TCY 1.2a - Zipping Through the Years
 

TCY Again

I’ve decided to dust off TCY again, following the latest patch (1.2a). My goal will be to play a little bit with the game, and hopefully develop some draft files that I will use when I finally start a serious FOF 2004 career.

In the past, I have basically decided to stay put in TCY – and to try to develop my program as best I could from wherever I started. I played careers with Navy, Bowling Green, and Syracuse… and never once accepted a job offer. I have seen that job offers are much more frequent in the patched game, and so I think I will revisit this preference, and instead I will pursue career advancement as a meaningful part of my strategy in game.

I intend to start small, and work my way up the ladder to a major power school. Ideally, I’d like to take the reins at a school with which I have some real life connection: perhaps Ohio State, Syracuse, or Maryland. But I’m willing to be flexible… I’ll take what comes my way, when the situation seems right.

I don’t intend to be aggressively detailed with this report – I found writing about the recruiting process to be even more tedious than the recruiting itself, so I can imagine how dreadful that stuff is to read. Instead, I’ll try to give some general notes on what I’m doing with the program, and perhaps a note or two on some star-caliber players who are playing very well and/or looking like top pro prospects.


We’ll start at the University of Akron. Nice little MAC school, and where my half-sister now attends college. I’ll take over the Zips, and see where we can go from there. Perhaps most importantly, we’re starting near the very bottom – ranked 107th in the polls and 118th academically. My thinking is that if we can do much of anything here at Akron, I ought to get an opportunity to move upward and onward.

I'll add, almost parenthetically, that I am posting this career in retrospect, without any revisionist editing. My original intention was to turn this into a "stepping stone" career where I'd move from place to place... I'll just offer here that it hasn't turned out exactly that way -- so please don't be all frosted with me when I turn down a series of (wholly unwarranted) job offers after a few seasons. -ed/

2003 Early Decisions

This is a positively dreadful team I have assumed control over – the very best players on the squad are guys who wouldn’t even get considered for a typical seasoned TCY roster. That’s okay – we’ll try to eke out a couple of wins this year just based on game planning. The plan won’t be to complex—we’ll stay with the I-formation offense, and will run a fairly standard offense (I don’t see a particular strength to go to). On defense, we will try to blitz like mad and drop into big zone coverage, and see if we get anywhere with that. Again, not a lot to work with.

The closest we have to a feature player is probably WR Mickey Klosterman, a third-year player who is pretty well developed to his reasonable potential. On this team, I expect him to get lots of looks – if senior QB Alonzo Watkins can get him the ball, that is. RB Toby Jansses in our all-around back, the only guy in the rotation of any consequence. I expect to see ILB Kenneth Williamson get lots of tackles, as he will probably be our defensive centerpiece – and they will be on the field an awful lot.

My graduating class will sweep away my starting QB and three starters along the DL. Those spots will be top priorities for replacement, but honestly anything will do – this team needs help absolutely everywhere.


Through the season, things look terrible at first – our first two games get us totally flattened. However, we rebound and actually get to 3-3 with a few cupcakes, and feel like there’s a little bit to build on. Our first potential impact recruit signs – QB Marvin Fox from Toledo. My scout tabs him a 79, I think he’s better than that, he’s extremely well prepared, and he’s listed by rivals.com as the #9 player in the country. Why on earth would this kid come to Akron? I haven’t a clue – but he’s going to get to sling it around here, as he’ll be the star of the show, little doubt.

At season’s end, we land about where I might have hoped – four wins, and a modicum of respect. Actually, we dropped two theoretically winnable games late, and might have had hope for a 6-6 season – but we’ll take the four wins and go from here. The recruiting class wasn’t anything too special, really, after we landed the big surprise in QB Marvin Fox. We grabbed a few guys from the national top 1000, but mostly fill-in caliber scrubs (who should nonetheless be an improvement for our squad).


There’s the quick snapshot of my first season – probably a little better than I had imagined, given our talent pool. I’m fairly optimistic that we might be able to slide forward a bit in the MAC, and perhaps we can get some things done during my tenure here at Akron.

