GP1

Z-P, JD Brookhart is the best coach in the MAC. He took one of the least talented teams in the MAC East and won the division...........I must say, you are one Hell of a judge of talent you bitter old jackass. Have fun rooting for your favorite northeast Ohio coach as he takes the field Thursday for NIU.

This is a really good post. MAC attendance is a problem everywhere. On a beautiful fall day, only approximately 8,000 showed up for the BG vs. Akron game. As far as bowl attendance, this poster is exactly right also. Last year at the Indy Bowl in LA, I listened to the AD from Miami, at a pregame party, beg the audience for ideas on how to get more people to the games. Hardly anyone from Miami came to the game and the Iowa State side looked like the entire state showed up. Akron is the team of the future. Winning the MAC East puts us one leg up further on the competition. As far as Miami and BG, Don Rumsfeld might call them the "Old MAC". They should change their names to France and Germany. Time has moved past these programs and they do not have what Akron has to keep them on top of the league. They will continue to tell themselves how great they are, but eveyone will know better.

For them. All of the pressure this Thursday is going to be on NIU. Akron can come into this game relaxed, focused and ready to do their best. Akron knows it can beat NIU because it has already this season. NIU needs to win to prove they can win the big game. The more you lose the big game, the more difficult it becomes to win one. Just ask Bill Cowher of my beloved Steelers. There is also pressure on NIU to win a game for their coach before the nursing home stops letting him out to attend games. Believe me Zipsnation friends, all the pressurer is on NIU this week.

For the record, in the past four seasons NIU is 13-3 in road games against MAC opponents. Of course one of the three losses is to the Zips. Looking forward to a great game on Thursday. I should have said, "games that matter". Losing important games seems to be one of the biggest traditions NIU has.

I see Pluto broke out one of his loveable loser theme articles. It just goes to show how stupid he is, the Zips are no longer "loveable losers", they are "loveable winners"!

NIU has historically been a poor road team and I am hoping that form holds true in Detroit. I look for a real good game.

http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfi...p?fighterid=265 I don't know how many of you folks will remember this guy or not, but Bob Hoffman was a DE in the late 80's for the Zips. He transfered from a JC in the midwest and was a pretty good player. He was quick off the ball, physical and aggressive. A good player, but not great. He did not look anything like he does now. He was much bigger and had really bushy black hair. At the time, he was much older than I was and he had a wife and kids so nobody really knew him personally very well. We just happened to stumble upon this. Not as interesting a post football career as John Clark, but interesting none the less.

I'd think it would be more difficult to hire an AD than develop a worldwide network of janitorial outsourcing. That's just me though.

We talked earlier this week about the snowstorm in 1987. That was a bad storm, but nothing like today. In 87, there was much more snow, but it was warmer and no wind. It's almost five o'clock, and my feet are still cold. Once again Biggs was awesome. I'd also like to tip my hat to Kiki. Without his dominating presence in the middle, JR does not make all the tackles he does. Congratulations to Biggs and Hixson for both going over 1,000 yards today. For those of us on this board who have been watching the Zips struggle along for years and years since moving to D 1-A in 1987, I'm sure you all feel as I do that this is a great day for the football program, students and alumni of the University. This is even a huge win for the City of Akron. To Dr. Proenza, Mike Thomas, Mike Waddell, the Athletic Department staff, JD Brookhart, the entire football staff and players, I would like to say thanks for not giving up early this season when all was certainly not going well. Excellent work...you guys earned the ultimate GP1 compliment........you all have become WINNERS!!!! See everyone in Detroit Thursday.

I would hope that JD's experience growing up in Colorado, playing at Colorado State and coaching with the Broncos might have taught him a thing or two about coaching and playing in the cold.

If we beat Can't, we deserve the MAC East Championship. We played by the same rules as everyone else.

Call my cell. I have a somewhere for the wife and kids to go if it gets too cold.

