GP1

Somehow, I don't think the outcome of the game Monday is hinging on whether the LB coach is leaving or not. Matt worked his ass off for this program and deserves to stay for the MCB and we should all wish him well leaving. Anything else is just childish. Coaches leaving goes on every year at every school. In a big boys and girls world, people come and go from different jobs at will. I think JD is smart enough to bring in another good coach. With the success JD is having, there will be a line of good young coaches to fill this position hoping to grab onto JD's coat tails and move on to a bigger program with better pay. How will we know when coaches leaving is a problem? The answer is simple. If JD starts bringing in every lame high school coach in the area to be assistants, like LO did at the end of his miserable career, we know we have a problem. They will get tons of resumes from high school coaches for this position. Believe me, there is not a high school coach out there who doesn't think to himself, "Self, I could do what those D-1A guys do in a second. I can coach just as well as they can". They are all wrong and most couldn't handle the pressure or the work schedule for longer than six months. Whatever you do JD, don't hire a high school coach.

Ahhhh.....The Leakin Urinals influence is spreading! I have no idea what the Hell the editors at newspapers do all day. Aren't they the people who have to read this stuff to double check the reporters? Just when my opinion of journalism and journalists couldn't get any lower, I read this.

Terry Pluto is a complete low aiming a-hole. If you aim low, you hit low. Just ask ZipsRifle about that kind of stuff because he knows the bullet typically goes where you aim. Like everyone else in the media, he is to arrogant to admit mistakes. I have no idea how a man of such limited intellect, foresight and knowledge is so respected among his peers. I guess we should all expect that from a graduate of Can't State though. and so does Terry Pluto.

Nothing really to add......just kidding, I love to add things. Maybe the University thought they needed a fundraising type of person. I really have no clue what they mean by a "money guy". I've been out of town on business so I really don't know much about the new guy. The people from UTEP seem to like him though. I wanted Mike, but he is also someone I know and like personally so my opinion is biased. Unless someone on the board knows something more than what they are saying, we all don't really know what happened in the interviews. Maybe the new guy knocked their socks off. I do think that as a public institution, the University should have a policy to publish a small written report detailing why the person was hired and everyone on the interview board should participate with an opinion. The report should also explain why those who did not get the job were turned down, if the other candidates were willing to have their names released to the public (could be some confidentiality problems). I also think a record should be kept of the candidates' questions and answers and the University should release the transcripts of the interview of the successful candidate. As tax payers, we should be provided with this information.

Let me repeat. The coaches do not coach for the players, they don't coach because they love U of A, they don't coach because they love the head coach, they don't coach because they love living in Akron so much. They coach for the paycheck and because it is their profession. High school coaches coach for the players because the pay is so amazingly low they have no other reason to be there other than the players. Some of you write like these players are little babes in the woods who have no idea about the workings of college football. I would bet that every player on that team knows Akron is a stop off point for a lot of coaches. Loyalty to the kids they recruit? Are you kidding me? How many of those kids are going to pay the electric bill for the coach, help them save for retirement, help them put their kids through college or pay their property taxes? Any coach who does not leave a program to make significantly more money is an idiot...even worse yet, that coach is a low aimer. When you aim low, you hit low. We need coaches that aim high.

Let me put an end to this loyalty nonsense before it gets out of hand. Matt is a young man with a young wife and a very young child. His first obligation is to them and not Akron. I would bet everything I own that K-State pays their assistants more than Akron. I would also bet a significant amount of money that K-State has some assistants that make more money than JD. Matt worked hard coaching for the University and in exchange he received a paycheck. That is where his loyalty should end. It is the nature of employment. I'm sure JD understands this as well. ITZ, I was young once too and I thought loyalty was very important. It is nice that you are not jaded yet. Then I realized that I can't pay a bill or retire on loyalty. As a young person, you should read a book called "Nine Shift". It discusses how society will change over the next 50 years and how people should change their lives to adjust to the changes. The nature of employment is one of those subjects. It's a great book. Read it and then PM me and tell me what you think. That goes for everyone else too. A guy I once told me in a drunken stuper, "Readers are leaders". This same guy also used to get drunk at happy hour events and try to grab all the young girls working in our sales group, then on the weekends he would leave his wife at home and take his son to Promise Keepers meetings. The "Readers are leaders" saying is true though.

