GoZips

SKHORBOTLY & ZEN, I just got to love youse guys. Youse got it! Dayumed if anyone else does. The JAR is clamped down tight. Way too much dead people in the blues.I love the AK-Rowdies. This is the best thing to happen to Zips sports since the days of Memorial Hall where the fans chanted "Here we go Akron, here we go" the entire game. They did it right through the cheerleader routines. Never nasty, just insistent.ZIPTRUMPET87, I remember that. It was an effective way to light up the crowd. Time became politically incorrect to diss your opponents. But, hey, Peggy Eliot and her passle of lovers have left the building. Let's bring that back.Perhaps its way too smaltzy, but in the old days they use to dim the house lights and use a single spotlight to intro the Zips.At Cant and I'm sure at Ophew the students rightly deserved technical fouls several times. Only no ref had the onions to call them. Or, worse, they sympathized with the belligerency. BUGS was so so. At least their students are close to the floor.I miss seeing the clip from the movie RUDY we use to show just before the start of the game. This is our house; defend it.One extremely effective chant the AK-Rowdies have used of late is "Air Ball" every time an opponent's star player touches the ball after he makes that goof. Twice it has clearly rattled an opponent the rest of the game when it became persistent.In the words of Al Pacino from the best guys into chicks movie ever made , "Antonio, Rocket, RedSteve, fug you, too".

Rowdy Zip, very well put. You have presented an excellent analysis of the entire situationThe lower blue seats are to this day filled with dead wood. Older adults who still yearnfor the gentile era of division three basketball. They were raised to be sedate. Theywill always be sedate. All we can hope for is for them to die off.I sympathize with you. I am over sixty years old. I am constantly told to sit down,shut up, leave the building. Once, during the Huggins era I was forceably removedfrom the arena because I swear at the officals occasionally and the lady who workedfor the Lord Almighty Jim "I can't coach at the I-A level" Dennison complained.Fortunately, Huggs saw to it that I was allowed back to my season seats. EventuallyGentleman Jim "I can't coach at the I-A level" Dennison left the university and so didMiss Wedgie.This has been the best year in my life span for Zips sports. Enjoy it. Promote it.Tell anyone who will listen how much you like being a Zips fan and what the school isdoing. Most people rarely get input on what is going on because the newspapers,TV, radio all promote that team down state that no real Zips fan gives a tinkers dam about.MSOPHER .. .here's a tip. Instead of bitching about what the arena looked like on TV,drag your sorry a$$ to the arena and help fill it up. I'm going off on you because youcontinually make snide remarks about Akron sports. If you love Toledo so damnedmuch go do your grad work there.

Antonio Babyyyyyyy ... !!!Fifteen hundred tickets remain? Is that 1,500 REAL tickets or 1,500 Cant State tickets?Aren't you folks playing what's their name? er, Butler? RPI what? Oh, so sorry, theyhave better RPI than Cant State has.Are you projecting a Cant State loss? In fact, why bother to go to the game at all?Its just going to interfere with the local bars who do not have ESPN-U on their cable.Perhaps you should personally buy up the remaining 1,500 tickets out of your own deeppocket and treat little have not children of Stow-Cant to a fun game? What? Cant Statemight lose? How embarrassing. How honest. How likely.You should thank Bill 'wonder how he found his way to Cant' Livingston for the fine lockerroom material. The Zips deeply appreciate that.Let's see, 1,500 multiplied by two, carry the one, subtract for the floor sweepers, addnine for the concession stand folks ... ah, yes, going to be at least 3,000 people thereon Saturday to watch their beloved Flushes go down the toilet.Cant ReadCant WriteCant CountCant Protect Your Student SectionCant State(sorry, RAT, it was just too good to pass up)

Z.I.P. only way I ever see the socker stuff if I sign in as oppossed to just visiting. I think that's the ticket. BTW .. the fracking blizzard was way east of Zippyland.

LOL .... "fish wrap" Brings back memories of my childhood. My father always wrappedfish we caught in Lake Erie in the PD. He claimed the ink the ABJ used leached ontothe fish.I agree. The PD rarely has much worth reading unless you like the Suckeyes. EltonAlexander does an honest job of covering the Zips. I like him. I also like Tom Gafneyand hope he becomes a real "homer" for the Zips.

Fear the Roo, I know Ratfink. Although I haven't spoken with him today, I'm prettysure that he wont mind if you post his report. Just do it. Rat is straight up and a totalZips fan. Frankly, I am kind of surprised he hasn't already done it himself.Fear the Roo ... !!!

