ZachTheZip

You could call it the "cradle of coaches", but I think Miami football has that trademarked.

Just realized VMI's mascot is a kangaroo named Moe.

$325k is the base salary. I'm sure he has a pretty hefty incentive package. Add all his bonuses from winning and he might pull in seven figures this year.

Blake Justice is supposedly our "scorer" next season. That kid just loves to put the ball in the hoop. We had accurate, knockdown shooters on the team this season, but none of them were used in a way that allowed them to become the kind of guy you describe. McNees was spending too much time at PG and not enough time as the catch-and-shoot guy. Roberts never saw an open look that he didn't want to pass out of. McKnight wasn't the shooter he thought he was. Diggs was being used as a wing, like McClanahan. Most of those guys, if allowed, could become our "go to" guy if they weren't busy being role players. Dambrot needs to give our backcourt players more freedom next season.

Consider this statement: The MAC football championship games being held in Detroit has a detrimental effect on MAC East teams' performances. Sounds dumb, right? Same thing goes for the basketball argument. The MAC offices are located in downtown Cleveland (in the Tower City complex, in fact), making Cleveland the center of the league. It only makes sense to have a high profile conference event there.

Our WRs had a terrible case of butterfingers last season. I think Nicely would have been completing 55% or better if the WRs could catch a football thrown directly to the numbers on their jerseys. Hopefully the new generation of WRs and TEs has better hand-eye coordination. Maybe Ianello should invest in a X-Box with Kinect or something to help train the players on that aspect of the game.

The Pizza Hut across from City hospital is moving locations to be closer to campus. They're moving to the other side of Route 8 on Market. This is interesting because it's a sign that in the battle of two gigantic influences on the area, UA has more allure for business than the mega-hospital and all its staff.

If you find the time to crunch the numbers, I would compare the W-L percentages in the tourney to the ones in the regular season. The East has dominated the West in the regular season (which is a more fair result since its half home and half away games), so its no surprise that the West gets dominated at the Q as well. Plus the weakest West teams get eliminated early, which means the West champs usually play a lower-seeded but superior East team. I think the West would actually improve if they didn't get an automatic 1 or 2 seed because the top West team then gets to play one of the worse teams on the first round, assuming they don't get a bye.

The only way Akron baseball will ever win in its current state is through dumb luck. Still, it's nice to have some games at Canal Park. I still think the MAC tournament should be held there. It's absolutely perfect for an event like that.

As has been said, nobody who has ever violated the NCAA rule against withholding information has kept their job, until Tressel. Do you know why all those other schools fired their coaches? Because the alternative is a Lack of institutional Control penalty slapped on them by the NCAA. Maybe OSU thinks they're above that kind of punishment, but the NCAA has shown willingness recently to go after the big boys.

Akron Athletics youtube page uploads a post game video after every regular season home game. It usually include clips from the game as well as interviews with KD and some of the players. http://www.youtube.com/user/ZipsAthletics#p/u The ZipsAthletics channel on Youtube is great. But it's sadly under-viewed. Our goal as fans should be to get every video on there to 1000 views. And to get the number of channel subscribers to at least 500. It should also be the athletics department's job to promote this. Put a link to it on their Facebook pages, display an ad for it prominently on Gozips.com, things like that. There are so many simple things that could be done cheaply and quickly that aren't being done. Everything should tie into everything else, but instead you have the website, the YT channel, the social media stuff, and the traditional advertising all as separate entities.

70 are players on the roster. However, I count at least 10 walk-ons. Out of the 23 recruits coming in, four (Washington, Moore, Staten, Rizzo) are already here. So we have 19 coming in in the fall to add to at best 60 scholarship players. So we are looking at 79 in a best-case scenario, assuming nobody quits during spring and fall camps (not a safe assumption, given our rate of players jumping ship). I think by the time we play OSU we'll have around 74 scholarship players.

UA lays groundwork for new Engineering building.

Didn't we sign two JC linemen who I thought were going to be on campus? Wasn't one named Rizzo?Could they have stayed in JC to finish out their academic year? Please enlighten me. I need some hope to get through this upcoming year. Hopefully it's just an oversight. Could be because the lone ranger didn't make the new players list. Or it could be that we already knew they were on the roster for the spring semester, and so weren't really "new". Rizzo and Moore are both on the team and practicing. Moore was working with the second-string O-line.

