GP1

This thread has me really thinking about sports fans and how we perceive athletes. I just finished reading a great book called "God Save The Fan" by Will Leitch (founder of www.deadspin.com). I actually thought of this board a lot while reading parts of it because he has picked up on many of the thoughts I have about some posters on this board. While I am a pretty conservative guy and I don't see racism everywhere, I know it when I see it and I think I see it a lot on this board. My favorite passage about sports fans was on page 231 and reads....Talking about sports fans, black and white, about favorite players..... "This goes the other way, too. I'm sorry, kids-and it pains me, as a Cardinals fan, to say this-but the only thing that separates David Eckstein and Ronnie Belliard is a few points of on-base percentage, some isolated power (both in Belliard's favor, by the way), and, of course, a few inches of height. Eckstein is white and looks like he's running hard and playing his heart out. Belliard has cornrows, keeps his jersey untucked, and wears his hat sideways, for some reason. Eckstein is gritty and feisty; Belliard is a slacker slob who couldn't find a contract in the off-season after he was an integral part of a St. Louis Cardinals World Series victory. Eckstein gets a bobblehead and World Series MVP award for a series in which he didn't have hit until Game 3."Further on the same page, "Major League Baseball, on the eve of the World Series, ran a poll on its Web site encouraging fans to pick their "all hustle" player... Eckstein was on the list, as were Ty Wigginton and Wes Helms. You know what was notable about the list? Every singel player was white. Freaking John Mabry was on the list! (The oly 'role' John Mabry plays on a baseball team is 'old').The book, while serious at parts, is really a funny read and I would recommend it to everyone. It was a quick read..... two flights and one layover.

What kind of comment is that? So outside of Florida you can put talent above character?No, you just have to look much more closely at character when it comes to a Florida kid, and if there are any red flags at all, you pass. It's just a different culture many of the kids from down there are raised in, and it often doesn't mesh well at all with Ohio and Pennsylvania kids. Anyone who has ever been involved with college football knows what I'm talking about.Seriously, that has to be one of the dumbest posts I have ever seen here. You've obviously never been on a college football team and know nothing about locker room chemistry and the problems that can occur when you throw kids from Florida, who for whatever reason nobody closer to home wanted, in with Midwestern kids. Why is it the fault of the kids from Florida if the midwest kids can't get along with them? Maybe there was only a small group of midwest kids who were the problem and they made the problem much worse than it was. Maybe both parties were at fault.Heil Hitler.

What kind of comment is that? So outside of Florida you can put talent above character?No, you just have to look much more closely at character when it comes to a Florida kid, and if there are any red flags at all, you pass. It's just a different culture many of the kids from down there are raised in, and it often doesn't mesh well at all with Ohio and Pennsylvania kids. Anyone who has ever been involved with college football knows what I'm talking about.Seriously, that has to be one of the dumbest posts I have ever seen here. You've obviously never been on a college football team and know nothing about locker room chemistry and the problems that can occur when you throw kids from Florida, who for whatever reason nobody closer to home wanted, in with Midwestern kids. Almost every single kid JD has gone down to Florida to get has been a problem and most of them have quit, packed up their bags, and left.Actually - I was a Zip football player on scholarship and from the south. I started for three years, got my degree in 4 and was never an issue in the lockeroom- so I take exception to your contentious/stereotypical remarks. I do however remember a few guys on our team from the midwest that had issues and created problems in the locker room. A few were even from OHIO :blink: I do agree that character should play a major role in deciding on a high school player. I also think that should be the case for any player you recruit.......even kids from the great state of ohio.Nice work. I don't believe ITZ's issues have anything to do with geographic location as much as other unstated issues. Instead of arguing with him, you shoud just pass along a hearty Heil Hitler salute and move on.

The crossroads between faith and physical evidence is difficult to navigate. Sort of reminds me of a good story......A reporter ventures out to interview a Baptist Minister. One of the questions was, "Rev., do you believe in full body emersion baptism?"The minister instantly responds, "Of course I do, I've seen it done before.".........We have faith because we have seen DK do it before and we believe he has the ability. Our faith is shaken because we have not seen him do it in so long.He is still too much of an east/west runner for my liking.

