GP1

I believe this is a form of child abuse.

A couple of things here. First, soccer is a bunch of guys running around a field in shorts trying to bounce a ball off of their heads. If you are lucky, one of the players will actually put the ball into this structure with a net around it called the "goal" and his team will be given one point and create an insurmountable lead. Football is a contact sport. Spring practice is development time. Some of the players are not ready to be thrown into a game yet and key players like QBs might get harmed in these games. The BCS teams would make a killing playing the non-bcs teams at their stadiums. No BCS team would risk losing to another BCS team in a game like this. It would become a joke to those with half a brain and a "great testament to the pagentry of amateur athletics" to those working at ESPN.

"To the line, to the lane, whistle...What?" Sort of makes me sad.

Worst fans or the smartest fans? Why would anyone go watch a team that bad?

Article This should be of no surprise to anyone who has ever been to Utah only to notice that everyone looks almost exactly the same. Salt Lake City is a very, very, very strange place.

Thanks for posting the Oline video JZ84. I thought the video on the Dline told us more about this group as it showed them coming off the ball well against defensive linemen. We see more technique drills in this video. Maybe something to do with the small numbers. The one thing I didn't like is the blocking technique where they cut the defender and continue on their hands and knees. I like cut blocking, but not by Olinemen as they always fall down and clog things up. Everyone should be on two feet as much as possible because you are hoping the RB makes the second level and you might need the Olinemen blocking downfield. The second reason I don't like this cut blocking is you can't double team high/low anymore. There are too many people in close proximity around where Olinemen live to risk this technique. Even if the contact is by accident and only for a second, it is still a 15 yard penalty. I hope to not see much of this next season. Yards are too hard to come by to risk major penalties.

I must really have nothing to do tonight, because I watched video of a spring football practice. Three encouraging things struck me watching the videos: First, in the defensive line video, a couple of offensive linemen come off the ball really well and control the line during one-on-one time. I don't know if that is a sign of improved play by the OL, or the same old play by the DL, but it at least looked good. Pro style offenses don't rack up points in college as it is more of a time and ball control theory of offense, so a good running game is needed. The negative side of that is if two highlights of the DL video involve Olinemen moving the Dline off the ball, we could be giving up a lot of points again this coming season. Second, we were really soft last year. The play appears to be more physical. Especially with the LB group. Physical play by the LBs results in tackles at the line or for very short gains. A LB can make tackles all day, but if they are 5 yards down field, it doesn't help. Getting back to point 1, the DL must do a good job of holding the line to give the LBs space to work. Third, Woody Allen must not be doing well making movies because he is coaching the RBs. I like Woody Allen....I like the fact that he is on staff for the Zips. This is a positive to me.

There is nothing new in this story.

There is one thing I remember about the HBO special that I found funny and the average fan was probably appalled by it because they don't understand how things really are. There is a player telling a story about what an assistant used to tell them after practice every day and it cuts to why these guys are actually there to play football and not get an education. The coach would say: "Remember guys (holding up two fingers), academics come first...and (holding up his index finger) football comes second." Auburn got picked on about this, but it goes on everywhere.

If the option is no bowl or a bowl against 30 of us from this board, I'd take the second option.

Finally, there is a term for it. Akron media, and this includes Mr. Rasor, needs to understand that it is OK for the Zips to do well in sports. Especially high profile sports like football and basketball. We don't need to be stuck in a Terry Pluto world. The media should be holding the Zips programs accountable for when they do poorly and demand better when they aren't living up to their potential. Give praise when it is deserved and slam them when they deserve it as well. It's D-1A sports for crying out loud. To Zips fans, it's OK if we win. I know it provides a different paradigm than the pile of crap we are normally fed, but the world won't come to an end if we get good.

There were some things that went on prior to that not painting such a rosy picture.

What's all this have to do with the Caliphates?

I hate to pick on Rasor twice in a week, but he sees controversy in the Championship game like Glenn Beck sees Caliphates.

This is being reported in a couple locations. He is traveling to Fresno today to possibly be offered the job.

T-Shirts!..... T-Shirts!...... Get your t-shirts here!

Poor shooting? That's like saying the guy driving the Titanic was a poor driver. It's been since the 1940s that a team scored that few points in the national championship game. Poor game, Hell yes. That's like saying the trip on the Titanic from England to the US was great...right up until they ran into the ice. The game last night was great until they threw up the ball at 9:23. At the end of the day, sporting events are about player performance. Both teams were terrible last night. Walker is talked about like he was great in the finals. He went 5-19 and his team won. If Nasir Robinson doesn't commit possibly the worst foul in the history of the Tournament, UCONN doesn't win the national championship. I don't know if Pitt wins it either, but surely anyone would have been better than Butler last night.

