GoZips

Changing conference affiliation is more than football attendance.If your sole standard for judging is current football attendance the Zips will be mired in the MAC.Conference affiliation involves all the sports at a university. There are several important factorsto consider. Facilities for one, fan interest, locale, community support, drive of leaders and alot more.Akron soccer needs a home. MAC soccer is so shaky that the soccer team could be orphaned or a guest member of C-USA or the Big Ten soon. Not that soccer drives the wagon. But, itis a factor.Men's basketball would grow exponentially as a member of the Big East. C-USA not so much,especially since it is a given that Memphis is headed to the Big East.Football probably is the principle driver. The new stadium and fieldhouse are huge advantages.What kind of home game attendance could you expect with Big East and better scheduling?If the Zips were admitted to the Big East they would likely be part of division that included PITT,West Virginia, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Louisville, Memphis. Most of these teams are much better"draws" than nearly all MAC teams.As a Big East program the Zips would enjoy scheduling most Big Ten teams at home and all theMAC or C-USA schools. SEC and ACC games on a home and home basis leading to betterrivalries,Since most fans are not really fans at all, but front runners who want to identify with winners,position yourself to win. That is the goal of Dambrot and Porter. It could be Brookhart's as well.A point was made about the greater amount of money flowing through the C-USA. Agreed. And,more national exposure if C-USA were a stepping stone. However, it seems wiser to shoot forthe top (Big East) and be willing to jump to C-USA if the opportunity to get into the Big East fallsshort.The only way the MAC overtakes C-USA is if a majority of MAC schools make a concerted andcommitted effort to move sports to a higher level. When you have school administrations contentwith the status quo there is little or no hope of that happening.With a new soccer stadium coming and a new, larger basketball arena on the drawing boards, theZips are positioned to offer a tempting program to the Big East. Let us not forget the size ofthis media market. That is a factor, as well.

GP1, Mack is not likely to hike out of Zippyland until he pulls off the really big deal.With the Big East due to realign after the 2010 football season and Akron and a few other schoolsworking to position themselves to gain one of the new conference memberships about to be offered,do not look for Mack Rhoades to skedaddle until he gets the Zips into the Big East or C-USA.C-USA will have at least one open membership when Memphis jumps to the Big East. C-USA is aback up for Akron if they do not get admitted to the Big East.At any rate, a jump up in conference affiliation along with building a stadium looks really good on one's resume.

The officials on the play need a refresher course on refereeing.Two points.One. The receiver only needs to have possession established, not several seconds. The receiver wasin the end zone. Its a touchdown. Bad call.Two. The ground, by rule, cannot cause a fumble. The ball came out when Bowser hit the ground.There was no defender touching him. Nor, according to the two refs in the end zone, there was nopass interference which implies contact with the receiver. Its a touchdown. Bad call.

uakronkid, your assessment is fine except for one thing. You need to move all your lettergrades down one full letter. Your high marks read like you have been sniffing the sunshine.Since the coaches have not fixed the high snaps after six games they deserve an "F".

Cap'n, excellent points, well said.While the game may have been regionally televised it was shown on many, many stations.I often visit a popular chat room on PalTalk named "Talking College Football, etc". It is largely anACC, SEC oriented room with a lot of abusive insults. A number of the regulars (all living in the South) complimented me on Akron's good lookingperformance on TV. Got razzed a little for not blowing Cant out. But, all in fun.Until the Zips beat NC State I took a lot of heat in there. Now I feel accepted. These are VERY, VERYknowledgeable fans. They hate the Suckies and Notre Dame.

Week after week we continue to see the one glaring problem that is killing the Zips offense. No, its notChris Jacquemain, nor the running backs or the receivers. It is the constant high snap from the center.The snap distracts CJ11 from the play. His vision is blocked by having his hands in front of his face.That means he loses sight of the players, both offense and defense for a half a second or so. The brainthen has to recalculate all the data. While all this may be just a fraction of a second it is long enoughto cause throws behind the receiver (a common occurrence), throws into double coverage or worse,no time to look to all the receivers resulting in myopic decisions often resulting in not throwing to thebest target. All this makes Jacquemain look bad.The Zips need to go back to basics staring with the high snap. That bad snap is killing the offense.You can blame Chris or any other skill player and never get to the root cause ... the high snaps.I also agree with many of the posters that the offensive play calling is atrocious. The 3-3-5 defense is an experiment gone bad. The 3-3-5 needs to go into the trash heap of history.The 3-3-5 should be renamed the Cant Skate defense because the 3-3-5 SUX.

Congrats, ZEKE. Go Trevor ... !!!! Go Zeke ... !!!! Go Zips ... !!!!