Two new offers: DE Ryan Leahy T Joseph Spencer

Just look at WMU's Stainbrook. Euton can play D-I ball. He can transfer and still have three years to play. Stainbrook? Really? That is your example? A guy who doesn't have the physical endurance to stay on the floor, who Zeke pretty much abused in the semi-finals from a program that we have owned for the last half dozen years or so? Excuse me if I sound a bit elitist here, but this program can and should aspire to a lot more than Matt Stainbrook. My point is that if Stainbrook can make a D-I roster for a winning team and play significant minutes, Euton most certainly can do the same.

Just look at WMU's Stainbrook. Euton can play D-I ball. He can transfer and still have three years to play.

Dambrot said today on the radio that he thinks Nik is leaning toward staying. where is that scholarship coming from then? Are one of our other players leaving? Maybe Egner? 1 - Rico 2 - McClanahan 3 - Diggs 4 - Cvetinovic 5 - Zeke 6 - Walsh 7 - Gilliam 8 - Harney 9 - Treadwell 10 - Egner 11 - Justice 12 - Ibitayo 13 - Green You're right. If Nik plays one more year, that would put us over our 13 scholly limit. Maybe KD's going to require one of the non-qualifiers to pay for school for one more season, much like the Darryl Roberts situation? Hmm, GoZips is MUCH closer to the program than I and recently posted that he had heard Green was really coming along in practice. But still, I think my shot in the dark would be that Green is considering a move like Euton and transferring down a level. I don't think Harney and Treadwell are guaranteed a scholarship. They might be, but I haven't heard anything saying they were. Maybe they will compete for a single available scholarship. Maybe one won't qualify.

Pride and Schrock leaving leaves us even thinner at WR than we thought we would be. Blayther Sabbat is someone to watch in the defensive secondary.

Got the new spring football roster. Lets take a look at the changes from last season. Players not on the roster: WR Curtis Brown LB Clay Cameron QB Adam Charles CB Randy Greenwood FB James Heiss RB Dale Martin LB Nolan Plate WR Gary Pride QB Matt Rodgers WR Anthony Schrock DT Cowles Stewart CB Nate Vidmar New players: So. OL Clayton Chenault, Buchtel HS So. DB Lucas Gagne, Lakeview HS So. DE Varnell Garrett, John Adams HS Jr. WR Mile Greschl, Butler HS Jr. LB Jonathan Hanobik, Chardon HS So. P Kevin Ivasku, Copley HS So. LB Ben Karam, Perry HS Jr. CB Blayther Sabbat, Hudson Valley CC Jr. DE Conner Seeman, Copley HS Fr. RB Marvin Staten, Tottenville HS Fr. DB Carl Washington, Eastmoor Academy

Dambrot said today on the radio that he thinks Nik is leaning toward staying.

Your wish has been granted. I have the new 2011 Spring Roster in hand. They were passing them out at the open practice today. Lots of new names I don't recognize.

If Dakota Euton leaves, there is an open scholarship. Oh, did I mention that Dakota Euton IS leaving? Well, he is headed for a Div-II school. Its been confirmed. And, no, don't bother asking me to reveal my source(s). Other tip I picked up is that right now Nikola is leaning toward staying one more year. But, its not cast in concrete. Credit to DaveInGreen in an earlier post. He was right on target. How is there an extra scholarship? And why wouldn't we give it to one of our walk-ons? As for losing height, Harney and Treadwell were both 6'7" when they came in, and have had a year to grow. Who's to say they both aren't at least 6'8" by now or that they could grow an inch or more after that? Height isn't everything, anyway. Just ask J Wood.

The JAR doesn't need renovated all at once. It can be done piecemeal. An improvement in any area is better than staying as-is. You can upgrade the stat boards. You can remove the track. You can re-do the lobby. You can do so much. It doesn't cost as much as a complete renovation, and I don't think we really need anything too comprehensive.

I don't think it affects recruiting too much. Most of the recent transfers out of the program have nothing but good things to say about it. They understood they didn't fit but were grateful for the opportunity to compete for a roster spot on a good D-I team. They all got to go to the NCAA tournament and they all have MAC championship rings. Recruits see a competitive environment. It takes a certain kind of attitude to play for KD, and kids that want it all handed to them wouldn't come here anyway.