GP1

I'm going to post a few facts about the 2004 and 2005 schedules, make a few comments and ask for your input. Below are the win loss records for the teams we have played the past two seasons. (Sorry about the look below, I can't get the two season to break out in columns. It is supposed to be a side by side comparison of the two seasons.)2004 2005Penn State 4-7 Purdue 5-6Middle Tenn. SU 5-6 Middle Tenn SU 4-7Virginia 8-3 Northern Illinois 7-4Can't State 5-6 Central Michigan 6-5Northern Illinois 8-3 Buffalo 1-10Buffalo 2-9 Miami 7-4UCF 0-11 Army 4-7Ball State 2-9 BGSU 6-5Marshall 6-5 Ball State 4-7Ohio 4-7 Ohio 4-7Miami 8-3 Can't State 1-10Total 52-69 (42%) Total 49-72 (40.5%)Wins/team 4.72 Wins/team 4.45The real question is, Why 6-5 both seasons? Most on this board would say that the talent level of the 2004 season was better than 2005, I'll reluctantly concede that point.. I really don't see much of a drop off in production at any position between the two seasons. I actually think the two teams would be evenly matched in a game and the 2005 team would beat the 2004 team the majority of the time because they had more winners on the team.Someone also wrote that the leadership on the 2004 team "pulled the team up by the scruff of their necks" to turn the season around after the first five games. That is laughable at best. The reason the 2004 team pulled the season together after the first five games when they went 1-4 is the schedule was easier the last six games. The first five games, our opponents finished at 30-25 (54.5%) and the final six games our opponents finished at 22-44 (33.3%). Only two of the six had winning records and the four losers only had four wins tops. Let's not forget also that the insertion of Biggs into the starting line up was the impetus for turning that season around. As bad as most on this board want to, don't kid yourself about "leadership" from the players that season.The first five teams we played in 2005 had a total record of 23-32 (41.8%) and the Zips went 3-2 against them. A simple ratio would tell you even though their opponents finished at a lesser winning percentage than the previous season, the percent increase in the Zips winning outweighs the opponents winning percentages. The last six had a total record of 26-40 (39.4%) and the Zips went 3-3 against them.I think we can all agree that there were a couple of game here or there both seasons that could have gone the other way if things worked out differently, but it is what it is.We all know my opinion on the seniors from the 2004 team. I believe they were all a bunch of underachieving losers. The only reason that season seemed like a success at the end was the long winning streak, but when they played an above average team at the end of the year for the divisional championship, they pooped down their legs.We all had a lot of frustration with the 2005 team, IMHO, because the losing was so spread out. It made the team seem worse than what it really was. Some of you were even calling for the usually program killing move of replacing the starting QB with a D-II QB. I think we are all gald that didn't happen now. In all fairness though, I think the 2005 team also underachieved in losing to Army and Ball State.Getting back to the question of the role of scheduling. In 2005, there was not a week off and I think that killed the team mid season. We were able to get our feet in the last two games with the week day games giving them a little break. I would hope that as the new schedules are formulated, some consideration would be given to having a week off during the season.I'll open it up for comments now. How important is scheduling? What were the differences in two seasons with identical records? Did leadership play a role? How should Akron set up future schedules to allow for rest? Am I missing something in the statistics above? Let's get some discussion going on this football page. It doesn't seem like there is much interest in the basketball team the way there is in the football program right now. That's too bad because the basketball team is playing great.That's it....the wife is spending the night in Cleveland with three of her friends and I was feeling a little bored. Time to get some Donatos (sp?).

Please ask about how much money has been raised for a football stadium. That will tell us how long till another is built.

If anyone knows this information, I would like to know if JD has any bonus opportunities for winning the MAC and/or making a bowl game and/or winning the bowl game. Did he make a bonus last year for what happened? I would hope so. This is public information so if you work at UA and you are reading this, please respond.

Z-P, With you as my loyal bitch, I could take over the world.

Please don't tell me we are slipping back into our humorless stage. I thought those days were behind this board.

WOW! I had no idea OU had degrees that difficult.

I agree, just having some early morning fun.

Great game last night.

Nice work getting Chuggy in the rafters.

Well put.

You sound pretty bitter. Which is understandable. You were never that good. Don't blame your own lack of talent on the coaching staff. That's just pathetic. Great blast ITZ! That's the stuff that makes boards great. However, the personal blast at Owens aside, the facts are the facts.

This is interesting...Marshall fans said the same exact thing when they decided to move to Conference USA. It seems to be working out for them so far . It's nice that more teams get into bowls, only you must have 6 wins to get in one.