2004

I make changes with our front office staff, including bringing in a 26 year-old wunderkind offensive coordinator. I think we’re going to try to toss it around a little more here in Zipville, and Clarence Duffy is going to be the architect of that effort.

Among our incoming freshman class, I’m pretty pleased with QB Marvin Fox, of course, who looks like he could develop into a top-caliber player. He ought to get the playing time to get there, too. DT Ricardo Terrell and LB Don Montgomery both have lofty potential – we’ll get them out onto the field right away as well.

We have to struggle to eke out three wins, but I feel like we have a few solid players. I really need a reliaible receiver in the mix if I’m going to have any success with this pass attack – but we’ll have to wait another year or two to see that, as it wasn’t there this year at all.

2005

Well, we’ve made some slight progress. Our pre-season ranking this year is only 100… up eight slots since we began. It’s something, I guess.

In our incoming freshman class, we have a few pretty intriguing prospects. WRs Heath Ruby and Freddie Watson will both probably move right into starting roles, and we’ll be tossing it around a lot this year, so they will both get their chances. T Vince Woods needs a lot of development, but looks like he could be outstanding down the road. DE Johnny Rock has skills to go with his great name, and will step right in despite having very little to work with right away. CB Wally Maloney has great upside, too. Turns out we probably did earn the 99 rating for recruiting last season after all. Decent incoming group, all told.


In the 2005 season, QB Marvin Fox gets off to a hot start with 6 TD in the opener, but we’re quickly brought to earth in the Carrier Dome. However, it turns out to be a pretty long season – we only manage a 3-8 record once again, despite the apparent improvements in our roster. I’m starting to have second thoughts about our decision to try to go airborne early and often – our running game has been absolutely terrible.


In recruiting, I even had to settle for a number of academic-only types, as our pursuits were perhaps too aggressive, and I ended up with practically nobody landed ten weeks deep. Alas – we did end up with a few guys who ought to be helpful for our OL, but nearly everyone has a long ways to go.

Will next year be the on where we actually take a meaningful step forward? Will my intentions of leaving Akron finally be realized? Stay tuned...

2006


Alas – so far, not really a serious move forward. My recruiting score for 2005 is a mystery tome, since I felt it was by far the weakest of the three. But simply put – we need to get some wins if we want to go anywhere with this team. Until we are posting at least 6-7 wins, we’ll stay stuck in these doldrums. Hopefully another year of experience and a few more quality recruits will help us along that path.

Oddly enough – I have gotten a bunch of job offers this season. Here is the list: Kansas State, Nebraska, Auburn, Ole Miss, Houston, Boise State, and Idaho. I suppose it’s my stellar recruiting that has them interested… and I must play well in Idaho, eh? Boise State is actually the real gem here: they are currently ranked 15th in the preseason polls, and have quickly become a real player. (So, why on earth would they want to bring me aboard?)

I know, I know – I pledged to move around in this career. So, I probably ought to take one of these jobs. But honestly, I’m just starting to get into these kids from Akron – and I’d like to actually earn my ticket from here. So, I’m going to pass on the Boise State job (and the rest) and stay with the Zips.


Some more potentially bad news – I have lost my young OC Clarence Duffy, who was hired away by Purdue. 31 year old Fernano Howes will become our new OC – and he’s a blank slate as well. My inclination will be to stick with the single back setup, but to go to a more balanced offense.


Looking through our freshman class – we really landed a few solid offensive linemen in this group, which should help. G Thurman Davidson and C Brian Wolfe both look like they will really help down the line. FB-turned-RB Terrence Hovan will become a big part of our ground game, and might have the best overall skills of any of our backs now.


During the season, things are going terribly, once again. I have zero recruits committed by week ten, and our team is a dreadful 1-6. This could be our worst season yet. However, things take a turn for the slightly better – we do land four recruits, and we do manage to get an upset win over Marshall. We suffer a big blow in losing DE Johnny Rock to a serious injury, cutting short a breakout season for him. Lousy year all around, as we manage only 2 wins – our worst showing yet. Ouch.


