ZippyTuba11

Michigan State comes to mind immediately. (Saxes don't count)Just because they are few doesn't mean they aren't better. Go to a DCI show and tell me you wouldn't rather have one of those bands marching at half time. I'm not suggesting that DCI is the level that Akron can achieve, or any college marching band, but that is the dream.Most of the big schools don't care about having all brass, because they have enough size to have large woodwind sections. Smaller ones are afraid that by switching they will lose all of their players. I get it. Big brass bands are still appreciated on a whole different level than the woodwind/brass/perc bands.And when you have the most well known brass band in the country right next door, it's easy for a spectator to compare the two.

Wow, not only have you missed most of the points here, you show a sincere lack of understanding of bands. Did you even check any of the links I provided? Read any of the information I posted?Re: Brass bands. Yes they are louder. Have you never heard your band director tell the brass to play softer so not to over power the woodwinds? You have to have A LOT of woodwinds to match the production of brass. It's not rocket science here. Addition by subtraction. Sorry you can't understand it.I also understand why the University uses woodwinds. I was just posting my personal taste and suggestion. I have no delusions about seeing a brass band here, because the directors want a marching symphonic band and want to put more emphasis on the educational value of the marching band rather than the entertainment value of the marching band. They are also going to have to accept that by going down that road, less people are going to be interested in the band's performance.

Voted for #1 one. Except Norfolk, are all big local schools, and this more important than beating the houstons of the world.

You're crazy I'm asking people on this forum, ON BOTH SIDES, return to a civil discussion. NOBODY is saying the band sucks. We were all impressed by what you did out there. There are just a few aspects that we are critizing or feel needs improvement. Please, band members, don't take it personally. We know you are working hard, and doing your best. We also know something things are out of your control.Now for the brass band, yes it is going to be louder, if you take the woodwinds off the field and put their parts in the brass. It's just simple logic. It takes a lot more woodwinds to match the sound production that a brass section has. The only way to make this band loud is to either drastically increase it's size, or switch to brass. DCI bands (Drum Corps International) are not bigger than Akron's band, but completely overshadow Akron's in terms of sound quality and production.Canton Bluecoats (local comparison) Madison Scoutshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIhsJhQigsE...feature=relatedPhaton Regiment (where Mr. Karriker marched) Personally, I think OU's band is trashy. They have a big following, but to me it just looks and sounds sloppy. There is a difference in having a good sound production, and being loud.As good as you think certain college bands are, I don't think there is a one out there that would be able to make it out of last place in the World Class Division of DCI. THAT is the kind of music and production I want the band to be striving towards.Match that kind of sound, with the marching performance that the band had during pregame (game looked amazing after the band got on the field! I loved how they did the A as well as the UA and logo).I've had this discussion with several band members. From the field, the band sounds great, but from the upper stands, the sounds just gets lost. The brass sounds does carry some, but there isn't enough. I don't know how to fix that, except make the band bigger and increase the brass in the band.

This just hit my mailbox:Attention Students – Due to the high demand for student tickets to this weekend’s men’s soccer and football games, the following ticket policy has been put in place. #1 Men’s Soccer vs. #12 Indiana – Friday, September 18 at 7:30 pm The first 1,000 student will be admitted to the game. Gates will open at 4:00 pm for the first round of the University of Akron Tournament. Football vs. Indiana – Saturday, September 19 at 3:30 pm 1. Students WILL NOT be admitted with just a student I.D. Students must have a ticket issued by the Athletics Ticket Office. 2. Students must show a valid University of Akron Student ID to pick up and redeem their football ticket. (A ZipCard will be invalid if the student is currently not enrolled in class.) 3. Tickets are available while supplies last. 4. One ticket per ID 5. Students can pick up their FREE ticket at the following locations beginning Monday, September 14th.For questions call the Athletics Ticket Office at 330-972-6920. JAR TICKET OFFICE Sept 14 – 17 8:00 am – 6:00 pm REC CENTER Sept 15 4:00 – 6:00 pm Sept 16 4:00 – 6:00 pm POLSKY BUILDING Sept 15 4:00 -6:00pm Sept 16 11:00 am – 1:00 pm STUDENT UNION Sept 14 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Sept 17 11:00 am – 1:00 pm OUTSIDE RITCHIE HALL Sept 16 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

