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Looks like we may have a winner here.

That's the spirit!

First - You know it's going to be a monsoon for that game...it always is for a big game at InfoCision. Either that, or a few key Zips players will get suspended. If we avoided aforementioned Curse of InfoCision, and Kent brought in a decent team, I think we could approach the 21k butts-in-seats number. Very smart, and blatantly obvious move by Larry Willliams to move that game date up from late November. It will be a fun day on campus.

Who is this team, and what have you done with my 26% FG Zips?!

So well-deserved. Thanks to the university and to Coach Embick for staying with the best Men's Soccer Program in the country, which he was instrumental in building and will continue to make even better!!! https://gozips.com/news/2019/2/15/mens-soccer-akron-extends-embicks-contract.aspx

Jerry Falwell made a lot of money fleecing the elderly. Gotta spend it somewhere.

I just can't stand Liberty. They're an embarrassment of a university. Pretty much a University of Phoenix with a centralized campus and outdated beliefs.

I went through the list of Bowden's 2019 recruits on ZipsNation, and per 24/7, it looks like many have not signed with any school. That is unless the website is not updating after Wednesday. What I thought looked like a good class, does not look very good. Great job coach Arth. You set a good foundation for a future MAC championship.

I thought the refs did a great job of letting the game be decided by the players.

BOOM! What are you hearing? My count is up to 12 in the pouch (kangaroo pouch, get it). Did we just get better; fill some holes? Spring Ball starts 7 March. Let’s GO ZIPS!

Dr. Z and I were able to attend the Signing Day press conference held earlier today. I think this is the 20th one I've attended, dating back to the Lee Owens days. There were no player videos...I guess there's not much need for those anymore, with all the information that's available on the internet. But it would have been nice to hear the coach walk through each individual player and provide thoughts. Only Coach Arth was present. None of the other staff members attended. Nor were there any players. No TV cameras. Nor was Elton Alexander present. I jotted down some of the comments from the Coach that I thought were interesting - Regarding the difficulty of recruiting on such a short time frame, he said: In the past (pre-2018 class), if you were hired in December every potential player was, in theory, still available. Now, more than half of them are committed. I believe the actual number is around 70%? It was easy to find great kids who weren't at the FBS talent level...and it was easy to find kids with FBS talent, who had issues with grades or other problems, but it was tough finding great kids with FBS-level talent. He said the turning point where the staff knew they could assemble a great class was after the first official visit weekend. The way he described it, it was the equivalent of holding a party, with no idea if anyone would show up. It ended up they received eight or nine commitments that weekend, and that was really the first time the staff thought "I think we're gonna be alright." He also mentioned that the kids who committed from that first weekend were instrumental in getting the remainder of the class signed. They really helped in the recruiting process. He specifically mentioned Zach Gibson stepping up and leading the "recruit-recruiting" process, as you'd hope a 4-year high school starter quarterback would. Coach Arth mentioned Peter Hayes-Patrick would be expected to vie for playing time immediately. I thought this was interesting, as Hayes-Patrick's commitment tweet mentioned playing for the Zips for "3-4 years." You could have taken the "3" to mean grades might be an issue. Apparently not. The Spring Game will be held April 13th at noon. Not all 2019 scholarships were used. There are a few "reserved for future use." On Xavior Gray, he loved the fact that he was never knocked down in any of the film he viewed. That was really impressive for someone so tall (6' 9"). On Demetrick Watts, he gave a neat story - - Humboldt State apparently disbanded their football team. Demetrick needed a team, and one of the present Zips player's father (I'll guess Bryce Peterson's, but I could be wrong) tipped the staff off regarding his availability. He came highly recommended. The staff originally thought he was a little on the small side and wasn't going to offer him. Apparently when a couple Zips coaches were recruiting other players in California, Demetrick tracked them down and introduced himself. In real life he was a lot bigger than they saw from his tape...and they ultimately offered him. They're very high on his potential. The strong presence of kids from the south in Arth's initial class, specifically Georgia, is a result of relationships the staff has in that region, and recruiting there will not be a one-shot deal. They expect to take advantage of those relationships in the future, especially when it comes to recruiting skill position players. That's the best I could do. I'm guessing UA will probably put the presser YouTube at some point?

