GP1

There was already a thread about Mike going to a school nobody knows. Snow storm + bad record = low attendance. I'm not sure what Waddell could have done about either of those. In fact, their best marketer, Coach Kelly, is at ND now. I'm interested to see what Mike will be able to do when he is driving the bus. From all I can tell, he is really good at changing one word from Turtle to Roo and selling tickets for an undefeated BCS level team. I don't think those things make for a marketing genious. Time will tell.

Should give the guy an award for participating in the most exciting thing to happen during the Pitt vs. Cincy game today.

Not sure about the crowd, but is NIU choking once again? Edit: Maybe their D will save them. MAYBE NOT!!!! Another run focused offense loses a big game....go figure

An Amish reference about LBJ in an ABJ story. That's my kind of story. I guess a big difference between LBJ and a shunned Amishman is LBJ went on to Miami making millions living in a beautiful city. A shunned Amishman moves on to making bad furniture and quilts for easily duped people in a backwoods town in Pennsylvania. Who would have thought LBJ would have so much in common with the Amish. Can you imagine the media storm in Amish country when Eli Yoder decides to move his quilt and woodworking shop from Holmes Co. to Tuscarawas Co.? The media circus could be called "Tidsexpondering".

The only genious around here is the Great GP1. You guys got that?

The Dr Z rating system says they are 100 percent BS. Always were, always will be. Is there a rating system that tells us how accurate the DrZ rating system is?

I only wish our model of hiring coaches without head coaching experiece turned out as good as theirs did. The following Miami coaches had their first head coaching experience at Miami (source) 1. Joe Novak 2. Bo Schembeckler 3. Bill Mallory 4. Ara Parseghian 5. Randy Walker 6. Terry Hoepner Being a good head coach has more to do with being able to get talented players to come to your school and then do something with them than it does laboring for years in the lower ranks of college football as you move your way up.

I think you hit the nail on the head. All this guy did is bring in better players and then do what every other school does in terms of following kids to class, etc. Babysitting has become a big part of college coaching and that's too bad, but it is what it is and it needs to be done. Good coaches end up getting fired because they treat adults like adults instead of like children.

This is a good point. I think the biggest days of the Tea Party are behind them. Only 33% of the candidates won and they are all now part of the Republican Party. 200+ years ago, the Tea Party was a one time rebellion...we will see the same thing with this "Tea Party" again. It will go away. Look how quickly Republican cast aside that nutty Bachman (sp?) woman from Minnesota when she ran for a leadership position. Palin is getting cast aside as well. If the liberals at FOX News would just stop putting Palin on TV, she would quickly be forgotten because she really doesn't have much interesting to say and is really not that bright. The Tea Party will change into a group of people who use the name to get attention in order to continue their life as media whores.

I've really been trying to forget the long line of average to bad QBs the Steelers had between Bradshaw and Big Ben. Thanks for the horrible trip down memory lane. It's no coincidence the Steelers didn't win a Super Bowl in that time period. Great running games, great defenses and a average/poor QB play....It was great at winning the horrible division they were it, but typically it fell short in the playoffs. Big Ben comes along and the win again...go figure.

Rand Paul was elected because he was a Republican with a well known father. The Republicans could have run a goat named Billy Paul and he would have won.

VA Tech has a long tradition of winning, players who are accustomed to winning, a stable head coach and a stable coaching staff in general. We are not VA Tech. Do I need to go on?

There are very few elite QBs in college football (see how few start on Sundays their first year or even get drafted). In terms of elite college QBs, these guys were elite for college with the exception of Krenzel and Flynn. You can't win with an average college QB...I take that back....You can win some games with an average college QB. The Zips are never going to get to where I would like them to be with an average QB. If you guys want 4-6 wins a year, stick with average. I want more.

I think Wagner misses one of the most critical points of the season. None of us are on the team, but the loss to GW had to be an emotional back breaker for the team. The loss of confidence must have been huge...it would only be natural. When you lose to a I-AA team, you don't believe you can win games like Ball State and you don't believe you can compete against the first and second place finishers in the MAC. They are humans and not robots. Emotion matters. Confidence matters. Maybe the Zips did get better at the end of the season. They still lost 11 games and there is a difference between getting better and winning. We need a winning program. If you win and the MAC is good...great. If you win and the MAC is bad...great. Marshall fans loved the MAC because whether the league was good or bad, they were still the best team in the league. That is where I would like the Zips to be.

