Doug Snyder

Because I was living in California I kinda adopted St. Mary's as my team to watch, I know they have an active and strong pipeline to Australia. After most buckets they chant something "Aussie" and have Australian flags and kangaroo stuff on t-shirts and hats. The Australians love it and I am sure it helps them recruit down under. So...I am all in favor of displaying support for a Zip's players homeland ..whether it is a flag or something else. But I don't think it is appropriate that we HANG those flags with the US flag. One thing that is a little comical and maybe should be investigated by our marketing department...St. Mary's uses "Fear the Roo" on some t-shirts and stuff (or at least they did last year). Did we trademark that saying?? I guess the Roo just follows me around. All my friends in Bali are Australian too. When I wear my Zips hat and t-shirts (A and Roo..like on FB helmet) they are confused because they think the A is for Australia and well the roo is native to down under.

The last time we played OSU, with a Spread, we also were shut out on offense. Should have been plenty of mismatches right? Also there are never less than 3 receivers running a route on a pass play. You would have to watch game film to see that, but I guarantee you no school has a 1 receiver play that isn't a trick play. You create mismatches when a player on your team is faster or stronger than the player on the opposing team. OSU's linebackers are fast enough to cover every receiver we have. Their DB's are stronger or as strong as any of our TE's. So you see the problem. Style doesn't change that. Spreading out OSU when you aren't faster than them, makes it even more difficult to block a D-Line that is likely more athletic than your O-Line. I'm not opposed to the spread, it has its merits, but it is a not a cure all, and there are as many losing teams using it as winning teams. As to Dr. Z yes, they could run crossing routes, and at times they did, but if you are getting pushed out of the pocket your read moves to the sideline receiver and the outlet receiver. A crossing route takes more time to get into open space unless the safeties are in a cover two or the Mike LB is blitzing. Mismatches are there to be had in MAC games. We lose to osu 999 out of 1000 times. Forget about OSU. I wish we could

I don't know if I would use the word coward. I would use the word "lazy". I worry about what happens if we have a terrible next couple of years. This downturn couldn't have happened at a worse time. It raises so many possibilities and none of them are good. Things could be bad in a way that they were after Faust's final season. Lazy? Really? Have you ever met Tom? Can anyone take a deep breath, back away from your angst about the FB team, and really take an objective look at UA Athletics today? You're better than this. B) B) Go Zips! +1 I am as outspoken as anyone about not liking iCoach, but the Department of Athletics is in excellent shape. Coaches Porter, Dambrot, and Kest all have long contracts and we have one of the best track coaches in the country. Even after major upgrades the past ten years, the facilities are continuing to be improved. The new woman's golf program seems to be doing well and the woman's soccer is starting to compete at the top of the MAC. Other than the football program, what's not to love? Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't TW have credit for those long contracts of our great coaches? And as much as we like to make fun of YouTubeTom, hasn't the addition of the YouTube videos been a cheap way of making the coaches and programs more accessible? We added a respected baseball coach and improved the basketball facilities, upgraded the soccer field and plans for baseball field upgrade. And remember....many thought Porter would leave and he he signed long term because he BELIEVED in the direction of the athletic department and university. Realistically....if in 5 years the gamble TW took in hiring ICoach pays off in top of the MAC status and 25,000 average attendance...TW will be remembered as being a genius. "Remembered" …because he will be gone. The guy I have the utmost confidence in is Proenza. Count me a ICoach supporter. Until he does something that makes me think he will not succeed...he has my support. There are many things he has done that I like. This year will be important in the development of the program. I don't care about last year. I would rather go 1-11 and have a faster improvement curve than go 3-9 or 4-8 and take a few years more to get where we want to be. So...any talk about the coach before the end of year is silly. It may be entertaining and give some an outlet to vent....but it really is silly.

