GP1

When is signing day?

Has there been any turnover on the staff other than Coach Verdugo? Typically this is the time of year when coaches move on.

I agree that they will surprise next year, but a sell out is selling a lot of seats. The Rubber Bowl is the second largest college football stadium in Ohio and that spells a lot of ticket sales. I wouldn't be surprised if they had two games next year in excess of 25,000. I'm still surprised there were only 17,000 people at the Miami. It sure looked like there were almost as many as the Marshall game. Your optimism is very commendable though.

No. No.

I just took out my press guide. 11,049 is probably correct. He had 2,053 in 2001, 2,824 in 2002 and 3,549 in 2003. Total = 8,426. He certainl didn't have enough in 2004 to get to 12,500.

I think the article has a statistic wrong. Charlie had around 12,500 career yards.....but I'm not certain. Does anyone know exactly how many he threw for in 2004? I have a press guide and I can figure it out.

I'm with you brother. I'm guessing you and I were both quoted in letters to the editor the week after Owens was fired, but they used our real names. Pluto is just showing how petty and silly most sports writers are when he continues to bring up LO's name. He doesn't have the balls to admit he was wrong about the firing of Owens and that JD is a good coach who is only going to get better. Most people love Pluto. Quite frankly, when I hear him interviewed he sounds like a really arrogant guy who is just full of himself. As far as working for the Beacon, I couldn't afford the pay cut.

Excellent work Guest Z_I_P_!!!! You are correct on ALL counts!!!

Why wouldn't part of doing things the right way be taking a chance on a marginal player and keeping him on a short leash? I just think it is a basis risk vs. reward scenario for a lot of programs, including Akron. We are not OSU, USC, Notre Dame or any other bigh time schools with a big time reputation that attracts the best players. Under Owens, they took no risk on players and there were no rewards. Why not take the risk and manage the risk and see what the rewards will be? As far as being patient, are you freaking kidding me? U of A has been Division I since the late 80s. What have we ever won? NOTHING. It's time to take a chance and start winning. Marshall took a risk on Randy Moss and he wasn't a single problem while he was at the school. I'm not saying fill the team with thugs, just take a chance now and then and see where things pan out. The fifth best JUCO linebacker in the country might be a good place to take a chance. I doubt he will pull his pants down on family day at the athletic center. Long ago college football ceased being about building quality people and became a business. If we continue to hide our heads in the sand and pretend it is something other than what it really is, we are simply kidding ourselves. If we continue to think we can win with nice suburban kids getting good grades, trying hard and not scaring the other suburbanites who come to family day in their mini vans, we are further kidding ourselves. Let's get some guys that perform well, not try hard. We have seen enough of that as well. It's all about results on Saturday. As far as the other programs not being on the same level as Marshall, you are correct. BGSU, Toledo and Miami have gone to at least two straight bowl games each. They are actually at a higher level than Marshall right now. Zip Watcher, I know you are well intended in your beliefs. However, if the road to Hell is paved with good intensions, we will continue to be on the road we started on in the late 80s forever.

Players do not deserve to play because they waited their turn. They deserve to play when they are the best players. Good clean hard working players get you 6-5 seasons, empty stadiums and overall apathy from the community and alumni. Great players who may or may not be a problem get you MAC Championships, bowl games, big crowds, community support, merchandise sales, alumni support, beer sales at the beer tent and donations. I certainly understand the desire for good kids on the team. We all want that. Let's just be realistic about what Akron needs to do to win. If that means taking a chance, then take a chance. There are 34,000 seats at the Rubber Bowl, let's start using as many of those as possible. I'm pretty certain that when Marshall, BGSU, Miami, NIU and Toledo fans are sitting around the bars at their bowl games they are not talking about the character of the players.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/10736494.htm Good article on the Zips this morning. As usual, Pluto was able to give that loser Owens credit some credit for the team's success last year late in the year. The players' actions are much more pragmatic and logical than Pluto can see in his small mind. Could it be that the kids stuck with the program because they need their scholarships to go to school? Are they from good families who may have encouraged them to stick it out? Are they smart enough to understand that the program was dead with Owens and they knew they needed a change and wanted a change? Where are they going to transfer to before their senior year losing many credits towards graduation? Could it be that they knew the first sign of being disgruntled would have earned them their walking papers or worse yet, hours of grass drills? Could it be that many secretly hated Owens and were glad to see him go? Do they have several friends on the team and around campus they don't want to leave? I could go on and on. What Pluto really wanted to write and is too sneaky to write is: "Part of the credit for the Zips holding it together is former coach Lee Owens. Although he only deserves about 1% of the credit, I feel compelled to use his name in each Zips football article I write as if he is the driving factor in the team's success without him. In fact, I will probably do this until Brookhart does so well he goes to a bigger school and I can write article about how the University of Akron should hire another loveable loser to coach the school. Why do I continue to place his name in my articles? I don't know other than Lee was a nice guy and I think I am secretly in love with him. Please don't tell my wife." Please Terry, enough of using LOs name in your articles. I have the perfect place for any credit he derves. I'm not certain about this, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Pluto went to Can't State. If he did, Owens is the perfect symbol of mediocrity a Can't State graduate would be attracted to. Just look at their football program. Have a good day everyone and by the way. Go see the basketball team. I went last night for the first time and they are worth every penny to go see.

