ZachTheZip

Johnson will likely get more carries now that he's healthy again. At EMU, it was his first game back since being carted off the field in an ambulance. The coaches were cautious with him, but after a break like this they shouldn't feel like they need to be careful.

He may not be 100%, and I doubt there are many players on the team who are, but the way he ran against EMU was scary good. I can only imagine how good he might be if he can run for nearly 300 yards and 3 TDs when he's not even 100%.This team is banged up, maybe having an extra long bye week will be good. I was worried about coming out flat against Toledo, but if the team can heal, I don't think that will be a problem.Kennedy for President!

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not sure what their schedule is supposed to be.I just checked there, and they have, in fact, updated it. We sit at #5 in the RPI.Penn State is at #159 out of 203, Hartwick is at #67, and OSU is at #38. We will lose standing by playing Penn State, but should make it up playing two strong teams to end the season.

Akron should be able to beat Penn State and Hartwick.The AK-Rowdies are bringing three busloads of students to Columbus, which should help tip the scales in the Zips' favor at a tough place to play.

The NSCAA poll has us at #2 as well! The official NCAA RPI hasn't been calculated since October 12th, and we are #12 there, but I expect us to move up quite a bit when it's re-calculated.

We want Ohio to win tonight. I don't want to be placed in a tie for first.

http://www.ohio.com/news/top_new/33385829.htmlIt appears that they are working on creating consistency on defense. Hopefully at the QB position as well. They have plenty of time to focus on Toledo, although Toledo also has a long break before playing us.

When it comes to football, one program has stood above all the others in the history of the Akron City Series, and it's Garfield. It was very appropriate that the last City Series game in the Rubber Bowl was Garfield/Buchtel (arguably the two best City Series' programs), and it was nice to see the good guys win another championship. Nice to see the Beacon get one thing right, as they don't get much right! Go Rams!That's right when you're saying history. But, Garfield hadn't won a city title since 2001 before they won this one and they still got the best coverage 2002 through last year even the year they went 2-8 a couple of years ago, you would thought they were 8-2 the way the ABJ covered them. They haven't been the best team Six of the the last seven years and couple of those years were only a Kenmore, Firestone and Central-Hower from being in the basement. Bottom line is they didn't warrant getting game coverage and human interests coverage they got six of the last seven years over the other HS's.There more then one HS in Akron and while Garfield has proud tradition and history. It's not right to basically ignore 5 of the other 6 schools when comes to scores and coverage. That's truly sad saying Garfield is the best team so we're going to cover them and screw everybody else.An attitude like that is why the ABJ covers Ohio St and say screw UofA who sits on the same street as them.Most of their coverage this decade was because of a single player: Beanie Wells. As soon as he verballed to OSU (I believe he was a sophomore), everybody, especially the ABJ, treated him like the football version of LeBron. There were better running backs playing for other high school teams in Akron at the same time, but because he was going to go to OSU he got all the attention.

I think the students would actually prefer to be on the grass hill in the endzone.I'm glad we aren't putting the family section right next to the visitor's section and that we have reserved seating on both sides of the field. We learned a lot from the way the seating was set up in the RB, apparently.

We start the season off playing on the road at Penn State next year, which pretty much destroys our shot at a season like Ball State is having. I won't rule out an upset, though.

It looks like the game has gotten out of hand for Miami. The only real game we need id NIU to beat BG.Both Wisconsin and Army won today, which helps our SOS out a bit. Cinci lost to UConn and Syracuse has a bye.

I think as the campus keeps expanding, and as football games are played on campus, ABJ will be somewhat forced to cover it, because the city will be talking about it.Not to mention the front of the ABJ sports page from a couple days ago was covering the mens soccer game win over UM.Now that I think of it, the best thing the stadium will be used for that gets us coverage will be High School football games. Unfortunately HS football is king here, and college ball is an afterthought, but that might change when all those people who perpetually live in HS football land (you know the ones, still wearing their 40 year old Letterman's jacket from Buchtel or Garfield and hanging around practices) will be forced to come to UA's campus. This will be the greatest draw we could possibly have for getting people to see the new look of Akron's campus.

UA had to turn away 150 kids, and help them find apartments in the area. The thing is, that was on top of the many students Akron is renting rooms at the Raddison Hotel downtown. Yes, both downtown hotels are filled with students. UA only owns Quaker Square, so the Raddison bill has to be pretty expensive, but they had no choice.There are a few independent housing projects that should help the situation, like the one downtown across from the Beacon Journal.

I don't think any of our coordinatirs or JD is going anywhere after this season. Not sure about the position coaches, though.

I think the reason there is a call for JD's head is because we stuck with the last two coaches for longer than many feel we should have. They don't want to make the same mistake again. I think JD has taken the program to a level beyond what Lee Owens had, the question is whether he can continue to improve or if has he reached a ceiling.

Yeah, you beat Ohio on a lucky referee's call at home with maybe 10 people in the stands. Good for you.

Screw building for some vague future. Akron needs to win, and win NOW. We already have the "future" being built for us, and you can stare at it all day on webcams. Akron needs to win the East this year. Why should we try focusing on anything else when we have the East and a bowl game within our grasp? It's time to take a step forward, not spin our wheels in the mud outside the Rubber Bowl.

If you think we drove the goalie crazy, then you should have seen his mom who was at the game. She was convinced that everything we did (horns, the drum section, shouting, standing behind him) was illegal.

Akron beat overcame a tough Michigan team and some awful refereeing to win 1-0.

Losing is not a "win-win" situation. It's a "losing" situation. I want to knock off ball State in the MAC Championship game. You can't tell me that a 13-0 Ball State playing a Sun-Belt also-ran (I don't think the Big 10 will be able to fill their spot, and Ball State won't get into a BCS game) in the Motor City Bowl somehow benefits us more than us knocking off an undefeated ranked opponent on national TV while winning the conference championship.

Not true. The most highly regarded one and the one most similar to the NCAA selection committee is the NSCAA/Adidas Poll where we are #5. UM is #21 and OSU has been ranked on and off throughout the year. The game against OSU on the road will be a battle and would be a quality win.I'm just going by the signs set up all over campus.

I've seen this type of post before on the board. Can someone name me one person at the University who has stated the future of the Zips is in the Big East? I think this is one of those untruths that has been said so many times that people now believe it is true.The Big East won't invite Akron to join them just because we win a MAC championship or two in football and basketball. They won't invite us if we win the national title in Soccer. They won't invite us for any athletic achievements, no matter how great. The only way Akron gets an invite is if we have something of value to offer them, and the only thing they value is money. So unless Akron suddenly gets a whole lot more popular as a "franchise", we're stuck in the MAC.

Akron is ranked #3 and Michigan is #13 going into this game. It's our last chance to really move up in the rankings without having the teams ahead of us lose.

I woke up this morning, and when I opened the newspaper, the first thing I saw was an enormous picture of the Info! Pics of the stadium take up more than half the front page! I find that amazing, given all the crazy stuff happening right now. It may not be "sports" coverage, but I'll take a gigantic front-page story about UA over an article on the sports page any day.

Construction won't start on a new Soccer facility for at least another year. Coleman Commons has to be completed first, and that won't happen for a while.