Lee Adams

I do believe Nelson will NOT finish as the starting QB!!! And, probably should not be for a program stating over.

Unfortunately, I am now convinced this will be no more than a 1 or 2 win season for the ZIPS. If You can't show any better than the worst team int he MAC, U are not going to win any games except by good fortune. EMU beat Illinois. Think that tells the tale of how bad this program is at this point. I am out until a win!

Troy is an amazing program at that level. They made what seemed to be an almost seemless transition to D1. They recruit really good athletes. They are always competitive in the Sunbelt where the caliber of athlete is generally better than the MAC. They have returning QB's. They have a runnig back who gained over 1,000 yards last season. The defense was in the top 3 in the Sunbelt. It has looks like 6 returning starters. Maybe not quite as good as UAB but looks pretty darn close. Beat a big 10 team last season. Handled a good Buffalo team in a bowl. Another tough one for the ZIPS.

Fully agree that Davis should move back to the back end. He is a 'security blanket' when he is back there. He knows how to play back there. And, yes Illinois and UAB had far superior athletes at almost every position. Bigger,faster. Thats the difference between Conference USA and most of the MAC. Concentrate on the MAC! Arth gets the same amount of time as the others before him. (I'll assume it won't be as bad as Ianello). CMU game is really important.

This game will be a barometer about what the rest of the season may look like for Akron in the MAC. A loss against another team with a new coaching staff and apparently in a rebuilding mode would indicate that the Zips are going to have a tough time with most of the rest of their schedule. You have to think though with a very experienced HC in McElwain and Charlie as the OC their offense might be a little more dynamic than expected. The mantra is the same this week. Finally find SOME sort of a consistent run game. No TO's Kato. No big plays behind Akron's secondary this week. Get ahead early by running the ball and using the short passing game. Keep CMU's defense on the field. That said,I have no idea what to expect from Akron in this game.

Or... maybe we should consider moving back to 1-AA or D2? Just sayin'.

Said that earlier. Some of the problems with the football program have been caused by AD's looking for the next job. Williams is a football guy. Lets hope he has a better feel for Arth than some others have.

You bet!

You are right. Thanks for the catch.The site I looked at started with Faust. Dennison coached when Akron was in the Mid Continent!!? 1978-1979-They went 12-10 under Dennison. From 1980-1985 they were in the OVC. During those 6 seasons Dennison went-3-7-1;5-5;6-5;8-3;4-7;8-4. They went to the tournament in 1985. Dennison was fired after the 1985 season. Imagine that!

I went back on a website not affiliated with Akron to get the historical win totals of the last 3 Akro HC's. They would be Bowden,Brookhart and Owens. Since Brookhart was here 6 seasons I took the final 6 season win totals for each coach Bowden-34(I left out Bowden's 1-11 record his first season. If I had started counting 6 seasons there he had I believe 31 wins); Brookhart-30 and Owens -32. Obviously Owens was the longest tenured of the 3. Shoot, Owens got fired after going 7-5 I believe. But,point is throw a blanket over those numbers! None of these coaches have put up significantly more wins than the others. Somebody mentioned this elsewhere,the program 'is what it is' now and what it has been for years. There have been all sorts of on and off the field factors for that. By the way,I didn't go back to check Jim Dennison's record when Akron was D2. But I would guess in 6 seasons it was better than these numbers. Always thought he should have gotten a shot to take the program at least to 1-AA but alas we will never know what might have been.

Isn't Zagorski the OC also? Was he calling plays too? Would like to know because there were a couple of critical situations where the calls seemed puzzling. But,some of that is due to the poor O-line play and apparent lack of a 'big' back who can grind out a couple of yards when needed. Oh where is Grice when you need him?

I guess we will find out in a couple of years won't we?

Maybe we should have brought back J.D. Brookhart. He was the only coach who won a MAC champeenship!? What say yee? I was at the game. After the first Akron drive I saw a CUSA team that had far better athletes pretty much across the board. UAB gets the kids that don't go to Alabama,Florida,Auburn etc. MAC schools for the most part don't get anywhere near that level of athlete across the board. Also,please remember that the vast majority of players on this team were recruited by the Bowden regime. So those guys couldn't compete with the UAB guys. Those guys were a 4-8 team last year. That said I saw some poor play and questionable decisions from the coaches today. It mystifies me how Akron could be playing a "Tampa Two' D and have UAB receivers running behind the safeties for 4 TD's. It mystified me when on 4th and 1 in UAB territory the play call was a run sweep with the smallest player on the field when the play hadn't worked before. What doesn't mystify me is that Akron still has no run game because they haven't had one to speak of for several years. It doesn't mystify me that Kato Nelson is still inconsistent to the point of frustration at times. By the way UAB played a lot of back ups in the second half. Bowden had how many yrears to produce one bowl win and one division win and a sub .500 record? Arth and his crew get some time to see if they can build on what was already here. I think some fans have the mistaken idea that this program is going to be much more at the D1 level than it has been historically. I would just ask them to look back at what this program has been since it went full D1. An'd start thinking about the alternatives.

