GP1

This attitude stinks IMO. I hope the team proves you wrong.He would have been much better off saying he didn't want the QB to get hurt in a meaningless game, which the vast majority of BCS vs non-BCS games are (with the exception of the pile of cash that lands in the non-BCS teams' banks).

First, they need to do a better job of catching the ball when it hits them in the hands.

I agree. Dan went from being a loud, barking coach to being a dick.

I wonder how much Dick Tressel knew about his brothers bad behavior at tOSU.

Exactly. Piling up points and watching the other team implode trying to keep up is how one wins in the MAC. I guess my only question is, once we find our #1, is the guy a stud or not? We need a stud QB, but do we have one?

D'Orazio is not in the conversation. This NEEDS to be a two horse race. We don't have time for experimentation. Coach I needs to pick one and ride that horse. The only way the #2 gets in against tosu is if the we are getting killed and it is time to clear the benches. Not having a #1 QB going into tosu is exactly the indecision this program needs to do without.

I think that if the BCS level teams have their own division, bowls will go away. A middle division between I-AA and I-A can be created and it can have a playoff system like the BCS level schools have (If there are four divisions now, there could easily be five). I would rather see Akron play a home playoff game for a chance to win a national championship than to go to a meaningless bowl game in Mobile, AL. The key to playoff systems is to create a structure around it where teams don't make it every year like they do now in the playoff divisions.

Another entertaining game last night. The QB play could have been a little better, but on the whole it was a good game. Last minute victory by Toronto. Calgary scored two Singles in the first quarter, which ALMOST won the game for them, but a late FG by Toronto pulled it out.

Why not, people travelled from West Virginia to Akron (Barberton and Kenmore) looking for work for over a century. The three R's in WV were Readin', Ritin', and Route 21. I used to call Columbus, West Virginia West. It was as far as someone could drive from West Virginia on a tank of gas in their pick-up truck so they all immigrated there.

It is not my job to do his job for him. It is his job to put a winning product on the field. It is his job to hire a coach who would put a winning product on the field. I don't think Coach I is a bad guy and a lot of what is said about him is probably blown a little out of proportion. Having never met him, I have no idea what he is like. In reality, I doubt I will ever meet him. I have a deep philosophical disagreement with his style of play. I don't think it is a good way for teams to win in college football. Even worse, it is a terrible way for a bad team to get good in the hurry we all needed that to happen. TW is going to sink or swim with Coach I, that's the way it works. People are just as free to fail as they are to succeed. My responsibilities are what CK described the other day. Support the school financially (I have not been doing a good job of this lately, shame on me, but that will change)...buy tickets to events when I am around....pull for the Zips to win...I would start up a local alumni association around Charlotte if I could get a list of alumni around the area. It isn't little league sports where concerned citizens get to give their opinions on what goes on. It's D-1A athletics and we all need to behave like it is. The school smiles nicely and listens because they are public employees, but they really need to come up with their own ideas. Because it is D-1A athletics, expectations should be high and people should complain publically about what happens. I wish someone at InfoCision or Summa (sp?) would say something publically about what a terrible investment they have made thus far into Zips football and how bad they want to have a winning product on the field they are paying for. The rest of the advertisers should complain as well. If a business bought an ad at the Big Dialer expecting 20,000 people per game to see it and the team is so bad only 5,000 show up because the team is so bad, doesn't that business have the right to be upset about the money they are spending? I'd raise holy Hell if I was one of those businesses. Being critical of players, coaches, ADs or even university presidents is common at D-1A schools. If any of those people can't take the heat, they shouldn't be in the kitchen. The same goes for a potential recruit. If a recruit doesn't like negative comments on fan web boards, he should look at B-W or Case Western or Ashland or any other level of college athletics where the expectations are lower. I want the kids who want to win and understand that what is currently happening needs to change. Give me ten kids like that and keep the 25 candyasses who get upset about what people say on fan boards.

Link Very entertaining game if anyone watched it. It's refreshing to watch a football game with players actually playing the game because of the 20 second play clock. The NFL give us the "drama" of watching Peyton Manning point out defensive players and call out what position they play . There is another game on NFL Network tonight, I believe. It sure beats the half hour debates we get on the NFL Network debating who the best center of 2010 was.

I don't know we disagree, but I have a different perspective. The Big Dialer was built as a centerpiece for the campus vision Dr. P had. Regardless of what TW has done in other areas, his decisions as it relates to the crappy product on the field have resulted in an empty stadium. The empty stadium is crippling to Dr.P's vision. Instead of Saturdays on campus with 20,000 people showing up to watch a football game and take in what the campus/downtown Akron has to offer, the stadium will sit with a few thousand fans, if they are lucky, watching the game. Those few thousand fans will be the same fans who would go watch the Zips even if they were still playing at the Rubber Bowl. What is going on with the football program is a complete disaster that goes far beyond just the football team. Time will tell, but there is a good chance that after this season, the football program could be viewed as worse than when JD left.

Dr. Proenza hired the janitors of football. He is at fault for the problem we now experience with football. I don't see any other way to slice it.

Big Ten....

I'm sure the first time UNCC had the event, it didn't raise $200K. At some point, someone at UNCC was willing to risk something failing and had the event...then kept having the event. We don't have daring leadership at UofA that is willing to do something different that might fail. It's easy to have one event a year and call it a success. Judy Rose has been the AD at UNCC for 20+ years now. She is has taken the huge step of starting a football team where there was none. That's daring. Her resume is more complete than 90% of the good old boys club out there calling themselves Athletic Directors. She took responsibility for the department and the results are pretty good. We need someone who gets paid to be responsible to actually be responsible then demand responsibility throughout the Athletic Department.

