GP1

Coaching based upon cliches also prevents winning as well.

I dont know about you guys, but I love watching Shark Week on Discovery. It never gets old watching a shark attack a plastic seal floating behind a boat. Sharks are largely mindless animals who are extremely destructive when they do their job. Sort of like Athletic Directors. The discussion on this board about the coach at Pitt got me thinking about the destruction athletic directors can leave behind them at the schools they are employed. It got me thinking that a network could have a week long documentary on the destruction athletic directors unleash, aided by their willing dupes in university presidents, at the schools they work. I think I have Monday-Wednesday lined up, but Im having trouble closing out the five days with two more candidates. Actually, Im too lazy to put too much thought into it so Im asking the board for help. I was thinking on Monday we could warm up the audience with Kevin Anderson at Maryland. In one of the worst coaching decisions in recent years, he fired Ralph Friedgen, who in 2010 went 9-4, finished second in the Atlantic Division (highest finish since 2006) and went to a bowl. Friedgen also went 5-2 in bowl games, had a 75-50 record overall. Friedgen was fired for Randy Edsall.... only 4 games over .500 at UCONN and was 22-26 in the Big East. Edsall entertained the fans last season with a stunning reversal of Marylands fortunes with a 2-10 record. Way to get after that plastic seal Mr. Anderson! Tuesday....Lets see....Well, Steve Pederson should draw huge ratings. Mr. Pederson has had several shots at the plastic seal and university presidents keep allowing him to come back for more. He is more than happy to smile for the camera, as he does in the attached link, as he fully breaches from the water while attacking the seal. He is the AD who gave Nebraska Bill Callahan and Pitt both Mike Haywood and their current coach. Wednesday could feature an AD near and dear to Zips fans hearts. You know him...you love him....you cant live without him....Tom Wistrcill. If ever a great white shark of athletic directors breached and landed on the shores of Lake Superior, our own TW has done that. Along with his personal Remora in Rob Ianello, he successfully took a struggling Zips football program with promise and turned it into a 2-22 team over two years. In watching this shark swim the waters of the ncaa, we see all of the worst traits in an AD as he hired a friend in lieu of a person who actually knew how to coach football. Truely everything that is wrong with athletic directors. Somehow though, he remains in the water to strike at the plastic seal again. Ive filled up three days. See if you can fill up two more so we can have a real "When Athletic Directors Strike" week. Anyone going to the game tomorrow, have fun and everyone else, have a great weekend.

Its amazing what one can forget in a year. We had a 7-3 lead and then a 10-3 lead in the second quarter last year. The game was close until the fourth. Kind of gives me more confidence about this year.

With any luck, Wistrcill is working on three envelopes as well. I try not to dwell on it on this board, but the guy absolutely destroyed a football program with one decision.

With any luck, Wistrcill is working on three envelopes as well. I try not to dwell on it on this board, but the guy absolutely destroyed a football program with one decision.

I saw Duke play in person last year. Their offense is either really good, or horrible. There is little in between. They moved the ball well, but hurt themselves a lot in the game I saw. They have a good returning senior qb in Renfree and some players around him, although not many. Duke is good enough to get on a roll against a team like FIU and put up a blow out in the first game of the season. I wouldn't dismiss the ability of FIU because they got blown out by Duke...Duke is better this year and has some good players in the right spots. It looks like FIU has trouble with their red zone offense. In playing a team like FIU, our bend, don't break defense may do well if we can force them into longer fields and keep the D off the field in the Miami heat (no pun intended). Doesn't look like they get much pressure on the QB. I'll be interested to see if they blitz early and what success they have blitzing. Our QB has a good grasp of the offense and gets rid of the ball quickly, which can neutralize a blitz. If he can neutralize the blitz, THEN the issue will become whether or not he can complete passes against greater numbers of pass defenders. Could be an interesting chess game. It also doesn't look like they may be a very physical team. Another issue that could help our smaller defenders. Should be a fun game. I expect the Zips to compete much better this week.

