MDZip

I think Brian deserved better as well, but with a chance to be a four year All-MAC is still very impressive. In that same vein, Almondo Sewell just tied Chris Kemme as the only Akron football three time all-MAC performer and has a chance to make it four next year. Really impressive.

If you are the worrying type, I'd worry more about this -Indiana University Not To Renew Contract of Men's Soccer Coach Mike FreitagA search for Coach Freitag's successor will begin immediately. Glass expressed a strong preference for one of the many distinguished alumni of Indiana University soccer as a successor to Freitag, and noted that IU would be reaching out to a number of them.I'll bet I know where the first call goes.

Bah, it's only blocking Schrank.

Good, glad they think so, let's keep him here.

Good. More people to yell "P-S!" Yeah, that was a little light at the last game. The Z-I part came through loud and clear though.

I saw this on the BigSoccer board and thought it was worth sharing. It appeared shortly after Ampai knocked in the free kick."Aim it like Ampaipitakwong".

Didn't say he was wrong, said it wasn't particularly classy move to write about a potential new coach from another program who had yet to be fired and then write (soon to be fired) next to his name. We all knew he was a goner too, but wouldn't put someones name as a replacement until the official announcement was actually made. Got it? A little decorum would have called for waiting at least until the announcement was made. Not too classy. Or should I have gone with the classic "Keep it classy Youngstown"!Hasn't this thread been throwing out replacement names for almost two weeks before it was official? Why so sensitive?We didn't have Steve Kragthorpe or Al Groh on our list. That was my point.

Jimmy Conyers had an outstanding game, seemed like he was grabbing every rebound (he ended up with 11) plus 12 points. Best game from him in a long time. Maybe he took the Captain's post as a personal challenge.

Didn't say he was wrong, said it wasn't particularly classy move to write about a potential new coach from another program who had yet to be fired and then write (soon to be fired) next to his name. We all knew he was a goner too, but wouldn't put someones name as a replacement until the official announcement was actually made. Got it? A little decorum would have called for waiting at least until the announcement was made. Not too classy. Or should I have gone with the classic "Keep it classy Youngstown"!

Looks like a spelling error at Sporting News.Luke Fickell is linebacker coach and assistant defensive coordinator at Columbus State. There was an interesting PD story about him earlier this year.PD LinkIf his name really was Luck, I'd take him, we could use a little.

I think the "players leaving" worries are more about incoming recruits than about players currently on the team.

Nice list and a good way to close out the JDB era by remembering some of the best moments. I think our first bowl game against Memphis belongs in the list too. Heck of a game even in a loss and the fact that we finally got to one deserves a ranking somewhere in that top ten.

I was wondering the same thing. Almost seemed like KD just wanted to prove they could win without him. Anyone have any info?We had a lot of matchup problems with their smaller, quicker guards driving on us (although that coulkd be an argument for having Zeke in the game), so I supect that may be the reason Zeke didn't play much. Mike Nardo was also in for only 7 minutes so that would be my guess. I did hear a few fans complaining about it on the way out. We are all experts in the seats.

Didn't see exactly what happened but he was up in the face of the UAPB player who fouled him. Dumb move with the Zips up by only a point, could have had a technical foul called. If he is going to be a team leader, he has to keep his emotions in check, especially in those types of situations.

I thought, on this Thanksgiving morning, that it might be time to reflect on what to be thankful for as a Zips fan.1. Easy, a number one nationally ranked team that has a legitimate chance for a national championship in a sport that at least carries a some national recogniton.1a. Caleb Porter.1b. A new soccer stadium on the way (finally).2. Two individual national champions last year (doubling our previous total) in Jenna Compton and Stevi Large.3. A little luck (opportunity combined with preparation) going a long way in beating Toledo in the first round of the MAC tourney and finally giving ourselves something to celebrate at the NCAA tournament.4. Zeke Marshall deciding to enroll. He looks like he will be the real deal and it gave Akron more respect (and publicity) when he decided to do so.5. Humpty Hitchens starting to show some leadership. Nik Cvetinovic's energy, enthusiasm, hustle and skill.6. A womens soccer team and basketball team that have finally emerged from the MAC basement and are showing signs of legitimacy. (Remember when Jodi Kest dismissed a bunch of players - not looking like such a bad move now). 7. Kara Murphy. 8. Dennis Mitchell and Newt Engle. They don't get paid a lot but they are dedicated to their sports and they produce results.9. Finally moving from the absolute worst D-1A stadium in the country to now one of the nicer ones. Someday soon we'll have a football team the stadium can be proud of.10. A Wagon Wheel victory in an unexpected year that will probably keep Can't State out of a bowl game. 11. Andre Jones. Patrick Nicely. Brian Wagner.12. A campus that is worthy of all that the University of Akron stands for.Long live the Zips! Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

