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Years ago at the very first Zips basketball practice I ever attended, the first person to walk up and introduce himself was Coach Peters. From that day until the last time I recently saw him, he remained one of the most genuinely warm, friendly and thoughtful persons I've ever known. Clearly he cared a lot about other people, and many in turn cared a lot about him. He made a big impression on me and caused me to look within myself and try to be more like him. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and all of those who were close to him.

I agree with the SPCA that venting your frustration on an internet forum is infinitely preferable to kicking your dog.

Prayers went up in belief and hope this day wouldn't come....but now that it has I must echo the comment above that Coach Peters was at peace with his Maker all the while fighting this terrible disease. He was "old school" in every way and I mean that as the highest compliment possible. He was a wonderful mentor, coach and friend to my son and all the other Zips who had the good fortune to know him and be coached by him. I'm praying for peace and grace for his wife and sons all the while relieved this difficult stretch of his life has ended with his entrance into eternity with his God where he will suffer no more. God's speed Dan, your smile, presence and positive impact will be greatly missed!

Today we lost an incredible Coach and Mentor in Dan Peters. He will truly be missed by all. I know for my son Kwan Cheatham Jr and our family he meant the whole to us and made us feel welcome. This season will be dedicated to Dan Peters #4PETESAKES.. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Dan Peters Family. Dan is our new Angel and he will be looking from above and watching over his love ones. The Cheatham Family

My current frustration is not that the Zips are losing, but rather the new ways they are finding to lose. At the beginning of the season, if you were to tell me that the Zips would struggle as a road team, and only win two on the road all season, but only lose one at home, I would be happy. That's 7-5! If you were to tell me that the Zips started to turn the corner, but will have a mid-season slump, losing against teams with crappy records, I would have been as upset at the beginning of the season as I am now. I have come to expect a more consistent effort from Bowden and Amato. Buckzip, I don't think the title of this thread is intended as sarcasm. Our defense is FANTASTIC - giving their all every game, not making many mistakes, and I couldn't be happier with their level of play right now. This is one of the best Zips' defenses that I can remember. Our offense and offensive coaching on the other hand is making me sick to my stomach with all the turnovers, inconsistent play, limited play-calling, and puzzling personnel decisions. It is easy to think that I know better than the coach - if our winningest QB in years is healthy enough to play, he should play right? If he can't play, we know that his backup is turnover prone, so we should be running the ball more and more short passes right? Connor Hundley ran roughshod over a P5 school - he can handle the MAC right? We as fans get justifiably upset when we believe the coach has problems, and Ianello has made most of us twice-shy when dealing with coaching incompetence. The next 10 days, I just keep repeating to myself 'Bowden is not Ianello' and hope and pray for a convincing win over BG. This one game puts us in 1st place in the MAC east, and in charge of our own destiny for winning the division. This would be much easier to take if Bowden gave convincing explanations about Woodson, Pohl, and run vs pass playcalling.

Wow. I'm shocked how unbelievable you guys are being right now. Are we really this delusional to think we could have had a 10 win year this season? Folks, reality check. I know I caught myself a couple of times starring at the schedule saying "what if..." or "we can do it..." But back to reality: This program has NEVER had even an 8-win season IN ITS HISTORY OF D-I FOOTBALL. That's the place to start. You don't go from 3-33, to 10-2. Yeah, I wish we could. I've was angry on Saturday after losing to Ball St saying to myself "why can't we be the team that goes from Zero to Hero in one year...why can't that be us for once?" But then hearing all the doom-and-gloom from you guys has snapped me back to reality. I know I haven't suffered as long as you guys have, but My first year of supporting the Zips was the year Infocision opened and Brookheart was fired (aka the dark ages). It's a miracle I'm a Zips Football fan at all. Many of us didn't even expect a 7-5 season this year, why on earth are we complaining about not going 10-2? Were we really that spoiled with the Pitt win? We lack Depth at many skill positions. We lack the athletes to execute on offense. This is a great season, it's not time to give up. We can still win 8 games. We can still win 7 games (and frankly should). If we were 7-5 at the end of the year, would you really be that upset? Go back to that number I mentioned before: 8. Akron hasn't had an 8 win season in over three decades of football. Checking the numbers, the last time we had a season where we won 8 or more games was in 1985 folks, when Jim Dennison was the coach; 4 years before I was born! Do you guys seriously think we're going to go from 28 years of less than 8-wins a year, and barely 2 seasons removed from 3-33, to winning 10 games a season? Really? So much so that you're going to doom-and-gloom/run and conspiracy-theory Bowden. Who would you rather have here? You have to be joking. Many of the comments being made now are absolutely ridiculous. If the Zips win 7 games, I will consider that a success. That what I said at the begining of the year, and I will hold to it. 3/4 is within reach. Should we be happy? No. Should we be angry over losing 2 games we could have won? Yes. Should we accept mediocrity? No. But we can't throw Bowden under the bus in year 3after 2 games. What an absolute joke. No wonder Akron has had mediocrity in the past, what kind of "big name" coach would commit to turning this awful program around. We're throwing around the "building process" as a negative thing. Yes it can be, but just how in the hell did you think we were going to turn around a 3-33 team? IT IS A BUILDING PROCESS FOR PETE SAKE! Sorry about the rant, but I'm really disappointed in some of you old-timers on this forum.

