Blue & Gold

Go to Ohio Brewing Company! I wish I could but I've got some work to do while I'm watching the game this afternoon. I wish I could still just drop $25-$30 in there just to support the Ohio Brewing Company for having a Zips' watch party!

I just called TWC's customer service line and got a recorded message. The message was pretty clear though, and said that the Big Ten Network is not going to be "launched" today until 12:00 noon. It won't show up on, or be recognized by, your digital cable box until then. The BTN will be on channel 77. The recording also said that the BTN would be on channel 333 with the BTN "alternate feed" going to channel 334. So I'm guessing/hoping that at 12:00 noon, just as I'm about ready to have a stroke, channel 334 will become available with the Zips - Wisky game. Unfortunately, if you're unable to be physically present w/ your DVR at 12:00 noon, I'll bet you won't be able to program it to record the game.

Currently I'm in the same boat as you. I'm confused because I don't even have channel 334 listed on my on-screen channel listing. I scroll down and it jumps directly from channel 330 - the "Outdoor Network" to channel 350 - another CNN.

That's a great find. The juxtaposition of realities in that video is so strange - 5 of the most famous, most talented, multi-millionaire athletes on the planet simply eating Wendy's @ a dingy little truck stop w/ every-day common folk going on about their business in the background. Kind of reminds me of a time I flew coach from Pittsburgh to Philly while sitting next to the band Quiet Riot! Yeah, sad; they were flying coach. The whole time (1 hour?) I couldn't quite believe I was sitting next to Quiet Riot.

I'm hoping they are considering having a WRQK pre-game tailgate party station somewhere outside InfoCision Stadium next season. Fill Exchange Street w/ WRQK rock before the marching band begins their new ICS pre-game traditions/show! WRQK could broadcast live from The Info an hour-or-two before the game, give away some prizes, make their presence seen and heard, add to the festive atmosphere, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah, TexanMark mentioned that they're pretty lax w/ the seating designations in the Carrier Dome - now that the crowds are only about half of what they used to be. He made it sound like you wouldn't have much trouble sitting wherever you want after the crowd is settled in.

I'll go one step further regarding Elton -- About 2 months ago he wore a nice feature on Zeke. In it he mentioned ZipsNation. Well he did, except for one thing...he made a conscious decision to NOT say "ZipsNation." Instead, he chose to say "the Akron fan message board."Elton had a chance to score big with us if he wanted. It wouldn't have hurt anything, and I believe he mentioned Scout.com and Rivals.com in the same column, so it isn't like there's a policy against direct mentions of sports web sites. But, he elected to pass. Thus I'm not going out of my way to help the PD any more than I already do (by links, content, etc.). Beyond that, Elton has been a real jerk to the Zips in the past. Hence why so many people tag him as "Ellen." He's not a real "lovable" guy. He kind of relishes being a poor man's Steven A Smith. Good for him. But it rubs me the wrong way.You know, I posted on that PD story about Zeke a while back. I signed up a screenname specifically for it. My post said exactly this: "Hey, that Akron fan message board is Zipsnation.org. Thanks for the coverage! GO ZIPS!" The screen name I signed up for was banned immediately. I wrote an email to ask why, and I was never responded to.Hmm. Do we live in China?

Does anyone know if the UA soccer match vs. Notre Dame will be broadcast on 1350?

I was disappointed to open the paper this morning and see that the ABJ's Akron preview, that, while on the front page of the sports section, is in a hodge-podge (sp?) of a college football preview also previewing Can't and, of course, most prominently... OSU.

That was a fun little article! it's great to see Elton giving the MAC so much ink. But I think CMU's gonna get drawn-and-quartered @ Georgia.

How do we know QB is bad? Maybe the guy has improved? I know...and monkeys might fly out of my butt too. But Jack is our QB, and he's had 9 months to mature. I'm going to see what he can do in 2008 before burying him. Maybe...just maybe he surprises us all?The Elton article on "Jack" that you posted on another thread has me optimistic. Okay, cautiously optimistic, but I think all Zips' fans are well conditioned to be "cautiously optimistic." Ha. But he does sound like a new man. He sounds confident and ready to go and ready to show everyone what he can do! Being the clear-cut number one QB sounds like it's taken a lot of undue pressure off of him.

I've been in this camp for a while. The only caviat is IF Bain is able to play effectively most of the season. Everything else will work itself out on that side of the ball. I even think the D can be good enough to carry this team with but a mediocre, "don't screw things up" (ala Trent Dilfer and the Ravens Super Bowl year) offensive showing.I agree. But isn't that a shame? Because, aside from the all-important QB position, this team's LOADED w/ offensive talent.

You're spot on. I keep hoping and keep hoping for the ABJ to just start pimping the daylights out of UA athletics, I mean, why on earth wouldn't they? This is their city, this is their D-1 university; wouldn't it be the natural thing to do to make UA athletics out to be the greatest thing since sliced bread? The Canton Repository does this for McKinley freakin' high school athletics and freakin' little high school athletics in general (whoop, whoop, go 16-year-olds! Yippie!) There's not a single podunk town in all of the U.S.ofA. that doesn't have high school athletics, and yet The Repository treats them as if they're something faaaaantastic. Why can't the ABJ learn from them? Because on the other hand, there is the UofA. How many D-1 football programs are there in the whole freakin' entire country? 117? 117 D-1 University football programs in the whole entire country and the ABJ has one right across the street from them and they give the U just disgustingly laughable coverage.I know my ranting does no good, but it just makes me feel a little bit better.

