Balsy

Do we see any movement on this/when would we expect to see movement on this? It always seemed to me that a decision like this comes right as the season ends so a search can begin (a month ago), but I haven't seen anything on it.

I agree with you. My prediction/feeling is based upon that I have a feeling his injury that he had this year was worse than anyone here thinks it is, and will hobble his potential to that top spot again. Of course that's just my opinion.

It seems like we agree on a lot of things, just with a slightly different outlook. We both seem to agree that TW is likely not the starter, WRs will be fine, but our offense should be enough to win games in a weak MAC east. A battered Zips team contended with Ohio, who won the East. Anything is possible for the Zips IMO. I have us losing 2/3 games in the West slate, so I agree with you there, that the West is better than the east. I personally consider winning the MAC east with a trip to Detroit a win. But many on this board have been critical of me for being a Bowden cheerleader. I am a Bowden cheerleader but it comes to a point. This season is make or break it for me. anything less than .500 is acceptable to me, and I will be disappointed with anything less than 7-5. This team should be capable of doing that.

As for my way-to-early prediction: Year-by-year predictions: (me)/reality 2012 (3-9)/1-11 2013 (5-7)/5-7 2014 (7-5)/5-7 2015 (7-5)/7-5..technically 8-5 but I don't do post-season predictions this early. 2016 (8-4) 5-7 Apparently my prediction on seasonal record is correct every other year...so here's hoping the trend continues!!! Offense: This seems at the moment to be the strong point of the team returning next year. There doesn't appear to be any coaching changes going on, so we likely won't see a drastic change in the offensive scheme. OL and WR are positions of strength, Both RB and QB are ? at this point. I do not think Kato will be starting next season, but my way-to-early prediction on QB is that neither will Tommy Woodson. I have a nagging feeling that Nick Johns is going to beat out T. Woodson for the job. Prove me wrong Woodson, but I think there's more to his injury than we know, and I don't think he'll be the same. Defense: I don't even know where to begin with this unit. I have a feeling they're going to be the weak point of this team AGAIN in 2017. Though I have hope that they will take a step forward and play better than they did. We shall see. My prediction on the season at this point: L @ Penn State W vs Unnamed FCS School L @ Troy W vs Iowa State W vs Ohio W vs Kent L vs Buffalo W vs Ball State W @ BGSU W @ Miami L @ WMU L @ CMU Way-to-early prediction: Zips go 7-5, with a trip to Detroit. We've been playing Ohio close the last two years, I think (hopefully) this is the year we get the monkey off our backs. Without injuries I think we beat them in 2016. BGSU has had our number for ever. Bowden has yet to beat BGSU, and has gone 1-2 against Buffalo. I think we get the monkey off our back with BGSU find a way to lose to Buffalo at home, because for some reason we just can't ever beat them when we probably should. Buffalo will be the letdown game on a "good" season...leading to the stereotypical ZN.O meltdown.

Back by popular request: Here is the fourth annual schedule speculation thread. Of course as always, the OCC is set in stone, and it seems for the most part our MAC slate is becoming set in stone too. I can't remember what my average % prediction is correct right now...it looks like I did okay last season...we had Ball State instead of CMU, and we had WMU at home instead of away. Please use this thread to talk about the upcoming 2017 season, speculation of the schedule...predictions, and overall talk. 2016 was a disappointing season but there's an upside to the 2017 season. I'll post my personal prediction on the season after the schedule speculation. OOC Schedule: @ Penn State vs (Some FCS Team) I won't make a prediction on this...because it's kinda irrelevant IMHO. (Should we be worried there isn't an announced team yet?) @ Troy vs Iowa State MAC Opponents: This one seems easy, the MAC has gone to a "everyone-plays-everyone-within-the-division" model, so flip the East schedule. The complicated part is trying to find out what opponents we face in the west, which would be 3 each season. vs. Ohio vs. Kent vs. Buffalo vs. Ball State @ BGSU @ Miami @ WMU @ CMU Really the one I'm not confident on is Ball State. It was the odd ball on last year's schedule, but if you basically flip this year's schedule it works almost perfectly. The MAC appears to like to schedule one-one in cross divisional match-ups: thus if we go to Toledo one year, Toledo comes to us the next year. CMU broke the mold in 2016 though...they played us in Akron in 2015 and we haven't taken the return trip yet, and I haven't yet seen the MAC duplicate the exact same schedule for us year-to-year. So I'd say that the return trip to CMU might be 2017, and the return trip to Toledo might be 2018. In 2018 we're likely to get NIU, EMU both again and either Toledo or CMU from the West. Feel free to discuss.

