72 Roo

I'm not a member of the Rowdies, but will be coming up to Akron from Columbus with four soccer coaches, one played at New Mexico and even he predicts Akron will win. BTW New Mexico is ranked #18 in the country while Akron is not in the top 25. I look for the Zips to have a great game as New Mexico is the real deal. I think Caleb has done a good job in rebuilding the team. They will be ready to win.I've told all the guys I'm bringing to be ready to be amazed at the campus, indoor practice facility and the great atmosphere at Jackson Field for big games.Let's Make a lot of noise. I know I will. Forget about be a coach, I'm coming as an avid fan.

Thanks Rifle. I found some interesting stuff on this site. The more I hear about my alma mater the more I am impressed with its leadership. Despite our occassional athletic setback, we are the place to be now and in the future.Go Zips Forever

Zipboy,The stadium project is well on its way. New leadership will not affect it one way or the other. For more thoughts see my post under last 10 posts.

Zipboy,The stadium project is going to get done. Some of the holdups are not Mac's fault. But he does lack a lot when it comes to communicating with the public and alumni. He has not done a very good job in setting expectations and then delivering on them. Instead, he feels the best strategy is to communicate the absolute least he can so as not to be held accountable for any delays. It is the exact opposite of building excitement and marshalling public opinion on your side to later work thru any obstacles that arise. But this is no new revelation to any of us on this board. He is not the worst AD we could have. In my opinion, though, he is not competent to lead us to where we need to be. That is, the top of the MAC and in position to be attractive to the Big East (or any similar conference) when they expand. In that I believe he has failed and will continue to do so.Keep the faith. Go Zips.

I agree with FMR. Mack is hard to work for and is generally considered by those in the athletic dept as a guy who wants no feedback or dialogue whenever a decision is to be made. He is an autocrat, who wants his way or you are not on his team. Hence, the marketing dept, that has been solely his hiring decisions, is the poorest in the MAC. The development area is also poor. Mack ran off Gary Bogue to the Law School by creating an atmosphere of tension and exclusion. Mack is in it for Mack. He doesn't get what it means to the regular guy/girl who has grown up loving the Zips. We all have seen how he is incapable of connecting with the Zip constituency because that would mean getting to know them, being accountable and sharing a vision. There is tremendous frustration amongst the coaches and it has only been growing. This situation will get worse before it gets better. The only encouragement I can offer is that I talked to a senior VP who is aware of the situation. He comments that Proenza is reluctant to make any move because he doesn't see Mack as hopeless.I don't share that opinion.

Captain and All,Gary Bogue is a total class act. He could not stand working in the atmosphere Mac created. Uniformly, the guys Mac has brought in have not been equal to the ones they are replacing. There has not been a spirit of cooperation or respect within the athletic dept. It starts with Mac. He doesn't solicit advice or opinions. He has his own ideas and he ideologically inflexible. There is no espirit-de-corps in athletics administration and that spills over in how they treat a Zip public that seeks to help and feel involved.Guys like Gary, who thrive when working toward a common vision, have been pushed aside by attitudes of exclusion, arrogance and insecurity. The common Zip fan is not seen as a constituency that should be served. rather they are seen as a means to an ends. Therefore, they are ultimately seen as something to be used but not appreciated.Mac seems to have a strength in picking and taking care of coaches. He deserves credit for that. Unfortunately he seems exceedingly short on energizing the inate talent/passion on his staff and in the Zip followers. If there is good news it is that Gary, and some others, would consider coming back to athletics with different leadership. A VP at UA told me that senior administration is aware of the low morale. There is no promise to correct it but they are closely watching the situation.Personally, I think there is better athletic leadership out there than Mac. Most of the positives I see with the athletic program have been started by Bobinski or Thomas.

Ex,It becomes big only if we beat K.S.U. in the MAC tourney. Anything less and we are back to square one.BTW, does anyone share my concern that in the last two minutes the Zips, and especially Dials, let the ball fly with only 10 seconds of the possession clock gone and no rebounders in sight? I feel Dials make poor decisions under pressure, even tho' he got the ball to Woods for the winning layup.How about Romeo letting fly a 3 pointer when we should have been holding the ball?