You maybe the only person that thinks they are "cool". They got destroyed on twitter....they are hideous. +1

I agree. Coach I does what he does in that he runs a pro style offense in an era when everyone who wants to get good runs some sort of spread with a quick footed QB. I'm sure he made no bones about what he wanted to do when he came to Akron. I have no personal animosity towards Coach I, and I really don't care what he looks like. When you hire the guy, you get the style. It is the fault of the AD who hires the guy who brings the style. TW has not been good for Akron football since the day he walked in the door and destroyed any hope for the first year of The Big Dialer. He hasn't gotten any better and at the end of this season, we MAY be in a position where the program is in worse shape than when TW took over. Everyone think about that..... Especially you Dr. Proenza....you build the stadium and give us this? Fix it!!!! GP1, writes the truth. TW is responsible. Looks like he took the coward's way out by hiring his buddy from the past. Any well grounded football coach could have told TW that Ianello is not head coach material. His resume is worse than Brookhart's was. Speaking of Brookhart we can recall that it took him four years to get his sea legs. Forget the 2005 run, that was done with Lee Owens kids. For the icoach wonks: he is no great recruiter. That blue satchel with the gold letters "ND" is. Can Akron afford four more years of disaster? Not likely. Firing Ianello needs to coupled with firing Uncle Tom. I for one, desperately want an Akron man as my AD. You know...I normally enjoy reading your posts...especially in basketball. But why call fellow Zips 'wonks" or "wanks"?? And calling a the AD a"coward" is over the top too. Wish you would refrain from the name calling and keep with your normally solid analysis. Doug, you are right. I changed my post to refer to icoach supporters. After all, it is refreshing to see that some folks still have faith in his abilities. Sadly, after years of frustration, I do not. As for calling TW a coward; I did not actually say that. I thought and still think that TW took an easy path by hiring his friend. Now, that might be okay if the friend was qualified. Ianello is not. GP1 hit it spot on when he stated "lazy". TW should have formed a search committee and actually sought out the best available candidate. He did no such thing. The decision to hire Ianello was not well thought out. It was more like patronage. The best interests of the University of Akron were not in play. I stand corrected. Thank you. :-)

Everybody should be able to make a ton of money than. We are only 14 point underdogs. The Dr speaks, and the betters listen! OK so it's only a slight shift, but it does indicate where the early money is going. We'll see where it lands at the end of the week. Betters??? Or bettors?? One would think there are no betters ;-)

I agree. Coach I does what he does in that he runs a pro style offense in an era when everyone who wants to get good runs some sort of spread with a quick footed QB. I'm sure he made no bones about what he wanted to do when he came to Akron. I have no personal animosity towards Coach I, and I really don't care what he looks like. When you hire the guy, you get the style. It is the fault of the AD who hires the guy who brings the style. TW has not been good for Akron football since the day he walked in the door and destroyed any hope for the first year of The Big Dialer. He hasn't gotten any better and at the end of this season, we MAY be in a position where the program is in worse shape than when TW took over. Everyone think about that..... Especially you Dr. Proenza....you build the stadium and give us this? Fix it!!!! GP1, writes the truth. TW is responsible. Looks like he took the coward's way out by hiring his buddy from the past. Any well grounded football coach could have told TW that Ianello is not head coach material. His resume is worse than Brookhart's was. Speaking of Brookhart we can recall that it took him four years to get his sea legs. Forget the 2005 run, that was done with Lee Owens kids. For the icoach wonks: he is no great recruiter. That blue satchel with the gold letters "ND" is. Can Akron afford four more years of disaster? Not likely. Firing Ianello needs to coupled with firing Uncle Tom. I for one, desperately want an Akron man as my AD. You know...I normally enjoy reading your posts...especially in basketball. But why call fellow Zips 'wonks" or "wanks"?? And calling a the AD a"coward" is over the top too. Wish you would refrain from the name calling and keep with your normally solid analysis.

I heard Urban Meyer say during the OSU-Akron game that when he was at BG he would schedule teams from the BCS conference...but not the big boys. I agree. Let's stick with Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, and some of the middle programs form the Big East and ACC. I do think it helps recruiting that we are playing teams from the BCS but we need to be more selective. Also...the middle programs may give us 2 or 3 for one contract where we eventually get a BCS home game. Playing Indiana at home is a far better recruiting tool than OSU on the road (IMO).