I'm sure the people in New England can't wait for the big Toledo vs. Marshall basketball match up to determine last place in the Big East West Division. There is not a ONE MAC school that could leave to go to a conference like the Big East and expect to compete for a conference championship in any sport.UCONN, WVU, Pittsburgh and Louisville are better than every MAC school in the sports that really count.....football and basketball. Save me the OU beat Pitt nonsense. That will never happen again. As bad as Syracuse has been in football recently, they could make a run at the MACC. If Notre Dame ever decides to join the Big East, they would be another team better than every MAC school.Sorry, I just have to laugh when I hear people from MAC schools seriously consider another conference like the Big East as reality. Hell, Marshall is getting killed in Conference DOA. UConn is solid, but where were they a few years ago? Oh yeah..not in Division I. Boston College, before Flutie, wasn't a huge team on the map. Now they are in the ACC (though probably a middle of the pack team). Virginia Tech= who were they 20 years ago? Heck, Miami, Fla was nothing until the early 80's.Those that think teams from the MAC can go to the Big East are visionaries= they see what can happen and what has happened at other programs. If you believe, as most sports analysts do, that the BE will not remain a 16 team conference and will add 4 football teams to 8 football schools...then I ask you:WHO WILL THEY TAKE?Memphis is a virtual lock. But other than that, you could make just as good of a case for a MAC school as any CUSA school. And, LOOK AT THE SCHEDULING= MAC schools are getting Big East schools and even lower-end Big 10 schools to play at their home stadiums. That wasn't happening much in the 70's-90's.The MAC has grown, and will continue to grow. But there is a ceiling, and the quality programs will have an avenue out. If you don't see that, you don't know what is going on in the current fabric of the NCAA. I respect the optimism, but it would be years before any MAC school could compete for any Big East title in football or basketball (probably never in basketball). The question is then....Would you rather be a top notch MAC school or a middle to lower middle of the road Big East school with a chance to be good in 10-15 years. Believe me, I've seen my share of losing in football at Akron, anyone who wants to go through that again for a chance to win in 10-15 years is just insane. That's 10-15 years of no meaningful championships, no bowl games and no NCAA basketball births. Have fun Toledo, BGSU and Miami. The novelty of a conference like that would wear off after a couple of years and the fans would be absolutely miserable. Just watch how quickly the attendance at Marshall will decline in a couple of years after losing season after losing season in Conference USA.

Great Poll!Since you don't have as an option a four year supply of acne cream, I went with #5.

http://www.tuckahoeortho.com/physicians.htmI was in Virginia this week and I contacted an old roommate Shannon Wolfe, or should I say Dr. Shannon Wolfe, and we went out for some drinks. If you click on this link and scroll down a little, you can see him.For those of you who don't know, Shannon was a four year starter at DB from 1987 to 1990 and was a good player, not great, but good. Most importantly, he was a straight A student. Every day, seven days a week, he studied until 2AM, including Friday and Saturday. I've actually never been around someone that dedicated to something.Anyhow, I just thought I would give the board proof that it is really possible to be a student and an athlete. Shannon was a good guy when we were young and an even better person now.

I don't think it is a question of misinforming the public. I don't think the Beacon has an agenda to do that. But they do make a lot of "small" mistakes like the one in the article, and that mistake was easy to catch. If a reporter makes a mistake, it is up to his boss to catch the mistake before the article goes to print.I don't care if the Beacon ever writes an article about Akron sports. The Beacon is a private business and as such they can do whatever they want with the paper. What I would like to see is the paper uphold professional standards of accurate information in any article they write. If I misspell a word or have poor writing skills on this web page, it really doesn't matter because I'm just some knucklehead who likes to write on this board with people who have a common interest. If the Beacon gets information wrong, they are not upholding their professional duty to the public. The problem is they make mistakes so frequently in Akron articles, how could anyone believe anything other than it was on purpose or the people are just incompetent? Facts like a player's number, upcoming opponent and name spelling are easy facts to check and the Beacon needs to do a better job.

I'm sure the people in New England can't wait for the big Toledo vs. Marshall basketball match up to determine last place in the Big East West Division. There is not a ONE MAC school that could leave to go to a conference like the Big East and expect to compete for a conference championship in any sport.UCONN, WVU, Pittsburgh and Louisville are better than every MAC school in the sports that really count.....football and basketball. Save me the OU beat Pitt nonsense. That will never happen again. As bad as Syracuse has been in football recently, they could make a run at the MACC. If Notre Dame ever decides to join the Big East, they would be another team better than every MAC school.Sorry, I just have to laugh when I hear people from MAC schools seriously consider another conference like the Big East as reality. Hell, Marshall is getting killed in Conference DOA.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/13651328.htmJust goes to show how silly I am. I thought the Zips were playing Central Michigan tonight. Good thing I have the Beacon to correct my mistakes.

