ZachTheZip

Patrick Nicely will be named the Owls MVP after scoring 23 points for them.

Thanks to everyone for degrading this thread. Way to go. What was the point of it all? Back to Fickell, the least we could have done is give him an interview like the other candidates instead of flat-out rejecting someone who was willing to walk into a difficult situation with the intention of helping us. Is it because he wasn't one of the search committee's recommendations? I don't recall Ianello as being one of their finalists, either. Fickell draws parallels to Al Golden of Temple and his connection to Paterno and Penn State. That worked out pretty well for the Owls, don't you think?

Cole has already committed to Wyoming. Well, now Scout and Rivals say Cole's going to Clemson after it was widely reported he was going to Wyoming. Sounds like he doesn't know what he wants. Hopefully Zack doesn't get blinded by his desire to play with his brother and verbal somewhere he doesn't really want to go. Or maybe Cole is trying to escape his brother's shadow and go to a school that hasn't offered Zack.

Ohio's got the media curse over their heads now. They won't win it.

Perhaps there weren't many in the UA category. They were either too good, and BCS caliber, or they were lower level than UA. The thing that is really bothersome is the thought process of some local kids. I read a lot of recruiting articles and the sad thing is that the majority of local kids don't even consider UA unless it is their best offer. There is a real stud DE at an Akron school that is being recruited by every major program. He stated the school he is looking at is a school that every kid dreams and wants to go to. I won't mention the school, because I don't need to go there. He doesn't even mention UA and he is from Akron. Another student from Cleveland Glenville mentions Akron and he says he will check it out because he doesn't know anything about Akron. The kid plays less than an hour from our stadium and he knows nothing about Akron. That is ridiculous. I would doubt that most of the kids in Akron, let alone from other parts of the state, are aware of the facilities UA has. Maybe if they played a high school game, but that's probably the only way. The University has to find a way to get the word out that UA has top notch facilities. As a poster from another site stated one time, Akron is a sleeping giant. We are in the hotbed of college football, yet we are an unknown. The new coaching staff needs to begin an aggressive campaign to recruit kids from NE Ohio. I know Brookhart had a majority of his recruits from our state and western PA, but a lot of them were 4th-tier recruits who saw Akron as a back-up option to BCS and even other MAC schools. If we could even get a third of the FBS-calibre kids in Summit County to stay here, we would be tops in the MAC.

The amount of hate nationally is strange. Maybe because he doesn't act like Jordan did, like a stone cold assassin. Maybe they see LeBron's potential not being filled because he goofs off too much and doesn't work hard and that makes them angry because they work hard every day and don't get anywhere close to what he has. Of course, these kind of articles never mention Cleveland fans where you can find justification for the hate. They only address the national side of things.

Cole has already committed to Wyoming.

More quotes from Cody, this time from the Plain Dealer. "The previous coach [J.D. Brookhart] never recruited in-town kids before and I wanted some Akron talent to stay in Akron". "I want to help turn it around," he said. "Right now Akron's on a down slope because the coach hasn't had a recruiting class. I think they're going to excel more." We'll see about that second one in time. But the first one is troubling. I always assumed we offered the standouts in the City Series but they always chose to leave home. For the coach to not have established relationships with the city coaches or recruit any players after six years in unacceptable. He sure didn't have trouble getting kids from the suburbs, though.

Dambrot's media day quotes Does he see McClanahan having a Conyers-esque turnaround? That would be an enormous boost. Also: "We feel like he is about 60 percent of what he could be right now and that is a drastic improvement. Is he ready to win championships for us, not yet. But his hard work and his attitude is getting him closer to that point ever day."

This is a great way to meet the team and coaches. I hope a lot of people turn out for it. Some of the players' costumes look great.

He has the potential to be much better than just "All-MAC". He's not the same kid we saw last year at all.

Welcome aboard, Cody. I'll update the list on the first page. He's listed as a FB by the recruiting services. If he becomes starting tailback, I imagine he would be the bruiser in a tandem with H-back Nick Rossi. I liked this quote: “I basically noticed that there are not many Akron kids on the Akron roster, and I want to help change that. I want to contribute to Akron.” Could he be something like Travis and Joyce were for basketball?

Lady Zips win 1-0

They seem to think John Latina is actually a good coach. I'm just not seeing it. They also mention that their AD chose "substance over familiarity" which is something I desperately wish our AD could have done as well.

I hope the Falcons can get back in.

Mens BB MAC media poll East Division Predicted Order of Finish (1st place votes in parentheses) 1. Ohio - 128 points (12) 2. Can't State - 114 points (8) 3. Akron - 104 points (4) 4. Miami - 84 points 5. Bowling Green - 42 points 6. Buffalo - 32 points West Division Predicted Order of Finish 1. Ball State - 124 points (12) 2. Central Michigan - 122 points (8) 3. Eastern Michigan - 88 points (2) 4. Western Michigan - 68 points 5. Northern Illinois - 64 points (2) 6. Toledo - 38 points Tournament Champion: Ohio (10), Can't State (6), Central Michigan (4), Ball State (2), Akron (2) East Division Preseason All-MAC Team Brett McKnight, F, Akron Scott Thomas, F, Bowling Green Justin Greene, F, Can't State Julian Mavunga, F, Miami D.J. Cooper, G, Ohio West Division Preseason All-MAC Team Jarrod Jones, F/C, Ball State Trey Zeigler, G, Central Michigan Brandon Bowdry, F, Eastern Michigan Xavier Silas, G, Northern Illinois Flenard Whitfield, F, Western Michigan ----------------------------------------------- Zeke not making all-MAC is a joke. You can't tell me that you can think of four forwards in the East who deserve to be on the team but not one center. And I don't see Brett being that great this year.

Women @ ohio gametracker

You either go south, or you go east. Another possible trio of expansion candidates is UMass, Stony Brook, and James Madison. WKU and MTSU will never leave the Sun Belt.

He's talking to you, LeBron.

This game was a bit of a wake-up call for the players, and that's a good thing. It shows them that there are other teams out there who play nearly the same style as they do to nearly as great an effect. The players need to work to become stronger, faster, and even more focused and tenacious than before. That game could easily have gone either way.

Aaaaaand there it is.

I guess according to TV replay, the one shot that hit the crossbar and bounced straight down was an uncalled Zips goal.

Did they not travel together as a team?

I guess the address was yesterday. State support is eroding, so UA is finding new ways to stay afloat.

I can't. I also don't remember who was looking for coaches last season. The real question is, "Who else was interested?" There are always discussion on this board about who we should hire. The more important question is, "Who is interested?" Hire Bowden?....What if he isn't interested? etc. Despite there being twenty-two FBS schools looking for a new coach after last season, only two were interested in Ianello: Akron and San Jose State. I didn't state the questions clearly enough. I should have said, "Who else was interested in Akron?" I know because of confidentiality reasons they can't say, I'd like to know who else was interested or even who else was contacted to see if they were interested. You can only hire someone who wants to be hired. Sorry. I misread that. According to Rivals' Tom Deinhart, "in addition to Rob Ianello, Akron interviewed Wayne State's Paul Winters; Elon's Pete Lembo; Kansas' Ed Warinner; Arizona's Mark Stoops." I would have taken any of those over Ianello. At least they have coordinator or head coach experience. We picked the one guy who had never been anything more than a position coach. No word on who else was interested but didn't get an interview, although Jim Tressel's protégé Luke Fickell was rumored to be interested but got rebuffed by the athletic director.