With DEs Guthrie and Miles, we will hope to shore up a very weak position – especially if Rock cannot come back from his injury. We really need to do better on the defensive front, among other places – hopefully they can help out.

My MLB Don Montgomery earned the nod as the nation’s outstanding defensive player – our fist major award-winner. I predicted some time ago he would do well – he is well-developed, and our defense is on the field an awful lot of the time. He got his second straight MAC Defensive Player of the ear award this year, but the nationwide award was a surprise. 148 tackles, 8 sacks, and 36 tackles for a loss – yeah, he had a pretty good year.

And the even better news? I turned over my time management to my staff this season (I jut hate that stuff), and they let Don Montgomery fail a class. So, even if he opts to return for his senior season, he will be academically ineligible to play. As will our starting RB and TE. Fabulous.

Having outstanding tackles stats on early years of TCY careers seem to be common with us having lousy teams to start with.

148 tackles is very good, but 36 TFL look much more impressive.

PS : I am also simming a TCY V1.2a career to have TCY files (I am in year 2020). Finally, I will probably have to make another set of draft files with Jim preparing another patched version of TCY (problems of youngsters starting too much on potential rather than current value)

Good stuff, QS; thanks!

2007

After some contemplation, I decide against the temptation of leaving this program – despite the multitude of offers that I continue to receive (ten this year). With a couple of key players sitting out the season, this could be a trying season for us, I fear (as though the past ones haven’t been).

We will no doubt be depending on Marvin Fox this year more than ever, as our RB corps will be depleted. Fox is in his final season, so he should be poised to post some good numbers. Young WR Leslie Borders might be a contributor for us right away. DE Trent Guthrie, my most dogged pursuit during last year’s recruiting, has a bright future, and S Marcus Stephens should be a mainstay over time. We will have the best offensive line yet this year – maybe that can get our offense back on track.

The season ends up yet another total loss. We win only 2 games, none inn the conference, and finish in the cellar once again. What can I say? We have done a splendid job with recruiting, and have really improved academics – but on the field, we’re going nowhere at all.


Tough season, all told. QB Marvin Fox remained healthy through his four years with us, and while he did put up 9,711 yards passing (a MAC record and sixth best nationwide) he did so while leading n awful team the whole way through. His 82 TD passes is tied for the career lead – without the benefit of a single postseason game. How should istory remember Marvin Fox?

WR Leslie Borders made the all-freshman team nationwide, which is a nice honor. I don’t know what sort of offense we’ll be using from here – I’m not too impressed with out pass-inclined results thus far.

2008

My only coaching opportunity is at North Texas – and they are the only team we seem to be able to beat, so I’ll stay put. Maybe my “hot” rating is over now – and I’ll have to earn anything from here on out.

I decide to make a change in staffing, and bring in Rico Donaldson to be our OC. He’s a little better balanced than our current guy, and this will allow us to explore a new offensive scheme, too.

We come into the new season with a preseason ranking of 117 – the worst yet. Academically, though, we are up to 42nd overall – having made great strides there. It just hasn’t translated to anything onfield yet.


My two solid players who served academic suspensions last year are now both gone – the RB left the team, and the MLB is suspended yet again. Awful shame. That leaves us with serious holes to worry about at both positions. We move Isaac Horner from FB to RB to help compensate, and we’ll have little choice but to drop promising youngster MLB Harris Jelinek right into the starting job. Both are moves that I’d rather not have had to make.


We are making changes – and will be trying a more straight-ahead offense. Power football, out of the good old I-formation, and we hope the results are better.


We start out with two wins, then go on a 5-game tailspin, looking like our usual lousy selves. However, after making a switch at QB to bring in Dominic Capriglione, the team started to make real strides, and we rallied from 2-5 to finish with four wins and a winning record – the first under my tenure. Our defense stepped up its play tremendously in the late season, which made a huge difference overall.


We bid farewell to our star LB Dom Montgomery – and have to wonder how good our defense might have been this year had he been able to play for us. DE Johnny Rock also departs, after four injury-filled seasons he still managed to post solid numbers, including 26.5 sacks. We’ll rotate once again, and try to build off this, our best season to date.

