GP1

Good post. This is interesting. Lambert built the UNCC program from scratch. He worked there for at least one year before there were even any players and was highly involved in every aspect of the program and construction of facilities. The losing record doesn't bother me because it is sort of expected considering the circumstances were so difficult. What is most intriguing to me is his history at Wake Forest. He was defensive coordinator when they won the ACC during the Grobe years. They really had some good defenses and brought in some really good players like Aaron Curry and Al Smith. It's not easy to win at Wake Forest and he was part of winning. Akron needs a coach like that whether it's him or someone else. There would be a money problem.

I was shocked at the display of sanity the likes of which we rarely see.

If his name was Joe Smith, would you be interested? This just in. The Zips are going hard after one of the Mannings to be the next coach...... Cooper Manning.

I don't hate him either. He has some redeeming qualities. He is my favorite porn addict.

Who would they interview right now?

Or, a change of scenery.

The link is worth the read because it takes you to a study UofA did on athletics. Some good ideas there and some not so good ides. Let's put this to bed. Pluto is a moron. I can't stand the guy and I know this is going to make this reply go on more than I intend. Unfortunately, Pluto has been a thought leader in NE Ohio for decades now and has helped created some of the most miserable fans in the world. Of course someone can win at Akron!!!! How do I know that? Akron has won. We have won a MAC Championship, been to another MACC game and won a bowl game. I think Faust had a season that is still the highest winning percentage in the D1 era. It is absolutely possible to win at Akron. This whole notion that "if Arth cannot win then who can" is presenting the public with the idea that Akron can't win or worse yet has never won and that is just factually inaccurate. What I would really like to ask Pluto, which would expose the reality of his stupidity, is what about Arth's resume made him think he was a good hire to begin with. Played at St. I?....so what, a lot of people have. Went to JC?....so what, it's a D3 school. Played with Manning at Indy?....so what, he isn't Manning...God knows I wish he was. Coached at JC?....so what, it's a D3 school. Coached at UTC?.....so what, it's an irrelevant FCS program he made worse after going 9-13 in two seasons. Someone help me here. How was this guy ever going to create success at Akron? Don't blame Arth for taking a better job than he had. He is a smart guy who made a smart choice and will be making almost $700k over the next two years for doing nothing if he wants. Our previous AD was an absolute moron. The UofA study is interesting in that some of what I have said is included in it. I love the part about K-12 activities on campus and using those activities to drive people to sporting events. It needs to be more bold though. It can't always be sporting events driving people to activities on campus. If "We Rise Together" is more than just a statement on fundraising letters, everything has to work together. My concern is too much of it does not look towards the future of college athletics, specifically football, and tries to see a different path forward not just for the University, but he MAC and G5 schools. It also focuses on revenue generation. The endless pursuit of more an more money is destroying G5 athletics. For example, another buy game is just more of the same bad thinking that got us all here in the first place. The real problem is they lay out a solution that is ultimately going to lead the program to early season failure that will result in never gaining any momentum for winning and will have another study trying to figure out in 10 years why this study didn't work. . The debt service was something I learned. However, I think if they eliminated the debt tomorrow, I'm not certain much would change. The fact that out of state athletes on scholarship get charged out of state tuition rates to the Athletic Department is moronic and should change. That was a good point it makes.

Again, if nobody else wants them, why would we? If WKU would just calm down and work with their existing conference to find two more schools, it isn't a bad conference.

Someone I am close with in central Ohio coaches high school football and has for a long time. Knows everyone in and around Franklin Co. People rolled their eyes at Arth's staff after leaving schools. Coaches looked at their early staff as little more than a D3 staff. First impressions are lasting impressions. They simply weren't taken seriously by a large body of them and that matters in recruiting.

Most don't realize we have actually done Arth a favor. Heck, even Arth knows we have done him a favor at this point. Now Tom can move on with his life and get a nice QB coaching job at a P5 school or maybe an assistant in the NFL.

3-24 is going to turn into 3-26 over the next 3 weeks. This is the reality. Arth wasn't building towards anything except at best a 4-5 win season 2 years from now. In reality, recruits would have started to get worse not better. Lots of decent players were going to leave just to have a chance to win the last year or two of their college careers. It's miserable to lose game after game. Arth and his staff have little respect in the high school coaching ranks and a couple more seasons of losing were only going to make that worse resulting in what would look like the end of the Faust era recruits. Arth was on a train to nowhere. I know how bad fans want "the building process" to work, but college football simply isn't designed for slow builds. Slow builds are actually punished. It is designed for quick rebuilds and with the right coaches it can be rewarded. Look no further than Kent and somewhere like Michigan State. Akron is always behind the times.

That's about the only two that come to mind for me as well. If half the team transferred, would it matter? Tonight was the first time I took time to watch the Zips play this year. Went back an forth between the Zips and the Miami game since Mrs. GP1, the luckiest woman in the world, wanted to watch her school win. There is a shocking lack of talent on the team. Not sure how they were able to stay in the game last night, but they did and still lost. Not sure how half of them are not easily replaceable. My guess is they were highly motivated last night after getting their coach fired. Nobody wants to go down as a coach killer. That motivation will wear off quickly. Players will be talking openly about leaving the program over the next weeks, coaches will be spending a lot of time networking for another job and those left will be smart enough to know there is nobody really holding them accountable for bad play.

