Captain Kangaroo

"Penn State Football Eve Presented by Sheetz" Celebration Set For September 1 in Beaver StadiumLions Host Akron For Sept. 2 Season OpenerUNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., July 20, 2006 -- Penn State will kick off the 2006 campaign with "Penn State Football Eve presented by Sheetz" on Friday, September 1. The third-year event starts the new season with a festival-like atmosphere surrounding Beaver Stadium followed by a celebration inside the stadium with the team and Coach Joe Paterno.The "night before" activities outside the stadium include a barbeque, festival food and fun along Curtain Road which will become a fan promenade at 6 p.m. Stadium gates open at 7:00 p.m. for fans who wish to be seated early with a showing of 2005 football highlights. The program inside the stadium starts at 7:45 p.m. featuring the Blue Band, cheerleaders, dance team and videos. The team captains and seniors will be introduced and after Coach Paterno's address to the crowd a new stadium video will be unveiled."Penn State Football Eve presented by Sheetz," which launches the first weekend of the football season, has attracted approximately 25,000 fans at each of its first two events. The Nittany Lions' season opener is against Akron, the 2005 Mid-American Conference champion, on Sept. 2 at 3:30 p.m."We're proud to help continue this tradition at Penn State through our support of Football Eve. We see this getting bigger and better each year," said Louie Sheetz, Vice President-Marketing for Sheetz.Anticipation is running at an all time high for the new season among Penn State fans. More than 20,000 student season tickets sold out in 13 days and more than 90,000 season tickets overall will be distributed. Five games are sold out, with a limited number of tickets remaining only for Akron and Temple (Nov. 11).Admission and parking are free for "Penn State Football Eve presented by Sheetz." Fans are encouraged to drop-in on the State College Spikes game across the street at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Freshman orientation that is being held in the Bryce Jordan Center the same evening will continue in the stadium where the freshman will gain an understanding of student traditions during the football games. FSN Pittsburgh will have a "Who Wants to be an Announcer?" station outside the All-Sports Museum for aspiring sports broadcasters. Kids games, a barbeque, festival food, surprises and an oldies band will all be part of the promenade along Curtain Road.Entering his 41st season as head coach, Paterno's squad returns 34 letterwinners and 11 starters for this season, including returning All-Americans and 2006 co-captains Paul Posluszny and Levi Brown and 2005 All-Big Ten selections Jay Alford and Tony Hunt. Paterno recently was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame and will be inducted in December.A limited number of tickets remain for the Akron and Temple games and are available at www.GoPSUsports.com. Phone orders, counter and group sales for Akron and Temple will begin Friday, July 21 at 8:00 a.m.. The numbers to call are: 814-865-5555 or 800-863-3336 weekdays from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Being a resident of Trumbull County for 18 years I feel uniquely qualified to comment on Vienna Mathews football. :o If the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers are recruiting a kid from Division V1 Mathews I will soon look for them to drop to NAIA status. Frank Solich might recruit him...but he's no longer Nebraska's coach.There is no way on God's green earth Nebraska recruits a kid from one of the smallest schools in Ohio. I don't think the Zips have recruited a kid from a Division VI Ohio school since Ryan Uhlenake circa 1996, let alone Nebraska.It this kid is any good and wants to attend a Division 1-A college, he needs to transfer to Warren JFK...or Mooney...or Ursuline. Nebraska doesn't do backflips when they watch game film of a kid from Mathews steamroll a DL from Southington or McDonald. Do folks in Trumbull County even have VCR's yet?CKMcDonald HS Class of '84

Mathewes HS in Vienna? Even Mineral Ridge beats them! I hear they petitioned the OSHSAA to create a Division VII football division!

Newest Turd QB?