2019 Akron Football National Letter of Intent Signees Name Pos. Elig. Ht. Wt. Hometown | High School | Previous School Randy Cochran, Jr. DB Fr. 6-0 175 Doraville, Ga. | Norcross Jordan Daniels OL Fr. 6-5 275 Huntersville, N.C. | North Mecklenburg Adetutu Daranijo $ DB Fr. 5-10 200 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. | St. Thomas Aquinas Zach Gibson QB Fr. 6-3 215 Alpharetta, Ga. | Johns Creek Xavior Gray OL Fr. 6-9 315 Massillon, Ohio | Jackson Peter Hayes-Patrick RB Fr. 6-0 204 Orlando, Fla. | Winter Park Caleb Herring OL Fr. 6-7 320 Lakewood, Ohio | St. Edward Daniel Lavelle DL Fr. 6-4 260 Forsyth, Ga. | Mary Persons Quevan Lawson LB Fr. 6-4 225 Ashburn, Ga. | Turner County Kyshad Mack DB Fr. 6-1 200 Massillon, Ohio | Massillon Washington Michael Mathison WR Fr. 5-10 175 Covington, Ga. | Newton Tyson McDonald DB Fr. 6-2 195 Corona, Calif. | Eleanor Roosevelt Owen Murphy OL Fr. 6-6 270 Cleveland, Ohio | St. Ignatius Julian Richardson LB Fr. 6-2 210 Albany, Ga. | Westover Kyle Romenick P Fr. 6-2 220 Fort Mill, S.C. | Fort Mill Michael Scott $ LB Jr. 6-3 230 Tallahassee, Fla. | North Florida Christian | Iowa Western CC Keyshawn Swanson DB Fr. 5-11 180 Pensacola, Fla. | West Florida Corey Thomas, Jr. DB Fr. 6-5 200 Pittsburgh, Pa. | Penn Hills Jarred Uran LB Fr. 6-2 195 Cincinnati, Ohio | La Salle Kevin Walls WR Fr. 6-6 215 Westlake, Ohio | Westlake AJ Watts DB Fr. 6-1 208 Columbus, Ga. | Carver Demetrick Watts II LB Jr. 6-3 230 Riverside, Calif. | Hillcrest | Humboldt State Bryce Wilson DL Fr. 6-3 275 Lilburn, Ga. | Parkview $ Mid-year enrollee 2019 Akron Football Walk-on Commitments Name Pos. Elig. Ht. Wt. Hometown | High School Ryan Beckman OL Fr. 6-3 305 Avon Lake, Ohio | Avon Lake Nick Demchuk QB Fr. 6-3 200 Cleveland, Ohio | Benedictine Noah Garrett P Fr. 6-3 175 Mentor, Ohio | Mentor Taylor Griffin RB Fr. 5-11 195 Strongsville, Ohio | Strongsville Jory Mattox OL Fr. 6-3 290 Massillon, Ohio | Massillon Washington Jordan Maul DL Fr. 6-4 325 Steubenville, Ohio | Central Catholic Tank McClendon OL Fr. 5-11 270 Lima, Ohio | Lima Senior Mason McMillen LB Fr. 5-11 200 Wadsworth, Ohio | Wadsworth Shawn Naim WR Fr. 6-4 195 Rocky River, Ohio | Lutheran West Alex Robarge OL Fr. 6-5 325 Chagrin Falls, Ohio | Kenston Connor Shell LB Fr. 6-1 190 Bay Village, Ohio | Bay Village

The positives... - We saw real adjustments made at halftime that worked. The negatives... - Just about everything else. This team is about 2 players short (a killer shooter and an offensive big man) of being a legitimate top-of-the-MAC team. Until those players appear, we'll need to rely on pure effort to keep us in/win games.

