Blue & Gold

I feel you pain; I hate those comments. Over the last few years I've shied away from bringing (dragging) as many friends to the games as I used to. Under JD it got to be downright embarrassing.

I'm really hoping we clean up the penalties this week. I think this week will give our team a chance to take a deep breath, relax & execute. I absolutely LOVED seeing 4 down linemen. I thought the front 7 looked great (though I guess the stats really don't bear that out. Idk.) Weather's supposed to be great. I'm already looking forward to another day of college football @ the Info! We on ZipsNation are like Chicago Cubs fans - we're diehard fans, win or lose, we'll still be there hoping & cheering. Go Zips!

I have never coached and I knew that was a crap decision...I am sorry but no mulligans and shame on his staff for not calling him out if they had the chance to. We need a staff that will work together and step up when something is ready to go array. i get it, you can get caught up in the moment but that is where your right-hand man chimes in and says....woah Coach, lets go for it, 17-6 is still two scores and 4 and 2 is makeable. Had he admitted it then maybe a mulligan but don't sweep it under the rug. Just admit you screwed up...don't glance over the subject by saying... "When you give up a blocked field goal for a touchdown, when you have a chance to cut it to 17-6, but instead its 23-3, that's a huge turnaround in a game" What does 17-6 do? That was only maybe our 2nd or 3rd trip into their territory the whole game, what made him think we would get back there two more times! Plus 17-6 would require us to make the 40 yd field goal, score a touchdown and then make another field goal to get it to 17 all. Bad decision and that's it....maybe mulligan 3 to 4 illegal formations + bad decision = bad preparation...no mulligan Hell with it...move on and lets win this week. Forget about the mathematical logic for a second. Good and bad decisions can often be measured by how it affects the opposition. And in this case, I'm guessing that the Syracuse staff was relieved when we did not go for it. We squandered our last opportunity to gain a psychological edge in that game. We would have been on the attack, and they would have been forced to scramble to keep their more-than-a-touchdown margin. And by simply stepping up to the line of scrimmage, we may have even forced them to burn a timeout, which would have given us more time to decide the right move. Unfortunately, I'd have to say that this looked like the kind of thing you'd possibly see from someone inexperienced with in-game decision making. Even if iCoach didn't have confidence that we could gain 2 yards( ), we could have at least lined up and tried to make 'Cuse jump off-sides.

Just now chiming in on Saturday's disappointment. Just three thoughts. 1) Burn Georgio Bowers' redshirt this week. Get him on the field. Alex Allen doesn't hit the hole hard enough anymore and Nate Burney, while a good, hard runner, just isn't big enough. 2) Move Jalil Carter back to safety. 3) Burn Keith Sconiers' redshirt & get him on the field @ WR. Oh, and one more... 4) Throw to the TE - since we've moved a couple of our best athletes to the position, might as well utilize 'em.

They can laugh all they want. Anything less than $18 is selling at a loss, and won't be made up through concessions or merchandise. They're killing themselves financially (even more than usual) in an attempt to keep within the NCAA attendance rules. huh? By your logic, selling at $54 will be 3x less of a loss! It really doesn't make sense if demand isn't there to sell at $54, and the same is true for $18. Example of reducing price to make more money below. It's called optimizing volume versus price. 4000 tickets at $18 yields $72,000 6500 tickets at $12 yields $78,000 By lowering prices significantly, you drew more fans and offset price with volume. Not only could you make more money, but you create a real event experience which increases future demand. You assume a demand for tickets. What if there are no more people who wanted to go to the game Saturday than those who showed up? Exactly. No more fans would have shown up even if we lowered the price to $5 a ticket. And Can't's pricing structure simply lowers the value of their product. If people pay $5 to see them, they see that it's worth less than a high school game, and so must not be as important as one or as exciting, or worth the trip. I fully disagree...I know six people personally who planned to attend then changed their mind when they saw the price...SIX! If I know that many alone, imagine how many total. Then they really did not want to go and were looking for an excuse for not going. Akron can't build its future on this fan. Yes. If $20/person is too much to see a local team and a BCS team play in the nicest stadium in the state, they didn't really want to be there. I bet they would gladly pay per person at OSU what it would cost the entire group at Akron to watch a game. The only time I would ever go to an OSU game to watch football is if they were playing the Zips. I would rather go see Akron play than OSU any day. Amen! I know who I am. I know where I'm from. And it's not Columbus.