I suppose this is a dumb question, but the new soccer stadium will be for both the men's and women's soccer programs, right?

They're called "trolls". They do it because it the only way they can get their kicks is to piss other people off. They like to create reactions, possibly because it is the only way they know how to get other people to aknowledge their existance. Their situation is a sad one, being the lowest of internet life-forms.Ha! Spot-on description. They are truly pathetic.

Here's an exciting article from today's ABJ. A 125-room, 4-star Wyndham hotel will be constructed across Martha Avenue from the new Goodyear headquarters!http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/27275379.html

Uh, when JD says CJ's really been "progressing nicely" (a painfully relative statement to begin with), what goes through your mind? By this point in time don't you just cringe a bit? In your heart of hearts wouldn't you actually be surprised if JD turned out to be right and CJ has progressed into a QB that can take us into contention for a MAC East championship? Yeah, me too.Also, JD saying that the play was "sloppy" and that he was "disappointed" is being pessimistic. That's all fine and good. But bringing up all the injuries rings of a front-loaded excuse to me. And it very well is a legitimate excuse, aren't most? But it is an excuse none-the-less and I'm tired of excuses; I'm more than ready for this team to just start winning. Go Zips!

How do you get excuses out of his comments? How much more straightforward can he be? Man, if the guy blew anymore smoke up our butts it would be coming out our ears! No, no, no my friend. JD only blows smoke up our butts when he keeps telling us all how much CJ has been progressing. The quote that rings of "excuse," is neither of the two you mentioned above, naturally. Here's the ringer:"Our injury situation is killing us. I have no idea where we are at right now because of that.''Technically, I'm sure it's true. But... This quote wouldn't be so bad if it were coming from someone w/ a proven track record. But having listened to all of JD's excuses last season, and now this, eh, it seems to be a developing trend, don't 'cha think? After last year's losses I know we all got just a little bit tired of JD repeating things like, "We would have won if only the ball had bounced this way on this play...," and "We would have won if only the ball had bounced that way on that play..." That was a recurring theme last season and those are shaky apologetics that fans are supposed to employ, not head coaches. So yeah, this quote does in fact raise a flag.I had a friend who would have a built-in excuse everytime we'd play pick up ball. "I'll play but my hamstring is tight." "I'll play but I tweaked my ankle last night." I'll play but I only got 3 hours of sleep last night." He had a built-in excuse for failure before we even checked the ball in. So, yeah, after hearing JD's excuses last year and now that quote this year... yup, red flag.

Yep. I think that was the major problem w/ our D last season. 3-and-outs for the O are both physically draining and psychologically demoralizing for a D.

I haven't yet read the article in today's ABJ, but I don't like the sound of the quotes you posted. JoPa could use that negative motivation because he had superior athletes under him, I think that'd be a big mistake w/ CJ and MR - they need all the positive affirmation they can get. Also, those quotes aren't sounding like constructive criticism or hyperbolic 'the-sky-is-falling' fare, ala JoPa (Lou Holtz used to do the same at ND). These quotes sound like excuses - and the season hasn't even started yet.

Amen! You're an awesome part of this family!!!

That would be the best answer. It's a breath taking facility and right across the street from the future LeBron/Nike Akron Arena!!!

It's funny you guys mention a baseball stadium. I watched quite a bit of the College World Series this year and for the first time it really struck me how behind-the-times our baseball facility is. IMO Both Walsh and Malone's baseball facilities are as nice, if not nicer than ours. I'm hoping we have plans to put a new baseball stadium on acquired property SOUTH of Exchange. I know it'd be nice having the football stadium, soccer stadium, softball stadium and baseball stadium all adjacent to each other but it's getting awfully crowded in there. I don't think there is really much room for a grandstand where the baseball facility is presently located.Again, perhaps I'm regionally biased or myopic, but I think there is a lot of high school baseball talent in NEO. If we'd have a nice facility who knows what we could do, because our team is pretty good now! If we could simply sign most of the best players from Summit & Stark I think we'd be pretty good! I don't know, that may be naive.

It's going to be gorgeous! Again, just what this entire city needs! The more water the better. It looks as if there will be a grand total of 6 (six!) sources of water in the new commons! The fountains are not just asthetically pleasing but will add an audible tranquility to the area. 10 on a scale of 1-10!And this will be directly adjacent to our new soccer stadium. I'm interested to see how/if they plan on incorporating the two areas. We could wind up having the most beautiful soccer stadium area on planet earth!Off topic, but look how beautiful the surroundings are at the U of Dayton's stadium: http://daytonflyers.cstv.com/facilities/BaujanField.htmlLooking @ many programs' athletic sites, I found Dayton's facility to be far-and-away the most asthetic. Ours could rival that.

Good! You had me worried there for a second!