Timmy,Loved listening to the music on Dan McCarthy's highlights. They both would look good in a Zip uniform. I'm glad we are shooting forthe elite players.Thanks Pal Oh, by the way, did I mention

I like the rivalry with OU. It's good for both schools and the MAC. Bhugh and OZoner make a few good points and they deserve credit for making 'em. They are right, we haven't won anything yet. We need to stay focused and set the bar very high. I hope they realize we aren't satisfied with beating them, although it feels so good. We want the MAC championship and a trip to the big dance. If someone is going to talk smack to us, which I don't feel these two guys did, that's OK. It happens on this board and others.We are building our program. There are not many teams in the MAC that can say that. Our attendance is increasing, we will have another 20+ wins season, recruiting is at the top of the MAC, we have a great coach signed for a long time who wants to be here, and one day marketing will wake up and start doing its job. But until we win the MAC and get to the NCAA's some of our rival posters are right ... we haven't done enough yet. I still like the OU campus.

Z.I.P.,Quietly the soccer program is working on a new stadium also. It would be moved to run north -south rather than east -west as it currently does. If you can imagine, it would run across the current field toward the student center. That would give more room on either side for seating and, hopefully, some amenities for the team such as locker rooms, storage, referee rooms, etc. It would seat between 3500 - 5000. Caleb has shown what everyone thought, the dude can recruit. Now if he can grow as a coach and get a new facility, we truly are a threat to be #1 in the country. Ultimately, though, if we want to sustain being #1 we have got to get out of the MAC. That was what drove Lolla away and that remains a fact of life. My dream is that football and basketball can continue grow so that when the Big East inevitably kicks out the non-football schools they will look to add 2-3 others. I see Central Florida as the first in with a possibility for Akron, Toledo or Marshall for the reamining slots.My sister lives at Hickam AFB. Let's have a brew when I next get out there.Mihalo

Thanks Maggiemoo for the link to the game. It must have been great to be there forthe 1,500 who showed up. I love the win, but a win and a sellout would have been sweet. Oh well, no one can control the weather, except the Big Guy. Come to think of it, isn't He a Zip fan? No doubt!

I'm in Columbus and the radio reception of OU's station here is horrible. Can anyone tell me how to get the game from 1350 who is streaming. I've never done it before and am somewhat ignorant of how to access. OU sucks when we are playing them, otherwise I like their campus.

A design similar to the SMU stadium would be ideal.There is only one problem, there is no money to enclose the stadium at one end to create a horseshoe. Mac, and the committee to build the stadium, must deal with real world concerns of limited funding. We will probably end up with a sunken field, 20' - 25', below street level, with seating on either side and grassy slopes at each end. The plan is to enclose one or both ends at some time to get the seating capacity up. That will be driven solely by demand for more capacity.Don't get me wrong. I'd love an SMU-type stadium, but that design would add a minimum $10,000,000 more than what they have. Major donors are not stepping up to support that vision, regardless of how perfect it would be for the future of football, Akron athletics and the local economy. Until that happens, we will see a 25,000 seat stadium that will be designed to accomodate expansion if demand is there on a consistent basis.I agree with the earlier poster who said there is little we can do to influence the design decision unless we have a whole lot of money to donate. The stadium will boost our team, but not as fast or far as a visionary stadium would. For now, it looks like we will have to grow into something better than we will get.I also agree with many others who say

Our schedule had better not be what you guys are saying. We would only have four home game,all late in the year. This time, it is not something that was set up years ago. If we get no OOC home games, heads should roll in the athletic department.UAKid,It is the athletic dept under MAC's direction who has set up this schedule. Unless something drastic happens, we will only have four home games next year. Army is thrilled to use the Patriot series as a reason to force the game to be played in the Cleveland market. They get nothing out of coming to the bowl.Mac seems to be systematically alienating all the employees of the athletic dept he has inherited. Hence, you have the poorest athletic marketeer the university has seen in years, 100% turnover in athletic development, and piss poor presentation/entertainment value of most of our televised games. Mac just hired a guy out of Texas El Paso for athletic fundraising who has never done the job. Additionally, he only interviewed this one guy. Even when he had people on his current team who applied for the job, he never gave them the courtesy of a perfunctory interview.Mac has made some good hires and he deserves credit for that. He also has belatedly sign two great coaches in Mitchell and KD while extending the contract of JD, who has potential. These are all good accomplishments, but the morale and sense of vision that was uniformly shared and lived by the athletic dept has been destroyed, which is now showing up more and more. The schedule is an example.Mac deserves watching to see if he can renew a sense of purpose. As for me, and a few employees of his dept, I don't see it coming. I hope I'm wrong.

The schedule is shaping up to be a possible disaster. Army is only willing to play us in Cleveland Stadium (we'll be lucky to get 15,000) and Indiana does not want to come. Within the athletic dept one official says it's a done deal ... Indiana is not coming.Stay tuned.

