Captain Kangaroo

I disagree.The Ohio State game is the only "pure" money game on our schedule. And I don't think you'd find a Zips player who wouldn't give their left nut for the opportunity to play is the horse shoe on fall Saturday afternoon. We played there a few years ago...nobody died. In fact, if John Fuller doesn't tip that pass into the OSU receiver's hands for a TD, that game is tight going into the 4th quarter. And that Zips team wasn't very good. A 6-6 Marshall team took OSU to the final gun a few years ago. Playing the Buckeye close can be done by a "mid major."Indiana is much closer to a mid-major than it is a BCS pimp. Ditto UConn. If we were an upper-level MAC team, those are winnable games. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting paid a few hundred thousand dollars to play teams that should be roughly your equal. I still contend the game in Cleveland is great. And it should be counted as a home game.There are aspects of the schedule I hate. Especially the weekday November games. I'll save that for another thread on another day.

The "other" Canadian I hope has already signed his letter of intent is 6'5", about 240 lbs.The Zach Anderson move strikes me as a bit odd too. I had a friend who's a big OSU fan call me when Anderson signed with the Zips and congratulated me. This guy NEVER does stuff like that, so it made me pretty pumped about Zach. But, he didn't play last season...and our OL struggled...so it makes you wonder a little.OL's usually don't see the field until their Soph year anyhow, so I'm not all that concerned.Our DL needs help bigtime. If our OL depth is such that we could afford to shift a guy to the defensive side, I'm all for it.We'll see if there's anything to it tomorrow, I guess. It could be JD was just playing "mad scientist" for a day.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Miami transfer Drew Johnson will not be eligible to play for the Zips in 2007 due to NCAA transfer rules. Look for him in '08.Corey Woods is rumored to have made one of the bigger "jumps" in performance from the fall of '06 to the spring of '07. Good news for those of us concerned about the new faces along the OL this coming fall.If David Harvey wants to be a Zip this fall, it is up to him. He's not transferring anywhere. If he wants to play football, it will be @ UA in 2007. If he doesn't...it's off to the working world, I guess?See everyone Sunday! Looks like any tailgating will be relegated to BW-3's based on the forecast?

Yes...the long-awaited trek of the two big, "mystery" DL's to the University of Akron is nearing a close!Sources say by the end of this week we could see a commitment from a big defensive tackle from Canada who committed to Michigan State in 2006, but never attended the school. I believe he would be eligible to play in 2007. Who is it? I'll speculate it is 2007 Milford Academy DL:VAUGHN MARTINDT • 6-3 • 323London, Ontario (South Secondary School)HIGH SCHOOL AND PERSONAL DATA: Represented Team Canada in the 2006 NFL Global Junior Championship in Detroit . . . named to the NFL Global Junior Championship X All-Tournament Team after helping Team Canada to a perfect 5-0 record, including five shutouts . . . ranked fourth on Team Canada in tackles with 9.5 (9 solos, 1 assist) . . . produced four tackles for losses (12 yards) in the tournament, including two sacks (9 yards) . . . recorded three solo hits, including a 4-yard sack, in Team Canada's 10-0 victory over Team U.S.A. in the championship game . . . made three solo stops, including one for a loss, in a third-round game vs. Team U.S.A. . . . registered his first sack of the tournament in the opening-round game vs. Team Japan . . . spent the last two summers playing for the Forest City Thunderbirds in the Central Ontario Football League . . . three-year starter for Coach Mike Stenning at South Secondary School in London, Ontario . . . ranked among the top 12 defensive ends in Ontario by All-Star Football and Weir's Magazine . . . posted 90 tackles in 2004, including five for losses . . . saw action at defensive end, defensive tackle and fullback in high school . . . son of Doreen Francis . . . born Dec. 30, 1989 in Jamaica. The name of the second "mystery" DL is also TBD. Stay tuned...