He's Butkus.......I guess.....

Best of luck to the young man. I just hope he graduated or graduates. If he has graduated, he has fulfilled his biggest obligation to himself and the University. If not, he still owes both and his new family something. I doubt this will be a huge loss though. The kid never developed much after his freshman year. He should be easy to replace if not get an improvement on the position.

Blackburn does have one chance at the NFL that nobody writes about. He was the long snapper on the team. Although it is a long shot, he could make it in this position if he gets with a team that needs one. If he does, he could be in the NFL for longer than any Zip ever. Most long snappers play over 15 years.

Good post OL Watcher. Let's hope that additional work in spring practice will lead to the players development. Maybe they can bring some JUCO offensive linemen this off season to help the line. I still remain optomistic though.

I too am a little concerned about this kid. Faust used to bring in a lot of bad kids as well and it didn't work out for him. In the spirit of winning though, I say give him a chance and the first mistake he makes he goes away for good. There may be a difference between Faust and JD though. Faust was from Moeller and Notre Dame. Those two schools attract quality kids and Faust didn't have to deal with the bottom dwellers so he didn't know how to handle them. JD played in the NFL, coached in the NFL and coached at a "big time" program for several years coaching guys like A. Bryant. He has much more experience than Faust in dealing with this type of "me" guy. Maybe it will work out. Short leash though. I think the basketball analogy doesn't fit well with football though. Basketball only has 15 kids on the team and football has around 100. I'm sure not all the basketball players are friends with each other, but in a small group they are easier to control. It is too much to ask for all 100 kids on a football team to like each other. I'm sure that if you ask any player, they will say they have only about five or six player who they would call their good friends. Everyone is else is just some guy on the team who they may like but don't look at that guy as a friend. Keep your fingers crossed about this kid. I'm choosing to stick with optimism with the program.

Pre season polls mean nothing. I look for Akron to have a good season next year. Don't worry too much about what has left, every four years the players change anyhow. Certainly losing seniors is always a concern. As far as the o line, I think we could be just as good next year. Could it be any worse? The defense should be better next year also. If they are slightly better, that will give the offense more chances to score and better field position than what they have had in recent years. That plays in our favor. Next year, we have a QB starting who could have been the starting QB for a BCS school if his dad was one of the most powerful high school coaches in western PA the way Tyler Palko's dad is. There are many people who think Luke was a narrowly better QB than Palko. Luke will also have three fall practices and three spring practices in the offense. Think positive Zips fans. We have Can't, OU, Army at home. Buffalo and MTSU on the road. Miami will be down and throw in a win against a directional Michigan. Using the skills I used in my MUM class at U of A, that adds up to seven wins. Another win somewhere else, and we have eight wins.

Even a few days later, that comment bugs me. If a player feels he would get a better education elsewhere, he should have gone "there." I've fired employees with degrees from "better" schools. Why? Becuase they weren't pulling their weight. With a sand wedge from my cubicle I could hit 10 University of Akron graduates that are valuable contributors to our company. Accountants, engineers, graphic designers, heads of QC, product managers, marketing managers, and on and on. Allegedly "better" schools don't translate to "better" students. Nice work Capt. See my original quote. You are truely a high aimer. We need to expect more out of our players, all of them, than what we have seen. It's time to win!

Thanks for your note Capt. I certainly don't hate any of the players that came through the program. I just like to post notes with a little more than emotion in them. Perhaps my post does not pertain directly to BZ's post, but it's pretty good stuff and really gets the board going. The board doesn't always have to be a love fest. I stand by every word of my post though. Again, there are some out there who don't like facts. Just a quick note for Guest as I only saw Capt's note on my first repost. Let's not kid ourselves. If Nick Sparks doesn't get hurt in his first game starting, we still have zero QBs who started four years....... It is what it is though. Frye took advantage of his chance to play.....I'll just leave it there as I don't want to hurt your feelings again as you may be too sensitive....or in love.

