GP1

Good, efficient running by Pohl.

Why is Bowden's hair orange?

Doing a good job of mixing up rush schemes.

Good punts today. Important part of the game.

Needed that momentum breaker.

Make easy FGs.....catch easy passes...it really isn't too much to ask.

Bench this kicker. Not close on a chip shot. 31 yard FG should be automatic.

Good article about student attendance. I guess my immediate reaction to the decline is to think about whether or not that is a bad thing. On many levels, I think it is a good thing, but in general, there are things going on at Universities that are making this happen that are taking the game day experience away from students and replacing it with something else. First of all, we expect kids in college to be smart. Part of being smart is identifying crap when you see it and avoiding it. If the product on the field is bad, shouldn't we expect smart kids to avoid watching crap? Fair weather fans are overly maligned. In some ways, they are the best type of fan because they won't settle for watching a bad product. Good for those students if they won't sit there and watch crap. A concern I have about the culture surrounding college athletics has become the idea that if your team can't compete for the national championship, what's the point in supporting them. This is the problem with the now obsession with the four team national championship. College football has become a vehicle for schools winning a national championship and not for the sake of good competition. ESPN Game Day will spend half of their time this morning talking about the playoff (The program is too long and has become unwatchable). 7-9 wins seasons will be looked upon as failures. Teams that make the playoffs but not win a game will be looked at as a failure. When the talk of firing coaches centers around whether or not they win a playoff game or make it to the Sweet 16, it is a sign that they are actually professional leagues. That's fine for the NFL and NBA because (drum roll) they are professional leagues. So, what does this have to do with students attending games? If you are a student at let's say, NC State, and you know your team has no shot of getting in the playoffs or for that matter competing for the ACC Championship, what is the point in going to the game? They will be bombarded with the idea that only winning the championship matters. They have more things to do? I totally agree with that. Universities have become playgrounds for over indulged kids. Schools used the "building process" to give them any number of fun activities and then are surprised when they use those activities in lieu of going to games. A lot of kids probably now have to work to pay for the student fees that are used to support the "building process", so they don't go to the games in the stadiums that the "building process" built that were supposed to be for them, but in reality are designed to bring in more money through other means. In an ideal world, if you think like an Athletic Director, a full stadium without a single student maximizes revenue...They get the student fees and have no game day expenses for them attending the game while selling the remaining tickets to others in addition to the foundation donation for the yearly rights to those tickets. It's king of like double dipping. College football and basketball has probably been through its high mark as far as student attendance. Look for the current trend to continue for the next 3-4 years and then level off. Years from now, there will be stories about increased student attendance at various schools, but it will never reach the levels of say 10 years ago.

PSU 34 Akron 17 PSU beat a good team last weekend and found some huge mojo at the end of the game. Confidence is huge in football. My guess is PSU will be even better this week. There will be a huge crowd to greet their new coach and it should provide a good boost for their team. I can see them scoring first and never giving up the lead. Akron won't make fools of themselves. I'd go as far as to say they will represent themselves well tomorrow and the score will seem closer than it appears. They will never be able to capture significant momentum though. Safe travels and have fun if you are going.

DrZ stole my thunder. If a book was written about the Cleveland sports media, some of the chapters would be: 1. Lebron James: A Love Story 2. I'm Bored 3. Waiting For Terry Pluto to Tell Me How to Think 4. I Take Cleveland Fans Serioiusly: But I Can't Remember Why. 5. Bill Belichick Isn't Nice To Me So He Is a Bad Coach 6. Study By Winking Lizard Bartender Proves LBJ Returning Will Save the Cleveland Economy 7. Free Chicken Wings in the Media Room vs. Developing A Good Story: Ranch or Blue Cheese I could go on. The Cleveland media is so lazy they can' t think of anything better to do than pander to fans by repeating their stupid ideas back to them in the hopes of getting more clicks on their websites. It's an insult to those few Cleveland fans who managed to not go insane between when the Browns left Cleveland and then came back. Quite honestly, I blame a lot of it on the fans of Cleveland teams and their constant desire for the next "savior" to come along to save their teams. It is the single greatest driving force in all of the nonsense.

You should only get flamed for saying that because it isn't true. The Zips are a workmanlike team that can hardly be described as entertaining. I would describe them as hardworking, but not entertaining. MTSU is on the schedule this year....

Interesting point. There are only about 15-20 college basketball programs that play in front of full arenas so any kid who has this in his mind is either good enough to pay at one of those schools, or is delusional. Take the kid with winning in the forefront of his mind. I'd be concerned about the fan base if the season ticket numbers were dwindling, but not overall ticket sales. If season ticket sales are going down, I'm concerned.

