Dr Z

Source The search for Pitt's next head football coach has heated up over the past 24 hours and it appears, according to sources, that Miami of Ohio coach Michael Haywood is closing in on landing the job. Haywood was one of the first known candidates to be contacted and interviewed by Pitt last week and he is now the first one who has been brought to campus for a second interview as well as to meet with Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and other key people involved with the hiring process. A spokesman for Pitt would not confirm or deny the that Haywood is on campus interviewing and stressed that "the job has not yet been offered to anyone." But sources around both the Miami and Pitt programs believe he will have the job offered to him today and will quickly accept. If all goes well today, Haywood could be introduced as the next coach as early as tomorrow and then would immediately get started on assembling a staff and trying to retain most of Pitt's nationally ranked recruiting class. If hired, Haywood would become Pitt's first African-American head football coach. He has been the coach of the Redhawks for the past two seasons and has led them to a record of 10-15. However, that record doesn't tell his entire story, as he took over an awful program and, after going 1-11 in his first season, led the Redhawks to a record of 9-4 this season. They won the Mid-American Conference championship game over Northern Illinois. Prior to arriving at Miami, Haywood was the offensive coordinator under Charlie Weis at Notre Dame from 2005 to 2008 and had stops at Texas and LSU as well.

The Ol Chap is right! The commercials the NFL has now a days are totally ridiculous. TD, extra point....commercial....kickoff....commercial...play from scrimmage, uh oh, the ball might have touched a blade of grass on the reception, let's review that play....commercial....after further review the play stands as called....play from scrimmage.....injury time out....commercial....play from scrimmage, that's the end of the first quarter....commercial. Something needs to be done. I DVR MNF & SNF and start to watch them an hour after kickoff so I can ff through the advertising.

If you are a fan of HBO, Hard Knocks, or the Winter Classic, a reminder that starts tomorrow.. I love behind the scenes sports stuff. I wish HBO 24/7 did this for Akron soccer. I would guess Tom W is in negotiations now for next season.

I thought you learned your lesson when you posted that PN7 broke his ankle? For the umpteenth time, if you post a rumor, just post "I read a rumor on (provide link) that this coach is coming to Akron." Now the reader realizes that it is a rumor and where it comes from.

Is this, your source of information? Will you ever let anyone on this forum consider a source for your information?

Don't you think there is more than one answer to this question? How can you argue why somebody doesn't care about something? Here is my reasoning. I'm a huge hockey fan, but 1-0 games and 2-1 games used to bore me on TV. The NHL changed their rules, less grabbing, started calling interference, got rid of a blue line, reduced goalie pads, increased space behind goalie net. The rule changes opened up the offense, and it became a more entertaining game. Now I can't get enough. I have never been a soccer fan. Went to one BG/Akron game a few years back. I watched both the semi final game and the final game on TV last year. Never got to see a goal. That is not entertaining to me. This is why it is not entertaining for me. I don't care if they change the rules or not, I'll probably never be a soccer fan. I can also be entertained by watching a no hitter, but I don't think that lack of offense can be compared to that of soccer's lack of scoring. I'm not even sure why soccer fans get "bothered" by fans of other sports not getting as excited about the sport that they love. I could care less that Americans don't enjoy hockey, I do, and that is all that matters to me. Enjoy this time, there is no better college soccer team in college for 2010. That will NEVER change. Congratulations to the team and staff for all their hard work.

I can see into the future.

Well, Ianallo does like to take players away from their best position and put them somewhere else. Sorry, it was just too tempting! Seriously, though, nice get on that Cincy kid. Small, but beating out UC and at least 3 MAC schools is solid recruiting. I remember in a JD signing day press conference, some media dolt asked, "Why do you recruit so many RB's and QB's and then tell us they are going to play another position when they come to Akron." JD's response was "in high school, most of the time, you will find your best athletes on the team play RB & QB."

That youtube thing is lame, IMO. Makes me glad I turned off WTAM 10 years ago. This is well done IMO. It's specifically made for GP1 I think. Try to get to Tony Dungy. Good for LBJ for giving props to the soccer team. Somebody from the U should send him some championship gear.

Okay, let's see what kind of recruiter iCoach is going to be here at Akron. Can he out recruit Dave Christensen at Wyoming? I wonder how good his receivers and offensive line were at MGCCC?

The new logo is terrible IMO. The last one was creative, this one is not.

Wasn't Al 1-11 his first year in the MAC?

Nice follow up DIG. Personally I'm not sure what the big deal is. If iCoach released a statement and said "I'm not impressed with Dr Z." It wouldn't change one thing for me. I have been a Zips fan long before iCoach got here, and will be one long after he is gone. With that said, good luck to him, I hope he does a bang up job here and gets his head coaching dream job next.

Is that Steve's brother that made that prediction?

Like the great George W Bush said "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again"

Thanks for the input. Your statement means more to me than any BS rivals stars.

I don't think so. I remember Austin Bailey saying the exact same thing, and he seems like a good one to me.

Please Louisville, I can't sit through another 0-0 game with NC.

I'll stick with my prediction on Monday, and go with 1 red card & 1 yellow (whatever those are).

How do you "rank" special teams? Is there a formula between punting, kicking, tackling and returns I am unaware of? Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate. Go to NCAA football stats. Every stat is located there for almost everthing. You can go back to compare for past years. The teams with the most favorable stats are all have winning records. Special teams is 1/3 of the game and if you ask Coach Tressel what the most important phase of the game is, he will always say, "The kicking game". Even if a team is sub par you can win games due to a solid special teams core. Most coaches look to fill depth while recruiting, but a kid that can nail a 45 yard fg and a punter that won't hurt you are so important! Okay, I'll entertain you. I'm not a very big stat guy, I go by what I see on the field. Maybe I'm taking your "do something about your special teams, you were ranked in average 100 places lower than from last year" post too literal. "Special teams" refers to place kicking, punting, kick offs, punt returns, kick off returns etc.. I took your advice, since you gave me no specific link to go to, I googled "NCAA football stats" and assumed you are referring to this site. So I click on punting and see that Zach ranks 88th in average. That would mean last year he ranked better than first!?!? Punt return yardage defense we ranked 37th in the country. 61 spots ahead of your buddy in Columbus. Kickoff returns 109th. Kickoff return defense 47th. 22 spots ahead of your buddy in Columbus. In the other special teams categories I didn't see any "Akron" listed. I'll stick with my original conclusion "Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate." While I will agree that special teams are important, other than finding somebody that can make extra points, we have bigger issues. Offensive line play and our secondary should be our biggest concerns. We make those a strength next year instead of the weakness they were this year and we could see a winning ball team.

I think that is an excellent idea. I'm guessing the chances of that happening are very slim. I would bet JT would be happy to do it though.

No way Zips lose to those guys after watching that. Zips 1, UM 0.

Can you ask them if they will be doing any more music

....they are one year ahead of Indiana in the rebuilding process.

How do you "rank" special teams? Is there a formula between punting, kicking, tackling and returns I am unaware of? Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate.