Captain Kangaroo

What will it take to ever get Bob Junko (former Zips DC in the Faust era) off the sidelines? He's the "Dick LeBeau" of Pitt.

One word - Polytechnic.

It isn't the only thing that's hollow with you.

That has ZERO to do with the Zips and InfoCision.

I think you confuse "fill" with sell-out. No "normal" college football or basketball program ("normal" = the bottom 90%) sells-out their stadium/arena 100% of the time. The breakdown I gave above is what anyone should expect from a reasonably-winning program. Our football attendance issue has ZERO to do with Ohio State. It has EVERYTHING to do with 1-11/1-11/1-11. It is no cop-out. It is reality. Prove to me that a winning team in InfoCision will not draw fans. PLEASE prove that to me. Until then, all arguments ring hollow. We win, we average 20k. That pays the bills and will shut everyone up. I pray it happens.

Look at how many Cleveland Indians fans packed Jacobs Field when they won. Look at how many "pack" Progressive when they are mediocre. Look at how many Steelers fans are in Browns Stadium when the Browns suck. They outnumber Browns fans. Winning, and winning consistently, does fill stadiums. And mediocrity and losing leaves them empty. People on this board will point to the Lee Owens era as proof that winning doesn't fill stadiums. But his teams won nothing. Owens regularly pounded 1-AA teams, and the dregs of the MAC. But he could never compete for a Championship. And he was playing in the Rubber Bowl. Dambrot does "fill" the JAR. When we play marquee teams, the place is packed. When we play run-of-the-mill teams, it is 65% full. An when we play the dregs, it's 40 - 50% full. That's all you can expect out of a fan base. If the football team did that, we'd be discussing moving to a bigger conference rather than dropping a division. Marketing has an impact. I'm the biggest critic of Scarborough's marketing acumen. He doesn't get that his words and attitude carry weight with everyone from Coaches to alumni to fans. And lack of marketing has hurt us a bit. But on the pie chart of problems with football attendance, it's a sliver.

Changed his name to Kumar Collins for religious reasons I assume?

Poisonous? That's a bit excessive. We have: the exhaustively-reiterated $65 million stadium, and a Bowden as the coacha 20+ win, bi-annual NCAA Tourney-qualifying men's basketball team that should win the MAC again this seasona men's soccer program that's perennially Top 20 in the nation, playing at one of the top facilities in the nationa 20+ win women's basketball programRifle teamMAC Champ Swimming & DivingChampionship Track and FieldPeople need to sit back and objectively review where we stand. Our situation is so far from "poisonous" it's ridiculous. We aren't exactly Coppin State. All we need is an industriously aggressive AD who will take advantage of the huge resources we possess to get football in gear. Our problem is a bean-counter President with seemingly zero Athletics Marketing acumen. He sees the football program strictly in dollars and cents. He can't see potential. Only what's on his 2015 spreadsheet. I'd love to hear Scarborough make a positive, passionate statement regarding the upcoming football season. Can you support your Coach and Team for Christ's sake, instead of letting the stench of the ignorant 1-AA mongers linger? He has the power to make a lot of this hubbub go away, but he doesn't have the personality. The dumbest thing UA could do is put Scarborough's mug up on the InfoCision Jumbotron, or have him hand out a ceremonial football to someone on Summa Field. The 3,290 fans will booo like 100,000. The stadium CAN make money, and the team is poised to win. If Spreadsheet Scott hires the right person, and if he gives them a chance to do his job. I don't know if that will happen. But that's what needs to happen. Quickly.

Incoming Freshman

LOL! Man, does anyone else remember when Levon Pittman led us to that near upset of Penn State! Dylan Evans, huh? .

The people sitting through that meeting should kiss the feet of whomever blackballed that guy. Jesus...they'd have been there all night listening to him drone-on. Larry Snider = Human Nyquil.

Who told you it was confidential information? Maybe if an ABJ writer asked, they'd have received the same answer.

