a-zip

The song "My City was Gone" keeps ringing in my ear. "Ay, oh, where did you go, Ohio?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W1PnI7QGS8

My bad…..announced attendance was 9104 North Alabama's attendance was better than that. I have heard so many excuses through the years for attendance it is now just flat out comical….the weather, losing streaks, that stadium sucks, the seats give me splinters. Why would TB stay here with such a pathetic, lame, POS fan base.

What a joke!

Is there a reason they can't coexist and be successful? Shouldn't they feed off of each other an create an overwhelming pride for the school that carries forward to the basketball season? Our soccer program has been a powerhouse for a while…..that is how we got Porter and we then beat his predecessor who went to Louisville (former UA coach)….the "pre-Porter" era was pretty darned good……we just need to make sure the momentum is maintained…..if football continues to get better…….everyone should benefit.

The Z on the white helmet is backwards…….just sayin'

Akron sure has gotten a lot of press in the last couple of weeks, sure hope it carries over in to the football season. Lebron comes back, Browns at Infocision, WCG at Firestone today, and Hall of Fame football game tonight. All good!!!

The NCAA is the most corrupt, hypocritical, POS, worthless governing body I can think of.

The 2018 Mens national team could be loaded with our beloved Zips!!! They are saying that DeAndre Yedlin, Darlington Nagbe are almost sure starters. Will Trapp will likely take over for Beckerman and that Perry Kitchen and Dillon Serna have really good chances of making the team. That would be amazing and I would have to think another record!! Amazing publicity for the school on a worldwide level. http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/7/3/5864221/potential-usmnt-players-to-watch-during-the-2018-world-cup-cycle http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2120309-predicting-the-usmnt-squad-for-the-2018-world-cup/page/8 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2116582-future-is-bright-for-usmnt-during-next-world-cup-cycle

Debate Over! New unis a hit and well worth the pub we get from this.. Yes! recruits DO like this…now its time to win some games http://www.nfl.com/photoessays/0ap2000000362372?campaign=Facebook_essay_fischer

Yedlin looked GREAT TODAY!! He and Julian Green are definitely the future of US Soccer right now. Represented the Zips well today……good job Deandre

Making a blanket statement that all of the players have not developed is not accurate because many have. This program has been a mess for a long time with coaches and players coming in and out. And some of the players simply do not have that high a ceiling because….lets face it, iCoach did not exactly get the cream of the crop, and many left the program. Our current team has been put together with bandaids of transfers and young players. One of the big hurdles that had to be instilled is a winning attitude (which I believe is growing). The development was amazing last year as evidenced by our record and close calls against really good teams

I give some of the upperclassmen a break because they have been through so much chaos and turnover in their careers here - I actually commend them for even staying. If their development is not where some of you would like it to be, think about what these guys have been through. I totally expect that to change now.

The NCAA (governing body) is truly a mess and they have created all of this themselves. They are supposed to be about amateur sports and academics……it is all about the benjamins to them. I tell you what is going to be interesting is when the players of the "BIG" schools start unionizing to get paid. How are they going to control that? Will "MAC" players get paid the same as "SEC" or "BIG 10" players? When paying players is illegal (now), they still can't stop it…….GP - you are right, we could go on and on….. The fact that U of Maryland is going to pay at 60 MILLION DOLLAR penalty to leave the ACC (which I would kill for us to get in) is mind boggling.

Make no mistake, Sam is working this and HE is going to make plenty of money whether he makes the roster or not (he already has an endorsement deal with Visa too). While I am all for making a buck, I admire what he has achieved from where he came, and I feel he is extremely courageous to come out - it is all a bit much for me personally. I am not homophobic but I could do without the kissing and smashing cake in each others faces like groom and groom with the cameras ready. Seemed a bit staged to me. Seriously, did anyone think he would NOT get drafted? By him going in the last round - it kept people watching, tweeting, chatting, and talking about Michael Sam and the NFL draft. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out because every move, comment, tweet by coaches and players are going to be scrutinized……it will also be an incredible distraction to the team. If he gets cut…….oh boy….watch out!!!! I wish him well, I hope he earns and spot on the team and plays well.

yup

Yes, please explain.