That's an interesting photo that shows a lot more than the video replay. It does look as if he's losing control of the ball just as his knee is touching the 1-yard line. But if his knee is going down at the 1-yard line, that means the ball should be within inches of crossing the plane of the goal line.Beacon Photo LinkThat's a completely different look than the angle I had. Nice shot, Beacon. I take back what I said about the refs on that play. :blink:

ziprowdy, for the record, I am a music student, and have marched in several different bands, including Akron's Marching Band, as well as other concert bands. Your post just shows a general lack of caring for what the audience wants. I have commented for years about how the marching band here can continue to sell something nobody really wants. Is the band playing to entertain itself, or the audience? I have my own personal tastes, though I know they will never be implemented. e.g. I think the band should be all brass, as it is a way to make a 100 piece band sound like a 200 piece band. The reason the East side wasn't into it, was because it was really hard to tell what was going on. But that is just what is going to happen when you have the band playing to the other side of the field. The band will sound a lot louder when the day comes that the endzones become enclosed. Right now, when they march down field, they are playing to practically wide open skies, and consequently, the sound production gets lost, no matter how loud they play.Obviously the "energy" appraisal isn't coming from just a small group. It is something I hear several people comment on, both musically and non-musically inclined. This is one of those things that just separates the cream. It's not so much a matter of playing louder. A band of that instrumentation simply can't get that much louder. It's a visual thing. Personally, I think a lot can be solved by building up more suspense in the run-on. Send the drums out on the field first, while the band stays behind in the tunnel. When the drums are set, play a raucous fanfare to get everybody's attention. Then bust of out of tunnel and take the field like you mean real business. I think the rest then takes care of itself.And seriously, lose the announcer. He only made things worse.

The disparity between sections cheering was there all day.They way the band got into the A was great. I remember watching, thinking WTF are they doing--then POW, the A formed perfectly.I still question the music selection too. Temptation sounds great, but still, makes no sense. Eat 'em up and Lets Go Zips cheers have been in a while, and are good fillers, but there needs to be something else. Even if it is just a cadence. Heck, OSU does that stupid french cadence for most of their run-on, but it is really energetic and is able to fill a lot of time for them, to make the tunes even bigger moments.Run-on needs something unique, and I cite examples in my previous post for different ways to make run-on work. You need something to get the crowd's attention, and that doesn't do it.

Forgive me for not buying the "we can't hear the drumline" bit, as bigger schools with louder crowds can still do this.Also, coming out of the tunnel just isn't that important. If sacrificing the tunnel on field is what it will take to get an energetic on field, please please, do it.Iowa Band's onfield Modify that slightly and you keep what we had from the Rubber BowlNorthwestern St Minnesota-- let the drums and tubas come out first, then bring out the rest of the band LSU--nothing special, they just have so many members that a block formation is menacing LSU again-They pose a different way to be amazing-GO BIG. Love what they do around the 1:45 mark Texas Tech--their field set up is not much different than ours--at least tunnel wise Tennessee at SEC championship game Also, how about a little more love for the East side stands?

Anybody else notice Jason Taylor's retired jersey was missing? I think there were a few others not present as well. Only one on the north endzone facility, as far as I could see.

1) If you are referring to the glide "corps" step, it is not difficult to learn. It's the easiest form to make precisely, that's why the drum corps do it.2) Ditto3) My high school was all memory. Different show every home game. It's not that hard, you just have to put in the time and effort.

Don't do the rest of the country an injustice. Everybody's favorite player is the 2nd string QB

Anyone?I haven't been to that place it a while. It's a terrible excuse for a BW3's. I like BWs in general, just not that one. They need to tear it down and put up one like Canton has.

They did

Don't drink the kool-aid.GO ZIPS!

I love how deep our RB situation is. I was sitting with some friends not familiar with the team and they thought we had put in our bench towards the end of the second quarter because they kept seeing different RBs. I told them no, we just have a lot of good running backs.I notice a few times the fake bootleg, RB up the gut play did work when Rodgers was in. Maybe because he is an actual threat, unlike Jacq. The blind homeless guy outside the stadium knows Jacq doesn't have the ball.Maybe they are trying to set up Indiana for this play? They've used it so often now, Indiana has to expect the fake, and gun for the RB. Maybe they'll let Rodgers run it more instead?Stec is allowed to have 1 bad punt per year. He has used his lifeline now. It's time for good punts.The kicking game is still horrible. What is it going to take to get a good, consistent kicking game here?I could have sworn that we played the 3-4 quite a few times during the game. Did anyone else notice this?

Rogers got to run two series I think. One in the first, and one in the second. Jacq ran most of the show, until the third string went in by the end of the game.Rodgers did have an amazing scramble, that should have been a TD. It looked to me like the ball hit the pylon (may have just been my angle though). We still scored on the next play, so I won't complain too much.JD played both QBs against Penn St too. As far as I know, JD plans to continue to do this.