I'll keep my fingers crossed!!We have several scholarships to give after the 2007-8 senior class graduates. There's no question he'd be given one of them if he decided to continue his education at UA.Get on the phone, Swiech and McNees! Start text messaging your WPa Fab 5 teammate today!!! Let's get Lance in Akron!!

Click for Story on Toledo RB Apparently Practicing the Shotgun FormationHe's from Warren...was he also packing any of this during the rampage?Scooter McDougal, Ray Williams and now Davis. Toledo really DOES have a lot of depth at RB. But who would want it?

I'd love to hear a Maynard Ferguson tribute this fall!

GoZips.com didn't highlight the date change. I'm just posting this heads-up in case anyone missed it.

WHOA!!! I didn't realize they changed the game date to Sunday!! I only saw the "carnival" date. I'm glad you mentioned it or I would have been one lonely tailgater Saturday at 2pm!!

It makes you wonder. Everyone at the University has access to the same 5-day forecast we do. Beyond the weather factor, who's going to show up on a Sunday for something like that? If is was held on the street between the JAR and the practice facility immediately prior to the game, I could see it having a chance...but the day following?

Based upon the NCAA selection process in 2007, that's not true. We won 26 games this season and it didn't get squat. It isn't the number of wins, it is "who have you beaten?" Why would playing Duke be such a mistake? K.e.n.t. only lost to them by 7? Duke lost to VCU in the NCAA's this year? I'd put them on the schedule today if I could.Is playing Indiana such a big deal? Butler beat Indiana this year. Butler can, but the Zips can't? I disagree.OSU was the #2 team in the nation this season. Yeah they would have beaten the Zips, but you can say the same thing for about 330 other D1 schools. This year's Zips squad would have given OSU a decent game.No one cares if you beat Binghamton, NC A&T, Tiffin, and Niagra. The Zips would be better off playing OSU, Indiana, Pittsburgh and West Virginia and winning a game or two than to sweep a bunch of stiffs or 20-win, sub-mid-majors. That was proven this season.

For sh!ts and grins, I wanted to see what Waddell was doing for the UC spring game. Compare. Which is the better spring game format? Click for Zips EventsClick for University of Cincinnati EventsI like the UC stuff where fans get to call a few plays, get to announce some plays, etc. I don't think the Sunday carnival thing at UA will draw flies.

True. But it is possible to be successful in both, if the University is committed to excellence. I still contend that K.e.n.t. went to the NCAA's 4 out of the previous 8 years. K.e.n.t. has a football team. Miami went to the NCAA's this season...they've been to 17 NCAA tourneys in their history. And, they've been to several football bowl games in recent years. The MAC, and its lone NCAA bid, is there for the taking year-in-year-out. We can control ourselves only so far. We need to MAC to step it up. But I don't see it happening. Our commissioner's idea of strengthening the MAC is to add Temple in football-only. A guy that thinks like that isn't the "idea guy" that's going to catapult the MAC into a 2-bid NCAA touney conference. I like the MVC's method of "calling out" the bottom feeders. Make them produce, or hit them in the wallet. I really think that's the only way to up the level of play in the MAC. It would take a commish with some big kahunas to integrate it. And as cyclical as the MAC is, I don't know that the concept would be welcome by the member schools. Within the last decade, most all MAC schools have been in the top-3 as well as the bottom three. It wasn't all that long ago the Ball State and EMU dominated.

