GP1

It's an ongoing mystery. I scratch my bald head when I think about it. One could say there was a Browns game, but there wasn't until 4 PM. After years of trying to figure it out, I've given up. It won't just be last afternoon, but we will see this throughout December. Probably throughout the season as well. Maybe I'm the stupid one, but I think the Zips provide great entertainment for not much money. This goes beyond the students to the alumni and general public. Are the seats uncomfortable? Yes, but there aren't 2,000 more people who would be uncomfortable for two house a couple times a year for great entertainment? It's bad, but not that bad. K E N T is a wildly uncomfortable place to go watch a game, but they get great crowds in a much smaller community. The Zips have been good enough for long enough now that the team is no secret. It can't be a marketing problem at this point. In fact, going to a Zips game should be "the thing to do" around Akron and it isn't. Maybe it is, but people can't get off their lazy asses long enough to make it to a game. Last month, I drove three hours to watch the Zips play in Myrtle Beach. For most people, it can't take more than 30 minutes to get to the arena. Shame on people for not going.

Interesting Reading

I dont care who was coaching Cincy. When you lose that bad, you don't have the horses to compete. NIU will be ready to play. FSU's horses aren't that great. Good, but not great.

Certainly a Hell of a lot better than having a football for a nose.....

It's a simple game isn't it? Get your best player the ball and put him in a position to win the game. Coaches can dream up plays all day long, but crunch time comes down to how the best players do at that moment. I too like AA taking a last second shot all year. He is the one guy who is comfortable with the ball in his hands and can be creative with it. It takes me back to the Dallas Cowboys in the Aikman years. Third and one, what were the Cowboys going to do? It was simple. Two tight ends...I formation with Johnson blocking and Smith running....tightend motion left and then back to the right and they ran off tackle right. Getting the first down became clockwork for them and they did it for years. Best running back, behind Pro Bowl fullback running behind pro bowl right tackle. They knew they were going to run the play. The other team knew they were going to run the play. The fans knew they were going to run the play. It doesn't get any more simple than that. Same for the Zips. Best player with the ball to win the game should be the strategy. Nothing wrong with AA having the ball in his hands all season long. They need to execute the play better. I like the Zips chances in any overtime game this season. In a tie game, the play ran yesterday is their best option to either win or extend the game without a turnover that leads to a last second shot for the other team.

Maybe the acceptance of reality is important in looking at this situation. There are some things every team is good at and some things every team may not be good at. Maybe the reality is we are a great team on defense and we use that to score points. Maybe a half court offense isn't our best suit. Further, maybe the reality is we are not good at last second plays because of our player make-up. In this situation, I have no problem with giving the ball to one player in a tie game with a chance to win it. We just need to make sure we get it to the right player. I'd rather give the ball to one guy, let him run down the clock to the point the team would never get a chance of breaking the tie before halftime if he misses and take our chances in overtime. This strategy seemed to work yesterday.

I agree with everything. What I don't understand is why everyone in the media seems to think NIU is going to go the Orange Bowl and get rolled by FSU? I went to the ACC Championship Saturday and was not all that impressed with FSU. Sort of how I'm not impressed with the ACC in general. It's not that hard to win that league. I'm not arguing NIU is going to win, I'm just saying I think they will put up a good fight against FSU and could win the game. The last time a team really got rolled in a BCS game was Cincy getting destroyed by an SEC team in Florida. Anyone who couldn't see that one coming from a mile away has vision similar to Mr. Magoo. Cincy was DOA because they simply didn't have the horses. Florida could have scored 70 on them if they wanted. It will not be a match up like that. In fact, it is a match up similar to the Oklahoma vs. Boise State game. If NIU hangs around, they can win the game.

It will be interesting. If I was the coach at IUP and my team was running for 5.5 yards per carry, I'd have trouble passing the ball as well. They get around 15 yards per completion and over 8 yards per attempt. I think they only had three interceptions last year. Luke needs to parlay his ability to coach a kid into a low interception rate and high yards per attempt and catch into another job at a bigger school. The one thing Luke always had going for him was a good head on his shoulders. He had a very good grade point, in a real degree, at UofA. He just needs to show other schools he knows the game and can coach kids up at this point in his career. He is still very young. He needs to move from IUP asap though.

Let's Try Again Sorry about that. Still trying to get used to using an IPad to post on ZNO. Used that link the day before and I don't know why it reappeared.

You guys are doing a great job. Isn't this better than bitching about the video feed?

Thanks

If everyone isn't too busy bitching about the video, wold it be too much to ask to get some scores.

