Moral Victories for Today

[Zips fan]

After another embarrassing loss to a fellow MAC school, I tried to look for some moral victories. Moral victories should be beneath this team and playing close to a conference mate is setting the bar way too low, but here they go.

1) We came closer to the spread than any other recent games.

2) Our defense held them to under 400 yards(399)

3) We are one game closer to the end of RI coaching tenure at The University of Akron.

[skip-zip]

I'm enjoying this thread every week, unfortunately.

1) We were still in the game in the first half.

2) Defense gave up 30 instead of 50.

3) We finally have an opponent that we played better in 2010 than 2009.

4) Did PN actually complete half of his passes? I think that might be the 2nd time this year. Impressive.

5) One game closer to the showdown with Buffalo.

[GoZips88]

Listening to the football game was a highlight as I sat in the stands at Cleveland State watching our Zips lose 2-1 to CSU and look like crap doing so.

[Blue & Gold]

Here's a pathetic moral victory -

I'm watching the epic Ball State - Can't State battle on tv and, as far as actual butts-in-the-seats, K.e.n.t. doesn't have any better a crowd than the nightmarishly-sparse crowds we've been drawing at the Info.

It'll be interesting to see what their "announced attendance" will be for this game.

It really seems as though nobody really even wants to get into K.e.n.t. athletics.

Contrarily, a lot of half-hearted, not-even-really-interested people that I talk to seem to want to rally around the Zips. Akron is just sooooo bad that it's literally embarrassing. If Akron could get their act together, the Info would be an absolutely jamming place to be on a Saturday afternoon.

[Dave in Green]

..... 4) Did PN actually complete half of his passes? I think that might be the 2nd time this year. Impressive. .....

PN7 was 15 of 26 for 134 yards with 1 interception. Don't know how many sacks, but he had -26 yards on 10 "rushes." As a team, Zips had a grand total of 20 rushing yards in 28 attempts for a rushing average of .7 yards.

The punting game was pretty decent.

[Dave in Green]

..... I'm watching the epic Ball State - Can't State battle on tv and, as far as actual butts-in-the-seats, K.e.n.t. doesn't have any better a crowd than the nightmarishly-sparse crowds we've been drawing at the Info.

It'll be interesting to see what their "announced attendance" will be for this game. .....

As with every sporting event I'm aware of, announced attendance always includes tickets sold (including season tickets), and not actual butts in seats.

[johnnyzip84]

..... 4) Did PN actually complete half of his passes? I think that might be the 2nd time this year. Impressive. .....

PN7 was 15 of 26 for 134 yards with 1 interception. Don't know how many sacks, but he had -26 yards on 10 "rushes." As a team, Zips had a grand total of 20 rushing yards in 28 attempts for a rushing average of .7 yards.

The punting game was pretty decent.

1) THIRTEEN of those 15 completions were to TRUE FRESHMEN.

2) Temple did not run effectively until the game was WELL out of hand.

[Zipmeister]

..... 4) Did PN actually complete half of his passes? I think that might be the 2nd time this year. Impressive. .....

PN7 was 15 of 26 for 134 yards with 1 interception. Don't know how many sacks, but he had -26 yards on 10 "rushes." As a team, Zips had a grand total of 20 rushing yards in 28 attempts for a rushing average of .7 yards.

The punting game was pretty decent.

1) THIRTEEN of those 15 completions were to TRUE FRESHMEN.

2) Temple did not run effectively until the game was WELL out of hand.

While the offense continued to be inept, I thought that today the defense was on the verge of ept.

[ZipRoo]

Yes, and the head coach gets high marks for this 30-0 drubbing.

Just like he did on Wistrcill and Proenza's pre-hiring standards:

1) Prior head coaching experience. CHECK.

2) Innovative strategist. CHECK.

3) Gets the most out of his players. CHECK.

4) Well-respected by players and peers. CHECK.

5) Treats colleagues and fans with professionalism and kindness. CHECK.

6) Will excite our fanbase and bring large crowds to InfoCision. CHECK.

7) A proven winner the city will rally behind. CHECK.

8) Makes superb in-game adjustments. CHECK

9) Wanted by every other D-1 school with a coaching vacancy. CHECK

0) Most importantly, acquainted with Tom Wistrcill. CHECK

[akzipper]

Yes, and the head coach gets high marks for this 30-0 drubbing.

Just like he did on Wistrcill and Proenza's pre-hiring standards:

1) Prior head coaching experience. CHECK.

2) Innovative strategist. CHECK.

3) Gets the most out of his players. CHECK.

4) Well-respected by players and peers. CHECK.

5) Treats colleagues and fans with professionalism and kindness. CHECK.