I don't agree. No-one is viewing YSU as an bastion of academic excellence since Tressel arrived. The selection process for the president of the University of Akron that time was a lazy, haphazard disaster that yeilded a former football coach and The Scar as the top two prospects. If that's not the halmark of a haphazard, lazy search than I don't know what is. The replacement for that lazy, haphazard disaster was another lazy, haphazard search that is TBD...I'm surprised no-one is really talking about that on this forum at all. And no buddy cares.

An obvious hyperbole. It's pretty clear I meant (and you'd have to be deliberately stubborn to suggest I was being literal). Well I did outline how logically there is at least 200 every year. Most teams have one freshman on their team, let alone those that have two, some even three (walk ons etc). The POINT is, there are far MORE freshman that aren't that good right out of the bag and do need to learn. MOST QBs can't just step out onto the field and play from day one. That's a fact, that's inconvenient for your narrative and you're ignoring it. Believing we should waste a year of Kato's eligibility on the slim chance he'd be productive, for half a season is dumb IMHO. Ain't that the truth. Happy Saturnalia to you as well Keener.

That's cherry-picking if I've ever seen it. Ironically they actually do write articles about this on the internet. And here is a wonderful article from ESPN, about how it's hard to start True Freshman QBs in college. From the ESPN Article: "Some hit it big, but most don’t. According to ESPN Stats and Information, in the past five seasons only 13 true freshman quarterbacks at Power 5 programs ranked in the top 100 nationally in passing efficiency at the end of their debut season. Only three -- UCLA’s Josh Rosen (2015), Miami’s Brad Kaaya (2014) and Cal’s Jared Goff (2013) -- threw for 3,000 yards as true freshmen.... So in the top 100 QBs from five consective years, only 13 true freshman were considered in those at power 5 conferences. That's 13/500. That's 2.6%. And I'd be willing to wager that True freshman at Power 5 conferences stand a BETTER chance of shooting the lights out as redshirt freshman than at a Group of 5 team. That's 38 non-true freshman QBs to 1 true freshman QB. So maybe I was a little off on the 1000 to one, but dead on in my point. What's the chance that Akron is going to have the True Freshman QB that is going to shoot out the lights...and I thought I was the optimistic one. To be completely honest, I don't feel dedicated enough at this point to compile a better list, because I don't really care to prove you wrong that much.

I don't, but you dismiss it so easily. They started 0-6 and won six games to go to a bowl game and were in contention for the MAC East Champion. To dismiss it is just annoying. I'm not making excuses for anyone. I can see the reality of the situation. Injuries = bad season. Miami isn't as bad (by MAC standards) as you're pretending them to be, and you're acting as if teams can't get better. That's wishful thinking, and I don't agree at all. No one knows if he's the "real deal" and someone who is stands a better chance learning than they do being thrown in there to play immediately. You can be "high on" someone and still have someone with a lot of experience who's currently better for your team in the system (Woodson). Theres been two? So that's hardly an argument. For every QB who did well as a freshman starting, theres 1000 who failed miserably. Woodson is testament to that. Crashed and burned as a Freshman and steadily improved. I would say that's a dislike of Tra'von Chapman as a QB. You didn't know that a 3rd team WR who was sitting was "better" (which I would contest, and is debatable), and were against him from the getgo starting in the Kent game, even after he won it.

Complaining for the sake of complaining is what this is. The fact of the matter is Miami IS a Bowl team, and we beat them, even with our hobbled team. Dumb idea. That may be a thing that the OSUs of the world are good at doing, but not Akron. We need to give these young QBs a chance to learn before we throw them out there. Chapman likely did just as good as Kato could have done in those same games, so I don't know what you're crying over. Your dislike of Tra'von Chapman is unnecessary. I hope Kato can play, and I'm hoping he will take the opportunity presented him to challenge Woodson.

1. Gonzaga is a PRIVATE catholic university. Akron is a PUBLIC Regional University. If you think there is equality between median household income of the average Akron student and the average Gonzaga student, you're insane. 2. Gonzaga is ranked 8th in the nation and reaches that by playing real teams. If Akron reaches that, then you'll have students find time to show up. 3. About the same amount of students live on campus at Gonzaga (60%...3100) as do at UA (17%...3230). 4. Gonzaga is regularly highly ranked, and in the NCAA D-I bracket. Akron is not. 5. Gonzaga puts students in the FRONT. Akron puts students in the back. 6. Gonzaga looks to put effort into their home games. Akron does not. 7. Gonzaga looks like it has built and maintained a culture. Akron has not. Basically everything you said in this post is a false equivalency.

