Player Development

[Buckzip]

Am I the only person that feels we lack in developing players?That is basically on the assistants. Are they doing their jobs in this area?Examples. Reggie Corner. When he came in as a Soph. he was pretty good, and you thought by his senior year he would be a top rated corner. He is still pretty good, but not a star.Tim Crouch. He has started for 3 years. I think he started out pretty good but has actually gotten worse over his career.Chevin Pace. Was a tackling machine his first year as a starter. I know he was hurt last year, but he too seems to have gone backwards.Luke Getsy. Enough said.Mike Donaldson. Same as Crouch. He came in pretty good, but hasn't improved.Johnny Long. Came in pretty highly touted but still doesn't live up to it.Kiki. Seems like he was better last year and the year before that.Reid. Other than the last game, same as Kiki.Kevin Grant. Came in as All MAC freshman team. He doesn't seem to be playing as well as last year.Kasperak, He was better last year.Actually the team in general is worse than they were last year. I know that we lost some good players, but very team does every year.We returned more starters than most, yet are worse than we were. It's not just the W-L record either. We didn't get blown out by lesser teams last year.I look at David Harvey, and see how good he looks at WR. If he is this good as a true freshman, you have to think by his senior year he would be a first day NFL draft pick.I know we can't predict the future as lots of things can happen, but he should get much better by his senior year. We shall see.Dom Hixon is the only player that I have noticed made growth with this staff.This is just my opinion, I know some will disagree, but I see this as a real issue.

[a-zip]

I agree with you. I said it before and I will say it again, COACHES make the difference. We lost a ton of valuable assistants last year and it is showing. As the head coach, J.D. is the figure head guiding the philosophy, motivation and discipline. The assistance should be handling the day to day development of the players. I suspect J.D. is having to shoulder a lot of responsibility. I am sure I will get reamed for being such a big supporter of J.D. but I still think (even today), he is the best thing our football program has seen since Coach Dennison (my man!).I realize it is tough for us to compete for the top coaches, but we have got to find a way to maintain a little stability. My suggestion is to try and lock up the head coach and let players, recruits, and assistant candidates know the guy they went to work for is going to stick around.We are seeing a bit of the same with our (formerly) #1 ranked soccer team.

[blueandgold]

I completely agree!! I've been seeing this for years. Not just with the current coaching staff, but all the way back to the Faust era. Sure, we've had a few guys that live up to their expectations and even far exceed them like Charlie Frye, Domenick Hixon, Jason Taylor, Victor Green, Mike Johnson, etc. Most just don't get better either because of lack of development or their own lack of work ethic and sheer determination.

[GP1]

I agree with you. I said it before and I will say it again, COACHES make the difference. We lost a ton of valuable assistants last year and it is showing. As the head coach, J.D. is the figure head guiding the philosophy, motivation and discipline. The assistance should be handling the day to day development of the players. I suspect J.D. is having to shoulder a lot of responsibility. I am sure I will get reamed for being such a big supporter of J.D. but I still think (even today), he is the best thing our football program has seen since Coach Dennison (my man!).I realize it is tough for us to compete for the top coaches, but we have got to find a way to maintain a little stability. My suggestion is to try and lock up the head coach and let players, recruits, and assistant candidates know the guy they went to work for is going to stick around.We are seeing a bit of the same with our (formerly) #1 ranked soccer team.

I agree with a lot of your post, but if a coach doesn't have good players (talent), it doesn't matter how good they are.JD has an interesting choice to make in the next few months or 18 months. Does he stay at Akron and get sucked into The Graveyard of Coaches, or does he leave to be an assistant at a big time program? At this point, I don't see any reason for him to take the risk of staying. With little community and alumni financial support, he is going to be in a revolving door of replacing assistant after assistant. This is a very time consuming process. Mintier (sp?) had a similar problem at Cincinnati and it ended up hurting the entire program and getting him fired. He is doing a good job now at Norte Dame as defensive coordinator and if thing continue to go well for them he could get another chance at possibly a bigger school than Cincinnati.I think the smart move for JD at this point would be to cash in his chips and become a coordinator at a big time program or assistant in the NFL. Either way, there will be more money in it for him and probably more exposure.