President needs to Take a more wholistic approach to hiring an AD. We seem to hire people because they do one thing or another well, but we never hear about how they do the other parts of their job. TW was a marketing guy. Little did we know he wasterribleat everything else. Provenza needs to establish 4-5 aspects within the athletic department he wants to be good at. Everything else is secondary. Hire good people (not buddies), retain good staff (not replace people with buddies), keep players on the field in a way that when the do something minor the whole team isn't punished with losing, win, etc.

IUP Schedule & Results Luke Getsy having nice career going. Offense scoring lots of points. IUP wins conference championship and just lost in third round of playoffs to W-S State. It will be interesting to follow his career.

That's one of the issues as it relates to turnover. I would argue that even worse than head coach turnover is assistant coach turnover. Think about JD's first staff. There were some really quality coaches who moved on to better jobs and weren't replaced by better coaches. The same thing happened with Faust. I would argue the best assistants in the history of UofA football were early in the Faust era. Owens also had guys like Fickell early and was not able to replace them with other than high school coaches. The key to success isn't to try to stop the turnover. Few people really want to coach in the MAC and it is a stepping stone for other jobs. We will also never be able to pay what BCS level schools can offer. There is nothing wrong with facing and embracing that reality. Once the reality is faced, then school can adapt by having guiding principles from the high up leadership on how to handle the situation.

They are in the real world, they just view the world through immature eyes.

Nonsense. We are talking about big time college football. This guy has 2-3 years to win or he is out on his butt. He doesn't have a recruiting class to lose and needs to get to work right away. He needs to not only recruit, but he also needs assistants, etc. to get started. College football is a business and even the players understand that.

http://eatatpinkys.com/ Pinky's Westside

The Mac is having a good year. More than anything, the quality of play is better. History shows this season is more likely to be followed by a bad season than a good season. I would caution everyone about getting too excited about the future of the Mac.

Not sure how to fix it. However, it is www.slate.com. The author is Josh Levin and the title of the article is "The Big East is a Failed Experiment." Readers should be able to search for that and find it easy enough.

Interesting

At this point, I could have used the word straw...or goats...or leaves...or Sweedish fish...or etc. They will take anything they get their hands on. Hell, the Big Ten brought in Rutgers and Maryland. If that isn't grasping for goats, I don't know what it. The disappointment of the MAC is they lost Temple and brought in UMASS. Losing Temple was a good opportunity to downsize the league in a way that would make it better and not worse. Think of it as a 10% drop in the stock market. The 10% drop is a natural correction and, if played properly, opens up the door for making a portfolio better and not bloated with bad stocks. It makes me wonder about the questions the leagues ask when they make decisions. One could ask about umass, "Does this make sense?" One could also ask, "How does this make sense?" I'm not certain ADs, league commissioners or university presidents ask "How?" because they want to give a one word answer....yes, let's add the team....boom, new resume line added. "How" makes a person think and respond with more than yes or no. If they ever asked "how", their answers would be such a bunch of hogwash that nobody would expand their league and have anything to put on their resume for their next job. TV ratings?...Hogwash. Exposure?....Hogwash, nobody wants to watch crap. Money?....Hogwash, most schools are bleeding money and states don't have the tax base to support nonsense. Improve the university experience?...Hogwash, kids would be better off drinking beer and trying to get laid than watching a crappy product. It's all a bunch of hogwash that I can't believe ADs around the country have snookered very intelligent university presidents into believing.

It warms my heart to see there are conferences out there actively trying to become worse than the MAC. Sometimes it pays off to not do anything and watch the competition destroy itself.

People from Manhattan don't go to Rutgers games because it is so hard to get there. The Duke Energy building in Charlotte lights up as well. For a small fee, you can have your colors put on the building for a short period. Don't let yourself get carried away by a building being lit up for a few minutes while a TV crew films it for a couple of promo shots on ESPN.

Your assumption is there will be enough people demanding the BT Network that local cable companies will be forced to pick it up. I would argue there won't be enough people who care enough about those teams to make a difference. More people will complain about a rate increase than fall for it. How many people are going to call up and demand to reach in their pockets and pull out money to sit at home and watch a horrible Maryland football team get beaten by the likes of Northwestern, Iowa and Minnesota? How many Maryland fans are going to do the same to watch the Terps play Iowa in lieu of UNC, Duke, NCState, etc in basketball. Here is a good article about the move. The AD at Maryland, already basically proven to be horrible at his job.......... One might even say he is the Wistrcill of the ACC....... Anyhow, the AD at Maryland is making this move and making a wish that it will all work out. My mother always told me, "Make a wish or $#!+ in your hat. See which one fills up first." It doesn't matter though, because the AD will be at another job and not have to live his mistakes. What few fans Maryland has will not have that luxury. PS. I think our good friend, Dave In Green, wrote the second to last paragraph of the above article and I would like to congratulate him for getting published.