Blue & Gold

Honestly, to beat CMU we've got to play a very, very good game. Our O-line HAS to give Luke better protection. And we've got to cut down on so many stupid penalties. The penalties cost us big-time in two separate drives against PSU.

Ouch! Having a Columbus State player win just adds insult to injury. Ignorant, biased reporters, the OSU/Texas game is probably the only game they had a clue about! Man, that would have been some fantastic pub in USA Today! But we did win the fan voting!!! The Nation rocks! Let's keep it up! Go Zips!!!

I believe that's the picture run on the front page of the Beacon sports section today. I must admit that when I saw that picture in the paper I was thinking, "Man, how on earth did Kennedy cross the line without his elbow touching?!"By the way, great article in the ABJ today! Also a nice editorial in the Local section! I truly hope the ABJ is truly focussing on Summit County now! It appears that they very well may be!!!

I'm actually more worried about the CMU game than I was for the NC State game. I was expecting a victory at NC State - the 1st time I've ever expected a victory against a BCS team (man, our program has come a long way, and the giant has just begun to awaken!) However, I'm afraid this may be a let down week for us for at least 4 reasons...1) It's the 3rd road game in a row! This is still a killer schedule and, if you agree with media experts, there is a very real home field advantage in college ball as opposed to the NFL game.2) After the thrilling NC State victory (I wouldn't even call it an upset except for the fact that they had the home field advantage - we clearly had better athletes on the field) it will be natural to let down emotionally this week.3) Did anyone see the CMU - Boston College game?! Man, CMU looked very good! They were knocking Boston College's heads! They probably should have won that game were it not for a few outrageous coaching calls.4) CMU's freshman QB is going to be even better than he was in game 1 against BC.Honestly, I'm worried about this game.But... if we win out a Top 25 ranking is in order! I've been waiting for YEARS to see our program crack the Top 25!!! The giant is waking up and I believe we should be a consistent Top 25 football school!And, yes,

I'm hoping they're planning on incorporating a top shelf Zips store into the new stadium plans, much like the souvenir shop at Canal Park - accesible both from inside the park and outside. Probably along Exchange street. Naturally, open year-around.

We've gotta find a place! In my never-ending Quixotic quest to build up the Zips fan base, I've already told 6 friends to come w/ me to Panini's to watch the game (it's not conflicting w/ the Buckeye's game this week!) But I was counting on Panini's carrying the game!!!

I like them. They're not as busy as the old ones. Classy.

Ha! Yeah, I suppose. I'm just saying that it can be extremely frustrating trying to get other people excited about Zips football. Almost every guy I know LOVES OSU football, all while virtually none of them have even set foot on campus in Columbus. You're raised to root for OSU around here and it gets to be a part of one's cultural DNA. To do otherwise almost requires an existential leap!!! And so I get frustrated when I make deliberate attempts to be verbal about my excitement for the Zips - when everyone else is talking about the OSU game - I'll often try to interject Zips football into our conversations and they just give me a few condescending nods and then immediately continue talking about OSU!!! It gets so old real quick, especially when I'm trying to get other people excited about the Zips but all they care about is OSU. I honestly sat at home by myself this past Saturday to watch the Zips game because all of my friends were going to watch the OSU game!!! Really, doesn't that just piss you off!

Also Zipdad (sorry if I'm nagging you but this is my favorite topic on the board) would you say that the project gave you the impression of, "Oh, that's really nice. We'll be on par with other 'mid-major' programs now." Or did the project strike you as, "Wow! They've gone out of their way to make this one of the best 'small' stadiums in the country! Just like the field house, D-1A programs from across the country are gonna be jealous of this!"So, would you say it is a a) "nice" stadium, or... "awesome" stadium?