What if we ARE the family coming in for the holiday? I have four too, I'll see if I can convince any of the siblings and family to come.

Anyone else notice JD Brookhart's name on that list with a notation (soon to be fired). Real classy there.

Couldn't find a pine tree but I think the symbolism here still works. I think that may be Bunbury, Nagbe and Ampaipitakwong shown working on it.

29-42. Not even an average of five wins per year. Man, those first two years we thought we were off to something special.

Wow, they could start out 0-11 with all of those games on the road. I don't think we schedule hard enough but that is way too hard. Had we started off 0-4 with this kind of a schedule I don't think the interest would have been as high. I'd like a little harder schedule for us, but nothing like this.

And that's just us, it doesn't count all of the other crappy play from the rest of the leaugue. There is a certain panache with being associated with FBS football, even if it is the lowest level, that is still better than the top of the FCS. What I'd love to see is the same parity applied to the FBS as applies in ALL other sports other than FBS football. GP1 mentions that we can't compete with the behemoths in terms of money and he's right, especially with this crooked system in place, however, I don't agree on one other point. Where was Boise St ten years ago? They didn't have the money either (still don't really) and they made it work. Same for Hawaii, Utah, TCU this year. All are in poorer conferences but somehow all have been able to raise their play (at least for some peiod of time). The biggest difference is that it isn't sustained over the long haul. But they have been able to do it. The bottom feeders in the MWC and WAC aren't much different from the MAC bottom feeders. And it wasn't too long ago that the MAC was a giant killer, regularly knocking off BCS level schools, many times even ranked schools. I believe it can happen again. So what happened? I think the biggest thing is that we are in a down coaching cycle. When the MAC was good those were good coaches who have gone on to greater success (Pinkney, Meyer). Now that does take some money to get a good coach but its still hit or miss. I honestly believe that is the bottom line. Get the right leader (Temple and CMU are good examples) and success can very well follow. The problem for the MAC is you need to keep replacing those guys and right now the league has not done a good job with their choices. Where would Akron soccer be without Caleb Porter - good but not great. Baketball without KD -we know what the team was like in the Hipsher days. Track without Dennis Mitchell? These folks are the difference makers, they bring in the right athletes for their systems, hire the right people to help them and find success even at places it is historically tougher to do so. Look at Ball State, a good coach with a couple good players that he brought in, and they were in the top 25 last year. Look where they are this year. In college, coaches are everything because they completely control their environment. We need to find a good one, a bad one will set you back about 5 years.

This is the University of Maryland's stadium - I'd really like to see something along this line.

I find it hard to believe that TCU will not get a BCS bid. That's a really good team.One of the two almost certainly will, I'd just like to see both of them go. What I'd really like to see is TCU get a shot at the national title game. The more BCS teams that lose, the more likely both of them get into a BCA bowl game. I also wanted to see OSU take on Cincinnati, but that's a pipe dream since the Buckeyes area heading to the Rose Bowl and the Bearcats are not.

Also of small note, Ronnie Steward got a couple of minutes and Steve Swiech made an appearance.

You gotta love this stuff - a little jealousy (and some kudos) over our success. From the Bulls bulletin board above:Totally dominated by Akron... We registered one shot on goal over 90 minutes... They controlled possession all game. It wouldn't matter how we got to the Finals... if we had to play Akron, we were going to get dominated. A nice season for USF... but hopefully Keifer can make some inroads on some future Akron recruits. No one is stopping Akron, although Wake might give them a hell've match.