2009

The offers have stopped – curiously enough, right after our first winning season. I have my first empty mailbox in years – nobody is interested in my services any longer. Fine.

Regrettably, we are suddenly pretty thin at the RB position. I have Isaac Horner, last year’s freshman backup, slotted as our #1, but past that I mostly have fill-in caliber players, most of whom have ever carried one single time.

A somewhat disappointing season, as we never really get much going after our opening two wins (against cupcake opponents), and end up with a losing record again. However, we have some young players in key roles, and this year of development might prime them for better results down the road. (What else can I say?)


We lose a fair number of players this season, but I am optimistic that we return a better team for next year – probably our best team overall so far. Perhaps 2010 will be the first season where we really make a move.

...and now, finally, I start taking the report a little more seriously - perhaps making it slightly readable...

2010

Alas, I’m no longer on the “hot coaches” radar screen, and Ohio State filled a vacancy this season – one of my dream jobs. I’ll have to do better if I want to once again get some consideration.

As I have some general sense that 2010 might be a better season than mine so far, I’m going to detail things a little more then I have to this point. Maybe it will all be for naught, but it might add to my dedication a bit, which has been only partial thus far.


My biggest front office change this season is bringing in a new scout from our home region – the Great Lakes. Rex Wallace is only 33, but I’m impressed with him overall, and he ought to give us valuable insight into the staff on hand. He is awful with QBs, but my sense is that position is so directly accountable, I ought to be fine even with his shortcomings.


Roster Review

With the new scout in place, we have a look through the roster, in a little detail this year.


Deion Brock had a passable but not spectacular debut last season, but is pretty firmly in the top spot here for us now. Wolf is a pretty promising redshirt frosh, but I don’t expect him to see time this year unless things really go awry. Capriglione was at the helm for a little winning streak two seasons ago, but he is just outclassed by the two other guys here, and is a reserve for us now.


Isaac Horner was our main man last year, but the new scout thinks that we have been overrating him – and we’ll probably go to a rotation this season. Shawn Coles will be active right away, and we will use him in the #2 spot in all likelihood. We may dip into the FB crew for some carries as well. This remains a position of relative weakness – despite my efforts to turn Horner into a legitimate starting-caliber back.


Glenn Horner has real potential – but I’m not sure whether his future is at FB or RB. Graham Sinclair is a more purse FB, and might well be our starter here this season. Horner might get a position switch, or else might become a utility guy at both positions. Graul has some potential, but there’s only so much PT to go around.


Girardi will start this year, with Borque in the wings. But it’s freshman Desmond Holmes who looms large for the future – he looks like a future star for us, after a redshirt season this year.


Lesliie Borders has suffered after we took the air out of the offense, but remains our top go-to guy in the passing game. Freshman wideout Lenny Sells probably steps right in to start this year, and could end up being a pretty effective starter for us, in time. We remain pretty weak here, overall – I’d love to land a breakout WR to charge up our passing game.


This season we are a little hollow inside, as we graduated two excellent interior linemen last year. Actually, I’m more worried here than just about anywhere. I’m very comfy with three starters: LT Sherman, LG Durham, and RT Barber. Past that, I suspect we will have to patch in guys with some futures, and let them learn on the job.


We’re fine here – Oskia and Sanford may again split the kicking duties.


Trent Guthrie has become our top pass rusher, and I’m hoping that the DE supporting cast steps up and makes this group even more effective. Christian Lincoln and Spencer Wilkins will stop up the middle, but we may rotate some DEs inside as well. We need to add at least one DT – I will probably switch someone over from DE.


Harris Jelinek was on his way to becoming a star, but blew out his leg last year – now he’ll battle for a starting job. Brett Gerhardt wil start somewhere, for certain – he’s a very promising redshirt frosh, and I expect to play him on the outside, at least at first. Adachi has some experience, but we have more talented players around – Kim Pointer probably needs to get in and start playing, as he has great potential as a run stopper. Steve Griffith will probably redshirt this season, and hopefully come back next year really primed to step in.


