Zipsrifle

BALTIMORE! (Rifle falls out of his chair and hits the floor!) Someone get the paddles, I'm having a heart attack! I don't think that is a possability in my universe. I see it this way.....what happens when an immovable object meets an irresistable force? Would I hate Charlie or like the Ravens? My brain hurts.

I've posted my thoughts on where I would haved liked 5 to go earlier. I guess I'm not ecstatic about when and where he got drafted (I am a Browns Fan), but it will have it's advantages. I know he'll work his butt off and I do like the fact he'll have someone to throw to. It will probably get my enthusiasm for the Browns back to where it was before Art ripped our hearts out. If the OL can keep him from getting killed he'll make the best of it. Now, it's time for me to start working on tickets for the preseason Lions vs. Browns on Aug. 20th at Ford Field.

Wally, Good idea, only one problem. Those kids are going to be exposed to the foul mouths of a few guys sitting in the endzone . Well, I guess they've got to learn those words some time. On second thought....maybe we'll just move to the visitors side to piss off the Can't fans .

The most stunning thing about this article is: Good thing we showed him the curb huh!

I think this is driven mostly by ESPN. We really don't know what is going to happen. I hope the game has a good crowd, but there is a valid point that 1:00 on the Wed. before Thanksgiving will deter a lot of people. People will be at work and a lot of students will skip the game to head home. Attendence could increase if the recently hot rivalry makes people leave work early (or take the day off) or stay on campus to come to the game. There will also be more people coming into town that may want to see the game due to the holiday too. In the end, nobody really knows what is going to happen. I give UAM a big for doing something to get some more national exposure. I'm sure there will be a huge ticket push and promotional campaign to make sure we don't have an empty stadium on Wed.

You know, I don’t know which way this will go. Can someone clear something up for me? From a strictly QB point of view, who’s better? Is it the case now that Luke is the better QB, but Jabari’s athleticism makes him more likely to “Make things happen�

Well, I didn’t really see any practices so I can only comment on what I’ve read. I think the weakest position is the OL. Sounds like we might be able to pass block, but no run blocking. Since it appears there will be a bigger than expected drop in the QB position from Frye, this could be a bad thing. I think the Montgomery and Hixon will be able to catch the ball, but we need to get it to them and with minimal turnovers. Appears we will have a good backfield with Biggs and Kennedy, but there might not be any holes to run through. If the pass blocking sucks, then we’ll be in trouble. IMHO, good work ethic this summer by the offense will result in a 3rd place finish in the East. Bad preparation means we’ll struggle even against the bad teams. I’m really excited about the defense right now. Reports seem to indicate that though they are smaller, they really get after the ball. This raises a question…..do we need to worry about over pursuing plays? In addition to this, the small size makes me think we’ll get pushed down the field by good old 3 yards and a cloud of dust teams. Not many reports on the D backfield that I’ve seen but from what I can tell, they’ll be pretty good. I would think special teams would be consistent with last year since Hixon, Biggs, Swiger, and Sullivan are all back. So, though I am far from being as knowledgeable as others on this board, I think we’ll have a mediocre year. I think JD uses this year to break in his guys and get some experience. Lots of mistakes early on. I would say there are 7 winnable games on our schedule. Hard work and lady luck will get us 7 wins. I would guess right now we’ll come away with 5 wins, I don’t see MTSU as a W (inexperience) and I think we’ll drop one to CMU, OU, BSU, or (gasp) Can't. Like I’ve said before, if we come away with a winning season, I’ll be seriously impressed with the coaching staff. I think that they can continue to win the close games, unlike LO. Lots of hard work needed over the summer. The first time I will get to see these guys play will be in West Lafayette.

I don't know if it's too small. In the 10 years I've been following the Zips, I've seen 4 decent crowds (20,000+) at the Rubber Bowl. From about 1995 to 2003 I didn't see any decent crowds at the RB. There may have been a few, but I couldn't make every home game. It puts a damper on the atmosphere when there are so many empty seats. I would rather the stadium be a bit smaller to match the crowds. PLEASE don't make it look look like Can't, I mean a HS stadium! One thing I think is a necessity to avoid this is to have at least one closed end to a stadium. I also hope they plan for expansion. Once we are starting to consistently fill up the normal seating, start slowly expanding. Don't want to wait and deter people from coming to the games. Oh, and nothing is worse than a stadium that looks like it was pieced together. Though Peden was nice, the closed end of the stadium didn't quite seem to fit. They've (Proenza and Thomas) done a hell of a job so far so I'm confident they won't mess this up.

We've been blessed with some pretty good QB's over the past what, 7 years. I just hope someone steps up. Can't believe we're calling Getsy "OK" when he was battling Palko last season. I thought we would be in better shape at QB right now.

GREAT GRAB Dr. Z!

