GP1

You assume Vrabel wants to coach.If Tressel is going to retire in 5-6 years, the safe bet for LF would be to stay there as DC and take over as HC if he can get the job. There is much more risk in taking the Akron job than waiting out Tressel.

As a season ticket holder for an ACC school, I can say that the Big Ten is below the ACC.......and the ACC ain't all that good and the Big Ten is terrible.We'll see what tOSU has in the Rose Bowl, but I don't think they could win against GA Tech, Clemson or maybe even VA Tech. Hell, they lost to Purdue.The Big Ten is a second tier conference.BTW, if Luke F is interested (He would be better off waiting for Tressel to retire) I would be interested.

Check your PMs.Post it! It doesn't matter now.

All of them.The overall athletic talent on this team is good enough to win in this sorry league if it wasn't for the mismanagement of the coach. The problem is the talent was used in the wrong way because JD's strategies were destined for failure. Using different schemes will bring out the talent in the team. It happens frequently. A good swift kick in the ass from the new coach will do wonders for the kids as well.When Owens was fired, my biggest concern was the lack of talent on the team (Owens would have had one more 6-5 year under his belt and then the wheels would have fallen off). JD had to come in and clean house. Most were so bad they couldn't even make Ashland win their conference after transferring there. The new guy won't have to do that. JD left enough talent behind to win in the MAC....the next guy needs to win sooner rather than later.I hope you're right. It makes me wonder why JD did better with LO guys than his own?Biggs, Alleman, Kemme, Getsy and pulling Hixon from defense to offense. Four of those five were JD's guys. Hixon my as well have been since JD saved his career. The myth is JD won with LO's guys. The reality is his guys took the Zips from a second place team to MAC Champions.One other thing everyone seems to forget is JD lost some key assistant coaches in the first couple of years. Arron Alford is doing well at Utah and the LB coach is doing well at Air Force. I think these guys were key losses to the program.I agree that those guys were "His Guys", but why wasn't he able to attract anymore of those types of players after that initial wave?I respectfully disagree. Nicely is a potential future NFL player if his accuracy can improve. Wagner is a solid player. We have a very good group of young RBs. Harvey was a future NFL player if he wasn't so stupid. We have talented kids on defense who have been put in a hopeless positioin. The talent was/is there. The coaching did not put the talent the team had in a position to win.

Fax machine? What is this, the 1990s? Anybody who faxes in their resume should not be looked at. I want a modern offense, not the wing-t.

why play a I-AA school?...its not like we are going to go out and win 8 other games...play a D-I school that you can compete with...sunbelt...low level cusa...how many of you go to the morgan state game if its in october and not the Info. opener?+1If you want to think small, expect small results. We can 'play with' any team. Can we win, probably not, but that doesnt mean we wont try. I'd rather see a historic DIV-1 team here than a historic IAA team. B-O-R-I-N-G. Besides, dont the wins again lower conferneces not count?I want to see winning and going to bowl games. Beating I-AA teams gets you to a bowl game. Losing gets empty stadiums and our current scheduling guarantees three losing games a year. When the Zips get really good, the scheduling could take them from 7-5 to 9-3....fans get excited about 9-3.Also, I-AA teams guarantee not only wins,, but home games. The Big Phone Booth was built for watching football, not to sit empty while we play away games.

All of them.The overall athletic talent on this team is good enough to win in this sorry league if it wasn't for the mismanagement of the coach. The problem is the talent was used in the wrong way because JD's strategies were destined for failure. Using different schemes will bring out the talent in the team. It happens frequently. A good swift kick in the ass from the new coach will do wonders for the kids as well.When Owens was fired, my biggest concern was the lack of talent on the team (Owens would have had one more 6-5 year under his belt and then the wheels would have fallen off). JD had to come in and clean house. Most were so bad they couldn't even make Ashland win their conference after transferring there. The new guy won't have to do that. JD left enough talent behind to win in the MAC....the next guy needs to win sooner rather than later.I hope you're right. It makes me wonder why JD did better with LO guys than his own?Biggs, Alleman, Kemme, Getsy and pulling Hixon from defense to offense. Four of those five were JD's guys. Hixon my as well have been since JD saved his career. The myth is JD won with LO's guys. The reality is his guys took the Zips from a second place team to MAC Champions.One other thing everyone seems to forget is JD lost some key assistant coaches in the first couple of years. Arron Alford is doing well at Utah and the LB coach is doing well at Air Force. I think these guys were key losses to the program.