Well, at least next week should be fun.

TG Q: "Football attendance will once again be an issue. What is needed to bring more fans to InfoCision Stadium?" TW A: [paraphrase] "Blah, blah, blah... hopefully the team wins." Um, yeah. If the team were winning we wouldn't need much marketing. This answer was quite void of content. TG Q: "Attendance at Rhodes Arena for men's games has been disappointing. What can be done about it?" TW A: "...We need to figure out a way to fill the JAR on a consistent basis, not just for big games. Again, that comes back on us to come up with ways to do it." Um, yeah. So... um... what can be done about it? Once again, an answer completely void of content. Come on, TW, you're not running for political office here. We're on your side & we want to know what's going on within our athletic department. What's the plan? What's the vision? What are the goals? What has been done? What are the works in progress? What bridges are being built? What's the 2-year vision? 5-year? What is President Proenza's dream/vision for the future of the athletic department?

I noticed the floors as well. Stained concrete can look very nice/cool/industrial. But the floors in the Team Shop just look bad & unfinished.

7,000 pre-sale tickets for the 'Cuse game?!?! That's AWFUL!!! Today I was downtown having lunch w/ a friend and I mentioned I was going to the game tomorrow. "What game?" she asked. "The Akron game," I said. Blank stare. "Akron's playing Syracuse tomorrow!" "Oh... I didn't know anything about it." Oh, well. It's our own d@mn fault. We don't win. People don't care to follow losers. We need to win. However (on my soapbox again), I'll bet the Cleveland media hasn't been pimping either the 'Cuse game or the Zips in general, have they? What? No regular Zips' updates during the 6:00 evening news? Screw off, Cleveland. You suck. Go burn & fall off into the lake. But anyway, it's our own fault. We put together a few winning seasons w/ bowl appearances & people will care. If not, they won't. Look @ the Cleveland Indians. When they were winning it was hard to get a ticket (not that I tried). But any more they draw fewer people than the Zips do. Gotta win, baby.

The Team Shop is open! It's well done. Good selection of Zips gear. They've also got newer (not replica) football & basketball uni's to go along w/ the ALMOST replica soccer jerseys. I bought 2 Champion t-shirts. They're buy-one-get-one-half-off. It didn't matter. I just wanted to drop some $$ in the place. One nice touch I noted was of the two large posters hanging behind the register are pics of hometown Zips - Bryan Williams & John Mackey. Pumped for tomorrow! Go Zips!

I'm predicting Akron 21, 'Cuse 14. Zips D looks solid against a mediocre 'Cuse O. Cuse has one nice, sustained drive for a TD & hits a big play for their other. Akron's O keeps it mostly on the ground, eats clock & moves the chains behind a good OL & strong running from AA. At least once tomorrow, as 'Cuse packs the box, Patrick Nicely hits Jeremy LaFrance for a long 6.

That's precisely why my drinking coach made me take a freshman red-shirt!

While watching your BBQ emoticon, I just happened to notice this, but that was your 5555th post! Almost as thrilling as watching an odometer tilt!

You pretty well hit the nail on the head right there. I agree, outside of Cleveland State and YSU which bring some regional excitement, the home OOC schedule is a real yawner. Unfortunatly we are just good enough that the truly good teams are extremly reluctant to come to our place. It offers them no benefit in terms of RPI or national perception. If they come here and win, no big deal, they were supposed to beat us anyways. If they come here and lose its a negative headline and provides a hit to their tournament resume. As a fan I'm just happy that it at least looks like KD is softening his stance on the whole, "we won't go play at your place unless you agree to come play us at home" deal. It at least gives us some chances to beat some of those good teams on the road which could in turn generate enough interest to get a few more of the non-die-hards out to the JAR to watch us hammer Bethune Cookman. I think YSU basketball brings about as much excitement to the JAR as Wright State baseball brings to Lee Jackson Field. It is a guaranteed win... an easy-to-schedule annual home-and-home for Dan Peters (former YSU coach)... an easy road trip for the Zips faithful... but there is no amount of lipstick you can slather on the pig that is YSU basketball. People in Youngstown don't care about YSU basketball...and people in Akron care even less about it. Football would obviously be a different story. I just noticed your "yawn" emoticon!