Speaking of being "fair", it's not as if Pohl hasn't experienced many bad stretches of play over the last two years, and has stayed in games. For what it's worth, I love Woodson's talent and his physical tools, and his ability to make plays. On the other hand, Pohl has an edge in experience. I really don't have a preference either way. And honestly, I have no feeling as to whether one or the other truly is better, and it looks like the coaching staff agrees. In fact, I really don't feel as if either of them is a good option....but they are all that we have until next year. I'm just saying.....With the first half that Woodson played, would it make sense to suddenly remove him from the game a few series later? On many, many occasions Pohl has been allowed to play through some very bad stretches of play himself.

@Station14, you are correct. In soccer, they go by points. 4-1 Zips would have 12 points. 3-0-2 WMU would have 11 points. Zips would host MAC Tourney in that scenario. Of course this scenario also assumes we don't pee our shorts vs Northern Illinois or Buffalo. It sucks that we no longer control our own destiny and have to rely on BG or WVU for help. Ask the Portland Timbers how great it was to win their game Saturday only to have Vancouver also win and take the last playoff spot. @SwitchIt: Sparks flying in the film session is not as impactful as standing on the field immediately following a loss in front of fans, friends and family and not being able to go enjoy your evening with your girl for comfort right away. There needs to be some fear of losing for motivation. Even without colorful language, I'm sure "the circle" is something the players would be motivated to avoid. As far as missing Richie, this is not the beginning of the season. These guys better darn well know by now how to step it up to fill in for 1 guy no matter what position against a crap team like WMU. This is D1 NCAA soccer, not pre-teen academy. I'm not as upset by the mistake of giving up the goal as I am by how much of the game was played in front of our own goal/on our half of the field and that we had no shots on goal until around the 80th minute. Totally unacceptable. Also unacceptable that Jake seemed to be the only player directing anything. Where the heck were our captains and upper class players? That should have been corrected at half time. The HC can't be the players buddy. That's for assistants. The HC needs to call out his players and remind his captains and upper classmen they have a responsibilty to lead.

+1. Well said! You've got to realize, winning is new to us Zips fans when it comes to football. We see the enemy everywhere, especially within.

Just win ...... Win games, have a much better opportunity to recruit and get the kids to fit the brand ....... If you don't win, does "the brand" mean anything ? During the recruiting process of my son, Coach Bowden has talked a lot about his 5 year plan to get UA to a respected level in the NCAA and how that plan has served him well at the other schools he successfully rebuilt or started. He has said on more than one occasion that it can be frustrating and unpopular at different point, but it works. I believe he realizes that he has to make some bold and unpopular moves to keep that plan on track !! Just some thought ....... I still believe in Coach Bowden. The right track is not always smooth but I still believe UA is on it !!!

+1. Don't forget we also have Travon Chapman who throws a great ball can move in the pocket and scramble. Zips have a good stable of QBs after this year. What we all should be worried about is other offensive weapons. WRs are desperately needed.

