GP1

I don't know about Gates. The way he is playing now, yes.If Taylor retired today, he isn't just a HOF player, he is a first ballot HOF player. He is probably one of the top 20 players in the NFL in the past ten years. Too bad he plays for such a poor team.

I'll get to the lack of self awareness in a second.....The MAC Championship was won by Biggs and Getsy.....the end. The last time I checked, they were JD's recruits. Now off to self awareness.....One of the interesting things I notice when I see former players from the Owens era post, like ITZ, is the complete lack of self awareness. I know a lot of guys from the Faust era. To a man, they know they were bad teams with bad players. They have absolutely no illusions things were anything more than what they were. As bad as they were during the Faust era, I'd stack the talent level on some of those teams any day against the best team of the Owens era. In fact, the highest winning percentage in the D-1A era was by a Faust team (1992)......all without a new fieldhouse. The interesting thing about the Owens players is that they were bad players, and they don't know they were bad. They have sort of this over inflated opinion of themselves that so many young people have today. There have actually been recent articles in the Wall Street Journal about this attitude and how to handle it. Perhaps they were kept in diapers too long as children. Maybe in time they will grow up. JD didn't walk into an ideal situation, he walked into a barn knee deep in steaming crap.The talent level on the current team is very good. As a group, probably better than in a long time. Certainly better than any year of the Owens era. A decent QB and last year's team wins 7-8 games. Two additional games get won with a decent QB...Miami, CMU.

The theme here seems to be McNees. I only saw him play once, but I liked what I saw. Since I didn't see his name much in the line up or on this board, I thought maybe the Winthrop game was an exception to his normal play. I told my wife he seemed to be a "sneaky good" player.....in a good way. I like that type of player.He seemed to understand what was going on out on the floor and what Coach D was telling him. When he came out of the game, Coach D would talk to him, he would listen and most importantly, he would respond verbally with Coach D and they would have a conversation. It almost seemed as if Coach D was developing a coach on the floor the way he did Dru.

The one thing that sticks out here is George Mason. Two years ago, they were in the final four. That helps quite a bit. Take out that game (someone with a calculator) and what is their attendance?The biggest "P" in marketing is Product (Price, People, Packaging, Projects, etc. are others.). Both of those schedules are horrible with the exception of George Mason and maybe Temple. One of the things I notice on this board is that we sometimes have trouble putting ourselves in others shoes. The point about product is this. When you go to a basketball game, the product consists of two teams, not just one. As long as the Zips, and the Yellow Flush, continue to schedule junk for home games, they will continue to draw poorly. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything when I type that, but that's just the way it is. The people of NE Ohio are not stupid and will not throw their money away on something where there is no value. Longwood? Where the heck is that place? NC A&T? I didn't even know the place existed until I saw the schedule. NC Central? I thought that was a magnet high school.Akron and the Yellow Flush will draw better when the MAC schedule starts. People know OU, Miami, etc. and they know the product will be better than the likes of NC A&T, NC Central or Longwood. When marketing, always remember that people are not as stupid as they may seem at times.

I read this board, nobody is going to the bb games now. What makes the difference who they play? Let the kids see how good they really are.

Why would anyone come to the JAR and play in front of 3,000 people. Of course it isn't a home game, but that is the cost of being a low level mid major.If KD wants to continue to schedule the junk he is for home games, he shouldn't complain in post game interviews that nobody goes to the game.I'll say it again, let the players see how good they are. Play one or two bigger teams. The program isn't going to fall apart because of those games.

You guys tend to think too much in the extreme. I'm not saying load up the schedule with Top 20 teams, but for crying out loud, play one or two home/home at The Q. Let the players on the team see how good they really are. This is the one chance in their life they will get to do that.

Interesting article. In a lot of ways, I'm glad Mack got his say. I know there are a lot of smoke and mirrors in college athletics, but the guy seems committed. I'm not sure of the facts around the financial numbers, but the ABJ probably didn't take time to do any historical research around them either.I'm also glad he read my post on the struggles of Rutgers football the first four years of Coach S. I'm always glad to help the school any way the great GP1 can.Secondly, not recruiting enough local talent? I've said this before, and I'll say it again, high school football in NE Ohio is a shell of what it was 20-30 years ago. Times have changed and the best football in the state is now being played around Columbus and Cincinnati. A local recruiting strategy would be a disaster of Owens proportions.

I don't know how many players are enough, but I do know it takes the best five to win the game. IMHO, KD should do what Coles does at Miami. Coles plays a lot of players the first 30 minutes in order to find his best five man rotation for that game. The last ten minutes, only those five play and he wins or loses with them. It's such a simple strategy, I can't believe everyone doesn't do it.

I find the strength of schedule topic .To me, this topic is interesting if one or two conditions exist. 1. You purchase tickets to the games. 2. You are a player.1. There is no way I would take money out of my own pocket, or more importantly, spend time going to see the ooc home schedule Akron offers. If you guys enjoy it, that's great! 2. If we have players on this team who want to truely compete, they would want a tougher ooc schedule. I hope there isn't a player on the Zips who wouldn't love to play a UNC or UCLA or Georgetown, etc. Part of playing college athletics is a young person finding out how good they really are at what sport they play. This schedule cheats the players out of that opportunity. If there is a player on the team who woudn't want to play a tougher ooc schedule, that kid should transfer out immediately to a school and a sport where backbones are not needed.

I've always believe that if engineers controlled the United States, and Dilbert became President, the immediate adoption of the metric system would be the tool to unleash a Totalitarian state upon the remainder of the population.