Retire rich and consult. I'll let him know your thoughts the next time I talk with him...

What if they all stink? That was our problem this year. I too hold out hope for Nicely. This was the year he needed to produce and he fell short of expectations regardless of what was going on around him. I believe the biggest growth spurt happens to a QB between his first and second years. Nicely is past that point. I hope he immproves next year, but if they can find someone better, they should take him. Any advice for Coach Meyer pertaining to his panic attacks?

You beat me to it. Good find. I'll keep it as it for a laugh. The Great GP1 has always been a terrible speller. I'm much better with my Word Perfect program.

Yeah, right after I shelled out $6 for 2 cups for my kids. Things like this are little issues though. You probably waste more money than that a week buying soda out of a machine. It's the big things he gets wrong that scares me. What I listed are only football related issues. There are a lot of other sports where I'm sure fans have some issue with a big decision.

I always say that good teams start with good players. Especially the QB. Coaches all know about the same thing so I think they largely get too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when things are going poorly. Let me ask Urban Meyer how important a good QB is. The Great GP1: "Coach Meyer, how important is it for a coach to surround himself with a great QB at the college level?" Urban Meyer: "Excellent question. I'm not surprised that a man with your enormous intellectual ablility would see the ultimate question in football in modern times has a lot to do with the quality of QB. If you have a good one, you are a genious. If you don't, you are an idiot. Just ask any Gator fan...they all think I'm an idiot after this season. I'm the same guy, just with a less talented kid at QB." The Great GP1: "Thank you for your kind words Coach Meyer. I'm probably even smarter than you may think as you don't know me very well. Can you elaborate on your previous answer." Urban Meyer: "For such a gracious host, I'd be glad to. I started my head coaching career in 2001 at BGSU and coached there for two years. During my time, I had a really good QB named Josh Harris. You may remember him...he was one of the all time greats at BGSU. His ability allowed me to move on to Utah where Alex Smith was the QB. You may remember him as a guy good enough to play in the NFL and was one of the top college football players during my time at Utah. When I moved on to Florida, I had Chris Leak as my starting QB. He was a solid player who won us a national championship, but there were better players to follow. You may remember a guy named Tim Tebow. He followed Leak and the rest is history. I became a genious. This season, I have John Brantley. Around this time last season, I started to think about Brantley as my starting QB in 2010 and that is about when I started having panic attacks. As you have seen this year, the panic attacks were warranted. The kid is terrible and every time I look at him I can feel my chest tightening. God I wish I had retired last year when I wanted. Now I look like just another coach." The Great GP1: "Coach Meyer, what will it take for people to think you are a genious again?" Urban Meyer: "Another great QB."

Great post! What people don't understand is "corruption" in college athletics used to be far worse than what it is today.

Care to elaborate? I'd love to and feel free to add your own: 1. Reno non-issue 2. Hiring of CoachI 3. Upsetting loyal fan base prior to football season with parking policy 4. No golf outing 5. Discounting reserved seats is a landmine in my book These are just some of my problems. There are others, but I think these are pretty big missteps for a guy who has had the job for only one year.

Is there a rating system that tells us how accurate these ratings are?

Everything you see here is going on at other programs. It is out of control and there aren't enough babysitters at the big schools to keep track of the players 24/7. It's so bad the NCAA is considering amnesty to any school that comes clean with all of their violations and reports fully on what they know to be true and what rumors are under the surface. The NCAA would not have come down as hard as they did on USC had USC just confessed what they knew and punished themselves somehow. The NCAA needs to allow for payment of players either through the schools or via agents "retainers" paid to players in order to secure that player for when he is a professional. For example, Newton could sign with an agent for whatever money he wants to and he is required to pay back the money out of his professional earnings. A player can only sign with one agent during his time in college. If a player never earns a dime professionally, then the agent is out of money and he took a rish he should not have taken. Any player not signing with an agent receives $200 per month until he signs with an agent. Let the market decide. If a player is worth the money, an agent will sign him, if not, the school can pay them. If hidden money is the problem, get the money out in the open so everyone understands what is going on. Sunlight is the best antiseptic.

Good summary. Your last sentence explains exactly why the NCAA will never issue the "Death Penalty" again. SMU has yet to recover from it. Therer isn't a school in America that could recover from it.

Congrats on a good start to the season. I looked up YSU's schedule and it has been solid with two wins against MAC schools and a heartbreaking loss to the Zips. Can they keep it up is the question....