ZachTheZip

Hasan Hazime is no longer listed as "out" on the injury list. That helps with the DL issue a bit. Lively, Bain, Stewart, Harvey and Fobbs are all out for Army, though. Lively and Fobbs will hopefully be making their return after this week.Devoe Torrence will make something of this opportunity. He is supposed to be the most talented guy on the team, and now he will have a chance to prove it.Our LBs will have the chance to step up against Army, which is almost completely a run-oriented offense. It's a good thing we play Army before we get into the heart of the schedule, to allow some of our injured guys to heal and to give some of the backups who are now starting a chance to improve.

That was a great game to attend. Dumb time in the middle of classes, but attendance was OK for most of the game until they all left once the game was well in hand. FAU's goalie, Phil, got more than an earful from the Rowdies during his awful performance.This calls FAU's admittance into the MAC even further into question, as they have now been outscored 10-0 in MAC play after just two games.

Haha, oh man, that's great.

Haha. Back to the topic, I'll just say that if Akron can't beat Army by multiple touchdowns this season will be scrapped.

Incredible shot! In between this, the webcams, and seeing it in person, one can really get a great perspective of what we are actually dealing with here. They are in contention. They are the only properties still in contention other than that house owned by the son of a board member. The house is what's blocking the dorms on Spicer, and Manny's is blocking the planned dorms on Exchange. the stadium structure fits perfectly in the space we have now. The part that looks like it would overlap would actually be a lawn area behind the dorm, separated by a fence.

It's not something Akron will have to worry about too much. The only way that would happen is if we could get OSU to agree to it because of their fear of playing Ohio teams on the road. Any other school would come to our new stadium.I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. Would you get more money playing in a major stadium than at home after you factor in travel costs (not too bad) and the cost of renting an NFL stadium (could be a budget killer)? It almost has the same ring as playing on weeknights for increased "exposure" while sacrificing attendance and fan interest. You get to have a "big time" atmosphere and a larger number of fans (other team's fans, mostly, but they do count towards attendance), but you give up home field advantage and much of the precious revenue.It's just another case of the MAC having their priorities completely backwards.

Having just walked by the stadium, I can tell you a few things you can't really see from the cams, since they are so far away.1st, there are restrooms/concession stands going up on the home side. I don't know if there will be any on the visitor's side yet. 2nd, the new steel is the full height of the stadium. It's massive from street level, but it will look incredibly high when you are down near the field, which is at least 35 feet below street level. 3rd, there is lots of activity happening on the former Union Street (behind the tower). They are building a "terrace" of sorts in the center of the tower that sticks out about 12 feet from the current structure in a slight bow shape. They are filling in the outer walls on the ground level, and there is quite a bit of work happening on a smaller scale than we can see from the cams.

Are those concession stands going up underneath where the top half of the home stands will be?

The MAC forces us to play weeknight games because they think it somehow gives us a national audience (in truth, we have greater competition on weeknights with all the prime-time shows like American Idol and Lost, ect. running in the same time slots). All our non-conference games are on Saturdays. Just another reason we need to get out of this backwards-thinking conference.

Women's Cross Country team ranked 5th in Great Lakes regionAnother top team for UA. The more teams we have ranked in sports, the more leverage we have within the MAC and the more things we can point to when being considered for the Big East.

The column lists our attendance @ 16,000 for the past two seasons. If we have a brand-spanking new $60 million dollar stadium...have our home opener vs. Indiana, + home vs. K.e.n.t, both of which will be GUARANTEED 30,000 SRO...there's no way on God's green earth we should average 20,000!! Only 4k more than at the Rubber Bowl!!?? That's lower than the most low-aiming expectation I could have expected to see in my worst nightmare.I expect 25k. Anything less is unacceptable.Regardless of first and second year attendance being driven by the newness of the facility, shouldn't Info always outdraw the Rubber Bowl? Even in down football years, given that the new digs will be on campus, where more students live every year, and near downtown, which should always bring in bodies, I'll be surprised if the crowds aren't larger and quite different. More students, many more people from the North and West sides, the ability to grab a nice meal before and/or after, entertainment venues, likely a lot less MUD on bad weather days. I'm not sure that many hard core fans of the Zips realize just how lowbrow most locals think the Rubber Bowl is. I know many around here who will definitely go downtown to watch the Zips play, given all of the tangibles and intangibles involved, who wouldn't be caught dead going to the Rubber Bowl to see a game. I also wonder what that 20K will look like. I've been at games where the announced attendance was ridiculously overstated. They may have sold that many tickets, but there sure as hell weren't that many bodies in the seats. The crowds at the Info should be large and actual. GO ZIPS!SeeTeeZipI've said it before and I will say it again. People are overestimating the effect having the stadium on campus will have on student attendance. Yes we have more students living on campus every year, but the overwhelming majority of them go home on the weekends. If they aren't here, they aren't going to attend the games. Something is going to have to convince them to stay on campus for the weekends and I'm not at all convinced that the stadium and the team will be able to do that. I would love to be proven wrong, but I doubt that it will happen. At least right away.It will have an effect. The University currently buses many students from Campus to the Rubber Bowl for home games. I still don't see more than 1000 students attending too many games.Something you're not considering is that the stadium will affect the number of students staying the weekends both directly and indirectly. Directly because now there is something to do on campus on Saturdays (Tailgating will be a big reason), not to mention concerts and stuff. Indirectly because it should create additional businesses in the area like sports bars and restaurants that serve as incentives to stick around. The second part may not happen immediately, but it will happen.We'll be hosting plenty of HS football games on Fridays, too, which could help improve the perception of the school and our campus in the minds of people who still envision UA as the place it was 20 years ago.