Lots to like here – our best unit, overall. Corners Schneider and Jacobs will be solid and getting better, with Gunn hopefully redshirting to step in down the line. I love Marcus Stephens in the safety spot, while Vinny Carmichael might be even better someday. Carmichael will redshirt, while the youngsters man the S rotation this year – we’ll be great back here next year, I think. (I may even have to consider using a safety in the OLB spot at some point – we recruited very well at DB last season)


Top recruiting targets: WR, DT, RB, DE, G, plus need to add at P, TE, S


Season Expectations

We’ve been a steady losing team so far, but I am hopeful that we might be close to a breakout. I don’t know if it will be this year, or perhaps next year, but I think we might be getting close. Our defense looks the best it’s ever been, and if we can get going behind a shaky OL, we might be okay on offense with QB Deion Brock having a year under his belt. Might be a 6 win season in store… and we can hope things break well for more.



Season

We set up opening games against Southern Miss and NC State – neither ought to be a mighty power, but neither should be a total pushover, either. Both play at our place, which could help our revenues, and perhaps our chances to get away with wins. In the slated schedule, we face two teams in the preseason Top 50 - # 21 Northern Illinois, and #33 Central Florida – both on the road.


Into the season, we end up getting a win over NC State to get to 1-1. Okay, but we don’t really have a feel for this team yet. A win in week five over Ball State gets us to 2-1, which is good. We also nail a solid WR recruit very early – I’m floored with that early success. WR Oscar Lynn is the #15 receiver in the country, and we’ve already locked him up. Great news.

We make it to Northern Illinois at 3-1, but they paste us 28-3. It’s the sort of game that we never have been able to win, so I’m not really surprised. On the brighter side, we have landed our best RB recruit ever, Bryan Bartholomew from West Virginia. He ought to be ready to go right off the bat – and ought to help our attack next away. It’s starting to look like it might be next year when we can put something together, after all.

At 4-2, we face Central Fla, still with some hopes of getting somewhere this season. We’ve edged into the Top 50 at #49 – but that won’t last if we lose here on the road. We’re without our two starters at WR due to injury, but will try to get by with a patched-up roster there and at LB. We run the ball 47 times on the day, and withstand a late rally to win 34-26 – probably the biggest win in this career so far.

For the first time in the eight seasons of this career, I need to stop and look at the standings – to see where we fit in. The MAC North(?) is basically down to three teams, with Buffalo on top at 4-1 in the conference, tied with us. UCF is 3-3, and still in the race. The rest are dregs. Buffalo heads to our place next week, and our side of the conference may well be at stake here.

At home in the biggest game we have played in my tenure, it’s our defense that stands tall. Tied 3-3 through three quarters, we get two more FGs from Ernest Sanford to lead 9-3, and then LB Brett Gerhardt returns a pick for a score, to seal the deal, 15-3. For the second straight week, we’ve won our biggest game ever. With three games to play, two in the division, we control our destiny for a possible date with (probably) Eastern Michigan in the MAC title game. We’re up to #40 in the latest power polls, too – though EMU is #11 (ouch).

Out on the recruiting front, things have taken shape. We’ve filled most of our needs and most of our total slots, with two recruits from the Top 100, and nine from the Top 500. With three spots left, I am still pursuing DE Will Duran, who would probably be the top catch of the year if we can land him away from Syracuse (academically, we have a major edge).

We survive a scare at home against lowly Ohio U, and get a 17-14 win. However, DE Duran has narrows hid choices down to only one school – Morgan State, a Sol-8 school in Maryland. (Shocker!) I set my sights for my last recruiting spot on an academic standout safety from Georgia, who ought to accept and complete our incoming squad.

On the road, facing our rivals Kent State, we manage to fall – hard. QB Dwayne Gibson nails us for 6 TD passes, and we lose 52-10 in dreadful fashion. However, I believe that our head-to-head win over Buffalo will keep us in the MAC title game regardless, as that will break the tie between us. We finish up against Bowie State, with a chance to get back on track. We rebound well with a 31-0 win, and wrap up our first truly impressive regular season at 8-3. Now, we head into our first MAC title game.

