GP1

The city, the university, and... who? [edit]: Let me answer my own question. Summit County? If this is the case, there will be three different groups of government employees who want the arena. That worries me to no end. UofA should wait until they can do it on their own.

Reasons: 1. The taxpayers of Ohio won't want to pay for another empty arena. 2. We aren't filling our current arena 3. Our society is broke. 4. Don Plusquellic 5. Don Plusquellic 6. Don't let a scumbag like Don Plusquellic close enough to do any damage.

Nice hire. Mike was one of the very good young coaches on Faust's initial staff. Good experience including time in the NFL.

Spot on article. Thanks for posting JZ84. Watching the old Peach Bowl last night was a good example of the differences in conferences. Virginia is a well coached, good team, but they were overwhelmed by an average 4th place SEC West team in Auburn playing with their #2 QB. Specifically, the author doesn't point out where on defense SEC schools are better, but the answer is on the defensive line. It isn't as apparent during a conference game, but when the SEC plays out of conference, it is obvious how much better their defensive lines are than the offensive lines they play against. Their lines are both big AND fast. The same thing happened to Wake against both Vandy and Miss. State more recently. Look at how bad second place SEC East South Carolina kicked ACC Champion Clemson's butt the last game of the season. Another thing the author doesn't point out is the toughness SEC kids play with. The toughest of the tough go play and start in the SEC. It's the ultimate proving ground. The others go to hide in other conferences where they can listen to people blather on about "winning on and off the field". SEC players are there to play football. The competition created through oversigning enhances the toughness because it is a kill or be killed environment. Mississippi and now LSU have QBs from Big Ten country because these kids want to test their ability against the best of the best. They want to play against good teams almost every week, not 2-3 times a year with 8-9 guaranteed wins in between. Will they be tough enough is the question now. I'm interested to see how the existing Zips and future Zips respond to this type of mentality. TB isn't going to change for the kids at Akron. He sees the world as an SEC coach and I think that is great. I worked for a Berkshire Hathaway company once and the guy who ran our division came in and said, "We are going to change the people, or we are going to change the people." Things are going to change quickly at Akron. Will the existing players be ready for the change? Will the fans be ready for the change? Will the local media be ready for an adult approach to Akron football? How will the media handle a media savvy coach? We are about to learn a lot here in the next 1-2 years. What are we willing to do as fans, players and media to have real success at Akron? Do we have the will to be successful or are we going to be another NE Ohio sports team/fan base more comfortable with the endless cycle of bitching about losing than winning? It's a big boys and girls world now with Zips football and I am excited about the future. Sorry to go on, but this article should have sparked some thought about Zips football and not just the SEC with all of us. Go Zips!

I think we all know that JAR isn't the best place to watch a game, but given our inability to fill it and fill a new football stadium, it's all we are going to have for a while. The state probably can't afford one right now and we shouldn't get in bed with the Mayor. Private money?...InfoCision and Summa are in the football stadium...Goodyear would be hesitant because they keep a close relationship with the Mayor and wouldn't want to hurt that relationship if they help UofA with an arena and not the City. The question is then, how to make it nice (which we have talked about a lot) and how to bring in extra money with anything they do to it (which we never talk about because sports fans think money falls out of the sky) with limited funding? More comfortable seats at the risk of losing capacity...done. We always talk about that. We're not filling the place anyhow. How do they generate more money? College sports aren't about the number of people as much as the amount of money generated (it should be anyhow). Ticket sales are extremely important, but a school has to sell big ticket items in addition. Luxury suites are designed to do that. Where to put them is the real question?... Suspend the baskets from the ceiling and get rid of the seats behind the baskets. That's easy to do. Whatever junk is located in the rooms under the upper seating area behind the baskets gets moved somewhere. If that means portable concession stands for each game, then do it...the food is crap anyhow so they would be doing fans a favor by making it difficult for them to buy some. Make the Tommy Evans lounge an area to go buy food....Let's not kid ourselves, it's not that great of a lounge anyhow and people wouldn't have to go to the first floor to get food if they so dare to do so. I don't know how many suites could be put behind each basket, but I would guess a max. of three with seating, right on the floor, for 10 ea. Sort of like Pitt has with their arena. With the baskets relocated, it would create a better view for those seats and open the area up. Gouge the owners for food and beer like they do at big stadiums. Make Akron basketball a place at least six companies a game want to take clients/visitors. Sell the suites as a package deal with current football suite owners. ZW is right. They need to do something for the basketball program beyond making a playroom for the players. They can't affort a new arena, so they have to do something on the cheap. I believe they could get good bang for the buck out of this...we will call this a "building" project, because something actually is completed when finished. The space is there, it is just a matter of how to use it. How many other MAC schools can claim floor level luxury suites in their arena? Let's work with what we have.

