ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net

It causes great pain that you have reminded us of this player Bain.

My fears had recently been assuaged when I read that UA planned to hire 55 new faculty this year, but Bond's article has me worried. If UA is purposefully heading away from tenured faculty positions UA will become truly second rate. For-profit online curriculum partnerships? Even worse. I'm truly worried that Scarborough and his crew are marketeers, hired guns to turn UA into a glorified tech-school.

I live in Ventura County CA these days and yesterday went to an early movie, Revenant, which was excellent but that's not the point. As I came out of the theater and waited in the restaurant/lounge for my wife to go to the restroom I looked up at the TVs over the bar and one of them had Zips basketball playing WMU. Cool, but also not uncommon anymore. There is exposure for college FB and BB country-wide and MAC players who are worthy don't get overlooked. First round picks, Khalil Mack, the linemen from the MAC who went high first round in the last few years; in fact, didn't at least one of the MAC linemen go number one overall recently? If I were a father of a kid in the tweener position I would advise him to go to a solid program that will have him on the field from early on, developing his skills and getting on film. With UA having turned the corner and in good hands, this should be among the mid-majors attractive to the good kids overlooked by the factory programs.

I love what she has to say and trust her far more than the current group leading the university.

I'm at home watching the game and it's half time but I had to check here to see the result. What a great day for the team. Now I can enjoy the second half without the worry! Loving a bowl win after so many seasons in the hinterlands. GO ZIPS! I really like the white unis and helmets too. BOOM!

I'm going to have to DVR the game but GO ZIPS! Here's hoping the players have a great trip, come back with a win and that momentum is building for sustained success. BOOM.

Nationally and internationally, organizations expend much effort to manage the media. Knowing that UA is one of the principal games left in Akron, it's very likely that UA leaders have done nothing, certainly nothing effective, to massage and manage the media. If the local rag, that locals call the Leaking Urinal, can't be managed and influenced to publish positive news and editorial content supportive of one of the principal institutions in town, your principal worry is not with the rag, but need instead be with the leadership of the university. Something is very wrong with the Scar and Company if they can't create advocates a few blocks over. You guys are looking at this the wrong way.

The Great Communicator eh? Scott should never be in The Boss' seat. He's a functionary and is out of his depth in this position. He's particularly ill-prepared to effectively and credibly communicate on behalf of the university.

Hilltopper did you read the editorial? I agree with what he had to say and the thrust of it was to remove politics from the boards as much as possible, along with increasing representation to (among others) students, alumni and faculty. Why would you have issue with these changes? Political patronage is almost always a bad, bad thing, and I would love to see politics from both parties removed as much as possible from higher education.

Congrats Zips! 7 wins, a bowl game, on ESPN, just before Christmas. I know all about complaining and this is nothing to complain about. The program is headed in the right direction and I can't wait to see the game, although probably on DVR. I think that the crowd will be large simply because Boise has become a good college football town and that'll be the only prime event happening within hundreds of miles that day. Boom! Go Zips!

Congrats Zips! Stupid question, where will the Cup be played?

Just my opinion but the Bahamas Bowl, while possibly appealing to the players, seems like a loser for the program. I'd much rather see them stay in the country, and staying within the region would be even better. Going to a bowl game isn't a vacation for the players, it should be about maximizing exposure, gaining traction with regional viewers and prospects, and maximizing the finances of the program for the future. I hope TB was joking about letting the kids decide.

Based on speculation I've seen here I would think that a game against Cincinnati in CONUS would be preferable to a game in the Bahamas. It would garner more regional attention and allow more potential travelers. The decision about which bowl to play in, assuming there is a choice, should be made with regard to what helps recruiting and visibility the most.

Any streaming available of the Zips game?

The team will need to string together several winning seasons before the local non-UA-connected pay attention. There's no tradition there, no history of winning and providing high quality entertainment. This season is certainly a step in the right direction, with hopefully more to come. As far as the scar, he certainly seems to be tone deaf. He needs to take steps to strengthen links with the community, which he was perhaps trying to do at Lock 3. He'll have to work through the skepticism and distrust. It'll take time and solid performance at UA. I've bashed scar a ton here, but was encouraged when I read recently that UA planned to hire 55 new faculty this school year.

BOOM go the Zips!!! Big win and very good regular season. Great job team and staff. I was pretty unhappy earlier in the season but Terry turned it around. Great great great.

Want to see another score here. Bury them and keep on scoring Zippers. 7-5 after a rough start to the season. This is great to see positive directionality and hopefully a bowl game to boot. Is it possible to be 7-5 and not get a bowl nod?

Same here on the espn3 feed. Ugh. Was Charlie Frye at the game to start? I saw the announcement but didn't see him on camera.

Congrats Zippers! I've been as down on the program as anyone but am greatly pleased to see them gaining strength at the end of the year here. How about 7 wins and a bowl? I didn't think that was likely just a few weeks ago. I'm happy to say I was wrong.

A bowl game, ANY bowl game, will be wonderful for the program. Ten years, hopefully not again for a long time.

Way to go Zippers! UA was clearly the better team that also had rough moments in the second half. There were plenty of FUN moments in the game on both sides of the ball. Isn't it nice to watch the Zips and not want to crawl into a hole during and after the game? Go Zips!

A-Zip, while I love your Avatar, your arguments are fragmented and difficult to make sense out of. I'll leave it at that and we'll agree to disagree. I'm in Akron this last week and have had the chance to talk about the state of UA with multiple knowledgable folks with long term ties to the university and the community. Even the kindest toward Scar have not been charitable in their comments about his leadership of UA so far, and that is putting it mildly. In my opinion he's got to go, and most of the board and his overpaid staffers can head out with him.

Are you the crazy homeless preacher I see on the way into my building every day?

A-Zip, I don't understand your arguments at all, probably because you don't actually argue anything beyond, generally, that the media is biased and that there's more to the story about UA than we know. I've asked you at least twice to respond to specifics, or provide specifics, but you fail to answer. The commercial media is mostly corporate-owned these days. Also, the debate you referred to was hosted by CNBC, a business news network ultimately owned by GE, hardly a bastion of liberalism. What exactly is your point about the media and what does that point have to do with ABJ's coverage of UA? Does media bias explain why donations to UA are way down? Does the ABJ run UA? Is Scarborough responsible, at least in part, for the UA narrative in the public sphere? Do you think it was cool to fire bunches of people under the guise of fiscal crisis and then immediately shift into spending mode? Institutions are responsible for the ways they are perceived, not the media nor the readers of the paper. Is Scar unhappy with the narrative so far? It's his job to change it, to get in front of it.

Bowden would arguably be a better fit at a Florida school than Akron. The family name, the culture, recruiting potential would all be more favorable for him in White-Trash-California than in the Midwest. I'm in the minority on the board that's not particularly impressed with his results to date. He put out the bonfire that was the program when he arrived. However, every other school in the MAC has flashed at least once in the last several years, except Akron. I'm not sold on him as the answer although I certainly hope he is. Oh, and YEAH to another NE Ohio winning football weekend. UA loses and Cleveland fans are in full meltdown mode this evening. What would life be without UA coaching and NFL draft discussions in November every year?