GP1

No, I don't agree with the question. The reason the SEC is good goes far beyond money to climate, population, culture, etc. Cheating going on in college football is like gambling going on in Casablanca. It goes on in the SEC...It goes on in the Big Ten....It goes on in the PAC 10...etc. It's going on everywhere and has been since the beginning of college athletics. The only difference is whether or not you get caught.

I don't want them yelled at either. Yelling is for practice. I'm more interested in whether or not a different strategy was deployed.

OU shot a higher percentage in the first half from 3-point range than they did 2-point range. Then they shot about the same from 3-point range in the second half. Were the Zips at least trying to do a better job defending the 3 in the second half? If not, why isn't someone complaining about halftime adjustments? If so, some of the players need to do some soul searching.

This is all interesting stuff; however, I'm not sure what direct ties there are to college football. The only link is a guy who was involved in bribes is also a Auburn booster. That's not unusual as a person who could issue a $180K bribe probably is one of the few people in Alabama who could purchase a casino. There is an interesting logic to conspiracy theorists. If a conspiracy theory is proved wrong, to the conspiracy theorist, the conspiracy only becomes that much great and complex. Sort of like the people who think JFK was shot by the mob or Castro or "others". JFK was shot by a guy out of a building window. This is what I think happened. Cam Newton father probably talked to some parents when his son was at Florida and realized some of them took large sums of money. Some parents drink before games and they all sit together. Loose lips sink ships. The Newtons didn't take any money on his way to Florida or the church is father preached out of in Atlanta wouldn't have been a falling down mess. When his son left Florida to go to JUCO, he realized Cam's rerecruitment to another school could land him a large sum of money to remodel his church. Newton's father actually got to live the old saying, "If I knew then what I know now, I would have..." I think that is where the story ends. I really don't care what posters on a thread have to say about it unless they work for the NCAA, FBI or they are a Federal prosecutor.

If the Zips don't get better soon, everyone will be able to have their own urinal at the games used only by them.

Dictate with the four dlinemen in a 4-2-5 scheme. In normal defenses, the dline is left to bellybump with the offensive line so the linebackers can make all of the tackles. I want to see the four dlinemen attack for tackles and not bellybump for four quarters. The Zips need to be more aggressive with their front. College offenses are much different than pro style offenses. Backside pressure can be achieved easier than in the NFL on running plays. Auburn wasn't blitzing last night, but they found themselves in the backfield a lot. Not run blitzing doesn't mean not aggressive. Pressure up front, cover behind is what needs to be done now. Even Oregon with a small line was able to get pressure in the backfield last night with their line because they were smart about how they achieved that pressure. Both teams last night did a really good job of defending the spread with their base defenses.

Big Zips, it was me who posted that. Everything you said is true. It levels the playing field. Lots of double teams are created at the line so the oline does not have to be as good as the dline man-to-man. We saw that last night. It creates match-ups in the passing game by getting backs against slower linebackers, or more favorable match-ups wr to db. The key is the QB. Can't did well with Cribbs and Eddleman (sp?) in this type of offense. CMU dominated the league with their qb for four years....it wasn't Brian Kelly, it was the QB because they continued to win after Kelly left. In terms of the defense, I also said this year that schools need to go to a really big run stopping defensive line and then guys who can run behind them. We ran the 3-3-5 with JD because at the time it was a defense designed to match speed with speed. It didn't work because there weren't enough big guys on the line and we got pushed around. If anyone notices now, some schools who play a lot against this type of offense have switched to a 4-2-5. Five dbacks are necessary because so many players are going out for passes. You need a really good dline that can function well against the run game by itself or at least take up space for the two lbs to make stops. You also need one top notch pass rusher in the dline...he can be a substitution on passing downs or an every down guy, but you need one. I would not want to be a defensive coordinator in football now. The rules are stacked against you and all of the good players are playing offense and that's the way the powers that be want it. Games are very high scoring. It seems to me the primary key to defense in college now is not giving up the big play from outside of the red zone. Teams are going to move the ball, just don't give up big plays. Force fieldgoals in the red zone or wait for a young college QB to make a mistake in the red zone where the field gets smaller, just don't give up the big play from outside of it. Oregon's QB made a mistake in the red zone last night in the first half and it cost them the game.