UNCC had one and it raised $200K. All they offer is bad basketball. UofA should be doing something like that right now, not Homecoming. Better than incentives for fans selling tickets, how about incentives for Athletic Department employees selling tickets if the tickets are to new ticket holders? 10% of all sales? Schools need to do their own work, not ask others to do their work for them. Miami is taking the lazy way out. Think about it, if ticket sales fail because your fans didn't sell enough, the athletic department officials have someone other than themselves to blame. "Not my fault...."

Why? So you can show you supported diversity with a line on your resume showing you had the event.?.? In reality, they should have this event, but it should be part of an ongoing summer campaign. Wake has this event and it is well attended. They also have a tennis match.... a golf outing.... and a BBQ all on the same day. It's amazing an athletic department employee somewhere can walk and chew gum at the same time. At the end of the day, I don't know how much any of these programs would move tickets for UofA. And I don't just mean some company buying up 1,000 tickets that never get used. I mean people actually buying tickets and going to the games. The football team went 1-11 last season. Try selling tickets for that steaming pile of crap. It would be like selling a line of cars where half the product sold had wheels that flew off one mile from the dealership. There are marketing campaigns you could put together, but what would the message be? Pick one or make up your own: 1. We won't suck as bad. 2. You have to see it to believe it (read what you will into that one). 3. We might just win five. 4. More fun than raking leaves. 5. Come and watch us build...again. 6. Come out to InfoCision Stadium...there's plenty of room. See what I mean? There are no known players....not a single player anyone would recognized on an ad. There is no good record to point to from the previous year. The coach who went 1-11 would help sell tickets on an ad? Pictures of the stadium?....Everyone has seen it already. The easiest thing to market is winning. It is what people want to buy. Second to winning is quality football even if the team doesn't win. We don't have either. Just look at how well Cincy did when their team started to win....tickets were sold out. Now that they are on a downslide, let's see how smart their marketing department is now. A problem we have is marketing. The problem we have is winning. Solve the winning problem and the marketing problem will be solved as well.

It really isn't about getting people to do your work for you. That is how failure is created. Sales/Marketing is very difficult. I do it for a living. Many who don't do it think it is all about guys going to work at 10 AM and going golfing at 2 PM. That isn't the case. You can do those things, but you don't last long.

FYI, they do that all the time .. whenever and wherever it's possible. I'm not aware of any such requests being declined. Caleb & KD are out and about more than anyone knows. That's good news. Your last sentence is concerning. Why doesn't anyone know where they are going to be speaking? These speaking engagements should be regular updates on gozips.com. It's good publicity for both UofA and the organization hosting the event.

The CFL kicks off on the NFL Network this coming Thursday at 7:30. Check it out. It's lots of fun to watch. The NFL would be better off if it adopted some of the CFL rules.....all kicks must be returned....20 seconds between plays.....clock stops after every play the last three minutes.

NBA teams typically don't pick Europeans and then keep them in Europe. Europe doesn't have a huge college level like we do in the US where kids who might not be ready for the nba out of high school can go to develop. The American love of college athletics is something most Europeans do not relate to. Many kids play professionally right away in European leagues (some are very good leagues and some can be better than college level in the USA). They can also make a lot of money in those leagues. There are some former Zips doing well in Europe and probably making a better living playing basketball in Europe than they could in our current terrible job market. If I was a European high school kid and had the potential to play in the NBA, I would stay in Europe where I could be close to family and a culture I was comfortable with until I was ready to move to the USA.

That's fine if Zeke is still "growing". He had better hurry the Hell up though, he'll be a junior next year. Guys only get four years in college to "grow". If my opinion doesn't count because I've never seen him play in person, how do any of the coaches count. Do you think any of those coaches would say anything bad about him to someone they don't really know? Coaches don't say anything negative about anything as it relates to players on other teams and even more, fellow coaches. When anyone talks about Zeke and his potential in the NBA, evaluation of how he does against top level teams and talent will be the most important. If an NBA general manager wants to look at Zeke, which is more likely to happen..."I'm going to review ZM from Akron. Get me the tapes of him against...(pick A or B below)." A. Central Michigan or some other schlub MAC school. B. His games against major conference schools in big games. At this point, the only reference point the GM would have is the game against ND. Here is the box score. Would anyone really need to see the game in person to perform an evaluation? Two nights later, Notre Dame was exposed for being a fraud and didn't even have a very good big men. NBA GMs don't care that a player is a good guy...they don't care that the player is "growing"....they don't care who the guy played for in college....they dont' care what guys like Smart, Huggins or Donavan think. They only care if a player fits into their system and if that player can produce at the EXTREMELY high level of play that takes place in the NBA. NBA games aren't developmental and players aren't expected to be "growing". Losing franchises pick players to "grow" them. The NBA is about performance at a professional level. I'm a big fan of Zeke, but if we are going to have conversations about any player playing professionally, the conversation needs to change from that of a fan to a brutal view of a person's talents. With Zeke, the Zips WILL win two more MAC Championships and they WILL continue to be the best team in the MAC. The NBA though?......

I am ashamed to say you are 100% correct.

You're right, I've never seen him play in person. I always thought what happens on TV is an exact reflection of what goes on in person. Please tell me how my post was bashing. I didn't say he was a bad player. In fact, he is a very good player. All I said was I didn't think he would make the NBA. The NBA is EXTREMELY difficult to make a living in. Professional sports in general are extremely difficult to make a living in. Lots of really good players, like Zeke, never make it. Thank you and have a nice day.

The gap between BCS and nonBCS schools is going to continue to get wider for many reasons whether or not players get paid or can have a job. Which is why the BCS schools should have their own division and rules. It's what the ncaa wants.