GP1

Thanks Coach Faust.

God...I wish it was that simple.

Houston... We have a problem.

How many interceptions has Pohl thrown all season?

Does that tuxedo he is wearing come with a generator and extension chord, or were those items rented separately from Mens Warehouse Hardware?

Listening to a guy scream into a microphone gets me excited as watching an NFL player do a TD dance...it doesn't. It's stupid and is entertaining for only the smallest of minds. A university is supposed to be about big things and ideas. We've lost sight of what the games and sports exist for...to help develop young adults into productive citizens. If a video was presented about a player from any sport winning an award for public service, I would have a sense of pride about the school. This sort of thing brings out the better nature in people. They could also have videos about alumni members who have spent years supporting various programs. Use the entire day to market. Start with areas where players from various sports sit and meet the public. Specifically, have some items for the players to sign for kids and take pictures with them. During media time outs, have the players from one sport at a time stand on the field and do a little presentation about them and then let people know where they can buy tickets. During another media time out, do it with another sport, etc. Announce their names so people can put a name to a face early in the year. This really isn't that hard. Going back to the public service award. Let's say a member of the WBB team wins a public service award or is just given public recognition. Give her a plaque at the end of when they do the presentation on the WBB team. Set it up so she will have her photo taken with her coach, the AD and even her parents if they can make they game. I think it would be nice for a young girl who is interested in basketball to meet one of the Lady Zips, have her picture taken with her and then see her stand on the field with her teammates getting an award for something. Might even inspire that girl to ask her parents to take her to some games. It can be about selling tickets, or it can be about much more. What I outline in the three paragraphs above are the basics for what goes on at most other schools. Almost every weekend in the fall, I go to a college football game somewhere. This Saturday I am going to go to the Syracuse vs. Wake Forest football game. They will do exactly what I outline above. I've been to games at Duke, they do the same things. I've been to games at NC State, they do the same things. I've been to games at Clemson, they do the same things. I've been to games at South Carolina, the do the same things. One can sense the pride the alumni in the stadium feel when they watch a video of a basketball player going to a local hospital to sign autographs for kids who have serious illnesses. So, is it really about attendance, or is it about reminding people in the stands exactly what the event is really for and then paint an even bigger picture for that person about what the Athletic Department is doing to stand out? A guy yelling at me to stand up and cheer makes me want to sit down an boo (always doing the opposite)...in fact, it makes me feel like I am sitting at a minor league baseball game and I hate minor league anything. A person getting an award for volunteering makes me want to stand up and cheer. Again, tradition is built on pride of the accomplishments of the school and people in and around the school. Let's shout that out to people instead of shouting out orders to stand up and cheer.

I do not. Don't frequent Raleigh very often. See, Wake Forest, NC is outside of Raleigh. Wake Forest University used to be in Wake Forest, NC, but some guy years ago gave a ton of money and helped to move it to Winston-Salem, which is an hour and a half to two hour from Wake Forest, NC.

Normally I don't care about attendance and on almost every level, I didn't care about the crowd Saturday. However, it was kind of shocking how few people were at the game. Maybe at the end of the day, not that many people really care. Maybe they need to give them something(s) of substance to care about. Not sure what they are doing to market the games or the other sports for that matter. But, there are things you can do on game day to promote athletics to an interested audience. The one thing I would stop doing is the nonsense in the crowd with the guy with the microphone yelling in a very slow cadence. He's Mickey Mouse and would get his walking papers. Use that time to promote the other sports and not trying to generate fake excitement with a guy who doesn't seem all that excited to be there. At Wake games, TV timeouts have some nonsense associated with them (certainly not a guy yelling into a microphone), but they use a lot of the time to put the other sport's teams on the field and remind them season tickets are available. They run spots on the largest television in NC (their score board) about how their athletics foundation supports athlete-students and what the players of every sport are doing in public service. The time isn't wasted on silliness. Let the alumni and fans of the school know what the school is doing with athletics and build a sense of pride that way. Tradition is built on pride, not fake enthusiasm.

I won't single out a player, but I will say this about the offense. It is the one side of the ball most in need of a recruiting boost in the off season. I think the talent level and depth needs to be improved upon.

Some have speculated it is a concussion. This is purely speculation at this point. IF it is, the link below shows what kind of treatment and evaluation he will be receiving. Link

Bowden could be our Bob Pruett, the coach at Marshall who had all those great teams. Coached nine years before his retirement. If we get nine out of Bowden, I'll be more than happy if he brings the success many of us believe he will. Bowden is 58. I could see us getting 8-10 more years out of him.