I agree completely and can only add to it. Miami's qb is an nfl player. I don't know if he is a starter or not because that depends on where you go, but I dare say he is more suited for the nfl at this point than roethlisberger was his last year at miami. Catching..... I said this the other day after the Zips game. Full scholarship = catching the routine passes. If the Mac wants to be taken seriously, the players in this league have to stop pooping their pants in big games. It happens too much. Field goals...... Full scholarship = making 25 yard field goals in perfect weather. I'm sick of watching mackickers miss field goals. I hate the field goals too, but if the coach decides to kick it, the players should at least make the easy plays. Maybe my demands are too much for MAC players. I don't think doing the basics is too much to ask out of a player who is getting a full scholarship to do something. Catch the ball. Don't fumble. Make easy field goals isn't too much to ask.

This just in, Tom Wistrcill will be hiring his close friend, Rob Ianello to be the next coach of the Zips soccer team. TW was quoted as saying, "Rob is a great guy with a dynamic personality. I look forward to him taking this program to the level he took the Zips football program. If you will excuse me, I have a job interview to go to." Dear Dr. Provençal, Keep this clown away from the interview process.

Good post. Ive been saying it for years. Regardless of what our wives and girlfriends tell us, size matters. Size just isnt a minor detail and it cant be coached. It is a big part of the game, especially on the line. Everyone is well coached and pretty athletic for what they are. The difference is really in size. Its why 5' 10" offensive linemen arent recruited in D1. Regardless of how well they are coached and how hard they work, they are always behind because of size. Im going to reserve my judgement for how well this team will do until I see them play a mac school. I think they have the big picture right at this moment. We will see how the details come together in terms of the players getting all the little things right. There are some games to be won this year. I feel better about that statement than I did last season. Until I see different, I will remainoptimistic.

Do you even have to ask?

Whats more stupid? 1. Running the wrong way. 2. The TSU players running after him and knocking him out of bounds.

Good post Keener92. I feel the same way. UCF is a better team than us, but not 42 points better. The team played well enough for where they are right now. Some individual players need to change. When an individual breaks down, the team breaks down. What do I mean by that? Well, for decades now, we have watched the Zips poop their pants in a number of creative ways. What was once creative has now become the norm. Point one...Can we please have a routine 35 yard fieldgoad pass through without hitting the six inch wide post? When a team is down 14-0, they need to score any points to get some momentum and the Zips badly needed that score to start the season. Without it, its easy for the players accustomed to losing to say, "Here we go again". We have had kicker after kicker do this over the years. College goal posts are 18' 6" wide. Try to hit that area and not the 6" of the post. Full scholarship = making 35 yard FGs. Point two....Fair catching. This is D-1A college football. When the ball is punted to you and you fair catch, catch the freaking ball already. Ive seen enough of this over the past 25 years already. Just catch the damn ball. Full scholarship = catching the ball. Point three....Killing the clock. When killing the clock, dont fumble. Dont try to "make a play". Use some freaking common sense and the player carrying the ball needs to keep two things in mind....1. Dont run the wrong way..... 2. Dont fumble. Seeing things like this maddens me. It shouldnt be, because Ive seen it over and over again the past 25 years, but it is (maybe because Ive seen it so much). The Zips had found their legs a little and this was just a killer and completely avoidable. Full scholarship = no fumbling running out the clock. Cal Ripken Jr. once said that a player must make 100% of the routine plays and 50% of the great plays. 35 yard FGs, fair catches and basic running plays are the routine. We cant have these type of mistakes and expect to win more than 2 games this season. The rest of the players arent good enough to make up for these mistakes. My wife told me an old Italian saying last night. It is a beautiful saying in Italian and doesnt translate well, but here it goes. "If you are happy with the way things are going and you want them to change, keep doing what you are doing." People who do well are open to change. I like this saying because the opposite is true for the Zips and the opposite almost always applies to this team. There are certain players who need to be especially unhappy with their individual performance last night and need to do something different. Make the routine plays. I know this sounds harsh, but this is D1A football and guys are on full scholarship. ALL of them need to play like it.

