GP1

Christopher Hitchens died last night after a battle with cancer. Great writer and serious thinker. Behind all of it was a hard partying guy who could drink and smoke anyone under the table. He believed what he believed until the end. Anyone who could come up with the following statement was both smart and funny. It is a comment he made about Princess Diana (he hated the British royal family). "She was in Angola on her landmine campaign, and there was a hushed, reverent BBC commentator. And he said, 'The thing about mine fields is that they're very easy to lay, but they're very difficult and dangerous, and even expensive to get rid of' - the perfect description of Prince Charles's first wife." RIP Hitch.

I would understand if this was the case. I can't imagine how horrible the feeling of going to practice would have been last year. The thought of another possible season like the one we have had would be crippling to many. Everyone has a breaking point.

With the current job market, it might be a good time to stay in school at Akron and get an advanced degree. I'll be interested to see how many other D-1A schools are lining up to sign an undersized player with a knee injury that forced him to miss the last game. See you on the field in The Big Dialer next fall Brian. Wow, way to stay classy with one of the Zips' only highlight players, GP1. My post is intended to be neither positive or negative. My personal opinion about Wagner is he is a good player, but he makes too many tackles too far behind the line. Like everyone else on the team, he can be replaced. Since I have to spoon-feed this post, let me start by saying the next statement applies to everyone remaining on the team. If anyone doesn't wan't to come back next year, they shouldn't let the door hit them on the way out. They are a group of players who went 1-11 the last two seasons and only beat one D-1A team and lost to a I-AA team. While Coach I was a problem, there wasn't much effort being put out on the field at the end of the season so they are complicit in the failure as well. There is plenty of guilt to go around when things go as bad as they did.

With the current job market, it might be a good time to stay in school at Akron and get an advanced degree. I'll be interested to see how many other D-1A schools are lining up to sign an undersized player with a knee injury that forced him to miss the last game. See you on the field in The Big Dialer next fall Brian.

Hopefully someone didn't put something in his head. I agree. If they did, they are lying to him. Wagner is a solid MAC player and not an NFL player. Doesn't make him a bad player...makes him a guy who needs to stay in school and get a degree.

Wagner will get as much NFL attention as he deserves right here in Akron. No need to transfer.

Maybe you haven't been following the recruiting thread. Our recruiting has been dead for about a year. One more week isn't going to matter. Paul has a lot of contacts in the midwest and will be able to pick up recruits relatively easily given the current state of our program. Akron isn't in a position to give ANYONE a "take it or leave it" proposition. There isn't a single coach on a national championship run who would give that up to come to Akron. "knocking on the door"? I didn't realize there were that many people dying to become the coach at Akron.

I used to sit on conference calls with my phone on mute laughing at Six Sigma black belts saying things they had no idea what they were talking about and everyone knew it (Hint: This is when you know it is time to exit corporate America and start your own business). This reminds me of those phone calls. Please explain what a "charismatic difference-maker" is.?.?

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did. This was a done deal over a month before it was officially announced. Don't believe coaches anymore than politicians. I know. My brother is friends with people on the staff.

Maybe he didn't, but I'm sure his lawyers did.

Just more of the stupidity that goes on in college athletics.

I'm REAL surprised. Simply amazing. Not a bad job for a deer.

I like the resume. 1. mac experience so he knows how hard it is to win in the mac. 2. Good experiece in the midwest 3. Coached with winning teams 4. Offense, offense, offense wins games in the mac and puts people in seats. 5. Looks like the under the radar guy I would like to see Again, bringing in good candidates makes for a good decision. It's like going to a party and all 20 girls there are good looking. If you pick one up, you couldn't make a bad decision. I want a guy with more experience AND with HC experience. Look, 9 years ago the guy was a graduate assistant, Now you want him as HC? If he is a good candidate, he should get an interview. I would like more experience as well.

