72 Roo

At least send us a season's supply of Twinkies as compensation.

This is a fascinating narrative. UNCC could prove to be a better position than OU, but that is only if Albin can start winning there. This move does seem to be a head scratcher in that if you are going to move, make a bigger step. Your story explains a lot. Nice reading. The MAC is indeed a bizarre place.

At least he didn't say God told him to do it. Could he have had help from the coaches?

Damn! Why didn't I think of that. I knew there is a reason I stay on this forum. Cheers! 🍻

Thanks for this morning's pick-me-up. It's too early to start drinking so I needed this. This forum can sometimes be negative, primarily due to the frustration loyal Zip football fans have experienced. It seems the future is slowly seeing improvement despite the inequity in D1 football. Hope springs eternal.

Catdaddy you are ever the optimist. With the loss of all our All-MAC players we really took a gut punch. I pray Joe and Company can, in spite of our losses, keep improving the quality of the team and the wins. G5"s, especially low G5's, have a mountain to climb.

Thanks for this post adZip. Emmer Lancaster made Akron, the university and African Americans in business all better because of his service. Your story comes at a good time to be reminded that UA produces many great individuals whom we should be proud of and celebrate. Now give us a football program to match them. 😀

UA administration needs to look at what they can do to make the program better rather than what they can cut. Cutting is the cheap, cowardly solution to the problem. Improvement is the only way out. It is also harder but pays the greatest dividends. It's time to for leaders to learn payday games do not solve problems, rather they make them worse. If there is money available to fund a $1.3M sponsorship with the Browns there is money to field a competitive football program.

No offense taken. My point is that when you start offering solutions to a problem more solutions surface. No problem is ever solved by incessantly complaining about it. Let me give you an example. Dan Rice, the CEO of the Ohio and Erie Canalway Project, years ago wanted to improve the canal's towpath for greater public use. He had little money. He started selling a vision to many local groups showing how they could make a difference. He has raised over $31M to date in a city hit hard economically, searching for an identity and suffering from poor PR. Lock 3 park has been built downtown. Summit Lake Park is being built with shelter house, connecting towpath to downtown, boat livery, new bike paths, parking, landscaping and amenities. All because one man started selling an idea. Akron football doesn't have to be a dumpster fire. There are people who want it to be a success. Give them something to do about it.

Can someone contact the Pope or the Dali Lama and see if they will talk to God about our players leaving the program? It seems He or She is the one common thread in all their announcements regarding their departure. What's God got against Zip football? We are facing a tough off-season and He/She doesn't have to pile it on.

This just sucks. I realize you can rebuild like current champion OU did when they lost 9 of 11 offensive starters and I hope Joe does. But this is Akron. Our All MAC's will continue to leave until we can establish a winning culture. Even then, with the shifting sands of college football, we may not be able to sustain a program w/o more support for the players. Nemer has to make a statement and back it up. It is a total shame we don't have a training table, let alone a winning program or attractive culture. A D1 competitive football program is worth the investment. It is part of the remedy for restoring the enrollment. Look at Liberty's enrollment after football took off. Same for Coastal Carolina.

Joe is not responsible for putting together a collective for football. But why not former players? Can't they get in touch with Bud Wentz to understand the mechanics of putting it together? Once they set it up they could find events to fund it like: Toledo had pilates on the 50 lead by Candle's wife. It sold out. Repeat what basketball did with a night with the coaches. Bring back former coaches and players. Have an open Q & A with Joe on what he expects in the season, or maybe at mid-season. Sign gear and memorabilia by the players for a small fee, If legal. Basketball sold out at $100 per ticket. Host a golf tournament in the stadium like OSU does. All 9 iron shots from fun locations. afterwards is a buffet and cash bar. Offer guided tours of the facilities such as the Info, the field house and the JAR. Do a night with a coach once a month. Charge $50 to attend. Have Joe or the DC or STC take questions at a pub with a separate room. Seek donations from those who support NIL. Members of the collective could organize all these and the U would have little if no cost. If football needs a collective the alumni should be first to make it happen. Personally I don't believe in the NIL concept, but there are many who would support it. If they want to be part of a collective, like basketball has shown, give them a chance to help.

When I need a realistic assessment I go to you. Thanks for telling it like it is.

Help me understand how a player, who could not get on the field with a program that was not much better than us, will help us have a dominant OL? Are there other issues here? Joe is raising our talent level, no doubt, but his looks mediocre.

I bet the coaching staff was more involved in these decisions than God was. All three have players behind them who are younger and possessing a greater upside. Still, I wish them well wherever they go.

At first it looks like a lateral move, but maybe not. All MAC schools are strapped for resources. Charlotte seems to have an administration that is saying whatever it takes we will supply. He also goes to a major city, better climate, better conference and a better salary. Personally, I think he could have done better possibly at a low P4 school that wants a turnaround. But who knows?