All of them.The overall athletic talent on this team is good enough to win in this sorry league if it wasn't for the mismanagement of the coach. The problem is the talent was used in the wrong way because JD's strategies were destined for failure. Using different schemes will bring out the talent in the team. It happens frequently. A good swift kick in the ass from the new coach will do wonders for the kids as well.When Owens was fired, my biggest concern was the lack of talent on the team (Owens would have had one more 6-5 year under his belt and then the wheels would have fallen off). JD had to come in and clean house. Most were so bad they couldn't even make Ashland win their conference after transferring there. The new guy won't have to do that. JD left enough talent behind to win in the MAC....the next guy needs to win sooner rather than later.

All good moments.JD couldn't do anything with the players he brought in here even though they were very talented. I remain bullish about next year because I really believe they should have a winning record with the talent on the field. Good days are ahead.

I'm not worried about guys leaving. I don't think many will.Think what you will about JD, but he left with class which is more than what the prior coach left with when he went out in a hissy fit and had a meeting with players at his house after getting fired. The tone JD set on the way out should keep most players here.The players need to embrace this as one of the first really adult things that will happen to them in their lives. People get fired, that's just the way it is. They all need to act like adults now and do their best for the new coach.

I voted "maybe" and am leaning hard to hell yes. ITZ is right, quick turn around is the key. The guy took an Auburn team on probation and went undefeated with them.I could care less of the guy was banging his administrative assistant.....I want a guy to win some games next year.

They need one more cupcake. Let's be smart about our schedule and make one that makes winners out of losers.

I agree. If BCS level schools schedule I-aa and MAC schools so they can maximize their home games, why shouldn't we? Why do we always have to be the team to help the BCS team maximize their home games at the expense of our program? We are killing ourselves.

Show me an AD who would be able to fill a stadium for a team that ONLY has one D-1A win over Cant state and a win over a Morgan State. He is not miracle maker.Though I agree he wouldn't be able to fill the place on Friday, blindly sending out extra tickets 2 days before the game to the season ticket holders barely qualifies as trying, and appears more like desperation, on his part. I don't expect miracles, but I do expect something better than this!I agree!The cycle continues.Bring in a guy with minor league experience and you get minor league ideas.

No thanks on Scott Browning. His team lost in the layoffs 84-63 to West Liberty. If we thought the 3-3-5 was bad, God only knows what this guy would bring. He would be Lee Owens on steroids.I really don't know about the other guy.