What will happen first? Americans calling D-1A the Football Bowl Subdivision and D-1AA the Football Championship Subdivision; or, Americans accepting the Metric System.I think we have a better shot at the Metric System. If anyone can explain why the NCAA started this stupidity, we are all listening. I'm pretty certain it must have had something to do with an intern needing another line on their resume.

What are they? You only get three. 1=most important...3=least important.Mine are:1. A QB that can win games.2. A new defensive scheme.3. The key to the safe where they have the other 30 plays stashed. The same five were overused last year.What the Hell, it's my topic. I'll add one more:4. The map with directions to the exit of the graveyard.

What three things should Coach D. ask for (BB related) in his stocking this year? 1=most important...3=least important.

Two things. If bad officiating is a sign of gambling problems in college football, then all of college football has a problem with gambling and officials. Conference officials have always favored those teams in position to finish high in the standings or have the potential to go to a national championship game. Look no further than the calls WVU was getting against Pitt this year. The Big East wanted in the worst way to get WVU to the National Championship. If you guys remember back to when Marshall was in the MAC and in the Top 25, they always got favorable calls from the officials.Secondly, the person writing this article is a dick. There was no reason to name the other officials on this guys crew. There is no evidence any of them have any problems, other than being perhaps bad officials. This is actually more of an opinion piece than a news story.I'm not even certain what the purpose of this article was. Officials gamble?.....No surprise there. An offical who gambles engages in other bad behavior?......No surprise there. Questionable calls happen during a game?.....No surprise there.....They happen every game.

The discussion of depth reminds me of one of my most favorite sports comments...."Depth is great until you have to use it." An injury to CM or ND would spell disaster for this team.How is McNeese (sp?) playing? I thought he played well enough at Winthrop that the inclusion of these three freshman wouldn't be that important......unless they are better players.

Is that Freddie Boom Boom Washington I see?

I like the idea, but it will never happen.You guys living in Ohio need to think of it this way. When you look at your paystub and see your OH taxes, you have contributed to the stadium. The tax payers of OH keep MAC athletic programs floating and this stadium will be no different.

I'm sure Mr. Kotter wouldn't appreciate this statement.Weren't we all talking about 70s shows on the Batman/Dwight Smith pot scandal thread? I actually wouldn't mind if this board made fun of the 70s for a couple of weeks.

The fact that Coach Kest has the team at 5-5 at this point in the year could be the greatest coaching job in the history of the school. She is exactly what the program needed.

Wasn't there a Batman episode once where he encountered some type of gas and ended up being stoned. Honest to God, I think there was an episode like that once. Given that it aired in the 70s, it may have happened.

Dude, You never cease to amaze me! :blink: My kids read this board, I hope you are kidding about this? Half serious, half kidding.My guess is that 70% of the NFL smokes pot on a regular basis and 80% smokes pot at some point during the year. I don't swoon with outrage when I read things like this. In fact, I find the stupidity of the average NFL player funny at times.I don't think children across NE Ohio are going to go run out and buy a bong, an ounce of pot and go out and bang some chick in a stairwell because Dwight Smith did it. Considering what I read in the paper, kids smoking pot these days would be a welcome change from the smack and other harsh drugs they are using in their parents suburban basements.Most people reading my post probably just said, "There he goes again" while chuckling about some of the parties they may have gone to in college or go to in college. Sorry if reality can be both funny and harsh. Find some humor.

I'm sure a lot of us on this board smoked some pot when we were young. I'm sure a lot of us would smoke pot now if our companies did not have Puritanical random drug testing programs. I wish to only offer Dwight some advice in lieu of casting stones. I'll leave the casting of stones up to the racists and moralists who regularly post on this board. Dwight, smoke in your house and keep it out of your car.As far as having sex in a public place...Was anyone hurt? If not, shit happens. Having sex wherever and whenever you want to is one of the perks of playing in the NFL. Why is the Janice Joplin song "Get It While You Can" running through my head?Just keep on playing good football Dwight! Be smarter!

It's only a matter of time my good friend.....only a matter of time.High taxes, poor weather, bad schools, rapidly decreasing property values in Akron (look at all the for sale signs on homes, people are getting out as fast as they can) and a mayor who has only one answer...raise taxes again.The only job growth I could see is hospital building. They will be needed to take care of they dinosaurs left after the young flee. People who work in hospitals do not typically live in the city. Just like people working in the hospitals live in places like Boardman and Poland.

Ideas that come to mind first are:1. Public projects are notorious for change orders. Keeping some of the money for that would be a good idea.2. Hire a better breed of sub-contractor.It is good that they are bidding this project as early as they are. This is encouraging. As Akron, and quite frankly the rest of NE Ohio, continues to turn into Youngstown, contractors will become very hungry and need to build their back log. Getting bids this time of year in Ohio is a good way to keep the costs down. Get ready for the change order fights though.I'm not shocked the steel pricing came in lower than anticipated. The cost of steel in the US has been impacted by the construction boom in China in recent years driving up the costs of insulations and things like steel. Building in China and in the US has slowed recently so the cost of steel is down. UofA is getting a good deal. Maybe things are finally falling their way on this project.Nice job by the ABJ publishing this story. It will help keep future bidding for the stadium low as contractors will be more competitive in their bidding after what they see in the first round of bidding. I wonder if the people at the ABJ are actually smart enough though to connect the dots between the low bidding numbers and the lack of economic growth the leadership in NE Ohio is giving the public. Probably not.