Roo

He is not mentioned at all.And Mcgee is the younger brother of the former Zip. There are a lot of references to U of A

Two years in a row with them having a win against a big name. Esp this one being on ESPN. Great marketing tool there.

I hope this brings some of the homers back to earth a little bit.

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I see Kyle Snyder of Barberton verb'd to OU last week. Any thoughts? Another Hiller (kid from our backyard makes good at another MAC school?) I hate to see that.He is 6' and had only one DI offer and took the only one he got. He is not good enough to be a DI QB. He did run a 4.6 40, however, he has never played outside of QB.I wasn't impressed when I have watched him play, I would venture to say he will never take a snap at QB.

That helmet is awesome!

I went to the tour today, first time checking it out from the inside, and I was very impressed.I love how there doesn't seem to be a bad seat anywhere and I cannot wait to pick my seats out. Hopefully, my picks will be available. Which I think they will, from looking at the sheet, there doesn't seem to be a whole long list of people waiting to pick out seats yet. Hopefully people will come, after I pick my seats though But I love the look and feel of the stadium. I like how the field is below the street level. Kind of neat.

I am shocked that Gary Waters is not getting a look. He was great at Can't State and he has turned a sad program at CSU around in two years. That is an amazing accomplishment from where that school was. He should be listed over any of the MAC coaches or JC at TCU...

I think if he is as raw as everybody is saying he is, then I don't think WVU would be a good fit for him. He would have to wait two years or so to play.Dayton seems far and away the favorite due to them being a better program overall, being very local to a kid that wants to stay local. However, Akron has a very bright future and he would make an immediate impact here. The thought of playing next to Zeke and with our young talent has to be enticing. Akron could make some runs in the NCAA tourney which would get him a lot more attention than Dayton.

Central Hower is not a school anymore....Is that building even in use anymore?It most certainly a school. Currently it houses the entirety of East High School while renovations are completed, and in the future it will see more relocated HS students from around the city. Central Hower will not be empty for many years.I had no idea...what other HS is being renovated besides East??? Central is way out of the way for students at Ellet and Buchtel? Firestone, Kenmore and North are in fine shape are they not?

And if too much is expected of him, it could backfire and he can shut down. Many players do that. Why put that burden on his shoulders? Potential is developed on the bench, because practice, training, film study, weights, all come from not being on the floor. And who said he wasn't going to play? You act like we are having a QB discussion, debating that Brady Quinn can't get experience by sitting on the bench. Zeke is going to play, he is going to play a lot. But the key is not to put the weight of the team or expectations, on his shoulder because he happens to be a big time recruit. I don't get what is so hard to understand about that? And to the other guy, he is not a five star recruit, is a four star recruit. Not that it makes any difference because the star next to his name is irrelevant at this point. Nikola and McKnight were apart of the starting five that won a MAC tourney title and went to the NCAA so why not have that to start the season? Experience in basketball is something that can not be undervalued.Zeke didn't dominate HS basketball folks...he had a strong season and is filled with potential, but this is a guy that couldn't dominate HS basketball and people here are expecting him to dominate the MAC because of a ranking and he is 7 foot. Give it time...he hasn't even graduated HS and many people are already having their expectations for him way too high...

Central Hower is not a school anymore....Is that building even in use anymore?

hahaha we didn't have any bigs.if you think the 35th best player in the country isn't going to start in the MAC, you're out of your mind, im sorry.Just goes to show you don't know much about basketball...Bardo and Nikola were coming along pretty nicely as the season went on and they are young players. We dont have much height, much to the reference to Dambrot's quote on the need for height since McKnight will be at the four. He is a solid post player that can step out and hit the J.Like others have said, I do not doubt at all that Zeke will start at some point. My only point is that people are expecting the world out of this kid and it takes bigs a lot longer to get adjusted to the college game than guards. Humpty came in and was able to start, but who was behind him? Ronnie was hurt and McNees came on strong late, but struggled early. So there was nobody there. We have a pretty solid presence of young post players in the mix here.If you want a good example, the Ohio State Buckeyes had no player over 6'8'' that played meaningful minutes last season. The recruit the #1 player in the Nation in BJ Mullins. He came in and just wasn't ready for NCAA basketball. So he played 20 min a game and started a total of two games the entire season. Mullins played Ohio DI basketball and avg 28 PPG and 15 RPG. His game is head and shoulders above Zeke. Zeke is no where near ready to play at this level on offense. It is going to take time. And being in the MAC, we can do that because we already have a strong team and good young post players. He may start by the end of the year, but right away, we need to ease him into the game because it will take a big adjustment to get used to going from HS kids to DI basketball. Regardless of what conference it is.

We can't compete in the MAC and you want this program to be the doormat for the CUSA? Marshall dominated the MAC and went to the CUSA and have gone 4-8, 3-9, 5-7, and 4-7. What do you think is going to happen to Akron?People need to realize what Akron is, people are out here thinking we can compete with Penn St and the Big Ten and we should be in CUSA.....we need to compete in the MAC before we think about competing with good programs.And you need to realize that we do compete in the MAC. We were 8 points away from being 8-4 this year. We nearly beat the Big East Champions, we made Syracuse look like rightfully like the bottom of FBS. If you keep thinking small time and letting the fact that a couple things don't go your way in a given year, you are always going to be small time. Futility is not a team that has been D-1 for all of 20 years and has recently garnered enough respect to be able to recruit talent get 10's of millions of dollars in donations to fund facility improvements and been to a bowl game in the last 4 years. No futility is being a D-1 football program for the entirity of existance and having your most notable season being in 1972.Marshall was failing as they left the MAC and hell UCF went 0-12 they just won a C-USA tile last year or the year before. So the "can't compete" argument is pretty useless. Cincinnati won a C-USA title once (2002) and they just went to the Orange Bowl.How do we compete in the MAC? How many winning seasons has this program had? How many bowl games? How many MAC titles?We most certainly do not compete in the MAC. Cinci had the perfect storm of a season, they have never shown that can consistently be a winner. Neither has UCF.Why do people want to be bottom dwellers and hope for a perfect storm of a season every now and then in the CUSA? That's not even a great conference to begin with.This program needs to focus on what it can do to recruit the kind of players to be sitting at the top of the MAC year in and year out. Right now, this program hasn't recruited the players needed to have consecutive winning seasons...We beat a horrible Syracuse team and we lost to an ok Cinci team and we want to make jumps to a bigger conference? People are guaranteeing a win against a soso Big Ten team that curb stomped us two years ago, we need to come back to earth.Lets just hope we are competitive this year, have a winning season, compete for the MAC title and hopefully get a bowl game before we worry about being doormates for a below avg conference when we can't even compete in a bad football conference.It's called vision. Many in Akron are not used to it, but it is nonetheless there and growing stronger every year. Of course we need to dominate the MAC. Come on, everyone agrees to that. But what comes afterward? No MAC team travels well with fans. Marshall did as you could expect 6-8K every game. We needto be that type of program. Once there we will need a bigger stage. CUSA seems the most feasible to me, but conferences are changing and we must be in position to take advantage of positive growth when it is offered. Continued membership in the MAC will always limit a program's potential. If we can outgrow it I say embrace it.Until we are ready for the leap we must do all to get our house in order. That means build a fan base, bring fans to away games, create high performance expectations i.e. tradition of winning, build facilities and be a program the public wants to see (especially TV). If we do that new conferences will seek us out. As KD tells his team every year "Think big" and prepare then to make it happen. We should have a strategic plan that covers 5, 10 and 15 year goals. One of those goals should be improving conference affiliation. I agree almost 100%This is exactly what I am saying. There are people that are wanting to move out of the MAC NOW, like that is going to make a difference in our program, and I think it will set us way way back. But I agree with ya.I also agree with Blue and Gold.If we are looking to get out of the MAC, CUSA is not the way to do it. We need to hope we can build our basketball and football team up to the point to where we can compete in the Big East. That is the only conference move that makes sense. We can be a national power in Soccer. We can be competitive in basketball and with the right recruits, we can be right in the middle of the pack with the football teams.But even then, I would rather take the above approach and dominate the MAC and be a winner. It may not be a big conference, but Id take winning year in and year out rather than moving to the BE or CUSA and having up and down years, which would be the best we could hope for if switching conferences.I dont think it is unrealistic to say that Akron can dominate the MAC in Soccer, Basketball and Football every single year. I think that is a very realistic goal to achieve.