[johnnyzip84]

GP1, could you be contradicting yourself a little when you say that JD would be better off leaving now for a coordinator spot, when you already mentioned that Rick Minter is doing a nice job as a "big time" DC after his less-than-stellar HC stint at Cincy? I think JD could still find an OC spot, even if things don't work out too well during the rest of his stay here, based on his overall body of work.

[GP1]

GP1, could you be contradicting yourself a little when you say that JD would be better off leaving now for a coordinator spot, when you already mentioned that Rick Minter is doing a nice job as a "big time" DC after his less-than-stellar HC stint at Cincy? I think JD could still find an OC spot, even if things don't work out too well during the rest of his stay here, based on his overall body of work.

I see your point. I should have been more clear.The gravitational pull of The Graveyard of Coaches is much greater than the gravitational pull of Cincinnati. The mass that creates the gravitational pull for Akron is lack of community support and alumni support. In fact, if the mass of our lack of community support and alumni support was actually real, a gram of it could create a black hole.If you look at the history of our coaches, the future was limited for them after Akron. For all the talk about Dennison being a great coach, he went nowhere after Akron, Faust....enough said, Owens.......Division II.I don't want to see JD leave, but I'm trying to put myself in his position. He is a young man with a young family he is responsible for supporting to the best of his ability. I don't know if I would be willing to take that risk.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I think the smart move for JD at this point would be to cash in his chips and become a coordinator at a big time program or assistant in the NFL. Either way, there will be more money in it for him and probably more exposure.

He did that already, leaving Pitt for Akron.Why do you see JD as such a quitter? What...three years into his rebuilding @ Akron...with a new stadium on the way...great facilities...two top recruiting classes...and he's off to be offensive coordinator at Colorado or Missuri? No chance.What makes him such a hot offensive coordinator commodity? His one bowl loss in a 7-6 season? The fact that his teams score in one or two quarters each game and disappear for the other two or three? Maybe it is his mastery of the red zone? Come on.He needs to prove himself at Akron and that will take a couple more years. .500 coaches at Akron who can't score points aren't on any "big time" school's hot list - be it a head coch position or as a coordinator. If Akron ultimately turns into a "coaches graveyard" for JD, he only has himself to blame. He'll have done no better than a Lee Owens, but with better facilities and recruiting tools. That's not so hot.I like JD. He's in year 3 of his program. The vast majority of the players he has recruited are Freshmen - either redshirt or 1st year. Thus he's still playing with a lot of the cards Lee Owens left him (And, Owens final few recruiting classes weren't all that stellar). Thus he should be judged accordingly. I want to, and likely will see what JD can do once the players are fully "his." I'm guessing Mack Rhodes does/will too.

[GP1]

I think the smart move for JD at this point would be to cash in his chips and become a coordinator at a big time program or assistant in the NFL.  Either way, there will be more money in it for him and probably more exposure.

He did that already, leaving Pitt for Akron.Why do you see JD as such a quitter? What...three years into his rebuilding @ Akron...with a new stadium on the way...great facilities...two top recruiting classes...and he's off to be offensive coordinator at Colorado or Missuri? No chance.What makes him such a hot offensive coordinator commodity? His one bowl loss in a 7-6 season? The fact that his teams score in one or two quarters each game and disappear for the other two or three? Maybe it is his mastery of the red zone? Come on.He needs to prove himself at Akron and that will take a couple more years. .500 coaches at Akron who can't score points aren't on any "big time" school's hot list - be it a head coch position or as a coordinator. If Akron ultimately turns into a "coaches graveyard" for JD, he only has himself to blame. He'll have done no better than a Lee Owens, but with better facilities and recruiting tools. That's not so hot.I like JD. He's in year 3 of his program. The vast majority of the players he has recruited are Freshmen - either redshirt or 1st year. Thus he's still playing with a lot of the cards Lee Owens left him (And, Owens final few recruiting classes weren't all that stellar). Thus he should be judged accordingly. I want to, and likely will see what JD can do once the players are fully "his." I'm guessing Mack Rhodes does/will too.