Eastern Michigan is 10-1, and a heavy favorite in the MAC title game –0 the spread is 18 points. Deion Brock gives us a nice game, despite the depleted squad of receivers we field, and his 3 TDs have us leading into the late stages. An interception return, though, gives EMU a tie score with us, and the game heads into overtime. But trailing buy three after yielding a FG, it’s RB Shawn Coles who tops it off, breaking the whole 25 yards to score the winning TD, and to push his game total over 150 yards. We’ve captured the MAC title in an improbable upset win over the Eagles!

And so, with that, we will head to the Seattle Bowl for our first postseason appearance. We will face 8-3 Wake Forest there, in what seems to be a fairly even matchup – except that their conference is more highly regarded. In the game, Wake hands us a hefty one, and pounds us 44-13. Regardless, it’s tough to be disappointed with our season, all told.

Across the land, Texas wraps up their easy title with a 33-0 win in the big one, and Fresno State’s QB Matt Hudson wins his second straight Heisman Trophy, also with relative ease.


On the season, we can track our success to a few things in particular. We won the turnover battle by a remarkable +16, which certainly makes a real difference. Deion Brock had a decent season, but only 7 interceptions is clearly the key. Shawn Coles is our first 1,000-yard rusher, as a true freshman, which is nice to see.


With this departing class, we lose a lot at DE, notably Trent Guthrie, he of the 15.5 sacks this season and 34.5 in his career. We have young players coming in, but the loss of experience will be significant, for certain. At WR, we lose seniors Leslie Borders and Ike Belcher, and will depend on young untested wideouts for next year as well. We lose S Marcus Stephens and TE Don Girardi, but we feel comfortable with our incoming youngsters to fill in each spot well.

Overall, I suspect that our roster should be better next year than it was this year – we’ll lose on the DL, but should gain significantly on the OL and will be a year more experienced in most key places.

That is one hell of a safety crop you brought in this year...

Yeah - if only they could play defensive tackle.

2011

After several seasons foundering at the bottom of the MAC, we finally stand as conference champions, and come off our first bowl appearance. Here’s the story to date:


With the recent success, we follow the truism of TCY – job offers follow based on how well you did compared to the year before, and therefore I’m a hot property once again. I have multiple offers, including ones from Florida State and Oklahoma. But, I decide to follow through here at Akron, and will hope to get even better right here with the Zips.

I bring in a new Syndicate Coordinator, Broderick Beardsley – a 46 year old who represents a decent improvement over my current guy. Such is the fruit of a good season and boost in program prestige.


Scheduling

I arrange games with patsies again this year – we simply need to gather wins wherever we can, and strength of schedule is just not on my list right now.



Roster Review


Deion Brock has the top spot, of course, but we are a bit deeper with frosh Dustin Poole as a usable option for us. Wolf will hold the #2 spot, and I’m comfortable with our position here.


Shawn Coles has posted a 1,000-yard season for us (just barely), but Bryan Bartholomew is a very impressive newcomer, and his powerful style makes him a threat to get immediate playing time. Those two look like a potent combination, with Horner dropping down to third on the depth chart. At FB, we’ll again use both Horner and Sinclair, with Ronnie Graul fighting for a shot to perform, too.


Desmond Holmes stapes right into the main spot here, for his first season of action – I’m excited about what he ought to be able to do. The sky’s the limit, I suspect.


We’ll depend on our youngsters here, as Lenny Sells will probably start across from frosh newcomer Oscar Lynn, with another new face Radecki in the third spot. Pretty good potential here – might help our balance on the attack a bit (though we’re still raw).


Much deeper, and better, than last year. Sherman and Barber had solid seasons last year at tackle, and return even more experienced. Freshman Bryan Tumbleson will get the nod at center, and will learn on the job. LG Vinny Durham looks solid, and we will give another freshman a shot as we start Mario Griffin at the other guard spot. We ought to be a bit better on the line this season – a nice advance, I think.


Fine here, Clearly remains a top punter, and Sanford has assumed the kicking duties in total.