A four point lead on this board could be insurmountable (For the Can't State graduates and Z-P, that means unable to catch up). Come on ZipsWin! and CK, I need your votes. When the voting is complete, I would like to present a victory post to the board. Don't let me down people!

I talked to a guy today who is someone I would consider an expert in football and he told me he would be surprised if Biggs rushed for less than 200 yards tomorrow. He felt that Can't State is worse than OU when we played them.

I hate to do this because Winters is a former Zip, but here it goes. Wayne State University results for 2005 include a record of 3-7. One game, they even managed to score 22 points. I don't know if Winters is better than the guy we have now, but I'll take throwing passes on third and fifteen over running a draw play any day of the week. One thing I noticed while looking this up. Rob Fournier is the AD at Wayne State...This guy was an assistant AD at Akron when I was in school and he was a bigger a-hole than I am. Hell, at least in real life I'm not the a-hole I am on this board (please don't let this comment dissuade you from voting me biggest a-hole). For those of you who went to Can't State, "dissuade" means to keep you from doing something by influencing you.

I have many funny sideline stories from that game. The most funny being the Fausty-The-Snowman joke (only ZipsWin! will get that). If you ever have the pleasure to meet me in person, ask me to tell the story.

1987 Akron vs. YSU. Does anyone remember the snow storm?

What makes one a Hall of Fame poster? Don't be ashamed of you vote now, give an opinion after voting.

I resent there even being any competition. I'm clearly the biggest a-hole on this board and if you all (not you ITZ) are stupid enough to vote for anyone else, I hope you choke on a piece of canned cranberry tomorrow.

While I agree a bowl game would result in an ass kicking, the extra weeks of practice are needed for this team to move forward to next year. A bowl is also a reward for a good season. We did have a good season, much better than most expected, and I think the players and coaches have earned a bowl considering their talent level. If we continue to have good seasons with no bowl at the end, at what point does winning become irrelevant? Look around the league. What do BGSU, Miami, Toledo and NIU all have in common? They all went to bowl games last year. They have a recent history of going to bowl games. They not only have a player development advantage, but they also have a recruiting advantage over most of the league. If we continue to get screwed by bowls, we will always be the team hoping for a miracle at the end of the season. The new fieldhouse will only go so far in recruiting. Players want to compete and go to bowl games much more than practicing in a new fieldhouse and playing in a New Deal Era dump. Not going to a bowl game would be the ultimate . After reading this post, I am certain NIU is going to win today and Akron will beat Can't tomorrow. Playing NIU at a neutral field spells disaster for Akron and we will get passed over. The tune is "Happy Days are Here Again". Everyone sing now!!!!! Bitter days are here again, The sky above is snowing again, Grab a blanket and start shiverin', Bitter days are here again......

That would make us 6-6, my guess is no. I think they have to take the winner of the Mac championship game, but not the loser. They could take BG at 6-5. That would make the second year in a row we were passed over by a bowl for a team we beat. I really can't blame the bowls though, because the purpose of a bowl committee is to draw teams that bring big crowds to a city for a few days so the town can make some money. Does anyone really think Akron would take a big crowd to a game? It would be worse than the horrible crowd Miami took to the Indy Bowl last year. It is what it is....Until the Rubber Bowl is flattened so the people of Akron have a decent place to go watch a game and they draw big crowds, or we can win the conference championship, this will always be the case.

Question....If NIU wins today, Akron wins tomorrow and Akron loses to NIU in the MACC, then do we go bowling? I have no idea how the contracts work with the bowls the MAC is associated, but my guess is there will be a way to get screwed.

That Yenzer Gradkowski had a great game last night. I'm sure he has a hangover of kielbasa, sauerkraut, pirogues, Iron City n'at this morning.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate myself on having the longest arms in the world. It is not through arrogance, but through cynicism, that makes me right all the time.........except for my 28 point win prediction for BG last night (I was only slightly off, the same way Pluto is slightly further from the sun than Mercury).

There is no way that Yenzer beats Jacobs tonight. However, our Yenzer WILL beat K-ent on Turkey Day.