6) Will excite our fanbase and bring large crowds to InfoCision. CHECK.

7) A proven winner the city will rally behind. CHECK.

8) Makes superb in-game adjustments. CHECK

9) Wanted by every other D-1 school with a coaching vacancy. CHECK

0) Most importantly, acquainted with Tom Wistrcill. CHECK

name someone who has all of those?

[72 Roo]

Yes, and the head coach gets high marks for this 30-0 drubbing.

Just like he did on Wistrcill and Proenza's pre-hiring standards:

1) Prior head coaching experience. CHECK.

2) Innovative strategist. CHECK.

3) Gets the most out of his players. CHECK.

4) Well-respected by players and peers. CHECK.

5) Treats colleagues and fans with professionalism and kindness. CHECK.

6) Will excite our fanbase and bring large crowds to InfoCision. CHECK.

7) A proven winner the city will rally behind. CHECK.

8) Makes superb in-game adjustments. CHECK

9) Wanted by every other D-1 school with a coaching vacancy. CHECK

0) Most importantly, acquainted with Tom Wistrcill. CHECK

name someone who has all of those?

The point is Ianello doesn't have one. How can any program be this bad? Please act Dr. P!

[scottditzen]

As far as I know, Zippy did not fall off a Segway.

Anyone else notice how our program went to complete hell after that incident?

[Blue & Gold]

Yes, and the head coach gets high marks for this 30-0 drubbing.

Just like he did on Wistrcill and Proenza's pre-hiring standards:

1) Prior head coaching experience. CHECK.

2) Innovative strategist. CHECK.

3) Gets the most out of his players. CHECK.

4) Well-respected by players and peers. CHECK.

5) Treats colleagues and fans with professionalism and kindness. CHECK.

6) Will excite our fanbase and bring large crowds to InfoCision. CHECK.

7) A proven winner the city will rally behind. CHECK.

8) Makes superb in-game adjustments. CHECK

9) Wanted by every other D-1 school with a coaching vacancy. CHECK

0) Most importantly, acquainted with Tom Wistrcill. CHECK

name someone who has all of those?

The point is Ianello doesn't have one. How can any program be this bad? Please act Dr. P!

Ahh, I get it now. I too was a little confused by your post.

Actually, I believe you mean to say he has none of the above qualifications, save #10.

[Loyal Zip]

As a recent follower of this site, I have to tell you that your sense of humor has me LMAO this morning. As we are all very disgusted with the current state of Akron Football which is obvious, your comments here have at least given me some small amount of joy to at least have a good laugh this morning! It does make light of an otherwise terrible situation.

[Blue & Gold]

As far as I know, Zippy did not fall off a Segway.

Anyone else notice how our program went to complete hell after that incident?

+1. He decapitated himself.

[uhgrad2002]

She decapitated herself. And yes, that's where the downfall started. When I saw the head roll I thought "That's not a good sign."

Now what does Zippy have to do to turn things back around?

[Dave in Green]

As a recent follower of this site, I have to tell you that your sense of humor has me LMAO this morning. As we are all very disgusted with the current state of Akron Football which is obvious, your comments here have at least given me some small amount of joy to at least have a good laugh this morning! It does make light of an otherwise terrible situation.

Humor is a good way to help maintain sanity in an otherwise depressing situation.

Here's a funny one. I happened to be watching some of the Auburn game last night as the Tigers were beating up on Mississippi to maintain their perfect record and #1 BCS ranking. The announcers were talking about how passionately Auburn fans were against hiring current head coach Gene Chizik. They showed an old video clip of Chizik arriving at the airport to accept Auburn's head coaching position. Fans were going nuts holding up insulting signs, giving him the thumbs down and loudly booing as the aircraft touched down. It was hilarious in light of Auburn's performance this season under Chizik.

Chizik had two years of head coaching experience before being selected by Auburn to return the school to football prominence. His record at Iowa State in his only two years as a head coach was 3-9 the first year and a worse 2-10 the second year, including 0-8 in the Big 12. Two years before Chizik arrived at Iowa State, the Cyclones had a winning record. The year after Chizik left for Auburn, Iowa State had a winning record. Chizik obviously proved himself at Iowa State to be a loser as a head coach. How in the heck could the Auburn selection committee have ever picked such a loser?

In his first year at Auburn, with higher level players than he had at Iowa State, he coached the Tigers to an 8-5 record. This year, only his second at Auburn, he has the Tigers on top of the BCS standings. The Auburn fans now love the man they initially hated when they underestimated his potential based on his early head coaching record. It's funny now to watch video of how Auburn fans welcomed Chizik at the airport.

[zen]

Teh curse of Zippy!

Don't let zippy anywhere near the soccer field with a segway!!!

