GP1

No, they really can't.

Thanks for posting the videos DrZ. Especially the video of the loser Browns fan at the Christmas Eve blow out. Watching that never gets old. I was at that game and stayed until the last second ticked off. I sat in the club section and my wife and I were the only two people left in our entire section when the last second ticked off. What we see on this video is not cause for a multiple game suspension or even an ejection. Rough play? Yes. Penalty worthy? Yes. The real fine should be for the punter who ran around the goings on like a scared little girl. As far as I am concerned, #47 is a little bitch for allowing himself to be abused like that. The only thing missing was him falling into the UFC male on male sex position.It takes a special kind of coward to hit a man while he's down. No matter who your favorite team is you cant deny that. It sort of reminds me of this:Looked to me like Harrison was doing his job. The play is still going on in the background and Harrison is aggressively blocking his man during the play. With the exception of the punch (and a lame punch at that), it looks to be a legal play to me. Harrison gets paid to play football from whistle to whistle. His job is to block #47 during that time period. #47's job is to get up off of the ground and run down the field to tackle the guy that plays on Harrison's team. One guy did his job, the other guy failed at his job. It's the NFL, not some pee wee league where everyone gets a chance and nice guys do indeed finish first. The NFL is a league for savage beasts who get paid to savagely beat up on the guys they are playing against. Harrison understands that. He is the savage beast every team wishes they had.

Thanks for posting the videos DrZ. Especially the video of the loser Browns fan at the Christmas Eve blow out. Watching that never gets old. I was at that game and stayed until the last second ticked off. I sat in the club section and my wife and I were the only two people left in our entire section when the last second ticked off. What we see on this video is not cause for a multiple game suspension or even an ejection. Rough play? Yes. Penalty worthy? Yes. The real fine should be for the punter who ran around the goings on like a scared little girl. As far as I am concerned, #47 is a little bitch for allowing himself to be abused like that. The only thing missing was him falling into the UFC male on male sex position.

I think there's something to this comment.See also (perhaps soon): Akron Men's Basketball - Defense. Individually, not all of these guys are exemplary one on one defenders (Conyers & Linhart the noted exceptions). As a team however, there have been flushes of phenomenal defense .. and it's showing up statistically .. and in the win column.Nice post GP1.Good points.Discipline runs throughout the Steelers organization. The owner knows what he wants his team to do and demands it throughout the organization. He could really care less what they say about him in the media or on web pages. He is more than willing to cut a fan favorite (see Joey Porter) if he feels the player is almost past his prime (they replaced Porter with Defensive Player of the Year Harrison). He drafts young players behind veterans who may be getting long in the tooth and he does not care if the veteran likes it or not. He built his team years ago, now he maintains the greatness through keeping his identity in tact. Moving this to Zips MBB. We all know how much I hate the talk of "building" on this board. As far as the MBB team is concerned, KD has built, not is building, a good program. The program is always going to function in degrees of "good". They will not become average and they will probably never become great. Good is an excellent place to be over the long haul (see the Steelers). Right now, the Zips miss that one player, the Roethlisberger type guy, who can bring it all together. Zeke is a HS All American. I expect him to immediately move the program to a championship contender again next year. If the Zips were an NFL team this year, they would be considered a playoff contender, but not a team that could win the Super Bowl (the Eagles are a team like this). Next year, they should be a "Super Bowl contender" as far as college basketball goes with Zeke on the team. When fans think of the future, they should not think in terms of building. Building means there is a lot missing. Zips basketball fans should think in terms of "maintaining". The Zips need to maintain a team that can compete for the championship year in and year out. Zips fans should understand this and accept that there will be a year here or there (two years ago the Steelers didn't come close to making the playoffs) where the team does not meet expectations but they still function in the "good" range of teams. Over the long haul in the MAC, good is good......great is unreasonable......average is unacceptable.Speaking of the value of discipline. When Warner fumbled on the last play of the game (the NFL confirmed yesterday that it was a fumble), the Steelers were so well coached and disciplined that they sprinted their offense on the field and got off the snap at the ready to play signal before they could signal for a replay. NBC almost missed the play showing the replay of the Warner fumble. Most entire teams would have run onto the field resulting in a penalty. The Steelers played to the end of the 60th minute and secured the victory. That's discipline. That's the Steelers organization.

What do you mean? A keg of Natural Light can't be that expensive. She wouldn't want any dinner because she wouldn't want to take up any beer space. Try to think of the positives.

