johnnyzip84

Great topic! Here are a few of the things I'll be following closely.1. Utah/Colorado in the PAC (especially the Utes). Utah was as good as anyone the year they smoked Bama in the Sugar Bowl. I'll be curious to see how they do playing a BCS dominated schedule.2. Will the Huskers be a force right away (although usually the Big 11 bores me)?3. Al Golden at The U4. Will this be JoePa's last?5. Will UMass get a boost from announcing the move to the MAC and FCS football?I'm a lover of all sports, but college football has something uniquely special about it. Have been an obsessive fan from about the age of 10. Let the games begin!!!Edit: interestingly enough Keener, I'm sitting in Cooper's Rock Forest (West Va) next to my brother and WVU grad as I type this! He's still perplexed by the whole coach-in-waiting thing. Ollie Luck should have handled that better from the start. There was no sense in keeping Stewart around once you had signed "your guy".

Naming RR as HC is already paying dividends.

With a championship program and a positive Learning Environment both on & off the field at UA, Porter will continue to attract STUDENT-Athletes. 1. STUDENT-Athletes are able to garner Academic grants to complement partial scholarships. 2. Transfers are willing to leverage Student Loans & partial scholarships for the opportunity to be noticed at a high level here. 3. We are now in the position to do what the ACC schools have done within the NCAA system for yearsjohnnyzip84, SouthernRoo has provided the same answers I would have. The appropriate petition to the NCAA is to increase 9.9 scholarships to at least a full team.Yeah, the 9.9 thing is a joke. I won't get into the specific numbers but DeAndre was a partial with a lot of financial aid money.I appreciate the education everyone! It's probably just my Zip paranoia showing that has me inclined to think other (more prominent for other reasons) schools might want to knock UA soccer down a peg or two, using whatever means necessary (since they're having difficulty doing it on the pitch).

Looks like Wagner got a decent rating.

Zach....this is college and you are always rebuilding (or in Caleb's case..reloading). In college teaching it is "publish or perish", in retail it is "expand/grow or die", in business it is "what have you done for me lately". He just wants to build a culture where growth and constant improvement are expected of everyone...including himself. I have no problem with his statement. Would you rather have him say..."we will get where we want this year and we can rest on our laurels"?? You want him to admit failure and make drastic changes. That in my mind would be failure. We may as well start over with someone who believes in himself and his program. The fact that he says of himself that he is "green and growing" means that there will be improvement expected by him of himself.Or it could mean he considers himself a foot fungus!Or the character shown in the foreground below is turning into the character shown in the background?

Seems like an amazing class no doubt. It begs two questions in my mind:1) How is the total of 9.9 scholarships permitted by the NCAA being divided?2) Will the "name" schools be so upset with Akron signing such a huge class that they begin to petition the NCAA to change a few rules?

Stargel was mentioned a little earlier in the thread (unless Jason Stargel Jr is a different guy ).There's some strong competition for Jarrett (Pitt, UConn, etc.). And look who recruited him for UConn.

That's gotta be the best prepared interviewer in history! Some history I wasn't aware of -- for example Bob Rupert being KD's high school coach (did he play bb in HS?) at Firestone. I vaguely remember Rupert coaching in the area before getting the Baldwin Wallace job prior to being the worst coaching decision I can recall UA making. It's fascinating that without that coincidence, he may have never entered coaching.Can anyone remember Keith's baseball history? I thought he was a catcher, but the story says he played 3rd. I may have seen 3 or 4 games during our undergrad years together, but have no memory of him. I do remember that I went to the games to see the best pitcher in the OVC, Mike Birkbeck.I tried to do a little research for you, Island Man . But THIS is the 1st thing I managed to find! It's from well before my time at ZipsNation. Looks like this conversation has been had before? There's some pretty funny stuff in that old thread.I knew Rupert was at Canton McKinley prior to UA. But I couldn't remember if he came directly from there ????

