GP1

Just a couple other things, man I love this topic.Someone please go on the web pages for Miami, Marshall, Toledo, BGSU and Western Michigan and show me the indoor facility they practiced in during the LO years. Other than Toledo, is there a school on that list were the type of player necessary to win in the MAC would want to go to school? Huntington is a complete dump, BGSU is a cow town and WMU has a stadium far from campus and Kalamazoo is a dump. Everyone in the MAC has challenges to recruiting. Ours is/was the Rubber Bowl. I don't see how any problem is not insurmountable. If everyone else in the league was doing it, why couldn't LO? JD seems to be getting past the RB.

Weren't about 10% of those impressive 40 wins against I-AA teams?I think we all understand the limitations the University had in recruiting terms prior to JD. The main point is our being continually out coached game after game as a result of the program, coaches and player, looking more like a Suburban League team than a MAC team.The only miracle that happened during the LO years was the loss to Can't in 2003. Only through divine intervention could we have lost that game. I would like to take a second to thank the Lord for showing himself to us that day. The problems the program had were legion and it starts with coaching. I don't blame the players for their lack of results. Hell, they should go to school for free if they can. I don't think LO and his staff had a clue as to the type of player necessary to win in the MAC. They could cherry pick a good player here or there with the carrot of a player being able to play sooner than later, but once you got below the top tier players, most really weren't that good.All things being equal, I'll never be convinced that LO could do as much with a program as JD. If LO was a better coach, he wouldn't be at a dump like Ashland right now. JD has been around the block and knows what he is doing and he was at Pitt when they changed their facilities from Pitt Stadium to their new stadium and facilities. He's the right guy for this job at this point. Nine years of nothing was enough for LO. He had to go.ITZ, it's nice that you care so much for LO. I can tell you first hand that hardly any of Faust's players really cared for him. With that said, you should use less emotion looking at this issue and more reason. I wanted the issue I mentioned in my first post on this topic to be different for the guy involved, but in the end, a change had to be made. There's never any long term benefit without some short term pain. LO had plenty of chances to win here and blew more than he didn't.

Akron should recruit from local high schools, it is good for attendance and there is alot of talent in that area. THe problem is they aren't getting the best from the local high schools. NEO has the best football in the state of ohio period. Canton Mck, Massillon, St. Ignatios, Cleveland Glenville, Youngstown, etc. The problem is Akron lets kids go to schools like Kentucky, Rutgers, Pitt, and Duke (schools with big names and bad football). Winning games will get people to games, not getting local players. Akron needs to get the best players. If that is in NE Ohio, then fine. If it is other places, then we need to get them. There are good players everywhere and the job of the coaches is to get them. There was no relationship between attendance and local players during the Owens years. In fact, the crowds were basically unchanged.The best players during the Owens years were not from NE Ohio. Frye is basically from northcentral Ohio, Dwight Smith was from out of state, Blackburn was from the Columbus area, etc.

There was an interesting statistic about NFL QBs recently that someone told me about and wanted me to guess who was #2 on the list.Ben Roethlisberger has the highest completion percentage of NFL QBs in 2005 with over 100 attempted passes. Who was second? Being the genius I am, I immediately knew it would be Frye.....and it was. What other QB would complete a hugely high percentage and still only win 40% of the games he started? Remember the LO offense that moved the ball like crazy between the 20s and couldn't get it done when they needed to? A QB must have more steak than sizzle or you get the reputation for being "more sizzle than steak".

Never apologize for your opinions Zipsrifle. Thanks Dad You're welcome......son.