I beg to differ on this comment. You can trade me your not-so-talented team for mine anyday.Your team is very talented. They just pick players with great talent that would be better playing in another system. They have an identity problem more than anything else. Your team has far too much talent to miss the playoffs. The blame really falls on the owner who probably can't admit that running an NFL team is not as easy as he thought it would be and he is in over his head. I guess I may be too hard on the Steelers talent level. They probably have a very high average talent level on the team. They keep that average up with a lot of "good" players, but not if any "great" players (with the exception of Ben). Too many teams get 3-4 great players and surround them with bums and they can't understand why they can not win.

There is only one statistic you need to look at with Ben. That statistic is wins. When the game is on the line, he comes through.I am a Steelers fan and I watch every game start to finish. They are not that talented of a team, but when you put it all together with a winner at the helm, you end up winning. Santanio Holmes would not be the #1 receiver on a lot of teams. Hines Ward is slow and old. Nate Washington only catches half the passes that hit his hands. Sweed........he is just awful.The Steelers won 12 games with Mewelde Moore starting at rb for a lot of the season. He was a cast off from the Vikings.Ben has 9 more years left on his contract. If he continues to win the way he does, the HOF is certain.

Maybe the replay booth saw that when he was hit, the ball came out before his hand went forward. Maybe the only reason the ball went forward is it was knocked out of his hand before going forward, landed on his arm and went forward because it was knocked loose from his hand prior to going forward.Oh well, at least Warner has the best wife money can buy.

Let me say this first. Ben Roethlisberger is a winner.Bradshaw to Swann. Montana to Taylor. Roethlisberger to Santanio H. If you look at any five year statistic worth anything, Ben is in the all time top five list. Two Super Bowls. A huge playoff winning percentage. One last minute win after another. At a minumum, he is only behind Brady in QBs of his generation. Save me the Manning nonsense too. No QB in the NFL is doing less with more than P. Manning.Did Ben earn a spot in the HOF yesterday? The pass to Santanio was magical at worst and the stuff legends are made of.

Most of you Browns fans would give your right nut to have Harrison on your worthless, losing team. Harrison has more fight in him than the entire Browns team. That's how you win Super Bowls and Defensive Player of the Year Award in the NFL.Suspended multiple games for punching one of your precious white guys in the back? Give me a break. Some of you are just stupid beyond belief. I was in Pittsburgh for work a couple of months ago and went to a Penguins game with my brother. We had tickets in the igloo club and Harrison was sitting a couple of rows in front of us. Between periods, Harrison hung out in the club (didn't have a single drink) and signed every autograph and took every picture people asked for. He was friendly to everyone. Didn't seem like a thug to me.

This is now a little off-topic, but something is definitely wrong with midwest football. Our teams are slow and boring to watch. The Big 11 is even more painful to watch than the MAC, IMHO.Even though I am partially an OSU fan, I WILL agree to that. Considering the amount of talent that comes out of this area, youd think the entire conference would be better, but either a. the talent is being recruited out of this region to the the South and West, or B. the talent is being recruited locally, but the systems they are playing in flat-out don't work.It should be noted, however, that the OSU/Texas bowl game this year was a very close game throughout, even though everyone figured Texas would just entirely dismantle OSU. Considering that Texas was the other team that really had a legit chance to go to the national championship last year, had they not been snubbed out of the Big12 championship, I would say OSU held their own against a far superior team, unlike Penn State... Alas, this isnt relevant, so I will shut up now. But yes, I would much rather watch a MAC game than a Big10 game.I think there is a third possibility; let's call it "c" for consistency. Perhaps Ohio and much of the Midwest, while still a "decent" region for prospects, isn't the "hotbed" it once was. It's a simple case of demographics IMHO.I'm absolutely convinced it is demographics. As people move from the midwest, there are fewer people with children high school football age and younger compared to other regions. Pretty soon, all that will be left in the mw are nursing homes as young people flee for opportunity other places.I've said it before and I'll say it again. HS football in Ohio is a shell of what it used to be. In a lot of areas of the country, there is spring football for high school. The kids are finely tuned by the time fall comes around and they have a lot more experience and coaching under their belts when they graduate HS.There is a trickle down effect here. As the Big Ten gets worse, so does the MAC. 5-6 years ago, both of these conferences were much better than they are now. Basketball is the same way. The key for UofA is to maintain good teams and dirgress slower than the rest of the league.

Not to defend anything, but the pass interference penalty was real. The cheap shot Will Allen took on McGahee in the fourth quarter taking him out of the game was the reall play that won it for OSU.Tressel plays a hefty dose of MAC teams every year. Why shouldn't he be recruiting MAC players . Hell, before too long, the Big Ten will be just as bad as the MAC.