In an e-mail to me from Z.I.P. ----->I just noticed that another coach for the Dallas Texans club is ex-UAAll-American Roderick Scott, who played on the 86 finalist team. Won'tbe surprised if he joins Porter and Higginbotham. Rod played for theDallas Sidekicks in the Major Indoor Soccer League, and was a Canadiannational team member.

A letter to me from Z.I.P. ---->First major news out of new Coach Caleb Porter's office: his leadassistant will be Ryan Higginbotham -- West Texas coaching director forthe Dallas Texans Soccer Club -- one of the best youth socker programsin the nation. Ryan coached Lee Nguyen -- last year's national Freshmanof the Year for Indiana. His two immediate past coaches are now joinedtogether. Meanwhile Nguyen has fled the country -- signing to play forDutch champions PSV Einhoven along with US World Cup wing DeMarcusBeasley.I'm thinking that Eddie Johnson, the leading scorer on the US WCqualifying squad also played for the Texans. They are filled with greatplayers from across Longhorn country. Look out SMU -- no more will yousteal players out of Ohio! Sorry, Rich, did not want a blogger (nee Rasor) to write this up first. Good stuff.

I, too, am concerned.Driving away from Cant State the loss freshly on my mind it occurred to me that KD(whom I love and admire) missed a great window of opportunity.Last spring when the coaching staff was first alerted to Bubba Walther's unhappinessand desire to move on they missed a golden opportunity. They dug in and convincedyoung, dare I say immature, Walther to stay in the program. In retrospect it seemsthat giving him his release at that time would have been best for all parties.Ohio U gets to fork over a scholarship year for a player they cannot use and never willget much out of. Akron frees up a scholarship that could have been used to procurea JUCO player with a greater skill inventory than Bubba has. The guard situationwould be much brighter for us today. Hopefully Coach D remembers this in the future.While Coach does not like to bring in JUCO players this situation warranted one.Since we cannot change the past let us address the near term future. The Zips badlyneed a floor leader. Last season Romeo held that role. This season opponents havetaken to boxing him and covering him. Neither Linhart or Preston have picked upthe mantle in the paint. One or the other must take it upon himself to shoulderenough of the load that opponents can not afford to double Travis.The three guards have been admirable in their relentless pressure on opponents. Wecannot live and die by the three. To win the ball must go inside.Thus, to me, our near term future depends on either Linhart or Preston getting toughin the middle. This means just that. Hard nosed play in the paint. Rob loves toplay the swing man and he has a great three point shot. But, he needs to give us someminutes of hard nose banging inside. Nate needs to forget he is a freshman. Afterall, he now has twenty college games under his belt. Nate play power forward moreand swing man less. Bang inside. Take the lumps. and when Nate needs a blow putRybak in. Let John get more floor time. He needs it and so do the Zips.Matt Futch, got to love him, plays like a bull in a china shop. He plays his heart out.Could he be a positive factor down the stretch? I am inclined to let Matt play just as hehas been. Staying out of trouble enough to give enough floor minutes to rest the others.I hate losing to Cant.AK-Rowdies ... you kids did my heart proud. Love you all.

Spring Game set for Saturday, April 15th.

Our problem with the Leakin' Urinal is with their management. Until such time as they accept that they are a newspaper that serves northeast Ohio and not the Columbus area we have little hope of changing how they treat sports.For a while the Zips got great coverage right after there was a serious campaign of letter writing complaining about Columbus State getting top dog treatment. It only takes a couple of letters to the editors from the eighty year old mind set whining about where are the Columbus State stories to cause them to revert back.Write more letters.

Found this posted on the MAC boards. Interesting read. Confirms that Can't got another fricking home TV game in the Bracket Buster. Got to wonder who is screwing who.Bracket Buster News ArticleWe are not mentioned. Definitely NOT playing at an MVC school.

Playing Nevada would be awful news for the Zips.Akron is the fifth best RPI for the fifty road teams. Evenly matched we should be playingCreighton. But, Creighton doesn't want to play us. They are arrogant and think theycan't improve their RPI by pounding our butts.This may well cut us out of any chance of a national TV game on ESPN2. Hacks me to seeAXEME crowing on the MAC boards how Can't is getting on TV. Is there any justice?We will soon learn our fate. I am not optimistic.Nevada is a good team. A really good team, there is no problem playing them. Its theseeding for TV that upsets me. We earned a shot on TV.

ZIP37 is correct. The Leakin Urinal is directionally challenged.Perhaps we could help them out by getting the name of their favorite team changed from "thee" Ohio State to say, "thee" Central Ohio State, or, "thee" Middle Ohio State, or, "thee Not Michigan Ohio State. You get the picture.Sadly, Tom Gaffney, the newest LU sports writer covering the Zips actually likes us.

