you am i

You've got a beautiful soccer facility. And the weather in Santa Barbara looked a little bit nicer than the weather was in northern Ohio today. Glad to hear that Dr. Porenza (Luis) made the trip. He's a pretty cool guy.

Last year at this time we were feeling like you are tonight. Its hard to come that close and come up short, but its true what they say - there's always next year, if that's any consolation. It was an exciting game. The teams appeared pretty evenly matched. A few breaks going the other way and the outcome could have been different.

I thought they played better against Michigan this year, twice. But the stakes weren't as high as they were for this one. That's what makes this one the best performance.

Exactly what I was thinking. This is the high point in Akron athletics history. I could not be more proud of Coach Porter and these players. These guys deserve one heck of a homecoming.

Hlivko.

You beat me to it. Why does that comment make him a 'genius'? I thought Einstein was a genius. Haven't found anybody who comments on sports blogs to be a genius. Me too. Yet. No one in football is a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.

I was watching the Can't-OU game on TV last week and they got Lou Holtz on the phone during the game and asked him about his thoughts regarding the next Can't head coach. One thing he mentioned was all of the empty stadium seats that he saw during the game and how important it was for the next coach to reach out to the community and sell the program. Of all the concerns with Coach Ianello, this seems like a big one. Has he done anything to reach out to the community to generate interest in his program? Does he speak to groups? He doesn't seem to have any kind of PR sense, but he could learn. In the end, its all about winning. But it would help matters if he could get fans on board believing that better days are coming.

but expecting them to stop wearing OSwho crap to Akron games/events, is perfectly reasonable. +1. When this happens, the Rowdies should ridicule the guilty person with chants to the point of utter humiliation. Perhaps that would curtail it from happening again. Yeah, because then they'd want to come to another game for sure... Who cares what they wear? They are a PAYING customer who, on that night, made the decision to go to an Akron Zips game over other forms of entertainment. If they have a good game experience, they'll probably come back. If they're ridiculed for wearing a shirt of a school that isn't a rival, isn't in our conference, and never plays us because some of our fans have an inferiority complex with Ohio State, they will probably say screw it and go to the movies next time. When we start selling out games, you can start being concerned with what fans wear. If it's not graphic or vulgar, who cares? Good God...it's no surprise our fan base (especially student fan base) has trouble growing with short-sighted, ignorant attitudes like this. Our fan base has trouble growing because of the short-sightedness of allowing people to think they can get away with wearing the colors of a school we actively compete against for recruits and TV time. How can you be taken seriously when nobody cares that half the fans are wearing the gear of another team and not the one they're watching? Complacency kills. You are on to something here. I have always felt that there are too many people attending Akron sporting events that should not be allowed to attend. Something must be done about this problem before it goes any further. You are brilliant.

Ommmmmmm.

According to the PD, Millikin considered this game as an exhibition game. But Akron considered it a regular season game?

"They absolutely saw this coming"??? Are you saying when they hired Ianello they expected to be winless? With one humiliating blow-out loss after another? A loss to a DII team? Ranked as the worst D1 team in football? Well, if that's what they saw coming, their plan is working out to perfection.

TW's statement that what is happening this season has "strengthened" his belief that RI is the right man for the job is ridiculous. He must really believe that people are stupid. I still have some small bit of hope left that RI's hiring will somehow work out OK in the end, but absolutely nothing that has happened this year has "strengthened" my belief that it will. TW, if you read this, you sound like a moron when you say that stuff. Don't patronize your fan base. You just p*** people off even more than they are already.

I see some Brian Sipe-type qualities in McCoy. Not ideal physical skills, but football smart, intelligent, gutty. The team seems to responds to him. And having Hillis in the backfield sure helps the passing game.

I agree with what you say except for the issue of salary. I'm pretty sure that top assistants at programs like OSU are likely to earn more, and sometimes significantly more, than a MAC head coach. But, as you say, you've got start somewhere if your ambition is to be a head coach. And there are only so many openings each year. Fickell at Akron would have made sense. I know hindsight is 202/20 but he's the guy I was hoping would get the job. Fickell makes $250k as a "co-coordinator". Ianello makes $350k as a head coach. You do have to wonder how much excitement we could have seen by announcing his name as coach. As opposed to the incredibly neutral reaction surrounding Ianello's hire. Who was honestly excited about that? I don't think anyone outside of Wistrcill showed any excitement. I was kind of surprised to see that he's "only" making $250 thousand. I found a Columbus Dispatch article from this past summer that said, "In recent years he (Fickell) has been interviewed for an assistant's job at Notre Dame and been a candidate for the head coach job at Akron." So, according to this story, he was a candidate for the Akron job, although its not clear how serious a candidate he was. I assume if he was a candidate he was interviewed. His name was sure mentioned a lot. I also looked back at some old ABJ articles when Ianello was hired. The comments from back then are interesting. They are mostly negative with a few "give the guy a chance."

I agree with what you say except for the issue of salary. I'm pretty sure that top assistants at programs like OSU are likely to earn more, and sometimes significantly more, than a MAC head coach. But, as you say, you've got start somewhere if your ambition is to be a head coach. And there are only so many openings each year. Fickell at Akron would have made sense. I know hindsight is 202/20 but he's the guy I was hoping would get the job.

I don't see the problem. I think its great that they are taking vocational classes for their careers after college.

Congratulations on summarizing the article in this older thread. http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?sh...c=20148&hl= as Frank Drebin said in Police Academy "Nothing to see here." Police Squad.

Haven't looked at it. Probably will see it on TV soon enough. Whatever it says, he didn't write it. Some ad agency scripted it and test-marketing it to death. With the money Nike has invested in him, I'm sure they are praying this is the first step in rehabbing his image. Right now, he's endorsement poison. Except in So. Fla. That may change. Over time, people forgive. Except in Cleveland.

The Curse of Jim Dennison.

These discussions about whether we should drop football make about as much sense as the conversations about whether we should join the Big East. The chances of either happening are and were pretty much zero. These are interesting topics purely in the abstract but don't lose your grip on reality in either case.

If this team goes 0-12, this would have to be the worst season in the history of Akron football. Its not just the losses, its the number of lopsided losses and how lousy they look. I think we'd have a tough time with Eastern Michigan. It would be difficult to figure out what facet of the game was the worst today. It was a complete system failure. The one bright spot: Brian Wagner.

Tom Brady went to the University of Meeeshigan. (That's a gratuitous Bob Ufer reference. If you don't know who Ufer was. look him up He was awesome.) Otherwise, I have the same thoughts when I keep hearing what a great recruiter RI was for ND. I think BZ was referring to the fact that Tom Brady was a 6th round pick and that Weiss taught him to be one of the best QB's ever while with the New England Patriots (not at Notre Dame), I stand corrected. I identify Weiss so much with ND that it slipped my mind that he was the OC at NE when Brady was drafted. I remember watching Brady when he was QB at UM. Who knew.

Tom Brady went to the University of Meeeshigan. (That's a gratuitous Bob Ufer reference. If you don't know who Ufer was. look him up He was awesome.) Otherwise, I have the same thoughts when I keep hearing what a great recruiter RI was for ND.

Another way to look at it is bandwagon fans are smart fans who won't waste their money on a bad product. I don't blame people one bit for not going to watch the Zips play. Fans of tOSU are wasting their money on an illusion as they are too stupid to realize they are being duped. 100,000 idiots will be showing up Saturday. That Mrs. GP1 is a lucky, lucky woman.

Rasor is giving regular updates on his Ohio.com blog. Its 4-1 now.