Blue & Gold

I like the idea of keeping the Mayflower IF, IF, AND ONLY IF it can be converted to a dormitory for UA students or apartmental units. Just telling it like it is, but the crowd that resides there now is an absolutely perfect way of keeping young people & families w/ money to spend OUT of the immediate area.

I believe Zipmeister is correct. I've heard all hardwood floors are maple. But I wouldn't know what color of stain they used. Probably just a "Natural" stain.

Thanks for the info. I'm all for scheduling as many A-10 opponents as possible. That's right in our class. More specifically, IMO we're stronger than 1/2 of the A-10 and right about even w/ the top 1/2 of the A-10 - Temple, UMass, Rhody, St. Joe's, Dayton & Xavier.

2007 Fun Stats: - Third quarter scoring: Opponents 102 – Akron 37- Punt return average: Akron 13.6 yards – Opponents 9 yards- Average yards per game: Opponents 408.8 yards – Akron 311.7 yardsThe first of the "Fun Stats" is the one that concerns me about JD as a head coach. I think JD's a great recruiter (the most important part of being a successful college coach?) and seems to be a really good "players" coach. I like JD and hope he's our coach for a long time. But the "Third quarter scoring" differential, in my oppinion, exposes a troubling lack of ability to make in-game adjustments. It seems as though the other team's coaching staff goes into the locker room at halftime, analyzes what changes they have to make and then the team successfully executes them. We, on the other hand, seem to have our game plan carved in stone before kickoff and we either live or die by it.

Lolla was the man, but Caleb seems to really be taking this program to a much, much higher level than even Lolla had it. I do suppose Lolla deserves the credit for laying the groundwork to make this ascention possible. Isn't Caleb Porter a Mack Rhodes hire? If so, then Mack definitely deserves a ton of credit for this particular hire. For all the grief Mack gets on this board, it seems as thought he couldn't have picked a better coach than Caleb.

Hey CK, I'm just getting a blank page from the above link.

I like the move of Bryan Williams to DB. He was a good running back but I think he's got NFL potential @ DB. However, I'm not as thrilled about the move of (was it Andre Jones?) from DB to WR. I don't think the odds are in his favor to be a difference maker at WR given only 1 off-season to learn the position. Hopefully I'm laughably wrong! I am very excited to see what Deryn Bowser and Jeremy Bruce add to this years' team. I'm also hoping the coaches can figure out a way to get Gary Pride on the field and involved w/ the offense.

Frankly, the whole, "This is your team," concept is absolutely crucial. It's basically our entire argument as to why people should root for UA as opposed to rooting for Columbus State. Heck, if I can just arbitrarily pick who I root for (like 99 percent of NEOhio frontrunners) then I may as well be an OSU, USC or Florida fan! But no, I'm from Akron so they are my team!

If we once again see QB play like we did last year then those rankings are generous!

Ha. And. Capitalizations. When. New. Sentences. Begin.

Personally, I think I'd rather see regular games with Big East opponents as opposed to the Big 10. I'm probably in the minority on that one, but I think it'd be easier to develop a few healthy rivalries w/ Big East schools as opposed to Big 10 schools. Cinci, L-ville, Pitt, 'Cuse, W.Va. Those all sound great to me!

I must admit, simply because of UA's program, I am becoming a soccer fan. I find myself wanting to become more educated about the game. I even watched some of a soccer match on ESPN the other day! Unprecedented for me - I'm your typical football-basketball-baseball kinda guy. I'm planning on watching quite a few matches this year! And buying season tickets when we open the new soccer stadium! Ha.This quote is from the second article posted above. Can a true soccer fan translate this statement for the rest of us?Speas agreed that he likes to play stylish soccer, and said he chose Akron in part because of the team’s interest in playing the ball on the ground as opposed to the more exclusively direct style many college teams prefer.

Hi TexanMark,I was just over on our team's official website (GoZips.com) and they have no information at all (at least that I found.) They used to have a "Future Schedules" page but I couldn't find it anywhere. We're scheduled to play you guys in 'Cuse this year on September 6th and I'm really hoping you guys make a return trip to our new stadium in '09! I'd love to play the Orange anyway, but especially in our inaugural year at the stadium!Go Orange! Go Zips!

