GP1

The Zips have played at a high level for a long time. It would take the wheels falling off or multiple years of not being one of the top 4 teams in the league to slow the momentum. The Zips are the present AND the future of the MAC for the foreseeable future.

Partnering with St. Patrick's Day is a good way for the MAC to pretend it is having that big of an impact on the economy of Cleveland. Let's assume that over a three day period, 30,000 people walk in the gates of the arena. That would mean that each of those people are spending nearly $500/person in the three day period. Seems a bit far fetched to me.

There used to be a mom and pop Italian place near/in Kenmore called Casa Mimi. They had the best baked ziti around Akron. I think about it all the time because I have a mom and pop Italian restaurant just a mile from my house in SC, but in Charlotte. The family is from Syracuse and took over a place called The Gridiron, kept the name and made it an Italian restaurant. Very popular with the northern population who wants a good mom and pop Italian meal without having to go to one of the gourmet places in Charlotte resulting in a mortgage sized bill when it shows up. Always reminds me of Casa Mimi, but I think Casa Mimi had better food. I wonder if people in NE Ohio appreciate how good many of the restaurant selections are.?.? There are many, many good places to eat in NE Ohio.

Effective?...I'd say yes, but with one addition. I think the timing of blitzes is very important. If the front seven is going to be better, the need for blitzing is reduced if the front can get pressure without blitzing. I like the saying, "Blitz early, cover late." Successful early blitzing causes the offense to keep potential receivers in to block. Since there are more blockers, there are less receivers and outnumbering the receivers is very important because it allows for combination zones (man-to-man in addition to zone) on plays. If an offense keeps a RB in to block or even a tight end while the defense rushes four, the count becomes seven guys guarding four. I like the defenses chances to get the most important thing in football, a turnover, in a 7 vs 4 scenario. I also like the elimination of big plays (30+ yard plays) in this scenario as well. The offense is going to complete some passes, just tackle when they do and having a lot of guys back there to tackle sure helps. Unsuccessful blitzing early isn't the end of the world either. It allows a coordinator to know what his choices are for later in the game. The best scenario of all is, no blitzing while getting pressure with four. If the Zips have an improved front line and can do this, it sets up a lot of opportunities for success for the team.

I would take our potential over theirs. I would take their results over ours. Hunter seems to be a guy who is maximizing his opportunity and is getting a lot done in a relatively short period of time. By getting a lot done, I mean...winning at sports people actually notice. We have some of that, but not enough.

Hunter Yurachek We passed on this guy when he was working for us. All he has done at CCU is turn a small school outside of Myrtle Beach into a winner in the sports that matter. The football team made the IAA playoffs last year and advanced to the quarter finals. The basketball team just won the Big South and is going dancing. Their baseball team last year played made the playoffs. Prior to UofA, he had experience at UVA, Vandy and Wake Forest. We passed.... Nice job Hunter and congratulations on your success.

He looks real proud of himself gazing off into the view of the backside of the scoreboard and the gas station/mini mart across the street. Not exactly a view of the Duke Energy Building or the Bank of America tower, but you have to play the cards you are dealt. If your hand includes a lot across from a gas station and you have conceptualized a rooftop bar, one might want to consider folding that hand.

Fahrenheit is a really good restaurant in Cleveland. Last week, Fahrenheit Charlotte opened and we ate dinner there last night. Great place. Same owner, same concept as Cleveland with the Asian influence over local ingredients along with some other more traditional items for people who may not like that style of cooking. In addition to the food, the setting is outstanding. It is on the 22nd floor of a new hotel/condo building in downtown Charlotte. You can see the views from the restaurant by clicking on Photos on their website. Rooftop bars and restaurants are very popular in the south because the weather nice for most of the year, with the exception of this year, and restaurants/bars like to take advantage of that good weather for a lot of the year. Short ribs were great and so was the Ramen. Great place, great view.

This is really going to be the key. He has some athletic talent right now and he is still over weight. As the weight comes off, the talent will increase. I think his weight looks much better now than when I saw them in Columbia in December, but his physical development is still a key opportunity for improvement. The expectation for him next year should be to be a top center in the MAC. With that means much better physical conditioning and fundamentals. No baby steps for him. Expectations should be for drastic improvement on the off season.

I'm with DiG and JZ84. Pat had a pretty productive game last night doing a heck of a lot more good for the team than bad. Zips fans shouldn't be look to the two big guys for a large amount of the team's production...that is going to come from elsewhere. We should be looking for solid production with limited mistakes from our two bigs and we got that last night.

The they will win three in a row.

Why not is right! The Zips needed to get some confidence and momentum this week and they did. There is no reason they can't win two in a row this weekend and win the MAC. I hear a lot about things on the internet "trending". Not sure what that means, but the Zips are trending in the right direction. I fully expect them to win the MAC this week.

Actually, if the current trend continues in college athletics, MAClike conferences will exist to provide scout teams to the BCS schools.

BTW, the game looked really good on TV last night. Packed stadium with a lot of people who looked like they were having a lot of fun, with the exception of ZipsWin! who looked pretty arms crossed nervous with under five minutes to go in the game. This is exactly the way we should all want the University presented on television. Please keep this in mind next year when the Zips are playing football on a Tuesday night in an almost completely empty Big Dialer. Television makes everything you see important.

