GP1

Just saw this post after reading about the new Yosef. Maybe BurlingtonApp is smoking the same thing Yosef is. Whatever it is, save some for me when the Zips play in Boone. When a coach retires after going 8-4 and the new coach goes 4-8, there is a problem. It's called breaking down, not breaking in. This should never happen to a program that is ready to make a jump unless they truly don't understand what they are getting in to. In this way, it reminds me of Akron making the move in 1987. In fact, a program ready to make a jump should never hire a coach with only three years of experience of any kind at the D1A level. App State didn't hire a fresh face, they hired a continuation of the previous program as 14 of his 17 years of coaching were spent at App. and he went 4-8 in year one. Please do yourself a favor and look at the bios of his coaching staff. They are a collection of guys with extremely limited experience in D1A football and the App State good old boy club. By the time our games against them roll around, this guy will have App State squarely in the toilet. Akron has forward momentum right now and App State has more of the same that brought them 4-8. I'm really looking forward to the Zips winning both games. Link If by 30 points ahead of Akron in recruiting, that is App. State for no ranking at all, he wins this argument.

They may get tired of the losing, but they will never get tired of the money. The money matters more than the losing.

If this happened to me walking into a bar, I would respond by saying, "Why, yes I am. I'm the head coach of the Varsity Quarters Team and the head coach of the Junior Varsity Beer Pong team. Just spending some time looking for talent."

It more than devalues it. It is literally taking money from Akron and giving it elsewhere. Akron gets a percent of all of the sales. I was in the team shop for the first time Friday. If you live in the cold of NE Ohio, the selection is very good. Although I think there should be a law against hooded sweatshirts, they seem to be popular. Shame on a graduate who can't find anything to wear in there. They have good merchandise. I couldn't have been any more pleased with my trip to The Bid Dialer.

They had two chances last year. FSU handled them easily and the game was worse than the score. They lost to a horrid Iowa team.

Indiana and Vandy won't care. They already don't care. Soon enough, they will need more money to sustain what they have "built" and will be more than happy to feed at the bottom of a super division. Since they only consider money, it is only logical that the split will benefit all of them. I'm not certain it is a matter of whether or not they want to, I think they will have to. I'm not interested in being a part of that any longer. I think we can do better.

Dropping down would be the wrong thing to do and short sighted. Making our own division with other maclike conferences and playing in the fall is the wrong thing to do because it forces us into a sword fight with Goliath. Making our own division with other maclike conferences and playing in the spring is the right thing to do because it allows us to slingshot ourselves forward. It would balance out our level of football so that the great game that was played at The Big Dialer on Friday could be a weekly event. There would be an opportunity for relatively equal teams playing each week. That's my idea of competition. I don't think there is much competition in maclike conference teams beating up on IAA teams or BCS handing out payday games to maclike schools. Those games degrade competition. For the most part, they are meaningless games. Sure, teams make a lot of money, but everything else is devalued. When a school like tosu plays Florida A&A, they are devaluing their fans and taking a dump on them and their hard earned money. It's no wonder college sports fans are so jaded....25 to 30 percent of the games are designed to be complete garbage and that's putting it mildly. It seems to me that the defenders of the norm look at the UofA vs Michigan game and believe there is something better there than the UofA vs Toledo game. Both were great college football games regardless of where they were played, how many people were at the game or what TV network they were televised. Americans love football and if they saw that weekly, they would have an appreciation for it. Give them what they want.

I don't think any bashing is going on. Since I had not been to a game in a while, I couldn't remember what the size of the band used to look like so I asked if it was smaller. It appeared to be smaller.

Why rock the boat? For the best reason possible, because we can do better. MAC schools are like beaten down housewives who are scared to leave their crappy husbands because they are afraid they can't make it on their own. Worse yet, they think the a-hole they are married to is going to one day wake up and decide to treat her better. I'm convinced that there is actually more money to be made in the spring for us than in the fall. I'm also convinced the BCS schools could make more money if they would stop playing non BCS schools, charge more for tickets and also for television. In 1986, that's over 25 years ago, ABC sports offered the USFL $175 million over a four year period to televise their league in the spring. If they offered $175 million in 1986, what would they offer in 2013? To give an indication of the market, FOX is currently paying MLB $500 million per year to televise games and the ratings for baseball are terrible compared to the past. I don't think we would get $500 million per year, but we could do pretty well. FOX is great at televising football and making anything entertaining. A 16 team playoff with the opportunity for a non BCS level school to lose a first round game and soon be forgotten? No thanks. I'm tired of playing their game. The BCS teams can have their 16 team playoff and we should have our own. Good luck and good riddance to them.