UPDATE: Or maybe I should say correction....had a chance to sit with Dave Pearce again last night and I told him I had posted this, and he chidingly corrected me, saying something about an adult beverage. What he had told me was that they practiced at Firestone Stadium and the fans came out to watch, while their home matches were played in much more advanced facilities...the Rubber Bowl, and believe it or not, on the grounds at Stan Hywet! Said the pitch was wonderful. Anyway... Home of the Akron Zips!

This one just popped up on 247 as an offer/warm/Akron crystal ball pick. https://247sports.com/player/quevan-lawson-46039289/

He has officially punched his transfer ticket.

OK, on the venting theme, could someone please explain to me why "Fat Bottomed Girls" is a staple in the pep band repertoire? It's even more questionable with the dance team and cheerleaders on the floor.

https://gozips.com/schedule.aspx?path=football Good things the first time we get our home Kent game earlier in the season (also Homecoming) in a long time so hopefully we will have a decent crowd. bye week before Kent 4 Home Saturday games prior to October 19 which allows for potentially decent weather Close the season with Miami and OU which I assume will be two of the top teams in the East Not so good things 3 MACtion weekday games including 2 at home

I'm surprised this topic hasn't been brought up yet on this forum. UA is looking for $65,000 by February 20th. http://give.uakron.edu/site/MessageViewer?em_id=3981.0&s_AffiliateSecCatId=1&dlv_id=7601&pw_id=1481

Many ways to win at basketball. They generally all have two primary factors- 1) good players and 2) good coaching.

If we still had Cotton on this team I'm betting we would have won a lot of those close games (with Cotton on this team we may have won those close games comfortably). On the other hand, with Cotton still with us, the team may have imploded half way through the season. IMHO Cotton not working out hurt more than one might think & set us back another year.

I'm not completely sold on Groce quite yet but his situation and Dambrot's were considerably different in the players inherited and the situation. KD had continuity from being on the staff and inherited some talent while Groce had essentially bare cupboards and a late start. Do I wish they were further along and won these close ones? Hell yes. But, Rome wasn't built in a day. If they don't take a substantial step forward next year, then I'll be far more critical. In the interim, I reserve my right to pee and moan along the way.

They can have the nicest facilities in the US and it wouldn't matter. Good luck trying to recruit African-American athletes when the university president is a neo-nazi/white supremacist apologist. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-trump.html

I first noticed that Leo was gone at the MAC Tourney last year when another fan noted during the Zips v WVU match that he was not there. During the NCAA Tourney match v Stanford, which I watched at the JAR, this same fan mentioned running into Leo somewhere on Exchange St. Also, Leo was not listed in the College Cup Program among the Zips staff. Apparently, the Zips runs through the 2018 MAC and NCAA Tourneys were done without Leo.

I saw the ladies swimming and diving team is ranked 23rd in the country. That is an outstanding achievement to the coaches and athletes. What amazed me was when I scanned the list of the top 25 teams no one other than Akron was outside the P5 schools. For us to compete with those deep pocketed schools is quite a feather in the cap of our university and athletics dept. Well done everyone! Let's see the other sports joining the success of MSoc, M & W Track and now WSwim & Dive

I for one am shocked that balsy is complaining about something. The content on ESPN+ is well worth $5 a month to me, so whatev.

All I can say is "Jesus Christ" that's a lot of $.

Nice Spring schedule. Jared will many opportunities to judge his talent. That equals a faster start come August. We are ready to make a run at the championship in the Fall no doubt.

Fox Sports Ohio has reportedly reached a multi-year deal to become the regional carrier for the Columbus Crew. If you're a cord cutter who has ESPN+, you should also be able to watch matches there as long as you live outside of the Columbus media market. https://theathletic.com/817155/2019/02/13/fox-sports-ohio-becomes-new-television-home-for-the-columbus-crew/

https://goo.gl/images/9v7WpY

Our next two games are @Ball State & @BGSU. I can live with losing the BGSU game as we're currently 3 back from them with only 7 games left. The game we really need is Ball State. With a loss they would slide 1 game behind us and own the tie-breaker. The season hasn't gone the way Ball State expected, but they still have some talent and are more than capable of going on a run given their weak remaining MAC schedule. It's just best for us to bury them that way we don't have to worry about them for seeding.

