UA1987

'There's no way we finish at the bottom of the MAC East. However, I agree that our proximity to the bottom is heavily dependent upon our QB's performance. - CK Quote'I would agree except our success in 2008 will be based on improvements in the Offense (not just the QB). The keys will be the ability of our new receivers to get on the same page as our QB, the durability of Andrew Johnson, great line play, coaching improvements, dedication and hard work.

'AND, more importantly, Wisconsin, unlike Ohio State, make a significant increase in their original contracted payout as an enticement for the Zips to honor their original commitment and come to Madison - CK Quote'Our AD got pimped on this Wisconsin game. Alvarez must have got a chuckle out of this one. Pay-em a little more and then we'll cheat them when they get here. We should have stayed with Kentucky as that was a 1 away and 1 home contract. That's how you build a program. The heck with a few more bucks for one game. This sort of deal making should be over.Going forward we should only book games that include one return game in the contract (one exception - OSU... we could get them in the Brown's Stadium). I'd like to see more games with Conference USA AND Big East teams. Let's see how we stack up with those conferences. Also, Can't should be played during rivalry week, as long as we are in the MAC and try to schedule one late season return away game every other year against a warm weather non-conference opponent (for ex. - UTEP, Houston, Central Florida, Tulane, Rice, Ect...).I'm looking forward to the Syracuse game this year, and here's hoping the Orangemen make it to Akron sometime soon.

'STEVE FRENCH - Long Time "Voice of the Zips' - JZ84 quote'Perfect - Touchdowwwwnnn Akron!!!!!Jason Taylor would be a good choice. Gordon Larson (coach from 62 to 72 - also hired Dennison as an assistant), should be a candidate too... highest winning percentage (@70%).

'like i said before, maybe you should take a closer look - Quote - Zippyrifle32'Welcome to my ignore list.

'adding women's golf - quote on legacy of our current AD by Zippyrifle32 on post 39'Maybe this will be this AD's legacy - more women's sports expansion.The road to ground breaking has been a long time coming due to architectural work and eminent domain court negotiations. Let's read the papers now and then and turn off the Kardashians.In case you didn't know, we just had 5 football scholarships yanked due to poor student athlete performance (your strict academic requirements are a result of this failure). This should never have happened. When you were a toddler we had a football coach try the same type of recruiting in the 1990's. We should have leadership that remembers the past or you are destined to repeat it (sound familiar - history class if not).Fundraising - Proenza has been outstanding. Let's see what this AD does for this University before he moves to his next stop (or maybe he stays cause nobody wants him). I hope we get more than women's golf.

'maybe you should look a little closer - ZR quote on the AD'This AD seems to be using the University as a stepping stone, which would be ok if he would actually do something great here first. He seems to be taking credit for the new football facility, but this was in place prior to his arrival. His scheduling has been poor in football and basketball and our sports promotions have gone downhill since his arrival, so what's to like?I'll give him some rope, but so far he's got much more to prove.

I have never felt this program has been welcome in the MAC. I will never forget Miami beating us 50-0 two years in row (at halftime) in the mid-1990's and then walking off the field without shaking our hands after the game. If you are from Miami... you're a punk in my book. Some of this MAC attitude came out of Faust's comments that we should beat the MAC regularly, when we were an Independent. Faust wanted us to develop a program like Pitt, but Dennison, our AD at the time, had other ideas.From my point of view, I'd like to jump to Conference USA, if it would work out financially. One thing this new AD should consider, however: look at the past... Wisconsin homered us in 2003, why would you ever schedule them again. Can you hear our chant at this year's game? Hendry, Hendry, Hendry... For those of you who don't know, our tailback, Hendry, went in for the apparent go-head score from the 1 foot line on fourth and goal with 6 minutes to go, but we were not given the TD. Never would I have scheduled a game in Camp Ripoff again. This AD has alot to prove and I have not seen any of it.

