Quickzips

Can JD.Go out and get Bill Callahan.The guy took Oakland to a Super Bowl not to long ago, but since then he's been put in absolutely horrible positions. He's had to deal with the senial one (aka Al Davis) looking over him. After that he had to try and get the children of the corn<huskers> out of the dark ages of the power option offense and updated into an actual functional system. He could come into Akron for a few years to get his career and this program back on track and he would bring instant credibility on the recruiting trail. His offensive prowess is well documented, but he's put together some nice defenses (save for this year) in his days as well.

What we need more than anything is an offensive coordinator who can develop a scheme, or who runs a scheme that fits the praticular strengths and weaknesses of this offense.I hate to point to the Browns as an example, but if you look at what Rob Chudzinski has done up there this year it is nothing short of a miracle. He's taken guys like Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow II, Derek Anderson, Joe Jurevicius, Joe Thomas and Eric Steinbach and allowed them to do the things they are good at. Let's face it. CJ11 is never going to be effective running this parallel to the line, read option offense. Asking him to do it is absolutely ridiculous. He just doesn't have the mobility to do it. As for CJ7, sadly enough, it's becoming more and more obvious why the big programs wanted him as a CB or a WR. He can make a few good plays now and then at QB, but he's just not enough of a pure QB to be effective at the position. I don't know exactley what system is going to work for these guys, but it most certainly is not the system we are running and we need to get out of it as soon as possible.

Do we really have to open up this can of worms again?What exactly is it that makes him deserve more minutes? His great ballhandling skills? His ability to penetrate the lane and create his own shot? His defensive ability? His overall athleticism?Just because the kid can knock down a few 30+ footers here and there doesn't mean he should be taking away minutes from guys like Dials, Middleton, McNees, Conyers or Steward.

Isn't it one definition of insanity to continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results???

Funny, I was on here a month and a half ago telling you guys how this program is in a free fall. I was called a but monkey, told it wasn't on the coaching staff, we're just in a rebuilding year, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.Now all of a sudden the prevailing opinion is that this program IS in a free fall and it CAN be traced back to JD.I could barely even watch that game last night. It's hard to be more embarrased to wear the blue and gold as it was trying to watch that. The team has quit on JD, his players are still a bunch of thugs who can't handle themselves on or off the field. He's still shown me nothing on the recruiting trail. His defense is a total joke. His offensive playcalling is so unimaginative it makes me long for the days of last years Cleveland Browns under Maurice Carthon. I don't really dislike JD, I think he's a good guy, but he's in WAY over his head at this point. He's proving week after week after week that he wasn't ready to be a head coach at this level. He got pretty lucky to have some good veteran leaders already in the program when he got here who were able to take the program on their shoulders when they needed. He isn't developing this program. It's regressing.As far as the overwhelming fear of firing him and then having him go somewhere else and lead a program to greatness. I'm not buying it. Even if he were to do that (I doubt it, mid-major coaches with career losing records and questionable recruiting abilities don't tend to get hired elsewhere) I still don't buy it. I could live with him doing it because I know that at this point he isn't going to be able to make Akron into that bigtime program. It's better for both sides to cut their losses now and move on before things get too much worse. JD can have a chance to resurect his career somewhere else and Akron gets a chance to retool before things get too much worse.

See the flaw in your argument here is that you are telling us that under Lee Owens we were trained to find progress in a 4 win year while simultaneously telling us that we should see hope in a season where we are flirting with .500. Other than 2 wins what is really the big difference???

You're delusional. The field itself doesn't mean a thing when it comes to the product that we put on it. You guys can go on giving JD chance after chance after chance to make something of this program. Me I've seen enough. The guy backed into a championship 2 years ago and has done nothing since then. His teams struggle to get near .500, his recruits never see the light of the practice field, his players lack any sort of discipline, his offense is so scatterbrained and inconsistent that it will never consistently win us ballgames and his defense is so centered around one player (Mackey) that when that one player goes down the entire defense collapses. We beat one really bad BCS team since he's been here and have gotten thoroughly beaten by just about every other team we've faced. Call it a rebuilding year if you'd like, but remember that for the most part those are JD's players down there on the field. He brought them into the program and they have been his responsibility. These guys should have been groomed for the challenges they are now facing starting 3 years ago, but it is obvious that they haven't. Color me off the bandwagon. JD has to go.

