72 Roo

I'm happy. The beautiful game will continue at Akron and so will the recruiting pipeline. Jared was responsible for many of the recruits we got. Porter's charisma was an important factor but the fact is the recruits came for our style and the chance to go to the pros. We are in good hands and I am stunned that TW went this route. I thought he would go for the big name candidate. I've got to rethink my opinion of TW.

Hate to rain on the love-fest for the Zips in this thread but Ohio is a team we all would love to have at our university. The Zips will get beat no matter how bad the Ohio secondary is. Talk all the smack and bravado you want, but Ohio is the far better team. We have to live for the proverbial next year.

I'm not convinced that the players we now get are coming for Caleb Porter as much as they are coming for the incredible style that we play. Ampai and early classes came for Porter, but they started the beautiful style that drew the rest. Porter himself asserts that there are only a few schools in the country that play the beautiful way we do i.e. Maryland, UCLA, Wake. Wistrcill has a decision to make regarding that style, do you keep it intact or do you try to find a charismatic coach like Caleb who brings his own style. If TW keeps it intact he hires Embick. That keeps the style, current players, best staff of assistants in the country and 2013 recruits. It also lets us get back into the hunt for the 2014 recruits who want to come but they have to know who the coach is soon. TW hasn't named Embick which leads me to believe he is looking elsewhere. If he does pick Embick he has colossally screwed up our future recruiting because of time lost and indecision. Caleb has said many times that recruiting is an ugly dogfight and if you take some time off you lose. If TW goes through the way he is indicating no new coach will be hired until after the season since they can't interview until then. We will lose half our current players, most of the 2013 recruits and find a different style of recruit in 2014, one that suits the new coach's philosophy. Since few coaches play the way we now play I see the end of the beautiful game. The new coach will win but not entertain. It is wishful thinking to hope TW will find another coach who believes in possession soccer. They don't exist because it is so risky to play that way and big time college soccer coaches want to keep their jobs. So the top kids who can play possession go to the elite schools and coaches turn to overseas to bring in talent. When you do that you must play the way the recruits have been brought up. You aren't going to change them so you adopt to their ways and build the team around them. This is the case for many college teams. I also worry that TW wants to use this as an opportunity to show that he can make a big hire after having blown the Ianello hire and damaged his career. If TW makes a splash with the soccer coach hire he can point out that he drew a name coach into the program to continue our tradition. It looks good on his resume but long-term it could set us back because we will become another top 25 program that plays dull, boring soccer. Say goodbye to an elite top 5 program. I will always support the Zips, but I'm worried about this one.

Ianello was not in this last year. It was limited to people who could coach.

Hey I just bought an extra ticket. Is it a sellout now?

Yea, where is Rossi?

I took in the soccer ladies match against Duquesne today and came away feeling coach Pfau has not left this program as good as we would wish. To his credit coach Croft played nearly all his players. We have a serious lack of speed up top and in the outside backs. The Dukes' forwards repeatedly turned the corner on our backs and went to goal. Our speed up top is a problem. We had several opportunities to outrace the defenders and could not get a step on any of them by our forwards or outside mids. I also noticed we lacked anyone who took on a defender with moves when in 1v1 situations. Our goalkeeping was shaky. The one goal was in part due to poor coordination from the keeper and the back line. I do like the way coach Croft seems to have thrown out Pfau's very direct and boring play with long balls that usually end up with us just giving it away to the defense. This team repeatedly built the attack from the back and used the mids out wide to open up the field and find space for our attackers. They lacked the penetrating runs we have seen from the men's team but this style could be quite an improvement if we can find some speed and players capable of penetrating runs. Exhibition games are for working out your problems, but I honestly thought that we would dominate the Dukes. The opposite was true, especially in the second half when the Dukes should have gotten two more wide-open goals. This team has even depth from top to bottom. It lacks however the top level player like Ampai who can pick up the team when needed and pull in other top level talent because of their presence. I hope coach Croft is the guy to put it all together for the ladies.

It appears he wasn't a thug enough to earn Bob Huggins support or qualify to transfer to Can't. Too bad he didn't mug someone, then he surely would have stayed at WVU. I hope his mistake was just a case of a basically good kid doing a stupid, selfish act of theft. If it is more I hope we have him on a short leash.

I wonder what conference the Zips will be in come 2018. Hope it has changed for the better.

