Lee Adams

They are using the new video recognition software that they installed this season for fans that enter after the first quarter. You will receive a bill in the mail. They are unable to use it with big crowds, but they have had very good success with individual recognition. I figure once they find me they will give me comp season tickets for being such a loyal fan and for padding last nights attendance.

I think you did just give some free advice. Show appreciation towards your fans by not allowing other to purchase tickets for less than what the die hards purchased theirs for. Second, become a marketing wizard like Waddell at Cincy by winning games. It isn't difficult. Put a winning product on the field and fans come. Put crap on the field and fans stay home. There is a reason marketing is the easiest business major....it isn't that hard. I have a marketing idea for the Zips and if fits the current state of the program. Everyone attending the next two home games will receive a free blue and gold Zips bucket autographed by TW. Fans can use the bucket to throw up in while watching the Zips play. There...I'm done giving out marketing ideas as well. Something everyone could use. Sounds perfect. Seriously though, simple supply and demand should determine pricing. And I don't know the right solution, but I'd think that we're spinning our wheels trying to sell tickets for these prices when a few thousand people are in attendance. And as a fan, I'd opt for seeing people walking in the gates for free right now, if that's what it takes to get some excitement in that place. FYI, I got to the game last night right after the 2nd half kickoff. Nobody at the gate to check my ticket. Didn't need one to get in.

thank you. When he took the timeout I was like, "somebody on ZNO is going to complain about that, and I am going to completely lose faith in UA fans." But thankfully you brought me hope. The last timeout was a no-brainer. The way MU was putting together drives, one timeout wouldn't have made a difference. It seemed the only place we were able to stop them was in the red zone. I still liked what I saw. Nice job on the no huddle. It is clear Nicely is young. Who is our QB coach? I feel with a good mentor he could be lights out. Isn't Powlus the QB coach? still amazing how Nicely who showed so much promise last year has been turned into an indecisive inaccurate thrower this year. The receivers haven't really helped. The lack of a consistent running game hasn't helped. Maybe he can't grasp the new system and/or he hasn't gotten much help in that area.

Wonder what the game would have been like if Miami had its starting QB. Yes the players seemed to play hard. No you can't blame the loss on lack of effort. You can't place all the blame on any one play. Just like you can't place all the blame on the coaching staff. There is enough shared responsibility on the part of the coaches and players when a game like this is lost. There is enough shared responsibility for the state of the team in general this year. Bottom line is that the TEAM figured out a way to lose again. It was exciting to be there however.

I don't blame you. Being a season ticket holder is not rewarded. Especially if you are a reserved ticket holder. They treat season ticket holders like crap when they sell reserved tickets for less than face value on the day of the game. It is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Even worse, it is lazy to do so. Sent an e-mail to Wistrcill the other day about this. To his credit I got a reply right away from him or someone in his office. However there were no commitments regarding adjusting prices for renewing season ticket holders. Not that he would reveal that at this point. But the tone of the thing was not what I would call promising.

The athletic Depatment. They are in panic mode down there right now. There have been numerous meetings with other department heads in the last 2 weeks trying to come up with some way to get the students to come to another home game. Promise them all degrees if they show for the last 2 games.

I don't blame you. Being a season ticket holder is not rewarded. Especially if you are a reserved ticket holder. They treat season ticket holders like crap when they sell reserved tickets for less than face value on the day of the game. It is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea. Even worse, it is lazy to do so. I always buy my seasons early. Wanna make sure I get a good seat ya know. In light of all the almost giveaways on tickets this year,the AD better lower prices for the few season ticket holders who come back next for more pain. This year I wait. If the price does not go down I'll buy individual game tickets for cheap.

So with that line of thinking the AD was basically saying to the FANS 'screw you' for the foreseeable future. Too bad if you pay hundreds of dollars for season tickets. Too bad if you have to sit in the rain and cold. Too bad if the product you are paying for is defective. We don't give refunds. We will treat you with indifference. We can't tell you if or when the quality of the product will improve. We do it because we don't have to worry about the cosequences right now. Sounds like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Kept churning out crap until it finally caught up with them. I'll bet the AD wants us to renew season tickets for next year. Hell, I can't give 'em away. I'll bet he wants us to send our yearly contribution to the Z-Fund. I am long past getting that warm fuzzy feeling about supporting the program with my dollars.