I don't see JD as a quitter. In fact, I think he is a real good coach. You must have been typing while I was typing my second post on this topic.Capt., you are an intelligent and logical man and you should not apply the two to college athletics. You'll drive yourself crazy doing so. Having a good enough name and reputation can get you a good job as an offensive coordinator regardless of the results. People can explain a lot in job interviews.The other thing is that these coaches have friends all over college football. There are only so many schools with so many coaches with so many coaching positions in college football. If the right coach fell in the right spot at the right time, JD could easily get another job as an offensive coordinator at the end of this year if he wanted to do so. A reputation at Akron has nothing to do with getting a job. My oldest brother coached at Maryland and he got the job because he knew someone on staff, not because of his coaching genius. All the coaches know the same things and it really is not what you know, but who you know. Really it is not different than any other job.I just tried to test myself in naming offensive coordinators around college football and I could only name two, Akron's and Buffalo's (coach Carr was the QB coach at Akron in the late 80s). The point is that nobody knows or really cares who these guys are or where they come from. I had been to several Pitt games the year before JD came to Akron and I had no idea who he was when they named him as coach. I just assumed Walt Harris called all the plays.

[zipsbandman]

GP1, could you be contradicting yourself a little when you say that JD would be better off leaving now for a coordinator spot, when you already mentioned that Rick Minter is doing a nice job as a "big time" DC after his less-than-stellar HC stint at Cincy?  I think JD could still find an OC spot, even if things don't work out too well during the rest of his stay here, based on his overall body of work.

I see your point. I should have been more clear.The gravitational pull of The Graveyard of Coaches is much greater than the gravitational pull of Cincinnati. The mass that creates the gravitational pull for Akron is lack of community support and alumni support. In fact, if the mass of our lack of community support and alumni support was actually real, a gram of it could create a black hole.If you look at the history of our coaches, the future was limited for them after Akron. For all the talk about Dennison being a great coach, he went nowhere after Akron, Faust....enough said, Owens.......Division II.I don't want to see JD leave, but I'm trying to put myself in his position. He is a young man with a young family he is responsible for supporting to the best of his ability. I don't know if I would be willing to take that risk.

I'm as pessimistic as they come when things go sour, but some of you sound like real downers. JD should consider himself lucky to be in a situation like this here in Akron. Look what LO, Gerry Faust, and their predecessors had to deal with compared to JD. He has a supportive administration who care about football. He's got the best practice facilities in the conference, and he's going to be finding himself in a brand new office once it is finished this fall. A new stadium is being planned as we speak. Not to mention he has an actual "campus" to sell to his recruits now unlike the random assortment of buildings and streets that once compised the university.Sure the fan support can always be better. This is the MAC folks and the 13 other schools we compete with have the same problem in that area. But, even in that area, we have come a long way. I don't really remember students actually coming to games my freshman year and now they come out in force in a somewhat organized section as the AK-Rowdies. If JD wins, JD gets all the support in the world. If he loses, then you see a dropoff. That's life for every MAC school.If that Doug Martin clown can get his previously winless team over there at Stark Community College to get their heads out of their asses, there is no reason JD should be losing control of his defending MAC champs like he has. There is no excuse for this. If he wants to go then good riddance. I'm not impressed. We'll find someone who wants to be here.