It was a looooooong flight to Iowa today and I finally made it to my hotel room, I'm a little tired but here it goes........Lee Owens took an unwatchable disaster of a football program and turned it into a barely watchable program. If that is the definition of success, the guy I fired on Monday that resulted in me having to fly last minute to Iowa, sprint through O'Hare (sp?) this afternoon to reach my connection because I was late because we sat on the runway in Cleveland for an hour to leave, so I could do a colossally borring presentation to a group of architects Friday, should be hired back. Owens had two years of college experience coaching at OSU prior to Akron. Other than that, he was a high school coach. In fact, he had a bunch of high school coaches on his staff. We were frequently out coached on and off the field. During games, we hung in until halftime every game because that is what bad teams do. At halftime, the other team gets their head out of their ass and beats the bad team with their bad coaches. We did it to OU this year. Off the field, if you played at a "suburban" school and were a "suburban player" you could get a scholarship to Akron. What a load of crap that was! They may have been small, but they sure were slow.The attention to detail was horrible during the Owens years. Every game, we had to use timeouts because the defense wouldn't know where to line up. Guys would drop passes right in their hands and there was no accountability. That's pathetic.As far as that offense, it racked up a lot of yards.......between the 20s and in the first through third quarter. The guy would use up the clock, get into scoring position on the 15 yard line and when fourth down came along, he would go for the first down and not make it. That great offense couldn't even get a first down when they needed one against Can't State in 2003 and they blew a huge fourth quarter lead. Please spare me the comments about what a great offense it was. With LO's offense, when it was good it was great; when it was bad, it was horrible. With JD's offense, when it is good it is great; when it is bad, it at least rests the defense and gives you a chance to win.Do we have to say anything about that defense?There is no comparison between JD and LO. JD is a professional coach who has been in the NFL and at a Big East school. For any writer or coach to say JD picked up where LO left off clearly does not know what they are talking about. LO didn't bring Biggs to Akron who was the main player in Akron's success the past two years. LO didn't bring Getsy to Akron who, warts and all, was the MACC MVP and had a great game at the MCB. LO was basically 5-5 his last year. I'm sorry, those two I-AA wins don't count for shit. JD at least knows what a D-1A high school player looks like.JD treats his players like men, LO would cry in the "room" after losing. Way to toughen them up Lee. If JD's players make a mistake, they are told they did and then they are told how to fix it. I think LO knew when a mistake was made, but didn't know what to do about it.I really don't know what the players thought about LO, but I do know that half the guys hated Faust and half like him. That's probably normal.I could go on all night, but I have to go to dinner. This post did allow me to let off some steam. Thanks ZipsWin!One last thing...don't out other guys, regardless of how you feel about them, for going to strip clubs. It's very unmanly.

Exactly. There is a reason this guy is back coaching high school and the other guys are basically nowhere.

This is a good point. Recruiting is huge for the future of any program. I'm not going to pretend to know much about basketball, because I don't, but I do think I notice a good athlete when I see one.The young players on this team don't look like the type of player that would scare me if I was a good MAC player. I see some kids who play well together and hustle, but nobody really strikes me as a great athlete. Ultimately, good players win games. Do we have the players to sustain long term success? Romeo is a good player, but does he have the skills to be the "go to" guy every team needs?By the way, can I get a hall pass to miss the game Saturday?

How little are we talking here? I don't want any LBs shorter than six foot.

Go for it CK! It's too unhealthy to hold in emotions.

I have to agree with ITZ. The coverage during the MCB was very good and they ran a lot of different types of stories. I've even noticed they are getting the players numbers and names correct.Maybe the Beacon has earned some slack.....for now.

There was a nice full page advertisement in the ABJ this morning. It was on the back of the sports section and was a letter from JD Brookhart to the fans thanking everyone for coming to the MCB. Underneath was a Fear The Roo advertisement also. I can't seem to find it on the internet.

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. This guy is brilliant!