'I grossly underestimated the problems we'd have at QB. - CK Quote'Please think for a minute... our major problem last year was at receiver, despite your pre-season comments last year that we could just find replacements like we have been able to in the past ... along wth graduating seniors, we lost Harvey, Long, and Vince Hill. We had no replacement's for them and this was too much to overcome. Do you think Owen's move up from NAIA Walsh in Canton was the answer last year? No... this was a desperate move. Among other things, Sakes quit because of the loss of receiver talent. JD admitted recently that we had a major problem at wide-out. At QB it's got to be a nightmare when your only talented receiver is doubled or triple teamed, no one else is open and the defense is closing in in 1 more second. We now have the talent to get it done at wide-out, so now let's see how the QB position works out. Maybe Rodger's wins the job, I'll leave that up to JD because his job depends on it. I just hope he get's involved in the offense, because last year's offensive problems could have been corrected somewhat with some damage control and creativity by the Offensive Coordinator.Go Zips!

'I went to 9 Zips football games last season...and I don't think CJ11 is a good QB - CK quote.' Don't let my post count on this forum fool you... I've been going to and or listenting/watching almost every Akron football game for the last 20+ years. Jac may not be your stud QB, but he could be servicable this year. 'I also think coach Moorhead needs to re-invent his offense this summer - CK quote.' What could ruin this season - more Moorhead. I hope JD takes over the Offense. 'the guy gave it his best shot. He didn't copy Lee Owens...he tried a fresh approach. Ok, maybe it was a little like Faust. - CK quote on JD'Thankfully you mentioned the comparison to Faust - anybody remember the 20 injury season (I think some character lacking recruits gave up and faked injury rather than have an association with this team) during the notorious 1-10 campaign? That was the year Akron was 0-10 and Ohio was 0-10 for the first time meeting of winless 10 loss teams in division I-A. This game was played at the Rubber Bowl with some national attention. I thought that this would have been a great game for Acme/Click to hand out grocery bag head gear with eye holes cut out to hide your idenity and shame at such a bad year. No promo occurred and Poor Gerry (Faust) was fired soon thereafter.

Just because the QB touches the ball every play, doesn't mean he is 100% responsible for the results of the offense. I don't know Jac, but it seems like he is receiving the same foolish treatment, by some in this forum, that Charlie Frye received by shit streak fans and columnists.Charlie had four different centers, three different offensive coordinators, a lineman that went crazy, and two key targets that went down with injuries (Edwards and Winslow). In comes the media and fans to blame the QB. Pretty smart huh?. Once they fix everything then the team gives Charlie the heave ho to make a place for pretty boy Quinn. I no longer watch pro football for many reasons, but this is one of them.In 2007, Jac had a rebuilt offensive line, a new offense and coordinator, and only one decent receiver who was double teamed. I'd like to see you moron critics succeed in that situation. For 2008, it appears that the receiver problem is fixed. The O-line looks better after a year of working together (center position worries me a bit) and here's hoping that JD gets involved in the offense as Morehead is a where I put alot of the blame for last year's offensive problems.Summary: Jac, may or may not be the man this year, but give him a chance now that he has some weapons and protection. To just keep saying QB, QB, QB, was the problem last year sounds stupid. Let's not repeat the Charlie Frye Brown's ripoff to one of our own.

One thing with this celebration song selection - it should be able to be played by the Band and it should be somewhat age friendly. We don't want to do what the Siberian Orchestra did to their stoner Christmas show. Rock on dude, and the angel did a shot.... (I'm not crazy religious or anything, but that show was a bit strange). So far I vote for 'Whip it', but 'Wipe-out' is a close second.

A couple of last comments on our Band traditions:1) Our celebration song, Zip-pitty-do-da, is a good play on our name. I hate to admit it, but I like Can't's celebration song of 'In Heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here' It really gets their student body in a frenzy. Can we add another celebration song to our inventory - don't get rid of Zip-pitty-do-da because it has it's place, but we need a party song.2) Our call to arms song (not the punk rock band) - Eat-em-up-Zips is good, OSU's hang-on-sloopy is real good. Can we add anything else (something along a military line)? 3) This year, why not begin the Band's tradition of gathering away from the stadium (Rubber bowl this year - meet at Derby Downs) and marching to the gate, with drums only. Then, stay in formation, get your announcement, enter onto the field and play 'Blue and Gold'.4) Do we have to prance onto the field? - I don't remember the Band doing this 20 years ago. If everyone likes it OK, but I'm not real big on it.5) Flag people - I like that people get involved in the University, but I don't think flag twirlers add anything to the Band performance - maybe they should just border the sidelines when the Band is performing and be on the field when the team enters. 5) Keep the post game brief with an uplifting song if we lose and 'Blue and Gold' or 'Win For Akron' if we win, and then march back in formation to the staging area (away from the stadium), drums only. Massillon used to play a post game song at the end of a home loss tiltled something like 'Massillon Will Win Again' then they marched off to silence except for drum sticks clicking on the side of their drums. Impressive.Lastly, I have to make amends for giving Can't credit for a great celebration song. The worst band performance of all time at the Rubber Bowl was Can't State's at the Frozen Turkey Bowl in 2005. I heard a horn play every now and then during their performance and they we slipping all over the field. We did much better that day and looked great at the Motor City Bowl!