Having moved right after college, my greatest Rubber Bowl memory is meeting JohnnyZip84 at the Ball State game during the final season (and arguing with Nate Davis' family ). I saw the Marshall game on ESPN. One of the announcers mentioned that the University bought the Stadium from the city for $1. The second announcer stated "The University got taken". I think the Info was a good idea and one day it will pay off. Side note on the Barker perfect game. I was a student at Akron that year and some friends of mine had decided to go to an Indians game that weekend. Had we picked Friday we would have seen Barkers perfect game, Sunday was an Indians double header win. We picked Saturday, a blah Indians loss. I went to Indians fantasy camp in January 2008 and faced Barker in the "Pros vs. Joes" game. He struck me out (and he wasn't trying hard).That Ball St game was chock full of good and bad memories, MDZip. A great one was meeting you, no doubt And the exchanges between our little group and the Davis family was amusing. But when AA hurt his hip, that was a real low point. It makes his comeback that much more remarkable. It's true that he was never quite the same back, but he was good enough to get mention in Keener's Greatest Info Moments (and I concur 100%). That says all we need to know about AA. Gonna miss watching his courage and determination.I always give my wife props for going to the Turkey Day demolition of the K.E.N.T. Krazy Kops (that's who it seemed like we were playing that day). Athough she spent much of the game huddled below by the lower concessions, she joined me later in the game for the glorious celebration.I'm not sure how I left this one out, but my FR year (1979) I saw the Zips beat K.E.N.T. 15-13 in their 1st meeting in around 5 years. This was right about the time the series was starting to get reestablished. Linebacker Razor Reese made some big plays in this one. It was my 2nd Zip game ever, having grown up in the Pittsburgh area.

The 1976 'Knute Rockne Bowl' DII playoff against N. Mich. It was OT and apparently the first OT playoff game in in history. It was possibly as cold as the '05 game. Nobody there. My buddy and I had a flask that we drained in the first half. Does anybody remember if a guy by the Name of Gary Hogeboom(?) played for N. Mich?Second,the '05 game.Hogeboom played at Central Michigan a decade or so after that.

Great story!

Someone check my trivial memory! Wasn't Sweitzer the QB who also returned kicks? He was, I think, in the top 5 in the nation in kickoff returns (#!?). Though I don't think I ever saw him play, I met his girlfriend, who was a cheerleader with Coleman Crawford's BB team, which visited the isles in 1990. Ahhhh, the legendary headless Zippy trip! You're probably right about that and I know he had a gun for an arm throwing out runners from third base as a baseball Zip.Sweitzer was from Indianapolis area. His brother played (DB, I think) for Miami (O). I think it was 91 that his GF was in Hawaii. Coleman, I think is still coaching in Dallas.Are you sure about that? I recall Jeff being from West Virginia (Brooke HS?).

Yes. If somebody talked to Manny, I'm sure he would be more than happy to accommodate.Had a chance to stop at Manny's today. He wasn't there,but the place is just the right size for us Zip fans to take over on Sept 3. They have a decent selection of beers on tap (had a stone ipa myself) and a nice Zip picture on the wall. I think that's where I plan to be to watch the opener.In other news I saw them working on the Info scoreboard while I was looking out from Manny's patio.

The Toledo and Murray St. games are definitely up there The resounding thud that occured when Alcorn struck the ball gave immediate hope to all Zip fans that it enough power. I was in the closed end, and from that vantagepoint it was clear pretty soon after that it was accurate as well. I remember listening to Frenchy's taped call of the play after I got back to my car. It was probably his SECOND most excited call ever. Akron's own Gary Pinkel was coach of the Rockets that day and he lead them to a win at Purdue the very next week.I remember a group of students at the Murray St. game with a sign that said "Gerry's Kids" towards the closed end Two other games come to mind:In the late 80's, I remember watching the Zips absolutely crush the UC Bearcats 31-0 before a small crowd on a perfect late autumn afternoon. Just looking at scores, has there ever been a more impressive Zip football result?And finally we must mention the "Loser Bowl" between OU and UA to close out the 1994 season and Faust's career as a football coach (as well as his good friend, Tom Lichtenberg).

Ada knows Baltimore! Almost - it's actually UMBC (University of Maryland - Baltimore County) where he transferred from, but I was just going to give credit for a possible typo. Locally, kids used to joke it stood for "U Must Be Crazy" or "U Made a Bad Choice" but actually its a pretty good school, it's mascot is a Retriever (Chesapeake Bay) and the school gives Chess scholarships out - and usually finishes quite high in the College Chess Championships. You may use any of these factoids to ingratiate yourself with Chauncey. Awe man, MDZip......I can't eat dinner yet and you just made me hungry for some crab cakes, particularly ones from Phillips!

