72 Roo

Damn right.They work every time. When confronted with their awesome power recruits are helpless. Rumor has it that they are the main reason JG came to Akron.

From what I heard all the baseball jerseys were your size but they all shrunk in the laundry. The twerps paid off the equipment manager.

Welcome to Akron indeed. Mark is a very good signing but let's not put too much on his shoulders right away. He will still have to adapt to the college game and even in the MAC it will be quite a challenge for a freshman. He needs time to develop his game, strength, and BBall intelligence. But make no mistake I sure as hell am glad he's a Zip. Nice going coach Groce!

In addition to the "ifs" you mention there are many more such as if we find a QB, if the new LB's work out, if the DL can be rebuilt, if a legitimate TE shows, if Milwee can use what the O talent gives him effectively (my favorite which I thoroughly doubt), etc. A respected, experienced football coach once told me that when faced with a lot of "ifs" in the pre-season you can only count on 50% of them, at best, working out. The rest will be problem areas. This is realistic and I don't feel we can reasonably expect all our "ifs" to be solved. I wish it was otherwise. Every Fall hope springs eternal.

If we are counting on Milwee to be creative and use what team can give we are in deep, deep trouble. There is little hope he can be the OC we need. I pray Bowden steps in and calls the plays and Milwee "tries" to develop QB's. If not we will be lucky to win 5 games.

Hell, do more than that! Feed him Zip cookies, then we got him.

Yeah get to it and stop thinking about what most men are thinking .... sex and beer, altho' maybe not in that order.

All would be lost if we got the wrong coach. That is not the case. JG will get the job done and have a higher ceiling than KD. The road there will not be smooth and perhaps the rockiest phase is what we are going thru now. But we will emerge as a better progrum and we will reach higher levels. He needs time. Support him and let him do his job.

I think we lost more than you state. But I'm pretty much on board with the rest of your post. If we keep Antino and find some rebounding help we can have a decent, not great, year. Grace will not lose the game KD lost because the team wasn't prepared or able to play with discipline.

I now like the guy!

I'm a tweener, I enjoyed Western Cult and hated Eastern Civ. Got good grades in both. Keep after those cookies. The fate of the world depends on your success in unlocking the secret.

The fate of western civilization depends on your success! Speaking of Western Civ did anyone have Dr. David Reide for that class? I'm sure he must have talked about the immense contribution of Zip cookies to the betterment of our lives.

Skip, I can't think of a higher calling than to discover the source of these cookies. God speed you in your mission. You are carrying the hopes and dreams of our ZNO community and generations of Zips now and in the future. FWIW I have it on good authority that Pope Francis is trying to find these cookies for the Vatican coffee shop.

Thanks for the perspective brought to this thread regarding my comment on Antino's actions at the presser. Many of you are right. I do not know the circumstances and have been quick to judge. This transition has been different than any coaching change I have ever experienced. Some stupid things have been said on this thread I believe more out of frustration than insight. My comment can be lumped in the former category also. I regret it. I'm going to trust that Groce has a plan and he is working on it. That's all we can ask of a new coach. The rest is just guessing and that can get us all into trouble and not help the progrum.

I understand the desire to keep him here, but if he really passed thru Groce's presser and left then he made his actions all about him. That's disrespectful to our coach and we are not so desperate that we need him, and that attitude, for only a year. The negative chemistry that could result is not worth the risk. Next year will be tough with or w/o him. If he can't be all in we don't want him.

When last season imploded there was great talk of much needed change, however you saw it. It seems the change we got was more eye-opening than most of us wanted, but I believe it will be the absolute best for us in the long run. Groce is putting together a kick-ass staff and that is the most important factor. Those guys know how to find and recruit talent. We all wanted an easier transition but it's not to be. Let's face it, we lost a lot of under-performing talent (Josh, Hughes, Noah maybe) or yet-to-be-proven talent (TDM, Hughes). Groce will do better. Unfortunately it will take him time, 1-2 years, but it will be worth it. We weren't going any higher with KD. He admitted it by leaving. So let Groce do his thing and set a higher standard. I wish KD and all the leaving players well, but once you are gone you are out of my mind. I follow people who want to be here, not those who want to leave, coaches and players included.

