GP1

It can always get worse. This could have been a good topic in the hands of the right person. I'll give it a shot.Play calling is a rhythm. One play sets up another and coaches get into a play calling rhythm. The reason they run off tackle so much in our offense is because without the off tackle play, nothing else will work. The running game sets up play action. The off tackle running sets up counters and misdirections. Play action is big play stuff and is needed in a pro style offense. Watch any NFL game, they are decided on 3-5 big plays a game...There is a reason the 20+ yards per play statistic is kept. Why do they throw so many short passes? Without the short passes, there is no threat of a big play deep pass. Until those work, the deep stuff won't work.Until the Zips can produce long drives allowing the coaches to get into a play calling rhythm, it will always look like the coaches aren't creative or grasping for straws. Coach I is doing exactly what a pro style coach should do, it just isn't working for a number of reasons. Anyone on this board who thinks they know more about a pro style offense and play calling than Coach I is kidding himself. Whether or not you agree with the philosophy is a different matter.

We've hired a couple of names. Faust was one and Brookhart was sort of a name at the time. Faust produced a 7-3-1 record that still stands as the best year in the D-1A era. Faust knew what to do...the University had no idea what to do and the ship sank. Brookhart won a MAC Championship.

There are plenty of positives if you just know where to look:1. Zips made a fieldgoal.2. Probably plenty of room to stretch out if you needed to.3. No traffic problems.4. Sustainability crowd is happy that the small crowd caused less trash to be recycled.5. At least one person got drunk.6. Small crowd keeps stadium maintenance costs low.7. Scored more points than the previous week.

Frank Solich was older than Tressel when he took the OU job. There was no reason for Solich to not get another big time job other than his age so he went to a MAC school because he still wanted to coach. The best Howard Schnellenberger could do was Louisville where he had three really good years with a bunch of average at best seasons between the good ones. Tressel will never get another big time job because of his age. If Tressel wants to coach again, it will be at a MAClike school.

I agree with this to a point. If people give a critique of the program that is negative, I don't mind. CK does that with his Log. Just saying, "We stink" is pointing out what everyone with half a brain sees already. I'm more interested in why people think we stink. It's no secret that a team that only scored 187 points last year and doesn't look to do better this season has problems. BTW, we have to average 18.1 points per game the remainder of the season to equal our 2010 total. I have a feeling that number might go up a little after this coming weekend.The big concern I have isn't that people don't want to talk about the Zips. It's that everyone is sick of talking about them after two games. Being a fan of this team is brutal, and at some point, fans can take their time/money and do something else with it. My nephew is getting married the night before the Can't game and I was thinking about going to the game the day after with a bunch of people from my family. I care too much about my family to put them through that at this point, so we'll do something else instead. At this point, that decision isn't even a difficult one to make.

How would you rate our building process and project those thoughts into post 2012?

Well, the day we were hoping wouldn't happen is here. It was the prudent decision to wait to make win predictions until after the Temple game. That day is here. Please make an honest prediction without ugly commentary.I think our base athletic and football ability is lacking in almost every area that matters. The players we need to perform well, aren't. I'm debating between 2 and 3 wins for the season. I'll go with 2.

Thanks for the response.I think you might be right about Wagner. He only had seven tackles. As the primary LB in our defense, he easily should have double digit tackles every game. It goes back to a discussion on the recruiting thread about the nature of small school kids vs. big school kids. We'll see how the season plays out for him, but I have a feeling teams know something about him from watching film that isn't playing to the Zips advantage.We did have three tackles for losses so that is an improvement. We also did not have a sack yesterday. I was hoping the four man line might lend itself to more negative yardage plays. If we can't get teams off rhythm with their play calling, it will be hard to beat many teams.I'm really curious as to whether or not our blocking on kickoff return was better. KO return is a good way to swing momentum your direction after the other team goes on a scoring drive. Wake did it yesterday late in the game. NC State went on a scoring drive complete with big plays and got close to Wake. Wake answered with a KO return to the 50 and scored three plays later. They totally neutralized the momentum of NC State with the KO return. BTW, NC State is worse this year than the year the Zips beat them.

You must not remember the end of the Faust years.

Didn't see the game, but I would like a report on these issues. Did we improve in these areas or other areas not mentioned?

You used a form of the word "stray" and "cat" in the same sentence. Well done.This schedule does not stray from what that cat KD likes to do. I look for another good season.

I always thought Lewis shot himself in the head....Great BookAkron connection....President Garfield was once President of Hiram College.

I just hope those same people who disrespect us will take the time to watch us play in the NCAA Basketball Tournament next March. A week before that, they can watch us win the MAC Championship on ESPN.

This looks like a pretty challenging schedule to me. Outside of the major programs, there is YSU so the fans will have fun. CSU is a good program and it should be a fun game to attend. Detroit has history as a good program. We have MTSU for a trip down memory lane in Tennessee. We all know what VCU can do. WVU is a good program....too bad it is on a weeknight so not many will get to see the Zips play in a really good college arena. Three road games in a row to start January will provide a good challenge as well."Challenging" is the word I would use to describe this schedule. Some say it isn't any good because of Hiram and JC...everyone plays those types of cupcakes and two games don't make an entire schedule weak.

That's blazing fast enough for me.No Heisman's just yet for the kid with 13 carries for 26 yards.I'm not interested as much about a Heisman. I'd just like a kid with some talent get to show what he has.

