MDZip

Amen. TP never took UA athletics seriously and told ABJ readers that neither should they. This happened for years on end. UA is still fighting this negative perception in the community. Winning will help break it. One day, we'll put a winner on the field and folks will pay attention somehow. I don't know what that "somehow" is going to be, but there will be something. The problem with the Akron media now is...there really isn't one. Who reads the ABJ? Is there even an Akron TV station anymore? Akron sports radio station that has more than five listeners? Pluto did what he did during the final great days of the print media and it really stuck. We need a media that is going to tell the truth about Akron sports. When we do well, they should say so and demand even better. When we do poorly, they should say so and demand better. When UAkron sports get treated as a child, people look at it as a child instead of the adult world it is supposed to be. It's just frustrating. I think those things are happening. The Beacon Journal may not be what it once was but I cannot remember any recent article in it that was negative or even indifferent. A national championship, the NCAA basketball tournament in 2 of the last 3 years, 5 MAC team titles last year, those things do go a ways toward changing perceptions and how they are reported.

No surprise we're back on the Bottom 10 list to start the season at #4. Good news is our first week opponent is only one spot above us.

Disagree with this a bit, CK. I am actually glad we have fans like Zach, who are younger, very passionate and have a high level of expectations. Being younger, however, there is also sometimes a lack of perspective on things. His posts were on football and he has a right to voice an opinion. There is a line bewteen voicing that opinion and doing it in a vengeful manner but that might be another topic. I agree that baiting him doesn't help but a reasonable discourse for a short time to try to provide that other perspective is not a bad thing. Hilltopper already figured out his solution and maybe Dave's suggestion to start another thread might also reasonable. So all of you people who are doing it wrong, stop it. In any case, the thread was about Clayton Moore so to keep it on topic - over or under double digits in completion Saturday?

Just doing just the math, the line would expect a 41-7 game (48 total points, 34 point loss, clever how the line is 33.5). I can't see the Zips hanging that close with an angry OSU team. OSU 56 - Zips 10.

You really think his job does not depend on winning? In the first year most coaches will get a pass even in an awful year, but beyond that there better be improvement with wins. Yes, every year counts but some years are not going to be as good as others. Sometimes those can be sacrificial years. I saw an interview with Ianello where he said he could have played Marquelo Suel at the middle of last year but elected not to do so. Was that sacrificing last year for this? Could Suel have helped last year? Maybe, but at 0-6 wouldn't you rather have him for an extra year instead? What proof do you have that last year set us back another five? Five years from now we'll know for sure, but I think we will find out a lot about this team and this coach this year. We won't have to wait five years if this ends up being a repeat of last year.

Note from the Soccer America blog: -- Freshman Juan Monge Solano scored on a free kick from 35 yards after only eight minutes and VCU cruised to a 4-1 win over Navy. Former Akron player Yoram Mwila added two late goals to break the game open. Even the Zips seconds were pretty good. I think we will be OK this year. Not so much for Michigan though. Without Caleb Porter, this could be us since they just lost to BGSU and Kentucky: Soccer America Freshman of the Year Soony Saad turned pro, signing with Sporting Kansas City, his brother, Hamoody, left the team, and goalie Chris Blais transferred to USF. On top of that the Wolverines also lost senior Justin Meram, who is now starting for the Columbus Crew. And top recruit Caleb Stanko accepted an offer from German club Freiburg, where he is playing with its Jugend A team.

I voted for all five - because I could.

Some of the best quotes from the article: O’Dea grad and Crossfire Premier alum Yedlin is getting close to kicking off his first college season with the powerhouse Zips of Akron. Have you had a chance to talk with Steve Zakuani or any of the other Akron guys in the MLS about their experience at Akron? When I wasn’t on the Sounders yet, I added Steve (Zakuani) on Facebook to see if I could talk to him. I chatted with him. This was before I committed to Akron and I asked him how it was and he said it was amazing and (Caleb) Porter’s one of the best coaches he’s ever had. That was definitely a big deciding factor, if this great player is givng compliments to the program then it must be a really good program. I’ve also talked to Steve in the locker room and he basically told me that if I needed anything, that he’s got me; it’s kind of like one-love I guess with the Akron family. I haven’t really talked to any of the other guys from Akron in MLS but I probably will in the future sometime. Was Akron always the college of your choice or were there any other colleges in contention? I was really into Cal-Poly. I got an early offer from them and the campus was amazing and the team was pretty good. I talked to my uncle and he asked me how much location matters and I said to him it’s pretty big but if there’s a school like Akron, obviously that changes everything. Right after the national campionship they messaged me and I was like wow! The whole college thing just sort of changed then. I think my last three schools were Virginia, Louisville and Akron. Akron definitely had the better soccer and that’s what I’m looking to do in the future. Nice huh? Really did catch lightning in a bottle with Porter. Picking up kids like Yedlin and plugging them right in is pretty amazing.

Beautiful start to the title defense and a nice payback for last year. And an NCAA record to boot.

Completely agree. They also missed Balogun's goal because of it. I've lost the audio stream at this point but the video is still working well. Good move by the MAC.

