GP1

Mediocrity? You're being too kind.

That's a terrible article. Firing Tressel is not getting hammered. Nobody knows if Tressel can win without cheating because he has never done it before. Everyone worried when Cowher left the Steelers that they couldn't get as good of a coach and they got a better coach. The same can happen at tosu. Lack of reputation? In the ncaa? What goes on in college athletics is some of the most disreputable behavior in the country. Fans don't care about their favorite school's reputation. They want to win at all costs, espeically at the bcs level. They'll probably get off light. I'll say it again, USC got hammered because they basically told ncaa investigators to stick it up their butts when they showed up. What osu has done is demonstrated how to use the rules to your advantage. tosu smartly followed the ncaa rules as they relate to lack of control and demonstrated to the rest of the ncaa how to cheat and basically not get hurt. The ncaa wants to make sure individuals and not institutions get punished when things go bad. The institutions run the ncaa, not the coaches and players so it is better to punish coaches and players than those who pay your salary. osu punished the guys involved and fired their coach. The school won't be punished bacause when the poop hit the fan, they properly filled out all of the ncaa's forms. $800K is a huge amount for Akron. That same amount of money can be made by osu coming out with a new t-shirt for fans to buy. Having to give up wins, conference championships, bowl wins, etc. is meaningless because the money was already collected through ticket sales and merchandizing, etc. I doubt almost all Sugar Bowl clothing that could be sold has been sold. The same goes for any merchandizing from 2010. Hell, this could open up an opportunity to sell additional merchandizing this season and easily make up the fines if they play their cards right.

We are a "right now" culture, but there is a bigger picture with the mac that doesn't play into that. The mas has been around since 1946. It can't seem to get it right. The goal should be to have the best mac we can possible have with the expectation being it will never catch up, because history shows it isn't capable of catching up to the bcs conferences. We are in the mac. That's where we belong until we are forced elsewhere, or the mac's member schools wake up and take control of their future.

Let's ask our resident numbers man. Dave in Green, what say you?

Excellent post. Akron is not a good place to build a retail fan base, but the surrounding area is. The Aeros do a good job of drawing fans to baseball games from all around Akron, so it can be done. They need to try harder. If the mac/UofA want to be taken seriously, they need to draw fans to the games. Selling corporate suites is very important, but when America turns on ESPN and there are 5,000 people, it is laughable and recruits aren't going to take it seriously. Lastly, the Big East. I lived in Connecticut for a year after college and I went to a lot of Big East basketball games. We would get absolutely destroyed in the Big East. Within five years, it wouldn't be worth having a program. Look at schools like Providence and that's what we would be like.

Article The hearing is a required event by the committee who hands down punishment. No act of desperation. Tressel must attend if he ever wants to coach again in college.

I do drink red, white and blue. The Labatt Blue packaging has a blue background, white lettering and a red maple leaf.

Win the mac and no ncaa tournament win. I also have an expectation this team comes out of the gate in a good way. Lots of early season wins.

Are you kidding me? This guy has stolen enough money in his coaching career that he probably never has to work again. Honestly, I didn't even know he was still the coach. I just figured they would have fired him long ago.

This is a good move for MT and for Illinois. Opportunism is rampant in college athletics and MT has always showed good timing. He had access to the right football coach at the right time at Cincy and the program/Athletic Department did really well. The future isn't as bright for Cincy football now so it's time to get out. Six years is enough at a school anyhow. It isn't a knock, it's just the way things are in college athletics. Illinois has underachieved in football in recent years. It's one of those schools that can do better and maybe they see MT as the guy to do that. I think he'll make an impact there sooner rather than later.

If we do get a call.......the president of the Big East misdialed his phone.

I do more thinking when I'm drinking. I think Rodin's The Thinker has a beer in his hand. Was GP1 a model for this? Not muscular enough.

I do more thinking when I'm drinking.

The Big 12s days are numbered. Those schools are going to break up and go to other conferences and the Big 12 will go away.

Typical. You keep the booze for yourself and share nothing with the rest of us but words. This must be how GP1 maintains His greatness. Actually, I maintain my greatness through a regular diet of Labatt Blue and hot dogs.

Link to blog that links. I don't remember a time in my life when John Steigerwald was not involved in the Pittsburgh media. Always a good read and interesting, in your face opinions (Hint...that's how you stay in the media for as long as he has). I agree with his idea on what should happen to the ncaa....it should go away. College athletics will get along just fine without it. There were college athletics before the ncaa and there will be college athletics without the ncaa. There were bowl games before the ncaa and there will be bowl games after the ncaa. There was a national championship in basketball before the ncaa and there will be one after (it might even be better). There was corruption before the ncaa and there is corruption with the ncaa, and that will all exist after the ncaa. Universities will find ways to play one another in sports without the ncaa and their encyclopedia of rules that nobody could possibly follow to the letter because they can't possible know every rule. So, the ncaa is going to reform. An do what? Instead of getting mad when a big name school breaks a rule, they are going to get REALLY mad. Then if they do it again they will get REALLY, REALLY mad. The ncaa is an ineffective, over bloated bureaucracy so they are going to have more rules and make it an even bigger ineffective, over bloated bureaucracy. More forms and rules is not what we need. It's just silly at this point. If you are a Zips fan, you should want the ncaa to go away. Why? Because the ncaa is only looking out for the BCS level schools at the expense of the non-bcs schools. It would be the best thing to ever happen to us. Right now, we are on the Titanic and it is going down. We have a chance to get on a lifeboat or wait for help to come sailing by in the form of new ncaa rules. Who wants to stay on the boat and who wants to get in the lifeboat with me (I stole a bottle of booze from the mini-bar. Men who cannot balance themselves while peeing over the side of a boat need not apply)?

Go to hell, you Suckeye-loving butt munch. Market must be down again today.....

It is important on gameday to establish some physical play prior to the game starting. I don't know about this drill, but the hitting before a game is much harder than most fans might imagine. The players are excited and they need to establish a physical mentality and the feeling of it in their bodies because the game is the most physical environment they play in. It would be hard to flip the switch once the game started.

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.