Sorry band dudes... you have no more claim to University traditions than any other Alum so relax. The official fight song can be found at UAkron.edu under the Athletics tab (not the Band site).As for the Band, I love the sound and dedication. Uniforms aren't bad either. Would love to see more drum and bugle corps in the pre-game parking lot. I would also like to see a better entrance into the new stadium. I don't like the milling around outside of the Rubber Bowl before the big entrance. The band should march in like a formittable army of soldiers. The old Director that recently passed away made the Band take on a Big Ten look (no not script Zip). I miss that.A couple of years ago I was at an OSU game, with my Big Ten family, and we stayed to watch the post game with about 10,000 others. As we we were leaving, courtesy moved us up against a wall as the OSU Band marched by only to the drums in a tight military formation to a full stop right in front of us. It was chilling. Again, Ohio's Pride isn't too shabby either, but some exciting game day traditions, other than the fine job of marching in while playing our fight song, would be nice.In 2009, I'd like to hear the band approaching the Stadium, marching only to drums from seemingly far off at the Stiles field house, with a pause at the Stadium entrance, in formation, and then enter the field to the 'Blue and Gold'. The post game exit could be the same, drums only, to the field house.

Why couldn't our alums just have chosen a bear for our mascot (yes, bears were common here once - no offense Zippy). Then, we could all be saying 'da Bears' like the old Saturday Night Live skit.Who has the best uniforms in the MAC - I vote for Temple.Lastly, Pitt abandoned their trendy panther on the helmet set-up, which was similar to ours and went back to lettering. Good idea.

Take a look at our baseball team jersey on gozips.com. I think AKRON would look better than ZIPS across the front of their shirts. The ZIPS emblazzened across the jersey would look good on a Fraternity or intramural squad, not on a competitive Division I team.

I've seen the old reels of those crazy kangaroo fights, but kangaroo's are not exactly preditory (except for grass and bugs) and there is no tie in to Northeast Ohio. I like the change to the 'true' blue and gold colors, but our gear sales took off because we won the MAC football championship several years ago, not necessarily because of the new logo.I'd like us to place 'AKRON' on all of our team jersy's, and go to some sort of a letter logo on our football helmets. If the University was considering a change, I'd probably vote to keep our nickname, for traditions sake (although I'd like to consider others with the rising new era of the University), but down play it on our team uniforms and play up the 'ZIPS' and 'ROO' format in the team shops for the fans.

