GP1

This is coming from a guy who did not see the game, than God, but it looks as if CJ11 started. I agree and said earlier in the year that there are some coaches who would rather be right than win. With out current QB situation, JD would rather be right about CJ11 than win games. In this day and age, it is critical that the QB you put into the game be a winner and make others around him better. The good news for CJ11 is that if he continues to lose, he will join a long line of loserly QBs at Akron.

I'm shameless. I would like to take one dummy a year on the basketball team if that meant we won the MACC. One great player is all you need in the MAC to win the tournament.The NFL requiring three years of college to play is the only thing keeping OSU from doing the same thing in football.

Interesting, but not surprising.NE Ohio is a professional sports area. I think that hurts Akron more than anything. Tie in a slow economy, and things become even more difficult as people may not want to spend the extra money.With that said, there is no excuse for each UofA graduate living in NE Ohio not attending at least one basketball and one football game a year. If that happened, every game would be sold out.

I had a feeling you've been around the board too long to take the bait.

Well, here it comes. What I mean is that they are too slow and soft.....What do you think I mean?

You nailed it right on the head. Anyone donating a $75,000 treadmill for the hockey team has no perspective on the problems around them. It's beyond bad taste to just plain obnoxious. I don't think this article put OSU in a particularly good light.I went to an OSU vs. Toledo baseball game last season because a guy who worked for me had a nephew playing baseball for UT and I was in Columbus on business. While sitting there, I noticed they were watering the field hockey field beyond the outfield fence. At first I dismissed it as watering a field in the spring to get the grass to grow...no big deal. Then I noticed the field was an astroturf field. It is truely a Gilded Age at OSU.

Can you cite the source for the 1.5 GPA statistic? I'd like to see it.Exactly. I would also like to see the source for OSU's football team having a 3.0. I doubt the student body at OSU or any school has a 3.0 GPA.

I don't follow the basketball team close enough to know if this is a good poll or not, but I do believe Akron blew the MACC last year against a bad team. They were badly out-played and out-coached by Charlie Coles and his traveling suburban team. As far as I'm concerned, KD and the boys owe you die hard fans a championship in a season where they are not supposed to win it. This should be that year.I'm serious...all of you die hard fans are holding an IOU from the bb program and you should demand to collect this season.Good luck to the die hards!

Biggs was the best player to play for Brookhart, and that includes Blackburn and Frye. He's probably the best player since Dwight Smith....although I think Smith was better. Had Biggs had any size whatsoever, he would be a sure NFL player.

They do need the money. If they are going to recruit kids like Ted Ginn J., who are closer to being retarded than normal, then they need $52,000 a year tutors to help them.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1192752424..._weekendjournal Good grief. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea the difference was this great between us and them. They pay a tutor $25 to tutor physics. Do the math.....that's $52,000 per year. None of you should wonder why our guys flunk out and they don't.

What was accidental about it? You Cleveland fans have so much trouble getting your hands around success. Instead of pride, you feel guilt. You're better than this Z-P.

I saw this on TV last night. Greg Schiano's record at Rutgers:2001: 2-92002: 1-112003: 5-72004: 4-7 I wonder how many people were calling for his head after this year? JD is in his fourth year right now.2005: 7-4 Add a bowl loss to Arizona State 7-52006: 10-2 Add a bowl win against Kansas State 11-2The first four years his record was 12-34.The MAC is at exactly the same competition level it was prior to the Pennington-Limpwich-Roethlisberger years at Marshall and Miami. Take out those two teams during those years and the league is at the almost the exact same level of well below average they were back then.I know that some on the board don't like to hear it, but the number of "suburban" athletes Owens was bringing to Akron killed the program. He couldn't get talent because the high school coaches he hired (he was one also) didn't know what to look for. Please save us the Championship being won with Owens players also. That game was won with Luke Getsy and Brett Biggs (two JD recruits). He won in spite of the Owens players, not because of them.JD wil be fine, some of you guys just have to stop going Browns fans all the time.I've said this before on the board. If JD has a losing season after this season, he gets another year. If they have another losing season next, he has to go.

Well considering the were a part of the Big East (1991 until 2004) and were booted I doubt that the Big East will be attracted any time soon.They were out before 2004 I think. The reason they were told they were booted was because of fooball attendance. The real reason was they wanted the basketball program to move to the Big East and the school wouldn't do it.If they are interested in a TV market though, Philadelphia is the way to go and that would be Temple.I really don't know what the long term holds for Temple, but I do know that they could become a very good MAC team in a hurry.I don't think I've ever thought so much about Temple in my life. I should stop now.

quote]How big is your media market?Important question. I hate to talk about Temple like they are a power as they have a long way to go, butt of all the MAC schools, they are in the best position to move to the Big East. When I was growing up and into my early adulthood, Temple was not a horrible team. They smashed Akron on a Thursday night ESPN game. Annually they played: WVU, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Penn State, Boston College, Maryland and Rutgers. They competed pretty well against these teams.Back to the media market. The Philadelphia market is much bigger than Cleveland and would be more attractive to the Big East in population and if breaking the Big Ten Network is important (Penn State). Having an NFL stadium would not hurt them in football and playing in the 76ers arena would be attractive for basketball. Right now they have a basketball foothold in Philadelphia with Villanova, but nothing with football.If Temple can get good, how long will it be before the Big East is attracted to them?