I appreciatethe debate on my comment as to how we present on TV. I also appreciate the reminder regarding my faux pax in referring to us as AU vs U of A. I stand corrected, but it really doesn't change my opinion. The lower bowl on the teams side was half full. Eevry time the camera panned slightly up you saw it and it looked bad.I know the Wisc Green Bay vs Wisc Milwaukee was worse. Do we really want to benchmark ourselves against them. I think not. Rather take a look at the Big East, that's the level we need to shoot for. Their games rarely have any open seats lower to courtside. The lower bowl seats are owned by many corporate supporters. The university can still reserve the right to place fans there if those seats are not used. That is a policy we should give consideration. The timnes i have brought friends to a game they are amazed that the prime seats are so open. Until the purchaser fills them I think the university has to protect its image by puting people in those seats. Perhaps if the buyers show up the university will also provide cardiac defibulators to resuscitate the blue hairs after they stand once per game. They really should be moved so we can get some excitement courtside. But first things first. My main issue is filling those seats.Some of you have read my comments to be critical of the Rowdies. They were not. I only said it did not appear there were enough of them on TV. I still think that is an accurate statement. The ones who showed did well. I hope you grow in numbers. Thanks for being a Rowdy.

I've got to get this off my chest. Some may not agree with me but here goes.The AU-WMU did not present well on TV. The gym is obviously small like many in the MAC. But there is no freakin' excuse for all the empty seats in the lower bowl behind the bench/scorer's table side. Here we are going for our 15th win of the season, on national TV, Dambrot only losing twice in the JAR, a five game win streak, etc., and the blue hairs who buy the former Zip Athletic Club seats don't even fill half. That was downright embarrassming to all of us who love the Zips. How can you project a quality program that is exciting to be part of, yet half the lower bowl seats are empty?Mac has got to do something about these no-shows. Without these seats filled our marketing takes a huge PR hit. The people buying the rights to those preferred seats need to use them, even though they are mostly half dead during games, or Mac should fill them with students if unoccupied 5 minutes after tipoff. Some schools have done just that. If a person is running late they can call a hotline and get another 5 minute extension. Otherwise the seats go to students who can bring life to the courtside and help create an exciting atmosphere. Our program is getting better. Demand for tickets will grow faster if the JAR can be turned into a can't pass it up venue. People will rave about the electric atmosphere. It will happen. The sooner we get those seats filled the better the program looks in person and on TV. If we want better athletes we've got to present on TV better.Talking about presentation, the AK-Rowdies looked anemic. The ones that were there tried their best but there are not enough bodies on either end to project excitement. I don't know who is to blame for this, maybe no one. But the fact is the critical mass of crazies needed to make the impression we want aren't in the stands. It looks over TV like Akron is trying to have a program, we are successful, but no one cares. I refuse to believe that. This board is passionate and I can remember all the way back to Tony Laterza, Wyatt Webb and Memorial Hall. The desire for the passion of those days is still here. Mac and his marketing dept need to harness it.Until then, I will still drive from Columbus to see as many games as possible. I'll still support the ZIPS no matter what, but on TV we do not look good.

Let's not ghet too excited about the QB position until we see a major fix on our very poor offensive line. My prediction is that next year we continue to struggle there as JD did not prepare replacements during the course of this season. The game is won on the lines. We have a long, long season in front of us.

I agree with ya'll (thrown in for Tex Zip) that I would like to see JD stay another year, or more, and show he can coach. After this year I feel he has much to prove. He lost control of this team and things kinda spiraled out of control. My belief is that he has the ability. I also believe that if he shows it he will stay for no more than two years. We are not faced with a situation of if JD will leave, but rather when JD will leave.We need to find that rare individual, like KD, who cares more about his legacy than about jumping up to better jobs. Administration should support him and get out of his way. Akron needs to build a following, a tradition, and an expectation of victory. That takes many, many years, but leaves a solid foundation to build from. This is a pipedream, but you got to start somewhere. My dream coach would be someone who wants to be at Akron, loves Akron, and wants to keep taking it to the next level. He will not make a lot of money. But as the program grows he will make more and be known as the guy who made Akron reach its potential, which is beyond the MAC.Now I'm signing off and going to bed to dream some more. It may be crazy, but high goals are never achieved until someone dares to dream them. Go Zips!