I’m a Browns fan but PLEASE don’t draft him! If he goes to Cleveland they’ll ruin him. Then everyone in NE Ohio who never knew of Akron football will now BLAME Akron football for wasting a draft pick. Won’t help our status at all. If he does well, everyone will forget he was from Akron anyway. If he goes to another team, every time they come into town it will be how “Akron Zips Grad leads so-and-so against the Browns†If he does bad at another team, nobody knows where Akron is and won’t care. If he does good, then hell, Akron might get some press. Especially when that team comes to town. I’m not sour on the Browns. It’s the “Die Hard OSU/Cleveland Fan†(who attended BG) that I hate! I know how they think, I’ve been surrounded by them my entire life. I’m bitter today huh?

Yea, I saw this review. First of all, I don’t think these guys watched many game films of Frye. Second of all, IMO, they just don’t think that someone from crappy Akron can be any good. “Need to upgrade his fastballâ€. If I remember correctly, 5 threw a bullet in the Senior bowl that one of the receivers couldn’t handle. I also don’t know about the comment about not being able to handle the pressure. He handled it pretty well getting chased all over the field for 4 years. There was also a comment about “Usually makes good decisionsâ€. This is what really impressed me with Frye, I thought he did an outstanding job of taking care of the ball and tip toeing down the sidelines for a few extra yards. I also like the comment about “admirable work habitsâ€. WTF! Admirable! He’s been working is A$$ off since he arrived in Akron. This last part really makes me think they just don’t think too highly of 5 and surfed the internet to get info on him. What got me about this entire column was all the blurbs about their high school accomplishments. If you notice, Adrian McPherson is ranked behind Frye. The first half of his “Number Game†starts out with the fact how great an athlete he was in HS and how he was Mr. Football and Mr. Basketball his senior year in HS. Sure he’s only started 4 games for talent rich FSU, that means he’s got to be as good as Frye. How does this correlate to how he will do in the pros? Don’t get me wrong, athleticism is obviously a huge part of being successful in the NFL, but 5 has performed in college for 4 years with the number to prove it. No need to fall back on his HS accomplishments. I know I’m biased. Again, time will tell who’s right. I really thought that Big Ben was downplayed too, I just hope 5 has the same success. I agree that he isn’t the greatest QB to ever play the game, but you know very few of these guys have spent the time to actually see what 5 did at Akron. IMO, they just don’t want to waste their time on someone from a school nobody cares about.

Thanks for the info everyone. I guess I'm pleasently suprised at a few things. First, that the score ended tied. Was this kinda a planned thing or was it legit? I hope it was legit. Second, at the report that the OL wasn't as bad as feared and that the pass blocking was OK. The question I have now is.....Is our OL good at pass blocking or don't we have a good pass rush? Some conflicting reports on Ferguson. I guess the most suprising thing to me was that Fergie lead the QB's statistically. I picked this up from the article on gozips.com. You would thing he wouldn't get a whole lot of PT with a QB Controversy between the top two. At least we're deep when it comes go QB's....we may need all of them. Kinda bummed that we don't have a clear cut QB yet. I thought that Getsy would lock this thing up no problem after the transfer. IMO, this is a good thing, the competition makes everyone better. Sounds like Kennedy will be a nice additon this year. He's been mentioned a couple of times in the press releases during spring practices. Hope the OL learns how to run block, we could be dangerous in this area. More importantly....what happened to Biggs? He had 1 reception? Why didn't he play more? Is he hurt or didn't he play to avoid being hurt? Now that spring ball is over, does anyone know if Luke, Jabari, Dom, etc. are going to be doing player supervised summer practices this year? IMO, this is VERY important and now that 5 is gone, we need someone to step up and keep this going. Oh, yea, one final question....when does fall practice start?

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it, but just wondering who's going? Hoping to get some info. From what I've read, the D will probably win this one handily. A guess a few of the things I'm the most curious about are: 1) How do we look compared to last year's spring game (If anyone can remember that far back)? 2) Is the OL as bad as we've heard? 3) Is the D as good as we've heard? 4) Jabari vs. Getsy Have fun folks!

I have to say that there is one BIG reason I really like this schedule....I can go to almost all of the games. Last season with the exception of NIU, everything was quite a drive for me from Michigan. This year, Purdue, Miami, Ball State, and BG are all well within range. I think I can hit 9 games. The exceptions being MTSU and Buffalo. I'm not to confident on the team right now, but even if they really suck, I'll probably go to the games anyway.

We've been "building" this team for years. Our year was supposed to be two seasons ago. Are we going to wait every 4 years to get national exposure? We were supposed to suck last year and look what happened. I do, actually, agree with you that this year is going to be rough. 7 wins, though possible, is not probable. From the feedback I've been reading here, I think MTSU is going to be really tough to beat given our current situation. I also think Ball State is going to be after us too. OU and Can't are going to take a few years off of my life too I have a feeling.