Temple won't happen. The Big East kicked them out, and there is too much bad blood there. It's like suggesting that the MAC would take Marshall back.Between Toledo, Buffalo, and Akron, there are a number of things that would be considered. Buffalo has the best academics by far and also the largest market, but poor facilities and a nonexistent fan base. If Turner Gill leaves (very likely after this season), they go back to being terrible in football. Toledo has history and tradition, decent facilities, and they are historically competitive with a decent athletic budget and fairly large fanbase, but they have some black marks from point-shaving scandals in both basketball and football. Akron easily has the best facilities (especially when we figure out how to replace the JAR), the Cleveland market is ripe for the picking, and we are the most competitive in everything but Football. The overall fanbase isn't much to speak of right now but it has the potential for explosive growth as demonstrated by the great showing at the MAC championship and Motor City Bowl in 2005.Essentially, it comes down to what the Big East is looking for: Market size and academic reputation (Buffalo), fan base and tradition (Toledo), or sheer potential (Akron).

Here are two articles about the Zips that appeared today on ESPN. This is the kind of good reporting you get when you're a top team.From London to Akron, Zakuani drives the Zips.Zips Eye National Title RunOther Akron teams and coaches could learn a lot about how to be successful from coach Porter and his squad. They have the right kind of mentality to make great things happen.

These girls are quickly becoming my favorite team. They simply find a way to win.

Please define this. What is spectacular fashion?In D-1A football, a road win is good regardless of the score. I actually consider the win at Syracuse to be a blowout at 14 points. With that said, Army lost to UNH a couple of weeks ago. I feel good about our chances.I'm using the term "Spectacular fashion" in a relative way. For Akron, a win by more than two scores is spectacular. So, a 15-point win at minimum. If we struggle to beat a team that bad, even if we do win, it's a very bad sign.

We gave the game away yesterday. 5 turnovers can't happen ever again if we want to win another game this season. So it was rainy for the 1st half. That didn't create the interceptions in the second half. I hope to god that that was a fluke.The D played pretty well given the circumstances: lots of short yardage situations from turnovers, an incredibly balanced attack from Ball State, and no crowd noise to help them. They got a few TFLs in there, and kept the big plays to a minimum.I'm sure that JD is going to focus on protecting the ball heading into next week's game against Army (if we don't blow them out in spectacular fashion, this season is doomed).

Our receivers have butterfingers. Those passes were thrown perfectly, but instead of catching them, they tipped them to the other team.

Holy crap, there's a LAKE! :blink: Almost as bad as Texas Tech's new water polo facility:

McNeese is definitely moving to the 2-guard spot. That's where he is the greatest threat. The Super McKnight Bros. will be good replacing J. Wood's spot. I'm excited for this year, because I really think that we could take the conference by surprise. Not having at least an NIT home game will be a disappointment.

I'll be there in a little bit, just as soon as I stock up on windshield washer fluid and a few tow ropes.

I hope it's waterproof.

I hope it doesn't go into OT. The way it's raining out there, the entire bowl might be underwater by half time.

The women's soccer team has now made it to 4-0 this season after a 2-1 win over EKU at home tonight.Do we have another MAC title contender on our hands? These girls know how to win.

Make sure you wait until after the HS football crowd has cleared out. There might be more people in the RB tonight than there will be tomorrow with the big Hoban-SVSM rivalry going on.

Indiana doing their best to distract them?If anybody feels like it, you could probably start some stuff in between the two fanbases today, and hope the team gets caught up in it, taking the focus off of us.It's mind games. Kellen Lewis knows what he's doing by saying that. He wants them distracted and unfocused when they play us, because it makes it that much easier when he plays them next week. I think we should help him out.