Zipsrifle

BAM! Nailed it! Way too funny! Anyway, I still think we pull out one win. Maybe this week, maybe Buffalo. Probably a better chance with Buffalo in our house.

One problem....to make him feel at home, how would we schedule the same cupcake schedule that OSU has to deal with for 50% of the year? Maybe we could schedule a couple High School teams? That would be about the same skill differential right now.

It is amazing how big that building was. It took up quite a bit more space than I thought. I hope the new building has a smaller footprint to open up some green space.

I think it was Goodrich who made the shoes. Then again, I could also be trying to drum up business for Google.

Yea, no doubt, he is NOT happy. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. The guy seems to be out of ideas.

Wow, that was ugly. I think this is the first time I have ever felt it was a waste of my time to go to the football game. I usually get some enjoyment out of the game, we are ahead at one point or we seem to get some momentum, but we got destroyed today. There is no apparent improvement, just the same stuff from day 1, it's depressing. At one point I thought to myself, "We've hit bottom, we are the worst team in DI-A, no question". With that said, I try to keep things in perspective. These are what, 18-22 year old kids? They may have checked out, but how is some old guy yelling in the stands going to make them check in? They know their record and humiliating them in public isn't going to suddenly make things better. I also don't think the coaching staff needs to be motivated either. These are ambitious guys and the joke of a program we have now should be motivation enough. I have my reasons, but I for one am going to renew my tickets next year and hang in there.

The MAC should have a weekly show on STO or something. I bet they would get better viewership than some of the programming that is on there right now. Hell, the MAC's headquarters are in Cleveland so they could do it at little cost. Yes I did and they were talking about the Rifle team when I was listening to it. Never thought I would see the day when I could listen to Akron Rifle coverage on the radio.

Wow. Can we start banking the points scored by our futbol team and use them for our Football team? I mean, we might win a football game if we start tonight?

Man, what a load of bull that was.....

Actually, I considered this as well but thought statisically the best thing to do would be to vote for Ampai and no one else. But perhaps diluting the number of votes makes it harder for other to gain on him. Or perhaps it makes 0 difference either way. Math/stats majors? If they go by who gets the most votes, then it doesn't really matter how you vote. If it goes by percentage, then you would ONLY want to vote for Ampi. He would then have a higher percentage of the total votes. Example: if you only cast 1 vote, and that is for Anthony, then he gets 100% of your vote. If you vote 3 times each day, and one is for Anthony, then he only gets 33% of your vote. I just vote for Ampi, but that is just because I don't want to put any more effort into it.

What I am shocked about over the past two days is how quickly and completely EVERYONE has jumped off the OSU bandwagon. I'm well aware of the tendencies of NE Ohio fans, but did I ever underestimate the reaction from the Wisconsin loss. All week, and especially on Saturday, there were OSU fans EVERYWHERE! Wearing their OSU gear and shouting OH--IO out in random places whenever they crossed paths. Sunday I go out and.....NOTHING and I mean NOTHING! Not a single person wearing OSU gear ANYWHERE and believe me, I was looking for them! The only person I saw yesterday wearing OSU stuff was my buddy, an OSU alum who came over to my house and knew I would give him even MORE crap if he DIDN'T wear OSU stuff! In the past TWO days, I have only seen 2 articles of OSU gear including my buddy! The media is even jumping off the bandwagon. The papers have 1/5 the typical OSU coverage and most of this is from the AP! The Cleveland Plain Dealer has almost as many articles on the MAC schools on their college page as they do OSU articles. Normally you have to go 2,3,4 pages in to find a single MAC article. Hell, there is even one to make the OSU fans feel good their school doesn't suck as bad as Akron. Amazing, simply amazing!

I didn't see this anywhere, but I liked it. Hopefully they keep it updated and do one for all the teams. http://www.gozips.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_...CRIBER_CONTENT= Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.