It's funny you mention this as I was wondering myself. Steiner is listed at 205 lbs. Isn't he going to get absolutely obliterated along the O-line? If I were an opposing coach, at the Zips' first punt or FG attempt, I'd put my biggest, nastiest DT right over Steiner and simply tell him to knock the snot out of him. you can't. that's why long snappers usually aren't the biggest fellas. Thanks for the info, I didn't know that was against the rules! Though I should have expected it - how the long snapper is looking back between his legs, I always thought that looked like a broken neck waiting to happen!

It's funny you mention this as I was wondering myself. Steiner is listed at 205 lbs. Isn't he going to get absolutely obliterated along the O-line? If I were an opposing coach, at the Zips' first punt or FG attempt, I'd put my biggest, nastiest DT right over Steiner and simply tell him to knock the snot out of him.

I haven't read through this entire thread, so I don't know if I'm being redundant here, but I'm, sad to say, once again not too overly thrilled with the home OOC schedule. The overall schedule is pretty decent, but look at our lame home OOC slate: John Carroll Millikin YSU (exciting IMO) CSU (exciting) Bethune Cookman Arkansas-Pine Bluff Oral Roberts These are the games we get at the JAR? We need a "yawn" emoticon. However, I think the overall schedule is pretty good. I like both YSU and CSU (especially beating down CSU). I'm also pumped about Temple & Dayton (the more A-10 schools we can schedule, the better IMHO), Minnesota & Miami FL. We obviously have an extremely difficult time luring quality OOC opponents to the JAR (the pickle of being a tough mid-major) so I'm happy with the fact we'll get to see both YSU & CSU. I enjoy these geographic rivalries; we should make them annual affairs. Maybe we can start up a few 2-for-1's with some BCS schools? It'd start paying dividends in 2 years. It'd be nice if @ least once a year we could bring one BCS team to the JAR. Only die hard UA fans will be breaking their backs & butts in the JAR bleachers again this year.

I'm also puzzled with all the TE's. Some really good athletes are listed at TE - not that that in itself is a problem, but I can't help but feel that some of these athletes could be contributing elsewhere instead of riding the bench behind whoever wins the TE spot. I'm specifically thinking of Will Fleming being moved from LB to TE. I thought he had a lot of potential as a nice-sized and athletic LB (this especially concerns me due to our lack of depth @ LB). Richard Hall is the other. He came is as a highly touted DE (I get more excited about DE's than TE's). I know he won the starting TE spot as a true freshman, which is very impressive. But I'd be more excited if his 6-3, 230 lbs. was rushing the opposing QB off the edge. I was excited about the prospects of Anthony Ritossa coming in as a TE. But apparently, from all the position shuffling the coaches have done, he must not be impressing at TE?

Does anyone know what "Unk" stands for? For their respective "Year," both Antoine Russell and Anthony Holmes are listed as "Unk."

I was w/ a friend (albeit, a girl) last night driving by Mount Union. But for a girl, she's quite into sports & she asked, "Is Mount Union known for anything." I replied, "Well, football, I guess. They win the D-III National Championship just about every year." She said, "Really? I've never even heard of them." D-I or nothin'! Go Zips!

What goes on around UofA should have nothing to do with what goes on at UofA. No way, GP1, or should I say... JAKE!

It was only a matter of time before Mike got sucked into "The ABJ Way." I give him credit... he lasted longer than most. This oversight, however, reeks of David Lee Morgan. I have to believe Mike had a ghost writer. Both Odefin & Dawson are still listed on the GoZips.com roster. We suck.

4 True Freshmen are now listed on the GoZips.com roster. 1) Giorgio Bowers - RB 2) ShelDon Miller - DB 3) Keith Sconiers - WR 4) Jamar Williams - LB I guess these are the True Frosh that may get some PT. I keep reading about Antoine Russell, a freshman WR who is getting a lot of PT but I can't find him on the GoZips.com roster (either under Freshmen or Red-shirt Freshmen), or on the ZipsNation Commitment List, or on the Rivals.com Commitment List. Who is this guy?!

I'm with you. I love the name, largely because it has history behind it and, unless you know that history, you'll not understand. I much prefer Zips to anything like Tigers, or Wildcats, or Bulldogs, etc.... Thus, (I know I'm an absolute homer, but) I actually consider Zips to be one of the best names in college sports. I love: Zips, Horned Frogs, Demon Deacons, Game Cocks, Gators, Hoosiers, and, as much as I hate to say it, Buckeyes. Anything unique & with a history to a locale.