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ABJ: Two prominent Zips get one last chance for win John Lako & Alvin Davis. Weather is supposed to be pretty nice for this time of the year. I'm going to be there. Go Akron!

recruiting class is up to 5 now.... a former Atlanta United Academy teammate of Natnael McDonald....will join the zips in 2020 https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/high-school-soccer-article/daily-recruiting:-picking-for-2020-2021_aid47353 BOYS Remi Smith, Midfielder, Atlanta United Class: 2020 Commitment: Akron "The soccer program was good and I felt like to school fit me well," Smith said. "I liked the atmosphere around the team. I got the feeling that the players and the coaches were very close and had good relationships." Smith also was considering Brown and FIU.

Think I might head to this game .

How about this for impressive? "One bright spot for Akron this year has been is coverage on kickoffs, as it ranks first in the nation with an average of 13.54 yards allowed." Coach Arth is probably highlighting this in his end of the year performance evaluation. ?

FYI Bob - We haven't had a punt blocked this season. Source. An impressive statistic considering how often we punt (2nd most punts in D1 @70, trailing only Vanderbilt's 72). We'll definitely move into the top spot tomorrow night, but "can we hold on through the weekend?" is the question on everyone's mind.

And none of the band kids are 6’11”! We need at least 2 6’11” on the drum line to be competitive!

With 5 DB verbal commits, I wonder if the staff is contemplating moving Jalen Hooks to WR next season? He was an excellent WR at Warren Harding and I was a little surprised when I saw him listed as a DB once he got to UA.

Another DB

But im always the Bad Guy on here when I say the same thing

This years Duquesne OOC schedule makes some of his prior Akron OOC schedules look like a gauntlet. I'm guessing all the tourney caliber teams must have been "too afraid" to play Duquesne this year...

I count ten...TEN cupcakes to begin the season for the Dukes. Ah ah ahhhhhhhhh!

Some nice thorough analysis. I don't think I'm as sold on the defensive front 7 as you are. We're 126th in the country in total sacks and are giving up 210 rushing yards per game.

New York Times story on taxation features Akron, Ohio.

I agree with you.

Link to press conference I still like Arth and think he'll do well. I still vividly remember iCoach. Though we may not win a game this season, Arth is no iCoach and this team is playing harder and competing better than the iCoach-led teams. I like Arth's demeanor and obvious intelligence. His staff is composed of some sincerely good people who honestly care about the young men (I still think Marcus Wattley would have been a natural fit on this staff). I could see this staff easily and naturally attracting the sort of athletes/young men required to be be successful at an Ivy League institution, but we'll see whether they have what it takes to succeed at this level.

Not that the scholarship chart should be updated until it's officially announced, but FWIW, I was watching the women's team on ESPN+ tonight & Jackie Windon was commenting on Jordyn Dawson (Mikal Dawson's sister who plays on the women's team) and said that "her brother is going to be playing for the men's team next year." So I was glad to hear that.

Once again....I know my bretheren would rather see the MAC expand, this is another example of why it should drop soccer - IF (and it's a big IF) all 4 member schools have a home to go to. The Big 10 (14) only has 9 schools in men's soccer......what a great fit for Akron, Western, BG and/or Northern Illinois. Travel time would be equivalent for the most part to MAC, we'd play a bigger in-conference schedule against teams like Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, OSU, Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin, Northwestern....all schools we have traditional rivalries with throughout the past 10 seasons either in OOC schedules or tournament play. And that would allow us to be a little more choosy in our OOC schedule, with more home matches and a little less strenuous, because lleague play will be. More opportunities to advance to the NCAAs, better recruiting material to lure prospects, TV on the Big 10 Network....a natural, I'm telling you.....

