GP1

I would agree that it would be stupid to do so every day. The AA example is a good one, but it is on the extreme side of what can go wrong. Like I said, the first week is to set the tone, the second week is to figure out the final starters and the rest is to get ready for the games. Under Faust, GL was never done at the end of practice. We went straight from inside to GL.

Will the first mac game be enough? The jury will still be out, but it is a barometer game. If we win, high pressure and good weather can be predicted. If we lose, low pressure and storms could be on the horizon. We need some momentum early to carry us into a three game home stand after the first four. We have a lot against us, but so did Miami last year. They won some games, got some confidence/momentum and look how they ended up.

Throw caution to the wind. We should be boldly optimistic.

From what it sounds like, the goal of this summer is to speed up the learning curve. I've never been one to believe turnover in college athletics results in worse performance. If properly executed, turnover can be the best thing to ever happen to a good program. I believe the groundwork is being laid this summer and will result in turnover being great for the program. I don't believe the "goal" for Nov and Dec next year should be to have a solid RPI ranking, I believe the "expectation" should be to have a highly ranked team. The talent is there and the coaching is there. As fans, we need to raise our expectations of this program. We are not the little engine who could anymore. Next season could be better in many ways and I expect it to be.

You've been using the word plucky a lot. Have you been reading British novels?

My pleasure. Not many comments so I guess if nobody has anything to bitch about, they don't say anything. It was a good article. What happened prior to yesterday is important to get guys in shape, but not as important as it is once pads go on. You never know how good someone is until hitting starts. In other sports, you wear to practice basically what you play in; unlike football, where you sometimes don't wear what you play in. Players don't earn starting positions in helmets, shorts and t-shirts. That's why I didn't care as much for those silly videos UofA puts out after every practice. The reason Coach I said nothing is he had nothing to say so he stood there babbling for 60 seconds and ended up looking stupid. UofA should not put those videos out until pads go on. Or have a warning saying, "Attention! What you are about to hear is meaningless and you should spend 60 seconds of your time doing something more productive. Pads go on Date X. Come back one week after that and he will say something more meaningful." And then they should do a meaningful five-ten minute interview with him for GoZips.com. This week is a good tone week. I expect the coaches to pull back a little after this weekend. By mid week next week, the coaches should have a good idea as to who the starters will be. After that, they can firm up the starters and really work on timing for the first game of the season. I think if Akron can be very physical against Temple, they can pull off a win at home. Temple may be coming to town expecting a push over and if they get smacked around, they may crack on the road. MAC teams choke all the time. Physical play could make Temple choke. I'm going to be positive about this upcoming season until they give me reasons not to be positive. I'm going to hold my prediction on how the season is going to go until after the Temple game. I think it is that important and will be a good barometer.

Article Watching how a coach conducts practice is a good way to evaluate the tone he is setting. When they do certain drills is important. The Zips had a GL scrimmage at the end of practice. The coach is setting a physical tone by having this exercise at this point of practice. The only periods of practice more physical than GL is inside period where the team only runs the ball between the tackles...it's brutal because there is no threat of passing the ball. I like the tone. We were never a consistently physical team under JD and if nothing else, being physical is the first step in good execution. Good message sent by the coach on the first day. He challenged the players physically and mentally by having GL at the end of practice. I also like that the leaders of the team embraced the challenge. Yesterday was a positive and something for the fans to hang their hats on.

When MAC play starts? The season starts in Nov....this team has a ton of talent and they will be coming off of a summer playing together where they get full time coaching. I expect this team to be good from day one.

It's the sign of a smart and creative poster.

Not directed at you BZ, but did anyone see the recent episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the part in it about people using or saying LOL?

Word

Who has been attacking you personally? Maybe you are paranoid. "Don't lie. I know lying isn't frowned upon by osu fans, " "In many ways Buckzip, I pitty you. You have been made a fool of" "You have been made a fool of by tOSU BuckZip. That pill must be pretty hard to swallow. Poop happens." "BuckZip was sucked in to it because he wanted to be sucked in." This is from only the last few pages from you. I am sure there is much more from you and some of your pals. if I cared to go back further. Go ahead and have the last word now GP1. I know you always have to. You shouldn't mistake sympathy for a personal attack. I really do pitty you on many levels.

I wonder how much sleep Captain Kangaroo is going to lose over this...

Who has been attacking you personally? Maybe you are paranoid.

Great set up!!! Between now and then, work on that chair. It looks as comfortable as sitting in GA at a basketball game. No reason to have a back injury the first game of the year.

I respectfully disagree. USC got the book thrown at them because they told the ncaa basically to f-off when they started to look into the program. The ncaa is going to do more than protect tosu. They are going to protect the Big Ten in a year when the conference is making major changes bringing on a new member and a coference championship game. The Big Ten doesn't have time to add a division, in additon to Leaders and Legends, called Probation.

Link We talk a lot on this board about how to get people to go to football games. Some of the misguided believe giving away tickets is worth it just to get people in the stadium. Others believe a price must be put on tickets in order to establish a value for the event. I actually think UofA is doing a good job trying to find methods of getting people to pay to go to games. They could do better though. Really smart people believe it doesn't matter what they charge because when the team is doing poorly, there is no reason to go regardless of the ticket prices. When this happens, maintaining some ticket value is important because you hope when the team is good and you can actually have a customer base that understands it isn't always free to go see a college football game. There is a good portion of the article that talks about the Baltimore Orioles selling tickets for $1.00 for a Major League Baseball (sort of). Basically, they were giving away tickets in an attempt to sell food and drinks. Their ticket sales didn't move. Why? Nobody wanted to go watch the crap Baltimore was putting on the field. Lesson...When demand is almost zero, make the number zero and maintain current prices for the day when the team is good again. People will pay to go see a winner. Let's win some games. Wait, let's win a lot of games.