I took a minute and surfed some of our fellow MAC websites and looked at a few schedules out there. I'm hard pressed to find a schedule significantly different than our, "generally speaking". So, since it is almost always the case that people working in Athletic Departments follow like sheep, it makes me think that guaranteed wins have become the priority for mid majors. No high school kid you would want on your team wants to play for a losing program. It's hard enough at mid majors to get top level talent. Winning records help get better players because the better players want to win. I can feel myself going in to a rant about the Zips not taking enough advantage of their success so I'm going to stop.

Change it to whatever you want. It doesn't change the real problem with our inability to take the next step.

I wish it was that easy. It takes a lot more than scheduling to take the next step. If we scheduled Kansas, Duke and UCONN for this coming season, it wouldn't change the parts of the program that need changed to take the next step and it has nothing to do with a new arena either. I'll leave it at that....

Agreed. In terms of the Zips scheduling top teams, or at least teams from top conferences to come to the JAR, it might even be next to impossible. Why? 1. The University is swimming in red ink. The amount of money it would take to get a team from a top conference to come to the JAR to play and forego a game at their own arena would probably be pretty expensive. The kind of expense the University can't afford right now. 2. The teams that would provide a big name and a chance for a win are at schools where their basketball team is probably losing money for their school in a game where there is a risk of a road loss. Because of that, it is impossible for them to give up a home game for a loss of money at the JAR. Other teams can't afford to come to the JAR and play. There is a difference between "needs" and "wants". We live in a country now where it is hard for people to understand the difference, or maybe they can't tell the difference because we tend to always get what we want. I want the basketball team to play better teams at home. I also know the University is well into the red ink and this isn't what it needs right now. They spent a lot of years in the "building process" giving themselves what they wanted framed in the idea that it was what the University "needed" to move forward. Now they need to pay for it. Since the need to pay for it outweighs the want to do something different, the need wins. Enjoy this schedule. It's what the University needs right now.

Bluffton and Coppin State are a couple of turds I'd rather not see floating around that late in the OOC schedule, but other than that I don't have much to complain about. The Charleston tournament is a huge opportunity for the Zips to prove themselves early against some solid competition. Then they come right back to PSU for some bottom Big Ten competition and have a good opportunity. There is a good combination of guaranteed wins, not too many guaranteed losses and some evenly matched games. I like the OOC schedule. I love WMU, Toledo and BG right out of the conference schedule gate. The last six games will be a real test as well. This is a very competitive schedule for the Zips at all stages of the season (beginning, middle, end). They need to have a good pre season and be as prepared as possible early. BTW, I always enjoy seeing Marshall on the schedule. A good schedule as far as I'm concerned. Not great, but good.

I'm going too....by way of television.

Is he going to hit the mark this year for the oldest guy playing college basketball?

I think it's awesome when guys take advantage of the opportunity to live and play in Europe.

I was talking with a guy who referees college football this weekend. He made a remark about the surprising number of coaches who don't know the rules. This is a good example of that.

There is even more. The Zips are 5-1 in their last six games. I know it isn't exactly fair to bring a stat from one season into another, but there has been winning with the program in recent games. There is no reason the game Thursday shouldn't have been played on Saturday night. Again, when you make it hard for fans to go to games, they don't go to games. The insanity needs to stop.

I'd say they have to win and be entertaining while doing it. The Toledo game from last fall was a great example of that. You just hit the nail on the head about Tuesday games. A fan should have fun going to a game. Leaving work early on a Tuesday to go tailgate for an 8 PM game isn't fun...it's more of an extension of work. Worrying about if you packed enough warm clothes in the car prior to leaving for work at 7AM on game day is not fun...especially for November games. Having to worry about how much you drink because you have to go to work on Wednesday isn't fun....it's a downer. Having anxiety about how tired you are going to be on Wednesday at work because you didn't get to bed until 12:30 AM after an 8 PM games isn't fun. Weeknight games create an anxiety for those who want to go to the game that should not exist on a college football game day. This issue is one that makes me extremely sad because I know how horrible these games are for the league and more importantly, the fans of those schools who are dedicated and actually care. I just don't understand why the people who run MAClike schools/leagues are so Hell bent on destroying the teams and schools they are charged with helping to be successful. We have met the enemy and we are us.

Exactly. The Acme Zip game was a nice community event when the team was playing at the D2 and IAA level. It was the entire focus of the market and ticket sales people. The focus needs to be selling season tickets because it guarantees money for each game. The Acme Zip game guaranteed one OK ticket day with a lot of nothing after that day. If we want to call ourselves a D1A program, we have to act like a D1A program. The Acme Zip game was small thinking. Also, it's been a long time now since the Acme Zip game. Much about college football has changed. Most importantly, the amount of college football fans have access to is much greater. There is no guarantee that if they offered even $5 tickets to a game, people would feel compelled to go to a game when they could stay home and watch something else. I don't think they would fill the stadium if the tickets were free.