Yes. In fact, we should get together with all of the nonBCS conferences and start out own division making it official. Then we can start working on our own spring league, but that's another topic...or not. This has nothing to do with what the ncaa will or will not allow and the ability of nonBCS teams to compete on a regular basis. NIU made a bcs game last year and were basically manhandled by an average FSU team. Game Summary If the same happens again this year, everyone will say, "See, the don't belong."....and they will be right. There are only about 10-15 teams in the country with football programs designed to win a national championship. 15 is probably being too generous. No non bcs team can compete at that level for many, many reasons. Can non-bcs teams compete against the rest of the bcs teams after the first 15 or so? Sometimes, but most of the time no because they are always trying to compete with the bcs schools at their game and it rarely works. I would recommend a book called David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. MAClike conferences are always trying to pick up a sword and go head-to-head with Goliath (the bcs schools). It's a losing game yet they continue to do it because they never think differently or about how they can be successful. Instead of maclike fans/conferences sitting around endlessly bitching about the bcs schools only getting to play for a national championship, why don't we set up our own division in which we can compete for our own national championship with like talented schools and a great playoff system? Instead of maclike fans/conferences sitting around endlessly bitching about all of the TV revenue the bcs conferences get, why not play at a time when networks are starve for sports entertainment and will pay a lot for the national sport (football) to be televised? Instead of maclike fans/conferences sitting around endlessly bitching about nobody going to games because so many people stay home to watch BCS or the weather is unpleasant, why not play at a time when fans have little to do, they are starved for some live football and are eagerly looking forward to watching a sporting event in increasingly nice weather? Instead of maclike fans/conferences sitting around endlessly bitching about having to play on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, why not play during a time of year when fans want something to do outside on a Friday or Saturday and the best option is live college football? Instead of maclike fans/conferences sitting around endlessly bitching about no interest in their brand of football because the NFL and BCS suck up all the oxygen, play at a time when there is interest for live football and you are the only source of the product. To top that, become the only source of football gambling opportunity for all of the gambling degenerates in this country and watch the league explode. The nfl is made widely popular because of gambling. Maclike conferences provide great entertainment for fans. The problem is they don't put themselves in a position to succeed or allow others to see what a great product they have. They purposely go out of their way to make themselves look bad (see Tuesday and Wednesday games). Last Friday was as good of a college football game as anything else that was played that weekend. It was well played and well coached by both teams. It was the best college football game I went to this year. If you take every game that was played last weekend, play it in the middle of nowhere with only the teams dressed in black and white uniforms with no fans, the Akron-Toledo would match up against anything played. It was just as good of a game as osu vs michigan or alabama vs auburn. It just didn't have all of the glitter around it. The MAClike conferences can be so much more than they allow themselves to be. The real shame is they are doing it to themselves because they are firmly committed to participating in the definition of insanity...and we all know what that is.

I'm so glad I don't live in Ohio any longer and have to listen to tosu fans constantly defending their program. tosu knows the formula for success for teams in a bad conference and they are playing it well this year along with Florida State. Good team + bad conference + horrid ooc schedule = BCS Championship game. This year's BCS Championship game will probably be the two weakest teams on record.

Meyer wants LF gone along with the entire defensive staff. He has wanted it for two years. OSU is going to help LF get a job at another school during the off season, whether it is as a DC or head coach at a smaller school. Probably DC.

Question about something that struck me at the game Friday. Didn't our band used to be bigger?

Have you seen the ESPN college scoreboard show yet today?

I see this at Wake Forest games as well. Since they have been so bad recently, they get more noon games and very few students come. I wonder if this is a problem throughout college football.?.?

This is all the evidence I need. Toledo is an excellent offensive team both throwing and rushing. Giving up 29 points may seem like a lot, but Toledo averaged 33 points per game this year and one number driving down that average is only scoring 6 against Florida. Want to know what kind of company we keep with our defense against Toledo? Toledo was held to 29 or fewer points against five other teams this season. They were: Florida, Missouri, Ball State, Bowling Green and NIU. Fantastic job by the defense on Friday. Friday was a huge, huge, huge win for the Zips program. Toledo is a very good football team with a proud tradition. We went toe-to-toe with them and won.

You are over complicating the issue. More winning will increase attendance at games. Starting times are frequently determined by the television networks so we don't have much of a say in that. Besides, the networks now pile on good games at prime time because America wants to watch. If America wants to watch games at home or in a bar at prime time, don't compete against it. I love live football in the afternoon AND watching a game at home on prime time. We are the MAC. Our games should be starting no later than 3:30. Saturday night games are a guaranteed loser if attendance is important. Schedule bigger opponents? We play Pitt and PSU next year. Pitt will make a return trip to Akron. How many more big opponents do we need to schedule?

Good move. You aren't missing anything. Everyone should plan to come to Charleston for the basketball tournament. It is a great event, great city and opportunity for Zips across the country to experience something really special. Throw in my fool proof recommendations for Charleston and it will be a lifetime of memories.

Most are probably just plain lies.

