ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net

You do realize that your post makes oblique political statements yes? Also, most here (probably all) are well-versed in all of the things you describe. I have also read all of what's out there regarding goings-on at UA since Scar took over. Have you read the articles on thedevilstrip.com? How about the latest about the "success coach" outfit? Are you close enough to know how well UA is doing with donations since Scar took over? Let's agree that all who post here are sincere and care about the long term success of UA, but if you're prepared to defend Scar based on actual fact and detail, please offer up something that might persuade your fellow posters. I would love to learn that he's actually a wonderful visionary who is simply misunderstood and that UA is on the cusp of magical greatness. Convince us.

OK I'll buy that although my impression was that he was bringing politics into the discussion. In any event there are few who care about the well being of UA than those who post here so it's all good. On a related note, I'm watching the Cavs tonight and this team has amazing potential. This could be a very good season for LBJ & Co.

Have you read any of the well-done reportage on thedevilstrip.com? The writer is clearly no friend of Scar but those articles are packed with facts, including his having collected numerous documents and emails through FOIA requests. If anything, the Leaking Urinal has been its typical lazy self and not nearly aggressive nor detailed enough It seems fairly clear that Scar "sold" the notion of fiscal crisis that HAD to be dealt with immediately, as a way to make painful cuts and clear money for his vision. If he had said as much and could seel it to the board and community, so be it. I believe that he was duplicitous, because the money saved wasn't intended to simply bring the budget into alignment. He wanted to make those cuts to then shift that money to his vision, which requires a very different narrative than the one we have heard so far. Beyond the evasion and misrepresentation, I believe that his vision will not bring success. Secondly, are you prepared to advocate that the hiring of the success coaching company was sound? Lastly, please don't bring national politics into this. Proenza was a Republican, we all know that Scar is a Republican and actually ran for office earlier in his career. The issues I have with all of this have nothing to do with politics. I care about UA the institution, how it is a key component of the city and region, how critical it is that it not fail. Blue or red or purple, those running the show had better do a solid job and at the very least do no harm. Scar is doing harm.

And right on cue: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/10/founder_of_non-profit_running.html JFC, SMH... Scar's next move needs to be to go back to that grand parasite of grand republics, Texas.

What you describe below is more reasonable than what I hear coming from Scar & Co. Take the historical strengths of the school, the bond with the local and regional communities, strengthen those and only then add around the margins. Scar describes a national vision, he almost-universally alienated those at the school and in the community, overemphasized budget issues and (IMO) manufactured a crisis that provided cover to fire a lot of people and free up cash for that "national" vision. If he were taking the emphasis on recruiting to a larger regional level that might make sense, and it would help if he possessed reasonable people skills and engendered support from the community. He appears to be failing on all accounts and I am one who believes that he essentially lied to all of us, creating a false sense of urgency to ram through his "vision" so far. Read some of the excellent articles about his administration on thedevilstrip.com and you'll get a better sense of what appears to be going on. Scar hired cronies from Toledo, paid them much larger salaries than those who they replaced, he unceremoniously dumped baseball in the worst way possible, he fired dozens of people who directly supported students and infrastructure, all because of a budget crisis that apparently isn't so severe as to keep him from additional pet projects like a "grand entrance" from Exchange. He obviously has made no friends among the media. I could go on but he's clearly well on his way to a failed leadership post at Akron, from which he'll depart to go somewhere else while the community and university are left holding the bag. I'll leave you with perhaps the most visible sign that Scar doesn't get it, nor do his minions nor the board: the expensive creation of a Corps of Cadets. There is absolutely zero logic behind creating one in a place that has no history suggestive of support of a Corps and that already offers a small but excellent ROTC program. Silly, embarassing, out of touch with the community, created by somebody who doesn't get it.

Ranked schools? I've lived in the professional world long enough to know without a doubt that unless you graduated from Harvard or a "regional Ivy", the school you went to means very little. A "name" school and connections made there will open certain doors the first time out of school but it's on each individual thereafter. Also, the cost of education these days is staggering, obscene really. UA will never compete with the "name" universities in the ways you describe. Why not be the practical, affordable university that strives to provide high quality education to local and regional students, along with working adults?

That's the recipe that served the university, the community and the region successfully for decades.