In a blowout, people leave. It happens in the big schools. Only with the big schools, when 30-40 thousand leave, you still have 60-70 thousand still in the stands.Here's something for the defense to be fired up about going into Indiana. No one opposing team has ever scored in our stadium. Lets get the D to continue the tradition through next week!

Scores from the MAC:EastBG 20 #25 Missouri 27Buffalo 27 Pitt 54Can't St 7 Boston College 34OHIO 31 North Texas 30 OTTemple BYEMiami 0 Boise St 48WestCentral Mich 29 Mich St 27NIU 41 Western Illinois 7Toledo 54 Colorado 38Ball St 16 New Hampshire 23EMU 24 Northwestern 27WMU 19 Indiana 23Surprises:Toledo putting 54 on Colorado. They might be the surprise team of the MAC. They won't do nearly as bad as last year.Ball St going from first to worst. If they keep playing like this, EMU is going to pass them.EMU had a good game against Northwestern. Got beat by game ending field goal. May be second surprise team of the MACCentral over Mich St. Good win for Central, though they would not have had it if not for the defensive offsides on their first missed field goal. That lineman was probably the most lonely guy in the world following the game.Other thoughts:I'm not sure what to think about WMU. They got spanked by Michigan, and fell short of Indiana. Are those two schools that good, or is WMU having a down year? I expected better performance from them.Buffalo letting Pitt put up 54 is embarrassing.I expect the west to come down between Central, NIU, and Toledo. Central should take it.BG worries me. Played a decent game against the #25 team. Beat Troy thoroughly too (granted Troy got spanked by 50 by the #1 team in the country. Down year for them).Buffalo may still recover, but I don't think they're the front runners this year. I think BG and Akron will be in the hunt by the end. Thank god we don't play them until late in the season. Our game against Central is huge. I'm way more interested in that than the Indiana game. If we can chalk up 2 more wins in the next 2 weeks, no doubt, we're the team to beat. If not, it's going to be another typical MAC year that probably goes down to the wire, and some unlooked for team has a real shot.

It's not impossible. You just have to get more creative. My friends and I brainstormed a few ideas (for simplicity, I'm not going to get into them here) that would be a little better than that on-field used today. My point is, there are other ways. I think we'll have to agree to disagree. I think the way the two sections entered the Rubber Bowl was unique. But it wasn't even that. It just didn't seem like there was much thought into how to get the band onto the field that would be special. It looked like "okay, we have limited spacing, lets just get the band on quickly." Glad to hear it. The new symbols did look good. Temptation seems a little out of place though. Nobody outside of the band program understands why it is there. Also, I was sitting on the opposite side of the field, so at times, it was just hard to hear, especially with everyone cheering (never thought I'd see a day when the crowd drowned out the band) and I know I wasn't the only one. I heard several "what are they playing" comments or when the announcer said "you know the cheer" or "you know what do to" lots of people remarked "what cheer" and "I don't get it." From the other side, I'm sure it was quite different. When the band did face our side, it was a lot clearer. Somebody needs to tell the announcer though, there are 5,000 students in the stands that have probably never seen pregame, and then 20,000 GAs that never filled their seats before kickoff either. (I remember playing to empty stands for pregame, only to see everything full by the time the band got in the stands, back in the day).Overall, great performance though. I love the sounds.

I wanted to talk some about the team's performance.My heart really sunk after the first missed field goal and then the big play MSU had on their opening drives. Thank God they missed theirs. After that the defense was pretty lights out.The offense still continues to blow my mind. I don't know how many times I yelled STOP RUNNING THAT PLAY, but it was a lot.Why does it seem like they are afraid to use a power running game? The one time I really thought they committed to it (I think it was the third TD, where Rogers was called short of the line) they busted through MSU for a TD. Yet in similar redzone situations, they continued to go to an Ace formation and try to run Allen, et al as a lone back. It just never really seemed to work. I would love to see a power I, and have Allen run right behind Tuzze more. I think that combo could really beat up a lot of the teams in the MAC.Why isn't Rodgers the starter? He looked great, and his run threat was incredible. When Jacq went back in, the team acted like it really lost something.There were a lot of mistakes here that will be taken fully advantage of by a team like Indiana. While 41-0 seems like a big score, with the missed field goals it should have been at least 50-3. I thought the offense looked sloppy, but MSU was a lot sloppier. Tackling got a lot better for Akron as the game went on. I was glad to see the defense really stopping MSU on the FIRST tackle. Hope this continues into the Indiana game.These are just a few thoughts I had on the top of my mind. What did you think of the team's performance?