#67 John Buddenberg

ESPNU just replayed the VA Tech vs. Pitt game from 2003. I watched it because I was at the game and it was the second coldest game I have ever been to next to the 2005 Can't game.While watching it, I noticed Pitt had a back up QB on the sideline you all might be familiar with. His name was Luke Getsy. Some of you may remember him as former MAC champion QB from Akron, Luke Getsy.They also had a defensive end that played quite a bit during the game named Andy Alleman. Some of you may remember him as former MAC champion offensive lineman from Akron and now Miami Dolphin, Andy Alleman. Moving to offense was a great move for Andy. He really wasn't a very good defensive end and would probably be working a real job right now had he stayed at Pitt.I just thought it was kind of funny and would share it.

AMEN! I was a senior in HS in 1986. I've lived through over 20 years of "building". I sure would like to see some results.

Brookhart takes a few JC kids every year....So what? JD has a MAC Championship and KD doesn't. What's the point?Akron had 5 JC players on their football team last year out of roughly 85 scholarships (5.9% of the team....not exactly overflowing with JC players). How do I know this?....I took 30 seconds to go to GoZips.com and count. There are roughly 15 scholarships on a basketball team. That means there are 5.5 times as many scholarships in football compared to basketball. It would only take the basketball team having one JC player on their team to proportionally equal/exceed the number of JC players on the football team.If KD brought one JC player to Akron and equaled/exceeded the proportion of football, would that make him a bad coach? It sounds to me that if he could get a JC player he wanted, he would take him. Does being open to the idea of JC players make KD a bad coach? The answer to these two questions is NO.

I really don't disagree with any of this with the exception of feeling sorry for him. I try to save my pity for cancer victims, special needs children, people with severe birth defects, etc.I can't help but think though that if Grant lands in the right place, at the right time and makes the right plays in pre-season games, he could play in the NFL. Timing is everything. Cases in point:1. Chase Blackburn landed on the right team at the right time after being cut by the Brown. 2. Dom Hix landed on the right team at the right time after being an afterthought in Denver.3. Robert Lyons landed on the right team at the right time. 4. Hell, we could even say that Frye landed at the right team at the right time when Cleveland drafted him. Only the Browns were stupid enough to waste a relatively high pick on and then start a career back-up.5. Nate Washington and Hines Ward of the Steelers landed on the right team at the right time (Bill Cowher was a sucker for players of limited talent and doing something with them....although I think Washington stinks).There are a hundreds of players who could take up the last two or three roster spots on an NFL team. I don't think much of Grant's ability, but maybe under the right conditions, he makes a team. Surprises happen every day......especially if you are making the league minimum and the team is in a money pinch. The closest thing the Zips have ever had to a "sure thing" in the NFL were Jason Taylor and Vic Green, and their NFL careers proved it. Probably third was Dwight Smith and his star faded somewhat quickly after having a great Super Bowl.

I follow sports pretty closely and I had no idea this tournament existed. I actually started to laugh when I read about it (I laugh at the NIT also, but that is another topic). I know a lot of you probably think this tournament would be a great chance to "grow" the program or it is a great chance for "building", but it isn't. Making this tournament is not a step forward for a program, it is a step backward and a cause for laughter. Never put your program in a situation where it becomes a cause for laughter. The Zips would be better off not making it than making it. How many people around Akron when reading the ABJ headline, "Zips to play University of X in CIT" would think to themselves..... "There goes the ABJ again. Not only do they not know the Zips did not make the NCAA or NIT, but the misspelled NIT."

IF this is true, I don't condone a coach doing it. What I would condone is one of the Akron players stepping up and getting in Mr. Coleman's face and letting him know that when he comes to Akron, the dunk will be remembered. A little pushing and shoving after a heated game is not unheard of and should be expected on some level. The players should be the ones to initiate the pushing and shoving. Let's hope that in the future, one of the players will have the balls to do this instead of the coach having to do it for them.

I am both pleased and shocked every time I see a win. Here is my question.If the lady Zips finish somewhere around .500, has any coach in the history of the Athletic Department done a better job turning the corner (not around) a program at UofA?I think Coach Kest has made some very hard decisions over the past couple of years and they all seem to be paying off. Changing a culture of losing is the most difficult thing to do and she seems to be changing that culture little by little. It just goes to show that "players coaches" result in losing. The winners are the biggest pricks on the block.

