Blue & Gold

I was pleasantly surprised by the attendance! Friday afternoon at 3:30 is an awfully odd time for a football game. But the weather was beautiful! Hard to imagine the Blizzard Bowl of last Thanksgiving! The weather is so unpredictable around here! But I would guess there were between 8 - 10K in attendance. Again, with both a winning team and a new stadium as attractions, I'll bet we could easily average between 25 - 35K. But with last nights' absolutely pathetic offensive performance, a winning team seems farther off than the new stadium!!!

I think that I would have a good chance of seeing more PT than Rybeck!!!I was only able to stay for the first half of the Tiffin game, but I noticed 2 things:1. McKnight and Rome look like identical twins.2. I hate to say this, but Conyers didn't seem to offer much. Is this simply a learning / feeling out process for him? Or is he overrated?

Here are two disturbing quotes from JD:#1: "It's hard to pinpoint why things went the way they did," he said. "You want to say your kids weren't playing hard, but they were. You want to say it was the scheme, but it wasn't."Uh, Coach, maybe the 'kids' were playing hard, but they sure weren't playing either smart or well! And as far as the scheme not being a problem?! It was (and still is) a major problem!!! Out with the 3-3! And this is not to mention the horrific absence of in-game adjustments, which truly belongs in the same conversation as 'scheme'!!!And this one just made me sick to my stomach:#2: "If you change a few plays, we're looking at 8-3," Brookhart said. Hey Coach, THAT'S PURE LOSER TALK!!! DON'T WANNA HEAR THAT EVER AGAIN!!!

Dang! We Akron Zips fans cannot relate with that at all!!! Only in our dreams, baby!

Per The Buchtelite, The University of Akron's football team leads all of D-1 football in penalties! When I read that I was truly dismayed, but far from surprised. What worries me even more is this quote I was disappointed to read from JD: "We keep getting answers back (from the MAC), that say 'No that was not holding, it shouldn't have been called," Brookhart said. "We are not a 10 penalty a game team."IMHO that's a bullcrap answer! JD needs to quit apologizing for his underperforming squad and start whipping them into mental shape for next season! Take a lesson from our basketball coach! Dambrot would have had NONE of that! KD would have busted some heads and planted butts firmly on the bench for many of the knuckle-headed plays some of our football players got away with ALL YEAR LONG! During a televised OSU game (Illinois?), after an untimely OSU penalty, the announcer commented, "That is uncharacteristic of a Tressel-coached ballclub." I wish the same could be said for the Zips. Untimely penalties almost came to be expected of us this season. Ya can't win that way fellas.

BRINSON HASN'T TAKEN THE SAT/ACT YET?!?!?!?! Good grief.

Does anyone know how we are planning on utilizing Gary Pride and Ryan Brinson? Is the coaching staff thinking of them as DB's or RB's?

I don't want to knock on the D either. I think we've got better talent now than we've had since I've been closely following Zips football, which is just towards the end of the Faust era. What I am criticizing is the defensive scheme. I ranted about getting out of the 3-3-5 and moving to a 4-3. Others on the board suggest the 3-4. I surely wouldn't argue with that! Anything BUT the 3-3!!!These are most of our LB's for next season:Michael Alphonse 6-0 244Mikey Baker 5-11 225Al-Teric Balaam 6-1 228 (I wish we were seeing more of him this season)Kevin Grant 6-2 245Tevlin Petit-Frere 6-3 210 (what the h%ll kind of name is that?!)Brion Stokes 5-11 220Doug Williams 6-2 234Shawn Lemmon (?)This is a strong group of players, enough to run the 3-4 with a 2-deep! We've gotta do SOMETHING! DOWN WITH THE LIMP-WRISTED 3-3!!!

Next season, to face any D-1 opponent (let alone OSU for crying out loud!!!) we've just simply gotta get rid of this pansy 3-3-5 defense!!! I know West Virginia runs it, but they've been labelled as "soft" too because of this defense. For all intents and purposes the 3-3-5 is nothing more than a NICKEL package and is only employed by most teams in near-obvious passing situations. We can't stop the run anymore! We've got to switch to a 4-3 and get a new kick-ass attitude! With Dantley Cline (6-2/290) and Nate Robinson (6-5/315) and the addition of Wallace Pendleton (6-1/310) and Jerell Stoudamire (6-5/285) and hopefully Antwon Hight (6-3/290) we'd have plenty of size and depth to employ TWO defensive tackles! This cream puff 3-3-5 just has to go.

Ouch! And to top that off, Nevada just beat Oregon State 75-47 this past weekend!

I agree. I like Big East football, I think it is underrated and I would LOVE to be invited to join the Big East. But look at us, we're not close to being a Big East caliber program. First things first, we need to dominate the MAC. With the high school football talent in NE Ohio and western PA, there's no reason we shouldn't be the next Marshall, but we're probably a good 6 years and a new stadium away from doing that. I think we can. But then again, so could Ohio or Miami. We need to get on the ball and just take care of our business. If we do that, screw the rest of the MAC and what they think of us!

If you have media in YOUNGSTOWN that report on YOUNGSTOWN State, then the Penguins are light years ahead of the Zips.To add to the discussion above, The Canton Repository seems to despise anything remotely associated with Akron (I think it has to do with lingering bitterness over Canal Park and the relocation of the Canton-Akron Indians to downtown.) So, even though the Beacon covers Stark County, I don't know if we can ever count on Repository readers being at all well-informed of Akron athletics.But, know what?! I can't blame the Repository. They shake their money-maker, which is focussing on McKinley athletics and pimping McKinley athletics to their largely (let's just be honest) flannel-collared, small-town-yokel audience, as the entertainment choice of kings! You can't blame the Rep for being what it is; Small-time. But It's the AKRON Beacon that frustrates me!!!

Sadly, I agree. This team is fundamentally awful. In all seriousness, this Zips team is an embarassment to all of D-1 college football. I took a few friends to the Barley House to watch the game last night and they commented about Akron's O-line jumping offside. Fortunately they haven't seen any other Zips games, or they would have been laughing hysterically, crying uncontrollably, or pulling their hair out. I have had all 3 reactions this year. The false starts, the holding, the unsportsman-like conduct penalties, all have been destroying our season ALL-YEAR-LONG and there seems to be no corrective anywhere on the horizon. I've seen high school teams look far more disciplined and fundamentally sound, which is, as I said a disgrace and an embarassment for all of D-1 football.

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?