ZachTheZip

The Zips will arrive in Laramie this afternoon. That gives them a more than a day and a half to get acclimated.The lack of oxygen at that altitude can cause some weird symptoms, not the least of which is having bizarre dreams. I hope none of our players are easily influenced by stuff like that.

I've been asking this quite a while now, and nobody has ever given me an answer. Is there a single sport that Easter Michigan competes in nowadays?I think they're good at Olympic sports like track and cross country.

ABJ Article

There appeared to be an entire high school basketball team sitting behind the basket on the north side.

Zips get press in the LA Times?

A good strength and conditioning program can make up for what fans might perceive as a lack of "talent" in some players. It's half of the equation. The other half is technique, which is taught by the position coaches. The position coaches are the most important hires on the staff and can make or break a new coach.The talent is there. Find coaches who can take advantage of it to the fullest.

Anthony Hitchens has done a lot for Clearview football in the past four seasons. If he's the football equivalent of Humpty, we need to go after this kid hard.Oh, and Merry Christmas, Zipsnation!

Tim Zetts gets his moment.A nice feel-good Zips football story for Christmas.

They are a notch or two below. Until they develop a better way of identifying talent, they will remain there. The Seattle Sounders are the only team in the MLS to employ a talent scout. Maybe if they watched more NCAA games they would be able to identify some hidden gems and increase the available talent depth. Right now they rely on the youth national teams more than they should.

I think a nicer overall gameday experience is more important than the quality of the opponent. Better seats and sightlines. Having the concession stand not look like a utility closet, and getting real cash registers instead of a pocket calculator. People would enjoy watching a good old-fashioned beatdown much more if their backs weren't killing them and they had access to decent carnival food (Blue and gold cotton candy at all events. Make it happen.) that they didn't have to go up and down the stairs to get. The JAR's biggest flaw is something we can't correct: having to go up the stairs to get to your seat, even if you sit in the lower section. but the rest can be improved upon.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/arti...worth_to_akron/I think he did a great job stepping in for Nanchoff. The future is bright.It's been pretty awesome to see the Zips getting mentions in the bigger newspapers recently, between this and the football coaching stories showing up in the Chicago Tribune.

I would. I think our relationship with the local schools is good enough. In the past, all we get from local high school coaches in NE Ohio is pissing and moaning when we will not give a scholarship to one of their DII players. We don't need to pay someone sixty thousand a year for that.Yep. They bitch and moan if Akron doesn't offer, then if their guy gets a bigger offer, they turn on Akron as the little school.And that's why we need to hire somebody who can explain that to the high school coaches. Somebody who can change how it works.

I think we should also create a new position on the staff: Director of High School Relations. Lots of schools are listing someone with this title on their staff these days, and I don't think anybody here would dispute the need to develop better relations with the local high schools.

Gardner Webb and Syracuse are our OOC home games. We're also playing Bowling Green, Buffalo, and two MAC West opponents.

I liked seeing our guards being able to drive to the hoop for layups. That's something that was missing for a while.

The last name seems familiar to me. Is he related to another college athlete?

Is football the albatross, or are non-revenue producing sports the albatrosses?Depends on what the focus of collegiate athletics is. Is it to make money and advertise for the university, or is it to provide a competitive and unique experience for talented athletes while they get an education?

Football is the albatross around NCAA D-I's neck.Within a few years, more schools will drop the sport or at least drop scholarships or become a club team. Others will move up from FCS to FBS. The sport will be consolidated with only the schools that can afford to support it still fielding a team. The key for Akron is to ride out the storm and do what we can to improve our standing in the big picture.

Akron looks to get revenge after a bad loss in last year's Bracketbuster game. Valpo has trouble rebounding the ball, which is good news for the Zips. They're 2-7 against D-I teams, but they played a fairly tough schedule, almost entirely on the road. Akron should extend their winning streak on Sunday, but to look past this team can be fatal like it was last season.Valpo message boards

You lose 100% of the games you never schedule. Can't beat good programs, or even compete with them if you don't schedule them. It is that simple.If that is true, then Duke, North Carolina, OSU, CSU have all lost to us because they never scheduled us.Quick call that in to the RPI people.edit* It's funny that you guys think we could even compete for an at large bid. 20 wins with 6 losses to Duke, Pitt, UConn, OSU, Michigan State, and Kansas, get's us the same thing we have right now. No bids and getting ready to start the MAC Tournament. Until we are good enough to compete and beat top 30 teams, we need to have an easy schedule with some bench mark games so that we don't get beat up going into MAC play. It's gotten us to the Championship game 3 years in a row, and taking away poor Ref work, should have been two Dance Invites.So, are you saying that 20 wins with maybe a 50 SOS wouldn't put us in a much better position than 20 wins with a 150 SOS?It wouldn't, but 26 wins with a 150 SOS might.

Currently need, a D-line coach (Bryant Young, but until he's on there I don't count it), Defensive Backs, Receivers, D-Coordinator and an O-line coach.Maybe a waterboy :cheers:edit* can't help but notice that we are getting more press in Chicago than we are in Akron.We could also use a Special Teams coordinator.Also, Ohio.com is doing a decent amount of covering the staff hirings. But when you're dealing with Notre Dame constantly you'll get major coverage from all over.

GoZips.com football staff pageIt gets updated as the hires become official.

The Zips take on UIC from the Horizon league tonight at 7:00.UIC Message BoardIf the Zips play like they have been the past few games, this should be another big win. It's great to get all 15 players some playing time for multiple games in a row. Hopefully that trend continues. It might get boring for casual fans, but it's fun to see the deeper bench guys get playing time and watch them learn as they go.

No ulcers, just gas. But his record doesn't raise red flags for anybody?

Yes and? Latina is our offensive coordinator not Miceli. Miceli is assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator, running backs coach.Miceli's our recruiting coordinator and the assistant head coach. If he was just a position coach I wouldn't be so concerned. He was in charge of half of a team going through its worst stretch in program history. Might that have had something to do with poor recruiting?