ZachTheZip

UA won't be able to take possession of Union Park (a.k.a. Central-Hower's lawn). Not that I think anyone would complain at having a nice bit of greenspace on campus (or surrounded by it, technically).

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_new...a-remains-quiet Not sure where we'd put it.

I'd rather have a Qdoba on campus over a Chipotle. It gives the students more options. If they want Chipotle they can go to any number of them in the area, but there aren't any Qdobas around Akron. A Panera would make a killing. If I could afford the startup costs, I would open a franchise somewhere between campus and downtown.

It would be a culture-changer for the campus.

"Stay in contention for a while"? I want to beat them. Coach Rembielak wants to beat his old team. It hasn't shown in the record, but the baseball team is much more fundamentally sound than I've ever seen it. We can compete in the MAC and make a little noise in the MAC tournament.

This is not a big deal. Let it go. Soon enough Canal Park will be the Zips home field. We play most of our games there as it is. The stadium itself is owned by the city, not by the Aeros. The Aeros are just trying to pay their rent. Once we move in, we can hang Zips banners in there to get some advertising.

Biggest losses are obviously Wagner and Russell. Loss of depth along the OL appears to have been addressed in the incoming recruiting class. As far as additions, these are the ones I found interesting: WR Evonte Dunn coming in from Glenville. Akron track star Phil Ferguson is on the team as a WR. Cinci transfer RB Quentin Hines is confirmed. TE Vito Sosic from Hargrave Military Academy (and Cleveland's St Ignatius).

Additions: RFr. LB Christopher Brinkley Fr. DL Rodney Carroll So. K Jonathan Clevenger Fr. S Benny Cunningham RFr. WR Evonte Dunn Sr. WR Phil Ferguson Jr. CB Malachi Freeman Fr. QB Tyrell Goodman Sr. RB Quentin Hines Jr. S Chuck Kennedy Fr. DE Albert Presley Fr. CB DeAndre Scott RFr. CB John Senter Fr. TE Vito Sosic Sr. QB Dalton Williams Losses: Jr. OL Clayton Chenault So. LB Simeon Ikudabo Jr. OT Joe Pachuta So. OT Jeff Palmer Jr. WR Antoine Russell Sr. CB Blayther Sabbat So. TE Matt Vogel Sr. LB Brian Wagner

Lead story on the sports page. Games today and tomorrow at 1:00 at Canal Park. Admission is completely free. Get out and support the Zips.

That guy's full of crap. OU will give him a raise to $400k, up from $250k. That won't be enough to keep him from leaving for a MVC school, let alone a Big Ten school.

Losing to those teams doesn't hurt them like a loss to Akron would.

Reggie McAdams and Elida are playing right now vs. St Clairesville in the D-II state semifinals.

Head coach Terry Bowden will throw out the first pitch at tomorrow's UA-Ball State baseball game at Canal Park in downtown Akron. The Mid-American Conference opener between the Zips and Cardinals is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m. ET and admission is free ... February signee Curtis Black (OL), who attends nearby Can't Roosevelt High School, was at InfoCision Stadium today to watch practice ... former Zips defensive end Shane Shead, who completed his eligibility in 2011, will serve as an undergraduate student assistant while working on completion of his degree. Nice to see Shane Shead return to complete his degree. Also, having Curtis Black stop by practice highlights a cool benefit of recruiting locally. The players can get a real idea of what's expected of them and have a year to prepare for it. It's easy for a kid living in Portage or Stark counties to stop by and watch, while I don't expect any of the Florida recruits to come up just to watch a practice (they might be there for the spring game, though).

If you can't make it, UA just announced that all home games (even ones at Canal park) will be streamed online. Looking around the MAC, hardly any of the MAC schools stream their sports outside of basketball, which they are required to do by the MAC. Akron is leading the way in the number of sports being streamed online.

I don't want the NCAA governing non-athletic decisions.

Why bring UA and a non-athletic hiring decision into the NFL's Saints smackdown?

Conference realignment messageboard (your MAC messageboard login should work there). It would be nice to have a real Akron fan presence there. It's a great place to get the views from fans all over the place. Right now Akron isn't even in the conversation. It's assumed by people outside the MAC that all the schools here are content to stay where we are and aren't the least bit interested in leaving or improving our athletics programs.

It needs to be pounded into the players' heads that they could have made the tournament anyway, if they had just won their non-conference games. The schedule was set up for it, and they blew nearly every chance they had to get a marquee win. They lost to Duquesne and Valpo, couldn't get it done against VCU, CSU, and Oral Roberts, and embarrassed themselves against MTSU and WVU. The only good wins were against Mississippi State and Marshall. That's a 2-7 record in games where they had a chance to get a win that "looks good". Somebody needs to tell them that these games matter. The coaches still have somewhat of a residual "win the MAC or stay home" mindset from previous years where that was true. The players don't have the self-confidence to see that they are good enough for an at-large bid.

GT checks in with his notes from the first practice. Interesting info about the QB battle.

I believe that's what we're trying to do. Can't and OSU do it with their open-enrollment branch campuses. We can do the same trick.

Under a new coaching staff, if a freshman and a senior are playing even in camp, generally you play the freshman. The opposite is true for an established coach. However, coach Bowden has said that he would like to redshirt as many freshmen as he can without sacrificing competitivenes. Don't expect a lot of his recruits to play this year unless they blow the current guys away. I am interested to see how well the older players respond to a real head coach.

1. Not really. 2. Absolutely. The MAC West is such a mess, but the changes to the MAC's NCAA credit payouts and tournament format should begin to change that. If nothing else, Toledo will be good again. Eliminate basketball divisions and things will improve even more.

I didn't wish for anything.

They get all the luck, don't they? We never seem to have any. Still, if they go on a run, I'm fine with it. We get a nice paycheck from the NCAA for every OU tourney win. And when we win the MAC next year a run this year helps them make a case for an at-large bid. The MAC needs to get respect any way they can and they say "a rising tide lifts all boats" and we're the second-highest boat right now. An OU run benefits Akron more than any other MAC school. Both times they beat us it was by the skin of DJ Cooper's teeth. In the past four years, it's been all Akron and Ohio. We're kind of like the St. Mary's to their Gonzaga or the Southern Miss to their Memphis. We need them to go on a run.

Looks like she's transferring out after a disappointing freshman year. Probably should have been redshirted.