I think I CALLED it earlier in the week when I said The Lone Ranger would need his horse to see OVER the line. HOW MANY balls were batted down? How many balls were thrown over , or infront of receivers? Then PN7 comes in during the 4th and it looks like our O LINE had already gone for the day. Nicely delivers a well throw ball to his receiver and it hits him in the hands and goes right through.... Probably wasnt use to having the ball in the RIGTH PLACE. And to think this was OSU with a new coach and many new starters and they took us apart. I had heard we had interviewed the Ohio State Coach for our HC Job but passed on him for Coach I...Is it TO LATE to SWAP....I wont even start about the defense. Hope they give PN the start this week so we can at least have a chance with Temple. I saw a few bright spots on offense, but it WASNT our great new juco QB the Lone Ranger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Brees

Recruits really have nothing to do with it for me. It's the potential fan base. This week I've taken a ton of heat about being an Akron fan, from fellow Akron-area residents!! It's sickening. It's demoralizing. I'm not looking forward to work this week. Still won't bow down to Columbus. B&G, I am going to guess that WooT's comment was meant to be humorous, and in support of the idea that what happened yesterday doesn't matter. But, at the very least, you'd have to be an absolute fool to think that there is no effect on our fan base and recruiting when you send a resounding message to fans and recruits that your current team didn't belong on the same field as the more popular school in the state. Buckzip can laugh all he wants, and attempt to convince us that it doesn't matter. And for him, and others like him, I would ask one question: If we had won yesterday, could you also say that fans and recruits would not have taken notice? It would have made a HUGE impact. So, performing so poorly certainly produces the opposite effect. I'm concerned about what this does to dampen fan interest right now as well. But unlike you, I think I am much more concerned about the recruiting impact. Because, in the long run, getting the horses in here to just compete successfully against the top MAC programs would have to be the first step to getting local fans interested in our program again. I don't think it is so black and white. Sure...if we had won we would be on all national papers and it could help recruiting and certainly help attendance. But...because we lost does not mean that it will hurt. It is based on expectations. No one thought we would win. No one. But how did we do against expectations?? I would have been very happy at 42-14 (see old post). But I really thought we would score 7-10 points. For me...the defense met expectations. We were mismatched and could not contain the tight end as well as some other key positions… and could not bring down a scrambling QB. But after yesterday’s game I have more confidence that we can beat Ohio...one of the better MAC teams who plan to run the ball. Like many here, I was disappointed with the offense. But things could have been worse. They did not turn the ball over and the line did reasonably well against superior talent. They could have approached the game it 2 ways...play all out and risk everything to try and win or realize you are unlikely to win and use this game as a chance to see your team in game situations....work on the base offense. I am OK if they chose the latter....but I do hope it was a CHOICE and not just how things played out. In summary...they played below my expectations but not way below. IMO...it will have little impact on recruiting or attendance. The Temple game is what most people are waiting for. They really need to exceed expectations. A win would go a long way to silencing critics.

ICoach was around 4 years ago?? Hmmm...so the same thing happened 4 years ago. Hmmm....let me think on that. Please tell me where I said that Ianello was our coach in 2007? You missed sarcasm. You and some here are blaming ICoach for the showing today and the same thing happened 4 years ago (and he was not here). Hmmm...maybe it has something to do with the opponent??

Odd? It was 90+ degrees; fans in the stands were going down with heat exhaustion. Game was OVER. Seems obvious that Nicely was in so that Moore wouldn't get hurt. He wouldn't get hurt doing what? If he hadn't gotten hurt earlier,he was going to get hurt in the 4th quarter against OSU's subs? Ianello knew that Moore wasn't moving the team and there was no reason to leave him in. That was not all Moore's fault OBVIUOSLY. Ianello decided to play a guy who as far as I know had never taken a DI snap. If you are worried about him getting hurt,you better take him out in the first half 'cause thats when the game was out of hand. I agree, but we're talking about iCoach. No way do I believe that he brought Nicely into the game to make a difference on offense. BTW, I also agree with your first post in this thread that the Temple game @ home will be more telling than this one. No I agree. I can't imagine that hee reason he brought Nicely in was to make a diff. in the game. Thats kind of what makes it weird. I hope he didn't think it was better to get Nicely hurt than Moore. I believe the point was that Moore was probably more prone to injury from cramping or exhaustion due to the conditions, since he had already played over a half with much of it running to escape the rush. +1 Exactly Went to the Massillon-Glenoak game and there were lots of injuries due to cramping from the heat.