Take all of the doors off of the bathroom stalls so a man can feel like he is taking a crap at the Rubber Bowl.

It's January 10th and championship game is tonight. There is something wrong with how late it is being played. No college football should take place after the NFL playoffs have started.

Yes. The level of competition in the NFL is awesome. No worries about kids going to class. No worries about alumni issues. Better money. Better talent. Nothing to worry about other than football. If the players don't like him, they can always leave and go find another job paying the same amout of money. My guess is there is going to be a house cleaning and Troy Smith might be the first one to find the door. Singletary got what he deserved. He was an average coach at best and the players knew it. If Harbaugh can coach, the players will respect him. The players just want to win. Do you think the players in New England care Bill B. didn't play in the NFL? Winning = mo money. They want mo money.

Marshall was 6-6 that year and lost to Akron. (S. Holmes won that game by himself against Marshall) I'm not trying to argue anything, just making lies with stats to try to give myself some kind of hope come September. I wish we weren't playing them this year. Nothing will start my year off worse than losing to them. My dislike for that business grows everyday when I read about the honks that support them. 6-6 is somewhat good for a MAC school. Most years, it is good. While I want the Zips to win every game, I don't get too upset about losing to tOSU or any other BCS level school. What upsets me are loses to schools like GW, non-BCS level schools and then the MAC (in no order). All of those levels we should be as good as if not better. This program really needs to start winning.

Some of what we don't know based upon the above is how many of those points during the PSP years were scored with back-up players in the game. BCS level teams use these games to play a lot of different players and they typically can score some points with the back-up players. What is clear from the scores is that tOSU has strangled the offenses of MAC schools during the PSP years. At the end of the day, PSP is the only guy on the team who can't be replaced at the same level based upon available or incoming back-up players. Even though most of us hate tOSU, it would not be reasonable to believe most of the positions they field are not replaceable. The overall trend is in these seven years, tOSU beat the MAC 220-70. In PSP's years, they averaged over their points per game average (31.5) both years. In 2005 and 2006 (I have no idea who the QB was then), they also averaged over their seven year PPG average. The two PSP years only averaged six points more per game than the 2005-2006 time period. Overall, yes, the PSP years are better if you look at points, but it also shows without him they have been able to score points (and a lot of them) over the years and in a two consecutive year time period. The most points the MAC scored against them was 21 in 2004 when Marshall was still a somewhat good program. tOSU only scored under that total once in 2007 against UofA. The MAC has averaged 10 points per game during this seven year period.

I remember when The Ripper was singing with this band. It was a great band with him and they remained good even after he played with JP. Sometimes The Ripper will even come up on That Metal Show. If you like metal, That Metal Show is a must see.

I clicked on this link to read the story, but I was too distracted by the pop culture links to the right to read. Whether or not Pawn Shop Pryor (psp) plays is not important in a game like this for tOSU. They are going to come out and try to run their base offense for four quarters like they do during the MAC portion of their schedule to try and get everyone ready for the season. They can do that with a back-up.

I agree. Recent history also tells us a MAC coach can win a championship in his second year even when there are teams perceived to be better than his. Miamioh did it this year against NIU. Akron did it in JDs second year against NIU as well. There are other examples. My expectations are for the Zips to be .500 next year and compete for the MAC East. Everyone else does it, why not us? Coaching?....Miamioh fans were ready to run Haywood out of town after his first year.

Ball State lost a bunch of seniors. Specifically, they lost a Nate Davis. Miamioh's key players are all frosh and sophs. They will not lose 10 next year.

I only have one thought about the game. Looking at the score before going to bed made me sleep easy. Great job Zips.

My following of the Zips WBB program involves looking at their season record and how they have done in the past couple of games. They took two beat downs and then won their next game. In the past, they would have lost every game for the remainder of the season. Much better.

I'll go out on a limb as well and say that Newton is the key and Auburn will win. I don't even think the game will be close. Newton is the best college football player I've seen in quite a while. Asking for only $180K was under-selling his ability. He is worth far more.

