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Amen

I LOVED those Cincinnati radio ads about OSWho a few years ago. Excellent. Again, they serve as a great example of what we SHOULD be. Being in Cincinnati recently also confirmed this. I saw tons of shirts down there that said bUCeye State....with the UC being the Cincinnati logo. They couldn't care less about the Suckeyes, and we need to develop that attitude here. Cincinnati has done it, why not in Akron? To answer your question, no, I don't see it happening here..but it should.

If you recall, when he came here, the word I was getting on him from some who played and coached against him was...great athletic ability, but probably not enough basketball ability to play at our level. I think that's what we ended up seeing. But WOW, at certain times he was so much fun to watch. I loved his ability to elevate off the floor.

Travel to Europe a week before the game is meaningless to me. I just wish I hadn't heard that Hackenberg threw for 450 yards in a season opener.

There will not be 15,000 in the stands for those two Tuesday night games in November just because we are in contention in the MAC. In November, ask any person in Akron (including our own students) who is not a diehard Zips fan if they know the current standings in the MAC. I assure you, there will not even be 15,000 who can answer that question.

My only problems with the offense are as follows: 1) After those few early big plays, when it looked like Howard was just extremely overmatched, we spent approx. the next 30 minutes of football being pretty ineffective executing plays, and unable to score. 2) The spring game and public scrimmage opened our eyes to something potentially major: We may have difficulty running the football this year. When you're playing Howard, and your #1 running back averages 2 yards per carry, I'd say that's potentially very alarming.

1) I totally agree. Pathetic. But, I'm convinced that the Thursday Night deal in August just doesn't cut it. We only had 12k for the Central Florida game 2 years ago. 2) What was even more disturbing to me is that probably 1/2 of the people went home at halftime. In my opinion, if you were a REAL Zips fan, you would have enjoyed a 21-0 lead, and would have been aching for more. 3) I wonder how much #2 was impacted by the fact that it was almost 9PM by the end of the 1st half....on a work/school night. Being on ESPN3, where they sell commercials, makes the games just as long as a major national telecast. It's not worth it at all.

By the way....Fox Sports "predicts" the Zips will be in the Idaho Potato Bowl. Been there. Not exciting, but I will take a bowl game any way I can get it.

In comparing this to my professional life, just getting people to the point of being "aware" of your existence does not sell what you are selling. Everyone knows that we have a football team, and plenty of student population will be on campus on Thursday night. It will probably be unavoidable not to know that there is a football game. However, the much bigger question, and the much bigger challenge is.....Are they sold on the idea that being at Infocision Stadium at 7pm tomorrow is a good option for spending a couple of hours of their time? If that's not the case, throwing schedules in their faces accomplishes ZERO. We'll see. But, I agree that a Thursday night opener during the first week of school is probably the most optimal situation for gaining some additional students.

This will be interesting to see how this plays out. In my opinion, Brown now has the official accolades, but March and Mizell have garnered more of the attention from the fans.

Yep, it's time to get energized. I hope everyone has the same enthusiasm for a repeat performance.

Yes, it was Xavier

Thanks for pointing this out. For a newbie, Woodson threw plenty of good balls today. His "zip" and relative accuracy were pretty impressive at times to those observing with me, despite a few mistakes and errant balls. And he did have a few that went right through people's hands, or he might have been more productive. In my opinion, the relative lack of offensive production all around was concerning. But, run blocking appears to possibly be the biggest culprit, along with the dropped balls. Improved execution is a must. With an expected solid defense, I'm hoping we can couple that with more of the performances like we saw against Michigan and Toledo from last year, and not from the UMass or Ken+ games.

I think we can all agree that the JAR is probably not used as a recruiting tool...other than the player lounges.

Let me share a few things all in one post, which I may have shared previously in individual posts. Here's the things that stuck out at me: - Moving the upper seats forward, which would divert the traffic around the back of the seating, which obviously would take some seating away from each side of those upper seating areas in order to forge the "hallways" that go around the back of them. - The 4 corner pillars cannot be altered. They hold up the entire building. - The possibility of moving the VIP area downstairs to the Concession area, which could allow us to see the court through the back of that concession area (the south scoreboard wall). - I think that the concession areas would possibly be moved to the back of the seating areas, in those hallways. I can't remember. Keep in mind that there has been some changes recently, although limited. - Changing the lighting system in the Arena so that lights can be turned on and off without having to "warm up" - Changing the main concourse to WHITE. Just like when we paint rooms in our houses, wow...what a difference that made in terms of openness and spaciousness and visibility. Makes you wonder who contributed the initial genius opinion to color the main concourse in NAVY BLUE when it was built. - Although this won't impact fans, if any of you have gotten to visit the player lounges in the back, they are awesome. I'd absolutely consider them to be an attractive recruiting tool. Thoughts?