The USF story is not unique. Mike Wilbon (sp?) made a good point the other day on PTI. He said that USF is exactly where Miami (FL) was in 1983. I thought that was very interesting.Akron has no shot in the Big East. Florida has an increasing population and Ohio has a declining population...USF can get better players just by the numbers. USF is in the NE section of Tampa with girls in skimpy clothes year around and Akron is in Akron. I could go on.Think about this. Why has Florida State become so average? The answer is partly USF. Tallahassee (sp?) is one of the armpits of the United States. It wouldn't take much to convince a high school kid to come to school in Tampa and play in an NFL stadium. The Big East is every bit as good, if not better, than the ACC.USF is a much better "Feel Good" story this year than Rutgers was last season. I know I'm really interested in them and looking forward to watching them tonight and the Indians at a sports bar.

The attendance for Temple is interesting. They play in an NFL stadium, so there is some attraction to going to a game if you live in Philadelphia and want to see a college game in a big time stadium...especially if you had kids who wanted to go to the field and you couldn't get Eagles tickets. More than anything, they did some real smart things with ticketing this year. I have a friend who lives in Philadelphia and is a Penn State fan. PSU plays Temple at Temple later in the year (I believe the game is sold out). He wanted to buy tickets to PSU and Temple made him buy tickets to three other home games in order to get PSU tickets. That's smart marketing. Now he has found the MAC, enjoys going to the games and said he will continue to go even after this season.Temple has an NFL stadium and they are located in one of the best recruiting regions in the country. The MAC had better watch out for this program in coming years. Outside of a winning tradition, they easily have more advantages than Marshall did when they dominated the MAC. If they get things going.......watch out! It wasn't all that long ago that Temple was at least respectable playing a much more difficult schedule than a MAC schedule. It only takes one or two really good players to get it going in the MAC.

what else are you going to do on a Saturday there?NIU has slowly built up a nice fan base, that more less follows the slow, steady progress in the program under Nowak. One losing season hasn't deterred them....yet.Good post and good posts by everyone.NIU has seen MUCH worse than this year in the past. It just goes to show how one player in the MAC can make a big difference. They lose their NFL running back and now they are in the dumps. It happens to a lot of teams in the MAC. Just think of how good JA12 is and what he is doing for Akron this year......he gets my vote for POY, butt I'm a homer. Think of how much better we would be with Harvey.

Just like the Run & Shoot offense was a fad, the 3-3-5 defense was a fad that has run out of time. Everyone has figured out how to play against it. We just still happen to use it. Just about everyone who used it has given up on it.Simply put, the group of players you put onto the field on first and second downs are too small to compete against the larger players on those downs (one tight end and a fullback OR two tight ends). This forces coaches to guess as to what is going to happen. I don't like guessing. Reason beats guessing and that is why we get killed in the second half of games. Teams figure it out and kill it. Look at the past two games. As the season goes on, more teams will have film showing how to beat this junk and it will get worse. We have to be able to score more points to win.Akron needs to reduce their defense by one small player and add a medium size player with a LB. While they can't do it this year because they committed to this defense through last spring and fall camp, they need to do something different this off season. The change really doesn't seem all that complicated to me. With enough practice, the players should catch on.Quickness is not the answer. Ohio State did not lose the BCS Championship because they were too slow...they lost it because Florida lined up in a spread offense, smashed them in the mouth one-on-one and they were not physical enough to compete. Putting a smaller/quicker guy in the game for OSU would not have helped...it would have only made it worse. Having a quicker defense that is still too small for Akron is not going to help next season either. Akron needs to be more physical, not quicker. Larger players stand a better chance of making a team more physical than smaller players.

1. I was not aware of this. I would have assumed that following the switch to 1-A the program would have seen some increase in a recruiting budget. Also the 2005 Championship I would have thought would have given cause to increase said budget.2. This I would find hard to believe. My friend was cheerleader for 3 years and even as a non scholarship athlete he was required to attend tutoring. Unless the athletics programs do not have travel tutors (again I am not sure of this) I do not see why the support program would be bad. We have one of the best education departments in the state and a high profile special education program. David Harvey flunking out is on David Harvey. The tools were available to him he did not take advantage of them.3. I saw the Patriot Bowl posters. That's on the Cleveland sports administration. So I see one actual issue of the three you mentioned. Though I will add that marketing at the time being leaves a lot to be desired. The biggest thing that the program needs is for University of Akron graduates to actually support their school. Donate to the Z-Fund. This offsets the University's scholarship costs and pumps more money into the Athletics Budget.Thanks for your response. You're right about the Z-Fund.Getting to point #2, we do offer tutoring, but not at as high of a level as others and probably will never be able to for financial reasons. For example, the University of Florida has a tutor attend each class WITH a first and second year football player. The purpose of this is not to do the player's work for him. It is to teach the player how to properly study and attend a lecture. Once the player learns "the ropes" in college, they no longer need the tutor their junior and senior year. Harvey may not be stupid, he just may be like a lot of kids in their first two years of school who don't really know how to study. If Akron really wants to take the program to the next level, they have to keep at risk kids from flunking out.Point #3. I don't care if the Cleveland Sports Administration printed the posters or not. Not demanding to see any marketing material prior to printing is inexcusable. There are both legal and NCAA compliance issues with any marketing piece and they have to guard against any potential problems. When my company does joint marketing projects with our distributors, we (marketing department and legal department) see every piece before it goes out. The Marketing Department must become smarter than this and take the bull by the horns.