Id like to propose a committee and awards be given out at the end of the season. Sort of like the Espys, but we could call it the Drunkys. You can establish your own categories, but some ideas are. 1. Volume Award...Most beer consumed before a game. 2. Goat Award (because a goat will eat anything)....Worst micro beer a person got drunk on, knows the beer was bad, but wont admit the beer was bad. 3. Wobbles Award.....Fan voted most likely to pass out before the end of the game, but made it to the end. 4. Fire Hydrant Award....First to vomit. 5. Clueless Award....Worst home brewer who doesnt know he is a bad home brewer. 6. Holding Out Hope Award....Home brewer who knows his beer is bad and thinks he can get better at it even though everyone else knows he wont. 7. Mr./Ms. Congeniality of Lot 9....Guy who drank every drop of bad beer he was given by other because he is too good of a guy to throw it away in front of the person who gave it to him. 8. Etc.

I hear this argument a lot. Seems to me it doesnt take into consideration a cheap shot by an opposing player. The more protection we can offer players, the better off they are and the game will be. Someone asked about the CFL and why players don't seem to have as many head injuries. I dont know the statistics, but it could be true becausee of the style of play, size of the field and rules. CFL uses a bigger field so it is more of a finesse game; sort of like international hockey uses a bigger rink and is less physical than the NHL. The one rule I love in the CFL is the D-Line must line up one yard off the ball...This makes for smaller and quicker players on both sides of the ball...The NFL just creates a wall of fat with their O-Lines and it has basically eliminated running in the NFL. The cfl is really fun to watch.

Have fun and be safe tonight. Most importantly, go Zips!

I saw this the other night. It brings up another issue that goes beyond equipment. That issue is whether or not the people coaching youth football are trained at it.... or good enough at it to teach young kids how to properly/safely play the game. I dont think they are. Most of them are trying to relive their high school days and stand around screaming at kids believing that is "good coaching". Its crap coaching. The best coach I ever had never screamed (although we all knew when he was mad) and today he is an assistant in the NFL. In my opinion, a kid should not begin to play full contact football until seventh grade. Thats early enough. There is nothing a kid can learn in pee wee football that he will be able to apply in high school football. The muscle memory does not last that long in a child that young. Kids just want to play games and while they would like to play football, they can pass the time at that age playing another sport until they are old enough. Half of them at the pee wee age are more interested in picking dandelions than playing football anyhow.

Great point Lee. Its college athletics at its finest....a complete contradition between the priorities of a univeristy in educating young people and the desire for money to "build" resumes of athletic directors. Whats wrong with college athletics?....."Its the athletic directors stupid." - Jame Carville.

Thanks KiP As a former resident of NE Ohio, I have seen the results of the desires of the masses in NE Ohio. Petitions and public outcry gave America the Cleveland Browns. I'll pass on this one. Thanks though and enjoy ZNO. I'll be watching on my iPAD.

Hats off. Most of us love a happy ending in sports. In coaching, this is a happy ending for a guy who worked hard and moved himself to the top of his field (college coaching). Now it is time for him to branch out and see if he can do the same thing elsewhere. I'd say "job well done", but he has this year and then we can all say "job well done".

I'm glad to see this. I'm also not surprised someone associated with car racing developed this helmet. Because of the personal feelings fans have towards drivers, they want them to drive for a long time without injury. The owners of nascar and their team owners understand the value of individual drivers. The nfl owners run their league as early industrialists ran their businesses (I'm a Steelers fan and they are a perfect example of this). Players are as disposable as early steel workers were. One steel worker gets killed because of safety issues, replace him. Player blows out knee, get another. Player loses some brain cells because of head injury, get another. The only thing that matters is winning and the team, not the single player. Owners didn't really become worried about head injuries until it started to cost them money in the form of law suits. The NFL is set up so if you don't run your team in a short sighted manner, you are making a mistake. Players have to be protected from this mentality. I don't believe rules alone can solve this problem. There has to be better equipment, better understanding of the rules and a real PED policy in the NFL if they are going to cut back on head injuries. If all they do is make a better helmet and think the problem is solved, players will go back to launching themselves at each other again.

