Looking Towards the Future

[zff]

I think it is pretty clear JD will be back next year. Some may agree and some may disagree he should come back. But the Zips do not have the money to pay out his contract. So what changes should and need to be may. I am going to start things off with keep palyers on the team. Here is a break down of J.D. classes and players currently not on the roster:Class-Gone-Total in Class2004 -11- 222005 -10- 242006 -14- 242007 -4- 26 (Note: one more may transferr after the season)Totals -39- 96 (Note: That is 40.6% that are not on the roster)I hope this years class start a trend of players staying for 4 years........

[zip8]

I think it is pretty clear JD will be back next year. Some may agree and some may disagree he should come back. But the Zips do not have the money to pay out his contract. So what changes should and need to be may. I am going to start things off with keep palyers on the team. Here is a break down of J.D. classes and players currently not on the roster:Class-Gone-Total in Class2004 -11- 222005 -10- 242006 -14- 242007 -4- 26 (Note: one more may transferr after the season)Totals -39- 96 (Note: That is 40.6% that are not on the roster)I hope this years class start a trend of players staying for 4 years........

Are these players on scholarship or just total players in the class? It has to be scholarship, right?

[Captain Kangaroo]

I think equally as important as player retention is -- Coach retention.In the past 3 years we've had a lot of coaches leave...mostly for better positions - Alford went to Utah, Wallerstedt to Kansas, Pry to Illinois, Nori to the 49'ers, Terrell Williams to Purdue, etc.The drawback of hiring good coaches is they often become a hot commodity and move on. Somehow...and it isn't easy...JD needs to keep his better coaches in Akron for a longer period of time.Someone told me once that the relationship the players have with the position coaches that recruited them is a lot more personal than what they have with the head coach. I think relatively large number of position coaches leaving has contributed to the player retention issues we've discussed during the past couple years. Is it the major cause? Probably not. But it is more of a factor than people have mentioned to-date.

[skip-zip]

Not sure how these retention rates compare to those of other D-1 schools. I'd like to know. However, it doesn't seem all that unusual to me that over a 4-5 year period, kids get home sick, flunk out of school, get mad because they are not playing more, etc., etc. I'd like to see how our numbers compare.