Not the result one would expect after a solid week layoff to get ready for the sprint to MAC and NCAAs as well as finally back in good graces of the polls and and favorable RPI winds. Should still win the MAC even if at WMU and a PSU win would be great tone setter to revitalize things here late. After a nice run of home wins and a remarkable comeback win over WVU the team gave way to another lack of early intensity. A turnover or mistake in the back (DM Souto this time) with lack of strong defending from CBs as the ball comes into the 18 even numbers with the GK around the play but not very imposing combine to allow the goal. I get queasy every time the ball enters the area as most of the goals this year look very similar in those respects, which conversely does speak to how well they defend when given time to get organized. Maybe NM and WF goals were different but the CBs/GK were contributors there too. Is there a defender the other team wants no part of? Maybe Souders who is now on the outside, where he was needed and seemed like a brilliant move on Embick's part. As for just missing a starter, missing Laryea to cumm yellows is like missing Souto in the first several games. It severely impacts the engine of this team in the MF. You can miss almost anyone else for a given match, but Najem/Laryea/Souto seem vital. Things don't develop, Saad stays home more instead of getting high and wide, etc. Add Sanda start with no collegiate minutes and an unfortunate history of injuries was experimental at the least, but maybe there was not enough confidence in Aguilar or Quirk to start them even though they have 12 between them. It looked like a wonderful gesture to a local product but maybe your first minutes are later in a game we control to build some experience and confidence, not as CM in a key but easily looked past MAC match where a win gets you really close to hosting the tourney. On game day coaching Embick was quiet and more cerebral before becoming HC and has been the same since. That probably won't change, but that type can win big too while it relies more on the captains and seniors to police effort and get after lazy or sloppy play from the others, and to take the blame when they themselves fall short, to man up. The team is young and maybe the few Juniors and Seniors are not filling that role, so you have a gap where it gets quiet on the field and around the bench and the team heads back to shower and wait for the film session after sleeping on it. Maybe that is where the sparks fly and the coaches get into them so we just can't see it right after the game where you would think its time for a tongue lashing.

The discussion of fair vs. unfair is not the one we should be having over his comments. My problem is he is trying to cover bad personnel decisions in altruism. Whenever I hear comments like that, my BS meter goes into full alert. A decent press pool would roll over a coach with follow up questions after a nonsensical answer like that. Most reporters are just trying to get a comment for their story so they can get to the free post game buffet before all of the good stuff is picked over.

I completely disagree GP1, and to be honest I'm disappointed in you that you're sounding like a conspiracy theorist. Facts matter, and so does context. Facts: It's not like Bowden up and benched Pohl in the middle of a game in lieu of his "Pet" Woodson. Pohl was smacked on the last play of the first half against Miami. He de-dressed from the game...came out of the locker room (somewhat gingerly from what I remember)...rode on the bike for a couple mins, and IMMIDIATELY went back to the locker room. It may not have been a concussion, but something wasn't right. Nothing official about Pohl's status was made (despite claims of the conspiracy contingent here) until about Thursday of this week. Everything I saw with Pohl is consistant with a head-injury (non concussion) re-introduction. And I'm sorry folks, I don't care how "connected" you are. If it's not coming from the coach's mouth publicly (thus officially) it is to be disregarded as hearsay. Pohl Facts: Miami: Left the game, de-dressed. Came back on field, went back to Locker room. Ohio: Did not dress for the game. Woodson Starts, Hirschman Backup. Ball St: Pohl cleared to play (according to Bowden on Thursday). Woodson Starts, Pohl backup. For all we know, coach talked to Pohl about playing and Pohl's response was: "coach I don't know if I'm ready today, but I'll be ready for BGSU!" We don't know. THIS is the proper protocol of reintroducing a player who had head injury. Those claiming Bowden is playing a game with a "pet", you could easily argue that Bowden will follow the proper procedure of reintroducing a player regardless of the outcome of a game. That is what a responsible coach does. Now I will not object to the criticism IF AND ONLY IF Pohl doesn't start next week (or there is a very good reason why he doesn't) against Bowling Green. I would be shocked (simply based on the progression of injury and reintroduction) if Pohl didn't start next week. In fact, Bowden is in a perfect position. He didn't introduce his starting 8-3 QB too early (and possibly lost the games because he was back to early from a freakin head injury) and he can reintroduce that 8-3 QB into the conference game that matters a lot more, after being fully recovered. The biggest take away from this is NOT conspiracy BS about our coach. Its that the Zips lack depth to win games if we lose our talented players. Marshall, Ohio and Ball St. can each be chalked up to the loss of our talented players. Hell even Penn St's performance could because Justin March left the game for some time. We're building something special here in Akron, and we're going to have more growing pains folks. We're not there yet. Bowden IS here for the long haul. He WILL bring the success we all desperately crave.

Lots of unintelligent posting going on right now. I'll come back tomorrow and see if its worth typing my thoughts.

So the prevailing theory here remains that Pohl is 100% healthy and Coach Bowden wouldn't sub him in to save the game just because he's a stubborn and misguided coach? Maybe we'll get a more accurate assessment of what's really going on when the media grills him on this subject, as they surely will after this massive second-half collapse.