Oh God.....here we go again. In total, the last seven years were anything other than amazing. Why do all Zips fans assume that we can never do better than what we are doing now or in the past? Not only should we expect more out of our team, but we should demand more. Typically, if you aim high, you hit high. If you aim low, you hit low. Come on Big Zip, you like the school too much to expect so little. Once again, I am going to use facts in my note, so if you don't like facts, please don't read this note. They all come from the 2004 Press Guide and not my . Between 1954 and 1999, Akron only registered a 2,000 yard passer twice. Let's just say passing was not the focus of the offenses in college football in general a large part of this period. Jim Dennison was a running style coach at Akron and a lot of running records were set during his time. The same can also be said for Faust. In the last, let's just say 3-4 years, a lot of passing records were set at a school that historically did not pass a lot. You are a wise person Big Zip and unfortunately for all of us you are 100% correct. These have been the best 7 consecutive years for QBs at U of A. The frustrating thing is that, in those seven years, there have only been three seasons where the team finished over .500 in wins against Division 1-A teams. Amazing.....? People love to post the usual variety of excuses for the lack of success, please spare us all. Sorry if tears don't come to my eyes when I think of the past seven years or the players involved. I have too many years left of watching Zips football to believe those will be the best years. If they are, I should give up my season tickets I'm looking at my trusted 2004 press guide again, and I would hope that with the exception of Charlie's year in 2003 (3,549 yards in 12 games and Cal Poly and Howard on the schedule), we could get even more production out of the QB position. Butchie only threw for over 2,000 yards once, but if you calculate his yards per completion, he got much more out of his throws than Charlie did. If anyone remembers, Butchie threw a great deep pass. I don't know what Charlie's yards per completion were in 2004, but his average prior to 2004 was 12.08 in 2001. By his own standards, he had a sub par year in 2004 and probably did not have a lot of yards per completion, but I don't have the numbers. Butchie had 17.7 yards per completion in 1999. Charlie's most impressive number is his completion percentage in 2002 (.658). I have no idea how this stacks up nationally or historically, but my guess is that it is one of the highest completion percentages in the history of college football. The Owens offense was really designed to have a high completion percentage with a lot of play action passing and short passes to the tight ends or running backs running for a lot of yards after the catch. Owens does deserve some credit for taking kids with lesser ability (God knows he had enough of them) and putting them in positions to keep games close. Also, they played from behind a lot so they were forced to pass and run up passing yards. The challenge for Luke is not going to be breaking records because he will only be a two year starter so he will not have the time to break the vast majority of the records. The challenge is going to be to win games against good teams and getting the program over the hump and into the MAC Championship Game and their first bowl game. I've really had enough of record breaking seasons with nothing to show at the end. If you think other than this, your expectations for the program are too low. Maybe one day we can all say Luke was a winner and not a record breaker. Looking forward, the total passing yards set by Frye are certainly breakable. I'm hoping that with the new field house and possibly a new stadium, Akron can attract the type of QB who will make us all say, "Charlie who?". Is more than 12,500 yards really too much to ask a future four year starter to produce? I really don't think so. Finally Big Zip, you thanked the players. I really don't think we need to thank the men playing for Akron. They receive a full scholarship in exchange for playing football. The least they should do is try hard and do their best. They should thank us for buying tickets and giving to the alumni fund and the Varsity A to help them go to school for free. Have a good day everyone!

Don't take it personal Zips88. Everything you said is correct. They do not draw a crowd and there is no interest locally. However, it is the best of a bad situation. I would rather the Zips play Division I teams like MTSU or N. Texas other than bringing in 1-AA teams like Liberty and Howard. Beating D-I teams looks better than beating Howard 70-0. Let's face it, there was no entertainment value in watching Liberty or Howard. On the flip side, no big time program is going to come and play at the Rubber Bowl. There simply is no upside for them coming to Akron. Only down side if they lose as a result of being distracted by all of the empty blue benches. Also, to schedule another Big Ten team for example almost guarantees three non-conference losses at the beginning of the year. This outcome destroys not only the team physically and emotionally but gives fans little hope at the start of the season. I am doubtful that Army will even draw well next year unless UAM really pulls one out of a hat. Remember how poorly Va Tech drew a few years ago. Tech must have lost a ton of money that day.

How can anyone who did not go to a school be a fan of the school? This thinking is beyond me because that person has no connection at all with a school like OSU. It just seems kind of phony to me. Tell the truth now BZ, you cheered for OSU four years ago when the Zips played them, didn't you.... I went to UofA and I am proud of graduating from there. Good or bad, I'll keep my season tickets and go sit on the fifty yard line and watch a Division I football game. Good luck doing that in Columbus. I've been to a lot of games there, it isn't that great. Don't get me wrong, I wish OSU no harm (although their off the field problems are becoming funny to watch), but I'll keep my descriptions of my feelings as an interest and not a fan. I'll save being a fan for the Zips. BZ, throw away your OSU crap and buy some Zips stuff to fill the void. No matter how hard you try, you will never be an OSU person. Happy New Year Zips fans.

I read the Pittsburgh paper quite a bit as I am a Steelers fan. Smizik is a bitter old man who writes articles like this all the time. Most people think he is an idiot.

Ryan, It was just a play on words for one day only. Let's review. It was Charlie Frye Day (Friday). Get it.... Sorry the game was on Friday, but were they to pretend it was a different day. Look, it was a huge event for the school. Charlie got a little certificate from the mayors of his home town and Akron. It is really no slap in the face to anyone. The world is still turning.

Excellent points on walk ons Zip Watcher. For the most part, they are practice players who will really never get a chance to play if they are equal in talent to the scholarship players. It just doesn't make economic sense and most of the walk ons know that.