There may be more to this than meets the eye, and it has nothing to do with KD, UofA, living in dorms, etc.Bubba is an adult and as such he can do whatever he wants. I could care less. Personally, anyone on scholarship is a fool to leave a sports program and transfer somewhere where that person has no scholarship. Having a full athletic scholarship is a privilege and is frequently not viewed that way by the recipients. If he was a walk-on, then that is a different story...he would have been given nothing and would owe nothing. His leaving just doesn't make any sense unless there is another possible reason outside of basketball.When I went to school, there was not an easy way to keep in touch with your high school or home town friends and you quickly lost touch. Now with the e-mail and cell phones, kids stay in touch easily. Maybe he met a girl or something back home that is going to OU and he wants to be close to her. You all know how bearded clams make guys crazy, especially at that age.Maybe Bubba just doesn't want to play basketball and wants to be close to some friends he had prior to Akron. If he doesn't want to play basketball, nobody has a gun to his head to do so and he should do the program a favor and not play. The scholarship is obviously not important to him either. If his familiy can afford to send him to the high school he went to, they can afford to send him to OU.Maybe Bubba didn't like the guys on the team. If that is the case, I guess I could see him leaving. They all spend a huge amount of time together and it would be hard to swallow being around a bunch of guys you don't like all the time. I don't see how going to OU could change this problem...what if he hates the guys at OU?What if the season falls out from under OU? The coach could get fired and if that happens, Bubba will NEVER get a scholarship from a new coach.I just question how much Bubba wants to play basketball and I wouldn't be shocked if he never played again. It seems to be the only thing that makes sense, because I don't think he will be able to contribute to OU any more than he would to Akron.

There are too many reasons why a kid picks one school over another to really say what could keep a kid home. For some, they may just want to go far from home, others may see a chance to play sooner than later at another school, others may actually like an academic program one school offers over another, etc. I question whether loyalty to your home area alone is a good enough reason to stay home. Once the reality of college sets in, loyalty may not be enough to keep a kid happy.Sports or no sports, I actually think it is healthy for a kid to get at least two hours away from home when going to college.

WOW! That must have been some really good pot. Probably grown in Guernsey County, Ohio.

Just to clarify one thing CK. Bobby Lyons was a Dennison recruit. However, Faust should get credit for bringing in a great young coach named Mike Woodford who later was with the New Orleans Saints and lastly with Florida to coach Bobby. Bobby would have never had his skills sharpened as well as they were with Dennison coaches. In fact, Bobby went to my high school (four years ahead of me) and wasn't even the best player on the team his senior year. Shawn Vincent had an older brother named Joe that was the best player on that team and if he didn't make some mistakes would have been a better player than Shawn. There was even another player on that team who was the nephew of Andy Urbanic, who was Faust's first offensive coordinator and now an athletic director at Florida State, who was a more high profile player than Bobby. Bobby was a late bloomer and Faust should get some credit for his three years in the NFL.Another player who Faust should get some credit for helping to a six year NFL career is John Buddenberg. John was a late bloomer also and a Dennison recruit. Hal Hunter, who has been with Vandy, LSU, offensive coordinator at Indiana and now with North Carolina since leaving Akron, developed John into an NFL type player and Coach Faust brought him to Akron.You are right about the talent level at Akron at the end of the Faust years. It was horrible. The failure of the Faust years can be described easily. A revolving door of coaches with no real leadership at the top, no support from the University, no support from the community, off field problems and on field failures snowballed into a 1-10 season Faust's last year. You guys would be shocked if you knew half the off field problems.

That's not completely true. OSU has two coaches on their staff who coached at Akron with LO.

So am I. In most countries, an idiot like you would have been stoned to death by now.

This is a great point and something that is overlooked with the transition between LO and JD.I was with the team at the beginning of the Faust years and the players Faust brought to Akron were much better than the players Dennison recruited to the team. There was a huge amount of resentment of the Faust players by the Dennison players because they all thought they were as good as the "new guys". The truth of the matter is that they weren't and the animosity between the two groups was obvious and really bad for the program.I'm frequently shocked when I see how small the Owens players actually were. It's no wonder why we had trouble competing during those years. The combination of small and slow in football is deadly.From all I can see, JD is bringing in bigger and better players, which is really needed. I'm sure there are a quite a few LO players and former players who think they are just as good as the "new guys". Anyone with a competitive spirit would. The truth of the matter is that they just aren't. They shouldn't be as good either. As years go by, if a program is moving in the proper direction, the players recruited should get better and better each year.