Zach, Lets look at this from a very logical perspective. RI's job depends on him winning football games. That's really what it boils down to. His current and future jobs depend pretty much on that alone. He's doing what he thinks is right to do that. The man is not going to risk that for some "inside agenda". One area you may be correct though, winning at this instant may be secondary to making sure his long term plan works. If that means he has to get rid of what he might consider undisciplined or players who won't put in the effort he requires even if they are a little more talented, then he is right to do so. He is staking his whole future on it. If he's wrong, we're disappointed as fans but he is out on the street and will likely never get another head coaching job. Sometimes people who are too close to the program may not have that perspective or may be the ones "run off" and then they have an agenda. I remember one of the first jobs I had after Akron, I felt the management were all idiots and they didn't care about the employees, blah blah blah until I became one of those people and realized why some of those decisions were made (and had to be made). Rarely is an organization guided by a megalomaniac without some sort of checks and balances on it. Everyone was disappointed last season (even though in the end it is just a game) but we will have RI for at least two more seasons and all I want is to see improvement each year to show that his plan is working. We have no idea either way right now if it will, but that is the way businesses work and trust me college football is a business. You will have a certain amount of time (you can even tolerate a loss for a bit) as long as the end product becomes profitable (or wins). I can understand how people in the middle of something they do not like or are upset about can feel about it. But you really need some time on the other side to get the total perspective. So I believe your accounts about how people associated in some way with the program feel, I'll just tell you that is not generally the entire story.

I signed on earlier today and the list of members was displayed as usual and it always highlights one member name in red. I think that used to be your member name but somehow it seems random now. Anyway, the name that was highlighted when I logged on was an mbardo54, who is a new member. Mike, if this is you, welcome, we will miss your toughness and contributions to the the team. One of my bigger smiles at a Zips game was your dunk in Portland. We also met your mom in line there, she was pretty proud. If this new member is just a big Bardo fan, that's pretty cool too.

It's available now. Just sayin'

I actually can't find a link anywhere which I find surprising so I am posting the flyer that I got. One of the things that was fun last year was having the opportunity to talk with Keith with a small group of 5 or 6 of us. Price stayed at $150 for this year. As a side note, I wore my Zips basketball shirt from it a few weeks ago and when I was at a place called Fort Union on the Montana/North Dakota border, the reenactor at the site asked if I was from Akron. Turns out he was an OU grad from the 70's and kept up with the MAC. Even knew the Zips had won the NCAA title in soccer last year. I like wearing my Zips gear in unusual places because it often gets conversations started.

We got shaken pretty hard by the earthquake in Maryland, but its pretty amazing how far it was felt. Any of you feel it in Akron? I was reading the BJ story on it and they had this line: Can't State University evacuated its main library as a precaution. Bet that didn't take long - Bwahaahahahah.

This is probably a good thing for the team, meaning that Moore showed enough to beat someone who started for 19 games (regardless of what some of you may think of him, he did beat out others for the job). Just don't want to see Nicely lose heart. We still need him.

Maybe their blueprint allows us to combine forces with Temple for the day. They're off that day since they open two days before.

I got an e-mail that the mens basketball golf outing will be Sepember 19th this year. I really enjoyed it last year, but sadly won't be able to make the trip this year (I suspect our foursome will be the better for it ). I did have to laugh though when I noticed the return email address for the event ended in @osu.edu. I didn't post this for OSU bashing because I don't care about that, but I did find it funny that a fund raiser for a significant UA team would have return email address other than @ua.edu. Anyway, the outing is a lot of fun and I'd encourage people to play if they can.

And the US men's team came in no better than 5th. But in the spirit of Akron's trip GoZips.com just posted their top ten Zips dunks for the Canada trip. #2 was my personal favorite.

In another slightly interesting tournament twist, NCAA Mens Basketball selection committee chair Jeff Hathway is out after resigning as the AD at UConn. His replacement: Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski was named the chair of the 2013 NCAA tournament and said late Friday there are a number of options available to the committee. One of them could be to bump up Bobinski's chair to 2012. Each of the 10 members of the committee have five-year terms.

Who would have thought a year ago that Michigan would become our soccer bitch? No complaints. That would have been the last school in Michigan in it that I would have guessed.

Hustlebelt posted an article "New MAC Basketball Format: Would Akron Still have won?" where they simulate the game results. After the first two rounds, the results looked pretty much the same except that Akron played WMU before Miami (and would still meet Can't in the final). Because of that switch, they had Akron losing to WMU even though they played those exact same teams. Silly article.

No. It's straight-seeded 1-12 based on conference record. At least they aren't doing it where a weaker team gets the automatic #2. This will also help prevent the "bunching" of the East teams we've seen before where it is often more advantageous to be the #3 than the #2.

The paranoia seems to running a little deep. Anyone stop to consider this might be the year this rule change helps the Zips? Pick up the 1 or two seed and the path is easier, even a three or four looks to be the same as last year so this might actually be a good thing, especially this year. Maybe they were discussing a nine seed (OU) making it a couple years ago and didn't want to repeat that (although sometimes it seems the tournament hot hand could have the best chance for a win in the NCAA tournament).