GP1

As an Ohio State fan who has seen real "out of control" behavior, I hope you have laughed in the face of anyone inferring the Zips football program is "out of control." The Zips starting QB was kicked off the team. That's disappointing, but hardly unheard of in college athletics. Indiana's starting QB was kicked off the Hoosier squad this summer. It happens. Maybe it stands out because JD has had so few character issues during his tenure?The "recruiting violation" will prove to be irrelevant. Take this to the bank -- the infraction alleged against the program has Z-E-R-O chance of losing a single scholarship. It has a realistic chance of generating no penalty whatsoever. The mainstream media sickend me with their portrayal of the Zips program this past week. Most lumped the alleged infraction along with the QB story to make it appear a coach paid the QB cash. I know this because I heard it 4 times before 9am at work Thursday, and from several people at my bowling league Thursday night. I hope when this plays-out, if the program is found clean, that the media goes after that story with as much zeal as it did with their misleading headlines last week.*Note* - This will likely be the last time I comment on this situation until the investigation is completed. The Zips problem is stopping the run with the 3-3-5. And moving the chains on offense. The other stuff is all BS. As GP1's tag line says -- "...you want it to be one way, but it's the other."CK is on fire today."The program is out of control" is the cry of idiotic sports fans around the county because it gives a person a tag line for why they should fire someone. JD should be fired for one reason and one reason only....the team isn't winning with a great deal of good MAC talent. Like CK said, play physical and stop the run. Play physical and get yards on first down.Walt Harris is working at UofA because he bought a century home in Pittsburgh that is being gutted and fixed up. He needs somewhere to live and something to do for a year. Whether JD is here or not next year, Harris will not be. You don't fix up a century home in Pittsburgh to live in Akron. Harris could consult for the Steelers or something once he gets back to Pittsburgh. He is also older than he looks and may be able to retire.

Answer: Bringing in good players year after year. Stadiums, tradition, etc. do not win games. Good players win games. Our soccer team brings in one good player after another year in and year out. Coaches come and go, but the talent remains high. Our soccer stadium has yet to win a game...the players do.Fans love football, m & w basketball, but some MAC schools get good at a sport like soccer at UofA or hockey at Miami and they really focus on those sports. Miami has gotten to the point where they use their horrible football team to fund the athletic department. They play three BCS teams and one top team in Boise State with no illusions of having a winning record. At this point, I doubt they care whether or not anyone even comes to the football games. They don't play a game on campus until October....do they really think anyone is going to drive out to Oxford to watch an 0-4 team play. They pump that BCS money into the athletic department and support a top ranked hockey team with it.UofA needs to decide what it wants to be great at. Getting great at everything at a MAC school is unrealistic. Is it football? Is it basketball? Or is it easier to maintain a top ranked program in soccer rather than "growing" the other programs that may never become top ranked.OK, then for you GP1, what brings in good players?Winning. Players that want to win go to winning programs. Players that want to play in nice stadiums, get involved in rebuilding, etc. are motivated by those reasons. We nned to do some winning in order to attract winners.I believe good soccer players come to UofA because they want to win. It sure isn't the fancy stadium they play in. It isn't the coach because we have turnover in that position.

Who in the heck names their kid Otis these days? Are we back in the 1950s?

Thanks for the history lesson grandpa. No go put your gloves back before you get chilled and wait for dinner to be served at three o'clock.Exactly what I expected from you. I used facts, I backed them up, I didn't insult you directly (I even complimented your contributions on the Zips), and you resorted to pettiness. Thank you for proving my point.My pleasure....

