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I'll guess no. I Would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that interview. I think when making these points that some of us are assuming that the staff knows how to run the different offenses and are comfortable running them. If Coach I doesn't know, or isn't comfortable, with the spread he isn't going to utilize it. There are some coaches that design their schemes according to their talent and others that try to make their talent fit their schemes. Coach I appears to be trying to put a square peg in a round hole. Coach I came from a pro style offense. That is probably what he knows. This appears to go back to the AD. The AD should have been sure that whomever he was hiring as a coach was going to be able to use the existing players. Every new coach takes a few years to fully get his schemes and plays in. However, this may be more than that because of the complete 180 in schemes along with not having top tier talent in the first place. When he was first hired a lot of people were happy as soon as he mentioned he was going to the 4-3. For once Akron had enough d-lineman to run a 4-3. I feel that even if we only had 4 d-lineman on scholly and 4 All Mac linebackers, he was still going to run the 4-3. Obviously the 3-3-5 had to go. But to just straight out say what you are switching to before even knowing your roster put up a red flag for me. That was exactly my thought.

Perfect indeed. But probably not for a public university who just built a brand new basketball arena less than 30 years ago, and just built a 50 million dollar football stadium.

I do agree with you on this point. I like that there is a forum to exchange information with other Zips fans. But, I think there's too many people here who insist that their heavy participation on this board somehow makes them an expert about Zips athletics. And the name calling and belittling has been pointed out to me on several occassions by major Zips supporters as the reason they do not participate on this site. But unfortunately, as some people have pointed out here, I don't think you can stop people from being the way they are. But, I think the entire fan base would benefit by having some of our fellow older fans participate and lend their experience with Zips athletics to this forum if we could somehow make this a more welcoming environment for them.

You hit my biggest long-term fear on the head. Even if he is a GREAT recruiter, what is the possible effect of a horrible season on the potential recruits? If others on this board are right (and I think they are), the pro style offense requires better recruits to run successfully. How do you get that kind of athlete with a potential winless record? Great question. I really had my concerns when he came in here, and right away he talked about the offensive and defensive schemes he was going to run. Did he look at the current personnel in making that decision? If not, does he really believe he will get the recruits to run those offensive and defensive schemes a few years from now? And, is the fan base going to be that patient?

I'm just embarrassed that we are still doing our coach's show at a place that just painted their interior Red and Silver. This is Akron, not Columbus.

I only really have a couple of primary thoughts on this past weekend... 1) I hope NIU is by far the best team in the MAC this year. Because, trying to hope that Indiana, Syracuse and Kentucky were good after they all beat us by good/large margins didn't make me feel any better. 2) If not, I hope our coaches start reviewing their personnel decisions, and start looking up and down our roster for guys who might be able to help. Enough of this "we need to get better" talk. Our current personnel on the field isn't getting the job done, and I have a hard time believing that there isn't a lot of guys out there who just have no business being D-1A starters. 3) ICoach....I sure hope your recruiting savvy starts paying off for us right now, or this "building" process is going to take years, and you might be playing in front of an empty stadium before your tenure as coach is over.

People wonder why so many hate OSU fans... Seems like further confirmation of what I've already believed for years in my own experiences. I'm sure they don't like that in recent years Akron soccer has burst their "We are the almighty elite sports school of Ohio" bubble. If 7,000 people were there, I think it shows that not only do they hate losing to us, but couldn't stand losing their self-proclaimed elite superiority to another school in Ohio. Not that it necessarily decided the game. But, if this is how their players/fans behaved, it is not one bit of a surprise.

That wasn't nearly our best year in 1-A. We were 7-3-1 in 1992 under Gerry Faust. Our first year in the MAC. Scott, there was never a year back then when we were picked to finish first, but finished last. In fact, I don't think we've ever finished last in the MAC. But, you could still possibly be confusing 1992 with 1993 or 1994. In 1992, we had our best ever 1-A record at 7-3-1 in our first year in the MAC. In 1993, many people picked us to win the MAC, and we started the season well, but had a ton of injuries and ended up finishing at 5-6 that year. The 1994 team was the one that only won one game, but we still finished ahead of winless OU. And I don't recall anyone picking us to win the MAC that year anyway. And those are the only 3 years in MAC play that Gerry was the coach. The part of our history that should be sickening to most of us is that our best I-A record actually came in our first year in the MAC, nearly two decades ago.

Sacks?!? Yep...the sacks seem to be the answer. The back that got the majority of their carries was getting good yardage. But, I still think we are tackling a little better this year near the line of scrimmage. And our own rushing numbers were a very good bit of news.

They must be too close to Chicago.

He put up what would be considered "huge numbers" in Faust's offense. Nothing like what average QBs put up today, but very impressive for the time. True. This was right before the Sweitzer and Weems era at QB, with the change to the option pass-and-pitch offense. Faust had Johnson's teams airing the ball out.

Thanks for the update. It takes me back to the "Air Akron" references that we heard so often back in the Johnson QB era. Good memories.

I'm surprised that one of the PN7 bashers hasn't twisted that into something like "he's such a poor passer that even the defensive backs can't catch his throws." But seriously, averaging .25 interceptions and .25 lost fumbles per game after 4 games is more than good. If we're going to criticize the Zips for the things they've been doing wrong -- and there's plenty to talk about there -- we should also acknowledge what they're doing right. I certainly understand pointing out the lack of fumbles, interceptions, and penalties as some bits of good news in an otherwise awful start to the season. Agreed. And better yet, NO interceptions in our three games against I-A opponents. But, I have a much harder time trying to understand your point that the lack of interceptions is a result of us "doing something right". As our resident stats man, don't you find it to be more of a statistical oddity that NONE of them were intercepted when you have one of the nation's worst passing effeciently ratings, and over 60% of the passes thrown in those 3 games were errant, thrown into coverage, deflected off of receivers hands, etc? I'm thinking that "bashing" pretty much comes with the territory if you're a fan of any sports team that's performed to that level of futility.

