GP1

You're so over dramatic about KD. I'm sure the guy probably has a pretty good sense of humor.

How do you know the parent will even ask? I offer a another "Scenario 3" Parent: so coach, how about that Abreu kid? KD: That was an isolated unfortunate incident. The kid made a bad decision, but he sells some really good weed. Parent: And you are fine with him selling really good weed? KD: Yes and No... Parent: You can't have it both ways coach... KD: Yes I can, this isn't high school debate club. Parent: He will try to sell pot to my son. KD: Probably not. But if your son is so weak willed he gives into pot against his beliefs, we really don't want him on our team. Take his weak ass over to Portage County or to Athens with the rest of the mental midgets. Parent: I've never been so offended! KD: Likewise...your presence and self superior attitude makes me want to vomit. Why did you waste my time today? Parent: I'm not self superior, I just know I'm better than other people. KD: Did you raise your son this way? Parent: Of course I did. (Long Pause) KD: Sometimes people make mistakes. Sometimes they make really big mistakes. Here is what I know. It's college basketball, not life or death. Alex was polite to alumni and friends, worked hard, played through injury, helped the team to win, signed autographs for small children and did what he needed to do in the classroom. Take away his mistake and he has been great for this program and I'll miss him on a personal level. A player like your son would be a cancer to this team and I think our conversation here is done.

When the BCS schools have their own division, we will be at a level we can compete in every year. We are perfectly positioned for when this happens. Before The Big Dialer, not the case. We need the BCS schools to go on their own way sooner rather than later though or MAClike schools will continue to die a death by a thousand cuts. Our problem isn't where we are positioned. Our problem has been our uncanny ability to shoot ourselves in the foot at almost every opportunity. The opportunities were few and far between, but the ones that presented themselves were not taken advantage of. Thanks to Mike Thomas, the only opportunity we ever really took advantage of was hiring a name coach from Pitt that was able to bring in some really good assistants, a D-1A QB and a winner at RB. Together with a scrappy defense, they won the MAC and tied in some BCS wins over the years....accomplishments previous coaches were complete failures at. Firing that coach from Pitt was a good opportunity as well because the timing was right and the program needed freshened up. Unfortunately.....here we are.

Clearly, you don't understand the "building process"...

A player doesn't get his playing time blocked. He blocks his own playing time by not being as good as the guy in front of him. If the kid from Colorado is better than Pohl, isn't that the guy we want playing. It's major college football (sort of), not a welfare program for guys who stick around.

The harm is still minor in the long run. Him coming back on the team and helping them to be successful would erase the harm. Fans love a player who can help a team win. His teammates still won the MAC. The University's basketball image was mildly dented with that loss to Can't and the NCAA Tournament (a game we were completely outclassed in all the way around). The children? They get over those things when the next cartoon or video games start. One day they will be adults and look back at our pot laws and shake their heads at what a stupid legal system we had that destroyed lives in the name of pot. It's the same feeling I get when I think about Prohibition. You guys might be surprised at how welcomed he would be by the other players. Hell, he's probably still friends with some of them.

Admitting to guilt is part of a plea deal. The facts we know of fit this crime and he said he did it. Article on pot trafficking in Ohio.

I'd let him back on the team today. Pot is now legal in some states and will gradually become legal in all states except for a few insane parts of the country where people want to control others' lives in the name of religion. We aren't talking about a hard core criminal here. He's just a guy who likes to smoke some weed and make a little cash off of it. Who was hurt by what he did?...That's why pot is being legalized...nobody is hurt by it.

Article So, I'm reading the internet today and I see this article. Made me think...Is playing Chewbacca really acting?

We understand what the condition of you liver will be after a day like today, but what do you think the course will be like?

T-Storms? Be careful out there today. Maybe there should be a rule that any team with a member who is struck by lightning is the automatic winner.

I had tickets behind the bench at a Can't vs. Miami game once and saw Coles yell at a kid for missing two foul shots in a row. He said something like, "You're a college basketball player, make the damn shot." That memory always reminds me that Coles coached a type of basketball that requires every little piece of a game to fall into place perfectly because points were going to be in short supply. His level of frustration at time must have been enormous and I can see how that level of stress would cause health problems. Coles demanded a lot out of his players and most of the time he got a lot out of them. He was a great MAC coach.

One can get rich from reading Marx's writings. They should be understood by everyone in business. Maybe not followed, but understood. If you turn them around, he outlines great methods for getting rich. Athletic directors understand that the exploitation of a slave labor class makes a great way to get rich and pull in cash for an organization. Marx didn't come up with the slogan "Workers of the world, unite!"!, but it was used in his book. I wish Student-Atho-Leets would unite and demand proper compensation and benefits for their labor and harm to their bodies. I would love to see a weekend of college football where players refused to play for two hours after the start of a game and all sat in the middle of the field. ESPN wouldn't know what to do with the disruption of their perfect little 3.5 hour television shows not falling lockstep into place. This type of peaceful protest would be something this country hasn't seen in a long time and it needs to see what it looks like when people have had enough.

Is what has gone on in college football in recent years ridiculous? Of course it is. It would be funny if it didn't present such a danger to schools. The problem is it is so out of control that the only course of action is to continue with the nonsense of pumping millions of taxpayers dollars into it at the expense of actually advancing society with scholarship, or the "building process" will collapse like the house of cards it is. This is why MAClike conferences need to immediately stop chasing the BCS level conference and find a place they can exist where they can maximize income and reduce the insane spending.