Answer: Bringing in good players year after year. Stadiums, tradition, etc. do not win games. Good players win games. Our soccer team brings in one good player after another year in and year out. Coaches come and go, but the talent remains high. Our soccer stadium has yet to win a game...the players do.Fans love football, m & w basketball, but some MAC schools get good at a sport like soccer at UofA or hockey at Miami and they really focus on those sports. Miami has gotten to the point where they use their horrible football team to fund the athletic department. They play three BCS teams and one top team in Boise State with no illusions of having a winning record. At this point, I doubt they care whether or not anyone even comes to the football games. They don't play a game on campus until October....do they really think anyone is going to drive out to Oxford to watch an 0-4 team play. They pump that BCS money into the athletic department and support a top ranked hockey team with it.UofA needs to decide what it wants to be great at. Getting great at everything at a MAC school is unrealistic. Is it football? Is it basketball? Or is it easier to maintain a top ranked program in soccer rather than "growing" the other programs that may never become top ranked.

I can only hope that this person is no longer on the BOT.It's funny, Owens did something completely dishonest and sneaky to call Thomas dishonest and sneaky. I wonder if JD knew about this meeting. I wonder if Thomas knew about the meeting. If so, anyone attending should have been given their walking papers the next day. Calling a meeting like that is a completely low class and unprofessional thing to do. It shows how "small" Owens really was. He'll be coaching at that piss ant little college in Ashland County forever.I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Thomas told the team to go along with the decision or get the Hell out. The silence must have been deafening and the smell of poop in their pants was probably pretty bad as well. Thomas was the man.This topic has been completely reaffirming. I would love to know more. I love history and this is a good history lesson.

With very little publicity or desire for publicity, JT has given tens of thousands of dollars to the football program over the years.And i heard from someone in fundraising that Taylor never has given anything back. I don't know what to believe.I've heard from more than one person under more than one AD that he has given generously.

I'm a big fan of JT and have followed Akron for years. By little publicity do you mean no publicity? I have never read or heard of any such gifts to the school or football program.He is a true gentleman. He wants it that way. When the program has needed financial support in the past, he has come through. I've heard that one day when his playing career is over they may name something after him. The should do that Hall of Fame weekend five years after this season.

The talent we have on the field is very good. The problem JD has is he isn't doing anything with it and they aren't doing anything with themselves.Recruiting Ohio isn't the answer. There are too many D-1A programs in Ohio and not enough talent to go around. Good programs draw good players from wherever they can. If they are from Ohio then fine, but let's not limit our recruiting scope. Local players don't increase ticket sales. That has been tried and fails time and again. It failed during the Faust years and it failed during the Owens years.I'm not sure why everyone continually degrades our MAC Championship. We made it to the game and won. Maybe there was some luck, but every team that wins any championship has some luck along the way.

JD's #1 problem slightly ahead of loyalty.

With very little publicity or desire for publicity, JT has given tens of thousands of dollars to the football program over the years.

Aren't you being a little over-dramatic?

