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That's about where I stand. Hard to tell, based on this. Of course, like everyone else, I saw some guys who caught my attention. But, who knows? Hard to grade them when it's hard to tell the level of players that they were playing against at the time I noticed them. As far as the QBs are concerned, I agree with the thoughts about the downside of playing a Senior this year. We're not going anywhere. Ultimately, I think it might be best if the freshman becomes the starter, which would give Terry some long term stability at that position. But, I'd still only want that to happen if the coaches though his chances of producing on the field are close to what we'd have with the older guys. Regardless of how he wants to build the program, I hope he realizes that the fans still need to see some wins right now.

"Successful" Second Chances ???

Expect to see much more of this. Despite the excitement, and some optimism (finally) for the future, people are going to see Akron as a bad team, that lost their stud defensive player, and threw together a last-minute recruiting class. It's gonna take an enormous effort by this coaching staff to do anything with this team this season.

Is "Barbertucky" still what everyone calls that city? Or, has something else become more common? Honestly though, Barberton is not the old Barberton. Many of the people are the same, but they've invested a lot of money into their schools, and build several new buildings. They've also torn down some old factory buildings, and have been converting others to new uses. After decades of decay, they are really doing some great things over there.

You could easily make the argument that he is the best coach we've had in our D-1A history. But in a few years, I sure hope I can say that Bowden has dethroned him.

And that just accounts for KDs tenure. How about NEVER, if we count our entire D-1 history. I'll count myself in the group of people who would love to just see us win ONE some day.

I agree. It's just horrible, visually. I much prefer the version by the poster on here who made the original suggestion to incorporate it as part of the words in the original design.

Are you the 2nd poster on this thread who may have fell asleep during geography classes in school? There's many times I've wished that Akron and Cleveland were 25 min. apart. Might want to try multiplying that by two ?

That's not true. So, I guess I didn't miss the point. You might want to read the article again.

I'm not wanting to harshly criticize your comment. I just saw that you seem to feel as if Bowling Green is unlike Akron or Toledo, and may have a chance of drawing more fans if they are in a populous area for a game. And I am just pointing out that they reside only miles from the 4th largest city in Ohio. I'm sure you'd find that if access to an alumni base is the reasoning for playing this game in Cowlumbus, they surely have tons of alums right on thier doorstep in Toledo, just like Ken+ does in Akron. Stating that BG only has 30k population is just very deceiving, because of their proximity to Toledo.

Bowling Green is far from being in the middle of nowhere, like Athens or Oxford. They are essentially a few minutes outside of Toledo. Do you have an Ohio map?

Oftentimes, I think some fans are blind in assuming that their own program is "doing it the right way". It often appears to me as nothing more than an excuse for why some other program is passing us. Ken+ flew out ahead of us a decade ago, and we've been trying to catch them ever since. In the meantime, OU has passed us. Some of our fans need to be much more open to the thought that maybe "our way" really may not be the "best way".

Love the new phrase !! Perfect. I can credit you and Zips Nation for expanding my vocabulary again today.

So, how many BG alums in the Cowlumbus area even have an interest in going to a BG football game, especially over Thanksgiving break? There's your answer. As always, it's wishful thinking by somebody.

In 2013? Isn't 8 good years in a row already good enough? That astounds me that OU would pay so much for an ex-MAC coach who was doing poorly at his current job.

Missed winning the conference championship? Maybe some folks in Pittsburgh need to do a little more research.

I'm not sure how I am supposed to read into the comment about "cities that don't have major college football".

First, I think it's impossible to know what he really meant, or in what context he may have given that answer. Because, if it were true, there'd be virtually no need for coaches. If a philosphy of "just let them play" was determined to be the most successful, everyone would do it, and we don't. And with using Alex as a an example, I think you are talking about someone at the other end of the spectrum.

YOu sure you don't mean "since the last time he was here"?

Wait. Are you trying to say that the Bradley situation isn't turning out so well?

And you probably spared us by not mentioning the most embarrassing game of them all.....the 2011 game at the JAR where OU had a lead as large as 24 points, on our home floor, before a late barrage by Akron prevented me from experiencing complete humiliation. The guy has won 5 out of the last 6 games against probably the 2nd most successful program in the MAC over these last 3 years, with 3 of them being blowouts, and 2 more being title games. I honestly can't think of any MAC coach in recent memory more deserving of a big jump upward.

Thistledown currently sits next to a once-great mall that was ruined. Wouldn't it be ironic if they tried to move it to the site of another mall that is ruined? If you need over 100 acres, Rolling Acres couldn't ever work. It's only about 40 acres, I believe.

The difference is that people across the country will remember that the Packers had the best record in the NFL this year, but very few will remember that the Akron Zips had the best record in the MAC this year. Your comments likely support the "the regular season doesn't matter" faction of our fanbase. And I didn't believe you were on that side. Maybe I'm wrong. Here's my simple answer: I'd rather have the MAC regular season AND tournament title. And if I don't have the tournament title, we can at least still call ourselves "MAC Champs" and put a banner in the arena, rather than walking away from the tournament loss with absolutely nothing to show for our efforts in that particular year, like the other dozen or so teams have to do. But surely, the way the system is set up right now, the tournament title has much greater value because of the NCAA bid. That's why I think that the focus of the regular season should be on earning an At-Large bid, rather than trying to simply win a MAC regular season title.

I'm afraid you're right. It's good to bring some people back to reality. Not only a lack of noteworthy post-season wins, but a lack of noteworthy wins, period.

For those of us older folks (and I think you are one of us, Johnny), we remember trying to go independent in football in the mid-80s. It ended up being a struggle for the other sports to find conference affiliation, and hurt us tremendously with no automatic basketball bids for postseason. And Huggy was still here and we had teams good enough to make it to the NCAA tourney, but couldn't get the nod as an At-Large. If I recall, that was why we made such a big push to get into the MAC; the conference affiliation for all sports. I wonder about a couple of things, because this would be different than the last time: 1) We'd have exactly what basketball needed, but could the A-10 accomodate us in our other non-football sports? 2) Could we stay in the MAC in football (Temple and UMass did it) and have A-10 affiliation in ALL other sports? 3) Could we be A-10 in basketball only, and MAC in All other sports? 4) Would risking having to possibly return to Independent in football be worth it for the benefits of being A-10 in basketball?