I'll say this....I think that the University of Akron's football stadium got more mentions in the last two weeks than it has gotten in the last 5 years. It's been my hope that these last two events will at least show many NE Ohioans that we have a great facility and have made a great investment in the future of our football program. Some of these people would have never been exposed to our stadium without these two events. Maybe that helps somewhere down the line, in terms of future fans and recruits.

Did anyone attend the celebration last night? Any thoughts? I'm a huge LeBron fan, but I had one major problem... My man decided to try to start an OH-IO chant with the fans when he was on the stage. I guess it was a stark reminder of how little people think about AKRON as a major college sports program, even when you are an Akron native, standing in AKRON's football stadium, and your old high school coach now runs AKRON's basketball program. I hope this next phase of his residency in Akron educates him a little bit......the chant here....especially in OUR stadium is......ZI-PS

1) I'll ask you if you ever spent any time at Cleveland Arena. It was an old, decrepit, dirty, smelly facility, in what was becoming a really bad section of the East side of downtown by the 1960s and 1970s. 2) Perception of team management? MUCH bigger than winning? When any sports team starts winning, and the casual sports fans start jumping on the bandwagon, I would challenge you to ask those people if they even know anything about the person who owns the team. Better yet, ask them if they even know the name of anyone in management, or even the coach. Many of them won't even be able to name the players.

Key word being "national". You have to be realistic here. Do you think people would complain about sitting on bleachers for two hours if they were doing it to witness something truly special? I once packed myself into those same bleachers, shoulder to shoulder with other students, two hours before game time, to witness our big upset over Cleveland State in 1986, when they returned all the pieces of a Sweet 16 team from the year before. Nobody complained. We enjoyed one of the greatest experiences ever as Zips Basketball fans. This isn't a "build it and they will come" scenario. With Joe Akron, it's a "do something that matters and we will come" I'll say it again. I'm sure you'll find that the people complaining about the comfort level of JAR are the people who already go there. If the outsiders was something special happening at Rhodes, they wouldn't be deterred by long concession lines, etc.

Good perspective, Dave. We actually already have a measuring stick for all of this. It's called the Z-Fund. These are the people who have a willingness to financially support Zips Athletics. And several employees are involved in soliciting and maintaining that donor base. And if all of you recall, they are on a mission to try to get us UP TO 5 million in yearly donations. So, even if they could reach that level, and even if 100% of that money could be funneled ONLY to the new basketball arena, and we had no other salaries or expenses involved in obtaining that money, it would still take 10 years to gather the money needed for the Arena.

I like the talk about the potential companies who could contribute. But, one problem is that Infocision and Summa are likely off the table because of the football stadium. So, that eliminates probably the biggest area company with a tight alumni link to the U and the biggest hospital system. In terms of close proximity, isn't the U of A itself the biggest employer in the county? That doesn't help. We may not live in an area that's populated enough to have enough corporate candidates remaining who have the potential OR desire to fund this sort of thing. It reminds me more and more of the scope of this challenge: How many D-1 Universities in this country have even tried to build a full size Fieldhouse, a new football stadium and a new basketball arena at nearly the same time? Especially one that doesn't have big area support? I think that's the real problem here. Just think.....how much support would this tax increase receive if Summit County was trying to build a facility where the Suckeyes would play?

I'm so Akron......I miss the Rubber Bowl, even with all of its faults. I truly do. I want to go sit in the parking lot someday and have a tailgate party again.

1) The University will wait until they have the means to build their own (might take awhile). 2) LeBron?

I had a bad feeling when I reported that there was going to be an announcement. It's disappointing. I truly wanted to see them give it a try, regardless of my feelings about the outcome. Obviously, they had some feedback which told them it would NOT pass if the Arena was attached. And they don't want to risk losing the money they need over the Arena. Even if it failed, it still could have been a first step to rallying some people around the idea of a new Arena. Now, as I had predicted, the U of A will go back to seeking their own means for a future Arena. We were going to end up in this spot anyway, and maybe it will be for the best in the end.

FYI....this morning's Beacon says that a "big announcement" is being made this afternoon by the County regarding the Levy. The article particularly points out the organizations that have formed in opposition to this levy. I wonder if they are going to take it off the ballot? I don't think that this type of tax can pass in this area, and I've pointed out the reasons why. But, that doesn't mean that I think they shouldn't make the attempt.