With the big talk in college football these days being parady it seems appropriate to bring up parady within the MAC. At this point it seems as if it is never going to be more apparent. With wins from Temple and Buffalo over two teams who have been to the MACC game in the last two seasons it seems apparent that anyone in this conference can win on any given Saturday (or Wednesday night or Thursday night). Then I go in and check out a MAC favorite. This weeks ESPN.com Bottom 10 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?page=bottom10076Once perenially graced by MAC clubs like Buffalo, EMU and Temple the only team from the MAC that makes the list this week is NIU. A franchise that until recently was constantly one of the top teams in the conference now not only is bad enough to occupy the #9 spot on the list, but is simultaneously sitting on the waiting list. Then there is Toledo. Once the model franchise for the MAC Tom Amstutz's squad has fallen from graces so fast that Toledo Tom's robust build is actually making that whistling noise as it plummets.So the question is this. How concerned should we (as a MAC member) be about this trend? Is this simply a microcosim of a larger trend in NCAA football or is this a more serious problem for the MAC? If this is simply a microcosm of the larger trend in the NCAA is that trend a good thing or not? If it is a more serious problem for the MAC what can be done about it?

CJ11 threw for 380 yards and 4 TD's last night. Good for him. He also single handedly turned the ball over 3 times and just about did it a 4th and 5th time. Until he learns to limit those kinds of mistakes I'm not going to be completely comfortable with him. I've heard a few times how CJ7's big problem on the field is turning the ball over. If thats the case I really don't see what the difference is b/w him and CJ11. I can't figure out why we've so quickly forgotten CJ7's game against Can't where he was one of the insturmental guys at making that win happen. IMO that win wasn't any less impressive than the one last night. I'm still a guy who prefers what CJ7 can do behind center. That said. At this point, I'd just be happy to finally stop the QB shuffle. Pick one guy and stick with him. If that guy happens to be CJ11, so be it.

Zips D bends but doesn't break (unless you want to count injuries to NT's, we're getting thin there)all tied up 3-3.

WMU turns it over at their own 30 on the second play of the game. Zips get one first down then have a weird sounding fumble by CJ11 that we recover at the 42 for 2nd and 33. Can't pick up the first down there but Igor hits a 51 YARDER!!!Gotta love having Igor!

We need to start including a vote against them in the write in column somehow. I don't wanna see that giant golden turkey in this competition next year.

I agree but the top talent goes to OSU. And the next level goes to other Big Ten Schools or other BCS schools. But this still leaves some darn good talent. We the local kids don't want to stay home so they go to other MAC schools or CUSA schools. So that just leaves us with PA kids. They all the ones we want are going to Pitt even though were are a head of them. Hopefully the realize Coach Wann at Pitt is really bad.2. We had only had this for a few years. And now the final piece will be in place in 2009. (I hope....). Now the kids can use the filed house and also play in a top notch stadium which is now on campus. I hope this will be the final thing to get kids away from other BCS shcools.3. Once again this just happened a few years ago. When the Zips made the jump from I-AA onlu Coach Faust was on board with this. The rest of admin could have cared less. And this carried through until Mike Thoams cam on board. So again. I'm not arguing that UConn isn't ahead of us. I think it is pretty obvious that they are. I just don't know why. I understand that we usually get the bottom of the barrell high school talent in Ohio, but with the amount of talent in the area I'd still like to believe that the guys available to us are at the very least comparable to anything that hot bed football state of Conneticut is putting out.I understand our facilities are new, but we've had the fieldhouse for 3 1/2 years now and it's been pretty well documented that we've been using the promise of a brand new stadium for at least the last couple recruiting classes. We should be starting to see the fruits of our labor on those fronts by now.The same goes for the President, AD and athletic department. Proenza has been on board for at least 4 years now. Mack has only been here a couple years, but we had a very good AD before him as well and the athletic department has been behind this thing since I got here 5 years ago. I just want to know why? Why can't we beat teams like Indiana and UConn? We can we go into Columbus and feel like we've got a real shot to beat OSU? What is it that is holding this program back? I'm not content with just being competitive in the MAC anymore. The conference as a whole is a joke anyways. We should be dominating this conference and we should be gunning for the big boys. I just can't figure out why we aren't.