How are they going to get the ball to them? Last year (source) the Browns had the #1 rated left tackle in the league and the #18 offensive line as a group. The rest of the OL has to be horrible to move the average that low after having the #1 left tackle. It is incredibly hard to throw the ball from your back. Mark my words. If the Browns draft a QB #1, they will destroy him within two years just like they do every other QB they draft high and expect him to be the savior.

A poorly played game by both teams, but I'll take a win over Can't any day of the week regardless of the play. Rivalry games aren't supposed to be easy. Until late in the second half, the Zips just couldn't get a lead. They came close and were tied a couple of times, but just couldn't get over the hump. I told the luckiest woman in the world, Mrs. GP1, that if the Zips could just get the lead the tide would turn in their favor. Around 7-8 minutes remaining in the game, the Zips took the lead and the momentum shift was obvious. I really thought that was the most critical moment in the game.

I wonder how often Faust leans over and gives KD little bits of coaching brilliance.

Spring ball? If MAClike conferences had any sense, we would be kicking off our spring/summer season on April 11th. I like real football, not football practice.

I agree that it is going to take flight again. However, when I think of the Browns taking flight again, I think of this video. The only difference is the flight lasts two years and the guy ejecting at the end is the QB if he is lucky.

This is absolutely true. So my question is...What will they see when they tune in?

Just about every year since the Browns came back can be described as one part of the McCoy years. They draft a QB then spend two years ruining him before drafting another and starting the two year building process of destroying him.

I voted for Bortles because I like guys who don't go to the BCS schools and have the world handed to them. It toughens the mind and body. He is also very talented in every way that matters....and he has a really hot girlfriend. Imagine the tail he can pull when he has millions and graduates from that busted Daytona stripper he has been seeing. The other two are very talented in their own way. Manziel is like a Wilson (Seattle) without the challenges of succeeding at two separate colleges and the experience of professional baseball. I like to watch him, but I'd stay away if I was an NFL team. I don't think the fundamentals are there. Bridgewater is also very talented and well coached. Destroyed some bad teams and periodically struggled against good team. Great fundamentals.

Going back to giving $10 away to X number of students. I think I'm really on to something meaningful here. If you want to use a BB game to foster community, I think this idea would work just as well and it could be sponsored by a local drinking establishment. The first (insert number here) of students 21 years of age and older attending the game get $5 cash and a wrist band. If they go to Drinking Establishment X after the game and show their wristband, they will get another $5 cash, or pick another amount. After the game, all of the students who attended could go to the bar and drink and talk about the game. Getting drunk with my fellow classmates and sharing commonalities, like a basketball game, when I was in school made me feel a lot more part of the community than a flag would have.

This is an excellent point. The product of basketball consists of two teams. When one is really good (the Zips) and the other is average at best (the MAC) then the product isn't as good. Since we are Zips fans, we think the Zips being good is good enough. Not everyone thinks like us and people look for different things. The rest of the MAC badly needs to get good or at least play a better brand of basketball. I don't think die hard fans are sick of watching the Zips win. I think they have had a belly full of the rest of the MAC and it makes it hard for them to attend sometimes. There is nothing wrong for fans to seek more substance in their entertainment choices. The question of a marques win generating more attendance is one that I have trouble connecting all of the dots with in terms of believing there is a long term benefit. I think it assumes a lack of sophistication with the basketball consumer. A win is something that happens in the past. Upcoming games happen in the future. Marketing Departments can only attract people to the future. They can attract people to a future game using a past game, but the future game had better have the same quality as the past game. If the Zips beat UNC one week and then play Central Michigan the following week, how is a person who knows anything about basketball supposed to get excited about the CMU game?...The players don't even get as excited. If they go to the CMU game, will the quality of the overall product on the floor be enough to bring them back again? All the Zips can do is keep winning and hope that somehow the rest of the MAC gets more entertaining.

It seems to me that if the students are looking for something of value for going to the game, the school would spend a lot of time thinking about what would be of value to the students and still never be able to make everyone happy. I guess my question would be, how much would the value of the give away need to be to get the students to attend? Would the give away make everyone happy and attract students? Would the time of the employees of the athletic department be better spent trying to attract ticket buying customers? The way I see it is if the students want something of value for going to the games, why wouldn't the University just hand out $10 bills to every student in attendance, or at least the first (insert number here)? It would save them the time of having to think about a give away item and the cost of the give away item. $10 is better than getting stuck with a stupid bobble head doll or something that will collect dust forever. The student can spend the $10 on anything he/she wants. Sports marketing departments at many sporting levels have created a situation where fans buy a ticket, walk through a gate and expect something for free to land in their hands. If they don't get something for free, they will maul the guy next to them trying to catch a stupid $1 t-shirt with the name of a bank or something on it. It's silly on almost every level and is really a reflection of the increasingly silly society we live in. I'm pretty convinced that if cheerleaders threw free half pound cans of cancer cells into the stands at a sporting event, there would be an unusually large number of people fighting over catching one of the free cans. I'm absolutely certain there would be no problem getting 500 people to show up early for a game to get a free bobble head doll made out of cancer cells. I could care less about the 500 mooches. Give me a lot of dedicated fans who want to cheer for their team without the distractions of nonsense happening around them.