1.) At least one? Your right. Maybe two or three "Ianello's" should be allowed before anyone starts to get concerned. 2.) If he was going to f-up so toxically, it would have been nice if it were hiring a women's soccer coach instead of a coach responsible for filling a 30k seat, $65 million stadium.

After Wistercill botched the Winters hire, UA told him to stay the hell away from the hire that eventually turned out to be Bowden. They need to do a similar thing with Scarborough right now, and stuff a freaking sock in his mouth. If I was a prospective AD candidate and listened to his WAKR interview, I'd back out too.

He was on his 6th year of eligibility, so I think his career is pretty much over. Too bad,,,if healthy, we really could have used him.

On signing day it was mentioned that Ray "still needed to do some work on his SAT scores." Until those are passed, he won't show on any roster.

EA has harped on that "Top 10 WR Group" for a year. If all someone knows is statistics, and has no ability to form an opinion based upon their own eyes and brain, then yes there is probably some statistic that you can rationalize to make the Zips 2014 WR's a Top 10 FBS unit. But if you know anything about football, have a brain, and watched the Zips, I don't think there was one WR that would make the two-deep on any of the Top 50 FBS teams, let alone be a Top 10 unit overall. MAYBE D'Orazio. But no one else is even close.

Three comments: 1.) If you don't know the difference between "eluded" and "alluded," I really can't take your opinion seriously. 2.) If you think that a receiving corp consisting of D'Orazio, LT Smith, Bennett, Bickley and Andrew Pratt is "Top 10" in the FBS, I REALLY can't take your opinion seriously. 3.) For all his weaknesses in other areas, at least EA penned a decent zinger to close it out. It would have been better is he said: "The Zips gave Tom Wistercill $65 million to go to town and buy a decent football program, and when he got home, his mom found he'd spent it all on a magic bag of crap. It's been Bowden's job for 4 years to power wash that dump truck sized mound of crap down the Buchtel Avenue sewer system and give The University of Akron a proper return on it's sizable football investments. This is the year he, and the team comes through."

Speaking to Bowden at the June golf outing, he was very dissatisfied with his returning WR's. No shock that the WR personnel will look completely different in 2015. If MTB were healthy (out for the season), I don't know if he'd be a starter this year. TB had positive things to say regarding Austin Wolf.

Faust got a shout-out from Tim Brown last night.

It will mean they are too lazy and unimaginative to fill a beautiful stadium as well as Toledo, Miami, or any other historically good MAC team would. Scarborough has already stated his plan - blame the poor stadium attendance on others before him. And hope that whatever new AD is chosen can change it. He has no plan to do so on his own, and if he did, it wouldn't matter because he's an Excel spreadsheet guy and not a "get-your-hands-dirty-and-fix-the-problem" guy. .

Name a couple uniique plays he made during his three years that were "freakish," Few and far between. He cheated himself out of a reputation-building, number-retiring senior season. From what I saw, Tree was a borderline mid/upper D-1 fower forward with a bad attitude. Those guys end up playing in Argentina. Which is where he's at. There's a reason he played 1 season of HS basketball, and a reason he didn't have a 4-year college career.

Apparently the Zips didn't want him very badly. What Darius Carter was to Wichita State, he could be to Butler. He could also eventually become disenchanted with his PT and transfer back to his "home town" school for his final couple years. Time will tell.

Wishy-washy, monotone 6 minutes. Very disappointing. At least it was on a radio station that runs on hamster power. "We'll your stuck with the stadium..." says the interviewer. How can Scarborough not strongly respond to that comment? But he didn't. "How many people will be at the Pitt game?" asks the interviewer?" - "Not enough", replies Scarborough. Then he monotonely discusses a new AD and how he'll work on the attendance. No passion whatsoever. Can someone please get this guy a press secretary?

Or Jabari Artur to TE/WR...he played in the CFL for many years. Say what you want about Brookhart...he brought in, and developed WR's at a high level. I love Bowden, but his next above-average D-1 WR will be his first.