Allow me to translate this quote. "Defense used to win championships and most fans still think it does so I'll break out this tired cliche in this presser. It doesn't. I would hope we would be relentless on defense, but it really won't matter because we will be scoring so many points the other team won't be able to keep up. See what Toledo did this season? I was smart enough to earn a law degree so I don't like hanging around stupid people. I won't be spending a lot of time on the defense." I'm really looking forward to watching this team play. We are finally pulling this school into the modern world of football. Great job TB!!!!!! I'm going to the beach. Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

I'd be nice. However, JT's biggest money making days are ahead of him. Lots of Hollywood and television.

I'm bullish on this team too ZW. I know what I saw against MSU on the road. It was no fluke as they were in control of the game throughout. Too much talent and too much good coaching for this team to not be an ass kicking machine in the MAC.

I'm sure Faust's schedule would be wide open on that day. He is the one who brought JT to Akron. They shouldn't spend much time worrying about if LO can make it or not. The Ring of Honor Day they did for JT was great. When he makes the Hall of Fame, they should do something for him the first home game of that fall. I don't know what to do as he is already in the Ring of Honor, but they can figure something out.

Just heard on ESPN JT is going to retire at the end of this season. JT is the greatest Zip and I believe should be a first ballot hall of famer in five years. See everyone in Canton....

He averaged almost 10 wins a year. If that is luck, we'll take it.

I didn't get my information from a tosu forum.

With the little I know, just from reading here, that's going to be a tough decision. I might advise him to move. Hard opportunity to turn down. BTW GP1, from what you wrote throughout the year, I got the impression that you were not real impressed with BW, does this change your opinion of his abilities at all? No. He still made too many tackles down field in a bad conference. Brian is a $75 bottle of wine. Good, but not great. There are a lot of good $75 bottles of wine. The offer from Columbus is more of a statement of their opinion of their current LB situation and the need to fill needs immediately. Using a scholarship on an experienced college player for one year while the new coaching staff gets their feet under them is probably a good idea for tOSU. He will have a better line playing in front of him, but when the Zips DLine was playing well at the beginning of the year, he was still making too many tackles downfield. Not sure how that will change when playing against BCS talent every week. I don't see it changing. At this point in his career, he is what he is. Blackburn was a better player playing in a defense not suited for his ability.

Makes sense, he is that good. BUT, will he get PT there? If his goal is a professional career in football, if he hired me to be his adviser, I would suggest staying put. He has made a name for himself here, and will continue to do that next season. I hope TB has spoken with him. PS If he goes to Columbus, will he play the same position as he did here? Yes. The staff there doesn't have much confidence in their current LBacking group and believes he will start right away. It would be his job to lose. So, I guess the answer to your last question is yes as well.

Brian will get an offer from the team in Columbus. Doesn't mean he will take it, but he will get an offer.

Good topic. Solich has it right. He gets about 6-8 JUCO players on his team (not all starters). We don't need 30 transfers so this isn't really an either/or situation. We do need 6-8 good, mature players right now. Not all will start, but six should easily be able to start with the current talent level in the program. It doesn't take 22 good players to win in the MAC. It takes 6 or 7 and then some average players around them. The rules in the SEC are different that in a conference like the Big Ten. The SEC is run almost like a professional league and the results on the field show. They are allowed to have an unlimited number of non-renewed scholarships, so a program like UNA can have a lot of those players fall into their lap because the player doesn't have to sit out a year. Less players fall out of the Big Ten because they have limits on the number of non-renewals. Bowden would be better off looking for JUCO players if he wants mature players. Let's not take too many, but let's not panic either if 6-8 show up next year...it will still be less than 10% of the scholarships. It is going to be fun to watch this play out.