Ok it's a bit slow on this board so how about discussing UA traditions (fight song, nickname, pregame) starting with our fight song. The music to our fight song is one of the best around the Country (sorry if I sound a bit like Gerry Faust). It's uplifting and inspiring. The words, however, are a bit awkward at best and embarrassing at worst. I was at a game several year's ago and the PA announcer sang our fight song in pre-game when the band entered onto the Rubber Bowl field and I was really glad that there were only 4,000 people in the stands to hear it. Here is our current version which is sung to our fight song music:'Akron Blue and Gold'We cheer the Akron Blue and GoldWe cheer as the colors unfold.We pledge anew, we all for you,As the team goes crashing throughFight! Fight!We cheer the Akron Warriors bold,For they're fighting a fight that's a sight to behold.So we stand up, cheer and shout,For the Akron Blue and Gold.Zzzip! Zip go the Zi--ips!Zzzip! Zip go the Zi--ips!Akron True Gold and Blue,All for you and the Zi-ips too!It's actually not too bad till the end. I submitted the following change to Proenza and he sent it to a committee death: We cheer the Akron Blue and GoldWe cheer as the colors unfold.We pledge anew, we all for you,As the team goes crashing throughFight! Fight!We cheer the Akron Warriors bold,For they're fighting a fight that's a sight to behold.So we stand up, cheer and shout,For the Akron Blue and Gold.Go-ooo! Akron, lead with our banner!Go-ooo! Akron, show them what matters!Akron True Gold and Blue,We will always remember you!On another topic - what about the nickname Zips. In deference to Margaret Hamlin. It's so bad it's great. I get requests for gear that says 'Zips' on it all the time, but never one article that has our current logo.Additionally, what about having a kangaroo as a mascot. Do we have any Roo's in Ohio. What were they thinking. Not only that, but, kangaroos are about as dangerous as deer. I would vote to always keep Zippy around as a mascot, but again what were the alumni of old thinking? This one may also fall into the category of - so bad it's good.Lastly, should the University consider another logo change? Would going back to a circle or moving A be best?

This brings up a good point, on this forum, how do you block future posts from selected user ID's? Is it possible? There are several that I want to screen.

Our receivers should be Jerome Royal, Jeremy Bruce, Deryn Browser, and maybe, David Harvey. I would not look to Williams, Fuqua, or Owen in 2008 as they were part of the problem on offense last year, along with the Offensive Coordinator. Our QB, CJ11, is not as bad as everyone thinks (not the best in the MAC, but good enough to win). Last year, Jacquemain was saddled with a new offense, and with one solid receiver. Defense's would double team Jabari and key on our running back. We needed more weapons or creative play calling to loosen up opposing defenses. One of the young QB's may step up this year, but if not, we will not sputter on offense because of our QB.

I doubt he'll struggle. Magnacca has 4.4 speed.

I'm not sure why we didn't offer a scholarship to Perry running back Eric Magnacca. I understand he was only offered preferred walk-on status by both OSU and Akron. He's super fast and tough (5' 10", 190 lbs) and will now be playing for Walsh University after working out a creative scholarship package.

So you want to be a wise guy... the Army game last year was never in question, although our offense looked weak as it did most of the year. Army scored on a blocked punt with only a few seconds to go in the contest to make it look closer than it was. Don't get me wrong, I have respect for Army, and we will have trouble in their house this year, but they are down right now as is Syracuse. Plain and simple, we seem to be meeting Syracuse at a good time as compared to their powerful past.As far as wins, for 2008, I don't like to speculate this early. I like to look at the new personnel during Spring. I do think we will be better now that we have more than one target at receiver and I'm betting the house that Bain will be a mad man on defense. Improved - yes. Questions - many. As far as your comment that we lost our best player on defense, I'm not sure who you mean, but Corner, and Stokes are replaceable and Mackey was out or half speed for most of the year.

Sickafoos is very beatable. They squeaked by Buffalo by 8 points. We had one of our worst games of the year at Buffalo, so watch the comparison. I was at the Army game. I know Army, their no Akron.

For me, the most interesting game on the schedule is Syracuse. That would be a big win. Next in order of interest is Can't, then Cinci, then Army then the remaining MAC contests. As I've said in a prior post, I don't like playing in Camp Ripoff. I still think Akron has a shot at being good in 2008. Road games may take a toll on the record, and there are alot of question marks, but I'm optimistic about the season.

Akron's defense could be very good in 2008. See the position chart below (Yep that's right, I'd put Sewell at LB):Nose - Bain, Lively (Stewart and Pendelton in reserve) Def End/Tackle - M. Davis, H Hazime, - lots of playing time for: Rash, Marcoux, Lemon and Odofin (Lively in mix too)LB - Balaam, Grant and Sewell (both Williams in reserve)DB's - Jones, Anderson, Moore, Richmond, B. Williams, Carter, Flemming and Cobham (some share playing time) Not bad. Could be real good.Offense will be better too now that we have more than one receiver. Andrew Johnson could be the key. If Johnson is a bust, we would have to bring Williams back from defense. Lots of question marks, but we have improved.