YSU wins and will start to get a lot of pub from this!! Seriously, whoever argues about Tressel's credentials or "being an embarrassment" is F'd in the head. He is CLASS, has vision, a good manager of people AND another UA alumus that would have stayed forever and worked to have UA achieve its goals. There are few important people that have loyalty to Akron…..Keith Dambrot, Jim Dennison, Lebron James and Jim Tressel. 3 of the 4 are gone. I certainly wish Scarborough well but the pieces were in place to put us on the map….in my opinion Jim Tressel would have done that….now he is competition….look out.

Yea, I am 6'4".....Heisman Trophy winner................nobody will notice

Looks like they had a lot of fun making that.......I think it is great. If I am a recruit and watch it..........I have to think to myself that it looks like a fun place to be and fun people.

That was funny. By the looks of the Info, it must have been game day.

Perfect analysis….. My additions; Great turnout for an exhibition, beautiful day, good job by UA for providing the atmosphere for all the days games. Sloppy soccer game. Louisville goalie got an assist on the loan goal??? Souto - is funny….constantly talking smack and smiling - he is going to have to learn composure but I like him L Cross - looked clumsy, continuously got burned, maybe the Louisville offense is that good…..yikes Ken Lolla - when I pointed him out to my sons, they said what?…….he is the coach?…..he looks like he is going out to dinner. Almost seemed a bit pompous to me.

At the end of the scrimmage, I liked seeing KP16 speaking to the team (maybe just the offense) after TB spoke. He seemed to have the attention and command of the team and also seemed a bit animated. Good to see the leadership coming out.

GoZips, this is the exactly the dialog I tried to start on another thread, I guess I did not state it as clearly as you……so thanks. I am not sure what a realistic goal for us should be and the path to get there. I would love to get in to a better conference but don't think we are anywhere close to being on someone's radar. It is tricky and risky to make a move to another conference. The big fear I have is that the disparity between the power conferences that are being built and the smaller conferences will become so great that the days of upsetting a Big10, SEC, PAC10, Big12 school will never happen. These conferences are going to generate outrageous amounts of money to these schools that will enable them to build ridiculous facilities (academic and athletic). It will also enable them to pay serious $$ to assistants and coordinators that would dwarf the salaries of our head coaches. Seriously, look at Maryland moving from the ACC to the Big10. Hell, I would love to be in the ACC but Maryland feels it is not enough for them!!! Think about how vulnerable the ACC is - Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida St, Ga Tech, Miami, UNC, NCST, Pitt, Syracuse, UVA, VaTech, Wake Forest, Louisville. What happens if Miami and FSU leave (and I have to believe the SEC/Big10 are courting)? You have an awesome basketball conference and a deteriorating football conference. The Big10 and/or SEC become even more powerful and the ACC becomes less relevant just like the Big East and Conference USA have. This will all trickle down to conferences like the MAC and make us even weaker. I guess the good news might be that if FSU or Miami were to leave the ACC - the ACC would be looking to backfill…..I don't think we are even close to consideration for them (at least not at the moment). The best analogy I can thinks of is to compare to what is happening in the economy. The WalMarts, Costcos, Sam's Clubs, Targets are killing the small and medium businesses. In technology - IBM, EMC, HP, CA, Microsoft are buying up brilliant small technology companies that can't survive. That is where I fear things are headed in the NCAA. So, if anything I said makes sense above - would it be wise for us to invest and prepare to make a jump to a conference like the ACC in the next 5 years. Will the ACC even be relevant enough 5 years from now? If we made this commitment, we would have to improve basketball performance and facilities, start winning and making postseason football and fill the Info, soccer needs to continue their success AND we would have to pay all of our the coaches enough to keep them around all of this time. Then, even if we did all of these things…..would a conference that would accept us be worth moving to.

Why not soccer to the ACC? My god, that is our biggest draw and ACC soccer is the best in the country.

When you guys want to criticize KD on developing players there is one player nobody has factored in to the formulas……do I have to say his name? Hint…..best player on the planet.