I was just on GoZips.com looking to see if the Zips were on television tonight. A lot of the remaining games are on Sports Time Ohio with at least one on ESPNU. I'm glad to see that. The MAC is a regional conference that should be on a regional television network. I'd like to know the ratings (number of viewers) STO produces for the MAC in comparison to when the games are on an ESPN network. Specifically, what is the viewer count in Ohio. My guess it is very similar. Naturally, ESPN provides more potential viewers, but I think it doesn't matter for the Zips if some guy in New Mexico watches them on TV or not. There is a guy in South Carolina who wouldn't mind watching the game at a sports bar while taking in the NFL playoffs. Is STO available nationally in any manner?

If not Texas Colt, then who? There isn't a good free agent anywhere who would want to go to Cleveland and they run every young QB they get out of town as soon as they can. That's the problem the Browns have. They need to spend at least the next 2-3 years developing the little guy and getting some better players around him. It was fun watching the destruction of the Browns last weekend and a fantastic way to finish up a holiday weekend. They were finished after the interception in the first quarter. God knows I wouldn't want to have to stand in the pocket down that much against the Steelers defense.

I've been pretty hard on the MAC the past few years, and rightly so. It was a horrible conference and in almost every way that counts is still a horrible conference. It was a much better conference this season and, with the exception of OU, did not make fools of themselves in bowl games. A word of caution to the "builders". There is a better chance that this season was abnormally good and not normal. Miamioh looked good last night. MTSU did look horrible though, but that's the way it goes. Haywood really changed the complection of the program at Miamioh and it paid off in a short period. They are going to continue to be good. The next coach is going to walk into a good situation. We are better than Miamioh in all things that are secondary to having a winning attitude and kids who want to win/willing to pay whatever price necessary to win. We have a great stadium and all the facilities to go along with it. They had a winning attitude and a desire to win. They won...go figure.

By reading the article it appears as if JD did have a long term plan that involved doing anything until a job in Colorado opened. JD doesn't want to run a foundation. JD doesn't need money because his family has tons of it already. That's the difference between JD and most others in coaching. Most would take a job in a crappy situation just to have a job. JD had the ability to sit back and wait for the right position.

I do. As little as the ABJ pays attention to UofA sports, it would never get uncovered. Interesting thought. What if we were SMU? Would you take 10 great years for a pile of crap to follow knowing you could get good again? I'd welcome the 10 great years. Would the 20 years of sucking to follow be worth the 10 great years? Some on this board love the sucking and 20 more years of it wouldn't hurt them...they would just throw their hairshirts on and attend every game like they always do. They don't mind the losing to BCS teams...it gives them something to go with their hairshirt.

Good post. Just a couple of things. In terms of political scandal, the SMU case had all of that as well. At the time, the sitting Governor of Texas was involved in the SMU scandal. In terms of casinos, people getting killed, etc., it is interesting this is going on in the south. If this went on in the north, nothing would happen and people wouldn't pay attention. But why GP1? In the south, the mafia is a new thing. Southerners belive the "good old boy network" is the mafia. It isn't. The good old boy network is when 5 or 6 guys get together and decide to do business with only one another and then they spend the rest of their lives trying to screw one another over. Nobody gets killed by the good old boy network. The mafia is organized crime that is frequently violent. As the mafia moves south, southerners don't know what to do and don't even recognize it. I've had to have talks with a couple of customers about some of the new general contractors around the Carolinas who are owned by Russians. I'm not saying all Russians are in the mob, but there sure are more of them and crime follows where they go. I'm just saying. Ever notice the Russian strippers came over to visit their Uncle Vladimir before going to graduate school? I'm just saying, there sure are a lot of Uncle Vladimirs out there? Uncle Vladimir must have 500 siblings because every one of them has an Uncle Vladimir who is taking care of them. I'm sure those nice Russian girls dancing in Myrtle Beach are only strippers and not hookers....girls in graduate school just dance to make money to pay tuition....ya, that's it...they aren't hookers. I'd be very careful when linking Newton to gaming crime. Just because Newton took money from a guy who bribed a politician doesn't make him involved in bribery because the guy was bribing a politician.