Both schools and the two newspapers gave more than adequate accounts of the game.I wont recap the stats, etc., here. Instead, I'll give my courtside evaluation of the game.First off, unfortunately, referees are best when no one notices them. This was not casethis evening. I pray they were Horizon League officials. If they were MAC officials wewere more than badly treated. Let's assume they were from the Horizon so I do notblow a gasket. They were the epitome of "homers." We were credited with what, fourblocked shots? More like nine with most being whistled as fouls. Ugly.Cleveland State has a great defensive scheme. They just go out and mug theiropponent. Ask Nick Dials whom they mauled all night or Dru who took a shot in theback so hard he tumbled into the back court. No blood, no foul. Once Dials drove thewide open lane and took a whack on the arm so hard it reminded me of a karate chop.No foul, naturally. Shame on the refs.Toward the end of the game (CSU had three fouls) the Vikings had to mug, as in foul,repeatedly just to be able to play the foul instantly game. Fortunately the Zips knockeddown most the opportunities. Hey, Dru, I know its tiring to get battered all evening,but, shoot free throws like they are important. Ced knocked his down.CSU is close to becoming a good team. They start just one senior and only have twoon their roster. Good thing we play them at home next year. They start a big, toughfreshman who did a good job inside most of the night. Fortunately, he had little help.The butts in the seats tally officially was 2718. Not a chance, 1500 tops. A good 500 ormore were in gold and blue. Akron fans were louder than the CSU fans. Then again,they had more to cheer about.I sat right next to a 14 year old CSU fan I'd love to have as a Zips fan. He knew allCSU players and their strengths. Of course, he had no clue as to any deficiencies.That makes for a true fan. He was a pleasure to listen to as he optimistically gavea play by play account of CSU on offense. Every shot was "money in the bank", or, "count it," especially the treys (CSU was 3 of 16). Still, he provided me some joybecause of his faith and love of his team. He took the loss in stride. He was alreadylooking forward to his next game (Butler in a couple of weeks).I hope Akron has a number of young people with such zeal and lack of guile. It suremade up for the poor officiating. Zips won a tough one.

Darn flu or crud or what ever it is has me up at two AM.I am troubled to see anyone calling for coach Kennedy's hide. She came on boardto a team that had been ravaged by previous coaches. A team that for most partwas not even a Div.-I caliber. Saddled with years of inept coaching, poor recruitingand no spirit the Akron women were a joke. It was long accepted that they were atrue bottom feeder, a joke if you will.Coach Kennedy came on knowing the history of the program. Any coach knows youcan do a quick turn around with a few talented recruiting classes. Kennedy tried.Getting talent to even visit let alone commit has been an up hill battle.Finally coach snagged a few good perimeter players. Enough to put up a fight. But,in Division One ball you need post players. Without them there is no hope. Talented,athletic women's post players are darn hard to come by for any team let alone alowly bottom feeder program.This year coach Kennedy finally managed to sign two taller post players. They are intheir senior year of high school. They can not help until next season. Even thenthey will be freshmen.Coach needs a second class of post players and a year to season the incoming girls.Lets give her those two more years. Coach has great heart and no small amount of coaching skills. What she needs is time and players. Finally the players are coming.In the meanwhile, if winning is your only criterion, go cheer for Can't State. They areblessed with Bob Lindsay. Lindsay is as fine a women's college coach as you will everfind.Or, we can fire the women's coach every few years and say we are making progress.After all, that is exactly what Can't State does with its football team.