Obviously a slow day so I'll offer this. Most, if not all, of us do not know just how good the education is at Akron. I work with the College of Business Administration and the Fisher Sales Institute in preparing our students for sales competitions. Teams are sent to NIU and Kennesaw (sp ?) State, two nationally highly regarded sales competitions. We are regarded as one of the giants in these competitions. Our students are so well prepared that companies go to these competitions and offer career jobs on the spot to our students. It is not uncommon for each Akron student to come back with a job offer. The training Akron students get is outstanding, better than the training my own company gave its sales recruits. Take a little pride in our school. There are more examples of excellence than we can ever know. Now how about Boals ability to recruit or where we will place any arena?

I never thought I'd be so eager to see the football season come. BBall has left such a sour taste in all of our mouths that I want to turn my attention to football and let coach Groce begin building a better progrum. I have no doubt he will do it, but next year may be tough for us to take. After that I think he will have the progrum rocking.

I would not beat yourself up for going to other suites to eat Zippy cookies. the way I look at it is you are keeping those cookies from falling in enemy hands who may be prowling our suites, press box and reception areas. That's your story and you should stick to it. It's very unselfish of you. Pardon me, in the face of such heroics I'm ready to cry.

I hope the Zips do figure it out and make the leap to the top 50. It will take excellent coaching, more financial resources and a committed administration and fanbase. Those things don't happen overnight, but they can happen over time (many years). I hope to see it. Nice post.

I'm an alum too and I applaud your passion. We want the same things for UA. We don't have the resources of a P5 school or a no DI football school and that is unquestioned. Resources can be built over time if you get in the right conference. Case in point, every member in the Big Ten this year will get $37 million from the Big Ten TV package. As a member of the MAC we will get $1.7 M. I agree our situation is not etched in stone, but it only improves incrementally as each coach puts his mark on the progrum, improves it and probably moves on. I don't want him to but that what happens in the MAC. I'm sure you know better and have a solution, so know that you have my complete support as you move the Zips to a higher level. I do not want to attack you. If you took it personally I apologize. I just couldn't pass on calling out your perceptions. Go Zips!

How on earth can you infer this crap from my post. All I said was coaches will move on. Why will they move on? because they made the progrum better. So each coaching regime will move the progrum ahead and that is why other schools want the coach. Like others have tried to say in their posts, if he leaves after 3-4-5 years he has done his job. We will always be inferior to some progrums because we don't have their resources i.e. money. That being said a successful coach will make us better than progrums ahead of us but within reach. If he's successful that's a given. All aspects will get better but we will not equal the big boys. That takes tons of time which I'm in for. Sheesh! Living in reality is a blessing because it clearly identifies where you are and what the next steps for improvement are. That's based on fact, not hope which is a lousy strategy for hope. Calm down and have a beer. In fact have many and I'll buy. Let's move on to arguing about Boals ability to recruit, isn't that new. Oh, it's been beat to death. OK, then how about the place for a new arena, on campus or downtown.

You are not willing to live in reality. We are a stepping stone and always will be if the coach is good. The nature of the beast is to seek and accept bigger and bigger challenges/stages. Look at Dayton. They are way ahead of us in every category for comparison: salary, prestige, facility, rabid fan base, season tickets, attendance, schedule, conference, media exposure, etc. Yet they lose coaches regularly. They don't want to but they do. As much as any coach wants to build his progrum, if he is successful he will be exposed to better opportunities which he will take. Get use to it.

We appreciate your post and at-large well wishes. We don't have to start hating each other until we finally play. Until then I think their is much respect between our progrums. The rivalry could grow to be very fierce which is good for both of us and the conference.

That's pretty creative thinking UAZipper, but I love it. It would immediately put Groce's stamp on the progrum and show he's bought in. It would be a shrewd PR move on his part. All that being said it will not happen in the real world, but it's fun to live in fantasy world for a brief moment.