Perhaps the Zips are a lot better team than most of us are giving them credit for.The University of Cincinnati Bearcats shredded Marshall 33-10 on national TV. Scant mention of UC'stough go the previous week other than the breaking of QB Pike's left arm.The TV commentators waxed on and on as to how a "good" C-USA team is just no match for a "good"Big East team. Largely, they were correct. Marshall just did not have the team speed to deal withthe Bearcats. Outside of NFL bound WR Passmore the Herd had little offense. UC controlled theline of scrimmage on both sides of the ball most of the night.This game in no way looked like the UC-Zips game. A game that was much more evenly fought.A lot of ZN posters thought that UC was not real good since they struggled against Akron. Naw.The Zips are for real. Akron is a much better team than many give them credit for.Darn, I sure hope the kids do not go out and lay an egg at Dix Stadium today. Its time for the Zipsto put some fear into the rest of the MAC.

From Jeff Goodman's national collegate basketball blog:"Nate Miles’ departure from UConn was a significant hit for the Huskies. This is a team that has virtually everything – quality and experienced big men with Hasheem Thabeet and Jeff Adrien. One of the top point guards in the country in A.J. Price. Jerome Dyson hasn’t quite materialized into what the Huskies had been hoping since he arrived in Storrs, but Miles and Dyson together on the wing would have been a deadly combination. Jim Calhoun even has plenty of depth with Craig Austrie and talented freshman point guard Kemba Walker coming off the bench, Charles Okwandu, Gavin Edwards and Jonathan Mandeldove as big bodies to replace Thabeet and Adrien up front and big-time shooter Scottie Haralson (trust me, this kid can really shoot the ball). Calhoun is also hoping to add foreign big man Ater Majok to the fold after the first semester. But Miles was the wild-card, the X-factor. I’ve seen him play numerous times and he is exactly what UConn needed – he’s a potent scorer from the wing who is also capable of making his teammates better. However, his track record with five schools also suggested he was a risk for the Huskies. Unfortunately for Miles and the Huskies, the long and versatile 6-foot-6 Toledo, Ohio, native won’t ever get an opportunity to play a game for UConn. He was kicked out of school yesterday after an investigation whether he assaulted a female student. "

GP1, You mean like Ohio State has with Pryor?Here is my take. If Torrence is a high quality player and mature enough to play now ... play him.The idea that we must keep him in reserve for the future is quite pestimistic. Coaches are supposeto be able to recruit in the future. The way JD's teams have performed in the past points to JD nothaving a future as the Zips coach.Play Torrence now. Save your job.

The question becomes: what color are they planning on wearing?Then we can counter with our own color.

Cant Kampus Kops be smarder dan jew tink. If it tastes like urine, its not beer.

If you groaned over Athlon guessing that the Zips are the fifth place team in the MAC East,you will just love the cellar spot Lindy's smacked on the Zips.Dead Last. Heck, that's like third place in the MAC West.Lindy's at least got the players named correctly. Their term is "replenish". Sure is more positivethan "rebuild". They just are not aware that the Zips replenished with a higher grade of talentthan the last batch.If the scouting services rank the newcomers better than they did with Wood, Middleton and Dials,and they do, the coaching staff has more material to work with. Expect great results.Cant gets the one spot followed by Cryami and BUGS. Ohio assigned to the five slot making theBulls a lofty fourth place. Hmmmm, wouldn't you like some of what ever that writer is smoking?

Offense without defense usually results in a loss. Akron has a few "shooters" that play weak defense.You simply can not score twenty points and have the player you are guarding score twenty-five.If takes solid defense along with good offense. The UMass game was lost because people did notget back on defense in the second half. That ended the season.I am amazed that people are criticizing a coach who has a 92 win, 38 loss record over the past four years.

Sunday's article about the Akron vs. Cincinnati game had a small box listing Cleveland stationWEWS (Channel 5) as carrying the game live.

Here's a blog that seems to fairly accurate on rating college football teams.DPD Dog'sBe sure to select FCS Rankings.The Zips project as eleven point favorites over the Hippies.

