GP1

Let's just say that over the past few months, strange things have been going on on this board. Out of respect to the moderators, I will leave it at that. I think they know what I mean.Beware of the wolf in sheeps clothing.

I have to respectfully disagree with you. When UAM didn't get the job at Akron, he should have made a name for himself at another school without Mike Thomas. As it stands now, he looks like a guy who follows one guy around his entire career. I wouldn't be impressed by that if I sat on an interviewing committee.On the other hand, there was a young kid working in the Athletic Department who decided to go to another school other than Cincy, I think his name was Newhouse (sp?)....maybe. That shows balls and an ability for someone move outside of his comfort zone. Kevin Olivette (sp?), another good employee, did the same thing. Following Mike Thomas around was the easy thing to do. I'm not impressed.

Huh! In the Aikman discussion, you give him (the QB) much (if not most) of the credit for the teams success...Now after watching a superb performance by Edelman and I want to give him (the QB) the credit, you disagree.The reason Can't goes from 1 win to already three is primarily because he ie quarterbacking and Machen (sp?) is watching...On Saturday, his pinpoint "jumpball" passing, elusiveness on all types of runs--options, called qb runs as well as scrambles enabled Can't to spread the field and open-up their offense...something Machen or anyone else on their roster couldn't do. He is the difference and we couldn't stop him. This is just simply untrue. I never told you that Aikman didn't have a great cast around him. I told you that Aikman was one of the best QBs in history (not exactly sticking my neck out), even better than most in the Hall of Fame (sticking my neck out).Back to the Zips.You are giving all of the credit to Edelman. It doesn't take a great QB to throw a jumpball pass to a guy.....it takes a great athlete to catch the ball. I reject out of hand that Edelman alone was the difference. He is a glorified running back in an option type offense. Looking at the statistics in the link I post above, too many guys contributed to the offense for Can't on Saturday for me to sit here and say that one single guy won the game for them.I stand by my premise that Can't had more athletic players than we did Saturday. 22 points is way too much for just one player to create that big of a spread. I'm not willing to dance around the calf on this one.

He did on Saturday! You're as wrong about this as you are about the Troy Aikman discussion.

I always like to see a Dwight Smith reference. I sometimes forget what a great player he was. I doubt the school has had a better "football player". He played corner, safety, running back, wide receiver, ran back kicks and blocked kicks. The guy could do it all.

Are you sure that all of you aren't just dancing around the calf?

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/15653655.htmGood post Zips Win!. It was cogent, well thought out, clearly communicated, contained all the points you wanted to make and just plain wrong.I have posted the link to the statistics for the game. Everyone can have a look at them and decide.The bottom line is and the evidence shows that many on Can't's team participated in their win, not just Edelman. Their scoring was balanced between running and passing. Their offense was a good balance between all players. When we were trying to get first downs on third and long, they were frequently operating from third and short, or even better, second and short.If you want to say the players were out of position, what position were they supposed to be in? Do you have some sort of insight into the game plan none of us know about? Were you privy to sideline conversations? How do you know that they didn't practice all week against the exact plays that beat us Saturday? Is the Can't State offense the same mystery offense that a lot of teams are running now and everyone has had a chance to play against?All any of us really know when we go to a game is what we see. At the end of the day, what I saw was a Can't team that was big, fast and quick......or at least one that was bigger, faster and quicker than ours (this year). Believe me, I don't like typing it any more than you like reading it, but to describe it any other way is just being intellectually dishonest. Edelman alone does not make that team 22 points better than us. Much more than one player goes into that level of ass kicking. Even a perfectly thrown pass must be caught. Open field tackles must be made. Receivers must be covered. We didn't do much of that Saturday. There are only 11 players on the field, not 100. I at least expect the players to keep track of the guy with the ball and the five other guys who could potentially get the ball. Christ, we play with five freaking DBs (which I hate, but that is another post)......only five guys are eligible to get the ball other than the QB. It really isn't splitting the atom. If the Zips are as equally as talented as Can't, they didn't show it Saturday. The games are the time to go out and show your talent, not on recruiting reports or any other type of paper. Saturday is deal closing day and we didn't close.There are no secrets during the week. Both teams basically know what the other team is trying to do on offense and defense. It is a matter of players executing the game plan. Hell, if you had good enough players, you could run the QB sneak every play and win.