GP1 analysis was good. It is nice to get a former players perspective. Thanks I liked that the offensive line gave Moore some time. There were breakdowns...but overall they did a good job. I liked that we did not turn the ball over. The only turnover was the result of a tip and a great defensive play. I like that some of our receivers can catch..and bring the ball down in a crowd. Suel is for real. Disappointed that Price and Dillard dropped balls I liked that there were no long runs. I like that were able to play with them physically...no injuries, no long runs, good O-liine play and some pressure on their QB. And it was an environment that was physically draining and they were much bigger. I did not like some of the dropped passes. The offense was vanilla...probably by design. We will need to open it up. I did not like the missed tackles I did not like the missed FG But what I liked most af all...NO INJURIES (at least I think) Next week will be a true test. Wish I could be there

ICoach was around 4 years ago?? Hmmm...so the same thing happened 4 years ago. Hmmm....let me think on that.

yep... That GoZips calls other fellow Zips that disagree with him "Wank".

I don't think you heard him right. I think he was saying to stop with the charity and other events for a while and just focus on the players.

My biggest hope for this game is no one gets injured and unable to play next week.

I hope Akron scores here. Finkel going for the throat with a minute left is BS. Give away 7 points.

NO NO NO CM8 will settle down. Right now this is a coach issue agreed %100 LOL this is like the US militay against the Indonesian military and some here think the outcome is a "general" issue.

+1 I think OSU will score often. I am hoping that we perform well enough on offense to make a good showing. 42-14 would be something I could live with.

Was going to go but my wife may go into labor at any time...could not leave her side. :-( Hope more Zip fans show up soon!!!

Had the usfl stayed as a spring league, it would still be around or the nfl would have absorbed it. Donald Trump of all people was the guy who pushed this so they could file a legal claim against the nfl. I think if the top 50 teams in college athletics left the ncaa, they would somehow be able to compete against the remaining teams while having their own league. Within a year, the league and TV contracts could all be established. It's not that hard. That sounds like apretty good business strategy. Create a league or business and place it in a positition to sue the big guy. Was actual success ever planned in this model??

Nailed it! Tressel is a very intelligent guy. He would be unhirable for any real positions with at least a 5 game suspension ahead of him. But take a simple "consulting" job watching video and he can burn off that suspension this year. No doubt....the coaches look out for each other.

We had a solid kicker for about two consecutive decades. Then Igor mentally lost it...and we've been screwed ever since. I don't see how we scholarship a freshman kicker, then he gets beat-out by a walk-on Junior? I really hope our place-kicking isn't the Chinese Firedrill it's been for the past 3 seasons...but I have a feeling it will drive me to insanity yet again. The one thing I noticed during the open practice was the trajectory of Marchese's placekicks versus the others. His ball doesn't necessarily go the farthest, but it gets in the air more quickly on a steeper angle of climb. Hopefully this mean no more of those FG attempts that go straight into both lines. Don't you find it annoyng that a school that can field the best soccer program can't find a decent kicker for football?? Get one of the 3rd or 4th teamers on the soccer team to come try our!!! Isn't it a bit premature to denigrate the kickers on the team? From what I've seen and heard, TJ Marchese is pretty accurate. I agree with JZ84 that he gets the ball in the air very quickly. I don't know if he has any distance. Perhaps we have a different long field goal kicker. You are right...it is premature. I am speaking of frustrations of previous seasons. Marchese has a good story and I am rooting for him to succeed.

We had a solid kicker for about two consecutive decades. Then Igor mentally lost it...and we've been screwed ever since. I don't see how we scholarship a freshman kicker, then he gets beat-out by a walk-on Junior? I really hope our place-kicking isn't the Chinese Firedrill it's been for the past 3 seasons...but I have a feeling it will drive me to insanity yet again. The one thing I noticed during the open practice was the trajectory of Marchese's placekicks versus the others. His ball doesn't necessarily go the farthest, but it gets in the air more quickly on a steeper angle of climb. Hopefully this mean no more of those FG attempts that go straight into both lines. Don't you find it annoyng that a school that can field the best soccer program can't find a decent kicker for football?? Get one of the 3rd or 4th teamers on the soccer team to come try our!!!