skip-zip

I actually agreed with much of what you were saying here, except for these comments highlighted above, which may show that you have not really gotten over it yet Miami destroyed the #1 seeded Bulls, and the #3 seeded Celtics, by decisive 4-1 margins, just to get to the championship round. So, calling the "playoffs" a choke job by Miami would be wrong.

Again, Tressel is going to have a coaching ban, and many people are speculating that it will be about 5 years. So, even if you can see past all of the negatives, it isn't going to matter. He is going to be unavaliable for at least several years. Given that the permissive and entitled culture endemic to a program like OSU bears almost no resemblance to the situation at Akron, maybe there is a "show cause" argument to be made. As in, Akron's program is so incredibly pathetic right now that trying to turn it around would be a more severe punishment for him. Can't had to wait for Senderoff's ban to expire, so it can be done. I also think it's worth noting that Tressel's violations were not tied to recruiting or cheating per se. He clearly still has the fire in him to coach-- well, let's put that to good work by having him make something of this program. Kind of like working on a chain gang. Playing 5 of your star players who you know committed violations that make them ineligible is not cheating? I do agree with you that making Tressel coach at our team would be severe punishment.

You gotta love that we have an Akronite with that kind of influence. What are the chances that an event like this would pick a handful of cities, and one of them would be AKRON ? Maybe a hundred to one ? I can't wait for the Cleveland Lebron bashers to be all over this one. LeBron. You are living up to your word as an Akron boy. We thank you.

Dave, I understand what you mean here. I preach all the time about the importance of scoring those wins that get national attention. But, there's still little room for error elsewhere. Unless we plan on going 28-2 this season, those two losses will be considered "bad losses". One is tough to overcome. Two is deadly. But, as I said earlier, that doesn't mean that we still can't have a great season. It just means that our chances of an at-large bid just dropped to near impossible.

Exactly. I'm not holding my breath.

Again, Tressel is going to have a coaching ban, and many people are speculating that it will be about 5 years. So, even if you can see past all of the negatives, it isn't going to matter. He is going to be unavaliable for at least several years.

Like I keep saying, when I see higher divisions clammoring for Winters services, maybe I'll change some of my thoughts. But for now, this just about says it all. And I just find it hilarious how people compare Winters to Dambrot. That's laughable.

No kidding. Some people are blind. They had this previous infatuation with Fickell, and they still don't want to let it go. He's shown he's capable of a .500 record, with Ohio State's talent, with Akron, Toledo, and Miami as their OOC schedule. I think his best chance of having a job next year is to hope the new OSWho coach keeps him on the staff.

Well, there's still 25 games left. So, it's not panic time. But, we at least know that one option is off the table. Bye Bye At-Large Bid

Simon What's-His-Name (Frenchie's color man w/ the wicked English accent) said that penalty was truly a bad call - a phantom foul - and had a handful of his soccer-savy friends from around the country (and world?) who were watching the game online text him during the game telling him that there was no foul to be called in that instance. Terrible call & really could have shifted the momentum & eventual outcome of the game. Fortunately the Zippers came right back & laid waste to the Northwestern defense as Mattocks buried a ball in the back of their net! And that wasn't the worst call. On an earlier play, Mattocks was WELL INTO THE PENALTY AREA...WITHOUT A DOUBT on a play that only resulted in an Akron free kick. I was astounded when the ref stepped in and pointed to spot outside the box. I have no idea how me missed the correct spot, other than an intentional effort to not give Akron a penalty kick. And his willingness to give NU a penalty kick later on with a horrible call reinforces my belief even more.

Eh, keep in mind that LeBron said that when he was being interviewed by some talking head while on Columbus State's campus in front of, IIRC, about a thousand Columbus students - it was in some meeting hall, or something. He said it, waited for the crowd to cheer, & then laughed & wanted to move on to the next question. In reality, from the time LeBron was a high school sophomore he was NEVER, EVER even vaguely considering going to school. Anywhere. Not even UA w/ his best friends Dru, Rome & Willie and Coach D. It simply wasn't an option. He pimps Akron. I like how some people choose to bite the hand that feeds us. Like I said...it's a complete denial.