Excellent posts! I'm just writing this to move this back to the top.I love it when Z-P posts like he was there when the concrete was drying on the Rubber Bowl.

What you are going to find in your analysis is the following.One, flat footed players on defense who were not quick enough to make open field tackles.Two, quick players on Can't's defense who made open field tackles, one after another, against DK and anyone else who came into contact with them.Three, LBs too slow to cover more athletic players.Four, Can't has guys who can catch passes.......almost all of the time. We have guys who catch some of the time. Pass catching is an athletic skill.Five, you are going to see a very big and athletic Can't O-Line create lanes for runners against a smaller D-Line and smaller defense.Six, tall receivers who out athleted our smaller DBs. The same thing happened in the Motor City Bowl last year.Seven, missed tackles because we were too slow to be in position to make the tackles. When we were in position, they were quicker than us and got around the tackle.Eight, does anyone think our offensive line was more athletic than Can't's defensive line?There is more, but I think I have made my point.Look, there is no question we were completely out everythinged on Saturday. If you want to blame coaching, that's fine too......God knows we were out everythinged and coaches are an easy target when you don't know what else to say. Talent was our biggest problem against Can't........this year. If you want throw in everything except the comparative performance of the two bands, that's fine too. Beatings like the one we took Saturday don't just happen, a lot goes into them.One thing about playing the games is you get a chance to find out who is good and who is not good. Basically, you get to find out who the contenders and who the pretenders are. Can't may be good this year......Hell, they are in perfect positioin to win the MAC East and go to a bowl as they are undefeated in the MAC East with wins against us, BGSU and Miami. Put yourself in their position. Isn't this exactly where you would want to be? I don't think the trend will continue past this year, but this year they have all they players to be a good team and contend for the championship this season.Over the next couple of years, I'll take our young talent and JD over Can't any day of the week. Satuday was not our day though.As far as the sky falling, it is falling, but it hasn't fallen. Akron can not afford to lose another MAC game and we need a lot of help. We lost three MAC games last year and made the MACC. With the wins Can't has, Akron can not afford to lose another MAC game. That means winning on the road against Toledo and OU........two difficult places to win. It also means beating Western the last game of the year when both teams may be playing for something. Can it be done? Of course.The other side is, who is going to beat Can't three times this year to open the door for us if we win out. They have OU at home, Ball State, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Temple and someone else I can't think of right now. We may be able to get a group of 22 guys from ZipsNation to beat Ball State, Temple and Eastern. History tells us that Can't is more than capable of losing six in a row. Logic tells us that was a pretty good team that beat us Saturday and it is unlikely to lose many more.Someone else also brought up making a bowl. That is also a possibility. To do so, this week against Cincinnati is a must win. Seven wins gets us a chance of making a bowl. Eight wins could put us in a position to be an at large bid over other MAC schools. I'm sure the Motor City Bowl wouldn't mind having us back.

That just isn't right. You could say that about both of them actually.

Yes, you read it correct. We were out playerED.I have a friend who is a coach at another MAC school and he once told me, "GP1, you don't win with X's and O's, you win with Jimmies and Joes". Can't has better Jimmies and Joes than we do. Period. If we played Can't ten times this season, we would have trouble winning two of the games. I wish I could say different.People are going to come into this board and talk about play selection and penalties and everything under the sun. None of that matters. We got out asses kicked by a team that was much more athletic than we were. Not only were they more athletic, they were bigger than us also. I love to say this so I'll say it again. I don't care what your wives and girlfriends tell you, size matters. They were bigger, they were faster, they were quicker and they execute.I can't believe I'm about to say this......here it goes..........just a second.............trying to get up the energy...........................almost ready................getting extra energy to my fingers..............I think I can do it..............I'm ready, Can't is going to the MACC and a bowl game this season.