Millions of non-pot smoking, unproductive malcontents go to work every day. What does that have to do with making pot legal?

There is a kid riding a tricycle on the street and the back wheels rotate so he can make real tight turns. Someone made millions off of that idea and it is so simple. Lost opportunity......

I'll give TW credit for recognizing the opportunity and taking advantage of it. I don't hold anything against him for the way Ianello was fired. Coach I knew it was coming in advance. His mother's death was not something to be expected and looks bad, but I don't know what else TW could have done. To be honest, my father died a few years ago.... (Trying to put myself in Coach I's shoes here)...I would have like to have known I was getting fired before the funeral. One less bad event to think about. When it's over, it's over and I wouldn't want to be at a funeral thinking about getting fired the next week or whenever. It wasn't going to be long until Coach I found another job. I would like to know if there were really 2 or 3 first choices before Paul.?.? There might have been some people who expressed interest, but there is a long way between expressing interest and signing on the dotted line. I do believe there was a search. Going out searching for someone who wants to take over a team that went 1-11 two years in a row couldn't have been easy; so in retrospect, I can see how it might have looked sloppy. Fire fast, hire slow is a good way to hire and it seems as if it might have worked for us this time around. Long term as the AD? No. It seems as if this job has been on the job training for him. MT and MR didn't need on the job training. Because of their inexperience, they made some mistakes, but those mistakes were small and easily fixable. TW seems to make big mistakes that aren't easy to fix and leave a bad taste in the mouths of others.

I don't know what the number is, but I agree. For me it isn't about a new industry as much as it is keeping people out of the extremely expensive prison/probation system and gets them working. People are going to prison, for long periods of time on the tree strikes and you're out system, for selling a basically harmless substance. Then, we bog down already overworked probation officers, who should be out supervising more violent criminals, with this nonsense. We are idiots in this country. True story. On Christmas Eve, Mrs. GP1 and I went to the Panthers vs. Tampa Bay game here in Charlotte. On one corner were the usual evangelical guys with their signs yelling whatever they yell (just what you want to hear right next to your tailgate while you get boozed up for three hours before a game). Nobody talks to these guys. They actually seem kind of angry. On the other corner was a guy protesting for the legalization of hemp. People were walking by and giving this guy high fives. Even in the Bible Belt people know pot should be legal. What did the Great GP1 take from all of this? We should pray to God for the legalization of pot.

I was born in West Virginia and I am looking forward to any hillbilly humor this hire may bring on this board.

They can go swimming together in the cement pond in the natatorium. I hear they have a hot cousin. It's all good. Awe he ain't comin' here. I hear he was fixin' to be a double knot spy! "If brains were lard, he couldn't grease a skillet." - Uncle Jed Clampett

No offense to Green, but honestly, I hope he transfers out and opens up a scholly for us. He just doesn't fit our new-found athletic style. Bring in a JUCO C/5 to back up Zeke. Someone has to leave just to be able to have three scholarships available for next season. KD has been sending Green a message all season with letting the walk ons into the game before him. If this is the case, KD2.0 should just call him in and terminate his employment with the Zips. The Zips now have the talent level to look at a player and say that after two years and walk-ons playing in front of him, it is time to go. We no longer have to sit on average players hoping they turn into something some day. The writing is on the wall.

No and no. Didn't even know there was a Jeff Bowden. Let's not bring in a tired cast because their last name is Bowden. Personally, I think we got the best of the Bowdens. Brighter days ahead. Bro, just hope Terry doesn't bring in his Appalachian black-sheep brother who uses the more formal last-name pronunciation... They can go swimming together in the cement pond in the natatorium. I hear they have a hot cousin. It's all good.

Hmmmmm. Will the Zips make a run at Bo Wallace?