No one here can make an impact with what is going on between the lines, that's purely up to the coaches and players. While that is obviously a work in progress I am truly concerned about the off the field presence of the program. You'd think with the AD being a "football guy" that he would have some sort of presence, yet you would be hard pressed to find him engaging fans or anywhere out and about on game days. Larry Williams is not on social media at all. He's invisible. https://gozips.com/sports/2017/6/28/social-media.aspx In 4 years on the job, what has Larry Williams done to make Akron Athletics better? Check out this Plain Dealer article where Williams says football attendance is the #1 issue facing the department https://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/2015/08/akron_ad_larry_williams_says_g.html 2013: 17,850 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2013Release.pdf 2014: 9,170 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2014.pdf 2015: 18,098 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2015.pdf LW Year #1 > 2016: 10,337 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2016.pdf LW Year #2 > 2017: 19,569 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2017.pdf Kent State game highlights - look at this empty stadium LW Year #3 > 2018: 18,515 http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2018.pdf 2018 AKRON FOOTBALL ATTENDANCE BREAKOUT Sat., Sept. 8 MORGAN STATE - 18,413 Sat., Oct. 6 *MIAMI (Ohio) - 22,437 Sat., Oct. 27 *CENTRAL MICHIGAN - 17,582 Thurs., Nov. 1 *NORTHERN ILLINOIS - 16,401 Sat., Nov. 17 *BOWLING GREEN - 17,742 I would love to see the real numbers of tickets sold, and a real count of actual people in the stadium as none of these crowds are reality. The University of Akron is a public institution yet no where can you find an Annual Report from the Athletics Director for the last two years (2017-18 or 2018-19) that outlines performance. Actual ticket sales numbers, audited, and corresponding dollars per sport. Lots of schools do it, such as Kent State https://kentstatesports.com/documents/2018/10/31/Annual_Report_Final_w__Sig_2017_18.pdf The last Zips Annual Report came out August 21, 2017... https://www.google.com/search?q=akron+athletics+annual+report&oq=akron+athletics+annual+report&aqs=chrome..69i57.5013j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Since this came out Larry Williams has not been sharing much about how he has been operating, including the real numbers behind that big football attendance jump from 2017 to 2018. What is Larry Williams' hiding by not putting out the information. What does it say about an Athletics Department that cannot even produce an annual report card on how they spend their money that donors are giving them? LW Year #4 > 2019: 18,972 vs UAB With all due respect, there were not 16,954 people in Infocision Stadium on Saturday. What a total lie. Look at the numbers above and tell me that there Check out this ABJ article from 2015 where Williams lays out his priorities for Akron Athletics: https://www.ohio.com/article/20150825/NEWS/308258977 “My No. 1 challenge will be to find means by which we can connect with people who are waiting for something special to happen,” he said. • How has Akron Athletics connected more with the Fans in Williams' 4 years on the job? “We’re going to speak to them in their language with their tools. I don’t think there’s an apathy. I think everyone wants to be proud of where they are and where they’re going to school and where they’re spending their money and their time.” • How has Akron Athletics spoken to the fans in "their language"? Football takes precedence in that regard as debt payments on InfoCision Stadium represent a significant portion of UA’s financial woes. “I think it’s the first and absolute key,” Williams said of improving the team’s attendance. “It would go a long way and I want to make sure however we do it, we make it affordable and accessible for anyone who comes here.” • How has Akron Athletics made going to football games more attractive to students? alumni? fans? Williams, who comes to UA from Equity Management, where he led the country’s largest corporate licensing program, said something Zips athletics supporters shouldn’t count on is the baseball team’s return. He supports the elimination given the financial considerations. “That is the toughest thing to do, to tell a young man or young woman that you can’t support that program anymore,” he said. “Those are hard decisions.” • Yet while the University of Akron is bleeding financially, Larry Williams adds two sports: Baseball and Women's Lacrosse, which are non-scholarship yet competing against scholarship teams. This makes sense how? 4 years, and Williams has run off the basketball coach who was an Alum and had us winning conference championships and he ran off Bowden who took us to bowl games in 2 of the last 4 years. Again, it's a simple question... What has Larry Williams done to make Akron Athletics better?

Engaging Donors must not be going well if the Athletics Department cannot (a) raise big bucks or (b) sell season tickets The only significant fundraising over the past year is to reinstate a baseball program that has no scholarships and will be a BIG LOSER. Gee, great idea. One month the Interim President is saying we may need to cu the budget by millions of dollars and then in the next breath we are adding two sports that are not offering scholarships, but will play against scholarship teams? This is DUMB.

I do go to these games and I have yet to see Larry Williams engaging regular fans. Maybe he is hanging with the big donors. There are not many of us regular fans at the games so it's not too tough. As for Van Horne he is not interested in regular fans. I tried to chat him up at the MAC Tournament a few year ago and he could not make eye contact and was constantly looking around for other people. Do not trust him. Track and Field and Swimming. Big revenue drivers are they? Yeah, thanks for that. Yeah, I talked to Keith. In other words, it's BS numbers. Thanks. No, I probably would not have paid another $80K to a soccer coach that was not going to get the job at Louisville in as much as Ken Lolla endorsed John Michael Hayden, a Louisville native who was Lolla's top assistant coach with the Cardinals for four seasons before getting the job last year. Just because Jared interviewed at Louisville did not mean he was going to get an offer, which he was not. Williams got played for an $80K raise. And, more importantly, the Athletics Department is drowning in red ink, and now not only are we paying off a former football staff, paying the new one more to be o-fer the season, and now the soccer coach is making $300K a year with a needless raise. Again, thanks for playing. International Media Coverage? Please. Akron Track and Field gets more international media coverage for the pole vaulters. Fact. I'll cut back on the coffee when you cutback on the Kool Aid.

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