Our area of greatest loss this season, we have some new faces to depend on here. Wesley Marshall shapes up as our best looking pass rusher, and we’ll rotate Porter and Caldwell in the other spot to start off. Freshman Tom Joseph will redshirt, and hopefully be ready to step in next season – he has the potential to be a star. DT Christian Lincoln is hurt and will miss most of the season – so we will depend more on freshman Colin Irwin than I might have planned, starting him along with Dana Higgs or one of the ends (probably Porter, now that I look it all over).


Brett Gerhardt has clearly become the centerpiece here, and will man the MLB spot. Louis Sherman just hasn’t developed at all, which has been disappointing – he had great potential. With Adachi on probation, we will go to Kim Pointer and Steve Griffith to start outside – lots of potential there, but we need to see results.


We have a great pair of corners here in Schneider and Jacobs, and the whole secondary looks wonderful. Carmicheal redshirted and ought to be a star in no time, while Bernstein is ready to start also. Douglas might get time at LB, if we can’t get him on the field enough at safety – he’s good enough to merit the attention.


Recruiting targets: DT, ILB, WR, OLB, TE


Season Expectations

I’d love to see us again be in the hunt for the conference title game, and I feel like we are in even better shape than last season. Offensively, we have more weapons and more experience – it’s the defensive front that will get tested. If we can stop other teams up front, we could be improved off our bowl-bound team from last year, and perhaps on to even better things. I’d love to get to the MAC title game with 9 wins in hand this year, and our overall goal might be a Top 25 finish.

2011 Season

We get things set up – we will go with largely the same game plan as last year, with our run directions altered a bit due to different strengths along the OL. Defensively, we will see a fair number of position switches, as we will sometimes go with a lighter, faster lineup than might have been expected – we’ll play LB Jelinek up on the DL sometimes, and will slide in safety Craig Douglas into our third LB spot a bit, too.


In our opener, Shawn Coles has the 100-yard day, but it’s Bryan Bartholomew and his four touchdowns that get the headlines in a 45-0 rout of UConn. With two serious weapons in our backfield, we ought to have many more options than last year, I think. Holding them to 5 of 34 passing was unbelievable, too.

Our hopes for a monster season disappear, though, as we get upset at home by Bowie State. We’ve also lost a key offensive linemen, as G Vinny Durham will miss the season with tobacco withdrawal syndrome – ouch. We get another beating at Toledo (a pretty good team) and fall to 2-2 on the season – cause for a bit of concern. As our injuries – especially at linebacker – mount, our concern does, too. Our defensive front was going to be shaky anyway – now without Gerhardt, Jelinek, Pointer, and Lincoln, we look positively anemic. I now have safety Craig Douglas slotted as a full-time starter at OLB, and we have completely reshuffled the group of contributors at LB.

At Central Florida, our patchwork front seven falls apart, and we get thrashed 34-14. We have simply become incompetent up front, and we’re getting pushed around badly. However, after a week off, we rebound with a huge win over undefeated Buffalo, and get back to 4-3 on the season. We get a good low-scoring win over Miami (who has surprisingly won 3 games) and we have hope that our defense is coming together a bit better.

So, we stand at 5-3, ranked #49 in the country, and still have a shot to “save” this season. We are only one game out in our side of the conference – but it doesn’t look likely that we can catch up and claim a spot in the title game. Instead, I think our best shot might be in winning out, and perhaps claiming an at large bowl berth at 8-3, if we can get that far. Longshot.

A buzzer-beater loss at home to BGSU ends that dream, and puts an end to our real hopes for this season. We wrap up with two wins, though, including a good 31-14 win over Kent State (their two TDs both came off punt returns – our defense played very well). 7-4 won’t be good enough to merit a bowl berth, but we shouldn’t backtrack too much in prestige, at least.

The MAC did pretty well for itself, all told – conference champions Buffalo (whose only loss was to us, by the way) managed to edge into the Top 10 at season’s end, with a 12-1 record. Our final ranking of #43 marks a pretty solid result as well.