You previous posters made some great comments. Pretty much right on target.What I saw last night at the game was that three minute collapse at the end of thehalf. I agree it should have not beeen allowed. That was the ideal time to finishoff Toledo. They could have been sent to the locker room down 20 to 25.I noticed that Nick Dials seemed to be in pain and or a funk. He was really spotty.Nick is usually steady. Cedric Middleton needed to be on the floor longer. Ced ledthe second half charge that put UT away. Nick needs less minutes in order to keephim healthy for the whole season.While we do need a fourth guard I think that person is Chad Marz. He has the experience both in high school and college to play with these guys. He was onthe same team with Rome, Dru and LeBron. He has two solid years at Div-3 wherehe excelled. I like Zach Sowers myself. However, inside source tells me that hehas difficulty staying in the rythym of the game. He is great when its free for all time.But, the Zips actually do have a stategy of chaos that takes effort to execute. Mraz has the edge on this.Futch was a load. That is far and away the best game I have seen him play. Helooked like the player we expected him to be.I anguish over the treatment of Darryl Peterson. Sorry, but that kid is a bonafidestarter in my book. DP should be getting 20-25 minutes a game. As much as Ilike coach I feel there is something a miss between coach and DP. I would loveto see it cured. We need DP on the floor. Seven rebounds offsets light duty defense.The freshman are supurb. Seeing Jimmy Conyers sitting behind the bench makesyou ponder how good this team could have been.Have heard, too, that we may never see Jerimah Wood in a Zips uniform again.Word is that Wood's knee is in better condition than Dials' is. A little matter ofheart, desire and soul.Referee Phil Bova actually gave us a really good game behind the whistle. The othertwo were turkeys that seemed to me to influence in Toledo's favor any chance theygot. Dru being called for a foul when the UT player lost his balance reboundingthe ball and fell on DRU. The UT player dribbling the baseline with his footcompletely out of bounds and no call. Rome being called for travelling when hewas knocked to the floor pulling down a rebound. Its still the MAC.I listened to portions of the UT post game as I drove home. Their announcers madethe game sound like Akron barely got past the Rockets. More a matter of luck thangetting out played. They continually pointed out favorable UT stats. It was a funride home listening to their apologetics.

Its time to set a couple of points straight.TwoLeeDew Sprocket your facts are wrong. Akron lost to Army 20-0.Attendance of the Can't State game on Thanksgiving morning (kudosto ESPN for this rediculous time slot) was mitigated by the fact that the game was played in a raging blizzard. That nearly 9,000 soulsbraved that weather is IMPRESSIVE. Got that?It is estimated that about 15,000 Zips fans made the trip to the MotorCity Bowl. A distance of 180 miles. TwoLeeDew is a mere 55 milesfrom Detroit. TwoLeeDew never put 15,000 of their fans in Ford Fieldseats for the MCB. Never. Don't bullship us.TwoLeeDew from the "strong" west division finished second to NorthernIllinois by virtue of LOSING to NIU 35-17 at home. Not in DeKalb, in thebroken Glass Bowl. 35-17 is generally considered an ass kicking. In fact,losing 35-17 at home is an ass kicking in anybody's book, even yours.Lowly, unworthy, undermanned, out gunned Zippys BEAT (as in defeated)mighty western division chanpion Northern Illinois not once, but TWICEto earn their trip to the Motor City Bowl.What is your facking problem? The suggestion that you suffer from aninfantile penis may be on the mark.Fear the Roo ... !!!

Update on Boston College. BC has replaced a home game in 2006 against UMASS with a home game against BYU. Maine is the only remaining I-AA opponent on their schedule. This is a home game. Observation. If BC is going to play at Akron in 2006 it will almost certainly have to be a replacement for the C'ant State game. Meanwhile, C'ant State going 1-10 in 2005 has an incentive to soften their schedule. Playing BC is probably not worth the money. C'ant can't afford to trash their season for a few bucks.

Interesting speculations on football recruiting floating about. People concerned that the Zips are being out recruited by C'ant State. Really? How many kids flock to play for a program that is a perennial loser? Recruiting at C'ant State has to be a nightmare for any coach. Kids love to play for a winner. They want to be on TV. Even kids with only the talent or size to play at lower levels dream of being an NFL star. That carrot motivates ninty-nine percent of them. If that were not so, why is the Varsity A club room at the Rubber Bowl decked out in "Look who we sent to the NFL" motif? The final determination of how good a recruiting class comes when that class is playing as juniors. Not on signing day, not on red shirt day, not any day except that junior year. Who is left standing? Who made the two deeps? Who is on the field? What is their record? Been to a post season bowl lately? When a lot of freshmen and red shirt freshmen make the two deep, the team is either in the midst of rebuilding or has recruited incredible talent, or, in Akron's case, both. This year's team is young and talented. Most of us rightfully expect the recruiting to continue to improve. See above. Kids want to play on a winning team. It is encouraging to read that Chris Wells is shopping. His senior year was not the greatest. Still, the kid has talent and good coaching can get him up a notch or two. Perhaps there are rumblings down the road at Columbus State about other running backs they are offering to. Its a rare big time school that can warehouse talent these days. OSU is certainly not one of them. Counting verbals ranks right up there with counting unhatched eggs. Personally, I like the way JD keeps his commits under wraps. No need to advertise to bigger schools who is in your camp. They will only come to raid. Better the kid be off the radar as much as possible. Based on two excellent years of recruiting under JD and the great results I expect that the next signing class will even excel over this year's outstanding group. Fear the Roo

BUCKZIP, minor update ... the Zips are currently 7-5 with a possibility of being 8-5. Think 8-5 might be a better qualifier for National Coach of the Year? What JD has really contributed to Akron is VITALITY. That is what makes him so appealing.

