GP1

There will not be a coach remaining from JD's staff. That's the way it works. The team will have all new coaches next season.

I don't want to single anyone out, especially those who love to redshirt players (redshirting can actually be horrible for a player, but that's another discussion), but the only way Zeke gets redshirted is if he gets an injury between now and the beginning of the season that will not mend until after the MAC Tournament.God forbid if the kid got hurt tomorrow and only got back a week before the MAC Tournament, he should play. He is a high school All American. For those that like "growing", put Zeke in the starting line-up on day one and let him grow on the court instead of growing at practice and hoping he is ready to play when he gets in games.

"System" stuff is totally overblown, especially as it relates to college football. PERHAPS you can say it about some QBs, but I think Nicely would actually be even more productive in a pro-set/I-formation offense. Yeah, we might have to find a FB or two. But it can be done.We need to bring in a coach that knows how to teach, knows how to coach (on gameday) and knows and how to WIN. Plain & simple. Well, maybe not simple.Excellent post. There can be no more "building". There is enough talent on this team to win. They need to start winning. 20+ years of building is enough.I like what Pitt is doing right now. They are playing a physical brand of football in a pro-style offense and a tough run jamming defense. They are one of the best teams in what is the worst BCS league. We just aren't a physical team and if we were more physical, more game situations would go our way.Here is one of the many examples of why we are not physical and it is a very telling statistic. The Zips are -2 in fumbles against D-1A teams this year. When teams are physical and hit hard, they cause more fumbles for the other team than the other team creates for them.

Just don't stop believing this football season can turn around.

Referring to oneself in the third person is characteristic of illeism. If you aren't familiar with the term, you should look it up and see if you imagine you fit with some of the notable historical figures closely associated with illeism (Julius Caesar, Charles de Gaulle, Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, Geraldo Rivera, etc.).Aside from that self-aggrandizing trait, many of your comments here are quite sensible.The Great GP1 has looked at your post and agrees that the comments are sensible. Probably even brilliant as usual.The Great GP1 would also like to add that the names you mentioned may have been, with the exception of etc., presidents, emperors, dictators and hack lawyers, none of them are the Great GP1.

The music is a rip off of something the Steelers do in the fourth quarter of their games when the defense comes out in a close game.

my life sucks...I think I will bash the kids on the football team today because it might make me feel better even though I have no clue what the heck I am talking about...yeah thats what i will do because my life completely sucks and because I am such a winner I will continue to bash and stomp the team because my number of post listings increase my stature as a zips basher and it will show the world I am one step away from actually jumping from the Y bridge, but thank god i have zips nation to express true negativity throughout the world....i only wish more positive people read my post so i can bring them down to my low level of life!!!!RUMPLEMINTZ - You are on ZipsNation, but maybe you need to spend some time on -Spend some time on Prozac or her?............

Captain Kangaroo should like this one. Even when we win the greatest game in program history, we create reasons for why we really should not have.We back-doored into the 2008-9 MAC basketball championship too. Humpty got lucky...we should have lost to the 12-seed. Right?I guess so.....I don't agree, but it seems to be the prevailing wisdom on the board, which is why GP1 goes the other way when it comes to prevailing wisdom on sports boards. Maybe we need to the start of any critical comment now on the basketball board with, "I love KD and even though he backed into that championship last year (insert criticism)".

"We" as Zips fans, are cursed with more excuses than any other team in the history of collegiate athletics.I really don't believe people are making excuses for the underperfomance of the team. Excuses are for when someone is trying to sugar-coat the losing and make it seem not as bad as it is. The reasons for their losing are clearly obvious and I don't think that makes them excuses. There will be no reasons for losing next season. The new coach will have plenty to work with. We should be the best team in a bad conference.Everyone should be optimistic about the very near future. This team has plenty of talent and will win with a new coach. I'm not saying 100% of what is going on is the fault of the coach, but the vast majority is and a cultural change is needed. Let's just say that spring practices are going to be brutal this year.....they need to be.

Captain Kangaroo should like this one. Even when we win the greatest game in program history, we create reasons for why we really should not have.