Bowden is on the verge of having the same comfort level as Dambrot. There is no reason for him to leave. Some on this board need to stop clutching their pearls like old ladies.

It is frequently the case that very intelligent people get sucked into cults. I have to admit...I lived in Akron for 20 years and didn't know a single person who attended this nut farm in Cuyahoga Falls.

The only sport I want to see played with little people is Leprechaun tossing at St. Patrick's Day parties.

A bartender at the Winking Lizard in Montrose said that if Tressel came back to coach Akron and with the return of LBJ to the Cavs, it could mean a 10,000 increase in UofA football attendance and a $500,000,000 boost to the local economy. I hope I didn't just scoop the local media.

Jim Tressel

I don't disagree. Eventually though, we are going to have to be able to throw for TDs in the red zone. Miami's defense is absolutely horrible. To give up a 10 yard draw play for a TD on third down is inexcusable. That has more to do with their incompetence than our ability to run the ball. A good MAC defense isn't going to allow that to happen. I'm all for play action pass in the red zone. I've seen enough of the pass to the security guard.

The struggle with the offense as it relates to scoring TDs close to the end zone is we throw too many fade passes when it is obvious the QB isn't hitting on the fade passes....unless of course a security guard catching a pass is a completion. My guess it isn't coming of any surprise to the defense that we are throwing that pattern. We don't throw any passes close to the end zone that would create confusion for a defense. A lot of NFL teams use receivers in the front of the end zone and compliment that with receivers running across the back of the end zone. Star NFL receivers catch a lot of balls across the back of the end zone for TDs...it happened last night. I don't see us doing that. We just seem to be trying to either complete a quick pass with the hopes the receiver can make it in to the end zone or we throw a fade pattern. What makes it even worse is we have developed a decent running game that shows the ability to score in the red zone, yet we don't seem to run any pass plays that would feed off of that success. The fade pattern doesn't feed off of the success of the run...it's an all or nothing play. Lastly, I could care less what our season ranking is in the red zone. It's meaningless at this point. What a team does more recently matters than what they do all season. Michigan won and lost 20 spots. Not sure why I could care about a stat that doesn't total big plays or turnovers or even third down efficiency over the past three weeks which has improved to put us next to Michigan State over the last 3 weeks.

2nd leading WR and only two TDs? That isn't very good.

I am rooting for him. I don't care how he came to be here at this point. It doesn't matter where we have been, it matters where we are going. Our players weren't making big plays on Saturday because our only big play attempts were the fade pattern and Pohl was mistaking cheerleaders for players and throwing the ball to them. They didn't have a chance to make a big play.

I am being objective. I don't want any players that small. They don't need to get him more touches. They need to get the ball to their big play guys. He doesn't score TDs. He may not have gone down by the goal line, but he didn't score eithe .

A windy field is something we brought over with us from the Rubber Bowl. That place was tough to kick in as well.

Link

One more thing to add to this and it is an important one. What has worked well for Akron this year has been the lack of turnovers. Pohl is pretty accurate throwing anything but the fade pattern (not sure why they kept throwing it). He was terrible at throwing this pattern Saturday; however, when he misses, it is usually thrown so poorly thrown the only possible receiver is a cheerleader so no turnover is created. Luckily, Miami was every bit as bad as advertised. My concern is the lack of accuracy and touch Woodson displayed. Specifically, the balls thrown behind the receivers are of extra concern. It is natural for a WR to reach behind to try to catch a poorly thrown ball. Frequently, that results in tipped passes and tipped passes frequently land in the hands of the defense. Turnovers and pick sixes will kill us long before a bad punt or a sub par defensive day. Come Saturday, all of this talk may be for nothing and Pohl will be just fine to take the field and try to lead to the team to a 9-3 record over the past 12 games. Woodson IS going to be a good QB for us some day. I just don't think his skills are sharp enough yet.

There has been a lot of time between today and last year. Plenty of time for evaluation by the coaching staff. I trust Bowden to make a good decisions and he has made one as to the back-up. He has decided Woodson is the better and since I trust him, I'll go with that. BTW, Colorado is one of the worst programs in the country. Basing any decision on a player by using his past at Colorado makes me want to run away.