Anyone who says we are turning on our coaches just doesn't get it. This football team played way below their ability. To accept their performance is to accept mediocrity and possibly sub-standard play. Can anyone say Lee Owens era? That's true mediocrity. We can, should and must do better. The talent and facilities are there. Let's not lower our standards or expectations because some posters don't know how to evaluate performance.

"it's going to get better next year for the kicking game, and offense simply because they can't get much worse"Racer, respectfully I'm not sure that is a given. Here's how I see it. We will have an unproven QB, a mostly new O line w/no depth, a running back (Kennedy) who gets happy feet trying to fake out everyone to get wide to running space rather than hit the hole with authority, no proven TE who can block a tackle and get open, an undersized FB, and a leftover poor kicking game. Our offensive play calling was nothing to be proud of either. That's too much to improve in one season. True our receivers could be the best in the MAC, but we have too many holes to fill. For me the most critical concern is the line where games are won or lost. If JD can find guys with size, skill and heart we can recover. I doubt it though. For what it's worth I hope I'm wrong.I believe we need to brace for a disappointing year.

Zipboy, thanks for sending your post. Very interesting. What seems to cause me concern is that the recruits who are expected to contribute early seem to be the ones we are having trouble keeping. That may be because for any MAC school to get someone who is capable of playing early, that recruit may be marginal by Big ten or Big East standards i.e. grades, work ethic, attitude, character. Therefore, they end up with us but still have the baggage ( see good old Nate Robinson). Just a thought, not really researched.Either way we are in for a tough year next year. With completely rebuilt offensive and defensive lines, a new quarterback and no solution to special teams in sight we have to brace ourselves for a bleak season. Just what I need, more post Thanksgiving depression.

Hey pals, let's knock the crap off! We did not take care of business repeatedly this season.Stop the ridiculous excuses. OU beat us outright. They played with greater pride and spirit than we did. Their coaching staffs made adjustments. JD and ours did not. Our O line was manhandled by the OU D line. Our receivers dropped 7 freaking passes. Our D line never penetrated. Getsy made poor decisions all night long. I had a field pass for that game and I was embarrassed by what I saw and heard on our sideline. This was truly a team of underachievers. Guys we didn't execute and it is costing us a chance to go to the MACC again, slowing our evolution to a highly respected team and pointing out JD has limitations. I haven't lost hope though. We have a pipeline of talent, the facilities continue to improve (latest: new offices in the fieldhouse) and I believe JD can learn from this experience. I support him and wish him well. But he has to get a reality grip and stop the excuses of 8 plays separates us from where we are and 8-3. That's just a smokescreen and should not be tolerated by us or Mac Rhodes. I know he is under pressure but stand up and take responsibility for the underachieving product he put out on the field. JD, his staff, the seniors and the captains are responsible for accepting poor performance. The key to solving a problem is to admit you have one. We have a great future with football. I, for one, will not let anyone stop me from believing in that vision. We are doing the right things. This season set us back, but does not stop us from recovering and growing to seize our potential. This is just a bitter pill to swallow since we all know we could have done far better.

Thanks for all the replies. This is going to be a huge game for OU and it ought to be the same for us. You just never know if Akron is going to show up ready to play to its potential. So far this season that has been rare. I fear Ou's running game. True our backers are too small andthe D line has not put on pressure or penetrated. Tough combination for us.But there is always the possibility of a miracle finish. I believethe game is won on the line. If we can show some offense I believe our defense can find a way to slow the OU running game.Good luck to GoCats and the rest of the OU faithful. I hope it is a great game with the Zips winning. I know for sure that it will be hard hitting. These two teams take it to each other with a vengeance each year.I can't get anyone from Columbus to join me so I'll adopt some Zip fans as new buddies when I get there. Look for a homeless Zip wandering around. Like Lee Adams, I'm a little older, but passionate about he Zips.

Some questions for the board:1) I'm coming from Columbus. Does anyone know if the Zips' fans will be seated all together?2) Is there a real chance of a sellout?3) Any Zips tailgating? Where? I'd like to say hi and swap lies.4) I'd like to sit with some Zip faithful. Any ideas where the most of our fans will be?5) Does anyone know if our O line has decided to play? I thought this veteran group of underachievers embarrassed itself against a mediocre Buffalo defense.6) Can our coaching staff keep from getting out-coached like Toledo and Can't did to us? I believe in J.D. but he or his assistants have done a poor job in preparing the team and making adjustments to the opposition.7) Sorry, I'm starting to rant. Just frustrated seeing a potentially great season slip away.