Congratulations to the Flashes for getting this far. I will absolutely root for them. Their success is pulling us along to a higher level of play. I hate that they are better than us, but they truly are and once we realize that we can get our program and asses in gear to compete and hopefully one day better them. That's competition. Those ZNO posters who refuse to acknowledge K.S.U.'s excellence are only holding us back because they cannot accept reality. Good luck to the Flashes, I hope they win it all. And I want to beat your golden asses in every game we play!

Call me crazy or a wide-eye optimist but I believe Bowden is set to make his own luck. I am rooting for this young man to make it in life first, in his academics and athletics second, although not very far from first

Ouch! Please don't remind me. I'm just now getting out of therapy!

This is a mixed blessing. Coach Pfau turned the program around, no doubt about it. But I have felt that his on field coaching did not keep up with his proven recruiting ability. The ladies have yet to evolve to a set style of play. At many times they were playing long ball w/o any results. Many close to the program wanted him to embrace a possession style of play like the men. That style could work in the MAC but we would need more talent to excel outside the MAC with it. Anyway his style was boring and frustrating to fans and players alike. While I believe that his move is a step up in pay, prestige and league, we still can attract an exciting successor. The timing is curious but it nonetheless presents opportunity for us to improve. I think that will happen. Go find us a gem TW.

Mike... You will be missed. I have enjoyed every blog you have posted. I think you are part of the awakening of Zip Nation. Your enthusiasm and expectation of excellence for our alma mater has been a big part in opening the eyes of all the faithful as to what the Zips can become. Twice I've met you in the parking lots outside the Info and both times you treated me as a long time friend. Thanks. I'll look forward to your return to blogging soon. For those of us who hunger for insight into the Zips, you've made life a little richer.

George, you are right on the mark from what I've learned. I talked to a head coach who said that two years ago TW talked to the coaches in a meeting about positioning the entire athletic program to move to a higher level. Conference USA was specifically discussed as a benchmark for the budgeting each team must have to be successful at a higher level. Slowly TW has been building each team's budget to allow them to survive the leap when it is appropriate. Having a winning football team that generates revenue is the key. The university wants to position itself to have winning programs across the board that give it options for growth outside the MAC. C-USA may not be our destination but it serves as a good measuring stick in building budgets. If our aspirations lie beyond CUSA we will have to generate even more money.

Isn't Georgia State in Albany , GA? The Atlanta advantage may be a myth.

Crew, thanks for sharing that short film. It was pretty cool and a great feel good story. Like the soccer Zips!

George, hope the personal issues get sorted out. Stay positive and things will work out for the best. Hope you can get some sleep 'cause there are tons of us who look forward to and appreciate your work. It is first class and you are doing a great job. Wish you the best.

God I hope Miami gets him. They will take years to recover from the time he is there.

Nicely put DIG (no pun intended). PN7 you did all you could while you were here and we wish you all the best wherever you go. To me you will always be a Zip. You are part of a special band of brothers that survived the darkest coaching era ever in Zip football history.

The guys left it all out on the floor and I'm proud of them. We'll be back again. I also feel, though, that we cost ourselves the game with turnovers, many unforced, and repeated driving to the basket into the OU defense with nowhere to go. I didn't think OU beats us as much as we beat ourselves. Gotta give it up to Cooper. We had no one that could guard him.

My sense is that the best site will be next to the JAR where we already have the land, except for a couple Greek houses. The JAR could become the home of volleyball, women's BBall and our practice facility. We already have new player lounges and a weight room, so those could be left out of the new arena. Parking can be handled with existing decks and surface lots. I also believe that Luis wants it on campus and not downtown. The results of the Saaski (sp ?) and Associates study is already in the hands of our athletic administration. It will be interesting to see what they recommend.

Cool! Ya gotta love the excitement TB has brought us.

ZippyFan34... Your wife has got a great voice! That comes from someone who doesn't like country though one of my kids is turning to the dark side and in love with it. I like what you did. Send more. Tell the "boss' well done.

Keith is acutely aware of the performance of the Serb and said as much in his Miami post game comments. He was right on and perhaps he has chosen to motivate him rather than destroy his confidence. KD called for the Serb to play within himself and be like Dennis Rodman. When he does he is all league. When not ... well Keith will handle it. That's good enough for me. He knows how to push the players buttons and get the best out of them. We gotta support him because he's smarter than us and he knows what he's doing. Let's drop the second guessing.