For the third straight season, the Fresno State QB is named Player of the Year – this year it’s their new guys Everett Mahoney. (My scout’s overall impression of him, incidentally, is 29 out of 100)




I’m a little disappointed in the season, and I’m a little disappointed that we were unable to land an immediate impact player for our defensive front for next year.

But while I am inclined to lay the “blame” at the feet of our defensive front, looking at the stats suggests that we might be in some trouble elsewhere. We were well above average against both the run and pass – it’s tough to be too angry with the defense’s performance, all told.

This season, we will lose a couple of standouts – LT Curtis Sherman and DT Christian Lincoln, but all told it’s not that bad. I’ll try to reserve some hope that the coming year can be even better for us, even though I had similar hopes about this season which didn’t pan out.

Every time I re-read this thread title, I get Tom Petty's Runnin' Down a Dream in my head. It used to be clever, now it's annoying. (A bit like Tom Petty himself, I guess)

Just a quick query... does anyone give a hoot about this dynasty?

I have played FOF 2004 up to the point of using all the draft files from this career, and have yet to build any connection between the college and pro sides. Once again, the resulting talent from my TCY team comes through to FOF with such unpredictability that I haven't seen fit to force any kinnd of connection.

It would probably be easier to play on with just anny old TCY files -- I'm not getting a lot of continuity by trying to follow the players from this particular TCY career.

Anyone care otherwise?

I care about your Akron dynasty.


:)

I am stunned that you have so many visits and phone calls. I had thought all alone you just limit yourself to just one each. Can you explain your recruiting strategy? It appears that with this many visits per player, you are putting more of your eggs in one basket?

I rarely give any player more than one call or one visit per week. When the recruiting season is winding down (after week 10, generally) I start to double up on the top players left on my target list - usually one call and one visit each week. In rare instances, if I have one particular player I really, really want (especially if for only one or two spot(s) remaining) I may unload on the poor sucker in week 14 or so. (That seems to be what happened in the selection above with Trent Guthrie - I really needed a DE and he was on my list but reluctant to commit)

Understand that in most of these cases, I'm getting feedback that the player has already learned everything about my schools and that these calls and visits are pointless. I generally ignore this feedback, and push on with my contacts.

I confess that I have very little "strategy" in recruiting - I design my recruiting so that I can do it as quickly as possible. Generally, I make obvious picks for my first three weeks to get guys onto my target list (regionally at first, then when I have a good academic rep, I start recruiting by test scores as much as anything). After I have about 25 players on my target list, I sort them each week by certain things-- scout rating, ath prep, national ranking, and especially fit score -- and just contact them all starting at the top of the list, making a tiny amoutn of judgment in whom to visit, whom to just call. It's designed to be very simple and quick - I don't enjoy it.

I then go back at about week 7 or 8, and look for solid players who have not yet been pursued seriously, and put in probably ten mkore invitations, especially at my need positions. This tends to get guys who are in the 500-100 tier of national rankings, but it's not uncommon to find pretty decent guys like that who are sitting around waiting for the phoen to call, and who jump at my first contact. I'd guess I get about a third of my recruits through that process.


I think I'll probably get back to this - and run another season of Akron football. It would be nice to get back to the postseason after all.

Quik,

Enjoy all your dynasties, so hate to see any of them end. I think perhaps for the purposes of a TCY to FOF dynasty, you are better off going with a team in one of the "power" conferences, and perhaps one of the better teams in that conference. Normally you are able to recruit top players right from the start rather than having to build up from the bottom with a team like Akron. I think you'll get more players that make the "jump" to FOF this way, and be better talents there as well. Of course I have no real evidence to back this up, but thought I should throw it out there.


Dan

Quik.

I'd like to second Thomkal's recommendation... I've been off the boards for a while (since the last FOF), but your dynasties have me playing both the games (bought the new FOF) again... So thanks for that, and PLEASE stay with TCY... I enjoy reading it.... but move up to a power conference re:Thomkal...

Regards,
Chas

I'll just reiterate what other's have said...I enjoy your dynasties so I would encourage you to continue. Even if you decide to start another TCY dynasty with a higher ranked team to begin with.