[Hilltopper]

As a recent follower of this site, I have to tell you that your sense of humor has me LMAO this morning. As we are all very disgusted with the current state of Akron Football which is obvious, your comments here have at least given me some small amount of joy to at least have a good laugh this morning! It does make light of an otherwise terrible situation.

Humor is a good way to help maintain sanity in an otherwise depressing situation.

Here's a funny one. I happened to be watching some of the Auburn game last night as the Tigers were beating up on Mississippi to maintain their perfect record and #1 BCS ranking. The announcers were talking about how passionately Auburn fans were against hiring current head coach Gene Chizik. They showed an old video clip of Chizik arriving at the airport to accept Auburn's head coaching position. Fans were going nuts holding up insulting signs, giving him the thumbs down and loudly booing as the aircraft touched down. It was hilarious in light of Auburn's performance this season under Chizik.

Chizik had two years of head coaching experience before being selected by Auburn to return the school to football prominence. His record at Iowa State in his only two years as a head coach was 3-9 the first year and a worse 2-10 the second year, including 0-8 in the Big 12. Two years before Chizik arrived at Iowa State, the Cyclones had a winning record. The year after Chizik left for Auburn, Iowa State had a winning record. Chizik obviously proved himself at Iowa State to be a loser as a head coach. How in the heck could the Auburn selection committee have ever picked such a loser?

In his first year at Auburn, with higher level players than he had at Iowa State, he coached the Tigers to an 8-5 record. This year, only his second at Auburn, he has the Tigers on top of the BCS standings. The Auburn fans now love the man they initially hated when they underestimated his potential based on his early head coaching record. It's funny now to watch video of how Auburn fans welcomed Chizik at the airport.

Seriously Dave, trying to compare the coaching credentials of Ianello to Chizik is like comparing apples to oranges. Chizik was a top assistant and D-coordinator at Winning programs before he was head coach at I-State. Weak Dave, really Weak.

Chizik Bio

His initial full-time coaching job was as the defensive ends coach at Middle Tennessee State University. He served in this capacity from 1990–1991. In 1990, the Blue Raiders won the Ohio Valley Conference championship. His next assignment was at Stephen F. Austin, serving as their linebackers coach from 1992–1995. SFA advanced to the Division I-AA semifinals in 1995.[3] He was then promoted to the defensive coordinator role, which he held from 1996–1997. He then served as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach for Central Florida from 1998–2001.

While at Central Florida in Orlando, Chizik frequently visited practice sessions of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers studying the Bucs' defensive scheme developed by then-Bucs head coach Tony Dungy, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and linebackers coach Lovie Smith.[5]

Chizik later employed a very similar scheme at Auburn, where he served again as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach from 2002–04. During this time, he had some of the greatest successes of his career to date. He coached in three bowl games, the 2003 Capital One Bowl, 2004 Music City Bowl, and 2005 Sugar Bowl. His 2004 defensive unit led the country in scoring defense, giving up 11.3 points per game,[6] and the total defense ranked 5th, which is the same ranking the 2003 team recorded.[7] He garnered the 2004 Broyles Award, which is given each year to the top assistant coach in the nation. The 2004 Auburn Tigers football team finished 13-0 that year, won the SEC title, and defeated Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. It placed second in the final AP and Coaches polls.[8]In 2005 he was hired by Texas Longhorns to serve as their co-defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and linebackers coach.[9] During his time with the Texas Longhorns, the team won the 2005 NCAA Division I-A national football championship by defeating USC in the 2006 Rose Bowl.

Ianello Bio

For two years, Ianello was tight ends coach at the University of Wisconsin, when he then moved to the University of Notre Dame to be receivers coach and recruiting coordinator.[3] Ianello took over at interim head coach after Notre Dame fired head coach Charlie Weis. Ianello was coach at Notre Dame until Brian Kelly was hired

[GP1]

In his first year at Auburn, with higher level players than he had at Iowa State, he coached the Tigers to an 8-5 record. This year, only his second at Auburn, he has the Tigers on top of the BCS standings. The Auburn fans now love the man they initially hated when they underestimated his potential based on his early head coaching record. It's funny now to watch video of how Auburn fans welcomed Chizik at the airport.

Good post. A lot of how good of a coach you are depends on the players on your team. Better players = good coach. Poor players = bad coach. If players didn't matter, people wouldn't care about recruiting.

Vince Lombardi won 75% of his games in Green Bay and only 58% of his games in Washington. Same guy, worse records. Good coach or bad coach? Maybe it was the players.