It would be better if selections three and four were combined into "Will be a career back up who doesn't have what it takes." That's no slight either. Half the starters in the NFL stink. In a league full of really bad QBs, I see no reason why Frye can't survive another 4-5 years until he is priced out of a #2 or #3 position (he is not quite at that point right now, but close). He'll never start again as a first choice, but the starting experience he does have, while a disaster, will make him an attractive candidate for a team looking for a back up. The experience matters. At this point, Charlie needs to look at it as a really high paying job he needs to keep for as long as he can keep it.

Good point. I'll do you one better. Our goal should be to win the division. As a lifelong Steelers fan, I understand the importance of winning the division. See below.The Steelers organization has figured out what almost every other team in the NFL can't figure out. Build a team to win your division, not the Super Bowl, and you stand a better shot at winning the Super Bowl than the teams building to win the Super Bowl. Lewis was brought to the Bengals to build a team to win the Super Bowl.....they have one playoff appearance which they lost. The Browns are building a team to win the Super Bowl......they have zero playoff appearances and had a chance to make the playoffs last year and couldn't beat a divisional team late in the season and it blew their chance to make the playoffs. In order to win the Super Bowl, you must first make the playoffs. The sure way to make the playoffs is to win your division. A good way to win your division is to go undefeated or lose only one game in divisional matchups. The Steelers do this a lot. This is not rocket science. The Steelers aren't flushy, but they have a team that competes well in the AFC North in bad weather. Once they make the playoffs, anything can happen including winning three road games in a row to make the Super Bowl a couple of years ago.Getting back to the Zips. Let's win the division and let the chips fall where they may. Going undefeated or losing only one game in the MAC East gives the Zips a good shot at Detroit. Once they get to Detroit, anything can happen like the year we beat NIU. Post season play should be the goal. We can have as few as 6 wins and make Detroit (see Miami last year).I could care less where the Zips are picked. I only care where they finish. Every year, someone other than the Steelers is picked to win the AFC North and more often than not, the Steelers win it. Last year, it was the Bengals. This year it is the Browns (Look for the Browns to have an injury filled year and only win six games). Usually, they sexy pick is Baltimore. Nobody remembers that the Steelers won 11 games last year and were a holding penalty away from beating J'Ville in a playoff game with a third string left tackle and a running back they had to pull off the street to play that week. The Zips will be fine if they can just stay focused on winning the MAC East. Tha magic number is six.

What kind of comment is that? So outside of Florida you can put talent above character?No, you just have to look much more closely at character when it comes to a Florida kid, and if there are any red flags at all, you pass. It's just a different culture many of the kids from down there are raised in, and it often doesn't mesh well at all with Ohio and Pennsylvania kids. Anyone who has ever been involved with college football knows what I'm talking about.I don't think it is so much the culture they are brought up in as much as the style of football they play. Midwest football is more physical (slow) and southeast football is more speed oriented. A midwest kid is more likely to be able to run the ball up the middle and a southeast kid is more likely to take the ball and run straight to the outside and shy away from contact (Dennis Kennedy).

Thanks for the compliment.

It's because they are running an offense that he and his OC are not used to running. After last year was the year to bring in a new OC. JD had a good offense at Pitt with an average QB and some really good WRs.

I really don't think the talent on the team is all that bad so I'm not down about recruiting. There is certainly enough talent on that team to win the division. A lot of what happens this year will come down to whether or not the team can score. The ability to score depends on play calling and QB play. If the play calling last year was any indication of this year, they will be lucky to win five games. If the QB play is the same, they will be lucky to win four games. The real or imagined lack of talent should be the least of our worries.

Good point and I've been saying this all along. Instead of farting around with this guy, they should have just built the stadium around his property. In time, the property value would have bankrupted the guy in taxes, or the steady devaluation of the property would have decreased to below the "fair market value" UofA offered at around $1 million. This guy is looking to retire. The only real use for that building after the stadium is built is what it is now, which never could support the property taxes, or a bar. The city could zone that property so a liquor license would never be issued for the property. Nobody in their right mind would buy that piece of crap for $1 million. In time, UofA could have gotten this building at a real bargain. Not enough patience. I really don't think that anyone going to a game would every say, "I'm never going to another UofA football game because they have that head shop on the corner." UofA could have waited a couple of years and then taken the property.The Odd corner was in the way of the stadium and had to go. The Nemers property sits where the dorms are going up and not on the stadium footprint. UofA could have built the stadium and not needed the Nemers property. But, since the sell of this to get bond dollars was multi-purpose project. They included the dorms. But, you're right. If, UofA could wait a little longer on the dorms. Those businesses are dying a slow death. Despite some knucklehead comments to me in Rasor blog. I was just there and over the Memorial Day holiday and only bums and assorted derelicts are going to those bars. They we're not even open most of Memorial Day weekend.Good points.Don't worry too much about Rasors comments. Aside from the undertones of the man crush he had on Mike Waddell and trying to impress everyone with the fact that he is in law school (If law school is so hard, why are there so many lawyers?), he is nothing more than a fan of the program with a blog on a newspaper web page. I wouldn't take it too seriously. At least he cares enough to blog.Also, thanks for the correction. I thought this Nemers group owned the head shop on the corner.