I generally agree with your review DrZ. Adversity makes you stronger if you prevail against the adversity. Right now, the players are just learning a great Zips tradition, which is finding ever more creative ways of losing. We are extremely good at finding unusual ways to lose. We are the Charlie Browniest of all D-1A schools. We know it wasn't working and we understand we are behind the 8-ball. We also understand we have been in a constant "building process" for 20+ years and want winning sooner rather than later. I personally don't want to be reading the "building process" crap three years from now. A team can turn things around quickly in the mac. We need a fast "building process" with results at the end of the process. Results as in winning more than losing. Fans may not know exactly how a team got better, but they know crap when they see it. When we no longer see crap, we will know the team is getting better. If they do lose 12, they will have trouble recruiting and they will just have to work harder at it. They will just need to work harder at selling the program.

This is a minor point, but am I the only one who watched this on channel surfing who thought French's call was mis-leading on this play? There were 3 video angles on replay and I don't think any of them showed Wagner intentially trying to intercept the ball. I'm sure Brian wishes he had made a better play on the ball, but it looked to me as though he simply came up a little short. French's call made it seem like it was John Fuller Part Deux during Big Ben's 75 yard game winning TD in Oxford. It clearly wasn't. I still love Frenchy, but he can be lost sometimes. French is the ultimate 'homer'. He supports the program no matter what. So does Joe Dunn. When he starts calling them this way,no matter what your eyes 'said' its a real bad sign.

It doesn't matter if there is 'no chance next year'. Ianello will be here. It doesn't matter whether he can 'coach' or not. He will be here. The AD who hired him is not going to fire him now unless god(LP) tells him to do so. There will not be a winning season at Akron(unless the waters part or there is some other divine intervention) for at least 2 more years. The coach knows it and the AD knows it.

I think Brown is a good example of a good coach,the head guy at UT doesn't have to be 'great' whatever that is, who can attract consistently good physical talent because he is at UT. He can get really good players for key positions almost every year. Even in the Big 12 teams like UT and Oklahoma can win most games because of better physical talent. There will be a couple of games when the other team matches you physically. Whats the difference in those games? Coaching? Breaks? etc. How can you tell? How has Boise State managed to knock off some of the big boys over the past few years. They appear not to have as much physical talent at every position as some of the teams they have beaten. If coaches don't prepare their teams and/or adjust to what they have their teams lose.

Can't gets stomped by the Owls!

Gallows humor...I love it.

That indeed was a pillow fight! Two bad teams trying to figure out how to lose again. One of the many reasons 0-10 teams are 0-10 is because they don't make plays when they need to. Steve French called it. The BSU pass on 4th and 9 should have/needed to be picked. It wasn't! The guys Akron had on the field were not capable of making a play when one was needed. No names please. Of course you can always go back and look at the entire game and wonder why it came down to that in the first place. Too bad its not the NFL. A number 1 pick would look real good.

CMU got off last night.

Unfortunately, I feel the same way. Everyone touted him as this recruiting god, so I want to see what he can do to improve us for next year. I just hope for everyone's sanity that we win 1 or 2 this year. We really need to. Unfortunately I have yet to see anything this season to indicate that we will. I know its really early, but iCoach will need to produce a damn good recruiting class and put up at least a 4 or 5 win season if he wants any chance of winning back most of us. He's got a VERY steep uphill battle ahead of him and he will need to bring out all the stops if he wants a chance at saving this program. I do know what he'll be telling every recruit this winter: play for us and you'll have a damn good shot at playing as a freshman The thing I look at is the problem that Brian Kelly is having winning with Ianello's recruits at ND this year. Kelly is a proven coach. Maybe those ND recruits that were brought in over the past few years weren't all that good?

The only thing BSU needs to worry about is the bus driver taking a wrong turn on the way to the stadium.