Another Hylton player beginning to attract attention from Division I schools is Omoniyi Bakare, a 5-foot-8 running back who is being recruited as a defensive back. Bakare runs a 4.5-second 40-meter dash, and Sorrentino said Mid-American Conference school Akron has taken notice. Sorrentino also said that safety Rondell Kelley (5-10, 190) is being recruited by several MAC schools and that fullback/defensive end Tommy Moore (5-11, 245) has worked out for North Carolina. Another player receiving attention from some mid-major Division I schools is Woodbridge outside linebacker Na'eem Outler, who is weighing offers from Can't State and Akron and has received some interest from Virginia Tech. Outler (6-2, 215) can run a 4.5 40-yard dash."They like his size, athletic ability and his ability to make plays in space," Woodbridge Coach Keith King said.

Sweich + Him Could Have Been Devastating! - Clique Me

I received a thank you note a couple days ago for my participation in the Zips Football Golf Scramble. It was personalized, thanking the members of the "ZipsNation" in attendance and also signed by JD (not a copy signature). Very nice!

I play softball in Stow Sunday evenings. I noticed one of the opposing players has "Rasor" on the back of his jersey. It turned out to be Mike. We spoke for a few minutes. Very nice guy. He mentioned Larry Pantages is no longer the Beacon Sports Editor. I'm assuming he left to take a job as President of A-holes Anonymous? The new Editor is a U of A grad and apparently a fan of the Zips program. We'll see how that develops...Rasor's Keg-Kickers beat us 10-8, I believe. Bastards.

I think that the early offers and verbals are a necessary evil in college football today. I'm sure coaches would like to wait as long as possible to evaluate players before making an offer, but that doesn't fly now-a-days. I know the Zips staff is somewhat selective on their "early" offers. The kids who verbal early are typically one's the staff is pretty high on, and one's where there's stiff competition from BCS schools. Or, where they feel they've found a real unknown "gem" and try to secure him before anyone else catches wind of him.Do we have too many WR's? Probably not. Jabari didn't really have too many catches last season (until the MCB)...Long has seen limited action...and that about all the experience we've got at that position. That said, I think we're getting near "full" at WR with the early verbals this year, combined with the last recruiting class. If you see another WR taken by the Zips in this class, you can pretty much bank on the staff thinking the kid is pretty "special," or that he may ultimately end up playing a position other than WR for the Zips.Based upon what I've seen from JD thus far, we'll always have a deep stable of quality wide-outs. That's why Getsy is the #5 QB in Akron history after only one season.:blink: WR is JD's specialty...he was one himself...and he also helped develop guys like Antonio Bryant, Larry Fitzgerald and Hixson.

Moon High's Walsh Has an Offer

those are new orders per the ticket office girl today... she told me the same thing and i freaked! she then proceeded to tell me that those are in addition to the renewals that are out. still, that is not excuse, horrible! With no marketing campaign to-date, I'm actually surprised there were 50 order? Without a big marketing push, no one in Akron is thinking Zips football in early July. Everyone in the area is used to just showing up @ the bowl and getting freebies. It's been that way for decades. I was disappointed with the ticket application I received today. How does the typo regarding the kid's ticket prices make it to print? $16.00? That's a big screw up. No parking information? It's July and that's still not decided?What are ZAC members? Am I one? What are the donation levels? Yeah I know the info can be found somewhere on GoZips.CSTV.whatever.com but some information should have been included in the application. At least a web link should have been included. On an unrelated note: What is ZAC and acronym for anyhow? Can the new administration change the name to something better? Hell...Zips Boosters is better than ZAC.I saw a "Gold" and "Blue" ticket package. No where in the literature was it described what the difference was.Seats in sections 3 and 4. Hey, that's great...but where are sections 3 and 4? Is the average akron fan supposed to know this? Is it asking too much to include a small stadium seating chart graphic with the ticket application?I don't get it. I thought we had hired pepople to work on tickets full-time now. It seems to me to be the same debacle as usual. I hope someone has a plan to start pimping tickets better between now and September. What I received today isn't going to get us to 15k. 1.5k, maybe.Does the $6.00 kid's ticket price mean Zippy's kid's club is dead? I'm like Zipsrifle. I have season reserved tickets, but I sit in the endzone. I've never even seen my seats.On the positive side:FINALLY they included the media guide in the season ticket options. I like the option to order my NC State tix now.$65.00 for "gold" seats...whatever they are...is a good deal. I'll renew my two and get a $25.00 kids ticket too.I hereby offer my proofreading services to anyone at the University. Send a preview copy of any announcements to GP1 and me and all your problems will be solved.