Can you imagine if he had played one season with the Zips...

You mean it's better coverage than the Akron Beacon Journal's "Staff Reporter"?

Yeah, in the real world loser CEOs who drive their businesses into the ground get paid millions for doing so, and paid millions more to walk away...which is now over in education where you hire loser presidents who get paid hundreds of thousands, and then get paid hundreds of thousands to walk away for driving the university into dumpster and lighting it on fire.

"UA Alumni Night" probably means reduced admission price for Alumni and a little "It's Alumni night, let's clap for the alumni..." or some other completely worthless nonsense that wouldn't generate people who are alumni, who aren't already there, to go there. Looks nice on paper... "Student Appreciation Night" usually is when they give stuff to students, coupons and things, that are in attendance for other things...free slice of pizza, $2 of smoothie...stuff like that.

Go WMU. Put it to Wisconsin and put the MAC on the spotlight.

Someone will take him as a FA, but draft him? I thought he was incredibly underwhelming this year...giving up on plays, his body language was all wrong. Don't teams want to stay away from players like that? I was hoping he was going to finish out his last year here in order to increase his draft stock possibility...

The U could outreach to students and include them in the conversation as to how to make it better. I was on campus for 5 years and involved with a lot of student orgs and worked for several different departments. I participated in student panels to give opinions on new marketing and labeling, along with discussions with new hires at top positions. Never once were there opportunities to engage in how to improve athletic attendance by improving the gameday experience. Because no-one working there cares. I've tried to reach out to the zn.o community as well. I've suggested that we should have meetups and find a bar to be "our bar" where we go for games. I got two people to respond, who are both not active here anymore.

When did I say I didn't attend games anymore? I do. I went to every football game except one this year. I haven't been to a basketball game yet this year...but why bother? Same-old same-old. I probably won't attend one in person until Marshall. And that's just being honest. I did say however I was starting to attend games less and less. I don't care? Bulls***. Why do you think I waste time on this forum, watching/following the Zips and buy season tickets. I do care, and that's why I'm critical about everything. But it's the mentality you're exhibiting in that post that's annoying. Those people are few and inbetween, what is being done to expand the fanbase and to encourage younger people to BECOME that? (hint: it's nothing). Games aren't fun. If you win against these early teams (most teams on the schedule) who cares? You should have won. If you lose, it's a miserable embarrassment. I don't find the fans particularly friendly, or fun either. It's not a fun environment in the slightest for us younger fans, and I'm just being 100% honest. Like it or hate it, it's honest and y'all need to think about it. Listen to it or don't. Make an effort to change the culture or don't. But don't complain when young people are pointing out problems with the program's culture. And don't go crying about why we won't get involved. Listen to us, and take our opinions seriously, or we won't care.

Students aren't free. They pay $400 a semester for the privilege to attend for "free", compete with each other for free stuff. Remember how a lot of them last year came for the free winter hat and left? That was essentially a $400 hat they stood in line for.

Again. The vast majority of P5 teams are not willing to sacrifice their gimmee wins. The G5 teams are not willing to sacrifice the $$$ payouts for playing the P5 teams. The vast majority P5 teams are not willing to sacrifice their $$$ from Bowl games at the cost of paying G5 schools to come lose.

So even worse than I expected.

Akron's student subsidy is like 70% of the annual athletic budget. It is generous that outsiders like many here, and local corporations make up 30%...and I, like Kreed am working my way up to donating more years down the road, but that's already too high of a subsidy. Remember we calculated on another thread the subsidy to equal around $800 a year per student, $400 per semester per student. That's substantial, especially when considering over a 4-year degree (most students taking out student loans) they're taking on a financial burden of $3200 during their college career for an athletics program that most of them will never directly benefit from. One season in the club level at Infocision stadium is $500. Almost every student on campus is paying that twice a year. Do more to cater to the students if you want to improve the culture. The STUDENTS are the UA athletic program, sorry to say. I'd personally like to see that change, but that only changes when you get more donors. You get more donors by having something that's worth a damn.

Love this point Kreed, thanks for making it. I've been saying a lot of this for years. Current students are the key to changing the culture; and treating them like children...when in reality they are adults, who's opinions and feelings matter.