GP1

As many of you know, I have a relative in central Ohio well connected to the local high school football world and has ins at OSU. The rumor is Day wants out of Columbus and OSU wants him out just as bad. He badly wants to go back to the NF and to get out of the nonsense that has become college football. As it relates to college football, people are asking why didn't he do anything about the post game brawl. The answer is college football players are completely out of control and nobody would listen to him. If guys at Alabama stopped listening to Saban, Day doesn't stand a chance. Players are so out of control that later in the day Saturday, players still were planting flags and fighting about it. The transfer portal has made it such that you don't have to accept discipline from coaches.

In all seriousness about OSU losing, there is one truth..... OSU is spending far too much money on players and coaches to be getting the results they are getting. Ryan Day will get the blame, but he didn't miss two extremely easy FGs. Now that the money is above the table and in high volume, it's time sports fans put the blame on failure on players when they deserve it. There are 18-23 year olds playing in the NHL and MLB who take a lot of heat from fan and the media when they fail. It's time we treat college players like the pros they are. High level college football is no longer amateur. It's professional. Time for fans start acting like it.

Worse, you end up with a useless nobody like Kent.

If you're trying to go to a bowl game, every game counts. If you're trying to win the MAC, every game leading into the MAC schedule counts. Akron needs less of a hole to climb out of every year.

Lost two games by a total of 11 points mid season. Maybe better scheduling gets one more win. Maybe confidence and momentum from that one more win results in winning one more MAC game. Maybe Akron goes bowling. Lots of maybes, but they don't count as actual wins.

Are they having a lively debate about whether twelve or nine is the number between eleven and thirteen?

Jim Grobe partnering with our voluntary athletic director, KD, is our only hope.

We are looking around the corner, but have not turned. Around the corner is a tunnel. The tunnel has a light at the end. It's either a clear hole out of the tunnel or a train coming at us. The next few weeks will be instructive. If Joe stays and we do well next year with support from the University, I would call it turning the corner. If Joe leaves in the next few weeks, we face a coaching hiring decision without an AD in place and the machete of budget cuts ahead with not enough money to hire a decent coach. This could spell a coaching hire worse than iCoach. We are talking about Kent State level bad. That light at the end of the tunnel is a train at this point. Still think Joe should be fired?

I think I speak for a lot on this board when I say that I could not give a flying crap about this and would be just fine if all Zips fans didn't think about it anymore.

Tulane has 9 wins and has been good in recent years. They have historically been a horrendous program. If you think winning can't happen for us, you are kidding yourself.

OSUs check bounced.

Even if ESPN breaks even, they need to fill their airways with something and the MAC was dumb enough to take the bait. In addition, ESPN uses that time to promote their lineup of programing that draws more viewers and advertising revenue.

Great question. The answer is absolutely not. In no way shape or form is it better. The money is not helpful because the athletic departments are more broke than ever. If former athletic directors of mac schools had any self awareness, they would apologize to their former employers for the buffalo run they sent their schools on. The players are not as good. Where are players like Leftwich, Pennington, Frye, Blackburn, Roethlisberger, Hixon, Moss, etc? People say MACtion is a great brand. No, it is the brand of empty stadiums, ruined rivalry games, disinterested announcers and low quality play. The MAC is doing less than ever to make their schools a benefit to the athletes students alumni fans and general community around their schools. It's really disgraceful what has happened to the MAC.

So what? The juice isn't worth the squeeze. Edit: In addition, spare me the bad statistical analysis.

It's worse than I thought. The most to ever watch a MAC weeknight game is 465,000. We are destroying our league so at tops one tenth of one percent of Americans can watch the game? This isn't exposure, it's insanity.

Ten years ago I would have said it was unrealistic. Now I would have to say it isn't ideal.

It seems the new AD has the unenviable task of making cuts. Joe stays because it's impossible to make cuts and engage in a contract buyout at the same time, while at the same time shelling out money for a recruiting firm to find a new coach. Oh, then there is the cost of relocating a new coach. I would like to see Joe come back for one more season. If he fails after four seasons with a more favorable schedule, then it's time to part ways. There is nothing keeping Joe in Akron now. He could very well depart on his own. If he leaves and there is no AD in place...... I'd rather not think about that.

The win reminds me of a saying I heard once. "Determination is more important than discipline." Determination separates noon players from 1:00-4:00 players. A lot of players look great and disciplined during warm-ups, but when the game starts, they aren't good enough. We're they perfect, no, but I saw an Akron team that didn't just do the fundamentals well (Toledo is a good fundamentally sound team also) but was determined in the results of the fundamentals. For example, I mentioned to Mrs GP1, the luckiest woman in the world, that Akron was tackling well. Akron wasn't just putting themselves in position make tackles, they actually made the tackles. They made the blocks to get extra yards. They fought for extra yards with determination. The final play showed determination. Some may call determination something like a competitive spirit or having heart. Whatever it is, Akron had it until the end and won the game. Winning is not easy. Akron played MAC contender level good the past two weeks. They just need to play with that determination every week.

It's sports in general. Typically, if a team in plays fundamentally sound and will discipline, that team can wait for the other team to lose the game.

That was a big win. Great job Zips.

There's that sack I was looking for.

When is the last time Akron had a sack?

It's nice to watch a MAC kicker make a pop in his pants.

I don't think the Zips will win, but I do think they will not be embarrassed. I wasn't very impressed with Toledo the last time I saw them on television.

I love a contrarian viewpoint, but not in this case.