ZachTheZip

It was surreal to see so many people all happy about something in Akron. To see the whole university united in celebration, parties on every street around campus, people talking and being excited, a real buzz. I saw alumni and random city-folk wandering around campus before and after the game in shock because they had no idea what it has been transformed into. This translated into a lot of newfound pride. I don't think that we have seen nearly anything of what this stadium has begun to do for the community and the university. Not yet. Things like this take a little bit to sink in. Just wait until the Can't State game.

The team didn't know that they had new uniforms until right before the game! They were practicing in old unis with the wrong numbers and no names. The lockers were all locked before warmups, but unlocked after they came back in with the brand new unis in them and that's how the team found out about them. Pretty neat, and I think it went over pretty well.

The team played a better game on offense than they did last week, but the playcalling was still pretty bad at times. Like obviously bad. Like every single person in the stadium knew that play wasn't going to work bad. QUIT RUNNING THE DRAW PLAY UP THE MIDDLE! Defense is a pleasant surprise.I think this game was good and could produce some shuffling on the depth chart.Brian Wagner continues to impress.

Saw some people tailgating on Market Street where the Mr Hero's used to be. Plenty of space and you get to show off to the city.Lot 34 seemed a bit cramped, and everything was pretty tentative. I am sure we'll have this thing down pat by the Can't State game.

http://www.ohio.com/news/59134427.htmlUA to break ground on the new polymer center on Monday. We're also building a new engineering building and law building next to the railroad tracks on Wolf Ledges.It was great to see all the people wandering around before and after the game, admiring all the improvements to campus. But the Landscape for Learning was all about renovating the existing campus and turning into something to be proud of. The completion of the stadium marks a changing of the type of growth we're seeing. Now we're into the next phase, which is to create entirely new programs and build new facilities to house them in. This is true growth, not just the revitalization we have been seeing.

What? They should have made this an event. Fireworks show on Home Opener Eve.

After the game, it's time to tailgate some more before the volleyball team plays TCU at 7:30, so staying late won't be a problem.

You know how they said the stadium would be something like 98% complete for the game tomorrow?As I was walking around the outside of the stadium I found out what that unfinished 2% is. It's the team shop, the rounded building on the corner of Exchange and Union. It's empty and there's a dirt floor. No way it gets finished by tomorrow. Hopefully they have some tables and tents set up to sell t-shirts (lots and lots of "grand opening" t-shirts).

I hope everybody is bringing their cameras to take pics of the full crowd. It should look awesome.

weather.com is still showing Partly cloudy with a high of 74 degrees. I'm keepin my fingers crossed from here on outWhat weather.com are you looking at?Looks cold and rainy to me.

If it was, then they did it this afternoon after I left because I was parked right next to it in the morning. They did tame the jungle that the lawn had grown into earlier this week.

Rasor posted the info on his blog.The parking lots don't open up until 10:00AM, and the gates to the stadium open up at Noon.Carol and Buchtel street exits on Route 8 will be closed at Noon.

Not looking so good now...

Does anybody have any info about how big the gameday staff will be? I'm guessing that it will be at least 10 times what we had at the Rubber Bowl. Maybe even more. You've got three times the number of concession stands, double the ticket gates, and a whole bunch of people working in the tower to keep the big $$$ happy.I'm asking because I think we should do like Penn State does and include everybody possible in attendance numbers. With everyone counted, we could go over 31,000 reported attendance.

OK, OK. I'll give the fans a pass for the next two weeks if they aren't as loud as they could be. I'll even try to tolerate all the yokels who will be wearing OSU gear because it's the only thing college-related that they've ever owned so they think that since they're at a different college they can wear it because college is college.But if the stadium isn't the loudest place in the state of Ohio and being picked up on local seismic monitors for the Wagon Wheel game, I reserve the right to complain.

The question is: will all the students cheer, or will it be the same core group of 50 kids making all the noise and feeling obligated to start chants? How many students are there just to be there but couldn't name a single player on the team past or present? The only way to get them involved and hooked to come back for more is to have some amazing plays, like going big for breakaway runs for large chunks of yards or throwing TD bombs, and completely dismantling Morgan State on defense. It's not enough to win when you're trying to gain fans for life. You have to win in a big way to catch the attention of some of the most apathetic individuals in the nation.

This needs to be posted on every mid-major message board in the country.

http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/58504077.htmlThis is awesome. It's interesting to see what goes on behind the curtains, where the coaches make their strategy and prepare for their next opponent.

And we'll start another one that we're all desperate for attention and come groveling with thanks at the sign of any coverage. It's great to compliment them on the quality of the coverage, but to thank them for doing something they should be doing in the first place doesn't look good. This especially applies to the Cleveland TV stations.

It's going to be nuts on Saturday. Here's hoping that they ticket buyers actually show up, and it wasn't a bunch of corporate sales given to employees that don't go to the games.My hope is that for everyone still trying to buy GA tickets the ticket office is pushing the Indiana game as an alternative.

http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/plaindealer...&thispage=1There are 9 by my count, unless he is including Pierre Carr and possibly Chris Henderson. If Henderson is with the team this year, then we have at least one mystery recruit, and maybe two.

Hate to break it to you, but that's not the team's unis. It's the goalkeeper's jersey.

Here's something I was hoping they would do, but I haven't seen it: "University of Akron: Bringing big-time college football to north-east Ohio"Never mind that we've had a team for 110 seasons now or that there are other colleges with teams in the area, or any of that stuff. The "big-time" college football experience is something that's missing from the Cleveland area.One of the keys to marketing a product is to make it sound like 1.) it's something your target audience doesn't already have, and 2.) it's something that they need to have.

We get so caught up in the "big things" when comparing our athletic department to other schools that we try to emulate, but in reality the reason they are successful is because they do all the little things right. Sure, they have gigantic stadiums and huge merchandising options and all that stuff, but those are all products of doing the small things the right way, like a smooth ticket sales process, up-to-date website information, and the like, which is the reason they have fans who keep coming back even if they don't have a connection to the university.

There's no such thing as Lot 73 according to this map.. I would call the ticket office and ask them where it is.Edit: There's also no lot 73 listed on the main parking lot information page: http://www.uakron.edu/aux/parking/lotlist.php