I've always been curious about this. Did Frye stay an extra year because he wanted to, or did he consult with professionals about his draft prospects and realize there was a chance of not getting drafted or becoming a Nate Davis (before Davis of course)? Remember, if the Browns were the only team stupid enough to draft him in the third round after his senior year, who else would have drafted him? Who would have drafted him after his junior year?I actually think Frye made an informed decision to stay his senior year because he realized from talking with others he may not be ready for Sunday afternoons. Maybe Fitzgerald, et al talked with him, but I think the rational decision was to stay at UofA because he was not ready.I was graduated and out of the program at the time of all of this, but there were quite a few guys still on the team who I had played with and was close with. The story I got was that Frye was livid with the firing of Owens, so much so that he refused to even look at Mike Thomas, much less speak to him. At the team meeting the day following the victory over Ohio and the subsequent Owens firing, with Mike Thomas in the room, Frye proceeded to stand up, with tears in his eyes, and tell the team they didn't have to stand by and take this, and that he wasn't going to have his senior season ruined by someone "not a part of this team who was only looking out for himself." Needless to say it was a tense meeting. Other seniors to be such as Chase Blackburn stood up and said they would refuse to play for anyone else. At that point pretty much everyone assumed that Frye was going pro, and from what I understood he was in fact projected higher following that season (3600 passing yards) than after his senior season (2400 passing yards). Frye pretty much refused to talk to anyone in the athletic department outside of the assistant coaches who remained employed and in office until a new head coach was hired, at which time they would recieve token interviews as is the norm and be subsequently fired to make room for a new staff. When JD was hired, he didn't contact Frye immediately, as I guess Charlie expected him too, and there were rumors that JD and some of his new hires were already actively recruiting a JUCO QB out of California, who JD had been looking at at Pitt, to come in and start. Frye felt extremely dissed obviously, and at that point he made it known to most of his buddies on the team that he was leaving. JD did in fact ask to speak with Frye shortly afterwards however, and if any of you have ever had the chance to sit down with JD one on one, you know the guy, regardless of your opinion of his coaching abilities, is great with words, bullshitter or not. Whatever was said in that meeting was obviously enough for Charlie, as there was a team meeting the next day, which he appeared at (as I understand it he was not present at JD's first official "team meeting"), and he announced to the team that he was returning and that they were going to win a MAC Championship with JD at the helm. Frye however, as many of you know, has always been more loyal to Owens, as whenever he's talked about his college experience he's always cited Owens for his success as opposed to Brookhart. He also, regrettably in my opinion, currently does a lot more for ASHLAND football (golf outings, fundraisers, works with the team in the offseason) than he does for the Zips (nothing that I'm aware of?) But there you go, at least direct from the guys I know that were there at the time, you now know the rest of the story.Excellent insight. Thanks for this and I really mean that.After reading this, I dislike Frye even more than I did before. Throw in some dislike for Chase Blackburn as well. JD should have run those two off when he took over. Never leave cancer in the patient. Faust didn't run enough guys off when he took over either and we had veteran players actively subverting the team every chance they had. I thought Frye's public comments after Owens was fired were the signs of a spoiled brat. Man was I right. UofA (the taxpayers of Ohio) paid for him to go to college...made him the focus of the program to the point they concocted a Frye for Heisman campaign...Frye was given the team after Sparks was hurt...the list could go on. UofA did a lot for Frye and for him not to give back is absolutely disgusting. This is the United States and he is free to support anything he wants, but the support Jason Taylor gives the school is legendary. Frye has become an afterthought and JT continues his Hall of Fame career in the NFL.One of the more interesting points is Frye wouldn't look at Mike Thomas. This is the sign of a weak personality. I work in a very harsh business (construction) and I can't tell you the number of times I have had the pleasure of looking another man in the face and calling him an a-hole and have been called an a-hole myself. The next day I see the same person and it is as if nothing happened. If Frye was any kind of a man, he would have taken Thomas aside and given him a piece of his mind. Instead, he hides from him. What a temper tantrum thowing boob.....If I was Owens, I would ask Frye not to tell people he is responsible for Frye's "success". After all, Frye's success consists of a losing college record, getting drafted by the only team stupid enough to draft him, putting up laughable numbers in the NFL losing time like he did in college, getting traded after the first game to Seattle where he began the remainder of his career on the bench (don't forget the Browns won 10 games after Frye was traded and DA went to the Pro Bowl. they would have had a losing season with Frye and his "talent") and now he is third string on the worst team in the NFL. His pro career has been so bad it would be hard to sit down for a day and make up that story. A sitcom writer couldn't make up something that funny.Thanks again for the reaffirmation ITZ.

I've always been curious about this. Did Frye stay an extra year because he wanted to, or did he consult with professionals about his draft prospects and realize there was a chance of not getting drafted or becoming a Nate Davis (before Davis of course)? Remember, if the Browns were the only team stupid enough to draft him in the third round after his senior year, who else would have drafted him? Who would have drafted him after his junior year?I actually think Frye made an informed decision to stay his senior year because he realized from talking with others he may not be ready for Sunday afternoons. Maybe Fitzgerald, et al talked with him, but I think the rational decision was to stay at UofA because he was not ready.

