Aaron

I, like most of you, was REALLY down on Saturday. I couldn't believe we just became the worst team in FBS. Still, Bowden promised two wins this season, and thinking back on things once Sunday rolled around, I really feel like that Miami game was a win for us. Our players did NOT lose that game, some terrible refereeing which led to some sanctions from the MAC gave Miami that undeserved late TD. When Terry Bowden has an entire team healthy and relatively fresh, he can do some special things with them. I echo the sentiment that 'Lee Owens' expressed elsewhere on the board - recruiting has ALWAYS been an issue for the Zips. Even our better coaches could not recruit more than 'just good' classes. We had some good years, and Owens could build on some moderate success to get his recruits, but I believe that even then the rubber bowl held back our classes from being really great. With the re-investment in the football program, a few years like Owens had now should mean GREAT recruiting classes for the Zips - leading to the breakout seasons that we see time after time for other teams around the MAC. Akron has certainly been mired in mediocrity for decades, but I believe that the investments in our football program will bring us out of it. If it wasn't for how incredibly bad Ianello was at coaching, I believe that TB would have gone 4-8 or 5-7 this year with just a few more healthy guys available. I believe that TB can coach, and that he will recruit. It takes time to build up, but I believe that once we hit 'mediocre' again, we won't stay there long - a mediocre team plus our excellent facilities and competent coaching should put us up to excellent quickly. Right now, we're unfortunately working from 'worst in FBS' to 'mediocre'. It's an unpleasant, long journey that I hope we will not have to repeat again in my lifetime.

There is also a front-page story on the Zips seniors at topdrawersoccer.com today: http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soc...p-push_aid27998

Is it the 'student' part of 'student-athlete'? Are they unable to make the trip because of exams that couldn't be rescheduled or something?

At this point, I am just hoping that the NCAA will not award two #1 seeds to the same conference. The Big East has dominated RPI and the ACC has dominated the polls, so if there's going to be upsets in the conference tournaments, I hope they happen early and knock a top team out of contention quickly. Otherwise, I could see us getting left as a #5, behind Maryland, Notre Dame, UCLA, and a Big East/ACC tourney champion (Gtown?, UConn?, Lville?)

ND is/was #4 in the RPI - if they win out, they will get a top 4 seed by all rights. I think the biggest help for us this week was UConn losing - as long as UCLA and Georgetown aren't able to leapfrog us, we should end up in the top 4 as long as we continue to take care of business. I would personally rather see ND win out, take down Marquette again, as well as Georgetown and Louisville in the Big East tourney. This should put them high in the top 4, but eliminate our competition and leave us in the top 4 as well. The MAC tourney does us no favors with RPI, so I hope that the teams already at the top continue winning, and take care of our slight drop. I predict a 4 seed for us right now.

I'm marching with the alumni band tomorrow, so I happen to have the whole band schedule this week 12:00 p.m. Roo-Walk Performance for UA Football Team Arrival Vine Street 12:45 p.m. March to Stadium (Spirit Walk - Homecoming Committee) - Leave from Guzzetta Hall 12:55 p.m. Performance Coleman Common 1:05 p.m. March to Zips Fest 1:15 p.m. Performance Zips Fest 1:25 p.m. March to Stadium Continues 1:35 p.m. Arrive Tunnel InfoCision Stadium 1:44 p.m. Pregame Performance InfoCision Stadium

They set up a small 'Roo-fest' between the fieldhouse and north end zone, but with the weather forecast so bad tomorrow, there probably won't be much. There's a tent to get a little bit of Zips swag (my younger ones LOVE this), but your teens/pre-teens will probably get bored over there pretty quickly. If any of your kids have musical interests, the band does a pre-game performance over at Coleman commons, and if the lot 9 tailgate isn't seeming your style, my teens like walking through the student center and bookstore.

1 win against a FCS team counts towards bowl eligibility each year, so we could go 6-6 overall this season and be bowl-eligible, since we only play 1 FCS team.

Marathon is closed down by 1PM - no worries. Street closing times are posted on another thread, but should be done around the stadium by 10:30AM or so. This is the most excited I've been for a Zips football game since the game against Indiana where our fortunes shifted

If you're driving in early to tailgate, the road closing times for the Akron Marathon have been published: http://www.akronmarathon.org/docs/2012roadclosuregrid.pdf

Is there anybody on the boards tailgating in Lot 73 Saturday? I'm bringing the whole (9 person) family out to tailgate early Saturday, and I'd love to meet up with other board members there. We'll have beer (standard and root), snacks, and a game of Kubb (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubb) to pass the time. Go Zips, beat the redhawks!

If this is true, does the O/U on total game length start at 4 hours? And how long until Frenchie starts complaining about it again on the broadcast?

Not quite a typo, from what I understand it's an undetermined date (waiting on tv coverage perhaps?) My understanding is that the game will be either on Friday or Saturday.

I'm only able to use 3 of my 4 tickets today (being a school night and all) so if you need one, PM me.

Thanks for the heads-up. I wish sales like this were better publicized! I picked up a Blue 60 (Dan Marcoux) and a White 67 (Deni Odofin)

Renewed

I was there with a few of my kids, but it unfortunately ended right around 3, not 3:30. We showed up around 2:40 or so and met the offense side of the team before they wrapped it up. Seemed like mostly player's families there, and having it in the field house instead of the stadium changed the feel of the event from past years.

I went with 'Other' - my most likely candidate is Assault.

Final, 3-0 NIU. Congrats Huskies, best of luck against Creighton

the 3rd came in the 2nd half? I wasn't watching yet. The 2nd came a little before the end of the 2nd half Fair enough - the NCAA website is just inaccurate

According to the NCAA feed, NIU got two goals in the same second - can somebody watching the feed confirm how that is possible?

Correct, it's at 2PM EST (aka 1PM CST) The NCAA downloadable bracket has all games in the home team's local time zone.

Shouldn't the title of this thread be Zips vs. Wildcats?

I'll be having Great Lakes Christmas Ale before the game for certain, so you can add that to the list.

"Speed them on the Gale"Indiana University uses the same Alma Mater melody - Did they steal from Cornell as well? Or is there an even older college that started using that melody?