Roo

Chesty? Hardly... I think most ND fans would say they needed a better performance v Purdue. But injuries, starting RB out, original starting QB not yet playing full time. A win is a win. The team wasn't ranked before the season, I don't think many of us are predicting a BCS game. It better be better than 8-5 though, but our schedule is tough. Okla, MSU, USC is quite the battle. I love how petty fans have nothing better to do than to talk about Notre Dame but try to insist they aren't relevant. It's much like Ohio State fans when they hear measly Akron fans talk about their team. All this come from an Akron board is hilarious.

And one thing I took from the move to the ACC in the press conference was that they will now have the ability to make more natural movement to the south. That is one area to where they traditionally have not played, ever. Even before the SEC got good, Notre Dame had really only played a few schools on a regular basis. Georgia Tech, Miami, and Florida State. So by tradition and natural rivalries, there hasn't been much there for them to play. Notre Dame typically only has a handful of games to go outside of when you consider they are usually playing USC, Michigan, Stanford, Navy, Boston College, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Michigan State and Army/Air Force on a regular basis. The comment of their schedule having little substance is laughable...as the guy above me pointed out, they have Oklahoma and Miami (sadly who are down) this year, but always play top notch teams year in and year out. They have other future exciting games and the ACC will bring Florida State, VaTech, Clemson, and Maryland on a rotating basis. That's a solid group of teams to play when you throw in USC, Michigan, etc..etc..

False. Good players want to win and be noticed winning. If they cared about playing against the best kids would never go to USC, Ohio State or Florida State (who just had a couple years in a row of top recruiting classes in a conference that you said wouldn't play against the best) And Notre Dame's schedule is typically rated very tough in the nation year over year. So that notion, and the fact they have been near the top in recruiting over the last 5-10 years, dispels any notion of truth.

Not at all. ND is one of the few schools that has the ability to recruit across the entire nation and they do that by playing all over the US (and outside the country). Kids all over the nation get to see Notre Dame in their region every year. Kids from outside of Ohio don't even realize Akron is a school for example. They are always in the news and they are still relevant in a major way. They would lose everything if they joined a conference. The fan base for that school is huge. And whoever said the BigTen is better than the ACC is out of their minds. All other main sports the ACC is superior, academically it is superior and football should be proven to be at least equal if not better. I dont like the 5 games vs ACC portion but the ability to see ND play FSU, Miami, VaTech, Clemson, Pitt and Boston College every year is not bad and they all have a history (except Clemson, which you could sub in Georgia Tech and they are already playing Wake this year). The team has been abysmal? Nobody from Akron can every say anything about any school about being abysmal.. They certainly havent been the Notre Dame of old, but they are capable of being there and as a fan of both schools, Id love to see Akron just be able to have a winning season twice in a decade.

Man o man...I thought we had it there at the end. How bad is our defense that we allow them to drive the field in a little over a minute? Prevent defense only prevents you from winning, I put that one on Amato and the play calling, no way the defense should have been that lax. Bad call on the PI call in the end zone, that ball wasn't catchable but they should have never been in that situation to begin with. It is good to see that we were in the game until the very end, I don't remember watching a game after the third quarter last year. But a loss is a loss, no way anybody should be happy with a loss. That W would have meant a huge amount to this program and as it stands, it's just another loss. No matter how close. Moral victories don't exist. Would've been huge to pull that game out....man...so damn close. We were seconds away from a potential 2 game winning streak....been a very long time since we have had a winning record going into MAC play.

Why are people so shocked by that? Bowden himself said that he hopes they can win two games. This team is depleted of talent, lost our best LB, have a QB with zero starting experience, a sketchy OL, unproven WRs and a defense that got humiliated week in and week out. Ill give you some credit that yes the coaching was bad last year and obviously we hope Bowden is much better but predicting anything over 3 wins is just as misguided as 0-12. It's not like Bowden went out and got a lot of playmakers, we have no idea what the new faces will do. I don't put a lot of faith in scrimmages against our own team because frankly, they are going up against some of the worst talent on both sides of the ball in the nation. That's a harsh reality but we've only won 2 games the last two years for a reason and not all of it was bad coaching.

Sounds about right to me. I was going to say roughly 10,000 actual people there.

So he went from being a FB that would see the field to a LB that isn't on the two deep depth chart? What happened? He was a pretty hyped recruit no? I recall some big schools wanted him for LB, but he came here to play offense...

It was close to that area, yes. So that is the reason we were named that.

My old school was nicknamed the Zeps....Shenandoah in Southern Ohio.