Congrats on the win. I was glad to see Cuse in action against somebody we've already played. I think the game in the Dome will be a good one.I hope you will understand when I say I will be cheering for our fellow MAC school instead of Penn St, but I wish you a great season in your own conference play.

My Thoughts: The opening was dull. That guy who talked for what seemed like forever in the goldish suit was unintelligble. Students started cheering during his speech because he was such a bad speaker. Luis P's address was perfect. Short, sweet, and to the point. I bet he was drunk already.The Mayor was charismatic, but WTF did he and all those politicians have to do with the stadium? Just a PR meeting if you ask me.The paratroopers were great. Neat way to open the stadium.To the students that started cheering F*** Morgan State: Classless. They did stop when I yelled show some class though.Long lines to get into the stadium after the band marched over. Glad me and my friends got in line early. What really sucked was the truck handing out Frisbees -right- before the game as you wait in line, then not being allowed to take the Frisbees inside. PLANNING FAIL. THE BAND:Pregame was uninteresting. Granted, I was on the opposite facing stands, but it has lost a lot in just the way it gets on to the field. I think they could have done more to preserve a lot of the pregame tradition from the Bowl. I also miss God Bless America and the National Anthem. Signers are self indulging and take forever to get through it. The logo the band formed at the end looked AMAZING. I thought this was the only truly positive. The rest was just a little lack-luster. Not saying anything went wrong, it was just a little generic.Re: Half-time music selectionReally? Couldn't do better?New instruments looked great though. The sound when the band was facing my side was great.Concessions:I started early, so I avoided the lines. Food was good and not outrageously priced. Not cheap of course, but below what I thought they might charge.The Jumbo-Tron:Whoever operated this today should be fired. They sucked. Many downs were wrong. I remember it kept saying 4th down for a long time. It wasn't just a few plays. They consistently sucked the entire game.The replays were great. I love the video board.The mics worked all day for the refs. Small victory over the RB.Great sound system too.MiscellaneousI got a good laugh out of the first students having to leave the grass berm after so many rushed it. Then shortly later they were allowed to return. Grass seating looked great though. I might sit down there next game.Weather couldn't have been more perfect.I loved how much the student sections cheered through the first half. Really set a good example for the rest of the GA sections.Wish more people would have stayed to the end of the game, but it was really lopsided.Glad we did the ZI -PS and AK -Rowdy cheers right. I noticed on TV, nobody can ever hear the few people shouting AK, so all they hear is Rowdy, which makes no sense. When one side was cheering AK, and the other Rowdy, it worked great. I'm sure that will be amazing on radio and TV.The Stadium looked beautiful. It was truly awe-inspiring to see everything full. I hope next weekend the end zone is completely SRO, and we get the lodges full too.The rock band at Zip Fest could have been better, but I was really happy to see all the people there. This event has a lot of room to grow. This can be a really big thing in the future.Overall, great experience. There is room to grow, but everything went wellMy voice is gone, I'm sun burned, and I couldn't be happier.

STZ,You sound as if you are looking for something to go wrong, so you can say "I told you so." I'm sure you're not, but that's the impression I get.ZW, great post. I will fully bite my tongue for the first few games when I see other schools represented in OUR home. I will be pleasant, and fully supportive of the team. I will cheer like mad. I know that not everything will be absolutely perfect, as the staff are human after all. However, I will not let anything negative get in the way of my enjoyment of a great Zips game and experience.I do have a suggestion. Have some sort of promotional event where free Zips shirts are given out to any fan who was confused about which school was playing in Akron. Don't be negative about it, just get a couple people to go around and try to put Blue&Gold on everybody. And if the person wearing the tOSU/whatever else gear actually puts on the Zips shirt, CHEER LIKE HELL. Make it a positive for them to wear the Blue and Gold, and I guarantee at the next game they won't forget.

I think we really need to get that ZI---PS chant going between the two stands. It was tried at the RB, but failed miserably, mostly because one side always had significantly more people. That won't be the case anymore.If the endzone is at capacity too, you could pass around AK---R----ON cheer as well.Scouting out the opposing team like we do for basketball is also essential. At the BB games, it really gets into the player's heads. The "Bubba has one point" is classic. The more JoePa & Co. can put a thumping on the Orange, the happier I'll be. I will definitely be cheering for you guys then