Good point and I've been saying this all along. Instead of farting around with this guy, they should have just built the stadium around his property. In time, the property value would have bankrupted the guy in taxes, or the steady devaluation of the property would have decreased to below the "fair market value" UofA offered at around $1 million. This guy is looking to retire. The only real use for that building after the stadium is built is what it is now, which never could support the property taxes, or a bar. The city could zone that property so a liquor license would never be issued for the property. Nobody in their right mind would buy that piece of crap for $1 million. In time, UofA could have gotten this building at a real bargain. Not enough patience. I really don't think that anyone going to a game would every say, "I'm never going to another UofA football game because they have that head shop on the corner." UofA could have waited a couple of years and then taken the property.

For those of you not old enough to remember, the Rubber Bowl used to have dugouts on both sides that went below field level. You can see the top of them in this picture. Years ago, the demolished the dugouts and somehow filled them in.

The Good: The Alcorn fieldgoal to beat Toledo. Great moment for the team and the fans as they rushed the field.The Good Honorable Mention: I forget the year and the score, but Derr kicked a game winning FG in a track meet of a game vs. EMU (I think). I love high scoring games and I could have watched that game all night.The Bad: The scoreboard with multiple lights out on it in game one of the season.The Really Bad: The refs field microphones that never seem to work. Couldn't they send an intern out there every Friday to test it before the game?The Ugly: Delaware St. 52-UofA 27 (not sure that was the exact score). Delaware State had three interceptions for touchdowns and they blocked a punt in the end zone for a TD. We had a much better team that was "debacled" (word invented by Emmitt Smith) by Delaware State. That game must have lasted four hours.Worst Prediction Ending In A Humorous Manner: The guy who is GP1 telling a teammate on the team bus going to the RB before the Delaware State game, "These guys aren't very good. If we get a lead, they will fold like a house of cards. We will win big" In the fourth quarter, teammate responds, "So much for that house of cards Einstein."

New Northern Iowa AD Troy Dannen Some of you were following this story.I like to make fun of people working in college athletics, because I think it is such a silly profession to work in on many levels. One level of siliness is the process by which ADs are selected and the disasters that selection committees can be. This school had the choice of five different candidates. UAM was one of them. If you take time to google the candidates, you will see that the resume of Troy Dannen is the least impressive and the one candidate least qualified for the job. I guess if you want an AD on the cheap, he is the guy ($155,000 per year).The most qualified candidate by far was a woman named Barbara Walker from Wake Forest. In her interview, she talked a lot about winning and having successful programs. She also works for a guy named Ron Wellman (Ohio native) who just won the Street & Smith AD of the year award. I want an AD committed to winning and not making everyone feel good. UNI probably couldn't afford someone of her quality. She can do better than $155,000 per year if she waits a little while longer. UAM focused on student athletes enjoying playing sports or something like that...the answers published in the paper were not impressive, but UAM is still 100 times more qualified than the guy who got the job. My advice to UAM on his next interview would be to focus on what he is going to do to make each program a winner and stay away from the nonsense that you want to be at that job for the rest of your career as no sane person believes nonsense like that. If you sound desperate, people will think you are desperate. NOBODY at UAM's age wants to live in Iowa for the rest of their life. Anyone who has ever been to Iowa knows what I am talking about. With the exception of some on this board, I don't know many people who would be fooled by that answer.Dannen is going to focus on gender equity. Say goodbye to any hope of winning programs UNI. The focus should be on building winning programs. College athletics just got more silly. I have no idea why I enjoy it so much, but I do.

It would be EXTREMELY unlikely for a coach to leave a school this time of year. I can't believe this is true unless something really, really, really, really, really odd happened.