I mentioned before why there will be no dome, but let me expand on the point that the University can not afford a dome. One of my biggest sales was on Ford Field where I sold over 2,000,000 square feet of product and a lot of it went into the roofing assembly so I do have a little experience with the construction of domes.A dome is out of the question because the pure costs of installing the roofing membrane on the dome will be too excessive. It cost millions of dollars just to install the membrane and insulation on Ford Field because of wind considerations, etc. The contract to put on the membrane and insulation at Ford Field was in excess of $7 million. Roofing prices have escalated significantly over the past five years and I'm sure a dome on Akron would cost in excess of $10 million. That was peanuts compared to the steel structure. I won't get into the engineering mistake that caused the roof deck to pop off when it was first installed, but that change order was huge to correct it and it almost didn't open up on time. The cloth hanging down from the roof in Ford Field to keep you from seeing an ugly underside of the roof deck was almost $500,000 to install.I would be surprised if the University could afford to excavate the land to have an in ground stadium. That's why newer MAC stadiums (Miami, Can't, BG, etc.) are not in ground. If you want it in ground, get ready for fewer seats.Finally, the cost of the new construction of a structure is only 20% of the lifecycle cost of that structure. So if you have a $20 million dollar building, it costs you about $100,000 million to build and maintain the structure over the life of the building. The state is having enough money problems to allow a hugely expensive roof to be replaced every twenty years. After about 60 years, the deck replacement on the roof would bankrupt the school. Without a dome, there is no HVAC maintenance, no leak problems to pay to fix and no extra costs to run the HVAC equipment. The cost to run the structure is reduced by not having a dome.It's fun to speculate about a dome, but in reality it just isn't in the cards.Sorry about the long winded post, but most of mine are long winded anyhow. This topic is much less funny than a Dick Clark post or a poll about Brady Quinn's sheman sister.

I work in the construction business and I can tell you that with enough time and money they can do anything.The problem is they need a new stadium as soon as possible, so they don't have time. I assume they are having trouble getting the money or they would have stated publically that the stadium is a done deal. So, without a lot of time or money, we are going to have an outdoor stadium when we get one.The discussion about a retractable dome is pointless. The reason Ford Field has a permanent dome is the cost of a retractable dome was going to be about $20 million more.Give me a 30,000 seate stadium on campus and I'll be happy. All I need to be happy at a game is a field, a seat and some beer.A dome would be nice if they could afford it.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/13554399.htmAllow me to rewrite this headline for everyone: "Moorhead Promoted to Co-Offensive Coordinator: Brookhart Will Continue to Call Plays".For those of you waiting for black helicopters to pick you up, it could mean that the current OC is interviewing for other jobs......which may not be a stretch in that business.

The Browns are a great analogy. They are still suffering from a hangover from a speed kills guy, Butch Davis. Butch thought everything could be like Miami and completely forgot his days in Dallas when they were winning Super Bowls with a physical running back and full back, a great offensive line and a tough defense. It had little to do with speed.The Zips must be more physical if they want to continue to run that 3-3-5 defense.

I have to admit that I didn't see much college football this year because I went to 10 of 11 regular season Akron games and you miss out on the other teams when you go to games. The bowl season allowed me to see a lot of games and come to a personal conclusion about what Akron needs in its program. I know we had a topic similar to this, but now that the games are over, you may have a different opinion and I'm interested in what you guys think.The days of just saying "speed kills" are over. Only Lee Corso and SEC punch drinkers continue to come to that conclusion. In fact, Corso is probably still wondering why Florida State, Florida or Miami didn't win the Rose Bowl last night. Big, physical players at every position is now the trend in college football and as long as football is football and not a track meet, it should be the Zips trend. Memphis did it to Akron, Texas did it to USC, LSU did it to Miami, Penn State did it to FSU, Toledo did it to UTEP, Wisconsin did it to Auburn, etc.Akron needs bigger players at every position. I don't mean fat @$$es, just taller and more athletic players. In the Motor City Bowl, Reggie Corner played the halfback pass perfectly and lost out to a bigger and more athletic WR. If we don't get that type of recruit, we will always lose those battles and win around 6-7 games a year hoping to win a final game to make the MACC. That type of player is out there and we need to get some. Toledo gets them, Miami gets them, NIU gets them and Marshall used to get a ton of them. Why not us?I would like to know from someone like InTheZone who is around the team frequently if we have in fact recruited this type of player the past two seasons, or if we have just recruited a bunch of fast dwarfs. I haven't stood close enough to any player to know what we really have.On another note, I had an ugly flushback last night watching the Rose Bowl. Does anyone remember the days of......1. Poor time out management2. No defense3. Going for it on fourth down and not making it giving the other team good field position.4. Passing up easy field goals for no points later