I agree that there is higher risk to having the game late in the season as opposed to the beginning of the season. The Trs. night game, IMO, had already become a tradition in its short 2-year existence. No arguing that the atmosphere was electric. But, I think what is coming into play here is the University taking a risk to gain more national exposure. I’m sure they’ll pull out all the stops to pack the house. ESPN said they’d show up if we played the game at this time, and marketing went for it. You’re wondering why you can’t get a leather Zips jacket, well, nobody outside of greater Akron knows we exist. This is a way to get more exposure and increase the demand for Akron products and tickets. This strategy could very well backfire. Two crappy teams playing for nothing in bad weather would give a negative image of UA. I’m thinking that they saw the turnout for ESPN last season and are hoping for the same this year. Hey, you’ve got to take risks to get ahead. Can't hasn’t been doing much creative scheduling to bring in more fans and raise their exposure. Like I’ve said before, we’re fighting for the same players and fans. A loss against Can't would not fair well for the Zips. A win on the other hand, will continue our dominance over the Golden a$$e$. Add a packed house and a good position in the division and the Zips look sweet compared to Can't. Bottom line, I give them credit for trying new stuff. That’s the only way we’re going to improve.

HOLD ON NOW. I read the article at Gozips.com and the game is on the Wed. before thanksgiving. Now I can see that pulling in a crowd! Nice move athletic dept! I'll still stand by my prediction.

Oh, yea, I hope that 1:00 on a Wed. is a typo also. That would nullify any added crowd if it is indeed the last UA vs. Can't game at the bowl.

Maybe they've got something up their sleeve on this one guys. I've got a lot of respect for what the athletic dept has done and I've got to believe there is a reason for this. I'm going to predict that that game will be billed as "The last Akron vs. Can't game at the Rubber Bowl!". I have no inside information. Sure, you could have put that game at any point in the season and billed it this, but if we're not in the hunt, then you need something to pull in a crowd. There will be a good crowd for NIU, but late in the season when it's cold, and we're not in the hunt, you need something to pull in a crowd.

Whoever is QB is going to get killed this year. From what I've read on Gozips.com, and here, sounds like the D is having a field day during practice. Frye had a lot of experience running for his life, we'll need Jabari or Luke to pick that talent up quick! I guess there are two ways to look at this. Jabari is the more athletic, but I don't know how durable he is. I think he started out good last season, but was might have been hearing footsteps after he got hurt. I have no idea how durable Luke is. He was fighting for a starting spot with what turned out to be a GREAT QB last year at Pitt and if he is as durable as Frye, I think we've got a good replacement for 5. Man, I can't believe how young we are! I was just paging through he press releases on gozips.com and it seems like everyone is a sophomore or junior! Sounds like JD likes the speed on D. Boy, would it be nice to see the decent D this year. I'll tell you what, with all the young guys that are going to be starting, and the recruiting class we had this year, we are going to be dangerous in a couple years. JD and the staff had a great year last year, but it will be interesting to see how things turn out this year. Looks like on the Defensive side of the ball our athleticism has grown, but man are we inexperienced. Offense just scares me right now. Our line was bad last year, doesn't sound any better this year. If we can come out of this season at 6-5 again, JD is indeed the man. A winning season this year solidifies what appears to be a hell of a coaching staff so far.

If the Rubber Bowl was that size (7000), we'd sell out every game. Looks like a confrence championship at a high school. It is in much better shape than the RB though.

If the bricks cost $20, then we only need to sell 750,000 bricks to pay for the stadium! What do these kind of bricks typically go for? I really have no idea but I would guess a LOT more than $20. Probably more like $100 or $200 a brick. My high school used to hold Bingo to pay for new athletic stuff. I'll swing by Robs and play a few rounds of BINGO when I'm in town.

Sure, the actual parking might not be the problem, but access to the parking will be a nightmare. For U of M games in Ann Arbor, the stadium is at least a couple of miles off of I-94 and US-23. This provides a buffer between the freeway and a bunch of roads for people to take to get to the stadium. There is still a backup on I-94, but I haven’t had too many problems on US-23 prior to the games. If the new stadium is were we think it will be, then I can see Route 8 and 76 coming to a standstill for a while. Since I have to drive from Michigan to get to the now annual Trs. night Can't game, I am unfortunately aware that traffic management for the past two years is worse than any I’ve seen during my time attending U of M games. It will be interesting to see what happens, but you won’t hear me complaining from Route 8 when I turn on the radio to catch the opening kickoff of the first Trs. night Akron-Can't game on campus!

Nice find Sarg. I read the articles and am continually amazed at how active President Proenza is in the community. That guy is amazing! The proposals seem very ambitious, but it appears from previous posts that some development is happening near the Zip Strip. There was one thing that caught my eye. How in the world do you turn Exchange street from a 4 lane road to a two lane road? I know it can be done physically, but you are just asking for HUGE headaches, especially since the University has recently closed more roads an it is essentially an enormous no drive zone between route 8 and downtown. From 3 years experience of dodging cars on Exchange street as I walked to the Townhouses, I can say that they are just asking for headaches. In addition, if they are going to build the stadium at the corner of Brown and Exchange, this would become a complete nightmare during football games. The more I think about it, I think parking is going to be the biggest problem in the whole new stadium thing. If/when the stadium goes in there will need to be a huge tear up in that area to accommodate the 20,000+ cars that arrive for a game. Still, I hope it happens soon, but the logistics are mind boggling. :blink: