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One thing is certain. We'll be more exciting to watch this year. If we win more than we won last year because of it, that's an additional bonus, of course. I think we have a lot more games in the 40s, rather than games in the 20s from here on out.

I think that we don't know. Was it lack of preparation? Was the first half a repeat of his ineffectiveness at the beginning of last season? Did he just have a good half? Or....has he simply gotten better over the last year? A lot of possibilities here. I'm just glad he played well enough to win against a bad team. Hopefully it's the only time we'll need him. But at the very least, he got some real game work if we ever need him again.

Barely. I think I just finally stopped shaking.

The color commentator on ESPN harped, on and on, about his lack of hustle on the play where the ball was intercepted in front of him. I get it. But once you looked at that play a couple of times, you realize that the interceptor was being chased out of bounds by other Zips defenders, way in front of Lane. The way I saw it, there was nothing he could have done to change the play, but he could have attempted to do something nonetheless. Other than this play, was someone else detecting something that I wasn't seeing? I do recall that the announcers mentioned that our receivers looked frustrated in the first half. But, I don't recall seeing anything specifically.

My primary thought after this game is.... If Chapman had to start a game this year, I'm glad it was this one. He did enough to get us a win, but I wouldn't have much faith in him at the helm in just about any other game on our schedule.

This is really good. I also think that there's tons of "middle aged" or older people at our games. So, what changed? Why are "old" alums from Akron obviously more interested in being involved and loyal to their alma mater than younger alums? It's sickening, isn't it? Six thousands grads per year, and very few of them ever come back to be supporters. Like I said, mathematically it seems impossible. But, it's true. Let me throw this out there.... Is it possible that it's "not cool" to be a Zips fan when you are in your 20s or 30s (when peer pressure has more influence on your life), but it starts to become more important to support your alma mater as you grow older? But if that were true, the middle-aged and older audience would continue to grow and grow. And that doesn't really seem to be happening over the year either. Although, it may just be that the old people die and are replaced. It would certainly be interesting to see if this could all be measured statistically. That might answer a lot of questions, and possibly lead us to a solution.

Balsy, you always entertain me. My wife does think that my hearing is starting to fade in my 50s. Maybe she's right. I blame it on cranking the stereo in my car when I was young. You're right. Lets get to the most important part. What CAN we do to change it? But like every solution we seek, whether it be in business, society, or anything else......you have to be able to put a finger on the problem. It's just such a frustrating problem. And that's why I think people find this to be an acceptable outlet to vent about it. How we can have a University this big, with this little student athletic event participation, really defies mathematical logic. Particularly with free admission.

I just wanted to share this. I know I'm critical of many of the excuses that are thrown out on here about why students aren't attending football games. But at least from one study of FBS schools in a major newspaper, this was the conclusion. It appears that the explanation is actually very simple. — Personal errands, hanging out with friends and family and using the internet were the biggest competing interests in deciding whether students attended three or more games. What I find interesting about this is that TWO of those (hanging out with friends and using the internet) is still something that they can do AT the sporting event.

LOL Let me just say this. At the last 2 home football games, I sat with a group of people on the press box side, and we kept looking across to see where the students were sitting. During the first game, we noticed that a small group of them had moved along with the band to the fieldhouse side of those stands. Maybe 50 people or so? But by Game 2, we couldn't identify a group of them at all in the same section that they were in Game 1. We couldn't actually identify any group of students at all anywhere, actually. Please, help me out here. If this student attendance is "UP", you certainly don't see it or hear it. I would contend that they are nearly nonexistent, or maybe scattered here and there among the crowd. It's pretty bad.

Thanks for doing the legwork. Years ago, I was making a lot of business trips to that area. It always seemed like UT and BG were literally right down the street from each other. I thought they probably weren't as close to each other as Akron/Kent. But still, pretty close for D-1 schools.

I was told to be prepared for this days ago, and I didn't want to believe it, and hoped that it was not final. I still don't want to believe it, and still hope that it's not final.

I guess if you count the 5,000 students who showed up last year for a tuition giveaway for one half, and those who've been walking through the gates to get free shirts, hats, and bobbleheads before heading back to their dorms, then I guess you can boast that football attendance has increased. But, I think all of us have witnessed that they aren't at the games...visually...when there's actually football being played on the field. But there's no way you can skew the numbers to show soccer student attendance. That's WAY down.

You're right. Not as close as a thought. About 30 miles.

Gosh, I can't believe I didn't immediately think of this one. Michigan and Eastern Michigan are literally right next to each other. And I wonder: Who is closer? Akron and Kent? Or Bowling Green and Toledo?

Yes, those 3 schools are all located around the Bay Area, but they are a long way apart. The Bay Area is much larger than anyone thinks. There's a few others that immediately come to mind: Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee are both in Nashville. Rice and Houston are both in Houston Miami and Florida International are both in Miami.

Blue and Gold. I think it's always great when people are generating thoughts about how we can get more people involved. Let me make a comment about your observation that the big high schools in the area have great student involvement. You're saying that we should contact these people and ask for their "leadership". But, are many of these people leaders, or just followers? You might be able to tap them for ideas, but I would contend that almost all of them simply latched on to something that was already well underway. That's what we need to do here. We have to create something that makes them WANT to participate. That wave of students that participated in the Soccer Student Section for about a 5 year period did so because something was created that interested them. It's obviously not an easy thing to do here.

Naaa. I think it's perfectly acceptable to talk about efforts to entertain the fans in a marketing thread. Don't you think?

Wrong Game. He's talking about the 2003 game. You're thinking of the 2006 game that we lost at Kent, which was under Brookhart, right after the MAC title the year before, and the big road win against North Carolina State.

So, with an injury you think he might not "drop" that far? Geez. How high did you think he was going?

That;s what I was thinking too. And I think any song from a local artist might suffice. Why would anyone think that it matters whether the song are positive, whether people would sing them or not, etc. I think there's a sense of pride in our local artists, and I think people would enjoy hearing them occasionally at breaks in the action, since we're all already at an event where we're displaying our local pride in our athletic teams.

No, I was never a Pretenders fan. Thanks for the info.

Because we might get someone better than the other guys who are waiting in the wings to become the next starters? We should always be looking for better talent.

Still, regardless of the fact of whether it mentions Akron, or is a "pump up" song, I think it could still be played at a timeout. Throw in a Joe Walsh song or a DEVO song too. They are all from local artists, and generate some local pride. They have more value in connecting with our fans than some random rap song, don't you think?

Well, I've heard this song thousands of times in my lifetime. The area radio stations have always loved playing it. Maybe there's a background story about the writing of the song. But, other than a reference at one point to Cuyahoga Falls, I've never felt any connection myself between this song, and being an Akronite.

Come to think of it, I'm not aware of any songs that have Akron in the title, or even talk about Akron at all. If there were, I think playing those kinds of songs at games generate pride in the city, and might lead to pride in OUR team. I know several slogans and videos have gone down this road in the past, like the "Roo Town...This Is Our Team", and the football video from last year with Bowden saying "Akron is a Blue Collar Town...and we're a Blue Collar team", etc.