[RACER]

the only problem is that those #2 recruiting classes were based on the players we inked at the time. if you look now most of the top guys will never play a down for akron.im not so sure that in year four we will be farther along. i do think our defense is way ahead of anything owens had. the offense is another matter. i was not a big fan of l.o. ,but his teams could score some points. hopefully one of the qb's can step up next year. we also need to develope some young ol for next year.

[ZippyAlum]

I think you all forget about chemistry. Team chemistry is an important ingredient in any team sport. This team has not been able to find it. We may not have graduated that many players but apparently we lost our leaders and hopefully we've got some underclassmen who can fill the void 'cause this year's seniors are not getting it done.

[Buckzip]

"the only problem is that those #2 recruiting classes were based on the players we inked at the time. if you look now most of the top guys will never play a down for akron."You are 1000000% correct. Take away all of the players that will never play here, and the classes are average at best. Most people don't see that.

[Ryno aka Menace]

"the only problem is that those #2 recruiting classes were based on the players we inked at the time. if you look now most of the top guys will never play a down for akron."You are 1000000% correct. Take away all of the players that will never play here, and the classes are average at best. Most people don't see that.

Oh we see it we just don't wanna admit it. I feel if you are gonna take chances on players like these you are gonna have to put in extra effort to keep them on the team. Ask yourself is the time wasted by a G.A. escorting a kid to class worth the return on the field? If the answer is no then don't sign him..if the answer is yes then take him.And i want to leave everyone with this final thought:"The need for a babysitter is dictated by mentality not age!!"

[Buckzip]

Look at the d-line class we signed 2 years ago. If any of those guys qualified, they would probably be in the rotation. They would proabably all be starters next year. Hight, Garner, Marshall, and more.Captain gets mad at me when I say it, but this is a real issue here.

[Dr Z]

He needs to prove himself at Akron and that will take a couple more years. .500 coaches at Akron who can't score points aren't on any "big time" school's hot list - be it a head coch position or as a coordinator.  If Akron ultimately turns into a "coaches graveyard" for JD, he only has himself to blame. He'll have done no better than a Lee Owens, but with better facilities and recruiting tools. That's not so hot.

Here is my rumor of the day. I don't believe it, but I'll throw it out there.John L Smith gets canned from MSU. Who is one of the prospects being talked about to replace him?Mark Dantonio, head coach at the University of Cincinnati. Who would show up on Cincinnati's list if Dantonio left for MSU?Long chain of events to happen though.

[AZipsCrazy]

I know I thought that exact thing when I saw Dantonio on the radar for MSU.That scares me a ton because the NCAA is in the process of passing a rule where you can transfer after your freshmen year and you don't have to sit out at all. If that goes through you can expect to see Harvey gone and any other "star" players that could easily start there. GOD THIS IS A SCARY THOUGHT!!!at least there are other candidates that are higher on their list right now... i hope.

[ZipAnalyst]

This discussion is focusing on the "intangibles" that one needs to be a successful head coach. Nobody knows whether or not JD posseses the motivational factors to excite player development and to command the respect of team members to the point they play as a disciplined unit that achieves because of the head coach's leadership skills/Factors in both directions (positive and negative) are now in evidence. But it is too early to know conclusively. I believe we all want JD to succeed. He certainly has the opportunity. We shall see what he makes of it.

[GP1]

Here is my rumor of the day. I don't believe it, but I'll throw it out there.John L Smith gets canned from MSU. Who is one of the prospects being talked about to replace him?Mark Dantonio, head coach at the University of Cincinnati. Who would show up on Cincinnati's list if Dantonio left for MSU?Long chain of events to happen though.

Very interesting! If we gave out awards for board members, DrZ would easily win the most underrated poster. Always good stuff. MSU would be making a big mistake though and not because the guy at UC is a bad coach. I think they have an even better candidate right up the Rt. 127 at Central Michigan. I haven't had the chance to look it up, but I believe CMU is in first place in the MAC West. If they win the MAC West and win the MACC and then win a bowl game, what else does the guy have to shoot for at CMU? He would have had a successful career at Grand Valley State outside of Grand Rapids and a successful short career at CMU. He should make a hard run at MSU.