I hope so. I've seen NASCAR bodies with less advertising and more easily-readable text.

I can't tell if it is a Zips site or a Serius Radio site? Jesus, are there enough advertisements??!!Here is NC State's. Same format, but much cleaner:Click Me

If the OSU AD took that stupid of a deal when he could have had a home game vs. ANYONE in his own 100,000 seat stadium, he should be fired on the spot.BTW: I was at the Can't / Toledo MAC Championship basketball game (Yes, as a Zips fan it sucked). One of the biggest cheers of the night came when the scoreboard first showed a guy in a Michigan Wolverine ball cap...then panned to a guy pointing to the OSU logo on his gay red OSU tee shirt. Toledo fans went cra-Zee!! As did the Can't fans. It made me sick. Point being: It will be the same when Toledo plays OSU in Cleveland. 85/15 split buckeye fans to Toledo fans. Even the Toledo fans will cheer when OSU scores. The Lemming factor will be proven (the ones that jump off cliffs, not Tom).

Ohio State isn't traveling to Cleveland and forfeiting a home date in a 100,000 seat stadium to take a 15k gate at $50.00 a pop. With no Columbus parking $$ or concessions. No F-ing way in hell. They need their football cash to fund their 20-something non-revenue sports. It would be suicide.At BEST, the gate will be split 50/50...and I doubt anyone at OSU would be stupid enough to do even that.

Kevin Verdugo: He left before last season began and we won the MAC championship without him...is that correct?Pry and Wallerstedt? I think SOMEHOW we'll survive. There some guy named Brookhart that's still running around somewhere on campus.SoccerKen LollaMario SanchezMichael HamiltonTime will tell regarding the soccer guys. Give the new coach some time to coach...say...maybe a game or two before the pieces of the sky begins falling? He was the top assistant at Indiana before coming to Akron. Indiana, not Indiana State.AdministrationMTUAMAgain, time will tell. MT was, no way in F-ing hell, going to stay in Akron. If it wasn't Cincinnati, it would have been somewhere else. He met JD when he was interviewing for the Pitt AD job. He'd only been at Akron for two years and he'd sent out God knows how many resumes. Mack seems to know what he's doing. The Kest hire seems like an excellent one.UAM ruled. I miss his dynamics, ideas, and about everything else. But...I'll give the new regime a shot. Let's see what Hunter and Mack can do. BTW: It is July 4th and I still have not have info in my mailbox regarding the tailgate section or football season tickets. That concerns me. Mack said at the golf outing it was immensely important to draw 15k+ this year, but as of July 4th....about 8 weeks from the Zips opener...the team hype is invisible.BasketballShaka SmartGood for Shaka. I really liked the guy. However, did you see the student athlete from WPa that recently verballed to the Zips? He seems like a hell of a player. He committed without Shaka anywhere near Ohio. Others of his caliber are sure to follow. I think the hoops staff will survive quite well without Shaka.SoftballJulie WrightShe didn't win squat. He loss is our gain. If her heart wasn't in coaching Akron, the it is best she's gone.Schools lose assistants and head coaches all the time. We're not immune. There's a good chance we'll replace them with someone better, and with more commitment.