I disagree that we experienced a "perfect storm of problems." Then what did we experience in 2008...or 2007...or 2006...etc, etc, etc? Another series of "perfect storms?"I believe we have experienced a "perfect storm of excuses." That's it.Lee Owens didn't have the stadium or the training facilities. Then JD had the training facilities, but not the stadium. Now we have the training facilities and the stadium, BUT <insert next excuse here>.In JD's 6th season, playing what is likely the easiest schedule in D1 (maybe it is tied with some other MAC East program, but I don't count them). He's 1 - 5. Not only is he 1-5, but he's 0-5 vs. D-1 competition. He's 1-2 at home, and winning 25% of his home games over the past 1 1/2 seasons.Was Jacquemain's suspension crippling? Sure. But who's idea was it to tether the ship to this train-wreck of a kid? His history as an unreliable player on-the-field were only exceeded by his known issues off it. Yet JD rolled the dice that Jacquemain could keep his hands out of the cookie jar for 1 semester. Shocking that this 5th year senior QB...who mysteriously escaped the nomination of Team Captain prior to the start of the season...couldn't do it? Rodgers as the #2 QB was again not any "perfect storm" problem. He's a great kid. He's not a Division 1 QB. If he was, JD would have played him over Jacquemain in the first place. Rodgers blowing his ACL is a convenient excuse to play Nicely, but the truth is, Nicely was warming up on the sidelines prior to Rodgers' injury. If not for the quick OU turnover, Nicely would have entered the game on the ensuing series. There's a reason JD told Nicely not to play in the Football World Championships this past summer...he knew there was a damn good chance he'd need to play him this season, and it was more important that he was in Zips camp.The Ferri "recruiting scandal" is a joke. If this is the excuse for 1 - 5, I have to laugh. I think Tom Gaffney and Elton Alexander have given it all of 100 combined words of print. The University's reaction to the "scandal" (BTW - now downgraded to "an investigation of recruiting practices") has been more damaging than the allegations themselves. Go to a BCS school and see what a real "scandal" looks like. Like Dr. Z, I'm tired of losing. I'm tired of excuses. I'm tired of traveling to support the team, only to watch 20yard rugby punts, pop-up kick off and the 3-3-5 defense get shredded late in a close game. I'm tired of watching other MAC programs go bowling while we sit at home with our woe-is-me laundry list of "prefect storm" excuses. I'm tired of explaining to my kid why, as a Zips fan, he always walks out of the stadium a loser.F*ck losing. I'm tired of it.So are you saying we are cursed with excuses?

Cursed may be a bit harsh, but I get your point.The answer is........Alumni...as in school pride and school support by "our" alumni...Most.. err...99% don't give a damn, so why should anyone else.Wait, so you're saying our ALUMNI have cursed the football team? How so? Indifference is not evil voodoo magic. It's just non-caring either win or lose. Broken legs, player suspensions, coaches beeeennnding rules, bad play calling, more bad play calling, more injuries compounding over many years creates a Peanuts-style black cloud that follows this team whereever they play. I think Faust sacrificied live chickens before he left so no other coach would ever succeed.There is no curse. We've won a MAC Championship so I know we can do that. We've seen good coaching, although sporadic (the MAC Championship was probably the best coached game in the D-1A era). Faust had a 7-3-1 year so we know we can win around 70% of our games. Even Owens had some good years in the Butchie Washington era. The potential is there.It's so many things that pointing the blame at one doesn't make sense. It's the MAC,. It's the alumni. It's the MAC. It's the coaching. It's the MAC. It's the players making mistakes on and off the field they shouldn't make. It's the MAC. It's the injuries. It's the MAC. It's A LOT of things.I'm not sure how to solve the alumni problem. Educated people go to college and get more educated so we know they are smart when they become alumni. A smart person looks at the MAC and says, "This is crap." However, I don't think it is unreasonable for alumni to attend at least one game a year. It isn't right around the corner, but alumni participation will improve as more students live around and on campus. That will take time. I actually thing the school needs to really focus on alumni in their 20s and early 30s as a long term plan. I know a lot of us are older, but there aren't enough of the older generations interested in going to games to develop much of a base. The alumni problem is a loooooong term solution, but it can be done.The coaching is easy to solve. Get someone in here who can take advantage of the talent on the team. I remain optimistic about the future.Players making mistakes off the field........ People do stupid things every day. It depends on who makes them. If it is a third string center, things happen. If it is the starting QB, that's a problem. Overall, I don't think this has been a huge problem for the Zips, or at least out of the ordinary in relation to the rest of college football.Mistakes on the field.... Coaching can solve that. Players, who are adults by the way, pulling their heads out of their own butts can help also.Injuries..... This will kill any sports team, from any type of sport faster than anything. One thing they should look at is no longer bringing in transfers from BCS schools who couldn't get on the field because they were injured all the time. Some players are prone to injury and you can tell them by the fact they are injured all the time.The MAC.... We are exactly where we belong. Unfortunately, so are all of our other MAC participants.The Zips have had a perfect storm of problems this year. It happens to a lot of teams in the MAC. Timing was terrible, but the future remains bright.