What is that supposed to mean?Good question. They are the type of things that any of us would see at work, even though it doesn't impact us, that would lead us to think we were working for a bad company and we should be looking for another job. For example:1. The recruiting budget is exactly the same to day that it was in 1987. It's amazing we have the players we do now.2. Substandard academic support program resulting in key players flunking out. JD can't be coach, recruiter and tutor. It's not Harvard.3. Ongoing mishaps that would lead any sane person to think they were surrounded by crazy people. For example, Patriot Bowl posters printed with David Harvey's (sp?) picture on it.I could continue.........

I hope I'm wrong about JD, but so many of his battles are internal it would make it hard to go to work every day.The thought of a draw play on second and ten makes me want to vomit. I'm feeling even more glad I was not there Saturday. I have no problem with a running play, but we should be doing what NFL teams do on second and ten. They run straight at the line and try to get four/five and make it third and five/six. NFL teams try to increase the probablity of getting the first down on third down by decreasing the yards necessary on second down. It's just one of those trends that has taken hold the past few years. First down is a passing down and if there is an incompletion, they run on second.

I hate to say this, but if you saw the game you wouldn't think that there is the slightest danger of Brookhart being lured away by a bigger program. And I am a fan of his but this offense- the worst Akron offense in recent memory- is really trying my patience as a supporter of the team. Unless you mean that by "leaving" you mean just walking away from a head coaches job.What I mean is that JD needs to get his career going. Akron, historically, is not a place to do that for a lot of reasons. Dennison did nothing after Akron, Faust did nothing and Owens is in Division II. Last year I called Akron "The Graveyard of Coaches" and I stand by that comment. JD is just sort of walking past the graveyard and not really in it...smart move. JD will be either coaching in the NFL as an assistant or at a major college as an assistant/coordinator if he leaves Akron.Dean Pees is an excellent example. Can't continued their fine tradition of bad play under Pees. Pees is an excellent football coach and is now the defensive coordinator for the best team in the NFL. If New England wins the Super Bowl this year, Pees could easily get a shot at a BCS school if he wanted it. Heck, he could get a shot at an NFL head coaching spot. One bad career stop does not destroy a career if the person in the bad spot is smart enough to get out of it before it destroys his career. Cam Cameron is another good example. Indiana was very average under him. He gets fired from there and ends up with San Diego and they go to the playoffs with him as offensive coordinator. He is now the head coach for the Dolphins.If JD is smart about his career, and I think he is, he would leave Akron after this year. Staying another year makes no sense. He's too young to continue at Akron.The real question then becomes whether or not Mack can hire a good coach the way Mike Thomas did? Those of you who don't like JD had better think loooooong and hard about that question. MT actually made two good hires while at Akron with JD and KD. I don't know if Mack could or not, but I think we are about to find out.

Good post.They have no chance with conservative play calling. College football, if you really want to win your conference, has become about scoring a ton of points. In fact, the NFL is the same thing now. Defense wins nothing. One playmaker on the offense is not enough. CJ7 needs to be in the game just to put pressure on the defense to guard against a playmaker other than Jabari. It all starts with the QB...if that person does not give you a chance to out score the other team, you can't win.I don't think you will need to worry about JD after this year. I believe that if the team turns it around, he will leave. If they don't, he will leave. His door prize will be better than Lee's though. He has had his chances to leave in the past and turned them down. After four years at Akron, what is there to really wait around for? There are a lot of paths to a coach at a BCS school than the Urban path. JD could take one of those.

Good post. I lived in NE Ohio for 20 years and I can say that Browns fans are the worst fans in football. The combination of angry and stupid is really sad. My problem is that most Zips fans are also Browns fans so we have to read this nonsense periodically.If JD is around next year, and I really mean IF (as much as some of you have had enough of him, I think he has had enough of Akron and the nonsense associated with coaching here), he needs to really only do two things. First, shit can the 3-3-5 defense. We can't go on giving up 21 points per quarter in one quarter of the second half each game. Second, decide on an offense and then hire a guy to call the plays for that offense. Our current offensive corrdinator has no experience calling plays for the offense we are running. College football is all about scoring a ton of points each week. Teams that can't, fall into the second level of their conference, teams that do, rise to the top. It has little to do with defense. If defense really won games, LSU would have never lost to Kentucky last weekend. Kentucky had a senior QB who was able to put it all together late and in overtime to beat a very good defense with touchdowns and not FGs.