Blue & Gold

I've grown numb to disappointment.

When following recruiting, I love watching for QB's, WR's, and RB's. However, as you all know, the game is lost and won on the line of scrimmage - in the trenches with the Big Uglies. We employ the unconventional 3-3-5 defense due to the fact it is difficult for schools such as Akron to recruit many quality defensive linemen. Having said that, while looking at our roster for next year, I'm more than a little concerned with our lack of size (i.e. weight) on the defensive front:Brandon Butler 6-2, 248Jared Cacchetti 6-2, 264Dantley Cline 6-2, 290 (very promising prospect!)Nick Legger 6-2, 245Eric Lively 6-2, 270Clarence McPherson 6-3, 255Wallace Pendleton 6-1, 310 (does anyone know anything about Wallace?)Tevlin Petit-Frere 6-3, 210 (awfully slight)Nate Robinson 6-5, 315 (Lord have mercy, he's huge!)Craig Truax 6-4, 255As you can see, besides Cline, Pendleton and Robinson, we really lack beef up front. So does anyone know whether Jerell Stoudamire and Antwon Hight would be eligible to play next season? It really looks like we're desperately going to need their big bodies up front! Otherwise, I'm concerned the Suckeyes are going to push us all over the field!

Do we now add Ryan Brinson and Antwon Hight to this list?

Excellent! So Stoudemire is enrolled, eh? He looked awfully impressive on film.But what happened with DJ Henderson? Academics?

Yeah, it sucks. Check out the recruit list from the last 2 years. A lot (most?) of the top recruits don't make it academically. Off the top of my head - Marlon Terry, Antwon Hight (hopefully this changes), Mark Jackson, Jerrel Stoudemire, D.J. Henderson, Terrico Marshall, Andre Boone, Shawn Lemon, J. Sharps and Derron Smith, and if you've got time, check the list, there may be more - like I said, this is just off the top of my head. It's rather depressing. Perhaps someone with better info than I have may have some encouraging updates on some of these players?

Yeah, that's great. But I've pretty much lost faith in most of JD's recruits ever making it to campus, staying in school and being academically eligible, let alone actually playing a down for us.

Why such wanting professionalism?! Do our athletic department personnel all have deep West Virginian roots?! Akron should have top-shelf organization and service. This is an embarassment to an institution of higher education! May I humbly suggest the U establish a policy of having area 8th-graders proofread any and all mailings set to come out of the athletics department?

Could someone help me out. This is probably a stupid question, but what is the WPIAL? I hear and read about it all the time, but don't really understand it's structure. Is the WPIAL an athletic conference around the Pittsburgh area? Is it like saying the Suburban League or the Federal League? And what schools are involved in the WPIAL? Are they D-1 schools? Thanks for the info!

Though we only had GA tickets, before kickoff my group went over to the Reserved seating and found some nice 30-yard line seats. Didn't hurt a soul. LOTS of room over on the Reserved side. In the RB, no one should care where we sit; maybe designate the Westside middle 3 sections as Reserved, but other than that the RB should be GA. It should all be GA with first come-first served on the prime seats. At halftime, we wandered over to the GA section and were unable to return to the mostly vacant Reserved section. The GA was packed and we squeezed in around the 10 yard line. My point? From the GA section the Reserved section looked embarassingly empty. Next year they should just let us sit where ever we want, like in years past.But the crowd was great! Much better than I had anticipated, so I was pleasantly surprised! With a) a new stadium, good weather, and c) a winning team there's no reason we shouldn't average 30K at home! And the AK-Rowdy section sounded GREAT from Reserved seating (which is the team's vantage point!) GREAT JOB ROWDIES!!! YOU GUYS ROCKED SATURDAY NIGHT!!! Way to create a true home-field advantage for the Zips!

It's Friday night, about 8 pm. It's homecoming weekend! Supposed to be a stadium announcement this weekend, right?! We've been waiting for 5 weeks now since Zipdad told us the announcement was hopefully going to be made on homecoming weekend! So, is it coming tomorrow, or not?!

Lousy schedule. What happened to us supposedly scheduling games against Miss.Valley CAA and Atlantic-10 teams (Duquesne doesn't count!)? Is there any chance starting home-and-home rivalries with some of these programs? Screw the Big Ten and ACC! Who needs 'em?!?!

When is the announcement going to be made and when are we going to get to drool over architectural renderings?

