kreed5120

I feel there are several reasons besides the Tennessee game why App State is getting more attention. 1) It's actually a home game so many posters will be attending. 2) Marshall has only played 1 game and it was against an FCS opponent so it's hard to identify just how good they are at this stage. 3) App State is a fresh name that people recognize. 4) Marshall has kind of had our number (6-2 vs. us since 1997) 5) Board seems less active this week as fans had a wake up call from Wisconsin that the Zips aren't as good as they thought they were. If the Zips were coming off a win or close loss to Wisconsin, you'd be seeing those people coming out saying we'll beat Marshall by 2 TDs. I haven't really seen anyone dis Marshall. It just happened to be the game that got sandwiched between the the big name P5 opponent and our home game vs. a quality opponent.

Akron might very well lose by 15+, but by 32? That seems kind of steep.

Yeah, abandoning that FCS game wouldn't be wise. Bowden is still trying to overcome that perennial loser stigma attached to the program. Having an "easy opponent" puts us in position to be 1/6 of the way to bowl eligibility.

I knew Akron had a lot of transfers, but didn't realize there were that many.

App State is going into only their 3rd year of FBS (after an extremely successful FCS tenure) and they already have an 11 win season. Akron's been FBS since 1987 and the best win total they mustered was 8 wins...

Universities are just so focused on outspending one another and passing that cost onto students, donors, and taxpayers. I'm waiting for the day UA sends me a letter saying thank you for your contributions. We reached our fundraising goal of x-number of dollars. We don't need anymore of your money. Instead it is we are $150 million towards our $200 million goal, but now we actually need $500 million so please give more.

People were saying that last week about Wisconsin being favored by 24 and we went on to lose by nearly double that. Can we as a fan base agree to not complain about a spread until we cover this season at least once first?

Hopefully the game is as entertaining as this thread has been.

I'd label myself as a moderate and 99% of all political posts I see on message boards or social media are done by someone who is leaning heavily one way or the other. I've learned to ignore them and move on. Responding is what they want you to do.

Bummer that likely we will be having our first 3 games all on the road.

MAC Conference Schedule Looks like Akron's double cross over opponents are EMU and WMU.

It looks like Akron is opening as a 24-25 point underdog depending which site you go by.

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.

The teams that could actually move the needle and drum up interest like OSU and UM would never agree to play here.

Freshman heard they were giving away shirts to the first 5,000 fans. Afraid he'd miss out.

Personally, I feel it's in Akron's best interest to not try to compete with OSU. Let's keep that pipeline of OSU transfers flowing onto the Zips roster.

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

So apparently this happened...

I'd first look into the feasibility of stealing Marshall or WKU from C-USA. If that wouldn't work, my next option would be to see if Wichita State is serious about starting a football program and see if they would be willing to join the MAC (all sports). If all else fails, I'd look at JMU as they have an eagerness to make the jump, they have a MAC athletic budget, and they already have the FBS facilities in place.

41-10

And only 1 of them is a senior, meanwhile, we have 2 NC State transfers ready for next season.

That is what I was getting at. We need to eventually get the P5 talent straight out of high school instead of relying 100% on "free agency". I understand it is a process and if I came off sounding like I'm demanding they get these guys tomorrow, I'm not. We kind of just now are getting to the point where we are getting the pick of the litter in NEO for MAC caliber talent. Overall I've been very pleased as I've seen continuous improvement from this program under Bowden. Unfortunately Bowden had to inherit a program at step 1, as you put it, instead of step 3. Otherwise there is no doubt in my mind he would have this program at least at step 4.

It looks like he was just a little before my time (I started Akron in '07). It certainly won't be an easy task, but Akron athletics has never been better so he has that going for him. Overall I've been very pleased with the work Larry Williams has done up to this point. I'm not sure how much ticket sales are up for the fall sports, but they've certainly been pushing them. I also like the concept behind the Music Fest.

Not to take away from what you are saying, but wasn't Akron Jartavis only option if he wanted to play FBS ball? Him signing with Akron and becoming the player he became is more of a testament of Bowden seeing something in him that nobody else did. It's great finding players like that, but it's impossible to hit on enough of those guys to fill an entire roster. Bowden has already admitted that he uses "Free Agency" to supplement the talent that his recruiting classes lack. Before Bowden we were getting FCS talent recruits. Now we are getting G5 talent recruits. To take that next step we need to get the 3* and occasional 4* recruit that currently decides to leave NEO to go play for Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, etc.

Containing the run is going to be key. If the Zips can't do that, this game can get ugly pretty fast. If they can make Wisconsin RBs work for their yards, they should be in a position to pull off a potential upset.