That wasn't nearly our best year in 1-A. We were 7-3-1 in 1992 under Gerry Faust. Our first year in the MAC.

I think a better analogy is -- Say Dambrot schedules Fordham, Nebraska, DePaul and Penn State. Fan complains: "Jesus...the guy is scheduling the Atlantic 10, Big 12, Big East and Big 10...what a suicide schedule!" Nope. He'd be scheduling very beatable teams that just happen to reside in nationally recognized conferences. I would love it if we regularly scheduled hoops like we did 2010 football. It would be a move in the right direction, for sure. We could at least wear the "they can compete with teams from major conferences" label. But, do you think that would be enough to get a "these guys can compete with some of the nation's better programs" label? I think this second step is what would be needed to get serious at-large consideration. But, at least what you suggest could be the beginning of getting to that point. Right now, I don't think we have nearly enough games to get us into either category.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback? Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true). Without checking, I think he actually rushed for closer to 300 yards in the MAC title game. Either way, these are two good points. However, we negated those huge rushing efforts because Getsy threw for about 800 yards, and we scored about 80 points in those two games to outscore them. Oh no. I hope we haven't started another defense vs. offense debate.

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

Well said and true. I agree also. Do we really want to lose the interest of potential recruits, and lose the rest of the fans we actually have right now? Go ahead and bore them to tears by playing a MAC schedule plus a few games against some non-threatening opponents. That'll sure help generate some excitement.

FYI. The Tap House has recently repainted the inside Red and Silver. I was stunned. I don't know when it happened, but it had to have happened in the last couple of weeks. That's the last time I try to go there to watch a Zips game. When are we going to get a place again like the OBC? Let's just say i wont be going there ever again. I can't believe we're still doing our coach's show there. Unbelievable.

There are reasons whey we can't win. They have more money, better fan bases, better access to TV money, more alumni support, more support for their foundation, bigger stadiums, etc. When a MAC school beats a BCS level school, it says more about the BCS school than it does the MAC school. For example, Toledo beats Purdue. Is Toledo a great program (see how they did against a midlevel PAC10 school in Toledo earlier this year), or is Purdue a laughable Big 10 program? I'd go with Purdue is a laughable Big 10 program. Could someone please go see how the MAC's record against BCS schools this season? While you are at it, how did we do against non-bcs schools and I-AA schools? If this is the best schedule ever, you must enjoy 0-4 and 1-3 starts. In fact, I'm pretty certain that as a Browns fan, you have become accustomed to these starts and find comfort/enjoyment in them the way an abused wife finds some level of comfort in her wifebeating husband. I for one have seen enough losing and I don't want guaranteed wins, but I want to see some competition against equal schools. We have around a 25% chance of beating bottomfeeder bcs schools, that is not equal competition. I would go as far as to say that if we played Indiana ten times, we would lose 9 of 10. I was not a math major at Akron, but I believe in this scenario, we'd win 1 out of every 4 times, not 1 out of every 10 times

I think the factor that I highlighted above is the most valid point in not playing too many BCS teams. But.... It's not like we played some Floridas or Alabamas in the last few weeks. With the exception of maybe Kentucky, all 3 of those teams were beatable. But even Kentucky got destroyed the week after playing us. Syracuse got destroyed the following week also, by a very average Washington team, and should have been VERY beatable for us at home. And Indiana? I don't see them as much more than a good MAC team. I still think the Gardner-Webb loss hurt us the most. But even with that loss, if we could have pulled off at least one win against one of the BCS teams, I think the people in the community who pay attention to college football would have possibly still stuck with us. Right now, I might feel more distant from the top of our own 1-A division than I think I've felt at any time in our 20+ years in this division.

I agree. It is as simple as you describe. Close games are decided by 1-3 plays...it happens in the NFL every week. The team that makes them wins and the team that doesn't make them comes up short. You could probably look at most football games and say, "If only a couple of plays went the other way". We're just not making enough good plays on offense to win games. And we're giving up enough good plays on defense to lose games. The thing that's bothering me the most today is that we were given opportunities two years in a row to knock off a bottom Big 10 team, and failed. The scores were nearly identical. And in looking back, so were a lot of the stats. Last year, we played this game only a couple of days after the shock of losing our starting QB. You would obviously expect that to be a low point for a team. So, I'm upset that we don't appear to have improved in these last 12 months. Didn't we return 17 starters? So many key players on our team have tons more experience than they had in that game last year. It's frustrating.

FYI. The Tap House has recently repainted the inside Red and Silver. I was stunned. I don't know when it happened, but it had to have happened in the last couple of weeks. That's the last time I try to go there to watch a Zips game. When are we going to get a place again like the OBC?

I agreed with everything too, until I got to the last couple of words. How many MAC games can we possibly win giving up 425 yards and 35 points?

Maybe not, but he's doing a pretty fair job of hitting receivers in the hands. As the TV announcers just noted, the Zips have a big problem with receivers unable to hang on to the ball. Loved the call to throw for the TD on 4th and 1. The receiver was open, Nicely laid it right into his hands, and he dropped it. It's certainly much, much harder to blame 4 for 19 and 6 for 25 passing performances on your receivers. Tonight, he threw enough good balls for us to blame his receivers for what could have been a good passing night. But, hopefully it was at least good enough to raise us above the 119th ranking in passing efficiency. Unfortunately, one of the best downfield passes he's thrown all year, and one of the best calls I-Coach made all year, still can't result in a successful play. If it's not a failure in one area, it's a failure in another.