Apparently not. Hope it's nothing major.

I'm glad someone else can remember that stretch of games. I can't remember the order anymore. I'm too old.I'm not sure why you think that I need to say that there is ZERO chance of a dramatic transformation in order to maintain a consistency in my position. It would shock me, for sure. My position is that I think we've wasted enough time already waiting for "development", and I don't see "the answer at QB" being part of his future.Fair enough My point was that I didn’t think I was grossly misrepresenting your position with my original statement, even if the particular words I chose were not a direct quote of yours.

Skip, you are 100% correct that you’ve never used those exact words regarding Nicely. But if you’re about to tell me that you really think Patrick could still possibly be the answer at QB, then you’re my nominee for ZNO flip-flopper of the year so far. And if you do, I’ll gladly apologize for misrepresenting your position.BTW, I remember that difficult stretch pretty well. I think it was actually Navy-Florida-Rutgers. The Rutgers game was particularly frustrating, as it was clearly there for the taking.

Although it is somewhat troubling, I’m not panicking yet because we currently don’t have any 2012 commitments. IF the bagel continues for much longer however, I DO think this puts considerable pressure on the staff/team during the early part of the schedule. At that point, an upset (over Temple let’s say) might be necessary to build sufficient recruiting momentum to pull in a strong class. I don’t think we want to be in that situation.

I didn't want to create a new topic just for this, so here is someone's rankings for the 2010 new HC hires in all of the FBS. Hey, at least iCoach wasn't last!

This attitude stinks IMO. I hope the team proves you wrong.He would have been much better off saying he didn't want the QB to get hurt in a meaningless game, which the vast majority of BCS vs non-BCS games are (with the exception of the pile of cash that lands in the non-BCS teams' banks).When is the last time an Akron QB got hurt against a BCS team? Play to win. Think NC State.I agree 100% with your thinking, Dr Z. But, I also enjoy trivia questions like these. This was pre-BCS, but I think Jeff Sweitzer may have gotten knocked out of a game against the Gators in Gainseville circa 1990. So it seems like it's been a while.

This is an excellent discussion. Skip, we are all aware of your disdain for Nicely as a quarterback. It's easy to point to his horrid passer stats from last year (and in 2010 to a lesser degree) and make the steadfast claim that he'll never be the answer for the Zips at QB. While I don't disagree that PN7's 2011 performance was nowhere near where it needs to be for UA to have success, I think the equally poor play of the offensive line needs to at least be considered in the equation. I have no real evidence to necessarily expect better O-line play in 2011, but one thing is for sure: If the big hosses up front don't improve as individuals and as a unit, it won't matter who wins the starting QB job. It's not like PN7 or CM8 are the types of QBs who will make up for deficiencies in pass protection. And it could be argued that a pro-style offense is less tolerant of poor pass protection than some other schemes.That said, I do expect CM8 to COMPETE and WIN the starting job, probably sooner rather than later. Keener, you bring up a good point about the level of the programs who offered CM8 the 2nd time around (Wyoming, Lousiana-Lafayette) as compared to his original suitors. I went back and re-read Tom Gaffney's article about his arrival at UA and two things stood out to me that I somehow missed the 1st time.1) Clayton's Louisville (Miss) HS team STILL won a Mississippi state championship the week after he was dismissed from the team just before half-time of the state semi-final. Besides the obvious insubordination concerns, perhaps the fact that the team won it without him also lowered his value in some college's eyes.2) CM8's JC coach is good friends with the same HS coach who booted him off the team! AND, his JC coach also spoke at length with his HS coach before bringing him in to QB the team to a Mississippi JC championship. This tells me that whatever the issue was between CM8 and his HS coach, it wasn't so awful or permanent to prevent his JC coach from signing him. As far as I'm concerned, this alleviates much of my concerns regarding his maturity.

Steve signs a 1 year deal to play for WBC Raiffeisen of the Austrian Professional Basketball League. Good luck, Steve!

Actually, his original Scout profile lists some big time programs who offered.

This ESPN blog ought to get the ball rolling.