MAC padded it for them). But they aren't Marshall. But I do like the "expecting" to win the MAC East. They should be "expecting" to run the table in the East. It shows me that he is trying to change the attitude.Lol, you don't think the team would've said they expected to win the MAC East last year if asked? I'm sure there's a newspaper article out there somewhere with someone saying they expected to win the MAC East, and from 2008, 2007, 2006....And the month long "hell week" is nothing new. Brooky did the same thing when he got here. Like I said earlier, standard "weeding out" practice.

I can tell you who the 2nd rival is for the players, at least in football.... The sweaters, without a doubt.HATE REDThat huge sign was always posted on the lockerroom wall during the Owens years, and Brookhart continued it. The defection of two Owens assistants to Miami in the 90's as well as one season (1996 maybe?) that we beat Miami at the bowl and they were so stuck up and embarrassed by it, they thought they were too good to come across the field and shake hands before making a beeline for the lockerroom (at least that's the story Owens told in the later years). Miami week was always the biggest week and the most focused preparation, outside of Can't State in both the Owens and Brookhart years. We'll see if Ianello continues this.

OK, I'll bite. Herschel Walker?48 years old and still professionally today.WOW.... that man does not age. He still looks better than half of all NFL RB's at 48 years old!! Physical freak.

Time to recover is just as important as the actual lifting. Maybe they're focusing more on conditioning than strength, to create athletes instead of hulking monstrosities that get tired easily.4 day lifting cycles actually, believe it or not, leave more time for muscle recovery. To put it simply to a fault, because in a four day lift different muscle groups are worked each different day (upper, lower, upper, lower), there is actually a 72 hour recovery time, as opposed to a M-W-F full body lift which only provides 48 hours. There are a lot of benefits to the 4 day cycle that I'm not going to go in to but that strength coaches have known for the past 20 years. That's why I'm shocked to see ths 3 day schedule for our Zips. And you can focus on speed and agility in a 4 day cycle, through plyometrics on lower body days and agility training on upper body days (usually done before or after the lift). And if you've watched the Zips the past 6 years, one thing we've sorely missed are "hulking monstrosities", especially up front. We had too many self-styled "athletes" in the Brookhart era and not enough guys up front kicking ass and leaving the pretty stuff to the DB's and WR's. These guys need to be in the weight room 4 days a week IMO, but there's probably something we're missing here that Gaffney misinterpreted or didn't elaborate on. I don't have an "in" in the program anymore, so I couldn't tell you exactly what's going on, but our new strength guy has a good background and pedigree, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Pretty shocked to see the team is on a M-W-F 3 day full body lift as opposed to the much more standard M-T-R-F 4 day upper-lower-upper-lower schedule. I thought the 3 day lift cycle had gone the way of the Wishbone Offense. Not sure I like it, but hopefully the new strength guy knows what the heck he's doing.

Sure, it's OK to admit anything you believe in. By RPI averages, the MAC is right square in the middle -- 16th out of 33 D1 conferences. But numbers can be created to show that it's one of the worst or one of the best.Where is reality?The reality was in that game Friday night. 2 best teams in the conference. Both looked AWFUL. We just happened to the be the more awful.

It was nothing personal. Where I'm from you disagree with a guy you call him and his mama every name in the book, and an hour later your best friends again. I'm sure you're a fine fellow yourself when you aren't blinding yourself to the reality of what a good college basketball team means outside of our pathetic conference this year.Do not be surprised to see Can't bounced by 20+ in th first round of the NCAA's. You heard it here first.

In football, I would say you should never try to build your program around JUCO's and transfers. That's a disaster waiting to happen. But the dynamics of college basketball are very different. I almost believe that in order to get any truely "special" player in here, we've got to take some chances on JUCO's, transfers, and "bad character" guys. We're not going to get the superbly talented shooting guard with a 4.0 who sings in the church choir. That guy's going to Duke. While in football, there are tons and tons of guys who fall through the cracks and end up on mid-majors just because there's such a mass amount of high school football players and it's very hard to tell how well a guy will develop physically once in college, basketball talent is really cut and dry. You can tell what kind of player a kid is in high school, and the great players are going to the Duke's, UNC's, Kentucky's, Memphis's, and Kansas's of the world. The only talented players that don't are the kinds of kids we're talking about... the kids with academic struggles who end up in JUCO, or the kid who's been picked up by the cops a coulple times for sellng a few ounces. To get the kind of talent in here to be something special at our level we've got to take those risks.