8,000 will be enough. Not too big, not too small.I'm very hesitant to get in bed with the City of Akron. If the choice is play in the JAR or co-op an arena with the City.....I say play in the JAR and kick around some other ideas.If all they can afford is 6,500 seats, then do that. First things first, the soccer team has EARNED a new stadium before anyone else gets one.

A fire? There is no need for a fire because his goose is cooked.

Lowery had another Int.....why wasn't he used at UofA....Thanks JD.

The New Yorker has this article in the recent addition. This discussion has been taking place on another thread. Interesting read. Off to Clemson.........

The success at Cincinnati has been pretty simple to explain.First, they have made themselves one of the best teams in a conference that nearly isn't as good as it used to be. They also get BCS money and the great Basketball money from being in the Big East. Cincy joined the Big East in the 2005-2006 season. Around that time, VT, Miami and BC exited the league for the ACC. Good teams remaining were WVU and to some extent Pitt. Every league needs a team that can compete with the top two and Cincy filled that void well...Cincy and WVU will be a great game. The timing of the jump to the BE could not have been better.Secondly, the hiring of Kelly was not as much genius as it was obvious. At the time, Kelly was a star on the rise and he got out of CMU before the black hole that is the MAC could destroy his career. Kelly knows one thing for sure....you need a qb that can run his offense and run it well. Mauk and Pike fit that offense to a T. CK's favorite player at CMU fit it well also. The program Kelly took over wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible either. There was something to work with and our next coach will have something to work with when he gets here. I reamain optimistic about UofA being the best team in a bad conference in the near future.Thirdly, one of the P's of marketing is product. What is Cincy selling? Winning is now one of the things. Good players are easy to sell. Oh, and by the way, ConferenceDOA is not one of the things they are selling. Being at the BCS level opens up the door for huge paydays and national coverage. A school at least goes from being being the Tuesday or Wednesday night game to prime time on Thursday and then tonight is another BE game on ESPN. Nobody in Cincy wants to go watch Tulsa, Marshall, Tulane or any of the other pieces of crap C-DOA is selling. I don't see the difference in Tulsa or Central Michigan as far as my interest level.Where is UofA? Well, we need to become the best team in a bad conference. I believe we can. Second, we need a guy like Kelly who can come in next year, win immediately and then move on to his payday. The talent is there. The problem UofA has is they are in the MAC and it is where they belong. The MAC is a bad conference and the only move we can make is to a league like C-DOA which is what we would be upon crashing in that league.Here is where reality sets in and it's more than just saying, "Enough is enough". I hate to use Rosa Parks as an example because the struggles of minority groups in the 1950s pales in comparison to the struggles of UofA football, but here it goes. Rosa Parks just wasn't some lady who sat on the bus and said no. That day was carefully orchestrated by civil rights groups. The country was at a point where people were beginning to see the world and minority groups differently. Blacks served and fought in the Army in WWII and the Korean War yet they were still held back by a large part of society. Over time, blacks realized they had a lot of power in society and exercised it through marches, boycotts, etc. They may not have had a lot of money, but they had justice and morality on their side.What does the Rosa Parks analogy mean for the MAC. Change happened because people were listening, and not just black people. Who is listening to the MAC? There is a better chance of ZipsWin! missing a home MBB game than the country beginning to care about the MAC. People cared about the injustice black people were experiencing. Nobody cares about he injustice the MAC is experiencing. Not only does the country not care, but I'm at the point where I don't even think the NCAA cares about the MAC. Why should anyone care? College football as it is now is exciting for the public, making money for the big schools which is exactly the way the NCAA wants it and making money for the networks which is exactly what the NCAA wants also.Can the MAC boycott and what would they boycott? The MAC is the prostitute of the NCAA along with the other Tier 3 conferences. MAC schools have to accept paydays from BCS schools because they need the money. Even if they boycotted, nobody would care and the BCS schools would just dip down into I-AA schools for their non-conference games. Nobody at tOSU cares of they win three games against Akron, Can't, OU or YSU, Indiana State, Eastern Illinois. The stadium will be filled regardless. Enough is enough alright. Sometimes a doctor has to cut off a leg in order to save the patient. It's time for the MAC to move to I-AA if it wants to stay alive. "Growing" by adding more bad teams to an already bad league is not the answer. Jumping to conferences like C-DOA is not the answer and I have no idea why the Big East would want a MAC team to join their league.I wish it was different, but wishing again takes me back to something my mother once told me, "Make a wish or s#!t in your hat. See which one fills up first." 20+ years is enough. It's time to live in the world of reality.