Soooooo, let me get this straight. Zips score time and again last week in the red zone. They score a game winning TD on the one yard line against NC State (all three scores were red zone scores in that game, and the holes were opened up by the offensive line). I wonder how many of their scores against PSU were in the red zone....... They scored a respectable amount against PSU and CMU. Does this constitute a coaching problem? Less finesse and more power running has resulted in scoring for the Zips this season.The only red zone problems they have had all year are Getsy throwing an interception against CMU for a TD on a pass he learned not to throw in 7th grade (not a coaching problem). The other problem was Getsy overthrowing Tuzze on the one yard line in the same game (not a coaching problem). Had we used our power running game (not finesse) we may have scored. The ABJ is correct, our kicking problem is our biggest red zone problem right now. If we get it close, we should be able to score some points.It seems as if ZipsAnalyst, for whatever reason, doesn't like JD and feels the need to take jabs at him. That's fine, it's a free country and this is an open forum to express ideas. JD is a big boy and can take shots from the cheap seats from people he has forgotten more about football than they will ever know. The bottom line is in the games we have lost this season, it has not been a coaching problem as much as it has been a veteran team not executing plays properly (two plays to be exact) at critical times. Does this require us to revamp our entire red zone offense? Probably not. Even in the CMU game where our "offensive coordinator" did such a poor job, our offense completely dominated the game. I await another ZA strange rationalization for being wrong again.

An out of town person would never find it going this way. Here is how you do it from UofA. I-76 east to Rt. 43 north. Make a right at Rt. 261 (huge interchange). Follow the signs.

I think Big Zip is closest to being correct. The game will be like the OU game last year. Hand wringer at half with Akron taking control in the second half to win what looks to be a lopsided score.Can't will not score much this week. Last week was the first week all year they scored a respectable amount of points and they did that after 6 BGSU turnovers. Can't is a pretender to the throne, not a contender. The two teams they have beaten have a combined win total of 1.I've already said it and I'll say it again, there is no way Can't wins three games in a row.

If the goal was to move to D-1A, bringing Faust in was a good thing. He was the right guy at the time if the program was going to move to D-1A as he was one of the biggest names in college football. Making the move with Dennison was not the answer. The biggest mistake in UofA football history was keeping Faust for nine years when the program was basically going nowhere after five.

WOW! Kosar didn't give the Browns all he had? He wasn't smart? He didn't have guts? Amazing that you even think that way. When Kosar was playing for the Browns, he was one of the best QBs in the game and he was feared by most teams. Nothing against Frye, but Kosar won. Frye now has a 2-6 career record as a starter in the NFL. With the exception of yesterday's first half, Charlie has been at best average in the NFL. There are only two or three teams where Frye could start, and the Browns are one of them. Kosar could have started on 80% of the teams when he played.It's OK to use names like Sipe and Kosar in the same sentence as Otto Graham. That's about it.

Funny, but I would have said something like, "It gives new meaning to the term, running game".You have to love a guy who makes fun of himself after the game. A reporter asked him something along the lines of it being a long run to the bathroom, and he said, "Not as long as it would have been had I not run when I did".

This could get ugly.

Akron will win next week. Think of the game the way a gambler would. When is the last time Can't State won three in a row? What are the odds of them winning three in a row? Answer those questions and you will know that Akron will win next week. Can't State will not respond well to winning two in a row.

Great discussion.Preparation (intelligence) is only half of the conjunction. The other half discusses effort. JD has brought players to Akron that not only have talent, but also display a high level of effort. Hard work can not be taught, it just exists in a person who at some point in their life decided something good could happen to them if they just work hard. Likewise for talent, it just exists. Intelligence.........football isn't exactly splitting the atom. As long as the coaches can teach them the game, all will be well if the effort is there. A senior QB should not make the play Luke did Saturday, he has been in college football too long to allow that to happen.The other point above is, "Did the coach get in the way?". I was listening to the call in show last night on 1350 AM, and JD all but said he did get in the way. His point was not directed at the play call. He said something along the lines that if he does not challenge the call, the team attempts a field goal and they win the game because the INT for a TD does not happen (something like that). So here we are in the unlucky seat Mr. Rickey describes. Did "intelligence and effort" combine at their best for CMU on that play? I would say yes. Sometimes, the other team is allowed to make good plays too.

