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Balsy, think again. If we go to the Bahamas, we'd play Middle Tennessee (already accepted bid), a 7-5 team who only finished 3rd in their own DIVISION of Conference USA. They're far, far away from the caliber of the ranked or nearly ranked teams that beat us this year. By the way, I'm wondering if anyone else is taking notice of the caliber of that Oklahoma team we played in Week #1. They will beat Alabama/Clemson/Big10Champ and win the National Championship if they can play the way they played last night.

Maybe half of those people were really in attendance. But, I can tell you that the crowd was really into the game. I think that's the first time I could really say that this year. Maybe it was because the conditions allowed enough people to actually stay in their seats for a change. Or, maybe it was because they did what they are there to do.....urge our team to accomplish something we haven't done in 10 years. I think it was a pretty engaged crowd that appeared to really care about what was on the line.

Bahamas Bowl was the talk all morning. And we had already been making arrangements earlier in the week to get the passports. I don't know how that may have changed with the big win, but Terry must know what he was talking about with a statement about us likely getting a choice. As far as the game.... We were not impressive offensively, but I love that we worked on the running game, and did well. But more importantly, I think the offense and the coaches did a fantastic job of "Managing The Game" in a situation where it seemed as if their opponent was likely not going to do much when they had the ball. All we had to do was possess the ball, put some points on the board, and not give them any field position. Mission Accomplished.

That's the right line of thought. It sure beats "Akron vs. Can't...Tickets On Sale Now"

I've been watching the weather too. I'm thrilled that some now want to say that rain will be "later in the day". I'm hoping for any chance that there will still be a decent amount of people there to finish off the regular season with an atmosphere of enthusiasm. And for ONCE, I'm thankful for the early 12pm start.

Personally, I don't want to say Josh is overrated, or give him a pass as a freshman. From what I've seen and heard about his ability, I'm just simply disappointed in what we've witnessed thus far. We've had true freshman many times before who seemed to make the transition to the D-1 College level fairly quickly, and he's really struggling. If I had to cast a vote right now, I think I'd much rather see Ivey get the primary minutes at the 2 Guard, let Antino and eventually Noah handle all of the point guard duties, and work on bringing Josh along a little more slowly. We have plenty of games coming up where you can get a young player some additional work and experience.

In November, with more than 2 days between games, without coming back to Akron in between? They had every reason to be totally focused on a basketball game, and it was the lack of focus that was costly.

Forget about the "fatigue" crap. It's early in the season, and 3 games in 8 days. Nobody mentioned fatigue when we were winning 3 games in 4 days in March, and that would have been the perfect time of the year to use that as an excuse. And Antino played big minutes in those games too. Losing has a way of finding excuses. This was a lack of focus. Guys carelessly dribbling the ball, lack of good decision making offensively, losing sight of a guy beating you down the floor, etc. And frankly, that Green Bay team who had been described as "bad" appeared to be quicker and more athletic than the Zips. I always hate to say this in November, but this is one of those "bad losses" that will likely have an impact on where we go and how we are seeded in March.

TennZip...maybe we were better off when we were sort of the little "Cinderella" rising to national prominence, rather than the team that's there every year now. The media loves those stories much better. Who knows. A lot has changed over the last few year. I already miss the days where 7,000+ would come to a game against the Suckeyes.

I think Top 25 should always be the goal. I like that thinking. But, I don't ever see it happening for us EARLY in the season with this kind of schedule. The Arkansas win helps a bit, and one loss to a major powerhouse won't hurt much either. But with this schedule, we'll have to make a run through the cupcakes and into the conference schedule for awhile before anything like that happens, just like the path that got us there a few years ago.

This is really interesting for analysis. What has happened? In 2009 and 2010, with equivalent high seeded teams, we beat that number by thousands, didn't we? And I am sure we had equally poor conditions. And no students? WOW. What has changed so dramatically in 5 years? And it's not just the playoffs. People had jumped on a "soccer bandwagon" and finally came back to earth and realized they never liked the sport anyway? Did the #1 ranking and long winning streaks really make that much of a difference vs. just being really, really good but not being #1 in the country? Was there more of a connection between some of those players, and their personalities, and our fans? Now, I am sure the "soccer enthusiasts" are going to jump on me with all kinds of excuses, including that the "Rowdies are disorganized" blah blah blah. But, there's clearly been a major drop-off in interest in our soccer program with local fans, and students.

That's the part that would suck, big time. If they allow under .500 teams to be considered "eligible", because they feel that they need a larger pool to fill all of the bowl games, then does that give the bowls the option to choose whoever they want from that pool? Regardless if it's a 5-7 team, or a 6-6 or 7-5 like Akron? Gosh, lets sure hope not. Because, I'm sure the Bowl Committees will choose a NAME team with a fan base over Akron, if they can weasel their way into getting that option. You have to remember that these low level bowl games are anxious to do anything possible to get attendance, please advertisers, and make some money.