I'm going to come at this from a different angle. The classes listed for discount are the type of classes many of us took and were unrelated to our majors. In other words, they were useless requirements. Why should the majority of students who were not majoring in those majors have to pay full price for a class that is not as valuable to them as other classes during summer school? I'm all for full price for those classes during the traditional school year. The one thing I would do differently is offer these classes during the summer at a discount only after a student completes around 24 credit hours. Summer school jams a lot of work into a few weeks and I'm not sure a student coming right out of high school is ready for that challenge out of the gate.

Article Interesting article about a once great college football program now being swallowed up by changes in recent years, along with some horrible coaching decisions. The author is wrong in that this program should not resign from college football. It should find a level it can compete. Money quote from article link above. "As much as I love college football, a part of me wishes the schools would see the folly in their efforts and put their energies instead into something more productive, like raising as much money as possible to keep tuition affordable for in-state students."

You can have him. Marino beat a lot of bad teams in the fourth quarter. He also played forever which helps those numbers. These are the kind of stats that get people in the baseball hall of fame but leave me yawning. Testaverde is #7 and played forever so he makes the top ten? Great clutch player or a guy who was able to hold on for a long time? Tarkenton being in the top 10 is interesting considering the era he played in. Other than Testaverde, there isn't a guy in that top 10 I would take Marino in place of.

Dan Marino

Actually, I can't stand bobbleheads, but I'm not an 8 year old boy either. They are toys for children. Minor league teams use them to draw children an their parents to games. Is it corny?...Yes, so is so much of what goes on at minor league baseball games. The Aeros are a popular thing to do around Akron. They should try to side with that popularity on some level. If you are going to saddle up at a minor league event, expect some level of corny. May is when schools begin their push for season tickets for next year so a May event could have presented a good kick off opportunity. Is it feeble?...Somewhat, but it is part of what goes on in minor league sports. Hell, the Pittsburgh Pirates have "Free Shirt Friday" for home games and they are sort of a major league team. They pack the stadium. Is that feeble or knowing how cheap Yinzers are that you can give out a cheap shirt with a grocery store chain written on it and they will flock to games for the shirt. Is Tressel the Shroud of Turin?...No, its hard to be a cloth. Is Tressel Our Lady of Guadalupe?...No, but who knows what lies Our Lady of Guadalupe might have told to win football games. As far as a Jesus bobblehead, Google "Jesus bobblehead" and you can pick from quite a selection including a Jesus bobblehead that simulates walking. The people of NE Ohio have been prone to strange Christian cults/cult leaders masquerading as mega churches going as far back as Rex Humbard and probably before him. A Jesus bobblehead door prize, with a halftime show by Faith Plus One, might just pack in the Big Dialer.

I think you are reading too much into a minor league baseball game with a bobblehead doll give away.

We lost 11. What does "A good number" mean? My original post uses the words "average talent". The MAC Championship team may have had average talent, but they were still better than the talent level from last year. Lack of talent makes a team predictable. A predictable defense is a sitting duck in the fourth quarter. The Zips had a huge talent problem last year and I hate to say it, they still do.

One should look at this in two ways. The point of view of the Aeros and the point of view of UofA. Before I go on, I think this was a good idea and probably a win-win for both parties. First, minor league baseball teams sell far more tickets before the season starts than during the season. Knowing that, did this give away have a positive impact on attendance for that evening and only that evening? There shouldn't be an expectation for this to have a long term effect on ticket sales. My guess is this was a win for the Aeros because they probably had an increase in attendance they might not have without this promotion or with another promotion. Secondly, UofA should do everything it can to bring alumni and friends with their families at least in the near proximity of campus with events. Partnering with the Aeros for something like this is a good move and probably didn't cost much money at all. I don't see how the University loses in an event like this. I also don't know how much they win, but I don't see a loss.

Your post takes me back to the MAC Championship we won with the coach TW fired. It was a high scoring game for the time (nothing compared to the points teams are putting up now around the country) and a defense with very average talent was able to make a key stop against a very, very good NIU offense late in the game that set up the miracle catch by DH. Not only did they make a key stop on that drive, they kept NIU out of the end zone twice in the fourth quarter and forced field goals. We don't need great players who crap their pants in the 4th quarter. In 2013, points get scored regardless because the rules are set up for them to be scored. Clutch play is more important than defensive rankings, etc.

I think the author sees things exactly as they materialized. Where I would be critical is he came close to articulating a good point about why this particular defense is struggling late in games and it applies to all defense. I think too many people in the media today don't understand the modern game and how it has drastically changed in the past few years. For example, the younger guys on ESPN are much more in tune about the modern game than guys like Ditka or Tom Jackson. Too many defenses these days are set up to either stop the run or stop the pass. I like a front four designed to be great run stoppers and the rest of the team to be great pass defenders. It's not an either/or thing for me. Stop the run, force a third down pass into a heavily covered defensive backfield on third and long and have a great pass rusher to apply pressure. Force turnovers and not punts. The main point was, in the clutch, a defense has to come through or rankings don't matter. The only rankings that matter are the standings. I like nothing more than the players for the teams I like playing their best at the end of games. If they can't, then what is the point of playing well the rest of the time if you can't win in the end? As the Zips get better, it will be fun to watch who the players are who come through and those who don't.

Article As the Zips improve, they will find themselves in more close games. Ideally, a team would like to have the ball to run out the clock with a lead. If that isn't possible, it is important to have a good defense that plays well in the clutch. Let's hope the Zips defense will play better in the clutch that my Steelers defense has played in the clutch in recent years.