I think Cap'n summarized the game rather well. I had a tough time at Mass this morning notthinking about comments I want to make. CK got most of them.The Zips are a lot better football team than we were led to believe. Cincinnati really is an excellentBig East team. They will do some damage even without their QB. Tough break for the kid.This was the first game I went tailgating in a number of years. The tailgating has really grown up.That was as good of a party as most of the ones I have encountered when the Zips travel to nameprograms.Thank you to the many fans (UC included) who helped me gather more than thirty pounds of mostlyempty beer cans for young Trevor Weigand. I will be can collecting at the next three tailgatingevents. Thanks again. Please leave the cans on the ground in a pile. It makes it a lot easier tocollect them. Thanks to the AK-Oldies for the free tee shirt.I invited a close friend who is a light weight Zips fan and heavy weight knowledge base on football.He pointed out two things that I believe are critical and pertinent. First, that UC coaching went forit on fourth and ten on our twenty. They did this because they had no respect for the Zips defense.When UC moved the chains with an eleven yard pass their disdain got much worse. Which in turnled to the scornful going for it on fourth and one at our goal. The game turned on that play. TheZips stepped up and stopped the run. Great team effort. That grew the defense.Unfortunately, JD did not learn from goal line stand as he elected to go for it on fourth and one atthe UC five when a field goal would have ultimately given the Zips eighteen points (which would have won the game). Bad decision on JD's part. He, not the kids and their miscues lost this game.The roughing the passer was a chance you take. Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech takes that risk.The kids learn from such mistakes and it pays dividends later. I think it will for the Zips as well.Poindexter blocks the punt. Zips recover in the end zone and UC's lights go out. It was a smartgamble.I thought it was a really well played game by both teams. If UC and their fans did not come awaywith a lot of respect for Akron then they are truly fools. When you are a big time program tryingto get up the next rung of the ladder a game like this one humbles you. I got a chuckle out of the UC fans acting like they had just beaten tOSU. All they had was a two point win over theteam picked to finish last in the lowly MAC East. The Zips are a lot better than most of youposters are whining about.Like Cap'n, I see five or six more wins and a trip to a bowl game. It is up to the kids.Go Zips ...!!!! Go Zeke ...!!!! Go Trevor ...!!!!

Three hundred and fifteen grand and too cheap to hire a lawyer.They got exactly what they paided for.Go Zips ... !!!! Go Zeke ...!!!! Go Trevor ...!!!!

w00t, that is a pretty fair assessment.

I have my own ideas as to why this article is chuck full of misinformation.Some coaches just love to poor mouth their program early in the year. "We ain't no good this year.""We have too many injuries." "We are very young." On and on and on it goes.That smoke probably (although not confirmed) came from the basketball coaching staff.Athlon's predicted order of finish for the MAC East:1. Cant Skate2. Cry Ami3. BUGS4. Ohio5. Zips6. Buffalo

I have not seen this much "smoke" since the day I was behind the Peterbilt with bad rings. Enjoy.2008-09 Athlon Men's Basketball article and prediction on the Zips in the MAC East..5. Akron (24-11, 11-5)The Zips have had some good luck and some bad the last couple of years, winning a bunch of gamesbut finding little postseason love. Two years ago with 26 wins, there was nothing, and last season,despite 23 wins and a berth in the MAC title game, only the NIT came calling. That would bea great destination for Akron this year, since the Zips' three top scorers are gone, and there arebig needs throughout the lineup. The arrivals of six newcomers should help, but maybe notquickly enough for Akron to be a MAC contender.The frontcourt will be the scoring focus, at least early on, as senior Nate Linhart and juniorChris McKnight try to reach into double figures on a consisent basis. Though both 6'7", they havedifferent games. Linhart likes to shoot outside, while McKnight works inside. Expect 6'8"freshman Andrew Parrish to help out defensively, although he can face and fire, while seniorJimmy Conyers can help off the bench close to the basket. Sophomore Steve McNees will likelyrun the point, with freshman combo Alex Sullivan helping out and sliding to the 2 to supportjunior Darryl Roberts, a strong perimeter shooter.

Thank you, Z.I.P. for an honest and forthright report.I had noticed from the televised Indiana match and the home tournament that the Zips do not attackon offense with the tenacity it takes to score in the crease. It just is not there. Steve seemed to holdup his end in the games I saw. But, it seemed and felt like the other players were letting Steve doall the work in close. I could be wrong. That's just my opinion.Soccer is a team sport. The defense is excellent. The offense needs tuning. It is a long seasonand these kids are young. They are not a disappointment. They are learning. Expectations ofthem winning a national championship should be at least a year away. Give them time to grow.Go Zips ...!!!! Go Trevor ...!!!! Go Zeke ...!!!!

Actually Jessica Fix scored the games first goal. Baranowski scored the game winner.Don't blame me. I merely posted what was on YSU's gametracker. Thanks for the update.

The Lady Zips Soccer team scores winning goal in the eighty-ninth minute to squeak out a 3-2 victoryover the winless Penguinettes.Jordan Baranowski scored two goals including the game winner. Britni Back tallied the Lady Zips other goal.

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