Link I once heard the Zips on Sirius XM while driving in Atlanta. While they aren't on this week, it could be a possibility in the future. The link above will take you to the schedule link for Sirius XM. It gets updated weekly. You may want to save it where you save these sorts of things.

Wow, ground breaking information . I underestand how it all works and I know coaches use different film. They watch it on TVs now. Ill make that more clear in the future. Ive been in the meetings and Im not a two year old. Anyhow, a lot can be learned from watching the game on TV regardless. There is little differene between a fan watching a game in person or watching it on TV. Without knowing how plays are supposed to executed, we really understand little about what is going on. What we can understand and is in clear view during a TV broadcast are the basics. How is the line play? Does the QB have time to throw or not? How is the running back running? Is there anywhere for the RB to run? How is QB accuracy? Football is a very complicated game. Film is interesting to watch, but the average fan doesnt know enough about how plays are supposed to be run to make an educated evaluation about what they are watching. This Catch 22 is just another way for fans to look at a game the way they want to look at it without clear understanding of what is going on. Id be more impressed if we were allowed to see a written gameplan for both teams for that game and what the playcalls were, but that will never happen. Until then, Ill continue to watch games on TV and understand just as much as a person watching Catch 22. There is a difference between information and understanding.

Trust what you see on TV. Coaches spend their lives evaluating teams on TV. Its an exact representation of what is going on.

Hanging in is the key. Especially in early season games a team is expected to lose. Why? Teams dont like to show much in early season games they should win easily because it ends up on film. So, they end up having a close game against a team they should easily beat. They sort of figure they will get around to beating them by the end of the game. Then it comes down to less than handful of plays. Perfect example....Michigan losing to App State a few years ago. Michigan did almost everything they needed to do to win that game. It was close, but they drove down for an easy fieldgoal to win the game and it got blocked. One of the handful of plays in a close game lost it for them. This is how we need to look at a UCF upset. The Zips have to hope for a flat ucf, keep it close and hope they poop their pants in the end. It can happen. BTW, I saw where Michigan is trying to schedule App State again. My guess is they want to run the score up on them. I would.

You are right. There was talent, but not much. The coaching had to do with trying to play a pro style offense. It wasnt there was no talent...It was there was not enough talent to run that style of offense. The past couple of years, the results would have been a slightly better shade of terrible even with a better coach. In modern day college football, a coach can go from genius to clueless with the loss of one player. Like his style of play or not, Pryor made Tressel look really good because he could make up for declining talent around him by himself. Pryor could do things I rarely every saw a college QB do...things that cant be coached. osu didnt go 6-7 last year because of coaching. The went 6-7 because one of the best players in the country was playing in the nfl instead of the Big Ten and the remaining players werent very good. I dont care what the name of the team is, BCS teams that lose seven games, go 3-5 in their conference and almost lose to a Toledolike team have a talent problem. Bringing this back to the Zips. Football has become about QBs, WRs and coaching. The style of offense we play does not require large numbers of great players. Just good players in the right positions. If we can find a QB to do what the coach wants him to do, we can take this program to the next level. Score lots of points and MAC teams fall apart trying to keep up with the point total. Winning in the MAC is very easy. With all that said, the Zips still have a talent problem. The talent is better than last season, but it is still a problem to the point that looking at more than 4 wins would be wildly optimistic. Four wins moves us from terrible (0-3 wins) to just plain bad (4-5 wins). At least it will be a step in the right direction.