I think the one thing many people need to understand is that, Zeke is going to take some time to develop. He isn't going to be able to step in here right away and be a dominate force. He did well in HS, his potential is through the roof, but we really need to be patient with him.I don't think he starts his first year here, but he should play significant minutes off the bench and let the game come to him. Don't try to force him to play a style of game he may not be used to. I don't think he is anywhere near ready to play offense at this level, I most certainly think his defense is there. But lets stay patient, bring him along slowly, and watch him blossom.We have a team that just went to the NCAA tourney, we aren't losing any bigs and we had some good youth in our bigs on the roster already. I think Zeke is going to be a special player for us here at Akron, but I think many are expecting way too much because of his high ranking out of HS. Give the kid some time and I believe he dominates the MAC if developed properly.

We can't compete in the MAC and you want this program to be the doormat for the CUSA? Marshall dominated the MAC and went to the CUSA and have gone 4-8, 3-9, 5-7, and 4-7. What do you think is going to happen to Akron?People need to realize what Akron is, people are out here thinking we can compete with Penn St and the Big Ten and we should be in CUSA.....we need to compete in the MAC before we think about competing with good programs.And you need to realize that we do compete in the MAC. We were 8 points away from being 8-4 this year. We nearly beat the Big East Champions, we made Syracuse look like rightfully like the bottom of FBS. If you keep thinking small time and letting the fact that a couple things don't go your way in a given year, you are always going to be small time. Futility is not a team that has been D-1 for all of 20 years and has recently garnered enough respect to be able to recruit talent get 10's of millions of dollars in donations to fund facility improvements and been to a bowl game in the last 4 years. No futility is being a D-1 football program for the entirity of existance and having your most notable season being in 1972.Marshall was failing as they left the MAC and hell UCF went 0-12 they just won a C-USA tile last year or the year before. So the "can't compete" argument is pretty useless. Cincinnati won a C-USA title once (2002) and they just went to the Orange Bowl.How do we compete in the MAC? How many winning seasons has this program had? How many bowl games? How many MAC titles?We most certainly do not compete in the MAC. Cinci had the perfect storm of a season, they have never shown that can consistently be a winner. Neither has UCF.Why do people want to be bottom dwellers and hope for a perfect storm of a season every now and then in the CUSA? That's not even a great conference to begin with.This program needs to focus on what it can do to recruit the kind of players to be sitting at the top of the MAC year in and year out. Right now, this program hasn't recruited the players needed to have consecutive winning seasons...We beat a horrible Syracuse team and we lost to an ok Cinci team and we want to make jumps to a bigger conference? People are guaranteeing a win against a soso Big Ten team that curb stomped us two years ago, we need to come back to earth.Lets just hope we are competitive this year, have a winning season, compete for the MAC title and hopefully get a bowl game before we worry about being doormates for a below avg conference when we can't even compete in a bad football conference.

We can't compete in the MAC and you want this program to be the doormat for the CUSA? Marshall dominated the MAC and went to the CUSA and have gone 4-8, 3-9, 5-7, and 4-7. What do you think is going to happen to Akron?People need to realize what Akron is, people are out here thinking we can compete with Penn St and the Big Ten and we should be in CUSA.....we need to compete in the MAC before we think about competing with good programs.