Are you kidding? No facilities, limited scholarships, and a D-1A program in its infancy, and he produced 4 winning seasons and the top season record in the last 25 years of the program. That's the worst coaching job ever? I'm definitely not the biggest Faust fan, but one could easily argue that Akron...alone...has had coaches that didn't accomplish what Faust accomplished. By the way, I am in the same camp with those who feel that we should bring in these ND transfers. We need to do whatever it takes to win football games. It doesn't appear that any of this kids are an academic liability, becuase they have already done well enough to graduate. And I don't see the risk of ruining the future chemistry of a team that's already broken.

Amen. Some LeBron haters are in complete denial about his ability to help get publicity for the UofA. Yet, if LeBron doesn't tweet this to his millions of followers, it likely would have never gotten the attention of a major sports commentator. Excellent example of how that connection witih Bron works for us. As I said in another thread, we might hopefully get a good indication of how much this NBA lockout benefits college basketball if there is a dramatic increase in the interest in the Akron vs. Cleveland State baskteball game. Will Cleveland area NBA fans sit on the sidelines? Or, will they turn their attention towards some D-1 college games in the area during the lockout? Any chance the NBA lockout could persuade the NCAA to allow these guys to play college ball for a year? Imagine what LeBron could do on the Zips roster. I know....that's a big dream.

Sorry guys. I couldn't root for Ken+. And certainly not against an Zips ex-coach. So what does this mean? On one hand, do we really want to know that Ken+ might be that good? Would we rather see that WVU is the beatable team right now, and worry about Ken+ later?

Last year is last year. How did Joe Paterno look last year? How about Jim Tressel? Last year doesn't mean too much. Rosters are entirely different. Is Steve McNees identical to Brian Walsh? Roberts the same as Gilliam? Bardo for Harney a 1-for-1 swap? If we were tethered to 2011, why even play the 2011-12 season? Just cut-n-paste 2010-12 and start talking about 2013 recruiting? The Zips and CSU are both MUCH better than last year. K.e.n.t. too. The Zips and CSU began their seasons with HUGE wins, not BCS losses. We drew 3,700+ for Hiram. People are on the bandwagon. Akron-CSU will be epic, as long as both teams hold up their end of the bargain and don't lay a couple eggs between now and December 10th. Bookmark this link, and bring it back on December 11th. Well see who's correct. First of all, you were wrong about the massive interest that this game was going to attract last year. And that's the only example we have right now. Secondly, concerning this year's game, how many times do I need to say, "I hope YOU are right" this time? Why do so many discussions on here have to turn into a debate as to who is right and who is wrong? That's part of the reason why so many older fans don't come here. We all want the Zips to win, and draw massive attendance numbers, correct? And to remind you, CSU was unbeaten coming into the JAR last year, so I don't understand your "BCS losses" reference. I'm just reminding you of your predictions prior to the game at JAR last year. That crowd wasn't 1/3 of the size of the crowd that showed up for the game in 1986. So, until we see otherwise, the "rivarly" is not even in the ballpark of drawing a similar level of interest, thus far. Again, I hope the lack of NBA action can help change that.

I really WANT to believe you, except that we only had 2,700 people show up for this game in Akron last year as our indicator of how much local sports fans were clammoring for a revival of this matchip. And if I recall, you had some bold predictions for that game's attendance as well. We have a VERY LONG way to go to match the WELL PAST SOLD OUT nature of the game at the JAR in 1986. I hope the lack of NBA action will help. As far as the media coverage, this is what I see happening. I tried to catch all 3 sports segments on the news late last night. All of them talked extensively about Cleveland State basketball. As long as Cleveland State is having success, we will remain primarily as the "And by the way, Akron beat Eastern Michigan tonight" mention at the very end of the sports broadcasts, from now until March.