What makes you think there were still millions watching after that horrible game?

CNBC had a show on Enron. You would have spent your time better watching that. I turned the game of at half, it was terrible. The tournament overall was good for college basketball this year, but last night was terrible for college basketball. It has been since the 1940s that a team scored as few points in the championship game as Butler did last night. I know there are a lot on this board who think sports in the 1940s were better, but your nuts if you want that.

Rasor is an OK writer, but I think he is part of a large group of fans who is in love with the "building process". How did Nicely look is the question? Is he better or worse. Granted, I don't put much stock in Rasor's evaluation skills, but he is all we have. It's hard to believe Moore didn't look good at times. After taking a year off, it is hard to look good right away. Am I the only one who thinks this D'Orazio kid might be the next (pick a player who everyone wanted to see on the field/court until they actually got on the field/court, then they couldn't wait for them to get off the field/court). Of course he looked sharp. He was playing against the #3 guys. Everyone looks good against the #3 guys. Akron's offense has nowhere to go but up, so why not play him? Great idea, we can live the four year building process some more, get stuck with our dicks in our hands after four years and start the "building process" all over again. I don't know it to be true, but Rasor has to be a Browns fan. No thanks. The QB race is against Moore and Nicely. May the best man win. The end. Rasor always likes to give his long view on things. He's one of those lawyers who thinks that a law degree is a sign of huge intellectual ability. His intellect is probably closer to Michelle Bachmann than William F. Buckley. We have to get worse before we can get better, but we would be better off with the guys from the year before? What kind of gibberish is this? Coach I took a large group of starters last year and made them worse than the year before. We did get worse. Now we have to get even worse? God help us. As far as his last paragraph, if we are going to get worse, why would a fan feel any energy towards the team at all regardless of a new stud that might be on the team? The five people at the final game won't be able to create enough energy to do......anything. He is completely wrong about this. If Akron is bad, or worse, again this season it will be years before fans turn out again. They have spent millions on new stadiums and fieldhouses while the rest of NE Ohio crumbles. They will have fired a bad coach for a worse one. Nobody will forget that and it will take a long time, if ever, for them to forgive it....just ask the folks who are still mad because they fired Dennison. Until we are able to contend for a MAC Championship? Mike, you are a reporter. Ask the coach the following question, "Given the ability of many coaches in the MAC to win a championship in their second year, like the guy you replaced, do you think you can win one this season?" Oh, I forgot, we are building, not trying to win games or a championship....it's amazing. Maybe he is positioning himself to be the next Terry Pluto of the ABJ and the Zips can always be the little engine that could. We don't need that type of writing.

I don't think it is asking too much for an adult (most are older than 18) to live up to his potential from day one until the end of the season. There are games to be played in December and January just as there are games to be played in March. The expectations of this Zips program should be: 1. Win all the games they should win. No more losing to teams like NIU and EMU. No more slow starts. 2. Win the MAC East. 3. Win at least 33% of the games against major conference teams. 4. Minimum make the MAC Championship Game.

They almost carried them into the trash heap of history. We should rejoice in their leaving.

Not exactly as I was saying, but close enough. Kristol not only gets the exact war he would have fought, but with Obama fighting it, now he can have his war and complain about the President at the same time. The guy has to be sticking to his sheets at night.

Wrong lesson. We play enough major programs. That isn't the problem. The Zips have to start winning those games and stop losing to the Daytons and CSUs of the world. "Learning how to win" has to end with a team actually winning to prove they have learned the lesson. If they can't do that, they will always be this good team stuck in an a "building process" or whatever we have rebranded it these days. And you increase your chances of winning a big game when you play more of them. Right? No, you increase your chance of winning by playing better in those games and living up to your potential. A team can only win one game at a time. If we play four major conference teams, we should try to win all four.

Resources are money. Notre Dame is a small school and one can't say they have a lot of money. Resources come from ticket sales, ads, alumni donations, etc. If you get enough of that, you have the resources to win. Your school can be as small as 100 people with one really rich donor. Not only can I say Notre Dame has a lot of money, I can say they have a boatload of money, and that's a fact. I don't know what I was thinking when I typed it....probably nothing, but I agree with you more than my statement.