That's actually why I root against the Buckeyes. If they would regress to the point of being an 8-3 team and go .500 in bowl games, maybe people around Akron would fall out of love with them and open their eyes to the other fish in the sea - US!!!But in sgm's defense, I believe I remember him posting that he got his bachelor's from OSU, but I may be mistaken. And in everyone's defense, being raised in Ohio, we are taught to root for OSU - it's part of our cultural DNA. It's considered odd if one doesn't root for OSU. To not root for OSU is clearly non-conformist. It truly takes an independently strong mind to do otherwise, and quite frankly, there aren't too many independent minds in the whole world, let alone Ohio. Human beings are sheep. Everyone knows that. It is frustrating none the less.

Thanks a lot Zipdad! It's fun to get the imagination going! Your description provides some nice daydream material! But what did you mean by "stand alone seating" in one end zone? Could you clarify that for me? Thanks alot!!!

How many years have we had a ladies soccer team? Seems like we're building a pretty tough program very quickly! The men's success may have a lot to do with that. Akron is becoming a prestigious destination for soccer talent!

Hey Zipdad,Could you tell us about the stadium plans you saw when they were recruiting your son?Thanks!

Getting momentum going has to be harder than maintaining momentum. JD's getting momentum built into this program which no one has been able to do before. Over the next few years, if we establish ourselves as a winning program, when JD leaves the next coach should have a much easier job of selling the U to recruits. A winning tradition plus the nicest fieldhouse in college sports plus a brand new stadium! JD's the man, but the next coach should be able to take the batton and run with it.Or at least I hope. Perhaps I'm overly opptimistic?

We need to pay JD as much as we can possibly afford and then some. JD can turn Akron into the best non-BCS program in the country! We'd go .500 in the Big 10 this year and we've only just begun turning this program around and rebuilding our football tradition!

I like the Panini's idea... we should support businesses that televise our team! We need to drop cash at Panini's and not just watch the game in someone's living room!

About as insightful as the ABJ's cut-n-paste article on the Akron Zips in today's paper.

Hey Zipdad... could you tell us a bit about the plans you saw while they were recruiting your son?Also, the dire necessity of a new stadium was impressed on me once again just this past weekend. Last Saturday I went to Fawcett Stadium to see a high school game and the revovations that they've made to Fawcett make it a pretty nice facilty and a much nicer, fan-friendlier (?) facility than the Rubber Bowl. I grew up about 5 minutes from the Rubber Bowl, but darn it, the facility is a downright embarassment. When people from Canton come to a Zips game, they have to be thinking, "Man, my high school kid plays in a nicer facility than this!" We desperately need a new facility!

4 if you count Temple. Temple, Buffalo, Can't State & Eastern Michigan. Those guys really drag down the rest of the conference. I think I'm the only person on this board who liked admitting Temple into the MAC. I just think it's a good move to get the Philly tv market into the MAC. Also, I believe Temple is to play many MAC schools in basketball too, which will be nice. Buffalo is also a decent sized market, so I think we may be wise to also be very patient with their program. But Can't State & Eastern Michigan? Man, can we just kick them out of the conference right now? The more quickly the MAC disassociates its' member schools with those programs, the better!

