Blue & Gold

Looks like he's really got a mean streak in him!

Pregame: I think the fight song is great! One of the best in the nation. But IMHO the "Eat'em Up, Eat'em Up, Go Zips, Go" has to go! It's hokey. And so very few people actually chant the trite and cumbersome "Eat'em up..." that it's downright embarassing.Mid-game: how about adding The Raiders of the Lost Ark score?! It's great & who doesn't get pumped up (and laugh at the same time) when they hear The Raiders score?!?! Maybe I'm showing my age?! Just an idea. Also - keep playing The Imperial March for the Defense - it's fantastic!!!

Speaking from ignorance, I was a little more excited about Jeter. He seemed to get more hype from the Pittsburgh papers. Also, he's an inch taller and considered a shooting guard, whereas McNees is a point (we've already got a 1st team all-Ohio D-1 point guard coming-Darryl Roberts from Toledo.) However, by looking @ Rivals, it appears McNees was much more heavily recruited: offered by George Washington & Rhode Island among many others.

GREAT JOB NATION!!! We had a GREAT crowd @ the game. I got there @ 10 and got a 50-yard line seat. By 10:15 my section was filled up!Great seeing Jason Taylor @ the game! We need alumnus support! Especially star alumni. I think I saw Willie Spencer walking the sidelines too!Can't wait for September!!!Life is good!Happy Easter!Go Zips!

Hey everyone. I know I'm just preaching to the choir here in The Nation, but tomorrow is the Blue-Gold Spring Game (at the Field House @ 11 a.m.) AND WE NEED ALL OF THE NATION IN ATTENDANCE!!! The BJ hasn't done a bad job covering spring practice. No, much worse than that... they HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NO JOB covering the Zips spring practice - so we've got to send a message to the BJ that the Zips have a following and that it is a good investment for them to cover Zips football!!! They'll probably have a reporter at the game, so we've got to fill the field house w/ Zips fans.We've just got to win, win and win some more to FORCE the BJ to cover us. And we fans can do our part too - SHOW UP TO THE SPRING GAME!!!

Does anyone know the status of Lance Jeter? What's taking him so long to decide between us or Cincy? Is our offer still on the table? If anyone has any inside info on this I think many of us would appreciate it! Thanks!

Is he lazy? How would you guys define "the mold of JD?" Please explain.

Dr. Z: thanks for that Team J.A.M. hyperlink! That was great! There were also links there for Dru, Rome, LeBron & Jeremiah Wood!

P.s. The Beacon's Sunday section covering the area's winter sports athletes of the year was absolutely PATHETIC!!! Especially (naturally) the ONE (1?!?!) page of P.o.t.Y. basketball coverage?!!?! Job poorly done.

Help me out here. After all of the current turmoil @ the BJ, is there any possibility that the BJ could actually cease to exist in a couple years? I couldn't imagine that, but is this at all possible?

I don't profess to have superior knowledge here, but WZIP seems to be an amazing station. As far as professionalism goes, it rivals KDD, which is one of the largest stations in all of Ohio. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe WZIP is the largest, or most profitable college station in the nation. I certainly wouldn't call the student DJs on WZIP castaways. They do an excellent job.

I am quite ignorant about the whole print media field, but if this new ownership group would force the ABJ to focus on Akron U & Akron high school sports - like any local newspaper should - this would be a GREAT thing for Zips athletics!!! I've been green with envy over the last 10 years watching how the Canton Rep covers their local high school athletics (they cover and hype the living daylights out of McKinley football & basketball. Their McKinley high school coverage puts the BJ's Zips coverage to utter shame.) If the Copley group would make the Beacon AKRON'S paper (instead of Cleveland's little sister paper) this would be AMAZING!!!

What is the capacity of BSU's new/renovated stadium?

It's a great idea. We could perhaps even schedule 2 home and 2 away games per year. That would make 4 quality, marketable and competitive non-conference games per season. I just know we need to do whatever we can to bring in some interesting OOC games to the JAR. Hosting Nevada next year is a big step in the right direction. Add a Creighton, Southern Illinois, Witchita State or George Mason to the Nevada game and you've got a very good OOC schedule at the home!