You're right. Europeans take mass transit for granted. Americans take one-car-per-person for granted. How many homes have you seen with 2 cars in the garage and another 2 in the driveway? Good grief. One car per every licenced person in the household?! Europeans would think we're out of our minds. Maybe we have been.Also, you mentioned mall parking lots not being full. I think that's another part of the gripe problem. Most college underclassmen have never really driven anywhere but to the mall - and parked close to a door. Or to a restaraunt - and parked close to the door. Or to their high school - and parked close to a door. Or to a Starbucks - and parked close to the door. Their only experience is parking a good 15-second's walk from a door. So they get to a major university and have to park a 10-minute's walk from their class and they, naturally, think something is terribly wrong. I suppose you can't really fault them. You can only

I'm with you about the "parking problem" being waaaaay overblown. I mentioned this a month or two ago, but I'll type it in again: I had a friend who spend her 1st 2 years of college at Columbus State. She then wisely transfered to UA. She said that an OSU student should expect a 20 minute walk to class. At Akron, it seems as if students whine if they have to walk 10 minutes. Geez. Get a life, people. UA's a very large school in it's own right; take a little walk and get some exercise.

Reading the ESPN criteria makes it a really tough choice! We've got all 3:Legendary Coach - John HeismanUnique Mascot - ZippyOutstanding Player - Jason TaylorOur program owns the most "well-rounded" tradition in the country!

Ha! I think he's verballed with the Zips 3 years in a row now, right?!

Here's an update from the ABJ. Ouch, I guess that they were found with 5 guns and a couple ski masks. http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/19069109.html

What on earth?! Here's the ABJ's breaking news report on the subject. Note the Gawd-awful headline: UA Basketball Player Fires On Police. Good grief. http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/19059389.html

Last night I had TWO seperate dreams about the inaugural game at The Info. Man, I've gotta get a life.

I just got home from The Chapel in Marlboro. I was helping set up the gym for tomorrow's pancake breakfast to support Trevor Weigand. I hope many of you are planning on attending! Tickets are $5. As CK mentioned above, there are many, many excellent gift baskets set to be raffled off tomorrow. My favorite - the basket donated by UA! It's a great basket! If I remember correctly, it contains 1 L Akron B-ball hoodie, 1 M Men's B-ball jersey, 1 M Akron B-ball t-shirt, 1 Youth size UA baseball cap, 1 Youth size Zippy hoodie and a Keith Dambrot autographed adidas basketball. I've already purchased 20 tickets for the basket! Maybe we all could buy a ticket or two for the UA basket? It will help one of our own and it's a great prize to boot!God bless the Weigand family and tomorrow's community efforts at The Chapel in Marlboro.

Thanks Gamechanger! That is a link to Mike Rasor's UA Zips blog. You'd probably enjoy reading his blog - I check it daily. Mike does a really good job of keeping us up to date w/ basketball and football recruiting. It's located on Ohio.com which is the Akron Beacon Journal's website. And what's it feel like to be the mother of a kid who's rated the 37th best b-ball player in the country? Is it surreal? Exciting? Scary? Keep Zeke humble! That's what I like most about him - he seems like an honest-to-God good person. He'll fit in so nicely w/ the group of players KD has assembled! He's gonna have A LOT of fun @ Akron and make some really good friends.

Sweet! We love ya Zeke!We love ya Zeke's Mom!Go Zips!

I'm excited that it has a fountain. I love fountains - the more the better. Anyone know how big the fountain is going to be? I've seen the bird's eye view of the plans, but do we have a, I don't know what it's called, a horizontal(?) view of the design.And I'm pretty amped up to see how they incorporate the new soccer stadium with the outdoor living room space. We may end up having the most beautiful soccer stadium & pitch setting in the country!

You just beat me to the punch! I was just over at Ohio.com and had copied that link to post here. That's what we're all hoping for! The new Akron-Nike-LeBron Arena!