Balsy

I think there is a few built in assumptions there. Not every student that goes to OSU and Auburn know those things. Most "die-hard" fans probably do, where they have 300,000 die-hard fans, or Ohio State with 400,000ish die hard fans? Akron has 2,000ish? I highly doubt most young people really know the history you give them credit for. I know from my high school students that out of a 100, maybe 20 are Ohio State fans. Another 20 are OSU fans because they don't know anything else, and 20 are in social experiences. (I fell into the third category in HS). The other 40 kids could care less. Of the 20 that are true OSU fans, maybe 5 of them really know that much history. The majority of the 20 will know current and recent players, but players from 40,50,60 years ago, very few will know. The way the younger fans learn the history is by going to games; by spending time in the environment around the die-hards. When I went to the Akron OSU game in 2011, I sat next to an 83-year old OSU fan who explained the interesting history of some of the Ring of Honor players (which I didn't care about, but listened none the less because they were kinda cool stories). I learned at an Akron game that same year that John Heisman had once been a coach at Akron. I thought that was an awesome fact. How many young people were at that game...not many. A couple years ago an elderly woman sat next to me and my girlfriend at the MAC Tournament and explained how the Zips were Runner ups in the 1972 DII national championship game (or something like that?). So you build an atmosphere worth being a part of. You have players that make the game matter, and you have alumni that give a damn, and give a damn to interact with younger people. So in short skip, I'd say Culture.

Yup. 3 years before I was born. 8-9 years before current freshman were born. Sure gonna draw in those new supporters with that! No-one cares, sorry...or at least younger newer fans do not. Create memories for them, so they'll be fans for life...not just reliving them for older fans. Amen! That's why my own personal attendance has declined over the years since I graduated...and I live in Akron.

I don't know how I missed this post from months ago...but 100% agree. I've always criticized Akron for not hiring people who "give a damn". Seems like Matt will give more of a damn than the last clown at least. No. Though I don't mind the "Zips" concept. I think more students would be interested in getting the LeBron James Zips jersey than the "Zips" Zips Jersey...and what famous Zips player would the emulate on a Jersey? Fritz Nagy?

A consistent contender does not mean identical to Ohio's situation. C'mon man, don't be willingly ignorant to what I'm trying to say. "6 years is an eternity in the coaching world" is exactly the problem. To much time spent on trying to keep up with the joneses that no-one actually focuses on building SOMETHING.

What a preposterous response. You yourself say you give Bowden a bye for his first year Excluding that first season, he's 23-26. Yes, yes I do believe he can do much better going forward. Most people on this forum consider the 2012 season a mulligan. And I'm not talking about the record, I'm talking the stability. There were people on this forum who wanted him gone after 2014's 5-7 season. Cool. Not what I was talking about at all.

I agree with each of those, but each of those may vary from year to year, from program to program, on what is the most important. Wins And losses are important, but you can have a down year (like this year) and be making progress in other aspects (recruiting). I don't think it's fair to compare the Zips to WMU. It's more fair to compare us to Kent (on what could be, and you don't want to have happen). It's not like WMU was a bottom dweller in the MAC and then Fleck came to save the day. Between '05 (the last time we had any success) and Fleck's tenure: they went 51-46, 5 winning seasons, 3 bowl appearances. That's a far cry from our 1 bowl appearance and 1 winning season. To act as if WMU and Akron are in the same boat in what could have been is ridiculous. Now Kent State's history is almost IDENTICAL to ours: From '05 to 2012 when they went 11-3...they were 28-54. From '05-'12 they were 39-55. They caught lightning in a bottle, for a year and then returned to mediocrity: 12-35. Again, I will take stability over gambling for lightning in a bottle any day of the week. I personally would rather have an Ohio University like team that can pull out 7 or 8 wins a year, go bowling with a chance at the MAC C, than catching lightning in the bottle. That's the reality of the MAC. And, despite looking absolutely terrible most of the season, Ohio is doing just that...8 wins, and MACC appearance. THAT is what the Zips should shoot to be. They've achieved that by stability in coaching staff. Solich has been there since '05. They've gone 88-65. After their first bowl appearance with Solich they went 6-6, 4-8. Had they pulled the trigger on getting rid of him after those two years; would they had gone 9-5, 8-5, 10-4, 9-4, 7-6 with 2 MACC and 5 bowl appearances? THAT is what I want for Akron, and I'm being realistic.

Fair enough, and I don't disagree with you. But I'm just pointing out how that logic works, and that not getting enough of a sample size is what's important. Has there been enough of a sample size on Bowden. I don't think there has been. If 2017 is a repeat of 2016, I'd start to agree with you. If 2017 is like 2015, then I think the jury is still out. I don't agree with the 1-2 season assessment of a coach. I think it takes many years, as tough as it is for us as fans. Do we want a program, or a Darrell Hazel. That's where I stand on it

100% agree. They'd always counter with "it was the coach who put the players on the field..." or "it's the scheme the coach came up with" etc... I think the stakes of national championship competitive programs and NFL programs make it so that coaches have to win now. I honestly think this is a terrible direction for terrible teams, because you end up like the Browns...or Purdue. Always flip flopping on coaches and never have any stability to do anything.

I just find it Ironic. A team goes 5-7, it's only the coaches fault. If a team goes 11-3, MAC Championship appearance GoDaddy.com Bowl appearance, 11-1 in the regular season...a win over a No. 15 ranked team (Rutgers)...and the coach has no impact on it. What a double standard. In fact...Hazel meets all the criterion you want in your "why not us" scenario.

It's all hearsay. Let's not go down the conspiracy road like the forum did when Kyle Pohl wasn't playing. There's plenty of players, after suffering a concussion, who would say they can play...when they really can't and shouldn't. Not saying it's equivalent Woodson's injury and a concussion, just trying to point out that it's hearsay that shouldn't even be considered in a conversation.