Amen! There is no reason for JD to be in a hurry to go anywhere. He is too young in that profession to be in a hurry. He needs to have a minimum three or four winning seasons with two MAC Championships and he can make a change. He can do that in his mid to late 40's. The major programs pay at least one million per year. A few years at a major program and he will be set for money for the rest of his life at an early age. Speaking of money. Did JD have bonus possibilities in his contract for winning the MAC? He may have made a nice bonus in Detroit a couple of weeks ago. Good for him.

As a season ticket holder for many years, a new stadium must happen...and soon. The Rubber Bowl is a disgrace to the University, MAC and college football. It must be replaced. The bigger crowds, more money, possible high school football playoffs, etc. will be nice, but mostly, I just want a nice place to go watch a game. I think that is the best reason to want a new stadium. Give the fans and people in NE Ohio a place to go enjoy a fall day without having to look at a dump like the RB.

This is about the time of year the coachiing merry-go-round starts moving. One more will probably leave before it is all over. It's just a fact of life in that profession. Good luck to Matt. He is a real good guy.

Wouldn't that make him SAADWTW?

I'd like to take this opening to make fun of myself about this topic and the player. I've mentioned before that I have a brother who coached college football for several years including a couple at Maryland. He knows more about football than anyone I know personally. Last year we were sitting in Athens at the OU game and in the middle of the third quarter my brother leans over to me and says, "GP1, Chase Blackburn is the best player on Akron's team". I about blew a gasket......no, I did blow a gasket and told him he was f*&^#$g crazy because Blackburn doesn't really stand out and do as much as he should. I also said there were about six guys on Akron's team better than him. I can almost quote exactly what my brother told me at that point. He said, "No, seriously, he's big, he hustles, he's fast and he is always around the ball. He's a perfect candidate for an NFL team. In the right defense, he would dominate the field." Again, I protested and told him Blackburn couldn't make an Arena League team. As it turns out, I was exactly correct. There is no way Blackburn can make an Arena League team because he will be too busy practicing in NFL mini-camps and playing in NFL Europe. So here is to my prediction. Here is to Blackburn getting with a team that plays a defense he fits into.

Late in the year Akron has been scoring a lot of points. I look for that to continue. Look for the young Memphis QB to have a tough day in a pressure situation, but their RB will keep them in the game. Akron 34 Memphis 28 Could be one of the best bowl games this year.

I'm not 100% certain about this, but I think if a Prop 48 pays his way his first season and then graduates in four years, that person is able to have a 5th year. Kiki has one more year coming in football because he is graduating in May.

I don't know if anyone saw it on FOX Sports Ohio last night at 6:30, but they had a half hour show on the Zips season and MCB. Very well done.

Maybe we are all missing the obvious. Doesn't Cincinnati seem like a game that would be attractive for both schools with the Thomas connection?

I think the Zips will come in right around 10,000. The ticket office had sold around 5,000 as of yesterday though. It's hard to tell because there will be a certain number of people who buy tickets on the internet and just print the ticket up at home. Students really need to turn out though....and they should take their parents to the game with them to increase numbers. If Akron does not get at least 10,000, they will NEVER get a chance for an at large bid for a game again without significantly increasing regular season numbers.

Aww Man I am taking 12 people to the game and I was told to go to Hockeytown and now you are the 3rd person to say it sucked or it was O.K., I wanna make this a fun trip for my family and friends so I don't have to beg them to come to the game and support AU. It does suck, but there is no other place to go for a sports type feel. Akron will be on the sideline opposite of the MACC so the walk will not be as far. Akron will also be wearing white again.

The #1 running back in the nation wouldn't crack our 2-deep?? You're insane. This kid is going to be a star. Guys don't typically get recruited based on what they did in high school, they get recruited based on what they can bring to a program in the future. They are like stocks, you don't buy based upon what a stock's past performance, you buy based upon the probability of future performance. There are a lot of stars playing college football who never played on a winning team in their entire life prior to college, but someone who gets paid to find players (college coaches and recruiting coordinators) think they will be a good player someday. If enough of these people think the player will be good, then they will typically get recruited highly regardless of how they played against Hoban. I went to a high school football game for the first tiime in years this year, so I don't really keep up on who is good or not, but if OSU offers a player a scholarship, the player is a really good player regardless of your feelings about OSU. OSU is in the business of trying to win national championships and giving scholarships to stiffs does not move that goal forward. ITZ is correct that if a player is recruited that highly, the school is almost obligated to play him as a freshman to see what he has. The player may not start, but he will get a good bit of playing time. Maybe this kid is just leveraging Akron against OSU to increase his signing bonus with OSU. On another recruiting note (maybe this is in the recruiting section already), my understanding is that the best WR in central Ohio and probably in the state is coming to Akron. I have no idea what his name is, my HS football coach brother told me about him and this news. I guess he runs a 4.2 fourty for real. It makes sense. Why would you go to OSU if you were a good WR and not Akron? OSU is wasting Ginn's ability with that borring off tackle offense and JD coached Bryant and Fitzgerald to award winning college careers.