I love bobbyake's passion! Man, could you imagine if all of Akron rallied around the Zips like he does and found their drive in Zips athletics and not Columbus? Wow. Akron would then really be a community with it's own identity! I must agree with bobbyake. Columbus State is absolutely in a marketing war with not only the Zips, but every single large university in the state. In fact, if we simply reason together, why wouldn't Columbus State not want to retain complete and utter state dominance? CSU has been in underhanded legal battles with OU for decades, trying to erase the "Ohio" from OU's name. This has been a long and documented struggle - you'd want to get a passionate and knowledgable OU fan to let you know all about that. Here's just one example - why isn't OU's stadium named Ohio Stadium and OSU's stadium named Ohio State Stadium? If you stop and think, it quickly dawns on you that OSU's stadium actually is not Ohio Stadium, but is actually Ohio State Stadium. Well, it goes back to this long struggle. (OU's stadium is now named Peden Stadium.) This is the main reason I find so much humor in OU's smart@$$ Gang Green slogan - "THE State university of Ohio." It's an intelligent mockery of Columbus' insistence upon pronouncing "The" before their name as well as a slap in the face of Columbus State lawyers and administrators who have attempted to erase the name "Ohio" from OU! It's ALL marketing strategy and $$$ my friends. To think otherwise is to either be naive about the capitalistic system in which we live or to be an ostrich with your head in the sand. OU - OSU would be a natural football rivalry (Michigan-Michigan State; Colorado-Colorado State; Kansas-Kansas State; Iowa-Iowa State, etc., etc.) but OSU won't have it, for they don't want anyone to possibly ever view them as having any athletic peers in the state. They truly want to keep the other state universities relegated to the rank of second-class citizens. This is just factual and common sense - why wouldn't Columbus State think this way? They may be evil, but they're not stupid! This is what we have to fight. Columbus State refused to play Cincinnati in basketball while Huggins had the BearCats at the top of the Ohio basketball food chain. Why? Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. In fact, I'm more than sure that Columbus State administrators probably had a cow when Cincinnati was invited to a BCS conference! It goes on and on. What would really help the Zips, as well as other state universities build a fan base would be for OSU to tank it bad for about 5 years! This would help in recruiting, in sales and marketing, and in the over-all perception that yes, Akron is a valid alternative to Columbus State. However, what would help our cause even more would be for the Zips to build a consistently strong program. If the Zips could build a program which consistently finishes in or near the top 25, I'd be willing to bet Zips fever would spread through the greater Akron area and we'd be through seeing so much Columbus State clothing in our territory. Honestly, it may take a generation of Zips success to truly see a change in heart among Akron area sports fans. But then again, it may not. Perhaps people in our area would LOVE to support the local team. We can't really tell because 1) people love to be associated with a winner, but 2) we've only been "a winner" ONE year!!! So give us about 10 years of winning football and top 25 ranking and we may be surpremely surprised!!!B.t.w. I'm using a friend's computer to log this in and guess what his screen saver is? I'm sad to say it's Ohio Stadium. MY FRIEND WAS BORN IN AKRON!!! We've got a long way to go.

Yeah, what's Robinson's problem?! Maybe he's just a big fat slob?

We're awfully stacked at QB for the next few years as well. We've got two pretty good RS freshmen battling for the backup QB spot, and we've got a true frosh who's being redshirted this year, Sean Hakes, who it seems, most on this board think will win the starting job next year.I saw your QB Cochran play in high school and he's the real deal! The fact that someone is giving him a battle for the starting position speaks well of your depth at QB!

1000 tickets? Or 1000 season ticket packages? Which, if they're family plan packages, would be 4000 tickets.

Can explain the 3-3-5 defense? I'm more accustomed to the 4-3-4 or 3-4-4. Is the 3-3-5 simply a nickle package?Thus, I'm more accustomed to thinking of the DL as DT's and DE's, and I generally think of linebackers as either Inside LB or Outside LB.How can we have a NG (nose guard) without running a 5-2? We've got a DT, NG and one DE? How's that work?And what on earth is a "Bandit", a "Sam" and a "Mike"?!If someone with a little more football IQ than myself could explain this defensive philosophy, I, and I expect many others, will be able to enjoy watching the D play this year!Thanks!Go Zips!

I'm worried about week 3's trip to Central. They lost their QB but they've got a decent team. The top of the MAC is tough! (The bottom of the MAC is downright awful and drag the rest of us down - btw, isn't it great considering Akron "the rest of us?!?!") These are the MAC schools I'd want in a new conference:AkronToledoOhioN. IllinoisC. Mich.(NOT Miami - screw Miami!)How's that sound? After the Big East breakup, add Pitt, Cincy, USF & Louisville.(I like 'Cuse but I'm afraid they may be a dying program.)Next move: Add UCF, Marshall and MemphisNew conference: AkronToledoPittCincyOhioN. IllinoisC. Mich.USFUCFMarshallMemphisLouisvilleDude, that's a nice conference!