This is becoming nauseating. Repetition upon repetition. Fact is nobody knew if Ianello was/is going to be a successful head coach. Nobody knows if Fickell would be a successful head coach. They never did the job before. Maybe Fickell would have gone 12-0 if they had hired him. I doubt that many figured Ianello wouldn't have won at least 1 or 2 games by now. No matter your personal feeling,does anyone really think that the president and a.d. are going to fire Ianello after this year? No matter what decision is made about this coach and his staff(realistically I could see changes in assistant coaches) it is apparent now that it is going to be several more years before this program becomes competetive within the MAC.

I can't. I also don't remember who was looking for coaches last season. The real question is, "Who else was interested?" There are always discussion on this board about who we should hire. The more important question is, "Who is interested?" Hire Bowden?....What if he isn't interested? etc. Despite there being twenty-two FBS schools looking for a new coach after last season, only two were interested in Ianello: Akron and San Jose State. I didn't state the questions clearly enough. I should have said, "Who else was interested in Akron?" I know because of confidentiality reasons they can't say, I'd like to know who else was interested or even who else was contacted to see if they were interested. You can only hire someone who wants to be hired. Sorry. I misread that. According to Rivals' Tom Deinhart, "in addition to Rob Ianello, Akron interviewed Wayne State's Paul Winters; Elon's Pete Lembo; Kansas' Ed Warinner; Arizona's Mark Stoops." I would have taken any of those over Ianello. At least they have coordinator or head coach experience. We picked the one guy who had never been anything more than a position coach. No word on who else was interested but didn't get an interview, although Jim Tressel's protégé Luke Fickell was rumored to be interested but got rebuffed by the athletic director. IF this is accurate,I would like to know why those were the only guys interviewed. Seems like a pretty weak list with or without Fickell.

you mean the "cupcake teams" that OSU killed and we in turn got killed by? We essentially play OSU's cupcake schedule...difference is it's 9 out of our 12 games each year and not 4 or 5. Actually it's 12 out of our 12 games. Every single team Akron plays would be a cupcake to a top 20 team. Certain irrational fans don't see that. Tell that to Kentucky, who knocked off the #10 team in the country and nearly knocked off Auburn in the last few weeks. Or, Syracuse, NIU and Temple, who are all now in the Top-50 in RPI. Yes, many teams we play would be cupcakes to a Top 20 team, but to put every team we play into that category is just a huge exaggeration. Kentucky is the only one that even makes sense there. And even they got beat up quite a bit. Every team can play a good game or 2, but an entire season tells the story. Syracuse, NIU and Temple would be smashed by most of the top 20. The only chance they would have is if the other team was on a down week. Which does happen. Upsets happen. Guess WVU must have had a down week...

I've read this BS statement on this board umpteen times and have never commented on it once. After watching this year, this statement now brings my blood to a boil! I'd give my left pinky for another "lucky" year. Lucky. Hey, every team needs a little luck. Akron just got it in buckets that year. 6-5 regular season (barely bowl-eligible)...then a totally-miraculous and improbable endzone catch to win the MAC (anyone who says it wasn't miraculous didn't see it)...followed by a loss in the Motor City Bowl. We only made the MAC playoff because of some odd formula (losses in division, or something). Don't make it out to be more than it was. A fun time, certainly. But WAY lucky. JD hung his floppy hat on that season way too much and fooled a lot of people. He was never the guy for this job, either. But he's better than what we've got now. Even JD was willing to admit they got lucky before they got good. It was not about winning much this year. But it should be about seeing some improvement and competetiveness on the field.

This whole situation of players leaving the program really screws with the scholarship situation for years to come. Thanks to EA from the PD.

I think it was Goodrich who made the shoes. Then again, I could also be trying to drum up business for Google. Ya you may be right.

I think a curse has been placed on the program. Kinda like the curse of Rocky Colavito. I don't know if the Akron curse goes back to the time of Dennison or just back to JD. A nameless friend of mine who lives somewhere in a bayou in Louisiana suggested this. He said Jobu is PO'ed. He said the curse has to be removed but he is not exactly sure how. Apparently Jobu is a tough dude. He said it might take a sacrifice like burning a pair of rubber boots made by Goodyear at midfield of the Info. Fans, players and coaches would have to wander aimlessly around the field until the boots stopped burning and they were 'shown the way'. My friend said if that didn't work goodluck.