I was hoping to get a few more takers.I'm seeing the MAC more and more as "Joe sports fan" since I've moved from Ohio. I'm still a fan of the league, but getting away from it has actually made my opinion of it change over the past three football seasons.Here is what I see. If a sentence ends with ...., that means "compared to other D-1A leagues":1. Players drop too many easily catchable passes...2. Players are too slow...3. Players are too small...4. Most stadiums are not even close to 20% capacity and ESPN has trouble hiding that fact.5. Referees have long huddles to decide what to do after routine calls.6. Players are not just slow, they are not quick...7. We don't see enough good passers.I'll go through this again. What does the MAC need to do?1. Stop the bleeding.2. Get off of ESPN week night games unless it is a Thursday ESPN game. The league is a mess right now and advertising the mess to the remainder of the country is not helping.3. Improve the product on the field. Better coaches would help. How are they going to pay for them if nobody is paying to go to Tuesday night games? How are they going to pay for the coaches if the product is so bad nobody would walk across the street to watch a game?4. Get better players? This is always the answer. How do you get better players if a recruit is watching from home and sees an empty stadium? How do you get better players if they want their parents to come to games and their parents can't come to a few home games because they are on a work night and they can't take the time off of work? How are we going to get better players if we don't have an academic support system to keep at risk players in school and on track to graduation?5. Get better coaches? Money is a good way to attract a good coach. Where is the money going to come from? Empty stadiums?6. Win more. Stop scheduling three guaranteed losses a year for each team and maybe people in their communities might get a little excited about going to games.7. As soon as they can, Temple is going to leave the MAC. Then what? The answer is to force the issue with Temple by threatening to drop down to I-AA. Then the MAC needs to become a I-AA conference. Are we better off as the worst D-1A conference or the best I-AA conference? Even if we get better, then what, we'll be just as good as C-USA?....that's still lame. Get as good as the ACC?.....we don't have the facilities/money to compete in the ACC...we would have the smallest stadium in the ACC if we entered the league. Don't get me wrong, I go to at least seven ACC games a year and it isn't that great of a conference, but I get to see some good athletes catch passes, run fast, make good tackles, execute game plans, make extra points, make long field goals, see some nationally known programs like FSU, Maryland, Miami, Stanford, Elon (OK, not really), NC State, Baylor, Clemson and sit in a full stadium. These scholols will always have more money than a MAC school. An 85,000 seat stadium is going to generate more money than a 27,000 seat stadium.8. Make the darn league smaller. Temple wil be gone and get rid of two more. Eleven games at I-AA is enough and if you make the playoffs, you get more games. There is actually a real reward for winning the conference if a national championship could be in the future. What is the reward for winning the MAC right now?.....Getting your ass kicked in a horrible bowl game.At the end of the day, the MAC has been around since the 1940s and this is what they have built? The league is terrible and we are exactly where we belong. Wishing and saying it is going to be good isn't going to make it good. Throwing money at the problem isn't going to make it good because everyone else will be able to generate more money. It wasn't until the last three years that I have really solidified my views on this issue. Getting away from the MAC and seeing how even a second tier conference like the ACC functions has been healthy for me and my views of the MAC. I think if the MAC would do what I want, it would be a GREAT conference. I know all of this looks really negative, but the athletic department has to function in the world of reality. The reality is the league is horrible and the entertainment value is poor. It is straight Dollar General.

Why does it suck? Specifically, what does a fan actually see when they watch a game?I'm not trying to be silly or anything like that. It's important to get these issues out in the open for fans so they understand where the league is and why it is the way it is and why it really needs to start doing things differently.No right or wrong answers.I said it in my post - MAC teams will not spend what it takes to be successful in D1-A football. If you want to be like Temple and turn around decades of losing - spend the f*ucking money. If you want to lose, if you want a "great" season to be 7-5, then keep your coaching salaries in the bottom 10% of D1-A football. You get what you pay for.That is the right answer. Any other answers are wrong.I don't disagree. What does a MAC game look like though? Describe what you see, specifically.....It has to be worse in person because TV can show only what they want to show. Some they just can't hide though.

Why does it suck? Specifically, what does a fan actually see when they watch a game?I'm not trying to be silly or anything like that. It's important to get these issues out in the open for fans so they understand where the league is and why it is the way it is and why it really needs to start doing things differently.No right or wrong answers.

Is the MAC doing itself a disservice by entering in agreements (whoring itself out) with ESPN?Don't be scared guys. The first step in solving a problem is realizing there is a problem.

THERE IS NO RIGHT OR WRONG TO THIS TOPIC?The MAC was on TV every night last week. Think of the games in two ways:1. A MAC fan.2. Joe sports fan across America with no real interest in the MAC.Describe what you saw.

After watching the game on Friday, it is clear to me that the team continues to play hard even though they are not put in the best position to win and they do some really stupid things at times. In a season when everything goes wrong, people look for reasons why they happened. That's when bad sports cliches come out. Bad sports cliches include but are not limited to:"The coach has lost the team.""The players aren't listening to the coach.""They are playing not to get hurt.""We never make halftime adjustments."Observation is not enough to determine if any of these things happen because there are psychological components to them and we don't know what is in the heads of the kids. We also don't know what is talked about at halftime.What we can observe is effort. I did not see a lack of physical effort Friday. I did see a group of very talented kids giving good effort even though they were not put in the best position to win by their coaches. I do see kids giving 100% during a play and then doing something really stupid at the end of the play. I do see coaches hopelessly trying to make tactical changes in a strategy that is set up for failure and leads to failure (this is why JD should be fired). The Zips badly need a cultural change.

I find it hard to believe that TCU will not get a BCS bid. That's a really good team.

Nice line. I wish I had thought of it.

The real heartbreak is there are only two teams on that list the Zips could not beat in Temple and CMU. From scheduling to coaching, this team is so mismanaged.......