[Dr Z]

MSU would be making a big mistake though and not because the guy at UC is a bad coach.  I think they have an even better candidate right up the Rt. 127 at Central Michigan.  I haven't had the chance to look it up, but I believe CMU is in first place in the MAC West.  If they win the MAC West and win the MACC and then win a bowl game, what else does the guy have to shoot for at CMU?  He would have had a successful career at Grand Valley State outside of Grand Rapids and a successful short career at CMU.  He should make a hard run at MSU.

Kelly denies interviewing for MSU jobComcast Local announcer wrongly said CMU coach accepted positionBy Nathan MuellerStaff ReporterNovember 13, 2006Central Michigan fans who picked up The Detroit News on Friday morning may have been taken aback.They may have been surprised again that night during the Central/Western football game when a Comcast Local announcer said CMU coach Brian Kelly had accepted the soon-to-be vacant football coaching job at Michigan State.But the person most bewildered Friday night may have been Kelly himself.Kelly made it clear Friday after the game he had not accepted the job, nor had he interviewed for it, unlike what The Detroit News reported Friday morning.“… I want to say categorically that is not true,” Kelly said. “That has not occurred, and I would not put myself ahead of our football team under those circumstances. Even if I was contacted — which I have not been — it would have to come through the proper channels, which would include my athletics director. I am under contract to CMU. Did I make that clear enough?”The Comcast Local announcer later retracted his statement by halftime Friday.Still, the rumors had begun.CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke issued a statement Friday about the situation.“I have no knowledge of an interview between Michigan State and Brian Kelly, and I have not by contracted by MSU officials regarding the position,” Heeke said. “Brian is under contract with Central Michigan University and is committed to leading our football team.”Kelly has been rumored to be in the mix for John L. Smith’s replacement at MSU since Smith announced on Nov. 1 he would resign at season’s end.The Detroit Free Press reported Sunday no formal interviews with any candidates were believed to have taken place, despite some news outlets, including The Detroit News, reporting some had taken place.Sunday’s Free Press story reported that Kelly “doesn’t currently appear to be on MSU’s short list.”Besides Kelly, other candidates to replace Smith include Bo Pelini, defensive coordinator at Louisiana State University; Todd Grantham, defensive coordinator of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns; Ron English, defensive coordinator at Michigan, and Steve Mariucci, former head coach of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions.source

[RACER]

a zips crazy .i never heard of the ncaa about to pass that rule anywhere.where are you getting these freshman transfer rules? if you have some facts somehwere please?

[Lee Adams]

: ol' jd doesn't WANT to stay in Akron folksi like the comment about players 'developing'... seems this guy MAY be able to recruit...but can't turn it in to a consistent winner..may be too much of a player's coachi heard he went into an unamed main st bar couple of years ago..closed the place down and told his guys to have fun???great if your not a DI coachakronoldtimer

[Dr Z]

Here is my rumor of the day. I don't believe it, but I'll throw it out there.John L Smith gets canned from MSU. Who is one of the prospects being talked about to replace him?Mark Dantonio, head coach at the University of Cincinnati. Who would show up on Cincinnati's list if Dantonio left for MSU?Long chain of events to happen though.

Very interesting! If we gave out awards for board members, DrZ would easily win the most underrated poster. Always good stuff. MSU would be making a big mistake though and not because the guy at UC is a bad coach. I think they have an even better candidate right up the Rt. 127 at Central Michigan. I haven't had the chance to look it up, but I believe CMU is in first place in the MAC West. If they win the MAC West and win the MACC and then win a bowl game, what else does the guy have to shoot for at CMU? He would have had a successful career at Grand Valley State outside of Grand Rapids and a successful short career at CMU. He should make a hard run at MSU.

I guess I should watch the rumors that I start !?!?