ZippyRulz

China is kicking our butt in weightlifting. Maybe we should be over there recruiting linemen.

I guess MSNBC is good for something after all US women swept the sabre fencing event.Those Chinese really love their hoops (national team and NBA). Good to see the kid from Akron there. I wonder how many Cavs jerseys were in the crowd?

I see that the west end of the 'Future Building' is shaped like the east end of the Student Center. I wonder if it will be the same angled glass design, which would make a really cool/photogenic backdrop to the OLR.

I need a sun hat like JD's

UC's attempt at a jingle:http://gobearcats.cstv.com/Did UAM come up with this? Well, we've been warned..."the claws are out" !At any rate, it will be good to host another Big East team in Akron.

And still a year to go until the stadium is complete. We might overflow a buffer on this one

Yes, the Goodyear blimps are always in use at large network-covered games, that's why we need our own but I'd think Goodyear would be willing to pitch in. Bring back the Spirit of Akron !

the blog is a nice format but I don't think many people are going to want to supply their name & email address in order to comment...is that really required?

I don't think we're going to get as many home games as away games with the BE...it will cost too much. Something else we could do would be to stoke up a rivalry with Toledo by scheduling them every year. If they're not on our regular MAC schedule we could play them as an OOC opponent. It would be a good alternative to playing a 1-aa or Sunbelt team no one cares about and the travel distance is not too bad.

I'm not talking about a cheesy little arena blimp. I'm talking about maybe half the size of a real blimp, free-flying & radio controlled, not on a wire. It could fly over campus/tailgating/downtown/route 8 pre-game, then hover over the stadium during the game. It could be done with or without Goodyear sponsorship. I think it would add a lot to the atmosphere.The tire drum would be fun to bring out if we had a throwback game and wore retro uniforms. Otherwise, to me it represents the old dirty industrial Akron and subsequent flight of the rubber factories out of town. Some kind of unique drum made out of space-age polymer materials would be cool though.

When/why did the tire drum go away? I've been watching Zips football since mid-80's and I don't remember it. I think we should just let it R.I.P. since it's been gone so long and Akron is no longer the tire capital it was (although it should be on display somewhere around campus/stadium). I would rather have a mini-blimp flying over the stadium as a new tradition, attention-getter, signboard, camera angle for scoreboard & broadcasts, etc...the Zip Airship, if you will.

http://was.scout.com/a.z?s=71&p=2&c=772665Also, Nate Robinson is waived by the NYG after injuring his hamstring.

The Guins will be playing OOC at Southern Utah this fall...how much will that trip cost and how many fans will they take? (they also have a MVFC league game at South Dakota State) It would make a lot more sense for them to pile in a bus and drive 45 minutes to Akron and play to a full house. They said they won't do it without a home and home but they would probably accept a 2 for 1 and we could just petition the MAC office for an exemption to play at Stambaugh since it's a big rivalry and would help the MAC's overall attendance.

We'll see what happens. That statement was from 2 years ago, before the new stadium was announced and we should be able to offer a little more now. The BCS payday teams can't schedule more than 1 FCS team per season and there just won't be enough of that to go around to fill every FCS OOC schedule. Is YSU going to make long trips to play other non-BCS teams OOC when they could come here at low cost to play a rival in a new stadium for a decent paycheck? Situations always can and do change.

It won't be all that easy getting any BCS teams to come to Akron to play for 25K or less attendance and risk losing (count me as one that thinks the new stadium will give us a whole new attitude when it comes to defending the home turf, like in basketball). They will still want 2 for 1's and it will be hard to negotiate if they can draw 50K or more at their house. Playing a 1-aa gives us a home tuneup game with no return obligation. That's an additional football Saturday in Akron for the students and fans and bars/restaurants and should be a W. Let 10K YSU fans come over and help pay for the Nemer bill. Or get a known name like Georgia Southern or do a basketball tie-in with Southern Ill. or Butler. The AD will have some interesting choices to make. Probably what we'll see is a lot of 1-1's with CUSA and Sunbelt. Marshall, Memphis, ECU, UAB, MTSU, WKU, Troy...

What will be the take on a sold-out Infocision game? We might make a little more going on the road at SEC/ACC/BigTen but I would still rather be playing YSU or a good 1-AA team in Akron (with no return trip required). It would be better for building the program/fanbase and boosting the local economy. The one exception might be if playing at a BCS school is carried on network or ESPN, or of course if we can get a major name to come to Akron. Yes, we need to pay for the stadium but we also need to use it as much as possible.

We won't be nearly as dependent on the payday games with the new stadium. Our home attendance will improve and we'll be able to get bigger programs to come to Akron. We should try to get Pitt and WV here and maybe Cinci on a regular basis. Service Academies would be welcome also and maybe a Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Duke, Northwestern, etc. We should also be able to get some good 1-AA's like JMU, WKU, Appy-Tate, etc. It might also be fun to get a 1-1 deal with Fla. schools like UCF, USF or FAU.

I also had to vote for the Buffalo game. It will be one of our most winnable games and we need to pay them back for their first win over us in umpteen tries. But even more than that it will be about the end of the RB era and there will probably be some kind of promotion/s and maybe fireworks. But even more than that, unless there is maximum security, I think the crowd will get very rowdy and see how much they can tear apart before leaving.

Good points but I still wish it could be more visible to the student body and public to put Zip football in their minds. The recruits could still see it in the student union on their campus tours as could the players (assuming they are going to classes and spending time on campus). The coaches should be plenty motivated by their paycheck$ and future job prospect$. As a compromise it could share time at different locations and even make appearances at area malls, bars, restaurants, etc. On game days it should be somewhere near a stadium entrance or the team shop.

It presently resides in the reception area of the coach's offices.Another squandered marketing opportunity

Well isn't the campus fully wi-fi already? and won't the stadium be on campus?The campus network is only available to current students & staff. I assume the downtown network would be open to the public and reach to the stadium. I'm sure they won't allow any hard metal objects larger than a cell phone to be taken in though.

I was just thinking there ought to be a secure window/showcase near the entrance to the new stadium for the wagon wheel. Where do we display it currently, in the JAR or student union? It should be somewhere that the students would see it regularly (and its glaring absence in those rare cases when we let Can't borrow it) to build spirit/rivalry. MACC trophies as well. Maybe there's already a plan for a trophy case in the stadium but I don't recall hearing of one...anybody know?

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/01/akron-o...bly-fail-withi/Can we take our laptops into the new stadium for live gametime chat on ZN ?

Very nice. I'm not sure exactly what kind of turbines they test on campus but jet engines might be part of it which would explain the stealth fighter.

Seems strange to compete for a country you left at 4 years old and haven't been back to since. You'd think they would give preference to current, permanent residents of the nation but I guess they also want the best competition results while following the letter of the rulebook. The article didn't say whether he graduated or what he studied but I wish him well in the Olympic trials and beyond.