I bet Zip Watcher made the best hall monitor when he was young......

Excellent point.Maybe the answer to why people don't go to games is simple. There isn't a demand for 27,000 tickets (insert 5,500 for MBB games) to go watch a Tier 3 league. I think we need a big stadium because at least once a year it should get filled. Other than that, on a good night, 15,000 is a reasonable expectation for a Zips game.I'll say it again. People like what they like and the more they are exposed to something the more they know whether or not they like it. Some may disagree, but the MAC gets much more exposure now than it ever has. I'm convinced it just isn't an Akron thing. People around the mid-west have seen enough MAC games to know they don't really like it. Look at the empty stadiums on MAC ESPN games. Heck, look at the empty stadium from last night's game with LA Monroe and whatever team they played. There is no difference between that league and the MAC. Both are Tier 3 leagues.Z.I.P. is right. The MAC is a I-AA league. Maybe excitment can be generated from a playoff type team. I doubt that though. Right now, watching the MAC lose to BCS level teams, teams starting out their seasons 1-3 (someone look into how many MAC teams started the season 1-3 or worse....while your at it, what is the MAC ooc record right now), poor play, half empty stadiums, etc. is not generating excitement.

Take extra toilet paper....you are going to need it.

This analogy is a good learning tool and helps to explain how hard it is to get a price increase in any business.If the logic is the team is bad mid year so drop the price of tickets, when is it ok to raise the price of tickets?In the off season? This logic tells us until the team wins, prices have to stay low just to fill seats (I thought the they needed to make money). There is no evidence the team wins until mid year when tickets are already sold. What if they win one year and lose the next? Will prices the next year be lowered mid year?Can we raise ticket prices mid year? If the team is good mid season, would it be OK to raise the price on GA seats? People would throw a fit if that happened.The current ticket prices are absolutely reasonable and quite frankly cheap. People are not going to pay to go watch bad football regardless of the ticket price. The Zips are bad and the MAC is bad, but the current prices are reasonable for a bad D-1A product.

The real question here is: would it have gone down your leg or not?ZipsWin! should be the judge of that......

Woudn't a better idea be to sell the tickets, at face value, to a person who wants to donate the tickets to the non-profit for the tax benefit. There is always more than one way to skin a cat.No offense, but youth football, non-profits, band days, etc. spell minor league baseball. The Big Phone Booth was not built to make UofA have the appearance of a minor league event.Please tell the children at the Can't game to do the opposite of whatever Can't is doing on the field.Is there really a difference between taking a child to a Can't game or child abuse?

The debate continues on Rasor's blog. A new argument has sprung up and that is the supply and demand argument. Supply and demand would dictate that if they lower the price of the tickets, it will increase demand/people in the seats. This idea also assumes that cost is the only reason for purchasing a ticket (Do we really want these people as customers?) This idea also assumes a lower price can cover the cost of operatons and that there is a demand for Zips tickets when they play OU. A timely example is the current price of plywood and lumber. It is an easy example for me because I work in building materials sales and have worked for a company that manufactured these types of material. Can anyone guess which? Anyhow, earlier this year, plywood and lumber manufacturers were lowering their prices in order to create demand in a slow market. The demand never materialized because there was no money being spent. They all cut their prices to the point they could not cover the cost of manufacturing materials. Plants were closed in order to cut costs. Once costs could no longer be cut, price escalation was required even though there was no increase in demand or supply because they were still losing money. These companies are protecting their present and future right now by raising prices. If people are strapped for money, no price decrease is going to be enough to encourage them to buy a ticket to watch the Zips and the Zips will be cutting their own wrists.If anyone has ever sold anything, you know how hard it is to get a price increase. You had better have something that people REALLY want, and right now, MAC football ain't that. This is especially true in a commodity environment. UofA can not lower the ticket price to the point where they destroy their ability to operate the Athletic Department (Every single sports program needs InfoCision Stadium to make money). When the economy picks up, more people will be able to afford to go to a game and they will because after this season the Zips will be much better.Lower ticket prices will hamstring this Athletic Department for decades if they start lowering them now.

I have to respectfully disagree. There is no historical evidence showing that selling a youth ticket increases attendance or increases future attendance.