Columbus, Ohio • Jul 25, 2014 • 64° Partly Cloudy

 Hot Links: MAC football: Coaches talk 2013 season, ending player­ poaching

SPORTS HEADLINES By Mark Znidar  Royals 2, Indians 1 (14): The Columbus Dispatch • Thursday July 24, 2014 1:12 PM Late­night letdown Comments: 0 0 1 19  NFL: One more sign that Bills could be shuffling off to Toronto? DETROIT – There didn’t have to be feet of snow and ice on the ground, mostly gray skies and whipping winds making the face and hands raw to make life miserable for Paul Haynes last winter.  Ohio State football: Highly rated prospects will step foot in ’Shoe The 2013 football season, in which Kent State went 4­8, gave the first­year coach the blues during the off­season months, he said at the annual MAC football day, held at Ford Field today.  Ohio State football recruits The Flashes were supposed to be one of the show teams of the Mid­American Conference after going 10­4 and  Blue Jackets: ‘Moneyball’ thinking on rise among losing in the conference title game the previous season under . NHL teams Hazell left to become head coach at Purdue and Haynes was hired after being an assistant at Ohio State under  Around golf: Two shoot 64 to share lead at Jim Tressel and Luke Fickell. Canadian Open  Sports on TV, radio Haynes, a Kent State graduate, inherited a team led by fleet all­purpose back Dri Artcher and pass rusher supreme defensive lineman Roosevelt Nix of Reynoldsburg.  Clippers: Top prospect Lindor will make home debut tonight The team edged Liberty 17­10 in the opener and lost three straight to Bowling Green, LSU and Penn State by blowout. There was a win over Western Michigan followed by five more losses in succession. MORE SPORTS HEADLINES “When you look at the record of not being successful, no one has to be hard on me,’’ Haynes said. “I’ve been hard on myself. I’m the one in charge. I know what needs to improve. I did a lot of reading during the off­

BLOGGING THE season. I read four books on leadership.’’ BUCKEYES  Ohio State­Kent State Haynes also dialed up his mentors, former DeSales coach Tony Pusateri and Tressel, and asked for advice. game set for noon start “Coach Tress always told me there is no handbook to being a head coach,’’ Haynes said. “I called Tony Pusateri because he always has had my best interests in mind. Tony has known me since I was a skinny, 130­pound freshman at DeSales. With Tony, I talk about not just football but life. I call coach Tress and coach Pusateri life coaches.’’ PUCK RAKERS

 Progress In Johansen Kent State has been picked to finish fifth in the MAC East. Fourteen starters return. Contract Talks

“We’ll get what our works deserve,’’ Haynes said.

The Flashes open against Ohio University at home on Aug. 30.

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First­year Bowling Green coach Dino Babers is one of many Division I coaches in favor of having an early signing period before high school players start their senior seasons.

The advantage for colleges and players, he said, would be to end “poaching’’ by other teams.

“Think about asking a young lady to get married and she says yes,’’ Babers said. “Then you go and ask another young lady to hang out. (Is that right?) You wait a year before you get married. The early signing period puts pen to paper. It ends the process. You want to go to that school. You are happy and the school is happy. You don’t have other schools talking to you.’’

Babers put an Ohio State perspective on the issue.

“If you have been a Buckeye fan for life and Urban Meyer offers you a scholarship, you are going to Ohio State,’’ he said. “Why waste time? You sign with Ohio State before your senior year.’’

Babers was on the other side of the recruiting process when a daughter was recruited for volleyball. She signed with Texas A&M.

* * *

Third­year Akron coach Terry Bowden was an assistant under Gerry Faust at the school when it entered Division I. Times were hard. The Zips played in the decaying Rubber Bowl, the campus resembled an auto assembly plant and the perception was the university was for commuters.

A lot has changed. InfoCision Stadium far and away is the best facility in the MAC and the campus has gone from industrial­like to appealing.

Still, the Zips had six straight losing seasons and went through two coaches in three seasons when Bowden came on.

Bowden, though, saw the potential, beginning with the conference affiliation.

“The smart thing about the MAC is that I just think the MAC understands what the MAC is and what the MAC wants to be,’’ Bowden said. “For us to say why can’t we be this and why can’t we be that? Well, we’re proud of who we are. No one is jumping out there paying $2 million (per season) for a coach or putting $17 million into their program. We have some pretty good programs.’’

Bowden thought Akron ranked with San Diego State, Nevada and Florida Atlantic as teams that had what it took to become consistent winners.

“The school made the commitment to before I got here,’’ he said. “That commitment was more than just talk. I do remember what the campus was like. I do remember the facilities.’’

J.D. Brookhart had winning seasons his first two years, including a conference championship in 2005. The program plummeted after that. He was fired after going 3­9 in 2009.

Rob Ianello, who was an assistant under Charlie Weiss at Notre Dame, went 1­11 both seasons.

“The sad thing is Akron went through two new coaches when they had the new facilities,’’ Bowden said. “Those were difficult times for whatever the reasons. When I took the job I was objective. I said if the right guy got there, they ought to win.’’

Akron finished 1­11 in Bowden’s first season, but won four of its final five games to wind up 5­7 last season.

Bowden pointed out that there was no getting around that it still was a losing season. The misery, he said, should be coming to an end.

“Without a doubt, I think it’s just a matter of time until we’re a contender and a top team in this conference,’’ he said. “It’s not rocket science. You have the right ingredients: recruits in the area, facilities and people in the conference not having much more than you have.’’

[email protected] @markznidar

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