GP1

If Ohio had a decent BBQ joint, we would be swimming in good players.

The myth of Jim Dennison continues. Am I the only one who is unimpressed with the guy's record at Akron. Sure, he is a good guy, blah, blah, blah. The six years he coached in I-AA, they only had winning records three of those years. One of them, they only went 6-5. The year before the playoff appearance, they only won four games. Never once won the OVC. Maybe I'm wrong and someone can point me to the greatness, but I'm not seeing it. Faust inherited good talent for a I-AA team, but it wasn't what the school needed to move to D-1A. I saw it up close. The seniors that were on the team in 1987 weren't nearly as good as a lot of the freshmen Faust was bringing in. To call it bare would not have the direction the program was moving in perspective. Robert Lyons and John Buddenberg were good players who could have played at the highest level, but that was really about it. In order for the program to move forward and improve, Faust had to get rid of the Dennison players to make room for better talent. He did so pretty quickly with guys like Shawn Vincent, Oz Jackson, Brett Jackson, Mike Johnson, Ty Nelson, etc.

Good points. Specific to this one, I'd like to see Diggs start and the Zips go up tempo from the beginning of the game. KD2.0 could use the bench to manage the game while the starters rest. Instead of scrambling, get a lead and put pressure on other MAC schools...MAC schools choke under pressure. The start of our games could sound something like this, "Marshall blocks the shot.... Zips get the loose ball...AA quickly up court and passes to Diggs and he slams it home." Season Stats Diggs is our best #2 guard and should be starting. He brings a different dynamic to the game than Walsh as he is able to get far more steals (he has over twice as many steals this season as Walsh). A guy like Diggs can turn steals into early points and pressure on the other team. Walsh is a nice player, but the direction of the program lends itself to Diggs starting. Go Zips!

Good point. Not only a good story, but a media savvy guy who knows the media and interacts well with it.

That's fine. Now pay for it. Is there anyone out there willing to say, "I know we'll never fill it. I know the state is broke, but I don't care. I just want a new arena and I don't care about the costs."

Bissinger Outside of leaving Cleveland (Who can blame him?) in a classless way, what has the guy done wrong? He is giving a class of third graders in Akron a chance at a good education and a good life by providing mentors for them throughout their school years. Is this something that a piece of crap does? Down the road, one or several of these kids may go to UofA and become President of the student body, Deans List student, doctors, lawyers, school teacher, police officers, etc. I don't spend 10 seconds a day thinking about LeBron or the NBA (unless Sports Center is on) and I can't get up the energy to hate the guy. Get over it. Zips vs. Bobcats...4:00....Go Zips!!!!!!!

Bring some Gulf Coast shrimp!!!! Even though it isn't my favorite, some Dreamland wouldn't hurt either.

I think that is partly his point. We have had huge success and we don't draw well. That's just a fact. I don't know exactly why that is, but the arena isn't helping. I struggle going from the JAR is horrible to....we need a 10,000 seat arena built and everyone will show up. They will short term, but not long term. We brought in a Final Four team a couple of weeks ago and did not sell out even though we had our new nationally known football coach being introduced. Bringing in a Final Four participant is a HUGE deal and nobody showed up. NE Ohio sports fans are desperate for a winner....in football. They like winners in baseball and basketball, but they would LOVE to have a winner in football. If the Browns ever just got to 8 or 9 wins, fans would be crazy happy. Hockey? Two words, Lumberjacks....Barons. NE Ohio has been proven to not support hockey. We should not go into bed with the City in the hopes that somehow the public will support hockey. In a world of an endless stream of money, a new arena would be nice. Until we find the endless stream of money, they need to find a way to make the JAR work better.

Good point. I think he did tell us something(s) we didn't know though. 1. Believes Wagner is taking a risk transfering to another school. I think he'll start there, but we didn't know how TB really felt. 2. Didn't beieve he ever had a shot to get Wagner. 3. I get the impression TB doesn't think Wagner is an NFL player if he isn't sure he can get on the field at Arizona. Good article.

No mid season grades from anyone? This team is trending up and it would be interesting to see where their grades end up compared to the beginning of the season.

Tonight, believe it or not, completed one half of this regular season. Time for the mid season report card. Your assignment is to grade the following groups. Groups 1-3 are to be graded as a group and not individuals. The scale is A, B, C, D or F. No (+) or (-). 1. Guards 2. Forwards 3. Centers 4. Coaching 5. Overall

Good point about officials talking players out of trouble. Good refs in every sport do this. For example, many football referees will tell offensive linemen they are getting too far away from the line before they call a penalty. Same thing goes for when they tell a dlineman he is lining up "close to being offsides" before they call it. Lots of refs could learn from that advice. There are lots of ways to keep control of a game without calling fouls/penalties. Keep the good players on the floor/field. Nobody is there to watch refs.

And if they get a couple of stars, that number should go up.

How much money did you lose? Stats Alabama moved the ball with their offense. No turnovers. Balanced attack that had roughtly 235 passing and 150 running. Exactly what a pro offense wants to do. Held the ball for ten minutes more than LSU. It wasn't an offensive explosion, but as bad as LSU was, they obviously could have won with fieldgoal. Did I mention that LSU's QB made a poo in his pants? LSU needed a spark at half and a new QB would have done that for them. Terrible game.

So, did defense win it or horrible coaching lose it? LSU's QB made a poo in his pants last night. Alabama's QB faced just as tough of a defense and didn't make a poo in his pants.

I think we have a talent problem because we were beaten so badly last year, but I don't know how bad it really is because they were placed in an impossible situation with horiffic coaching. What we are really lacking are star players. If we can get some star players, what is left may not be so bad.

These two groups will benefit the most from the coaching change. Our d-line played well against OSU, at least in the first half. As the year progressed, they were worn out. Our RBs had some good games so there is something to work with there. Spread offenses don't require great offensive linemen (see Oregon). They rely on a well coached offensive line working together and blocking well at the point of attack. Creative playcalling helps with a spread as well (see Oregon). I'm not sure what the future holds for the defense, but there is something to work with there if JUCO players aren't found. It may not be great, but there is something to work with.

Absolutely. We could toast the day with a nice $75 bottle of wine.

Normally, fans have to sit down to rest their legs. The opposite happens in the JAR. I can respect that.

White helmets. Or, flat blue helmets

Not really. Brian fulfilled his obligations to UofA in his graduating. Sort of like me dying. If I died, my wife is free to marry anyone she wanted. Granted, she could never find anyone as great as the Great GP1, but the option would be there. Good luck to Brian and again, welcome to alumni parties in 2013.

Surprisingly good point Zach.

Oh well. I'd like to welcome him back to any football alumni party the Zips will be throwing in 2013. I saw something on TV today about De'Quell Jackson being a tackling machine as well. Every highlight showed him making tackles 10 yards downfield. Jacksone = Wagner. We needed Brian back, but at the end of the day, he is an above average college LB who isn't really a difference maker. Life wil go on.

This is awesome. The Zips are using the coach talking to thousands of people who may never have heard of him in lieu of a golf outing to the same people every year. Granted, in the next 30 years, he could have had the same crowd at the golf outing, but this is good anyhow. Good job Zips. Thanks Coach B.

A quick, really quick, look at box scores shows that Diggs has been up and down recently. Good game last night. Some not so good games coming into last night. Also, his production seemed to go down a lot when AA was not playing. So here are the questions. How come he isn't starting with all of that talent? Is his game really as dependent on AA as the stats might show? He gets plenty of playing time and I'd like to see his production to be more even in lieu of up and down.