Am I missing something or is Rossi not with the team anymore?

I did not renew my season tickets....just not worth the cost. With my job, I have to work on Saturday out on no where and Im never able to find anybody that wants to go. Plus my jobs gives tickets away for free, so it makes zero sense to buy season tickets. I just can't imagine why ticket sales would be up, they don't have a product worth seeing, and how much of an impact has Bowden made outside of the Zips circle? We already know Akron and the surrounding area does not support anything related to Akron Football...why would that change now?

I would agree with this. I think a lot of people forget that we play in the MAC and overall just how not so good this conference is. We have a team make a run at it every now and then, but the MAC is about as low as you can go in terms of NCAA competition. Dambrot has been solid in this conference, but we still aren't at the top level of mid-majors. We have a ways to go before we get into the Gonzaga...Dayton...Xavier...Butler's of the world. If we can get some solid transfers and better recruiting classes, we may make it. Most of the MACs tourney runs tend to be aided by a BCS level type transfer.

Playoff or no playoff Akron never had a chance to play in a title game anyway. I would love for them to grow to at least contend to be a top 25 ranked program.

And with all of his AAU tournaments and all of the tweets, we have yet to land any player that actually was above the Akron program in stature except for Zeke who came on his own merits. Yeah, a lot of players get to play here via Lebron and he talks about the school, that's great. But it does nothing to help the program.

Show what it has done. We haven't gotten any huge sponsors, commits, or TV time for the Zips basketball program even though we wear Lebron's shoes, he has his AAU tourney here, and he talks about us on twitter all the time. We haven't gotten a boost in attendance. Akron and Northeast Ohio players still don't look at Akron as a place to play and would rather go to low level BCS schools like Penn St, Northwestern, Minnesota just to name a few. This does nothing for the school or the basketball program.

Instead of bickering about the name of the school, this just shows another example of how pathetic MAC Football is. FBS football tied with a pretty bow on it. I had season tickets the last two years and there are a bunch of high school programs that easily get more fans in the seats than Akron and Ken.t. I am glad we now finally have, what seems like, a real coach, but if this football team cannot be competitive in the MAC conference and Bowden can't turn it around, it's time to drop a level and give up the FCS pipe dream. Either way, they will never compete for a national championship.

None of those programs have the resources of a mediocre BCS level team...they are all Mid-Majors. Just because they have had continued success does not elevate them in stature. Look at say Oklahoma St for example vs any of those teams, it's not even a comparison in terms of resources and then of course conference alignment.

$600k for a coach that has only one MAC regular season title, zero NCAA tournament wins, and no major upset on his resume? That is reaching... It's great he is from Akron and all and wants to stay but he is only a competitive coach in the MAC..Akron is not competitive in the mid-major ranks, let alone even sniffing a chance at winning in the tournament which we rarely get to because he blows the championship game. He has done a great job at getting this team to be competitive in the MAC, but with how soft the schedule is, I would be alarmed that he isn't getting 20 wins. Akron is also near the bottom in the NCAA in attendance. Has zero major wins for the program to hang its hat on. Only made it to the NCAA tournament twice despite 6 league championship games and still doesnt have the best program in one of the worst conferences in the NCAA. A real discussion needs to take place if we don't start growing and whether or not we actually have the right coach for the program if we have another couple of years of failing to live up to expectations.

He wants to play. It was obvious he wasn't going to do it here. He was probably better suited for DII anyhow, he just didn't have what it took to be successful at this level but you gotta give it to him for sticking it out and for taking the pounding he did behind the poor OL he had in front of him. I am sure he will land somewhere and pick up some quality playing time and perform at a high level. Go out with a blast PN

This is what you should worry about. How many championship games have we lost?

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/ua-zips/universi...ession-1.287791 Interesting note was that it is looking like the QB spot is going to come down to Moore and Dalton Williams. Nicely is probably going to be transferring out if he is fourth on the depth chart.

Why on earth would he stay? This conference doesn't compete at a mid-major level on the court consistently and even a bump up to a top mid-major is a huge pay increase. The MAC doesn't want to make sports a priority and the pay and support shows that.

He has done a good job here, but he would never get an interview from a BCS school. He has never won an NCAA tournament game, never had a name win on his schedule, flamed out of the NIT, and can barely win the MAC. His resume isn't that special. An Atlantic 10 offer is about the best he would get.

Agree. I didn't renew. Makes no sense when I can go to any game for $5 or free and then just sit as close as I want because that place isn't going to have more than 5k people there.