Freudian slip? I am against the domed stadium for the following reasons:1.) Cost - We're scraping to get money for an open-air facility. There's no way in hell we could afford the 2X to 2.5X multiplier you'd need to add on to get a dome. At least without selling our souls to the devil.2.) Asthetics - Domes are U-G-L-Y. Yeah, Ford Field is nice. But the Zips wouldn't get that. For what's in Mack Roades wallet we'd get some piece of crap dinner theater facility like Idaho . No thanks.3.) Basketball - The JAR is going on 25 years old. We've yet to outgrow it. I'm not too concerned we'll outgrow it any time soon. The existing building is fine, if it were gutted and re-done. The Zips will never need more than a 7k-8k arena for hoops. A cavernous dome with a curtain down the middle would suck for hoops.4.) Another practice facility? - We have the best practice facility around, with a full length indoor football field. Next to it...we're going to build another full length indoor field? It makes no sense. MAC schools just don't do things like that, and with good reason. 5.) Community use - If we get an outdoor field with Field Turf, an open-air facility can be used for soccer, HS football regular season and playoff games, concerts and other things. It would get plenty of use. I don't see an Akron dome out-bidding the existing Cleveland facilites for the stupid, ancillary stuff if it were open in the winter. It would be vacant.6.) Warmth - Forgive me, but I can handle watching football in the cold. I'm from Ohio. The Zips regular football season extends from late August to late November. The fall season from August-the end of October is typically flat-out awesome football weather. And, there's nothing worse than leaving a beautiful, 65 degree fall day to walk inside a sterile dome to watch a football game. Can November suck? Sometimes it does. Big deal...that's why God invented the flask. Ford Field makes sense for a pro team in Detroit because they need to be prepared to play games from August through late January (even though the Lions will never play in January, they still need to plan for it). The Zips regular season will NEVER reach December. And if the team is any good, dome-lovers will always be guaranteed two games in a dome as a reward anyhow (MACC and the MCB).Things look worse than they are regarding Zips football and the NE Ohio weather due to the retarded scheduling of the past couple years, and this upcoming season. I HOPE the new stadium affords us the opportunity to play the majority of our home games in Aug/Sept/Oct with some regularity. I hope...Did I mention I hate domes?

I wish we had the choice of two guys of their talent level at every position. I like them both.

I think I know where you are going with this, and I agree.When I was growing up, there was a certain group of people at my church and school that would say, "If you took the best Catholic kids around the country and made a football team out of them, nobody could beat them." Translation: "I'm uncomfortable with the amount of black kids playing football because I'm a narrow minded hick, so I've made up this fantasy in order to feel better about my racist views without having to outwardly express them." I'm not pointing the finger at anyone on the board, but if the shoe fits......I found it interesting that Harvey was the first player on the board that I can remember to have himself AND his family attacked on this board. Shame on the board!Whatever happens to Harvey happens. I'll be at the games regardless. Let's hope he returns to the team to be a productive player though. I read through this thread in detail. I found NOTHING racist and NOTHING attacking Harvey's family. What the hell are you talking about?That is pretty strong stuff you posted GP. And it doesn't appear to have any merit. Zero. And it doesn't reflect well on our board. The best player on the team is not in spring camp. Fans are allowed to discuss that without fear that someone is going to spin it into a race issue. If Charlie Frye were not in camp in 2003, fans would be asking the same questions. For the same reasons. It is as simple as that."Shame on the board" my f-ing ass. Shame on you for pulling race into a standard sports issue.

I thought about chugging battery acid from a beer bottle , but thought better of it.

we would run into alot of scheduling problems if that were to happen, so i dont see it even coming close to happening.Me neither. And if our stadium turned out to be a dome, I'd turn in my season tickets. Then I'd vomit. Then I'd cry. Then I'd throw water balloons filled with my own blood and every preson responsible for selecting a domed structure. Then I'd hire a ninja to kick them in the nutsack . I'd go to bed and when I'd wake up I'd poke those same people in the eye with a sharp stick, sealing one of their eyes shut . I'd beat them with a folding chair, a la Ravishing Rick Rude and give them a "swirlly" in the toilet .I don't want a domed stadium.