Does anyone have any inside info on whether the athletic administration is still considering a Homecoming weekend stadium announcement?With the demoralizing loss to Can't, we need this announcement. We desperately need to take a serious step forward. The Rubber Bowl, God bless her, is a downright embarassment. However, even with the incredible handicap of the Rubber Bowl, JD's last 2 recruiting classes have been tops in the MAC. Could you imagine what kind of talent JD could, should and would bring in with a new jewel of a stadium?! Lord have mercy, the MAC would tremble at the sound of Zippy's name!

Yeah, Nippert Stadium is ancient, but I was there a few years ago and thought it was a beautiful stadium. It's got an old-school Camden Yards feel about it. I hope our new stadium should be as nice!

I think we're all tremendously dissappointed in the OL. This is the first year that I can remember that I thought we were actually going to have a dominating OL. I was worried about next year, us losing the entire OL and all. But the way things have gone thus far, we need new guys out there. The OL is just getting absolutely destroyed.

This is gonna hurt bad for a year. It'll be interesting to see what the attendance is against Miami. We'll know then how many true, die-hard supporters we have.

Yeah, that was the worst loss I can remember. We looked like the old Zips teams who couldn't compete with the Iowas, Penn States, etc. Just awful.

I don't think we can pull it together after that game. Even if we win out everyone will remember the butt-kicking given to us by our arch-rival. Demoralizing. Embarrassing. We really have not shot at winning the MAC East now. With losses to CMU and Can't State there is no way we're getting an at-large bowl bid. We still have to play Toledo and Western Michigan. Not good.

Absolutely yes.

That makes sense. That would keep UA, or any other D-1 from giving out all their "cross-country" scholarships to 300 lb. defensive linemen! You know a lot of schools would pull a stunt like that. Question: Who's on scholarship through the UA rifle team? Answer: Uh, five 6'4", 285 pounders who also just happen to play football! But we're within our football scholarship limit!!!

We're beginning to have a real recruiting presence in easter PA - both in football and basketball! This is fantastic due to the fact that eastern PA produces some of the most outstanding athletes in the country. I know that word would spread through eastern PA how supportive we Zips fans are of our athletes - and we are! Just look at our placekicker - he's the worst D-1 placekicker in the country, but we're not booing him off the field - no way! We're pulling hard for him (while eagerly awaiting Igor! ) I think it would make a very strong statement to future recruits if we'd support Steve even while he's still in high school!

Does anyone know if Can't has a chatroom for their fans? If they do, it may be fun to go over and see their thoughts concerning Saturday's game.

Exactly. It's not gold. We wear gold. They wear pee-yellow.

I run into this dilema on an almost daily basis. Everyone I work with perpetually talk about the Buckeyes. It drives me crazy because I do my best to inject the Zips into conversation just to be generally ignored. So I, being a Zips fan and wanting to see this program gain local support, ALWAYS root against the Buckeyes - doesn't matter who they're playing. Right now the general attitude around the state (including, unfortunately, the Akron area as well) is that OSU is the only real university in the state of Ohio. There is OSU, and then a handful of little sister programs who's players are lucky to put their pads on correctly. This is such blatant ignorance. But it is, I feel, the general climate. Are the Zips and the Buckeyes competitors? ABSOLUTELY YES THEY ARE!!! This may sound rude, but anyone who thinks otherwise is flatly ignorant. Anytime you overhear a conversation concerning the Buckeyes as opposed to the Zips, this fact is made concrete. Anytime you see an OSU jersey being worn around the UA campus, this fact is painfully driven home. Anytime you see an OSU article on the cover of the Akron Beacon Journal, this fact is validated to 100,000 potential Zips fans. OSU and Akron are competitors for marketshare, recognition and respect - even if their athletic teams don't play on the field every year. However, right now I think I'd stop short of an either/or stance, because I'm afraid we'd lose more fans than we'd gain if we told people they either had to be for the Zips or for the Buckeyes. Maybe I'm just getting soft because I'm growing weary from continually failing to get anyone I work with excited about Zips athletics. OSU is indeed god to them and dismissing the Zips as anything but a second-class program is what they do best. Maybe we should put our foot down? I don't know? I didn't word this very well, but I'm a little too busy to go back and try to make my point of view more clearly. What do you guys think?One thing is for sure, as long as OSU COMPLETELY dominates the state, the Zips will not be viewed as anything beyond a second-rate, second-tier football program. Honestly, it could take a generation to change that general perception. Then again, we may be pleasantly surprised?! If we build a new stadium and build a Top 25 program, this community might be waiting to explode in support of the Zips. But frankly, I just don't get that vibe right now. I get the general sense that people perceive OSU as the only real college football being played in the state.

That absolutely ruined my day when I heard the news. It's a true tragedy. I heard that one player was actually shot in the head and is in critical condition.