This could have potentially been the best Black Frye-Day crowd we've ever had, but I am afraid that all indications are that the rain will start to hit us early enough in the day to affect attendance dramatically. It's a shame. Really bad luck this year. And with an enormously important game for our football future, and an ex superstar being honored. The good news?.....At least it won't be as bad as the last big-time game against Ken+ on Thanksgiving 2005.

Thanks. That was my impression from the postgame comments, that this situation had gone back a ways.

By the way Keith commented about Jake's situation, it seemed like something that the were well aware of, and may be something that has occurred several times before? If so, it may not be anything to be too alarmed about, both for his own personal health, and for potential lost playing time. If anyone had previously deemed this to be anything dangerous, he wouldn't be out there on the floor, I would assume.

I'm just thankful that we had 3 days between games, and didn't return home. We should be focused and rested, but are we good enough to make this a game?

I am surprised nobody has commented on this yet: The hat promotion was a joke. They only had 1,000, and all of the students went in there with their ID's an hour before gametime, lined up at the tables, got their hats, and left. I saw a poor guy with his little kid scrambling around the stadium asking where to get the hats. He was WAY too late, even though it was still 30 minutes until kickoff. And I am sure he was only one of hundreds of people who were disappointed. The saddest thing was that I saw a group of about 10 students walking together through the campus about an hour before gametime, ALL wearing their new hats, and ALL of them were headed far away from the Stadium. Someone had a great idea. Why didn't we give those out as people were EXITING the game?

Before I read another post about the improved "play calling" yesterday, I want to see if anyone wants to be specific. 1) We ran a ton of read option. 2) We went after a lot of long balls in the passing game. They worked yesterday against a mediocre defense, at best. They worked against Louisiana and Miami too. We were able to block better in the run game, and got some separation and some accurate throws in the passing game. They didn't defend us as well as some other teams, and we may have executed much better too. I'm not trying to deny credit to the offensive play callers, nor was I ever openly critical of their play calling in other games. I just didn't see anything that was any different about what we were choosing to do offensively yesterday.

A few more comments on posts. 1) I was pretty quick last year to tout Tommy Woodson after a good performance in a close game against OU when he was forced into his first start, followed by a great first half against Ball State. But then that 2nd half at Ball State imploded. I thought we might never see him again, especially after he started the year 3rd on the depth chart. But, maybe all he needed was the ability he showed last year, plus a little more work and maturity. It sure seems that way. 2) I've said all along since late October that we needed 7 wins to get to a bowl. All of these numbers that made people speculate that we'd get in with 6 seemed like it would be questionable. That looks to be the case. 3) Does anyone else wonder why we didn't employ this defensive strategy against BG? A team with a quick, high efficiency offense similar to the one Buffalo has? It would seem somewhat obvious to me that the front 7 can play against anyone, and just let the DBs sit back in 2-deep coverage, make the offense have to make plays, and concentrate on breaking on passes that all happen in front of them.

Very simply, we need to shoot well...again. You can't beat a team like that without it. Arkansas put up 80 points on us. Without some very effective scoring, we won't survive that a second time. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the last game we win all year where our opponent puts up 80 points.

It's ridiculous because they were not fouls for fighting or dirty play (Personal Fouls). They were Unsportsmanlike for Celebrating. Ridiculous. Maybe they feel obligated to flag for what I considered "marginal celebration". But why a disqualification?

Yes, that would be a fantastic weekend. But if we ran the table on all of these games, one of them would be expected, one of them would go virtually unnoticed by non-Akron fans, and one of them would be a "shock the world" event. So, If I had to pick just ONE win, I'd take that one

TPS....As of last week, the team was going straight from Arkansas to Philly, without coming back to Akron. And we're going straight from Philly to Green Bay as well. The guys had to make a lot of arrangements with classes to be gone for a week. I'm glad they decided to do it this way. It's not that often at this time of the year that they would be able to focus on basketball for such a long period of time. I hope it pays off !!

Kenner, that actually started many years ago when the "guards" continually told everyone that there was an imaginary line that they could not cross, which kept you far enough away that you could barely see down onto the field. All you had to do was walk in that direction, and someone would tell you "you must stay behind this area right here". Now, they've simply put up rails so you cannot see onto the field at all without going to your seats. Expect this to be enforced, even if there is a few hundred people in the stadium. And expect to continue to hear them say "It's for everyone's safety!!". There's times where a rule or policy is just senseless for the situation it is applied to. This would be one of those times. It's just a complete turn off, and just gives people another reason to strengthen their beliefs that Akron sporting events are just not an enjoyable experience.