One other thing on us getting lucky in the MACC. It drives me crazy when a person claims someone had success because of luck. It took me a few minutes to find this quote in the book I have been reading, but here it goes. This is from Page 60 of David Maraniss in his book "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero". It's a great book and I highly recommend it. The quote if from the great manager Branch Rickey. I'll write the entire paragraph. Mostly, the phrase "Luck is the residue of design" is all we get."All events in Mr. Rickey's world could be studied, categorized, and explained. Good things did not fall upon people, or baseball clubs, by accident. He was a man of sayings, and his most famous phrase came a the end of his thought: 'Things worthwhile generally don't just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference or inattention are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.'" Akron 31, NIU 30.

Bad for Akron? Absolutely. We need two more years of JD to make certain the program could be placed on cruise control while a new staff takes shape. The defense is playing much better. The offensive just needs to execute better. Two top recruiting classes in the MAC the past two seasons. The team's size and athletic ability is better than it has ever been. The players are more physical than they have ever been (probably due to being bigger and stronger). I also think the team is mentally stronger than it has ever been....we never used to come from behind in a game to win. The team is better prepared than it has ever been (remember the number if timeouts we had to take prior to JD because the freaking defense didn't know where to line up). Without question, JD Brookhart is one of the top two or three coaches in the MAC. Losing him at this point would be very difficult for the program to overcome. The people on this board have not given JD anything.......he has earned the respect of the fans after some were calling for his head when he started his first season 1-4.The win in the MACC was not luck. JD and his staff completely out coached NIU in the game last season, especially when it counted in the fourth quarter. The staff kept the team together, made the adjustments they needed to make, had all of their time outs at the end of the game, held NIU to a three and out after an INT and executed a great two minute drive at the end of the game. How is that luck? Sounds like good coaching to me.Please define backing into the MACC. We won all the games we had to win to get there and played by the same rules as everyone else. You make it sound like we did something wrong. In fact, we did everything right. Sorry you have a problem with Akron experiencing success. For some reason, there are some out there who do.

Interesting report. Great find a-zip! The guy writes, "then lost to Central Michigan". CMU may be the second best team we play all year..........much better than NC State (State is only a 3 or 4 win team), and we lost to them on the road on our third straight away game and could have easily won the game.I think the biggest advantage JD would have is his recruiting ties to Florida.The biggest disadvantage is not many coaches are leaving the MAC and experiencing much success. The guy that left for Missouri from Toledo is in a perpetual state of average. Terry H from Miami is at Indiana to break the bank at the end of his career and his program is going nowhere. Miami is going to be looking for a "sure thing". Does a MAC coach give that to you?.......I'm not sure. Will the Miami community settle for a MAC coach?........I'm not sure.If JD wants this type of job by next year, he can't lose a game the remainder of the season.

Welcome back InTheZone! I was about to put a call out to you on the board.The solution to the pass rush problem is a good question (assuming there is a problem). I think Akron has optioned out of a huge pass rush for coverage. We seemed to rush more people against PSU and by sacrificing the LBs, we gave up a lot of yardage on short intermediate crossing patterns for 5-15 yard gains really hurting our ability to stop them on third and long. The key may not be the pass rush, but better coverage creating the always fun for a TV announcer to say "Coverage Sack".While I don't really like the 3-3-5 defense because it makes a team too small and depends on some level of guessing, I can't at the same time say we don't have a solid defense. Coach Flemming really seems to be in a groove calling the defense and all is going well. If we execute better on offense, the pass rush will not be a big concern.

I think 25 is too small and 30 will be too big.One thing a smaller stadium will do IF they are selling a lot of tickets is force people to buy tickets for late season games. I don't like the old Acme Zip idea of having one big attendance game a year and then absolute crap the remainder of the year.Someone also brought up the idea of a bigger conference and the need to build a big stadiium for the future. Does anyone realistically think a bigger conference would want Akron? We have about a 2,000 person football season ticket base. What do you think the fan bases at Big East schools like WVU, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Connecticut are? We are fine right where we are now.Remember, once the new stadium is built, it must be maintained. The bigger the stadium, the more maintenance is required. We don't want to burry the athletic program/University in operating costs for a giant stadium that sits half full on game day.