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I'm done. I'm so sick of this crap about our current head coach and our elite program and yada yada yada how we could have hired anyone. If that were true where the hell were all of these awesome coaches. I don't recall anyone beating down the door of our well meaning but clueless AD. I want to win another College Cup, too, but it is not as easy as you folks make it sound. Ask Ken Lolla. OMG, when Ken left, you'd have thought it was the end of Zips Mens Soccer. Caleb Porter began in 2006, correct? What did Akron accomplish in 2006, 2007, and 2008? Caleb didn't go to the College Cup until 2009. Then again in 2010 when we won it all. What did Caleb's teams do in 2011 and 2012? I think Caleb Porter is the greatest coach in Akron Zips history, but even he struggled. Who analyzed the film in preparation for games when Caleb was HC...Jared Embick. Can we stop with the f'ing Coastal Carolina crap, please. Ok, Coach Docking was a former Zip...great. Coastal has yet to appear in the College Cup, let alone win one. When he wins one, then maybe I'll listen. In the meantime, I'm sick of reading all this bitching. The Zips are in good, capable hands. It would be so much more productive if fans would encourage our players and coaches rather than tearing them down.

If Givens and Scott are backups in the secondary, this defense will be loaded. They were our 2 best corners last year.

Just got suspended from Toledo. Word. On the Zips roster. Division II Paving the way at THE University of Findlay. On the Zips roster.

Expanding on Zip_ME87's perspective post above, from 1955 through 1992, Zips head soccer coaches Stu Parry, Bill Killen, Robert Dowdy and Steve Parker built a consistent winning program that won nearly 70% of its games over those 38 seasons with an average record of about 9.5-4-1. After an inaugural 2-4-1 record in 1955, the Zips have had only one other losing season. That was Parker's final season in 1992 with a disappointing 9-10-0 record. Looking more closely below at the records of the most recent coaches (Ken Lolla, Caleb Porter and Jared Embick) reminds us that it hasn't always been a smooth ride. As much of a winner as Lolla might be remembered he had some mediocre seasons along the way including records of 7-7-3 and 9-9-1. I wonder what Zips soccer fans were saying about Lolla at the time? And even though Porter was the most consistent winning coach it took a couple of seasons for him to really get the Zips going and match or exceed Lolla's final season 18-1-4 record. 14-3-1 (Ken Lolla, 1993-2005) 11-6-1 11-5-2 9-9-1 14-5-2 17-3-1 11-4-2 7-7-3 10-7-1 10-8-2 15-5-2 13-5-3 18-1-4 13-5-1 (Caleb Porter, 2006-12) 15-4-2 17-2-4 23-1-1 22-1-2 15-4-4 18-1-3 17-4-1 (Jared Embick, 2013-2015) 13-6-2 1-1-0

http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=210305281 The stage is set to dash the hopes of 82,000+ in person, a few million more via tv and radio. Go Zips!!

And our team essentially has been gutted by underclassmen going pro early. It is very hard to maintain stability when you are producing pros. 1 loss and people start complaining……….unreal!!

The Zips played at Canal Park in 2014 IIRC, but with the usual complete lack of anything resembling marketing, they got the same couple hundred. I don't see baseball coming back. With Title IX and all that, there's no way. Maybe if the northern schools come up with a new model for baseball like I brought up before. Maybe a fall-spring season. Or a shorter season with more games per week, starting in April. Maybe a regional tournament in a northern indoor stadium. But trying to keep up with the warm weather schools, travelling the entire month of March, recruiting against the warm weather schools, and hoping praying to make it to the superregionals before being blown away by the warm weather powerhouses. That just doesn't make sense.

I always try to go to the Cattleman's Steakhouse in Stockyard City when in Oklahoma City.

We can wish for more while still appreciating what we have. Everyone understands that UA is not in the same class as the likes of Duke, Kansas and the other major programs that have won 20 or more games for 10 or more straight seasons against tough competition. But that level of consistency is not easy for any program to achieve even with easy schedules. Season after season more than half of the D-I teams in the country play weaker overall schedules than UA, yet not a single one of them has been able to match the Zips' 10-year string of 20+ win seasons. That's a worthy achievement for Zips fans to take pride in at the same time they're wishing for even greater future achievements.

This was one game early in the season. Old Dominion plays a different brand of soccer than Akron. ODU never tried to work the ball up the field. Their goalie had a strong leg and would punt the ball 2/3rds to 3/4ths up the field. ODU would group big strong guys where the ball was coming down and those guys would try to direct the ball to their 5'7 super speedy guy. The guy that scored 3 was as fast and elusive as anyone that I have seen in college soccer. ODU was super aggressive on defense with a fair amount of pushing and grabbing. Akron really struggled to get the ball past the ODU 40 yard line. The players were frustrated but they did not quit. Adam was still making good passes late in the game. Victor was still battling for the ball at midfield. Richie and Sean were still trying to make runs. Coach Embick moved Andrew to an outside back midway thru the first half to try to change the momentum. As ME87 said, the best thing to do is learn from the clunker and move on. Soccer can be a cruel game and the zips had some bad bounces early in the 2nd half and it got out of hand. The next time, they play a team that advances the ball completely in the air, the zips will have learned from the Old Dominion game. I would much rather have this type of game in the 2nd match of the year rather than it occurring in the NCAA tourney. I expect this team to come out with fire in their belly in their next game against Georgetown. This team has too much talent and too many players with great character. This team is still going to have a very good year.

Getting Buffalo on the road in the first conference game of the season is another piece of great news. The Zips have struggled recently in Canada. But with all of UB's player losses and a new head coach there's a good chance they will be most vulnerable early in the season. Remembering last season's loss at the Q when it was the Zips who were hurting, the Zips should smell blood in the water and attack without mercy.