Leaderboard

I have yet to meet the new AD. One seemingly small, yet impressive thing he's implemented is displacing some lower-reserved season ticket holders in the JAR and creating a lower-reserved student section. That idea was suggested here years ago and was dismissed as impossible. Likewise, selling beer at the JAR was suggested here years ago, and dismissed as absolute lunacy. Now we have a basketball student section as engaged and full as I've seen it in decades. And during a pandemic, no less? And I can have a $6 beer at my seat and watch the game, and shockingly...nobody has died because of it. There was a General Electric commercial a few years ago which contained the phrase "Ideas are frightening because the threaten what is known. They're the natural born enemy of the way things are." There are way too many people within UA that had clung to "the way things are" for decades. And believed issues like football game day attendance is just "the way things are." Why? It is a lot easier to say "I wouldn't have built that stadium" than it is to fill it. You're off the hook scot-free...it was the fault of the guys preceding you. It seems like UA may have finally lucked into an ambitious, engaging AD who can pull it out of it's decades-long death grip on the past. He made a great hire with Joe Moorhead. He's implementing changes that are seemingly simple, but on UA's conservative scale, are groundbreaking. I look forward to seeing InfoCision butts-in-seats increase appreciably over the next several years. Based upon the student involvement at the JAR this winter, I expect an immediate uptick in student attendance at football games this fall. Great things are going on at UA. Thanks to Guthrie for pulling us Zips fans off the ventilator. After a 3-24 three year stretch, I was ready to flat-line. Now I'm ready to party! 😁

Perfect! He doesn't say there is a "building process". Building what? Ever notice over the past 25 years nobody ever defined what the building process was supposed to entail? Saying there is a building process is a fancy way of saying, "I have no idea what in the heck I'm doing and I'm hoping something good happens before the public figures that out." John Madden had only three rules: be on time, pay attention and play like Hell when I tell you to. Why only three? The more rules you put out, the more a person is able to break the rules so you spend all of your time trying to get the person to follow your rules instead of playing football. I like JMoorhead only has four rules. It's very simple and is how you establish a solid base in a program. There is also discussion about making the program something people in the community can look to as a source of pride through winning. Presenting a good product and winning is something the university can control. There is some discussion of attendance. Attendance is something the university can have influence over, but cannot control because it's hard to control people in a free society. It's why winning on the field isn't enough. The university has to put a full-ass effort into, on game day, making the University a cultural center point for the players, students, alumni, fans and general community. The presentation of the University as more than a football game on game day is something the University can control and needs to control. Finding ways to benefit these five groups on game day needs to be the foundation of success for the University and athletics has to be a part of it but not the only department owning this responsibility. Lastly, it's encouraging to see the University is putting various people in a forward facing position to the citizens of NE Ohio in a way that highlights the positive things going on at UofA.

I also checked their website and picked up 2 tickets in the chair back section lower court 3rd row. They were expensive $50 but I think Akron is going to win tonight so well worth the money although I have gone to this game close to 10 times and came home disappointed nine times. I would love to see Trimble have a game like Tuesday where he drove to the basket and shot short jump shots. It really adds another dimension to this team.

I was there that day and it was glorious

Great read, thank you for posting!! One thing that excites me is I feel confident Joe is here for the long haul and not leave after a first winning season. Family being close seems really important to him so I could see him being really content with staying in Akron and building success here and not really giving into the temptation of a big school coming after him, especially if it is further away from home. That is very good news for us Zips fans!

Three From The Burg

This is a classic. That era of AK Rowdies deserves to be in the Akron Athletics Hall of Fame. Here's another classic from that era. I believe this was from the Akron Football win over KSUcks in 2007(?) when they missed the FG in OT. It's so easy to hate that school.

Let's Go Zips!

Wow, a thread with one post for Akron/Kent on the day of the game. They are in full fledged pessimism mode over on generic bbs land (csnbbs). That being said, rivalry game and two teams that have some good victories and puzzling defeats. This one is a crapshoot. Don't have access to CBSSN, so it's family movie night with the little ones in this house. Will be checking the score periodically. Gut says: Akron 65 Kent 60

To Capt'n and all the others who have commented on our new AD his most impressive action may not be in coaches or game experience, but in the administrative staff he has recruited. He got rid of all of Williams staff, except for one who was reassigned, and brought in athletic administrators who were not afraid to challenge the status quo. They seek any change that is for the better. Leadership is the most important factor in any organization and ours has taken a mega-leap forward.

You know as much as a cheap shot as that was it was still nice to see Keith, Jeff Boals, Linhart (our very first MAC tournament MVP), the Serb, the McKnight brothers... brings back good memories regardless. Zips definitely got their revenge that year.

First of all, I agree. Second, the lack of sell outs cannot be spun as a failure. If 18K go to a football game, have a good time, watch some good football on a day and time of the week that is convenient, that would be success as long as the Zips win over half of their games at home. Those 18K people go home and tell others what a great time they have. I don't think regular sell outs are realistic because we are seeing even P5 schools struggling to fill their stadiums (ie: OSU) for certain games. The people who go to games and have a great time get programs through a down season or two because they see the value in going to a game. I am exactly this person as it relates to Wake Forest. I've sat through some awful football at times but continued to go back because everything else around the bad football worked for me. There is nothing Wake Forest does that Akron cannot do. In fact, The Big Dialer is better than Wake's stadium in almost every way. The team has to start winning to a point that a five win minimum season is not considered reason to tear everything down and rebuild. These seasons have to be considered bumps in the road.

On a related note, how crazy is it that the 2005 MAC Championship was called by Mike Tirico (Now doing Super Bowl and Olympics with NBC) and Erin Andrews was the sideline reporter?

Lest we forget what the Flushes are all about. When they show you who they are, believe them.

To create the section is groundbreaking for UA. But it's actually been full too? The old AK-Rowdies section was completely empty under the Williams regime. I could very well be wrong, but I expect to see a dramatically increased student engagement at InfoCision this fall. At least for Game #1. 😁

I think covid in large part has forced athletics hand in needing to adapt. They added beer to the JAR to entice fans that went a year without going to Zips games to come back. They likely had empty seats on the lower bowl from many deciding to not renew tickets after covid so it's better to give them to students to make the lower bowl look full than to leave it look like an eye sore on TV. In general though the changes were much needed. Students should have always had that section. They pay the bulk of the expenses through student fees. Forfeiting some short-term season ticket sale dollars to build the college experience is well worth it. The better time those kids have at games, the more likely they will grow up to be season ticket holders and alumni donors themselves. I don't know about you guys, but when I went to the JAR pre-covid I didn't really see many people between the ages of 25-35 at the games. That's concerning for the long-term health of Akron athletics. Hopefully this helps improve that.

Think the wife and I are going to make the trip out to hippie city tonight to cheer on the Zips. KSUcks!

Slow news day today. Just stopping in to say hey! Go Zips!!!

It's 8:33am and... CAN'T STATE STILL SUCKS! The above is from their recent Famous Idaho Potato Bowl appearance. Truly living up to the marketing tagline "Can't Read, Can't Write, Can't State."