I agree. Alleman's comments were very insightful. I like how he noted that "Coaches often fall in love with potential as opposed to production." I had never heard that before, but it makes a lot of sense. I also liked hearing his opinion on Rogers, "I think Matt Rogers can be a successful MAC quarterback." He doesn't think Rogers is the next coming of Joe Montana, but he believes Rogers can offer consistency, and that is really what the team needs right now. He was also very gracious with Nicely, reminding listeners that in a stronger program, Nicely would merely be a redshirt freshman QB still learning from the sideline. I really like the job he's doing. You can tell he can't be as blunt as he would probably like, but he's still honest and you can tell he has a passion for the Zips. Good stuff. Yea, Andy is doing an outstanding job so far, very refreshing. I really like the experience and insight he brings to the booth, I learn something listening to him. My guess is he can't be too blunt as this is his first year, but hopefully it will get better. I think he's got a bright future .

Going into the OU game, Akron was ranked as the worst team in the country and OU was ranked as the 2nd worst team. The only thing close to that this year is Ball State.

I predict this thread will turn into one of the following: 1) A hate thread for OSU. 2) Why we should get out of the MAC. 3) Why OU is superior to UA in every way, shape and form.

I respectfully disagree. Our efforts have been in building facilities assuming they would lead to winning. Nobody ever said, "How fast will this new stadium run the 40 yard dash?" or "Can the field actually catch a ball?" What we haven't invested in is the support staff to recruit and retain at risk kids who are extremely talented. There has been some increase, but not enough. When JD got bit by issues such as this, he retreated to what Faust did and brought in less talented players. Very good point.

The last time we sucked this bad, it was OU we beat. Unfortunately at that time, they were on par with us. I want us to win every game from here on out, but from what I've seen so far, we don't have it. I haven't seen any of the drastic improvement I had hoped as the season progressed. So, OU rolls, we lose by 24. Our football program does have a culture of losing. There has been a substantial push to break that culture over the past few years and here we sit at the bottom. What do we have to do? UGH!!!

This is a different MAC, the Mid-Atlantic Conference. There aren't enough schools in really any of the traditional conferences so Rifle kinda forms it's own Conferences. Akron is also part of the WIRC, the Western Intercollegiate Rifle Conf. As for Jenna, I believe she is still on the team though I am not 100% sure. Sarah Benjamin went to the NCAA Championships last year an she is listed above.

Yea, this is where I am about right now. I feel trapped. Like so many of you, I've followed this program for years and I've seen it fall off a cliff from the opening of Infocision last season. Been thinking a lot recently about what went wrong, back to the last time we were the worst team in the country. Right or Wrong, most of the time I have an opinion on what should be done to come to a resolution for a situation but not in this case. I'm not a football expert, just a big fan, and I have to rely on the experts to turn things around. I don't have any faith in the people running the show. I don't see any light ahead. This is just about the worst case scenario for our new stadium. I'm not really the type to give up easily so what's a fan to do? I guess I'll just hunker down for the next few years and hope somehow we can raise the Titanic.

The Rifle team started the season recently at the MAC Fall fest, taking 2nd place to Navy, one of the better teams in the nation. It was encouraging to see the team pick up where they left off last year, but they should keep their eyes firmly planted on Navy as this is where the team needs to be at the end of the season. Navy finished 8th last season in the Championship match and the Zips need to be one of the top 8 teams in the country to make the cut. They are off to a good start and the team has made some big strides in the past two seasons so we have high hopes. Good start and let's keep improving every match. PRESS RELEASE A Great Start For Akron Hot Shots The Akron rifle team started its season in fine fashion at the Mid Atlantic Rifle Conference (MAC) Fall Fest rifle tournament. This two day event placed Akron against many of the MAC schools including the formidable midshipmen from Navy. On day one of the tournament Akron finished second place behind Navy by a narrow margin of 4576 to 4604. The highlight of the smallbore division placed Akron junior Zak Szabo (576) in second place immediately behind Navy’s Chris Burleson (583). This performance set a new personal best smallbore score for Szabo. Akron teammate Jim Carter also set a new personal best smallbore score of 560. In the air rifle division Akron lit up the boards firing a team score of 2316 which is only one point off the school record of 2317. Akron senior Brittany Jones (587) earned the top gun award finishing in first place and smashing her old personal best score of 583. Team scores for day one: Day 2 matches again placed Akron behind Navy 4575 to 4634. This day belonged to junior Sarah Benjamin who finished in 4th place smallbore with a fine 577 and took top gun honors in air rifle with a 586. Also setting new personal best scores in air rifle was sophomores Jim Carter (575) and Nichole Dietrich (568). Team scores for day two: “This is a great place for us to start the season as our scores are slightly higher than our best scores last season,” states head coach Newt Engle, “What is even more exciting is many of our team are aware of the fact that we left a lot of points on the table and are figuring out how to move up from here.” The next test for the Zips will be on October 23 when Akron will host the first home match of the season against Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The match will start at 9am in Schrank Hall South marksmanship training facility, room #7.