I was late getting to the game. Almost didn't go. Didn't get in until around half way through the first quarter. Score was already 7-7. Stood on the Toledo side as I wanted to at least try to be in the sun because I don't own a lot of warm clothes anymore...at least the kind that will keep me warm for three hours. My feet were killing me by the end of the game. At half, I went and bought some Zips clothes at the team store then walked the concourse on the Zips side and didn't see anyone I would recognize. I would only recognize a couple of guys from the Board anyhow and I don't know where anyone sits. Besides, everyone sort of looks the same dressed in winter clothes. After the game, I had to get straight to the airport but I did walk through Lot 9 and I didn't recognize anyone. My wife threw in the towel at the end of the third quarter (she has even less warm clothes than I do) so I had to stop at BW3 to get her, then the car, then fill up at the gas station on the corner and then straight to the airport to return the car an get on the plane by 5:30. While we were heading down the runway, all I could think was, "My feet are still killing me.". Now that the Zips are going to be good again, I'm going to make it a point to go to more games, in better weather, and tailgate in Lot 9.

3,499. My butt didn't come near an aluminum seat as I didn't have a blanket.

After thawing out, I have a few more comments. Many have already mentioned Pohl, but his progress could be talked about for a while. He NOW has everything a team would want in a QB: accuracy, arm strength, command of the offense, respect of his peers and doesn't turn it over. What a shame it would have been if they started to tinker with replacing players mid season. Going into spring, Pohl should be the #1. The only way he loses his position is if someone completely outplays him and has better upside. If he can develop this much over a season, there is even more upside during the off season when real development takes place. He should be pushed to get better by creating a competitive environment, but not replaced unless the wheels fall off. Chisholm..... What to say the day after a win that isn't too negative? Here is my best shot. The guy is very average and he does things that can kill a team because his head is somewhere else. He is just a robot that runs plays without thinking about where the ball is, down and distance, etc. A couple of cases. With two minutes to go in the half and Toledo having ZERO time outs, he runs on third down getting a big gain but does two things. First, he doesn't run hard enough to fight for an extra three yards. Secondly, he runs out of bounds stopping the clock. I would expect this out of a freshman, but not a junior. Juniors in their 12th game of the season don't need to be told by anyone game situation. They need to have figured it out by then. Second case, the play early in the second half that we can now refer to as the "Chisholm Rumba Rumble Pass". I've never seen a player dance around and rumble backward for such a negative intentional grounding penalty. He's lucky it wasn't a safety. Something tells me that if Toledo would have just stopped running after him, he would have run out of the back of the end zone. My solution for Chisholm isn't to not play him, it is to get carries to more players...#34 being one of them. Play of the game. We could have an entire topic on this subject as there were so many good and key plays. Interception in the end zone at the end of the 3rd quarter is my pick slightly over the blocked extra point because I think it changed the entire 4th quarter and drastically increased the Zips chances of winning. Why? Toledo has an excellent MAC offensive line and had changed their run blocking scheme in the second half to more of a power style and were running it down the throats of Akron. They were controlling the game with their offensive line in a way that makes offensive coaches leave a stain on the front of their pants. The drive prior to this one was an easy score with them using third string RBs to run it down our throats. Their drive leading up to the int., we had slowed it down a little and were showing signs that we might be adjusting to their blocking scheme. The int happens and we gain a lot of momentum moving the ball down field some, punting and forcing Toledo into a stupid fake punt (we'll talk about when a fake punt is stupid or not in a minute). The entire look of the game changed after the int as Akron wasn't so much on their heels. It took Toledo's power running game, their best weapon in the second half, off the table and forced them to throw. Play calling. I have no problem with out play calling whatsoever. We were aggressive at the right times and went for big kill shots at the right times on both sides of the ball. Some may squawk about running the ball late and not "playing to win" (we'll talk about playing to win in a minute). I think Bowden has a lot of faith in his defense and running the ball, reducing chances for turnovers and forcing the opponent to use his timeouts is playing to win. It can make for a lot of close wins and uncomfortable feelings for fans, but it is playing to win. "Playing To Win". Let's have a general conversation about this overused, busted out Daytona stripper (thank you Kenny Powers) of a sports cliche. Ranks right up there with "the coach has lost the team". What is the difference between playing to win and being stupid? When you play to win, an idea works. When you are stupid, the same idea doesn't work. Cases in point. Bowden fakes a punt and it works...he is playing to win. Toledo fakes a punt and it doesn't work...he is stupid. Let's talk about who was really playing to win yesterday. The Zips played to win. They came into the game with a lot of confidence and momentum, they were well prepared for a very good team, made good play calls, executed a good game plan and generally played better than Toledo for four quarters. Yesterday was no fluke. The Zips are a good team and we should expect more next season. This team can and did win against a good MAC team. Well done guys.

My feet and hands disagree.

Hasn't had a turnover in three games. He looked really good today. This guy may have turned the corner.

Given the weather today, I think it would be better to come to this game for my one game a year.