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Tested? Lets concede that everyone is going to be able to run on us. We'll need 30+ points to beat people this year, and we should get that easily in this one. After that, I see Miami at home as a very winnable game. I hope it turns out that way.

Yep. I said that last week. The size and speed on defense isn't something that will correct itself anytime soon.

So do I, because I am already a committed fan. But, what really matters is if an "almost win against a maybe good team that's relatively unknown" makes a significant impact on potential fans in the Akron area, and in a broader sense, potential recruits in NE Ohio and elsewhere. And my answer would be that it's not good enough to change anything. But, lets hope that it's a start to what might be changing down the road.

I think we're probably going to find that this was a really bad prediction. We bragged about how they were the best in that conference last year too, and they ended up finishing in fourth. I just don't see it, with a solid Arkansas State team returning from their undefeated season, and UL-Monroe pulling off a huge upset last night. So far, this is an FIU team that, other than the game against Akron, has a resume that only includes getting throttled by a Duke team that got pummeled by Stanford last night. But, I'll be following them for sure, to see if we can truly look at this game as a turnaround for our improvement.

I know johnnyzip and I pointed this out earllier, but it's worth repeating again. The hot, steamy weather!! It's tough playing a game in South Florida this time of year, regarless of the misting machines running behind the bench. After we lead late in the 2nd quarter 20-7, FIU scored 34 points the remainder of the way. And our guys in the booth pointed out at one point in the 2nd half that we had BOTH Defensive Ends on the bench at the same time being treated for cramps. I wish we had switched the games with them, so we could have played them at home THIS year. We would have won up here. But, I encourage everyone to applaud the effort. These guys look like a team playing for a different staff. It's a tough loss after blowing a 2 TD lead, but I BELIEVE that some wins are coming.

South Florida Right Now: 83 degrees with a 74 degree dew point. Akron Right Now: 71 degrees with a 65 degree dew point. Nope, not difference at all And tomrrow, it will be 88 down there, and 68 degrees here. Under which conditions would you rather take a football team that's thin in depth?

Have you ever spent any time in South Florida in August or September? I know we can't ever predict what will happen on one single day, but as September weather in Ohio starts to cool, the weather down near the eveglades will stay steamy, hot, and often rainy, with dew points often still reaching well into the 70s. It surely is an advantage, especially when you take a team with limited depth down into those conditions. Looking at our highest summer temps and humidity averages here in Akron does no justice to the difference between the two climates.

Restoring the player's confidence will hopefully happen quickly, and will take care of most of the job of making us forget about ICoach. Lets just not look pathetic by continuing to blame the previous coach year after year for whatever challenges continue to arise, like Obama does with Bush.

I hate to say this, but I WISH our stadiuim had been built that way. Our 30K and under crowds should all be on the same level. It makes for a much better atmosphere when you can see everyone. And I love that their stadium is entirely enclosed, even with seats in the corners.

This may have been one of the more decent games we played last year. I hope we can play even better this year, and I would be happy. But, it's on the road, in South Florida, in the early September stiffling heat, with a team with very little depth. It's going to take a great effort to make a respectable showing.

First of all, I'm quite pleased with #70 right now. If we want to get to Top 50, we're gonna have to knock off some good teams. Same as every year. And of course a #70 projection is not going to prompt them to predict that you will make the NCAA field. There's too many auto-qualifiers for a #70 team to get in.

That was EXACTLY my thought. I think the inexplicable stupidity and judgement is shared.

I was at least somewhat encouraged by the fact that the total yardage was not completely lopsided, even if we still got dominated on the scoreboard. Although, CFUs total yardage was certainly diminished by the fact that a few of their drives were short becaue they followed turnovers. The Bowden passing game showed some signs of future success, but plenty of opportunities were missed. Lets hope they keep working on the timing, but I'll take 250 yards as a good sign, even if it did take 50 attempts to do it. I think my biggest concern will continue to be that we lack the ability to tackle up front. Almost 5 yards per carry by an opponent who was obviously running alot just to burn clock for a good part of the game isn't a good sign. I think this problem may take the longest time to correct, because it likely can't be improved much with just coaching.

Which will possibly turn out to be the greatest blessing in Zips Football history. I'd love to see a committee. But, I wonder if they will build something that extensive for a search for a soccer coach?

Welcome to the world of a sports coach. I'd love to go back and retrieve the posts from everyone who said "he's not going anywhere......", because it's just not reality in athletics.

Yep, this does indeed sound like a prime candidate to be wearing a piss yellow and blue jersey in a few years

I bet you could. And I would be very surprised if Tom W does anything other than launch a national search to get the best available soccer coach in the country to come here. We are in a rare position with soccer that we don't have with any other sport. We're one of the best programs in the country, and we should expect to get the attention of some of the greatest coaching talent in the county. We shouldn't be settling for anything in this particular case.

I think this is right on the money......how much can you pay a college soccer coach? I'd have to think that we did everything we possibly could do to keep him here with the last contract we gave him.

Are you referring to last year? I sure hope not.

I was referring to my own previous post in which I said that ticket sales AT THIS POINT may not have been 10k. The final number at game time is actually within a few thousand of your number.

Here's the biggest problem: The Thursday Night aspect is going to put a slight damper on the ability to bill this as a big Grand Reopening of the Info for the community. Most people won't be able to get there very early, and kids have to go to school in the morning. Saturday just has so many advantages that Thursday does not provide. I think that really hurts our ability to hit 20k. I just hope we can at least top the 16k that we drew the last time we had some excitement heading into an opener, which was the matchup against Syracuse out of the Big East. I'll go with 18k "announced", and 14k in the stands.

You might be number 10,001 , in what I believe is probably the most generous estimation at this point.

OWWW. I wasn't expecting that! Talk about skepticism.

Then I guess we can pull the "get your dadgum tickets today" messages from the billboards, radio, and newspapers ?? Not a chance. With 10 days left, I'm saying that it would be amazing if we are even at 10k right now, with season tickets and the few people who would have gone out and purchased a single game ticket for UCF, combined. Even in the old Acme/Zip days, it took people lining up at the gates right before gametime to get us near that 25-30K level.