Blue & Gold

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.

I'm not a West Coast offense guru. So with DK leading the team in receptions, is that really okay? Or does it mean that DK is the "safety valve" that Getsy can throw the ball to as a last resort. If that is the case, then the fact that DK is leading the team in receptions would indeed seem to be a very scary statistic. Right?

The placekicking is downright embarassing. Most high school teams have a placekicker who can hit the extra point consistently. This is ridiculous. You should never have to breathe a sigh of relief when the extra point goes through the uprights.

Whatever happened to us supposedly scheduling some Missouri Valley opponents?

That would be absolutely BRILLIANT!!! That idea is too good to pass up, you've got to pull that off!

We'll know the ABJ has arrived when they give us team coverage throughout the year; when they provide human interest stories about the players' lives; when they still cover the daylights out of the team even when we have a down year and go 2-10; when we have a few consecutive losing seasons and the ABJ's sportswriters are critical and call for a coaches firing!

Is there any way I could get a DVD copy of the game?! I was watching at Johnny Malloy's (a really nice place, btw) but I'd love to watch that game at least a few more times!!! Second biggest win in our programs history! Ten years from now, when we're a perennial Top 25 program, we're gonna look back on this BCS win as a milestone victory!

I know it may be tradition, but I absolutely despise the asinine pregame chant of "Eat 'em up, eat 'em up, go Zips, go." I could think of so many negative adjectives for that banal chant: hokey, corny, uninspired, worn-out. It is so stale and trite that I find it insulting. I'm a rather die hard Zips fan (anyone who's been a fan of the Zips for the last 25 years would HAVE to be a die hard), but I've never shouted that cheer and I don't think I ever will. Every game it just goes over like a lead balloon. It's honestly embarassing. We need a chant that people will want to join in on and that will get everyone in the stadium in a vocal spirit. Now that we're presently turning the corner as a football program (actually, as an athletic program as a whole!) don't you think it is high time for a new chant as well?Out with the old, in with the new.I like the idea of Z...I...P...S!Z.I.P.S!ZIPSZIPSI also love the AK-Rowdies and think that AK...ROWDY is awfully cool!

Thanks! I wasn't able to make it to the game but everyone on this board who went to the game have without exception commented on how classy you NC State fans are! Good luck the rest of the year!

Yeah, it explicitly states in the article that losing to Akron wouldn't merit being on this list. It was Amato's low blow swipe at Akron and the MAC for accepting non-qualifiers that qualified NC State for the #5 spot in The Bottom 10!

I didn't see it. What did JD say?

I just had to comment that the Beacon's Zips coverage was GREAT this morning! Terry Pluto's article was outstanding, and David Morgan's column provided good critical analysis of not only the Zips, but also of CMU - so that, for the first time I can ever remember, the Beacon educated us about the upcoming opponent. It was great reading and I pray this is the new philosophy of the Akron Beacon!!!

Okay. I was wondering about that because for all the hype about the new web site, once it was launched I could hardly tell much of a difference from the old. They really need to get the pictures of our players posted online.