We do have to give Toledo props for one thing. Last night they put up a statistic on the longest winning streaks in history and Toledo was high on the list with a bunch of real heavy hitters. So the MAC did get some good play last night.

http://www.sportspickle.com/features/volum...-0104-hawk.htmlI always enjoy a good mean spirited read on Sportspickle.com. This one somehow fits this topic. I have no idea how this topic continues, but it does. Isn't this an Akron board? Oh well, good humor this time of year needs to be viewed.

Damn, that's a nice dome. I bet it is cool in the summer and warm in the winter and dry during a rain storm. It would be nice, but I'll take anything as long as it isn't the Rubber Bowl and I can go to a bar before the game.

Nothing gets me as excited as the NIT basketball tournament. If the NCAA wants to put on a one game freak show the night before the Super Bowl after all the bowl games have been played, then fine. But that will just be the first step for those who want a 16 team playoff nonsense. They'll never shut up.

Never apologize for your opinions Zipsrifle.

I don't agree at all. The same people with the OSU stuff would continue to wear their OSU stuff and probably wear it to the game AND cheer for OSU. They would also be pissed off to no end if Akron beat OSU.I travel all over the country for work and this is something that isn't just isolated to Akron and Ohio. I know a guy in Nashville who graduated from MTSU and every week he goes to UT to watch the Vols. I could tell you the same thing about Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, etc. People tend to follow their bigger state schools. I don't agree with it, but that is the way it is.Akron just needs Akron alumni to be Akron fans and everything will take care of itself. Akron doesn't need the greatest players out there, we just need better players than every other MAC team. The Akron alumni can influence that by just coming to games and if we make the conference championship game and bowl game, they need to go to that as well.

I love this topic.The only reason other levels of college football have a playoff is there would be no interest at all in their divisions if there wasn't.I like the bowls because for almost two straight weeks I am able to turn on the TV every night and watch a college football game. I love college football and I just like to watch games.The NFL has a playoff because there are only 32 teams and the purpose of the NFL season is to determine who gets into the playoffs and then who wins the Super Bowl. The purpose of the NCAA football is to determine conference champions for almost every team out there.A playoff would create an insurmountable recruiting advantage for those teams that make it every year and it would end up being the same 16 team in every year. Look at the other divisions, it is the same teams in their playoffs every year. Mount Union? The other teams in their league can't even come close to beating them now because every good D-III player in Ohio goes to Mt. There are no institutional checks (draft position, scheduling, etc.) like the NFL has to level the playing field for those teams who do not make the playoffs. Good programs like North Carolina State would be destroyed by a playoff.Attendance at college football playoffs at neutral fields would be horrible. It is one thing to fill a 18,000 seat stadium for NCAA basketball, it is another to fill a 80,000 seat stadium for football. Most fans can barely afford to go to a bowl game let alone four straight away games.Some say there is more money in a playoff system. I say that is a load of crap. Athletic Directors are pretty smart people and I'm sure they all have calculators and have sat down and calculated the take on bowls vs. playoffs. If there was more money in a playoff system, we would have one already.A football playoff would make the regular season as irrelevant as the current basketball regular season is. Every week, football games are hugely important and I want to keep it that way.A friend once told me the NCAA basketball tournament is the greatest "spectacle" in sports and football could have the same thing. I said that if I wanted a spectacle, I would go down to a trailor park and watch domestic violence cases break out. I don't want a spectacle, I just want good entertainment. The bowls are good entertainment and I was hugely entertained in Detroit on December 26. The trip to the Motor City Bowl was worth every penny I spent going to it.Lastly, I don't think the Earth will fall off of it's axis if there is not a football playoff and we keep the bowls.