Outside The Lines addresses this issue this morning. Pat Forde and Bruce Hooley speculate on the upcoming Columbus State penalties. Thanks for the links. Having trouble with the swimming through the sea of crap that is twitter and the Pat Forde posts. Bruce Hooley doesn't seem to have anything new. If you can offer more help, it would be appreciated. As far as the OTL report, nothing new there. It all goes back to what the ncaa wants to investigate. They are done investigating and giving penalties because that is what they want to do. tOSU AND the Big Ten is going to be protected by the ncaa. I don't see how the ncaa can go any other way. The professor from OU is correct. I would have loved for the reporter, or any reporter, to ask someone like him to comment on whether or not the ncaa will come down light to protect the Big Ten in a very important season. One of the most interesting points about what makes Tressel so corrupt is his purposeful lack of curiosity about what was going on around him. If you never ask questions, you never know. Pete Carroll did the same thing at USC. Both saw problems and did nothing to look into those problems. That is a form of corruption. It is a form of dishonesty without creating an evidence trail that would make him proved to be dishonest. The culture Tressel created was interesting as well. There are two ways to look at the whole "God and family" fraud he spewed. One way, the way tosu defenders look at it, is "God and family" is a way to create teamwork and a group of people who want to help each other out to win games. That's all well and good. Another way to look at it, and it is possible to fall into both categories, is when someone in the family does something wrong, we won't do anything that might hurt them or the family. Keep your mouth shut and keep it in the family. This is how the mafia looks at things. Tressel learned well in Youngstown. We'll use the "God and family" idea to both win games and keep everyone out of trouble. In a lot of ways, the culture Tressel created was very successful. The rule breaking was pretty severe and tosu had a hand in the rule breaking establishing early on that it was ok to sign autographs for money. Lastly, right on the money CK. Tressel was a con man and he conned almost an entire state.

This is a very good observation. Winning washes the sin of losing away. The sins go away, but the sinners remain to possibly sin again. It seems to me VCU and Akron are in a similar position. Both did not do as well in the regular season as they would have liked and fans should get upset when their team doesn't perform up to expectations. While VCU made a big splash in the post season, UofA did well in the post season by winning the MAC. Whether you are a fan of VCU or UofA, your expectations for next season should be similar. It would be inexcusable for either of these teams to perform poorly in their ooc schedule or conference schedule. VCU has momentum and Akron has talent. Both fan bases should expect big things from their teams next year starting from day one. Basketball season starts in November, not March. With the talent the Zips now have, my expectation is for them to have the best season in the history of the program. We have the best team in the MAC and we should get over on a declining league in a big way next season. Anything short of that will be a shame.

It wouldn't have matched the green and white shirt. Joe, it's blue and gold, not green and white.

What a great opportunity to learn about the program. What a great opportunity WASTED! "We're in helmets, we're going to wear shoulder pads, split squad, maximize..." Save it. B-O-R-I-N-G...Can somebody do there job and get this guy to tell the fans something that gets them excited about the season. Can we hire Emory? He knows how to fire up fans, you know why, because he is fired up. Rob needs to learn how KD excites the fan when someone puts the camera on him. I love listening to KD, I hate listening to Rob. At the minimum, he did say Go Zips?!? Coach I has Archie Bunker like excitement after a day of work. Personally, I don't care what any coach has to say about anything. All I want to see out of this team is some winning. I don't care who does it, which QB does it, which coach does it, etc. I don't even care what their names are, what year they are in or where they come from at this point. Want to get me excited? Win some games. Everything else is meaningless.

I think everyone had a case of the Mondays yesterday. The market was down 513 and it doesn't look any better today.

Do you remember the old parking at the Rubber Bowl discussions?

I'm a little confused. Some may think baggage is some sort of emotional problem. However, when I think of a kid from WV and baggage, a stick with a red rag full of his personal belongings slung over his shoulder comes to mind. Please clarify. The kid had accolades that typically net a "bigger-school" offer. But the Zips were his only D-1 opportunity. Sometimes, grades...sometimes bad attitude...sometimes an arrest...all those scenarios are familiar to upper-tier players that land on MAC rosters. You know that, GP1. He was 17 when he signed with the Zips. Maybe hanging around 23 year old players was too much for him? Maybe all the losing beat him down. Who knows. I do know he was suspended from the program last season. He was an impressive player in his time with the Zips. He showed good size, and good hands. He seemed to be capable of living up to his billing. It is a shame he is gone. He had a lock on the TE position for 3 years. Thanks for the clarification. It's just a little confusing sometimes when anything from West Virginia is involved. It could be a mental problem or it could be a suitcase consisting of a stick and a piece of cloth. I never assume anything when it comes to West Virginia.

I'm a little confused. Some may think baggage is some sort of emotional problem. However, when I think of a kid from WV and baggage, a stick with a red rag full of his personal belongings slung over his shoulder comes to mind. Please clarify.