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This one comes off as really cheap: Wednesday, March 1 vs. Buffalo - 7 p.m. • Senior Night • Fan Appreciation • AK-Rowdy Appreciation Night • $1dogs (first 200 people receive vouchers to redeem at halftime) Advertising "$1 Hotdog Night," and them giving them only to the first 200 people, is bizarre. You can get a 8-pack of Sugardale's on sale at Acme for 89 cents, so it's not like UA would go broke giving them away all night? I don't get it. "I'll take 4 hot dogs." "Ok, that'll be $16.00" "But it's "Dollar Dog Night?" "Not for you, Mr. Tardy. You shouldn't have had that last beer at The Score. Now pay up." Seeing a line of 200 people looking for their $1 dog at halftime should be fun.

How didn't they win state is easy to answer. D1 recruits doesn't automatically equal a state title ... see Cleveland Glenville. The school has produced in the neighborhood of 50-plus D1 athletes (a ton to top-tier P5 colleges) and 15 or so NFL players in the past 15 years. Yet, never has won a state title. It has been, by far, the top high school for producing next level-talent in Ohio over that period. ... More overall D1 players, more BCS and more NFL players. To a smaller degree Buchtel has been similar (though Buchtel does have a couple state titles in the 80s/90s). Still, it's a school that recently has produced a ton of next-level talent that, for whatever reason, hasn't translated to a state title (though Buchtel did lose a 13-12 heartbreaker in the 2010 D3 state title game). Anyway, what I'm saying is that East has essentially become the new Buchtel. Marques Hayes took over a dead-end program and in four years has built it into a playoff winning team (East did destroy an undefeated an No. 1 ranked Marlington team in the first round of the regional playoffs). Kids from the city are taking notice and I'm guessing you'll continue to see more of them gravitate toward East if they continue to win ... like they did to Buchtel (more recently) and Garfield (going a little further back). What Bowden seems to be doing is trying to build a pipeline into that school, and it helps it is coached by a former UA player. Maybe part of that territory is taking a kid or two out of good-faith (and I'm just speculating on that, but it is not that uncommon in recruiting circles) in order to solidify that relationship when it comes to getting some of the higher-recruited kids who could be coming up through the system. Plus, I think a lot of people don't realize how good Summit County football is becoming. The county has 52 athletes on FBS football rosters this year. That is as many as Stark (26), Trumbull (14) and Mahoning (13) combined (I use those as examples because those areas are historically perceived to be "hot beds"). Plus, it's not like Akron can't go after recruits in those other areas, either, or Cuyahoga (which leads the state with 101), since all are essentially in their backyard. And at the high school W/L level, going back to 2010, Summit County teams have the highest winning percentage in the state playoffs of any of the major counties in Ohio. It breaks down: Summit (Akron): 83-50, .641 Montgomery (Dayton): 70-45, .605 Lucas (Toledo): 37-26, .587 Cuyahoga (Cleveland): 106-87, .549 Franklin (Columbus): 109-93, .540 Mahoning (Youngstown): 47-42, .528 Hamilton (Cincinnati): 103-102, .502 Stark (Canton): 40-43, .482 Trumbull (Youngstown/Warren): 28-37, .431 The numbers back up that Summit County has some good football. Akron already has major inroads to St. Vincent-St. Mary. Adding East to that looks like it will strengthen UA's pipeline into the city's public talent ... a base that could grow if East can establish itself as the city's football school and be a UA feeder. Branch out from there and you have quite a bit to work with in a 50-mile radius. With all that said, this program can't afford more years like this past one. Despite one of the most disappointing years in the program's history (relative to expectations), it looks like the local guys are still on board. But if the Zips have another disappointing year in 2017, all the local good-will, IMO, is on very thin ice. You start losing those inroads and have no real backup area to turn to (outside of Tier 6-7 Florida recruits), you are back to being, well, Akron.

My favorite George quote from the article- "UA’s opening loss to Youngstown State should serve as a cautionary tale for a team that has a tendency to play to the level of its competition." I wonder if Radford and Adrian agree. Dear George- just give me the facts on what happened in the game, etc., and spare me the "insights" and opinions.

Whoops? I guess as punishment I'll attend a Zips women's game and eat some hot dogs.

Ditzen Productions.

He does not Fear the Roo

Preseason rankings are dumb for a multitude of reasons. Teams were getting credit for wins over highly ranked teams like ND and Ole Miss for a few weeks who turned out to be duds.

Interesting story in the PD about Luke Fickell wanting to become a head coach again. This statement in the story is why I included it on a Zips board. A grad assistant at Ohio State in 1999 after playing defensive line for the Buckeyes from 1992 to 1996, Fickell's first full-time job was at Akron in 2000 and 2001 as defensive line coach. He remembers assistants who worked there without moving their families. He wondered then how the players could believe in coaches that acted like they didn't want to be there.

http://mac-sports.com/news/2016/11/29/FB_1129165540.aspx

I just love how ambiguous some of the things are. What exact perks does "UA Alumni Night" entail? What are they giving away for "Student Appreciation Night"? Also, what is "Girls and Women in Sports Day"? There are others as well. Edit: "National Bobblehead Day" - I assume this means they are giving out bobbleheads. It would be nice if they would just say of who.

You realize that promo is from the womens schedule. 200 vouchers should cover about everyone in attendance.

I understand some enjoy trying to keep up with the Joneses (even when they're pulling a quarter billion dollars a year from their conference networks and other TV deals, not counting bowl money). While at the same time complaining about local sports fans and students not taking the athletics seriously. Especially when the students are paying a little over a thousand bucks in student fees to maintain this FBS-but-not-FBS status. Never getting more than one seed in the 68 team March Madness. It's a paradox. Not just for Akron or just the MAC, but for programs in the CUSA, SBC, AAC, MWC, and the ashes of the WAC. Talk of another level of play including those conferences was discussed as an answer. Not FCS or D2, but not eating the scraps of the Ohio States and their $100,000,000.00 budgets. Just thinking out loud. Not that it'll ever happen. And the complaints will go on that nobody takes us seriously. Fans, students, media. The football power 5, the basketball selection committee. Crap I don't have to listen to at Canal Park or MiLB forums. I continue to support my alma mater, hoping someday the MAC can get an at-large big in the basketball tourney, and/or an 8 team football playoff including the top ranked G5 program. But all the whining and complaining about both ends at once gets tiring.

Yeah, I'm all for getting the discussion flowing. IDK the case about Buchtel, but McKinley has a significantly larger enrollment and kind of was spending a good amount of resources on athletics developing players before it become a more mainstream thing to do. Also, it was pretty commonplace in the 90s for Stark County families to relocate to the McKinley school district so their kid could be seen by recruiters. If all these East players come and contribute, I'll be thrilled. I'm just hesitant if we are trying to dig too deep into the Akron well for players that we are missing out on other players that are an hour or 2 away and will find their way onto a Kent, Toledo, or OU rosters.

Congrats to Matt! He was a good friend to ZipsNation back in the Waddell era...which was really the hey day for UA Marketing. Nothing has remotely approached that level of enthusiasm and creativity since. Great hire! Welcome home Matt!