I think the yes line should read, "HELL YES!!!!!!".

http://www.bceaglesfootball.com/ndfan.htm This is really funny because it is so true. I could really care less who wins the OSU vs. ND match up. However, if ND wins, dormant fans across the country will be demothballing their ND clothes and proclaiming they "have been a fan their entire life".

None of this is directed at you Buckzip, so don't take it personal. This reminds me of my life. I work in sales and there has NEVER been a time when a customer has come up to me and said, "You know GP1, you should really charge more for your product". The prices listed for this merchandise are more than fair. If anyone thinks they are too high, please let us know what each item should cost. Please keep in mind that the NCAA, MAC and U of A are not running a charity for fans and need to make money off of these products. Please take into consideration when pricing the product the following items. 1. Cost of raw materials, 2. Cost of labor to produce the material, 3. Cost to transport the material to the retail location (trucking, packaging, cost of loading and off loading the truck, etc), 4. Cost to store the materials, 5. Cost to pay the labor to sell the goods. 6. Any other costs you wish to factor in. If you don't know the answer to these questions (I have no clue what the answers are either), then don't bitch about the cost of a product. Look, the point is that $20.00 is not too much to ask for a hat showing your school's first ever conference championship in football. Fork out some chash everyone, being cheap is a sin.

What an absolute DICK to write crap like that at this time. I love his facts..."JD is from Colorado and the Colorado job just opened up...That means JD is a candidate for the Colorado job." Yeah, Lee Owens 7-5 was exactly like this year's 7-5. I guess it doesn't matter that two of Lee Owens' wins were against Cal Poly and Howard, while JD's were Division 1 wins that iced championships. Yeah, that one loss vs Can't was what got Owens fired. Boy if he'd have just won that game he'd have gotten a 10-year contract extension. What an absolute dick. Ahhhhh, CK saved me a lot of time. Thanks! JD will not get the job at Colorado. Someone with experience at a really big time program will get the job. JD's next step will be to a conference like the Big East where the competition is slightly better than the MAC and the pay is MUCH better than the MAC.

This is 100% correct. However, he was raised in Mobile, Alabama. From this point forward we will call him the "Alabama\Mississippi Philosopher". Uofmbrad, I think the overpriced beer is yours for the taking if you just give the answer.

In honor of what appear to be pretty friendly fans so far, I offer this trivia question. The first person to answer this question correctly will receive a completely overpriced $8.00 beer from me at the game December 26. The Peabody Hotel is in Memphis, and twice a day they have the famous duck walk where they either return the ducks that swim in the lobby bar to the roof or bring them to the fountain. It's really a great piece of Americana to see and if you are ever in Memphis I would encourage you go watch the duck walk in the afternoon, then go to the Rendezvous for ribs and then to BB's for music. Anyhow, a great Alabama philosopher once wrote the following words: "Management and labor keep rattling old sabers, quackin' like those Peabody ducks." If you are the first to name this Alabama philosopher, the beer is yours.

Yes, it was so empty that the first topic on a local sports radio show after Toledo's win was why didn't anyone go. I was there, don't pretend there were more people than what there were. By the way, Akron has had crowds over 30,000 many times in the past. You need to stop. Ignore ToledoRockets and get off this MACC attendance at Toledo. They drew over 20,000 for the game, but it looked empty for most of it because Marshall was up by 3 TD's in the first half and everyone left, despite the fact that Toledo won the game in the end. Who really cares right now? If Akron hosted a MACC game, I'm sure at least 20,000 would show up. Let's move on and talk about Memphis. Don't let this moron add fuel to your fire. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/scores101/1...4/101334340.htm Here is a link to a site that shows the stats for the game in Toledo. As we all know, these numbers are frequently inflated by those reporting them. Akron inflates their numbers all the time and so do the other schools. There is no way this number was reported accurately but I'll put it out there anyhow.