I'll always remember this season, primarily because it became a transition year. And the quality of the schedule was always a topic of discussion after Lee was gone. The teams we beat may not have seemed "that bad" to you, but here's the numbers again, for reference. 2 wins were against lower division teams. Howard and Cal Poly. The other 5 wins were against MAC teams with a combined 12-47 record. If ever there was a Zips team that benefitted tremendously from a really favorable schedule, I'd say that was it. I think the general opinion at the time was that we were not making progress against the top teams in the league (Marshall blew us out, while racking up almost 600 yards of offense). A change had to be made to give us a shot in the arm, and gain ground on those teams. And I think the timing was perfect, based on what happened over the next two seasons under new leadership. But I really believe that was only the final straw. I wished it would have happened a year earlier, when we didn't post a win until mid-season against Liberty. I think beating a team with a QB with a broken leg was the only thing that possibly pushed the inevitable off for another year.

You know, I remember quite a few people who still post around here celebrating the dismissal of Lee Owens after my senior season over on the old angelfire board. That man was fired for a 7-5 season which included a top 10 offense and a near upset of a top Big 10 program. What would you all give for 7-5 now? I'd be nice, but not as nice as the 7-3-1 season Faust gave us or the MAC Championship season JD gave us. I couldn't have said it better myself. ITZ...go back and look up the teams LO beat that year. A few lower division teams, and some 1-A teams that ranged anywhere from Zero wins to 1-2 wins made up nearly all of those wins. We needed to show that a 20+ games under .500 resume, and beating the lowly teams in the MAC every was not going to be good enough to keep your job here. And I still want to keep asking this question.....why are the guys who ran this program back then still coaching at D-II schools? I think some things speak for themselves.

Nope. Any loss early would absolutely kill our chances at a ranking. If there's a loss in the first 5 games, I'd think we'd need to get to around our 10th or 12th game before we could erase that loss and climb again. But I'm wondering....if we have 1 vote, and WVU has 1 vote, can we expect an even matchup later this month? I doubt if Vegas would see it that way.

I guess anyone can choose to interpret this number any way they want. But, it definitively answers the question for me regarding whether our soccer attendance is due to the Zips having a nationally-successful sport, as opposed to NE Ohio being filled with soccer fanatics who are just thirsting for the opportunity to see a good soccer game. And by contrast, the last MAC football title game drew over 12,000, at a neutral site, with two teams that were also a very long way from home.

So if I am reading correctly,they could sell a bunch of tickets for only 1/3 of the established price of regular admission tickets? So 2 for one(1/2 of regular admission) would legitimately count as 2 PAID attendances? How often have they done something like that? To the best of my knowledge, not since the old Acme-Zip games.

Perfect.

And just to amplify the embarrassment from yesterday even more... Can anyone remember the last time that we were on the losing end of a blowout against Ken+? I don't know the scores, but I can't remember any during the 30 years I have followed this game, going back to my student days. As far as I can recall, during that period, we have always been on the winning end of the lopsided games. And it certainly didn't happen on our field, if there was a Ken+ blowout win during that time. Two straight losses to Ken+ including one blowout on our home field, alone, should be grounds to consider sacking an Akron coach.

I think this gets me back to something I've mentioned before. Why does rebuilding a football program have to include several years of losing? And patience with repeated losing? Ken+ is winning games now, in their first season under a new coach, who has taken some great steps to make them better. We are almost through two years of "rebuilding", with nothing to show for it.

This team is worse right now than it was at the beginning of the season. A lot of people look at the results from year to year. I like to look to see if a coach can make a team better during the course of a single season and this coach is falling well short of expectations. Maybe that's the case, and the lack of any progress should be a barometer for judging a coach. But I'm just curious. What did you find was better about the beginning of the season? The blowout loss to OSWho? Temple? or Cincinnati? Whatever hope we may have had when we played some competitive games in the middle part of the season definitely disappeared the last two weeks.