I've been saying it for years on this board. As it relates to college athletics, the answers to your questions are yes to question #1 and no to question #2. In fact, college athletics marketing is so void of any original thinking or creativity that many schools have move to ISP to market for them so they can have some level of professionalism in their marketing and sales.The only thing people in athletics marketing are really good at is promoting themselves. We had a marketing director for a while at UofA who produced a steady decline in ticket sales annually and because he was nice to everyone, everyone thought he was some sort of marketing genius. In the world I work in, a steady decline in sales gets one fired and not loved. It's amazing what people will fall for.

Great post.UofA can beat SU as they are one of the worst teams in college football. Cincy is another issue. I'm going to be interested to see how they do without Mauk next year. I don't think the NCAA cleared him for another year. If they did clear him, we can't win.... If they did not, it depends on the next QB.The problem with the MAC is most team range from "bad" to "really bad" compared to the rest of college football. The good news is most teams are just bad. Akron falls into the bad category at this point meaning 5-3 is possible. 4-4 is also possible. 3-5 is also possible.If Mr. Gump was alive today, he would say in him dimwitted voice, "The MAC is like a box of crap, hard or squishy, it all just smells really bad."

Given our history, it would be a bathroom stall without a door on it and a Cambodian guy sitting on the toilet.that's got to make the hall.......well played sir!I can not accept unless it is under Best Duet. I lifted the Cambodian reference from a Capt. Kangaroo post last football season.

privatize schools?reduce taxes??give people choices???take bureaucrats out of the education system????TO the GULAG with you! Comrade ZippyRulz, you are an enemy of the people's republic of the U.S.Nice!I saw someone talking about this on TV one day. What we really need to do is get smart kids out of secondary school and into college much sooner than age 18. Adolescence has been a complete failure in the United States and it needs to change. A lot of kids just sit around unchallenged by the current school systems. We have a huge obesity problem with teenagers and I think the easy life they live contributes to it. We should pay kids who graduate and go to college early. Ben Franklin worked for his uncle at the age of 13. John Q. Adams served as a secretary to the US Ambassador to Russia at about the same age when his father, the first President Adams sent him away. If a child can graduate at age 16, we should reward that child for achievement with a partial scholarship to college. If Americans were made free to make these choices, I'm sure a lot of people would take advantage of it. Instead, the average American voluntarily allows the government to put more and more restrictions on him every day. The average American is way smarter than the average politician. Look at the three idiots remaining in the Presidential election for the Republicrat Party. It's embarrassing. We need more freedom, and not more restrictions.Live free or die!

High School RankingsAbove is a link for some sort of a ratings system for the best high school athletic programs by state. I don't know much about the rankings or how they came about them, but I found it interesting. The majority appear to be public schools. Give it as much importance as you feel necessary.Before moving away, I lived in the city of Akron. I also went to private elementary school and public middle and high school. Both schools were really good but I was also from a small Ohio town. If I had children, there is no way I would send one to Akron Public Schools at this point. The educational opportunities at Hoban, St. V-M, Walsh and Our Lady of The Elms are much better than offerings at APS. Ultimately, a kid growing up in Akron with a chance to play college sport stands a better chance of being prepared for college (athletics and academics) if that kid goes to one of the private schools above. There are some fantistic kids playing at places like Firestone and Buchtel, but the average run of the mill kid from Akron with college talent is better served at a private school.I find this topic interesting because it makes me realize how much I could really care less about high school sports. I could care less if all public schools win state championships and I could care less if all private schools win state championships. One public school division and one private school division is really a silly proposal because it is only high school sports and it is not really that important to anyone other than the kids and parents participating. Articles like this elevate high school sports to a level it really does not belong. In recent years, we have had good Zips from all types of schools. Dru, Romeo and Dom Hix were all private school products. Wood, Pinky, Biggs, Blackburn et al are public school products. I can't believe the ABJ wasted ink and paper on this subject.

Barbara Walker seems to be the class of the bunch with a pretty impressive resume. With the way universities obsess over "diversity", she may get the first offer.Do you guys think anyone on the hiring committee bought any of the nonsense from UAM that he wanted UNI to be his last stop? Everyone in athletics is the same....as soon as they get one job, they are looking for the next.

Given our history, it would be a bathroom stall without a door on it and a Cambodian guy sitting on the toilet.

I think we need to see how the upcoming season plays out without our special teams ace.

I agree. As long as we disregard the fact they are Connecticut's flagship school and the underlying institutional differences, they are a good example. However, if we include the fact they are Connecticut's flagship school and the underlying institutioinal differences, they are a poor example.