I suspect that donors are mostly all within the region, alumni who still retain some sense of connection with the university. I will accept the arguments that Scar was made responsible for a situation involving declines in enrollment and that the university was potentially overextended with infrastructural committments. However, his solutions and initiatives fail to convince me in any way. His mannerisms, poor communication style and failure to connect with the community are off-putting. Anyone paying attention should be able to see why donations would be declining. I would love to see the university return to open enrollment and a focus on local and regional students. The people who appreciate UA and need it are not anywhere else but there. Don't try to sell a kid from another region, that's an incredible uphill battle. Within that context, focus on the faculty you put in front of students and emphasize education for working adults. Be a vital part of the local and regional scene. Weave the university into the daily fabric of life there. It's about the people, the city and the region. You could spend many millions of dollars advertising the university nationally but I believe those dollars would be wasted. Lastly, when I lived there from 2005-2011 I greatly appreciated that Proenza was spending on capital improvements but wondered aloud about the $$ spent on Infocision and didn't really understand the massive private dorms on Exchange and downtown. They're ugly and I don't see how they do anything but line the pockets of developers. Still though, the soul of the school seemed what I remembered and I happily bought tickets and donated money to UA on multiple occasions. At this point and with the direction of this administration I am very hesitant to support the university.

Boom! I win.

Why FBS or nothing at all?

I read the slides from his presentation and the PD story about same. In short, I don't trust Scarborough and he strikes me as much more of a salesman/politician than a solid institutional leader. He is pinning everything on increasing enrollment, which will drive capital funding, and he plans to increase enrollment with the same race-to-the-bottom garbage that I see in private online university commercials these days. Online mega classes, "national presence", branding, growth, outsourcing, these are the plans of a guy who just wants to sell. I hear precious too little about serving the community and region, providing high quality education at reasonable cost, increasing the ability of the university to provide financial support to students, etc. He has of course surrounded himself with like-minded yes men and women, several from his very unpopular stint at UT. The board appears to be filled with non-entities who provide no effective oversight and are more than happy to allow UA to become something akin to College of the Grand Canyon. Say what you will, but UA for decades filled a much-needed niche as a local/regional university where anyone could attend, classes were available to adults in the workforce, and the quality of the education received for the price paid was very high. It was never a "name" school, but I have always been proud to tell people I graduated from Akron, and more importantly I have always felt thankful that the university was a solid school near home where I knew that I could attain a quality degree at a reasonable price. I have never been comfortable with the drive to grow the student population at all costs, the proliferation of private (and expensive) dorms in and near downtown, the notion that somehow, a UA with 30K+ students would be better than the old UA with 20K commuter students. I appreciated the core infrastructure improvements made under Proenza, but they could have scaled the goals to be more appropriate for the community, which would have meant closing the streets that cut the campus into bits, new and improved core buildings, dorms immediately adjacent to the core campus, even Infocision, albeit smaller and less expensive. Much of what I see along Exchange and downtown was too much, too soon. We now find ourselves in a situation where a once thriving local/regional school must allow itself to be taken over by a snake oil salesman to "drive growth" simply to be able to keep the whole thing going. It stinks, all of it, and I can't shake the strong sense that the city, region and university will all be worse for it when Scarborough and his ilk are finished here. I'm just waiting for Scar to try to sell the city on the idea of a monorail...

I will be very happy to see 7-5 when all is said and done this year. It's not such a bad thing to be a little better than average for this program. Not shabby at all. If they are at .500 or worse, well let's not go there unless that comes to pass.

The thing that I struggle with is that seemingly every program in the MAC has caught lightning in a bottle at least once in the last 15-20 years, except for Akron and Eastern. I'm not including 2005 which was flukey and the team was not a powerhouse, although they had a good year that ended really well. I used to ask the question endlessly here, which some didn't appreciate, about why that is. Your point about coaches, and the implicitly coupled question about recruiting, is one I wish we understood better. Even Can't had a couple of rocking seasons not long ago. If UA is destined to be a middling-to-crappy program I can get behind that in the same way that Cubs fans loved their lovable losers for decades. It would be helpful to fully understand the whys.

The second to last shot is just great. Really good. Thanks Dr Z.