That makes sense. This could have been a case of addition by subtraction. Thanks.

In what world does a player with a checkered background, and also injury prone, go into the portal from a program that until this season was in the bottom ten of FBS. Good luck with a half scholarship in DII Laurance. This does not hurt us.

I have been a fan of RJ Nemer since he took the dean position of the CBA (College of Business Administration). Because of his efforts the CBA showed a 9% enrollment growth this year over last. He thinks outside the box and he knows UA has to get out and recruit students. His decision to give $1.3M to the Browns is a real head scratcher. It is Scarborough-esque and he deserves to be called out on it. How did he get this thru the BOT? That money could have paid for a training table plus advertising reaching all Ohio high schools. One of the biggest boosts to enrollment is having a football team the region takes pride in. Give Joe the resources, w/o busting the bank, and excitement will return to Akron. That, more than an association with a decrepit pro football team, will pay off in growing enrollment.

I would take James and Nunally back, knowing full well that if James has a good year he would probably go in he portal again. Kellen seems to be a great kid, but he is a limited RB. He has no breakaway speed, he is not quick and can not make people miss in the open field. We have more talent waiting behind him who have a higher upside. Let them play. Charles Kellen has been a good team member, but since he wants out and he has limited future here I'd tell him to go somewhere that he will get on the field regularly and be a featured back. Probably DII.

Sorry this was vague. I attempted to reply to LZip's fine post

I think you have captured many of my sentiments regarding our returning team as we know it today. Yet I disagree with you on the OL. I am not comfortable with it and losing James makes the situation more of a concern. The TP may solve that issue as I don't see high school signees or current backups stepping in and playing at a high level. I hope we find a punter as good as Book was and another long snapper. Smith was a better than average kicker who I hated to see go. I am hoping this is the opportunity for Wiley to take the position and own it. We can't build a team with the return of past inferior Zip special teams. My concern over the DL equals or exceeds that of the OL. What a rebuild we have! Dall will probably give us a good DE, but after him who do we have that can put pressure on the QB? Lavea and Moore were emerging players at DT, but they failed to bring heat in the big games. Lavea's injury robbed him of the chance show more as the season went into the second half. If we can find some DT's in the portal we have a shot at 6-6 next year. I pray that the portal will help us more than hurt us, but who knows how returning eligible college kids view staying at Akron, especially if they feel NIL dollars will be available somewhere.

It appears we have lost Kellogg, Golden, Rush, Smith and Moore to the portal. Losing the first three is not a big loss in my opinion. They all had limitations, even for the MAC. But I hate to see Smith and Moore go. Smith was the reliable, consistent kicker we have lacked for years. Moore was on his way to All-MAC. I realize he will find a better program and probably get some NIL money. That is the nature of college football today. We took a chance on him and his bad grades, but he played so well other schools will now take him and make sure he gets the necessary grades, one way or the other. Our DL is a rebuild at all four slots. If this is the end of the transfers we lucked out. I'm not holding my breath that we are done.

I appreciate the Meister bringing this great moment in Zip history to the attention of the board. To appreciate this game it is important to know a bit of the background leading up to the game. Tampa, coached by Earle Bruce, was moving up the ladder of respectability. I believed they had three future NFL players, one being John Matuzak, the second overall pick the year he went in the draft. They were moving up to D1 and they wanted to make a splash. They wanted to play Ohio State on a date OSU had open in their OOC schedule. At the time they offered an unheard of guarantee $250,000 for OSU to play them in Tampa. That was indeed huge for the time. The only problem was Tampa was suppose to play in Akron that day. Tampa said no problem Akron was nothing and Tampa would gladly forfeit any guarantee to Akron. OSU refused to consider the offer. You can probably guess how Akron took that. Gordon Larsen, Akron's best football coach ever had that plastered all over the locker room. Better than that he prepared the team magnificently. In front of the second biggest Rubber Bowl crowd ever (40,000+) the team came out on fire and dominated Tampa. I was on the sidelines with the soccer team, who played before the game, and I witnessed the most ferocious hitting I have ever seen. Against better athletes Akron destroyed Tampa. If you are looking for a time to be proud of Zip football this game is rivaled only by the 2005 MAC championship game. Hang in their Zip football fans. We have moments to savor.

This game is one to be savored. It's no time to bitch: schedule, coach, AD, Info, etc. Forget it for a while. We won a damn game at the end of a brutal season! The team never quit and we can celebrate that. I realize Toledo handed us the game. Talk about role reversal, we have done that too many times to count. We didn't play that clean of a game, but for now, who cares - we won! I don't know if this will turn the program around. That is to be decided in the off-season as we search for talent and next season as we put that talent on the field. For now, we have hope! Thank you Zips. Thank you seniors.