ASU Link

I know this is a generalization, but I'm going to generalize anyhow. A big school kid has to compete against a ton of people to get to be a starter on the team. Since there more kids in the school, he has to beat out more people to start. They play against similar kids from their leagues. It creates a more competitive kid. At a lot of small schools, there are barely enough good players to put on the field and you play against the same type of competition. The kids play just as hard, but the environment they are used to is different. The kids aren't hardened.If given the choice between a small school and a bid school kid, I'd take the big school kid every time if all is equal talentwise.

There is a UofA Alumni post on Facebook saying Shaun Pendleton passed away. Some of you may have known him. He was a former All American for the Zips. If this has already been posted, please delete this topic.

That's blazing fast enough for me.

After watching the game last week, below are the five areas of improvement I would like to see this week with the Zips. The first and second are in that order for a reason. The last three could be in any order.1. Our punter was good last week, but our special teams need to improve. It needs to improve so we can have better field position. There is less than a 20% chance of scoring any points with a drive starting inside of your own 20. Specifically, kickoff return needs to do a better job getting the front line blockers in position to make blocks. Maybe they were overwhelmed by the speed of osu's kickoff coverage, well know better about that this week. They need to get back faster though. Our punt blocking at the line was not sufficient enough to slow down the osu coverage so I want to see improvement in this area this week.2. Our QB needs to not look at the guy he is going to throw to the whole time. It makes for easy coverage. I'll write last week off to first game nervousness, but we need to see improvement in this area Saturday.3. Get the running game going. Our line is improved and we have a blazing fast RB, but we need to see the results on the field. The necessary deception in a pro style offense is play action pass. No running game, no play action pass. It's that simple. No play action pass, no big plays and an easy day for the defense.4. I liked our strategy of blitzing early last week. It didn't work for a couple of reasons. First, the osu QB completed some good passes against single coverage. Secondly, our DBs didn't tackle well when they were assigned back-side contain. The Zips had to stop blitzing or they would have lost by 80. It was a good move by the coaching staff.5. We had a total of zero tackles for losses last weekend. That number is unacceptable. Our defensive line looks better this year and we should have had at least one when we were run blitzing. We need the linebackers to do a better job of finding holes to make tackles behind the line and the linemen need to get off of blocks and make some tackles.6. I'll throw in a bonus point. Our LBs need to get off of blocks and make tackles. Wagner had 15 tackles last weekend and I can't remember a single one being within two yards of the line. He made a lot of tackles 8 yards downfield, but he and the rest of the LBs need to get off blocks and make them closer to the line. It can't be second and four every series or we'll get killed.

I would like to respond to my esteemed colleague from Green in the matter at hand.I'm not looking for Coach I to be a great coach. I'm just looking for him to get the job done like the guy at Miamioh did last year.The gentleman from the Carolinas may have overlooked the end of my post where I stated that I'm hoping that Ianello develops fairly quickly into a solid head coach. So we are in total agreement on this issue.Thank you to my esteemed colleague from Green for pointing that critical issue out. The Great GP1 had a little bit too much beer last night and got accidentally drunk. This explains the reading deficiencies.

JZ84 is The Tailgate Gourmet™. Sounds good, but I don't see anything about Mango beer. My set-up is a simple as it comes. Since you can't do charcoal, I focus on foods I can prepare ahead of time and keep warm on my little, portable propane grill. I leave the big stuff up to you Pros!Looks like you are the pro. Both good food and advice for the masses could get you your own Food Network show.

I would like to respond to my esteemed colleague from Green in the matter at hand.I'm not looking for Coach I to be a great coach. I'm just looking for him to get the job done like the guy at Miamioh did last year.

To answer my own question...nope. If you get cut by the Bungles, is that it?I can't believe the crap stew Cincy is serving at QB this season.I wonder what Brian Kelly would give for Dan LeFevour right now?Seeing on how Reis is probably a better QB, not much.Time will tell.....

Pro teams are still running pro style offenses, it just looks different than it has in the past. The fullback is gone and one back is in place. A lot of the evolution of the pro game has to do with the size of the players. There players have gotten so big they just take up space on the line and there aren't holes the way they were thought of as holes 20 years ago. RBs run to the line and have to find an opening. If no opening, they have to run into the line and hope they come out the other side. The NFL would be better if they had a size limit on players and opened the running game back up.I like the spread offense in college (it wouldn't work in the NFL because the d-linemen are too fast and EVERYONE is good) because of what I saw Saturday at Panthers Stadium. ECU hung with South Carolina because they were able to take their best players and put them in a position to be successful. 45.5% of the players on offense are offensive linemen who will not touch the ball. It is hard as heck to find five good offensive linemen at any school, let along a MAC school, so you end up with some kids who need some help or support while on the field. The spread allows for this help much more than a pro set. ECU took some of their poorer performers and masked their deficiencies by getting them help or double teaming. I hate to say the spread is less of a "team game", but on many levels it is and I don't know what else to call it. An offense doesn't need as many good players in a spread as they do in a pro set. So getting back to the Zips. We have the same problems every school has only they are more pronounced right now. The spread helps cover those problems and that's why I have a philosophical difference with Coach I. If he can get the horses, he will prove me wrong. If not, another building process....