Dr Z

I think it is disappointing to see the current student turnout for the basketball games, but comparing them to soccer is insane. Soccer deserves all the student support in the world. They are proven winners. They are ranked #1 in the NATION. They play a tough schedule. They bring in top 20 teams to Akron. When the basketball team starts going deep in the tournament bracket and brings in top 20 teams, I GUARANTEE you will see tons of student support.

I got motivated and edited the phone conference and uploaded. See top of this thread.

Here is a cut & paste of quotes from gozips.com. Feel free to add more or comment. Opening Statement: "We are thrilled to have an opportunity to play a rivalry game at this point in the season. The Can't State-Akron game is a very important game to The University of Akron, community, fans, players, alumni, and we are eager to get our team prepared and give a better performance then we did last week. We know this will be a big challenge for us and we are going to see how we do this week." Defensive play: "We had several key breakdowns and counted thirteen big plays against us for 328 yards. We had some issues in coverage and we are going to go back to work to eliminate the big plays and start doing a better job on defense, but most of all making some big plays on offense as well." Freshman safety Anthony Holmes: "As we watch Anthony (Holmes) develop during the season we feel like he's athletic, very explosive, and gives us some size at corner. He did a very nice job for his first start (against Northern Illinois on Saturday) and I believe this young man is going to continue to get better." Loss to Northern Illinois: "It was very disappointing, we wanted to play better but we did not do that, and Northern Illinois had a lot to do with that and they are a very good football team. That's why they are picked to win the MAC West Division." Ken+ Game: "It's an exciting opportunity for us to play our rival. It's like USC-UCLA, North Carolina-Duke. We recruit against each other and compete against each other in a lot of areas and it's a great rivalry for Northeast Ohio and we just want to prepare our players to play a good Can't State team." Transition to a pro-style offense: "Our identity in our program will be to run the ball and stop the run, we want to run the football effectively and when we get to our passing game where we want to be able to play-action 50 percent of the time and drop-back pass 50 percent of the time. That's what I would like our identity to be. We are a work in progress." Ken+'s rushing defense: "They have a good front seven and a good secondary. It's going to be very tough to run the ball against them and we need to come up with runs that are going to be effective." Regarding senior running back Alex Allen: "I am very pleased with Alex Allen he had over 100 yards rushing last Saturday. I am pleased with the leadership he's provided to this football team, and the offensive line has been slugging it out and we are continuing to progress with the running game and in general as a football team." Progression of sophomore quarterback Patrick Nicely: "When the opportunity presents itself Patrick (Nicely) is a quarterback that likes to drop back and pass, he can get some yards with his legs if he has to, but the idea is we want Patrick to keep progressing and keep getting better every week." Wide receiver corps, depth and health: "We graduated a lot of wide receivers last season and Jeremy LaFrance was the only returning starter. I've been pleased with Jalil Carter and what he has done so far, Gary Pride played very well at Indiana (on Sept. 25) and we have a few other young receivers. Like our team they are continuing to improve, and we have a lot of season left in us and I am very optimistic about that. The health of our team at this stage of the season is very good, and I'm pleased with it."

I'll save iCoach some time so he can work on his game plan. "We score less than the other teams we play."

I'll bet Keith's stats are close to the ones he put up playing Murray State, and not Penn State on Saturday. I have to admit, I have only seen him play one game against us last year, but I was impressed, especially for his age. He put up 377 yards on last years secondary with 5 people back there!?!? Maybe Ken+'s OL is worse this year? Is it possible for us to get pressure on him this week? I have to see it, to believe it.

Now that I reread through this thread, not a lot of good questions anyway.

I had to look it up. 17 point underdogs to hippies! Come on man! Embarrassing.

So no ZN questions were asked? One that I forgot: Coach I watch team after team that run a pro style offense use the TE to move the chains, do we have TE's that catch the ball, do we send them out in routes, does PN7 have enough check downs if coverage is tight down field? I'll hang up and listen to your answer....

I agree, not a big demand....but, can you imagine running the spread with our wideouts?

I wouldn't admit to it. Scale of 1 to 10, Rowdies taking over Ken+ student section years back....10, shinning 'Fear the Roo' on Ken+ water tower...9, this is a 1. High school stuff.

How many coaches go with a scheme they don't know and continue with the current/former one? Give me an example. I can give one, it turned out to be the correct move, but at the time it was highly controversial among the fans. None. I know a defensive coordinator who got hired as a head coach with no previous head coaching experience. He decided to go with the previous coaches defense scheme instead of the one that he was taught. He won the highest honor doing so. This team continues using this scheme 4 years later. He was a defensive backs coach at 3 different Universities and then became a defensive backs coach in the NFL before his HC job. Point is, I think it is very rare, but it happens. I was hoping someone else knew of more examples.

How many coaches go with a scheme they don't know and continue with the current/former one? Give me an example. I can give one, it turned out to be the correct move, but at the time it was highly controversial among the fans.

Do they sell beer?

I like your thinking. "...the waiting is the hardest part" ........../

Our secondary is an obvious weakness. Teams are now game planning to attack that. Why is this a weakness? Do we have the right coaches in place for teaching in this area or are we thin on talent here? You mentioned before that we need to get pressure on the QB to help our secondary out. What are we doing to create pressure? Blitzing? How often? I'll hang up and listen to your answer....

I'll guess no. I Would have loved to be a fly on the wall during that interview.

Spann had 16 carries for 84 yards. That's good, but does not impress me. Both teams averaged the same per carry (4.8 & 4.9). The NIU coaching staff impressed me with their preparation. They recognized, and attacked our weakness early...the secondary. If Spann impressed you, then Alex Allen must have really impressed you since he had more yards on less carries?!?! Stopping the run, and running the ball effectively is football 101, and seems to be Rob's Modus operandi. But if you get a team to third and long and they can simple run a go route with a high rate of success, your plan is out the window. We need to fix that ASAP.

I wonder if they are taught to never look back, because it seems as though they don't? I don't understand that if it is true. It is the most frustrating thing on our team to watch. I wish this group could turn it around, but I am losing hope. I fear we need to bring in some kind of defensive back specialist to help teach. Top 5?

Will the staff get the most out of the talent that is on the team? It seems as though the staff has adjusted it's recruiting strategy, will this new found ability to adjust carry over on the court?

'Cooler heads will prevail' is the saying that comes to mind. I have resisted the urge to post my emotions.

Injuries are your answer. If he was 100%, we would have the same problems in the secondary.

Sorry, I don't think I was clear on my post. I thought they did a great job with that video. Their quality is better than that of Ztv. I would like to see Ztv upgrade their quality. HD cameras are very affordable. Canon has a great line for small single focus interviews of the coach and press conferences.

20-17 Blue n gold. (insert Joe Dunn kazoo fight song sound bit here)

I'm just happy we have a guy (Tom) writing for the Akron paper that is concerned about the Akron football team. Much better than the last Penguin fan Zips writer that would occasionally write some BS article on our team that he pulled from the ap. I notice he is not listed on the staff anymore. I thought the article was okay?

Record setting crowd. Odd that the video shows 3,000 empty seats in a 10,000 seat stadium that had 7,000 in it. Nice video though. I would like to see Ztv upgrade their camera. Not that big of expense now a days.