How many of those people actually pay attention to Zips football in a meaningful way? My guess is they put as much effort into it as I do, which isn't much. Another loss is another loss. Five point loss or fifty point loss doesn't matter at this point. Even if they win one more game, it doesn't matter. At the end of the year, this team is likely to be 2-10 after three seasons. Is that meaningful progress? No, it's terrible. Worse, it's laughable. The program is trash right now and Arth got it here. Firing him now or at the end of the season was irrelevant. If this is the quality of sports journalism around NE Ohio, I need to move back and get a job at the ABJ or Plain Dealer because the thought leaders have lost their minds and are doing a disservice to the people of NE Ohio. The pressure on Guthrie? From whom? I hear the stadium is almost completely empty for games so I can only assume nobody cares enough to exercise any pressure on the AD. Zips fans are indifferent, which is third place for where you want your fans minds to be. First place is "happy" because people come to games. Second place is "mad" because people still care enough to be mad. Indifference is absolutely the worst place for a fan base to be.

That's not what the needle in the haystack means.

One of the best things about Zips football is they don't let your hopes get too high before extinguishing them.

This 62 year old is averaging less than 3 wins a year at URI.

Too many missed opportunities.

Like I said, when you make the University the centerpiece of activity and community involvement in your region, good things happen. Link. I don't know if Akron does things like this or not, but it can only be helpful to everything going on on campus. Summit County (population 541,000) has a massive population compared to Watauga County, NC (population 56,000). It takes quite the effort to get to Boone. Akron averaging 12,000 per game shouldn't be difficult to achieve. BTW, if you are paying to park in downtown Boone on game day, it's going to cost you around $30.00. I just don't see MAC schools doing enough to make themselves centerpieces of their communities. Maybe I'm just not close enough to it.

Sanity prevailed in the MAC today. There is hope.

Premium parking should have a cost associated. Non premium parking should be free.

Winning is the key to high volume attendance whatever that means. Akron needs to make the campus a center piece of activity in NE Ohio and the football team can be part of it. This is one of many examples I could make. On football Saturdays, organize math, engineering, debate club competitions, etc on campus for (insert grade K-12 here) kids. As part of participation, kids and their families get free GA tickets to the game that will be scheduled at a time close to the end of the kids competition. To me it's more than getting kids to show up for a game. It's about getting community activity at the University and a football game being part of the activity so they want to apply for admission. Professors, grad assistants and students could be judges for these events. There are many great professors, grad assistants and students who could humanize the school for a young kid. Wouldn't it be great if we invited a distinguished alumnus in something like engineering to judge an event? So many possibilities. I'll get off of this by saying we could be doing more than we currently are to not just promote the football team, but the University in conjunction with the team. We can do much better. EDIT:. If we don't do things like I described above, we have abandoned the whole purpose of building a stadium on campus and could have just thrown one up in the grass lot by the Rubber Bowl.

The not winning is difficult to overcome, but I'll try. I don't know that packing the stadium each week is possible. Respectable crowds are possible. The high school student id program is interesting but the free tickets are going to the wrong people. Let's review. MAC athletic departments lose a lot of money. Combined, MAC schools spend more money than the GDP of Somalia. Since the difference is made up by taxpayers, the taxpayers should get the free tickets, meaning adults. The adults go with the kids to the game. Specifically, four general admission tickets to two MAC sporting events per year. If my taxes go towards paying for state run roads, I want to use the roads. We should look at Ohio MAC schools athletic departments the same way. There are a million things they could do and don't. Too much to post. In the end, MAC schools must make themselves a draw to everyone around them. They are great institutions, with the exception of Kent, and they need to use athletics as part of that demonstration.

Ohio State doesn't aspire to ND grade points. I know a 29 year old guy who graduated from the Naval Academy and played football. He'll admit the football players are the dumbest guys on campus and endlessly on the verge of flunking out. He was the smartest kid at his high school and got an A in calculus 2 in 12th grade. Took entry level calculus at the Academy thinking he would get an easy pass and got a C minus. Barely got a D plus to pass chemistry. Navy has been good at football the past 10 years and nobody cares about grades.

A lot of last place finishers have been also. Since we never really know what happens behind closed doors we never know how many at risk kids were helped by a coach who could reach that kid on a level that guided him in the right direction. I'd bet a lot of money every MAC Champion had 2-3 that benefited from a coach like that. When you're holding a trophy above your head, nobody examines this aspect of a team. They are fantastic human interest stories that highlight the way state universities benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans are general communities where they are.

It's also a win for society to take an at risk kid, bring him along and have him graduate. This is partly why we should expect out of taxpayer funded universities. MAC football programs should benefit the athletes, students, alumni, fans and general communities where they are.