I detected a sense of desire for a whole new basketball facility. If I recall Mack talked about the effects of having top of the line facilities on recruiting and such and hinted at the fact that what we have now is inadequate for this.I got the impression that at the moment it is all somewhat wishful thinking, but that the wheels are turning and something just might come of it all. Stay tuned.

You seem to think that, in 2007, Akron competes on a level playing field with Indiana and UConn. While I think the University has taken steps to get there, I do not think we are there yet. A win against them would be great, and I think we should pull one off (even now) every now and then (like NC State last year), but I don't see how we should EXPECT it to happen. The UConn fan is right. Some of us aren't giving them enough credit. There program is farther ahead than ours, plane and simple Any neutral college football observer would agree. A program that moved up from I-AA less than 10 years ago is ahead of us by 34 points and I don't see why?We are living in a hotbed of football talent.We have, or are going to have the nicest facilities in our conference. Facilities that rival a lot of BCS schools.We have a President, AD and Athletic Department that are fully onboard with making this program better.I just can't see why we shouldn't go into these kinds of games expecting to win. I hate it that we always seem to go into these games thinking, "well, hopefully we can keep it close enough that we can sneak out of here with a win." It's a losers mentality and I for one am tired of it. It isn't impossible for mid-majors to go out and knock off the big boys. Boise State, Fresno State, Utah, BYU and a host of others have proven it. They did it by going into the big boys houses with the expectation that they can and will win. Do they always come away with a W? No. Ofcourse not, but they go in there with a winners mentality and it gives them a chance to win games every time they go up against the big boys.

It makes Akron a pretty bad team, which is exactley my point. Now stop trolling and go back to your own board.

THIS GAME mattered. There's a thread a little ways down about USF and how they got to where they are today (which is a team on the doorsteps of the top 10). They got to where they are today by winning games like this one against mediocre (sorry UConn fans, your team really isn't THAT great) BCS competition. This is the kind of game that can do one of two things. Establish that you are just a mid-level mid-major that can compete within the conference but is hopelessly lost against the big boys or it can establish that you are a team on the rise that can compete with the big conferences week in and week out. If you guys are satisfied with being a middle of the road MAC team that maybe will be in contention for the conference championship depending on the year then so be it, but I'm not. There is no reason that Akron shouldn't be able to beat the Indiana's and UConn's of the world. QZ,If you check it out on Sunday afternoon, you'll find that two of the three teams Akron has lost to this year are ranked in the top-25: Ohio State and Connecticut (both undefeated, you'll notice), and the other, Indiana, has just one loss -- to another top-25 team in Illinois.Akron may or may not be a contender in the MAC East (and I think Can't's performance the past two weeks shows Akron may well be), but you definitely cannot put down Akron for having lost to weak teams. UConn could be this year's Rutgers. Well, maybe not. But they have as may wins as the Knights had at this point a year ago.Relax and have a good weekend Zips' fans. There's a lot of time before basketball season begins. Connecticuts Opponents (Other than us):Duke (going into it had the nations longest losing streak)Temple (now has the nations longest losing streak)Maine (a 1-3 I-AA team)PittOhio States Opponents (Other than us):Youngstown State (Another I-AA team)Washington NorthwesternMinnesotaIndianas Opponents (Other than us):Indiana State (An 0-5 I-AA team)Western MichiganIllinoisIowaOf the teams that our big bad OOC opponents have played only two have a winning record (One being I-AA YSU). Coincidentally, that team that handed our big bad OOC opponents their only loss on the season, was the only I-A team that they've played with a winning record. I'm not impressed. Not at all. These teams pile up nice records by playing crummy opponents and we're supposed to feel good about ourselves if we can just keep the game competitive. I don't buy it.

