ZachTheZip

http://www.commoncensus.org/index.php This is a great little project that produces some interesting maps. I think it could use some more representation from Akron, both in the regular and sports sections. I do like how the Zips at least have some geographical representation, as opposed to none from most of the other MAC schools.

Three active lineman. Our new Center went down with an ankle injury.

Is anybody going to Jock Jams tonight? I liked the idea last year, but thought it could use some polishing. I think this year it will be much improved. Its a great way to support the athletic department and to see and converse with our athletes and coaches. I can't make it this year but I hope it does well.

Martha Nagbe, that is. It's too bad coach Kest couldn't get her to be a Zip.

2 new offers: RB Toneo Gulley CB Nana Kyeremeh

From what I gathered somebody posted a picture of a nipple, and a mod saw it and shut down the entire website.

Stark County POY Nyles Evans is considering going the Prop-48 route at Akron.

That whole mess caused me to get banned from Scout, even though I didn't post a single word since the debacle started. There's no appeal process I can find, either.

Yeah. Ianello filled his staff up with "win later" coaches. The problem with that is that they get fired for losing before their plan ever works.

Getting to a bowl would be a miracle. However, getting FIU would suck. Who wants to play in a bowl against a team you already played in the regular season?

New offer: TE Bill Albert

DC Kevin Cosgrove steps up to the plate. Actually mentions a few players by name!

Maybe they want to join the MAC.

Ugghhhh...I am sick and tired of playing Penn State! Play a different Big 10(12) school so I can travel to a new stadium. Play Minnesota, Mich St, Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, somebody please! No more Indiana, PSU or Ohio State, blah. I would rather play Pitt over any Big Ten school.

@Penn State, Sept 6th 2014 So in the future, our schedule looks something like this: 2011: @OSU, @UC, VMI, FIU 2012: @Tennessee, UCF, @ FIU 2013: @UCF, LA-Lafayette 2014: JMU, @PSU 2015: @VT, @LA-Lafayette

That second approach could be called the "Caleb Porter method".

They get that kind of money from two sources. The first is the NCAA payout for making it that far into the tournament. The second is from all the alumni and fans who have just crawled out of the woodwork to buy merchandise.

2 new offers: TE Poncho Barnwell CB Jahmal Pardner

iCoach passes the torch. I get the feeling that the reason the vids are so non-informative is that they're heavily edited. We don't hear the questions from the interviewer and there's probably more info that doesn't make the cut. I don't understand why they do this. YT doesn't have a 2 minute time limit or anything.

Shaka declined the NC State job and says he's going to remain at VCU.

If the goal is to have an occasional upset over a higher-ranked team, then, yes, I'd support scheduling lots of tough opponents to improve the statistical odds of scoring the occasional upset. But the real goal should be improving the overall performance of the team. So the real question should be what SOS increases your chances of becoming a better team -- an easy schedule, a balanced schedule, or a really tough schedule?If there was a simple answer, every team would be doing it. But there isn't a simple answer. I know of no conclusive study showing that teams that deliberately set up the toughest schedules tend to become better teams than those with more balanced schedules of weaker, moderate, and stronger teams. I suspect that the best all-around schedule is one that's balanced with a variety of opponents with varying levels of strength -- not too weak and not too strong overall. A fair question, except that we already know two things. 1) An easy schedule with 26 wins can still result in a complete lack of respect in national polls, and a complete shutout from the post-season selection committees. We were certainly "better" that year. Maybe even great compared to many other years. And it got us nowhere. So, we can wipe "easy schedule" off the board as an option, don't you think? We need to stop being ignorant to the fact that winning 20+ games with a poor overall SOS is helping us make up any ground on the national scene. 2) If "balanced" defines what we're doing now, then it's obviously not good enough since we weren't even in the talk for an at-large bid to the Big Dance in any of the last 6 seasons. Sprinkling Dayton and Minnesota into a 30 game schedule is just so far from where we need to be to get the job done. We weren't in talks for an at-large because we always manage to lose to a MAC West team or two, along with not winning against the top teams we actually did schedule. Dayton and Minnesota alone won't get us in, but Dayton, Minnesota, Miami, Temple, and Cleveland State might, if you can beat three or four of them and not lose to EMU and NIU. By the way, what's it like to be perpetually stuck in March 2005?

The problem with those close games last year was that the seniors carried the team completely. And they're all gone.

Wrong lesson. We play enough major programs. That isn't the problem. The Zips have to start winning those games and stop losing to the Daytons and CSUs of the world. "Learning how to win" has to end with a team actually winning to prove they have learned the lesson. If they can't do that, they will always be this good team stuck in an a "building process" or whatever we have rebranded it these days. And you increase your chances of winning a big game when you play more of them. Right? Only if you believe that getting those wins is based on random chance.

I e-mailed Gaffney. He says the next story will include some information on the running back situation. Such as it is. He didn't lie. Todays story, which I can't like from the phone I'm using to type this, is all about the RBs. Looks like Alexander will be the guy once he's fully recovered. Aside from him, we're looking at the youngest stable of RBs in the country.

Up until the NCAAs, the only wins Butler had over major teams came in a single early season tournament against Utah, FSU, and Washington State along with one home game against Stanford. They lost all their road games against the big boys, Louisville, Duke, and Xavier. So in total, they played seven major teams, and the rest of their schedule was filled in with crappy teams like Siena and Miss. Valley State at home. So what we need to do is play these teams in neutral site tourneys and hope somehow we can get one or two of them to come to the JAR. It's useless to play them on the road. From what I can tell, we have VCU at home (I'll count them as a "major" since they made the Final Four which makes them better than almost all of the "name" teams) and Temple comes to the JAR as well. Dambrot has also said we're playing in a tournament with "major" teams at the beginning of the season. That should get us five top games in winnable situations. Going on the road to face these teams is pointless. I hope we fill the rest of the schedule against solid mid-major competition or low-majors that are projected to win their conference (the RPI favors playing winning teams, no matter who those teams are winning against)