By Kevin Gorman <mailto:kgorman@tribweb.com>TRIBUNE-REVIEWSunday, July 2, 2006 Every time a Western Pennsylvania football prospect picks a school other than Pitt, the sky-is-falling-mentality returns for those who follow local recruiting. Should it be considered cause for alarm that only three of the 14 WPIAL players who have made verbal commitments have chosen the Panthers? Not necessarily. Truth is, there is no figurative fence or, for that matter, brick wall around the WPIAL for any one school. Not every local prospect wants to play at Pitt, Penn State or West Virginia. Yet, so far, half have decided to stay relatively close to home. Score recruiting victories for Penn State in securing receivers Jon Ditto of Gateway and Nick Sukay of Greensburg Central Catholic and for West Virginia in landing offensive linemen Donnie Barclay of Seneca Valley and Gino Gradkowski of Seton-La Salle. Pitt has commitments from Keystone Oaks linemen Myles Caragein and Chris Jacobson and Thomas Jefferson safety Dom DeCicco, and is among the finalists for Valley receiver Toney Clemons, Mt. Lebanon tight end Andrew Devlin, TJ tight end Chris Drager, Perry lineman Cameron Holland and Aliquippa linebacker Brandon Lindsey. That wouldn't be a bad class. • Devlin told Scout that he is down to Pitt, Boston College, Iowa, Stanford, Virginia and Wisconsin and hopes to decide by Aug. 13. High school training camp opens the next day. • Rochester receiver Derek Moye has narrowed his choices to Pitt, Penn State, Boston College and Maryland. Central Catholic offensive linemen Stefen Wisniewski is down to Penn State, Boston College, North Carolina and Notre Dame. If Penn State lands those two, in addition to Ditto and Sukay, the Nittany Lions will have done well in the WPIAL. • Woodland Hills offensive lineman Mike Dykes (6-4, 275) has scholarship offers from Akron, Duke, Kentucky, Miami (Ohio), North Carolina and Temple. Right now, Dykes is leaning toward the Tar Heels. • Penn-Trafford linebacker Paul Stefanik (6-2, 218) has been impressive at passing camps and combines. He has a written offer from Towson State, verbal offers from Marshall and Temple and is receiving interest from Akron, Pitt, Syracuse and West Virginia. • Hempfield defensive end Greg Meisner added an offer from Cincinnati after attending the Bearcats' camp. He also has offers from Kentucky and Vanderbilt. A big senior season could net Meisner even more offers. • Penn Hills outside linebacker Aaron Williams has received scholarship offers from Akron and Toledo, which has signed Big Red stars Brandon Hefflin, Mike Hill, Barry Church and Archie Donald in the recent past. • Here's a name to remember: Blake Williamson. The Chartiers-Houston receiver had 34 catches for 537 yards and eight touchdowns last season. As a sophomore. At 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, he has a sculpted physique that catches college coaches' eyes. • Central Catholic quarterback Tino Sunseri, who showed nice athleticism and a live arm at Pitt's 7-on-7 camp, has been invited to the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp in California. Sunseri is the only junior invited and will likely serve as a ball boy. He is the third WPIAL QB to pick up an invite to the Elite 11, following Tyler Palko of West Allegheny (2001) and Anthony Morelli of Penn Hills (2003).

How...OH HOW are we ever going to recover from the losses of Geoff Lanier and Susan Blauser??!!! Dark ages here we come!!!

I hope the guy is good. It hurts the MAC when members suck as bad as CMU recently has (Chris Kaman years not withstanding).I wonder if Eric McLaughlin's kid will still have his scholarship...or if the new coach will clean house?

If he's truly a third-year soph, I can't see him transferring to a 1-A. However I do see him fitting in at UCLA (University at the Corner of Lincoln Avenue): YSU

If he's a Junior this season, he can't be more than 16? I have to believe he's got the potential to add on another couple inches growth? Not that a solid 6' 9" center can't already do some serious damage in the MAC... He seems like a great pick up. I can't wait to see him in the Blue and Gold!

Click me to hear many Crying Wolf(pack fans)

I highly doubt the University will offer anything but a 1-day bus trip to State College. No hotels will be had via the University.The last PSU/Akron game I checked ahead of time exhaustively for single-night stays. There were none to be found. However, when we rolled into town, there were some vacancy signs in a few hotel windows.I may bite the bullet and pay for the 2-night stay somewhere. Tough call....