All valid points, however there are a few big problems.First off, Cleveland is the bigger market. They have the larger city, the media, the pro-sports teams, the bigger hospitals. Everything. Cleveland leaders are not going to be too happy if this goes through and they are just a branch campus to UA. Second off, Cleveland is, for the moment, the city that is in need of a bigger economic boost. Akron isn't doing that great, but compared to Cleveland we are doing a pretty decent job. Cleveland is falling apart. A stronger CSU (with Akron as a branch campus) may be looked at as a means to reverse some of the disturbing trends up there. It would be a shame for Akron to have to suffer for figuring out just how important a college campus can be to the community 10 years before Cleveland is force fed the idea, but it could very well happen.

lilroodude, I apologize b/c I'm gonna shread you on this, but I'm just getting a little tired of this kind of an attitude from a lot of people around here. These are all just bad excuses. That's all this is is an excuse thread.1) UConn is undefeated. Whoopie. They beat a Duke team that at the time had the longest losing streak in the country. They barely beat a Temple team that now holds that distinction. They took down a Pitt team that is spiraling down hill so fast it is comical and they took down that 1-3 IAA powerhouse Maine. Stop me when I'm supposed to be impressed. So they are in the Big East. Despite the fact that the Conference is having their best overall season in decades they are still the weakest conference in the BCS.2) Next time I get chewed out for not doing a good job at work I'm using excuse #2. "But sir, I did an OK job. Isn't an OK job good enough?" It's time to stop looking for moral victories (stop me at the part of the game where you find any) against these BCS teams and start putting some check marks in the win column. Plain and simple. This team will never get anywhere if we continue to be content to try and get above .500 in Conference play.3) How promising is our future really? Next year we lose our top reciever with little to no talent behind him. There goes any resemblance of a passing game if we even have one to begin with. We lose a bunch of guys in the secondary and at linebacker. We still have no depth on the defensive line. We can't even get our top recruits onto campus let alone retain them if they do make it here. I fail to see the optimism.4) Whoopdie-doo. We've got a chance to take a Championship in one of the worst conferences in all of Division IA football. I'll be mildly impressed if we can do it by going undefeated in conference play. Backing into another Championship by going .500 or a tick over is nothing to get excited about.I'm sorry guys. I just can't get over this kind of a loss. Not right now. Maybe not for a while.

I heard that CJ was a little late for a team meeting that he found out about at the last minute. There's no doubt that JD made an example of him. I'm just glad he did it before the MAC season really starts. I heard 2 different stories. One being that he was late for a position meeting that he didnt hear about till the last minute, and then i heard that he was 5 minutes late for the team bus. Im going to try to get ahold of him and see whats going on. but if JD is going to be this strict on CJ, then he better make sure that he jjust as strict on every other player. Either way, if JD is gonna get a hard on over that, but allow guys to commit moronic personal fouls multiple times during the game then coach really doesn't have his priorities straight.

THIS GAME mattered. There's a thread a little ways down about USF and how they got to where they are today (which is a team on the doorsteps of the top 10). They got to where they are today by winning games like this one against mediocre (sorry UConn fans, your team really isn't THAT great) BCS competition. This is the kind of game that can do one of two things. Establish that you are just a mid-level mid-major that can compete within the conference but is hopelessly lost against the big boys or it can establish that you are a team on the rise that can compete with the big conferences week in and week out. If you guys are satisfied with being a middle of the road MAC team that maybe will be in contention for the conference championship depending on the year then so be it, but I'm not. There is no reason that Akron shouldn't be able to beat the Indiana's and UConn's of the world.

It was this bad all last season and It's been this bad all this season. JD has no control over his team. He's trying to make a statement by benching CJ for some ticky tack team rules violation while simultaneously allowing guys to turn their brains off and do whatever the heck they want to on the field.JD is damn lucky he won that game last week. If he had lost that and come out and laid this kind of an egg this week I'd be calling for his head and I don't think I'd be the only one.As it is, I can't say I have a lot of confidence in the guy.

FOR GODS SAKE COACH GET CHRIS OUT OF THERE. HE'S STINKING UP THE WHOLE JOINT. WE AREN'T GOING TO WIN THIS, BUT AT LEAST WE CAN MAKE IT LOOK A LITTLE MORE RESPECTABLE.

No depth upfront on the defense.Going into a shell on offense and starting to throw those stupid swing passes more and more.Losing our focus and committing stupid penalties.