I recall reading on a post about a possible agreement between the MAC, Missouri Valley Conference and CAA (Colonial Athletic Association - home of George Mason) agreeing to work together to schedule games and perhaps spark some new rivalries among the upper-mid-major programs. I thought this was a good idea, since The Valley and CAA most likely are in the same spot as MAC schools and have a difficult time getting the "Majors" to play them - let alone come to their arenas. Has anyone heard anything new on this subject?By the way, I'll list the teams in both The Valley and CAA. I think there is a lot of potential for very interesting matchups here (well, I guess anyone's better than Mount Union or Baldwin Wallace!)Missouri Valley Conference:BradleyCreightonDrakeEvansvilleIllinois StateIndiana StateMissouri StateNorthern IowaSouthern IllinoisWitchita StateColonial Athletic Association:U of DelawareDrexelGeorge MasonHofstraJames MadisonUNC WilmingtonNortheasternOld DominionTowsonVirginia CommonwealthWilliam and MaryWhat's The Nation think? Who would you guys like to see come to the JAR? Go Zips!

Yeah, Raymar's one of the best high school players I've ever seen. I remember watching Buchtel's Doylan Robinson back when he got a lot of hype and I think Raymar's quite a bit better than Doylan was.But he was offered by both Michigan State and UConn - long shot that we could have landed him.

Great find scottditzen!!!I, the Computer Illiterate One, am going to try to post a hyperlink for all of you to check this construction out! This is Case Western U's new football stadium/dorm project.This is gorgeous! A project with this flavor - done on a D-1 scale - would be revolutionary!!! Could you IMAGINE [Zen ] walking down a 30-yard red-brick alley, w/ 5-storied red-brick dorms on each side, just to get to the beautiful new stadium gates?! How cool!!!Case Western Univeristy

Could you elaborate on this a bit more? Who is doing the presenting? Who is doing the "wooing?" There must be architectural renderings, no?

He's just joking. Can't is currently running an advertisment campaign that uses the slogan, "Imagine..." But if you're not presently living in NE Ohio you most likely wouldn't be aware of their campaign.

Questions:Are we recruiting both Ricky and Lance Jeter at this point? Which player do you think would benefit the program more?Is Ricky academically eligible?Would we ask Ricky to walk on for a year, while giving the available scholarship to Jeter?-Ricky is an outstanding athlete - he even started hitting 3's toward the end of the year. He carried McKinley on his back during both the Cincinnati North College Hill and the Toledo St. John's games (Morgan was in foul trouble in each.)

Great post Zipsbandman!!! Thanks for the great link w/ visuals!I agree w/ Zen, we need a steeper slope w/ our stadium seating. It's lousy to have your view continually blocked by the people seated in front of you. For some reason, many stadiums make this critical mistake and architects don't seem to learn from their mistakes. The seating at Jacob's Fiels is great! Steep enough so as your view is seldom obstructed.UCF's stadium is going to be nice... for them. But I'm hoping we are more creative and revolutionary with our chance!!!Firstly, I'll bet we incorporate many more loges into our design.Also, if residence hall(s) are incorporated into the design of our structure, it would afford the opportunity for interesting architectural angles, ala, Camden Yards. UCF's structure is basically your common, repetitious "bowl-style" football stadium. Typical of characterless football stadiums - they, as of yet, haven't seen the retro-architectural light as opposed to their baseball counterparts. After being in the Rubber Bowl for so many years, anything I see looks great in comparison. But aside from the sandstone and wrought-iron fencing, there does not seem to be a whole lot about UCF's design to make it a unique or imaginitive project. Hopefully we can do better.Our new stadium has been a looooong time coming! Baltimore's Camden Yards project was visionary and set a new standard for baseball stadium design. For us, now is not the time to settle for what's been done in the past. Now is our time to go ALL OUT and become the Camden Yards of football!!! Go Zips! p.s.I still think we should incorporate a red brick "Big Ben" style clock tower into our design. Akron's got many beautiful old clock towers around town - but none in the downtown/U district. This would be a great throwback element that would make this stadium project uniquely "Akron."

Huh?

No coverage whatsoever. I'm hoping the current shakeup w/ the BJ forces them to focus on AKRON and become AKRON's hometown paper. Right now it is the Cleveland Plain Dealer Light.

I don't get ONN where I live (Hartville) so I was not able to see the game. An article I found online said McKnight had 18 points & 7 boards to pace Lancaster. So that sounded good. But, what, is he just too laid back, or what?

ABSOLUTELY!!! Keep the 'mo' going with a stadium announcement!!! That would create a buzz from now till September - when we win the MAC again!!!