Not that this is saying much but I actually thought this was Riak's best offensive game of MAC play. He went 4/5 from the field with 8 points. I'll take that from my center. What I'm surprised to see noone mention is that I, from my seat in the bleachers, scored as many points as our entire bench tonight. I did that while taking 4 fewer shots. Banks looked like a really good 3 and D guy early on in the season. With Roscoe and Pokie not being big offensive factors, he needs to be a spark off the bench. With our thin bench we're going to be exposed in Cleveland where you have to win 3 games in 3 days. I think we're a year away.

Quality article https://www.sbnation.com/platform/amp/college-football/2019/2/12/18213550/akron-football-preview-2019-schedule-roster

Rebounding is a team effort. If you look at the box score you will see Ken+ had 9 players with a rebound, 6 with 4+ rebounds, and their leading rebounder was a guard with 6. We talked about Riak stepping up to help clean up the glass, but Cheese ended up finishing with a game high 8 rebounds. I love the way he has developed this season. He's stuffing all the stat categories. Ivey 2.0

Greatest comeback since Paul Pierce from the wheelchair.

Thanks for putting this up being out-of-state I had seen nothing on it and there is no team at the University more deserving. I just submitted my donation.

Absolutely great news for the zips soccer program

Kent State sucks! Finally shot the ball decent tonight and we kicked some a$$. We can compete with anyone in conference if we play like this. Buffalo up next. Go Zips!

If our bigs had any offense we could really take advantage as they are short on quality bigs.

No more late night posting for you.

I don't know if the Zips are middle of the road in the MAC or not. I think what they are is one dimensional. The defense can keep Akron in just about any game on any night but the offense can quickly take them out of contention. These days it is much more common to see one-sided teams that are good offensively that struggle on defense. Even the good offensive teams will have an off night now and then but solid defensive teams can be a little more consistent with regards to their strength. That's not to say that there aren't just nights when your opponent can't miss or a game where everything you do defensively seems to be called a foul but in general good defense should be more consistent than good offense. Being this deep in the season I think the Zips are what they are. I expect that they will upset a team or two yet this season but at the same time I can see them getting beat by any team they would play that is below them in the standings. I am encouraged by what I have been seeing from Cheese the last couple games. I at least think the team is trying to become more than the three point shooting team they seemed to be a few weeks ago. That is progress, albeit slow progress. hopefully this team finds a new level as it gets to MAC tourney time.

It's very clear that our Zips are just an average middle of the road MAC team. On a good night they can challenge the better teams in the league and on an off night can lose to the worst. They're just not there yet. Improved from last year and going in the right direction but still short on the type and depth of talent to be at the top of the conference. I guess the only good news is that I have just described about half of the teams in the MAC.

DE rated 3* by 247. Has an offer from Kentucky, but its old and I have to assume that they backed off. Also offered by PCCC, Tulane, and a few other G5 teams.

Speaking of the UNLV - Nevada game, it reminded me of the below that I stumbled upon. I thought about sharing it in another thread where we were discussing our poor promotions, but didn't. The marketing team at UNLV is on point and this deal is phenomenal. This is what good marketing looks like. If anyone at the UA athletic department is looking, take note.

He also went something like 6-18 from the field with a couple of those makes being desperation 3s that somehow found the net. Overall I feel Akron has done a good job at making opposing #1 scorers work for their points.

Digging the uniforms.

Best jump in the world so far this year regardless of professional, collegiate, etc.

Single game tickets are outrageous, I'd agree. The value comes in getting season tickets, but that also means your're committing to go to more than 1 game. That said, price isn't a deterrent for students as admission costs are already built into their student fees and I saw maybe 150 students at the game Tuesday. I'm not sure why we don't see better promotions such as a $1 dog night. Those type of events seem help draw fans to Rubber Duck games. Also selling alcohol at the JAR would open up opportunities like having a craft beer night which could appeal to the younger alumni.