Why would any young, ambitious coach want to coach in the MAC as an assistant for very long? It is a 1-AA conference masquerading as a 1-A conference. Of course UCONN is a better place. Staying at a MAC school too long for an assistant or head coach shows a complete lack of ambition. Schools are looking for ambition and not same old same old.If the "writing on the wall" says, "come to UCONN and more than double your salary so you can better support your young wife and family", then I really don't blame him for leaving.This guy has taken Jacq from a trainwreck to a somewhat competent QB who could have a really good year next season. Who would have thought after 2007? My feeling is the guy is probably a really good coach coaching in the wrong system for him.

I remember several big plays to the TE in the MACC in '05And unfortunately Kris Kasparek never really lived up to the promise he showed in that game, although a lot of it might go back to Dr Z's point about the spread not really emphasizing the TE position.Good discussion on the TE position. My opinion of that position is this. It is both one of the most important positions on the field and also one of the most overrated. Never game plan to pass to the TE unless it presents itself.Every team needs a TE that can catch a pass for a first down, but that about exhausts their use as a receiver. It is more critical to have WRs that can catch passes down field for big plays and TDs than first downs.Any team that has the TE as the primary receiver is asking to lose games. The Dallas Cowboys have that very problem. They have a tremendous amount of talent and they throw to the TE too much and they don't win big games. Mark my words, getting rid of T. Owens will do nothing to solve that problem.Where is John Clayton when you need him? Witten is the least of their problems..and there are many... Although not the primary receiver, Jay Novacek was used similiar to Witten and he won three Suoer Bowls. So, I'm not buying....John Clayton is sniffing the butt of some general manager right now...........Are you saying that the Cowboys do not have a QB that can win big games? That is also a huge part of the problem. Some guys win, some guys don't. It is just that simple.Yes I am.I think you are right.I used to really like Romo, but now I understand why he was a back-up player for four years while he "developed". I also don't like the way he smirks away loses as if it is no big deal.

I remember several big plays to the TE in the MACC in '05And unfortunately Kris Kasparek never really lived up to the promise he showed in that game, although a lot of it might go back to Dr Z's point about the spread not really emphasizing the TE position.Good discussion on the TE position. My opinion of that position is this. It is both one of the most important positions on the field and also one of the most overrated. Never game plan to pass to the TE unless it presents itself.Every team needs a TE that can catch a pass for a first down, but that about exhausts their use as a receiver. It is more critical to have WRs that can catch passes down field for big plays and TDs than first downs.Any team that has the TE as the primary receiver is asking to lose games. The Dallas Cowboys have that very problem. They have a tremendous amount of talent and they throw to the TE too much and they don't win big games. Mark my words, getting rid of T. Owens will do nothing to solve that problem.Where is John Clayton when you need him? Witten is the least of their problems..and there are many... Although not the primary receiver, Jay Novacek was used similiar to Witten and he won three Suoer Bowls. So, I'm not buying....John Clayton is sniffing the butt of some general manager right now...........Are you saying that the Cowboys do not have a QB that can win big games? That is also a huge part of the problem. Some guys win, some guys don't. It is just that simple.

I remember several big plays to the TE in the MACC in '05And unfortunately Kris Kasparek never really lived up to the promise he showed in that game, although a lot of it might go back to Dr Z's point about the spread not really emphasizing the TE position.Good discussion on the TE position. My opinion of that position is this. It is both one of the most important positions on the field and also one of the most overrated. Never game plan to pass to the TE unless it presents itself.Every team needs a TE that can catch a pass for a first down, but that about exhausts their use as a receiver. It is more critical to have WRs that can catch passes down field for big plays and TDs than first downs.Any team that has the TE as the primary receiver is asking to lose games. The Dallas Cowboys have that very problem. They have a tremendous amount of talent and they throw to the TE too much and they don't win big games. Mark my words, getting rid of T. Owens will do nothing to solve that problem.

Excellent point. Here is what the NCAA should do. 1. Select the 40 best D1A programs over the past 30 years and make them one division.2. They have four conferences that must play each other over an eleven game season meaning 9 conference games.3. Three out of conference games that must be scheduled within this level of football and the NCAA decides who plays whom and the decision is based upon prior season success like the NFL used to do.4. Stop the farce that is the players are amatures and pay them.5. Have a playoff that pays players and coaches extra for advancing.6. You must win your conference to make the playoffs.This scenario would only take two weeks of playoffs. No wild cards or anything else. You either win your conference or you watch the playoffs on TV.