If this were Columbus and Ted Ginn had missed spring practice due to "whatever," it would have been front page news. Everyone would know what the story was. The Zips "Ted Ginn" is David Harvey. I can't imagine how terrible our offense would have been in 2006 without his quick-strike threat. If anyone wants to fawn over the local paper's coverage of the Zips, they need to get real. Harvey's absence from the Zips Spring drills is the biggest U of A sports-related topic at this time and no one is addressing it. That's flat-out pathetic. Supporters of the Program deserve better than vague, open-ended excuses regarding Havey's situation. At any other school, you'd know something of substance by now.On a tangent to GP1's comment: Harvey got by on raw athleticism last year. He ran a TON of bad routes. He and Lindsay were constantly on each other's heels. His not participating in the Spring's drills hurts him a lot. Assuming he would be on the team next season, he will be substantially behind in the learning curve. With 3 first-year QB's, that will hurt us big time. And, it really opens the door for a guy like Vince Hill to cut into his PT.I always have taken guys that are "too good to be true" with a grain of salt. I recall the excitement when Marcus Sanders transferred from Minnesota. Look what he did as a Zip. Nate Robinson was a nationally ranked 5-star DL…he couldn't crack the starting line up on a very poor Zips 2006 DL. In basketball, "Mr Basketball" Emmanuel Smith was a total bust, as was national Top 50 player John Carson.My prediction - Harvey is done. I don't base that on any conversations I've had with anyone. I base it solely on history. When a team's most highly-touted, talented player drops off the face of the earth, that's not good. He has…and it's not.

Dru Joyce has no chance to play in the NBA. Earl Boykins similarities to Dru end with the fact that they are both short.

It's over. Take it to Bucknuts if you want to continue.

If he wanted to play football he'd be best off playing for the Zips this upcoming season to prove himself. He has one year of eligibility remaining (for a sport other than hoops). From everything I've heard, he has about zero interest in a football career.

I understand your point, but disagree. We have 3 QB's in the spring who have a combined 5(?) D1A snaps under their belt. I think Jackson has all 5. These guys need to prove, amongst many other things, that they can take a lick. Or, deliver one. Red "Don't hit me" shirts are for the upper-classmen QB's. That's not our situation.

If you can sift through the keyboard diarrhea in the smack forum (mostly excreted by one poster) you will find two key points made that will dispel your statement:1.) The comment was clearly made that the "anti-OSU" stuff has a home IN THE SMACK FORUM. If Dr. Z's funny picture was posted in the "Football" forum, the pro-OSU crowd would have a legit beef about the topic. But it wasn't. If OSU fans, or anyone else, can't handle the smack, they should avoid that forum. 2.) It was specifically stated that comments regarding Ohio State Football, as they relate to the Zips, are welcome because they ARE an opponent this fall. Again, if you can sift through the sewage, you will find it was a thin-skinned OSU fan who fought, and continues to fight the notion that U of A can be held in a similar light to OSU by some. This is highly offensive to many Zips fans.It is very simple. This is a University of Akron Athletics forum. It exists, and is moderately popular because there really is no other outlet for supporters of University of Akron Athletics to discuss their passion. It will remain 100% dedicated exclusively to U of A athletics and related topics (MAC, NCAA policies, etc.). If someone wants to discuss issues involving the Cavs, OSU, etc, with no relevance to UA, there are a million other places to do so.Also please keep in mind that those who run this board don't have the spare time to police it every minute. And they don't have the time to edit every sentence that might be objectionable to someone (we're at about 1,000 registered members if you filter out the spammers). When there is a gray area, the Zips fan will always get the benefit of the doubt on this board. There's no fee to access this board. If anyone doesn't like how it is run, there's no one forcing them to participate.There are many Akron/OSU fans on this site who "get it." There are also many "Akron/Notre Dame" fans and "Akron/Michigan" fans who participate here and "get it." They leave their loyalties for their "other" favotite school at the door when they enter ZipsNation. Respect the fact that this is a Zips site. Zips fans fight the OSU machine for respect every day in the newspaper, on the radio, at school, in the workplace…everywhere. This is one place Zips fans can come and be treated like the top dog in town. It will always remain that way.

Kansas State took a flyer on Huggins, giving him a chance after his DUI debacle. That's pretty weak for Huggins to stiff Kansas State only one year after they picked him up from the proverbial gutter? Yeah, WVU is his alma mater, blah blah blah....it is still weak on his part. Sucks to be Bill Walker.