Since we finished 5th in the regular season in 2009, I have to think there are a few teams @ our level. BG comes to mind. OU will be back. Miami had a good recruiting year. K.e.n.t. ... they suck. Thanks for your response CK.I also wanted to let you know I received another note from the QB at CMU reminding me to be on the look out for a note he wants me to forward to you after the game Saturday. I don't know what it is, but he must be composing a book....

It is also a good example of mind reading. There is a lot that describes how JD and the team is thinking.Love the last paragraph though....

I don't care about rankings, but I do believe this. On January 1, 2010, the Zips will be a minimum 10 win team with RI and the MAC schedule ahead of them.Anything can happen in sports, but this team has enough talent and depth to overcome any problems they may have during the season. I fully expect them to repeat as MAC Champions again this season.Maybe someone can help, but is there even a MAC school out there with our talent level or even close to us?

Thanks for the history lesson grandpa. No go put your gloves back before you get chilled and wait for dinner to be served at three o'clock.

I'm not worried about JD. If/When he gets fired, he will have a good job after that. Surely he will not be coaching at Ashland. I'm not even worried about the Zips. I think there is enough talent on this team to win in the very near future.

This is utter gibberish. Let's clear one thig up first. In 20 years, what happens this year does not matter.Secondly, as I read this board, there are more people who have been posting here for years who would rather have the football program fail so they could say "I told you so" than people who want the best for the program....just read the board over the past five day. Failure is actually desired by these Browns fans.

I actually love paragraphs like this. This paragraph is exactly the kind of funny smack that makes fan boards so funny. The time it took to type the lead up to this paragraph took a long time and to end the post with a paragraph like this is.....quite frankly, something the Great GP1 would do.Nice work InTheZone.Well done.

I'm not really disagreeing, but your post made a point clear for me.Our problem is not the youngsters. Teams go through periods where they might have more young than old or visa versa.The problem is not talent. There is more overall talent on this team than ever.The problem is turning the talent into a winning/watchable team. I blame everyone for that. The coaches and the players are to blame.What does watchable mean? How about not allowing the other team to run the ball up the middle for five yards on third and four? How about if our running backs don't go down on first contact? How about if our QB doesn't turn the ball over time and again? How about if when we hit the other team's ball carrier, it doesn't take five guys to bring him down and he gains 2-3 extra yards in the process? How about if we tackle better? How about something other than 2nd and 9 or 10? How about better play calling? How about a punter that can kick the ball further than me...It's freaking D-1A football for crying out loud? All of this makes for bad football. Bad football, like bad baseball, is unwatchable. The people of NE Ohio are not stupid....they are not going to pay their hard earned money to watch bad football. We've been seeing these things happen for 20+ years with different coaches and different players.If JD is let go at the end of the year, the AD should tell the next coach to retain as many players as possible (don't do what Syracuse did) and toughen them up in spring practice. Can a new coach put a heart into a talented filled but heartless team?

How does this sound for a conference?AkronCan'tOhioMiamiBGSUToledoBall StateWestern MCentral MEastern MSounds like a bunch of teams that absolutely nobody in the area would pay money to watch the Zips play against.You might be right, you might be wrong.What interest would there be if we removed one MAC team and substituted it for any CUSA team. Keep in mind that in native American, "any CUSA team" is pronounced Indiana.

Amen. Some fifth string scrub gets in trouble and the program is out of control. The program isn't out of control, the team is not playing up to it's potential on the field....that's the problem. Most fans don't really understand how little the players care about off field issues. Most are going about their day going to class, practice, homework, getting something to eat (believe me, offensive linemen are much more worried about their next meal than some knucklehead getting into a fight) and the girlfriends. There isn't much time to worry about anything else.

How does this sound for a conference?AkronCan'tOhioMiamiBGSUToledoBall StateWestern MCentral MEastern M