Because it allows the MAC to get TV time. We aren't getting on TV on Saturday, that's just how it is. Friday, and mid-week games, allow us to get a game or two on ESPN network. That is a big plus for the school. I don't understand why so many people cry about a game behind on the weekday. You have to get up the next morning...ok?...You aren't going to be out there til 1 or 2 am. Im all for whatever gets the school, and this great new stadium, more exposure. Putting every game on Saturday would mean absolutely no national exposure. Which hurts the program.People cry about a weekday game because some people need to travel from a long distance to get to the game. I used to have to travel 4 hours to get to Akron. People have limited amounts of vacation time and are forced to burn it because some prick in Cleveland thinks it's more important for the Zips to be on some side screen at BW3 in St Louis. People also have kids and can't tailgate before the game because the kids who have activities during the week. I know, I know, I should just suck it up and buy season tickets and miss the games so those guys totally hammered in St. Louis can spend 3 seconds looking up at the screen and say "What's a Zip?"That's great that you travel to see the Zips, but I would venture to say that you are in the very small percentile of fans that would have that issue. We are looking for students and the Akron area to fill the stands. Face it, kids want exposure. I could care less about some fan in St Louis wondering what a Zip is, I am concerned when a kid from Florida gets a letter from Akron wondering what the hell kind of joke that is because they never play on TV.

Let's put this into perspective a little. Take the Q for example. That arena has been able to host basketball, arena football, hockey, monster truck rallies, concerts... the list goes on. In my experience seeing a lot of basketball games there, never once did I ever feel there was a really "bad" seat. Hell, even when the alumni dept sponsored a bus trip to cleveland for the home opener for the Cavs last year, we all had seats in about the highest up part of the arena and even then I didn't feel THAT far away from the action. There really aren't any major compromises to be made with a multi-purpose arena.Exactly...and add to it we are using a venue that is going to be half that sized. It's hard to mess up the seating in something that small, but then again, we do have the Jar....

yeah what happens when we lose to them the start our home season, won't that be embarrassing? That would destroy the whole season in terms of fan support.If we lose to them, then the team shouldn't have any support to begin with because the coaches are obviously not putting a good product on the field. It is their job to build a winner and if we can't manage that, then why should we watch?But lets say we stayed with Indiana, who is a nobody in football. If they come out and beat up on us, which is possible, what does that tell the fans? Have a big opener, against a lowly program and get blown out in the opener..Look, we are MAC level football team. We need wins to get fan support. Akron is not too good to play sub division schools. Akron is a lowly program, like it or not. Scheduling a poorly ranked Sun Belt team or CUSA team is just like playing a MAC team and is a toss up for a W or an L.This team needs to focus on getting as many wins as possible, getting interest in the program and hope that JD can actually make progress because right now he should be on the hot seat. Something needs to happen with this program because you can't afford to go into a new stadium with a loser. It would take forever to change the students opinion on them if they blow this season.

Exactly my thoughts as well....we need a multipurpose arena. It doesn't have to be huge. A nice looking, good sized, nice location arena would help the city and the school.

Because it allows the MAC to get TV time. We aren't getting on TV on Saturday, that's just how it is. Friday, and mid-week games, allow us to get a game or two on ESPN network. That is a big plus for the school. I don't understand why so many people cry about a game behind on the weekday. You have to get up the next morning...ok?...You aren't going to be out there til 1 or 2 am. Im all for whatever gets the school, and this great new stadium, more exposure. Putting every game on Saturday would mean absolutely no national exposure. Which hurts the program.

Im pumped! I was really hoping we would add a FCS SD school to open the stadium. I think the most important thing to start the Info is a W and a blowout W. Indiana did not provide that. There is no guarantee we win that game. That is going to be a good contest and good for the fans to see, but I agree with another poster that said this game will be as close to a sell out as possible regardless of who we played. The Penn St game probably won't be pretty for us, so this is a good opportunity to turn the morale and get the steam rolling for the Hoosier game.Pumped!!

I got my tickets as well. Got a pair with my father. It should be a good time...Im excited. The last Zips game I went to was the Can't game at the Rubber Bowl. Looking forward to making it a regular thing.Anybody have any info on the seat locations? How are they going to work that out?

I always thought Akron made a huge mistake with the JAR. It is a very poor facility to begin with, but it is small and it doesn't offer dual use. A better location, someone mentioned near Canal Park, would still be close enough to get the students there and it would allow for Downtown Akron to look better as well as give them a venue to host events. Acts that dont require a large venue never goto Akron because there is no where for them to go. That can happen with a better facility. Plus the benefits to recruiting would be huge.