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Have the Zips ever had another WR built like Jerome? Dude's a full grown man.

The put that pic in perspective....the driver had to go through the parking lot, up over the hill, through the gate, through the railing, and down the hill. Where the hell do you have room to go that fast and/or not have time to stop?

Let's look at Akron's OOC schedule. They have 1 cupcake, 2 games vs teams that might be the best team in C-USA and Sun Belt, and 1 game vs a big name P5 school. If Akron basketball scheduled this well, I'd be rejoicing.

Let's say the pipe dream came true and the Zips hosted OSU, not at Cleveland Browns Stadium, but at the Info. The stadium would be full of Red and Silver and the Buckeye honks would be posting pictures on Facebook saying "EVERY GAME IS A HOME GAME!!" That would do a lot for our program.

We've already played them 3 times in the past 12 years. That's fine. I think you are confusing OSU with Garner Webb. It isn't Who would? We had Cincinnati a few years back, and no one showed up. At InfoCision we've had Syracuse, Pitt, Indiana, Marshall...soon App State & Iowa State...those are great home opponents for UA football. Local interest is directly proportional to winning, not the opponent. That's why Ohio State can play Youngstown State, and sell-out their stadium.

Very positive preview by Hustlebelt. The writer us cray cray for TB.

I saw him at the Apple Store at Summit Mall. Didn't say, 'What's up,' as he was talking w/ a sales rep, but the dude is the real deal. His shoulders must be literally 2-feet broad & has a little waist. Long arms. Dude's physically legit.

This is going to be me when I see my friends pulling into Lot 9.

I'm interested to see how the offensive touches get distributed during the game. Seems like we have the most talent we have had on offense for a long time. I hope it translates on the scoreboard!

Roll call for VMI: Who's in & what time are you getting there? We will be there at 8. Looking forward to spending some QT with my Zips friends.

I saw this article on TDS but it was one of their insider articles but they used Embick as the lead picture so I was pretty sure he was included. Glad they were able to publish the article. Sure is looking more and more like Embick was a shrewd follow on choice. One other coach they mention is Dave Giffard at VCU who was an assistant for the Zips as well. The Porter coaching tree is spreading.

Hopefully Akron's defense is as good at protecting the end zone as that barricade was.

Maybe they should have let the the guys who are making the game day scoreboard videos do the "Get to Know your Zips" videos instead.

Go Appy St. (until you play us :-).

How many Sports Management majors are on the roster?

NDSU is 600 miles from the nearest MAC team. NIU is closer to Buffalo than it is to Fargo.

Whatever you want to call it, "Built in Akron" or "The State of Akron," there is merit to building a winning culture around local talent. Look at what Lee Owens did in the late 90s (or Dennison before him, but that's before my time). Owens inherited a losing team that was still in its D1 infancy and was recruiting to the Rubber Bowl and built it into a program that in a seven-year period between 1999-2005 had five winning seasons and a MAC championship (Yes, I know Owens was canned in 03 after a 7-5 season, nonetheless, but the 04 and 05 Zips were majority his guys.) I remember going to a couple of those team photo days 2002 (albeit not a good year) and 2003. At the end, the team would split up for photos. ... The Summit County guys would pose for one; the Stark County guys would pose for another; the Cuyahoga County guys for another. The team was built around NEO talent and they were winning at a pace that if the current bowl system was around, would've led to three more bowls for the program. Of course, Lee Owens was canned before he was able to recruit to the indoor facility that he pushed so hard for and J.D. Brookhart inherited his talent and went on to win a MAC title, but then floundered when his "great" recruiting classes came aboard ... Didn't he land back-to-back No. 1 classes in the MAC by the "experts" by going more regional/national? Ianello was then 10 times worse, completely wiping out the program at the time it should've been taking the next step. But Bowden gets it. Northeast Ohio has some of the best talent in the country in its backyard. Yeah, he isn't stealing the OSU/Michigan/ND kids, but even that second and even third tier of local recruits is better than a lot of states' tier 1. Then you mix in the Florida ties, along with the facilities, and you are seeing the transformation. Win again this year, and I believe this program will take another big jump forward. The local talent (Akron-Canton) is already starting to buy in. Another 8-plus win season could cement it ... why go to a middling B10/ACC program when we could play in front of family and friends, win more games, have just a good of a shot to be drafted and help build something special in our backyard? Bowden has it right: NEO/Florida/transfers. You can win big with that combination. How big can you win with just NEO as your top area?: 2006: Ohio State had 17 of their top 44 (roughly 40 percent) players from NEO, including both top RBs (Beanie Wells and Antonio Pittman, Akron guys) and the top 6 WRs (for the people who only think Ohio produces lumbering LBers and offensive linemen). That team nearly went wire-to-wire as No. 1 before being blasted by Florida in the national title game ... hmm, Florida, we are getting kids from there, too. 2014: Ohio State had 8 of its top 44 from NEO (roughly 20 percent) on a team that steamrolled its way to national championship. 2015: As been pointed out, 8 of Akron's 22 starters (not two-deep) went 8-5 and beat a western team, out west, who a month or so earlier embarrassed Boise State. Final was 52-26, but Utah State was winning that game 45-10 at halftime. OK, maybe that was a down Boise State team, but Boise did go on to beat Northern Illinois 55-7 in a bowl game. ... Not trying to do transitive property, just saying.