In case some missed the ABJ stadium column reference in the other thread, I'll re-post my response here.I think in the column is it pretty apparent Mack did not show all his cards to the reporter. Too bad the reporter never dug any deeper.In general, I'm kind of down after reading the column:I don't like the fact we're "inching" towards a new stadium. I wish we were "full steam ahead" towards building a new stadium.I don't like the fact that it's "less than 5 years away." That means it is all of 5 years away, and that means no groundbreaking for 3 years, at best.I do like the location.I don't see a problem with parking...it is a 30,000 student University, so there should be quite a few spaces to be had on a Saturday. On a Thursday night? THAT could be a problem.I hope Plusquellic doesn't do anything stupid like try and get limited parking on-campus so people have to walk from/through downtown to get to the stadium.How will the Rubber Bowl last another 5 years? Can you imagine how trashed the seats will be in 5 years? They're trashed as we speak.I don't like that "Informally we've talked to people to gauge the interest (in building a new stadium)." We need to be balls to the walls in pimping this thing to everyone and their brother in Summit County!! I was really hoping we had passed the point of informally bouncing ideas off the wall.What's the deal with acquiring land to build more soccer fields and football fields? Intramurals? I don't get it?This is the first time I've heard the soccer team possibly playing in the new stadium. I wonder how the team would feel about playing on field turf?25,000 seats, expandable to 30,000? Jesus...just make it 30,000!! The expandability should be to something like 45,000. The article pretty much jibes with what Mack inferred at the golf outing. The funding is not where it needs to be at this time. The Zips need another highly successful football campaign to get a clamor for the stadium going in the community. If the Zips went 4-8 this year (and "no" I don't see that happening) I can't see many new, wealthy sponsors busting down the doors to be associated with the program. If we build off of the success we had in 2005 and show that 20,000 fans will show up for games, the solicitation of donations will be a lot simpler. Should this be the case? Hell no. We flat-out need a new stadium, and we need it NOW. It doesn't matter what the team's 2006 record is...this is a decision that will affect the next 50 years of Akron football. Unfortunately, the team was out-of-sight-out-of-mind for two full decades and people have trouble believing we're not a f.lash in the pan. It doesn't help when the local paper won't send a reporter to freaking Athens Ohio to cover your away games either.

In general, I'm kind of down after reading the column:I don't like the fact we're "inching" towards a new stadium. I wish we were "full steam ahead" towards building a new stadium.I don't like the fact that it's "less than 5 years away." That means it is all of 5 years away, and that means no groundbreaking for 3 years, at best.I do like the location.I don't see a problem with parking...it is a 30,000 student University, so there should be quite a few spaces to be had on a Saturday. On a Thursday night? THAT could be a problem.I hope Plusquellic doesn't do anything stupid like try and get limited parking on-campus so people have to walk from/through downtown to get to the stadium.How will the Rubber Bowl last another 5 years? Can you imagine how trashed the seats will be in 5 years? They're trashed as we speak.I don't like that "Informally we've talked to people to gauge the interest (in building a new stadium)." We need to be balls to the walls in pimping this thing to everyone and their brother in Summit County!! I was really hoping we had passed the point of informally bouncing ideas off the wall.What's the deal with acquiring land to build more soccer fields and football fields? Intramurals? I don't get it?This is the first time I've heard the soccer team possibly playing in the new stadium. I wonder how the team would feel about playing on field turf?25,000 seats, expandable to 30,000? Jesus...just make it 30,000!! The expandability should be to something like 45,000. The article pretty much jibes with what Mack inferred at the golf outing. The funding is not where it needs to be at this time. The Zips need another highly successful football campaign to get a clamor for the stadium going in the community. If the Zips went 4-8 this year (and "no" I don't see that happening) I can't see many new, wealthy sponsors busting down the doors to be associated with the program. If we build off of the success we had in 2005 and show that 20,000 fans will show up for games, the solicitation of donations will be a lot simpler. Should this be the case? Hell no. We flat-out need a new stadium, and we need it NOW. It doesn't matter what the team's 2006 record is...this is a decision that will affect the next 50 years of Akron football. Unfortunately, the team was out-of-sight-out-of-mind for two full decades and people have trouble believing we're not a f.lash in the pan. It doesn't help when the local paper won't send a reporter to freaking Athens Ohio to cover your away games either.