There is a former coordinator out there who once had his offenses in the Top 10 nationally. This former coordinator has also taken a laughing stock from one of the worst teams in their division to the brink of playing in a national championship game. This coordinator has also coached in the MAC so he understands how difficult it is to win somewhere like Akron. Rumor has it, he has close ties to Akron as well. Not another William Riker. 1-9 and 3-7. He was a whopping 4-16 in his first 2 years. How does he follow that? He goes 6-5 in year 3 and follows that up with an impressive 3-8. I am sorry, but if our new coach is 13-29 after 4 years he is as good as fired. We would be screaming from the rooftops to get him out of here. Oh yeah...and this isnt against the SEC, it is D2 ball. I don't disagree that people would be calling for him to be fired after that record. I might even depending on the circumstances. However, there is nothing to indicate the exact outcomes will happen. UofA has a heck of a lot more going for it than WSU does. The fact that he has had any winning record there is impressive to me. The fact that he is one game from the national championship game is even more impressive.

Nobody would care outside of NE Ohio....and those media outlets would only care for a couple of news cycles.

I can't speak for everyone, but you are oversimplifying the reasons many believe he would be a good coach. The reasons I believe Paul would make a good coach go beyond he is an "Akron guy". Brings along echoes? Echoes actually have to be heard. We are in a situation where nobody is listening and regardless of who they bring in, winning is the only thing that will get them listening again.

Exhibit "A" North Alabama = Excellent D-II Football Tradition with THREE D-II CHAMPIONSHIPS (none with Terry Bowden as coach) Wayne State = All-Time winning percentage of 0.427!! Maybe you ought to consider offering Winters the World? Why in the world would a guy leave a beautiful golf community in Alabama to move to Akron, OH? We had a better shot at getting Tressel.

I would have probably used the word brilliant, but like DaveIG might say, your data is incomplete.

Would they drive enough interest to make people go out and buy tickets? IMNHO, no. KD was two years removed from St. V when he got the job. Basically, he had become a nobody coach like he was at CMU and Ashland. He didn't exactly draw the cream of the crop talent his first couple of years at Akron, but through good coaching and actually giving a crap about what happens at UofA, he righted the ship and did well. I believe Paul can be that type of coach.

I didn't say that, but of all the people on the board, I can respect where you are coming from. My objection to any high level of Winters bashing is, I find it baseless. I understand there are going to be some concerns about any candidate, but the guy has been driving his own spaceship for a few years now and is doing well at it.

"only"? I know Winters and I'm neither of the two you mention. Many people know and respect Paul. Some of the more important are the many high school coaches throughout the midwest who respect the work he does. We need kids from NE Ohio on the team...he gets them at WSU. We need kids from central Ohio...he gets them at WSU. We need kids from the "hood" as you call it from Detroit...he gets them. He brings together all of these different types of young men and makes a damn good team out of them. That's what we need at Akron.

I didn't say this. You should find out where Buckzip is taking the reading comprehension class I recommended and join him.

I've never said I loved his old offense. They moved the ball well. They also came up short more than I would have like them to.

So hiring a noname coach from MSU or Toledo is going to get people excited? Let's not focus on this though.... ......Let's focus on the first paragraph. Normally, a paragraph as stupid as the first above is reserved for drunks posting in the early hours of the morning. Done with finals are we?

There is a former coordinator out there who once had his offenses in the Top 10 nationally. This former coordinator has also taken a laughing stock from one of the worst teams in their division to the brink of playing in a national championship game. This coordinator has also coached in the MAC so he understands how difficult it is to win somewhere like Akron. Rumor has it, he has close ties to Akron as well. Not another William Riker. There also is a head coach who had his offense in the top 10 nationally. He has seen success as a head coach at a local lower division college. He has ties to many local high schools and a locally worshipped BCS school. He has even won at Akron before. Why aren't we discussing hiring him instead of one of his lackeys? Because given the chance to assemble an entire team, Owens was a failure at Akron. 40 wins in 9 years doesn't cut it regardless of how anyone wants to slice it. Winters has had success with what he had control over and shouldn't have what he didn't have control over held against him. Given control over an entire team, Winters has had success so when given the opportunity, he can put together an entire team.