Looks like any possibile meeting with a Big Ten opponent is out of the question. The Big Ten has seven bowl eligible teams this year. Two are definitely headed to BCS games (Penn State and Columbus State). That leaves five teams to fill six bowl affiliations. Since the Motor City Bowl would normally get the seventh rated Big Ten team there is no team available this year. One web site has a nice tracking of the bowl match ups. Bowl Predictions - 2005 While they are projecting the Zips playing New Mexico I do not see this as a likely match up due to the distance for New Mexico fans to travel. Also, New Mexico is similar to Akron in having a weak fan base. Before anyone climbs on my back ... yes, we have a weak fan base. Twenty four thousand students were offered a free bus ride to the MACC game and a free ticket to the game. Three hundred and ninty actually went. That is pathetic. Time and wins will cure this ill. My hat is doffed for the AK-Rowdies and others who were in Detroit. They are showing the way for the future. I was pleased to be among those in attendance. Akron fans showed there IS a genuine interest that is growing among Zip fans. There are currently sixty two bowl eligible teams with the possibility of UConnie becoming the sixty third if they could upset Louiseville. There are twenty eight bowls yielding 56 spots for teams. The MAC has seven bowl eligible teams. This means there is still an outside possibility of NIU, Miami, Western Michigan or even BGSU getting a call. Even though the odds are against it the possibility remains. I was reading the spite on the MACbbs among the NIU fans. For shame that they feel they do not deserve a bowl bid because they lost to "lowly" Akron. The game stats prove that Akron is the best defense in the MAC. The three and out (twice) at the end of the game to give Akron's offense a chance to win the game reflects how far the Zips have come. I had the good fortune to sit with Derek Wilborn, a former Zips linebacker, on the return bus ride. He credits LO with recruiting him to help "build the foundation" for a winning program. Let us give LO the credit he is due. Coaches like Gerry Faust and Lee Owens did lay the foundation for a solid I-A caliber program. They set the table for championship win. JD is proving himself to be a fantastic up and coming young coach. I agree we need to induce JD to stay. Unless you are living in a fantasy world, college programs in trouble are already eyeing JD. I do not feel bad for NIU. They laid it all out on the field. They played a great game. Akron won because they played just a bit better than NIU. Luke Getsy delivered. Give him the credit due. Dominick, baby, you are the greatest. That game gave ESPN their money's worth. While most sports fans love to click the remote and scan more than one site, you can rest assured that a large national audience watched the last several minutes. They saw two worthy opponents go toe to toe. They saw what Zip fans have known for years. We can play.

UCONN, one of collegiate sports arm pits for fan sportsmanship got their collective noses rubbed in **it today. Through out the contest a persistent group of flamers tormented Akron's goalkeep, Evan Bush. The taunts were loud, constant and vulgar. Rest safe knowing that the arrogance of the east coast toilet mouths was clipped but good by the very man they invested the bulk of their torments. Evan Bush proved his metal by stopping two of the five PKs (penality kicks) while UCONN's keep let four get past him. Weep not for these putzs. They are free to wallow in their stale beer as they demand a recount admist crys of "wait until next year". Reporting live from Storrs, CT ..... GoZips

Sad news. The Zips lost 1-0 to Indiana in the fourth minute of the first overtime. Heck of a performance playing without Ross MacKenzie.

ZIPS STRIKE AGAIN: Two More Commitments For Akron Over the weekend the University of Akron struck big getting two huge Ohio commitments as Chris McKnight, a 6-foot-6 senior power forward from Lancaster, and Darryl Roberts, a 5-foot-10 senior point guard, committed to the Zips. “McKnight is a slightly undersized power forward,†Stovall said of Ohio’s No. 4-ranked power forward and No. 14 overall prospect in the state. “He is a very good scorer and rebounder with a great work ethic. He is seldom outworked in the paint. He played this summer for Scott Luzader and the Columbus Basketball Club.†Roberts is another strong pick up. “Roberts is a solid point guard, who is able to score and run a team,†Stovall said. “He split this past summer between the D1 Greyhounds and the Toledo All-Stars.†Roberts is ranked the No. 2 point guard and No. 25 player overall in Ohio's senior class. This gives Akron 3 commitments out of Ohio including 6'9" Sr. C Mike Bardo of Cincinnati Oak Hills. Congratulations and great job to Keith Dambrot, Shaka Smart and the entire Akron staff.