Good lord I am not impressed with Ohio. This team is leading the MAC East? Good lord the MAC East sucks. If we have Woodson, I think we win this game comfortably. I'm not impressed with Ohio in the slightest.

Pittman has been a disappointment. But isn't like everyone else injured?

He's saying: Miami's got a chance to be in the MAC Championship game if we beat Ohio next week. Our Bowl eligibility is also riding on that game as well.

The logic was beat 3/4 of the final 4 teams. BG, Buffalo and OU. The tall order part was beating OU. That logic was sound, there's no rationalizing about that at all. Unfortunately we dropped both games to BG and Buffalo.

Worst team in the MAC goes 1-11 or 0-12. Calm down. Come back next year and shoot the lights out.

Thanks Dr. Z! These photos are always gorgeous! The Uniforms are beautiful as well, just hope we can make some major improvements next year and live up to having the beautiful uniforms.

I think this season is over at this point. I've desperately tried to cling to hope that it wasn't. But Woodson injured then Chapman, so Injured Woodson is back in? Injuries destroyed a very potentially good season unfortunately.

Probably the steelers.

So as it stands now, Akron needs a little help from both Miami and Ohio in order to get to Detroit, both are possible. Akron's final Opponents: BGSU and Ohio Ohio's final Opponents: CMU and Akron. Miami's final opponents: Buffalo and Ball State. Akron needs to win out, and hope that Ohio drops it's game against CMU. Miami needs to drop 1/2 of their final games. ESPN has the CMU vs Ohio game sitting like this: (though I haven't bought these % chances at all this year, hopefully it does have merit)

I'm still holding out the Zips get the monkey off their shoulder and beat both BGSU and Ohio. May not be a bowl, but get the monkey off the shoulder for both teams now and go into 2017 looking to take it all.

Great post...though there's a couple of points I'd like to address for the conversation, note I too am a casual observer and this view is my opinion: (1) I agree, with this. Dalton remains on of my favorite Zips QBs in the short time that I've been a Zips fan. (2) I had forgotten about the James Madison game when Hirschmann hurt is knee (supposedly celebrating, which was discussed at length on this forum), but when it comes to the 2014 season and switching to Woodson (redshirt freshman) over Hirschmann, there was a discussion on this forum on wether Hirschmann was ever really right after his knee injury, and the consensus was that he wasn't which was why the switch was made. And it's not like switching to Woodson was switching to a no buddy...Woodson was clearly a viable option and had played very well up until the Ball State game. Kyle Pohl hadn't been playing well that season, and he had a knack for throwing redzone interceptions. Woodson outperformed Pohl in one game (as a redshirt freshman) and looked promising. Woodson's inexperience (and we can say that now because of what we've seen of his capabilities the last two years) was his weakness. From what we saw of Dalton Easton, he wasn't anything special.  He and Steve Franco did nothing in their spring game debut that made me think they were future viable options. (3) Coach made it very clear that protecting the football was important. Pohl and Woodson had shown that they had an inability to do that. Pohl, also never seemed right after the concussion he suffered in 2014. He wasn't the same player IMHO, and coaches are not required to report injuries. None of us know the extent to which Pohl suffered an injury, and what coaching decisions were made about that. Keeping with Chapman over Woodson for as long as he did, I'll give you...but I won't give you the argument about not starting Pohl. I have firmly believed there was more to that situation than casual observers know. And if it was for the protection of a player's health...it absolutely is a good coaching decision. The bottom line is we don't know, so the speculation on not starting Pohl cannot be used as a poor coaching decision, IMHO. (4) Woodson, before injury this year, was on pace to becoming the best QB in Akron school history in every statistical category. The decision to go to Woodson over Pohl was a no-brainer. I always thought Woodson was > Pohl because he had an upside Pohl didn't. This was a very good coaching decision. Pohl's ceiling was 5-7. Woodson's ceiling is still TBD. Pohl's was never going to be responsible for a win, while Woodson has been...and even Chapman for that matter (Kent this season). QBs don't need to show coaches something in game situations to know if their going to make it or not. Coaches watch these guys in practice. If you're not standing out in practice, your not going to make it. It was also discussed at length on this forum that T. Woodson may have had some personal doubt issues that led coach to placing him behind Chapman. He had that twitter picture of the pre-season "goals" the team set for themselves where he put "be myself again". (5) The offense is not the reason we are having a mediocre 2016. It's the defense. I don't agree with this sentiment at all. Dalton was given a chance and thrived. Pohl was given a chance: Pohl did what was expected of any QB in 2013. 2014, Pohl's lackluster play and injury gave rise to Woodson, who's inconsistent play as a freshman led to a hobbling season. Chapman (a new, who fits the bill of Dalton Williams as you described) was given a chance, like you asked for, and nothing became of it. Woodson, was given a second chance, which seems to be what your asking for, and has thrived. Woodson has been outstanding for the Zips the past two seasons, and improved this year over last year...and could potentially still improve in his senior year over this year, something the coaches saw that many of us may not have seen. Caleb Chapman, who appears to have fit the mold the coaches wanted, transferred after one year to Gardner-Webb and hasn't done anything of note there.

Fair enough.

I agree with the second part. They also have a loss to Miami, which we beat handedly. They also got blown out by a not-very-good Missouri team. I think we fare better against Missouri than we did against Wisconsin...Don't win the game, but fare far better. And in Chris Creighton's career, he's progressing far slower than the Zips did. They went 2-10, 1-11 in his first two years. This year, his third year, they have taken the step to being 5-4. The 2013 Zips, 2016 EMU I think is a relatively fair comparison.