Wow, that was great, seriously. Now I know why I sat through that game last night, because after sitting through 10 years of crappy football, I got to experience that single game. Well done. So, I'm 5 years into the drought, just got another 5 till we back into the Next MAC Championship......

I too brought about 10-15 people to the game with me. They were really good sports about the whole experience, but when they wanted to leave at the half, I encouraged them. The weather was out of our hands, nobody is to blame for that, but the product on the field was embarasing. I turned to my wife in the 3rd and told her I was glad everyone left, it saved me from being totally humiliated by our team. I think they enjoyed themselves simply because most of them came to the Can't vs. Akron game last year and had a blast. Anyway, here is my take. I don't think the team morale is as bad NOW as it was near the end of last season. I was watching the players on the sidelines and they were still engaged in the game, though obviously not overly excited. Last year, late in the season, NOBODY gave a $#!+ and it was obvious. Yes, I agree, there was a lack of fire from almost anyone on the sidelines. Starting with the coaches. The coaches appeared to be only 1/2 into the game. Some coaches, such as Derrick Jackson were very engaged with the players all the time. If he wasn't coaching them when they were on the field, he was coaching them on the sidelines. Other coaches seemed disconnected. ICoach at times was wondering around the sideline by himself looking at the ground dejected. Maybe he was talking with folks upstairs, I don't know. But it was obvious from his body language that he just wanted this thing to be over. The body language and engagement with the coaches carries over to the players and I wasn't impressed last night. We gave up after the Interception. Another frustrating thing for me was the lack of apparent leadership on the sidelines by the upperclassmen. I can remember when the Zips came back against CMU in Mount Pleasant, I think it was 2003. Anyway, CMU was up later in the game and I think it was Chase Blackburn was on the sidelines LIGHTING EVERYONE UP. I don't think I've ever seen a player that pissed off! The Zips came back and won the game and the upperclassmen had a LOT to do with it. I also was frustrated with how easily we seemed to give up on 2nd or 3rd and long. By giving up I mean we seemed to be resigned to punting and just burning a play to get there. If we didn't get it going after a first down, then we just kinda tried to grind out a few more yards, take care of the ball, and be happy to punt. We are near the bottom right now guys. Unfortunately, I have been here before. The first time I was in college and we were the worst team in the country for the entire season and knocked off OU during the final game in the Toilet Bowl. It took a few years to recover from that. The more recently for me was in 2005 when on a similar night, all hopes were dashed when Army took us to task at the RB in a rain storm. It was similar to last night in that a bunch of people came to the game with me, we sucked, and it rained the whole night. Now going into that game in 2005 we had 3 wins, but I think everyone really expected more of that season and that was a real heart breaker. We got lucky and "Rebounded" but it took backing into the MACC to get any attention outside of the die-hards. I think we are looking at the OU rebuilding process again. We suck. I estimate we will be at the bottom of the MAC for the next 2 years at least. I hate this. I don't know how you change a culture of losing in football but this isn't the answer. There aren't any facility excuses anymore, only personnel. I just can't believe that the players we have are this bad....I just can't.

Just don't see the Zips keeping it together enough to pull this one out. We have some good spells with a few lapses. Maybe later in the year, but not tomorrow. NIU - 27 UA - 17

That was my Daughters 1st Zips game (She was about a year old). We used to live in Michigan at the time and made the trip to KZoo. The fans were real pricks at the beginning, throwing stuff at us and some foul language. Somebody must have stepped in because it stopped shortly after the game started. Anyway, at the end we were in the WMU endzone and got to watch it all unfold. That was very difficult to keep my composure as I held my Daughter. Didn't want to get my @$$ kicked as we stood in a crowd of WMU fans. BOY, were the WMU fans pissed after that one! I've seen both side. I was at the Miami game when Ben threw that miracle. It all seemed to change once JD showed up...Not a good sign so far with Rob I.

Just saw on the OSU website that Akron leads the series 24-6-2. Wow, we must be really lucky!