Ouch. That was a bad one. I was hoping for two good NE Ohio weekends in a row. That means Zips and Browns both win. It's astounding how rare those great weekends have been for so many years.

I like what I see from Woodson and he is getting better. Great game yesterday from the offense while the defense made more mistakes that really didn't matter in the context of the game. BGSU is going to be a big deal to see if we can play on both sides for a complete game.

I picked UA to win but think it will be a high scoring game. Also, I love the idea that everybody loves Steve French but I actually hate his announcing. He's way too up and down with the results on the field and actually becomes sullen-sounding when the Zips are getting creamed. That, for me, adds to the bummer on the field and amplifies the anguish. I prefer old-man baritone type announcing by far. Go Zips.

Two great weeks in a row! Watched every minute online and really pleased with the team this week. Go Zips!

I would have liked yours, but liked mine instead. Thank me very much. Boom.

UA has never been a militarily-aligned university and is not a fit for something like a Cadet Corps. Before anyone jumps on me because UA has a ROTC program, don't waste your time for I will destroy you. I am a former Marine Corps Officer who checked out the ROTC program at UA while I was a student there in the 80s. Their program has always been low key and not a major presence on the campus, a good thing in my mind. Cadet Corps are not to be taken seriously, ever, and starting one at Akron informs me, as much as anything that the Scar has done there, that he is a clueless fool. College kids who are actually interested in the military pursue a genuine path to military service, not some silly pointless alternative that leads nowhere. A Corps of Cadets demeans the university, it demeans the ROTC program there and it demeans the participants. Yes, that includes the retired ROTC administrator who is now leading the cadet program.

Chapman looks like he has the multi-star body but he plays like he's lost out there. Stars coming out of HS mean jack shiite a couple of years later. A genuine 4-star QB should play like a man among boys in the MAC. He's not that guy. Woodson can run and threw it reasonably well yesterday. After also watching OSU jack around with QBs so far, I would like to see TB stick with Woodson for a couple of games, unless he stinks it up. Come to think of it, maybe that's the thing with the staff, that they don't like or trust any of these QBs and are desperately pulling them for each other hoping for one to "stick". The thing is that UA won in the respect that they beat up on a team they had to crush. Now I need to see them play with and beat some opponents at their level. Pitt was so disappointing that I'm gun shy regarding this offense. TB had better find a way to play some daggum O against MAC and Sun Belt defenses. What was attendance yesterday?

Like I said previously, it is obvious that "that stadium" was built on an ancient Indian burial ground. The only reasonable answer to the whys regarding this progrum is that it is supernaturally cursed.

All I need to know about the ABJ (the Leaking Urinal is what my Dad called it) is that they continue to employ GT, a self-loathing, Akron-hating writer who is unable to write complete sentences. I love it that the PD, which doesn't charge for online content, now features many Akron stories. Between akron.com, thedevilstrip.com and the PD, I can get plenty of Akron news and have little need for ohio.com.

Based on UA being an FBS team and their opponent this week being a struggling FCS team, the onus is on the Zips to destroy. It's the same kind of no-win that the premier teams face when they play UA in their openers. If they lose outright, they lose big-time. If they win a close game, they lose. If they win by a lot, they should have won by more. Really, the entire early season paradigm is bullshit in college football. Money games, running up 60 points on opponents, little programs hoping for the David moment, it's so cynical and cruel on so many levels. In the end the only winners are the mega programs (that win big in those early games of course) who pad their results with the 60 point wins on their way to the Tostitos/FedEx/MegaCorp FBS playoff games.

It's good to check in on my fellow Zips fans every now and then DG, although I could never lay claim to your title as the Great Sanctimonious One. Reality dictates that one can be a fan and also be critical about the lack of progress with this team. Brookhart had the last decent Zips season in 2005, TEN years ago. Lee is correct above in stating that this is Bowden's program, in its 4th year. In every other stop, Bowden won much quicker than he has here, typically in year one or two. If you aren't seriously worried about this team at this point, especially on the offensive side of the ball, you're not rational. There is some sort of strange Stockholm Syndrome thing with this coaching staff. People are so happy to have the "names" on staff, and so happy that they aren't Ianello, that they seem to get a pass. Brookhart had a record of 30-42 at UA, while Bowden is 11-27, far underperforming when compared to every other stop in his career.