I've said before, my objection to Coach I is philosophical. I don't believe his style of play is conducive to winning in college football in 2010. I'm sure the guy knows a heck of a lot about football and probably more than 99% of the posters on this board. The Zips didn't need a guy to come in an go on a five year "building process". We've had enough of that. We needed and still need a guy to win asap. If the Zips don't get things turned around quickly, that stadium sitting on Brown Street is going to be as empty as a Sunday evening church service on Super Bowl Sunday.

If they go 0-12, I think they should fire him not because he doesn't know anything about football, but because a guy who goes 0-12 can never get the program turned around because he will be crippled by the 0-12 record. Fans will walk away. Recruits who want to come to an 0-12 program will be slim....good players want to play at winning programs.

As bad as the MAC is, I still hold out hope that we can win at least ONE game. It really isn't unreasonable in the MAC.

[ZipGrad93]

Good coach = players and team improving

We have none of that going on here. Obviously, the team with better players wins more often. However, a "good" coach can take players not as talented and win a few that maybe he shouldn't. At the very least, the team should not be getting worse week to week.

[Dave in Green]

Hilltopper, I'm really disappointed that you focused in on something that was not salient to my post, which was not intended to directly compare Chizik to Ianello. I also looked at Chizik's background and saw that he had a spectacular background as an assistant coach. That wasn't relevant to anything I was trying to point out.

The salient point of my post is that, regardless of his sterling assistant credentials, Chizik was a miserable failure in his first head coaching job at Iowa State even though Iowa State had winning records two years before he arrived and the year immediately after he left.

Auburn fans apparently didn't think much of his spectacular assistant background. They focused on his miserable failure as a head coach at Iowa State, and went bonkers when Auburn hired him.

But the really relevant point of my post is how funny it can be to watch fans get all wound up in protest over a new head coach they think can't do the job when they really don't know how good the coach can be given the right conditions.

I'm glad to see that GP1 got the point I was trying to make.

[Hilltopper]

Hilltopper, I'm really disappointed that you focused in on something that was not salient to my post, which was not intended to directly compare Chizik to Ianello. I also looked at Chizik's background and saw that he had a spectacular background as an assistant coach. That wasn't relevant to anything I was trying to point out.

The salient point of my post is that, regardless of his sterling assistant credentials, Chizik was a miserable failure in his first head coaching job at Iowa State even though Iowa State had winning records two years before he arrived and the year immediately after he left.

Auburn fans apparently didn't think much of his spectacular assistant background. They focused on his miserable failure as a head coach at Iowa State, and went bonkers when Auburn hired him.

But the really relevant point of my post is how funny it can be to watch fans get all wound up in protest over a new head coach they think can't do the job when they really don't know how good the coach can be given the right conditions.

I'm glad to see that GP1 got the point I was trying to make.

Dave, my point is that Icoach doesn't have the background to be able to turn things around. Chizik may not have been successful at Iowa State, but he was a proven winner and had been around winning programs. Icoach has been with loosing programs his whole Career, its part of who he is. There is no way he is going to loose his job, no matter how poorly the team performs. We are stuck with him for the next few years, so I hope he has some kind of plan.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Our offense, again, was out-scored by the soccer team.

Wait...was this a "positive,' or "negative" thread? I got lost following all the salient points...

[Dave in Green]

Dave, my point is that Icoach doesn't have the background to be able to turn things around. Chizik may not have been successful at Iowa State, but he was a proven winner and had been around winning programs. Icoach has been with loosing programs his whole Career, its part of who he is. There is no way he is going to loose his job, no matter how poorly the team performs. We are stuck with him for the next few years, so I hope he has some kind of plan.

OK, I wasn't addressing that point in my original post, and what you say doesn't contradict anything I said. But since you bring up Ianello's association with losing programs his whole career, you should be aware that the record book contradicts your point. Here's Ianello's career record as an assistant coach prior to coming to UA:

1988–1989 Alabama (SEC): 9-3, 10-2 (19-5). Overall winning program.

1990–1993 Wisconsin (Big Ten): 1-10, 5-6, 5-6, 10-1-1 (21-23-1). Program went from big loser to big winner.

1994–2002 Arizona (Pac-10): 8-4, 6-5, 5-6, 7-5, 12-1, 6-6, 5-6, 5-6, 4-8 (58-47). Overall winning program.

2003–2004 Wisconsin (Big Ten): 7-6, 9-3 (16-9). Overall winning program.

2005–2009 Notre Dame (Independent): 9-3, 10-3, 3-9, 7-6, 6-6 (35-27). Overall winning program.

To summarize, Ianello had an overall winning record at four of his five assistant coaching gigs, and in the one where the record was just under .500, he helped turn the program around from a 1-10 record to 10-1-1 in four years.

So, while Ianello's career as an assistant is not as brilliant as Chizik's, it's also not one of a perennial loser.