Some of the media were speculating that because of all the different personnel Arth was playing he was kinda treating it like an NFL pre-season game. Who the hell knows. Maybe he has the same attitude as some of the rest that the 'sacrifice' games are only good for making money and not a whole lot else for MAC teams. Only have to look back to last season. Anyway, Nelson better improve quickly or the new regime will have him holding a clipboard in a few weeks. Arth and staff will try to develop its own players with an eye to the next couple of seasons. They will take advantage of the '4 game redshirt rule'.

Interesting. Not sure if that would have made a difference today unfortunately. Time to give the back-up QB some PT?

Guess we will see next Saturday.

This AM posted on the Three for Thursday thread that Akron had to do at least 3 if not 4 things or Illinois would win comfortably. Had to slow down the run;avoid turnovers and have Kato Nelson hit on at least 60% of his passes. First half was a whiff. Lets see if these guys can adjust and at least be competitive.

Not too many 'patsies' on the sched this year. UMass might be the only one in that category. UAB and Troy will be VERY difficult.

No I am not a 'troll'. Sorry I can't respond to the poll. But, think Illinois will win comfortably. Probably 10+ points. They do have a good run game. Even if their QB is questionable,they can still try to keep Akron's D on the field and wear them down. They still have Big 10 size. Akron stays in the game if Arth has been able to develop some sort of a run game and Kato can complete 60%+ of his passes. Can''t turn the ball over to a mediocre team. Have to make their O work. One advantage Akron might have is that apparently Lovie Smith still runs a lot of his 2-deep coverage in a zone. Arth has certainly seen that in his time in the NFL. Maybe some passes to TE's and RB's could get the O going. Will be interesting to see what difference there will be this season.

I realize that this topic was originally about Bowden's next job or whatever. It was not originally about the University considering options to its current sports affiliations. But, with Bowden still apparently being paid by the University and the Interim Prez here talking about having to make cuts while trying to increase revenues from athletics,any significant amounts of money being paid to anyone who is not providing direct services to the University is significant. This is not about Bowden personally. The Interim Prez did not specifically mention changing affiliations,true. But,when he says we need to make cuts while increasing athletic revenues very significantly,one wonders specifically,where the increased revenues will come from when it has been an issue for years. And,where to the cuts come from. The University is trying to reduce the amount of 'student fees'which go to directly supporting athletics. The burden is being placed on academics. I would posit that the majority of students at the University have limited or know interest in varsity sports. We see that from attendance among other things. So how does the University support athletics at current levels?

According to reports, Akron may be contemplating ways to reduce the athletic department budget. Apparently want to finally stop milking student fees to pay for non-profitable sports programs. HERE,HERE if that is true! Problem is there will not be any significant bump in ticket sales revenue. That horse left the barn years and years ago. What do they do? Maybe its what some of us have been suggesting for years. Drop to I-AA or D-II if you want to keep varsity sports. But,No more MAC: all of your current coaches will leave. Read carefully what IP Green said. See how you interpret. As an aside,Bowden is insignificant here now. He is a milker who doesn't need this money at this point. Please move on Mr. Bowden.

Some things stood out in the 2 hours I was there. Arth has a hell of a lot of energy! Is in the middle of everything and not just standing around watching. The players or at least most of them pick up on that energy. I love to see a coach especially under the circumstances here who is doing that. The practice is fast paced. Not a bunch of guys standing around watching a lot of 11/11 scrimmage. Arth is going to weed out the guys who don't want to do the conditioning now not later. Obviously they are still working on basics and the coaches want to get reps in on basics now. Noticed there are a lot of O-linemen on the current roster. Significant number are redshirt Frosh and Sophs. There will be more in August. Like that. O-line will make everybody better in the long run. The WR's looked 'fast'. DB's were doing a lot of grabbing in drills and scrimmage. Nelson looks a little thicker arm looks strong. Want to see if Arth can coach him up to make better and quicker decisions. Liked the regular use of the TE and wing back. Arth has a nice assortment of QB's to work with. Shields caught my eye for some reason. Obviously a couple of them won't be in the mix. Hard to tell a lot from the scrimmages. The Offense looked good but they were up against what may be right now a suspect front 7. Looks like the D was 3 down and moving a stand up from side to side depending on the field position and circumstances. Lako did stand out. Just liked the energy and pace this coaching staff is trying to instill.

Is Nelson 6'3"?

We should NEVER assume anything. But, with Arth's background as a QB at the highest level,the QB play hopefully will be significantly improved this year,no matter who the Q

Nelson the O MVP,interesting. He may very well be the starter. Not completely convinced of that with a new sheriff in town. Lets see.