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Was at the game. No,there were not anywhere close t0 14,000 in the place. Assuming they counted the high school bands and the no shows I doubt they could come up with 14,000. Our season tickets are in 212. It was REALLY sparse up there. Has been for both games. There were maybe 9,000 actually there. I also noticed the student section was practically empty. The grass was not crowded either. I am still not surprised at attendance. Even when the program was winning and going to playoffs in the 60's and 70's it was like this. Lee...If I exclude every Acme-Zip game, I can pretty much agree with you. For the younger folks, please understand that this isn't a matter of us drifting away from some previous high standard. We may be really down right now, but it's not like tens of thousands of people have stopped coming to Akron football games over the years. I can point to many, many important games in Akron's football history where the crowds weren't a whole lot bigger than they were yesterday. And we've ALWAYS struggled to reach the minimum average attendance mark for D-1A. But, this is different now. The frustration and pressure comes from the fact that we now have great facilities, and they are on campus, and there's plenty of good bathrooms. Unfortunately, I think the people who made those excuses for so many years were fooling us. There's simply poor interest in Akron football in this community, and it's unfortunately peaking at a low point right after we've put some pieces in place that should be making it grow more than ever. Yes...frustrating.

I've already stated many times that I would absolutely PASS on Winters, and have stated why. And I was pretty much done with the topic again until I saw this. So, because Keith was an "Akron Guy" and has done very well with the basketball program, we could predict Winters future success because he is an "Akron Guy" too? First, there is no comparison between Keith and Winters, in many, many ways, including that one was a previous D-1A MAC head coach, and the other has D-II as his highest level of head coaching experience. Secondly, I am completely puzzled as to why some people continue to use "He's an Akron Guy" as his big qualifying criteria. We've had this discussion many times among long-time friends and supporters. And I can tell you, the overwhelming consensus among the people I know is that we would want the best coach....period....whether he hails from Akron or from Alaska. Maybe we should have passed on Caleb since he wasn't an "Akron Guy"

In addition to what I've posted on here before, about student attendance being couinted as "paid" because it's part of their fees, I have also since found out that there are many other requirements to qualifying your attendance, including audits. They aren't "made up" numbers. Bobby, I know you were hoping that soccer would reach an average near 5,000 this year. I was pulling for you. But as I said, the problem in reaching that average was going to be that there would be low games. With 4,300 and 2,300 at the last two home games, you will likely fall way short of that mark. I think your estimates showed that you would predict 5,100 and 4,500 at those two games just to give us a chance at a 4,500 average. Falling 3,000 short of your estimates in those two games combined is just an incredible shortfall to make up in soccer. Maybe a number in the 3.500 to 4,000 range might still be attainable? I don't know. Remember, season ticket holders in soccer that do not show up are also counted. And there are companies that buy tickets that don't get used, same as football. there's no longer a reason to debate this. I could take pictures at every game to give good estimates but it's a worthless effort. For those that want to assume the soccer team outdraws the football team, that's a very safe assumption. For those that want to deny it, all you have to do is point to the official 14,257 number. I'll give the VMI game the benefit of the doubt and estimate actual attendance at 6,000, the Temple game around 10,000. Akron Football will average around 4,500 over the next 4 home games which will give them a total attendance of 34,000 for the entire year. Akron Soccer plays 10 home games and needs to average 3,400 per game to match that. Averaging 3,400 per game should be realistic considering the OSU game will bring in at least 4,500. The only reason I compare both programs is because I've seen people argue on here that soccer could not outdraw football. In the case of Akron, it does. The only problem is the football numbers are way off the actual and makes this comparison irrelevant. I understand the University has to meet attendance requirements to avoid trouble with the D1A status, so I'm not against them doing what has to be done to inflate attendance. They're also hiding the attendance problem from the hippies. The last thing we need is people crying about the costs to build the Info when only 35% of it is filled for games. As far as continuing this, it's a worthless effort. Attendance for Akron Football games have been inflated in the past so it doesn't make sense to start using estimates on actual, and compare those to prior year inflated numbers. Well, I'm glad to see that you've adjusted your soccer prediction from 4,800 to 3,400 average. I think that's a much more attainable number. And I hope that happens. Now, if that becomes the average, and soccer ends up somewhere around 30,000 total, the 4 remaining home football games, which includes Ken+, will make the total football attendance and soccer attendance comparisons a no-brainer. If someone else is more knowledgable on this subject, please let me know. But, as far as I know, "no-shows" count the same in football as in soccer. They both count as paid attendance. Student attendance is counted the same way in both sports too, with a swipe of student IDs as they enter. And both sports count the blocks of corporate tickets the same way, by counting what was purchased, and not who actually attended. These shortfalls in football are obviously going to be blatantly more noticable in a 30,000 seat venue, especially when it includes interior concourses, luxury suites and an entire club level floor. Go Zips on Wednesday. And I hope everyone takes advantage of their opportunity to get rid of any of your ugly red and silver shirts that you may have laying around.

In addition to what I've posted on here before, about student attendance being couinted as "paid" because it's part of their fees, I have also since found out that there are many other requirements to qualifying your attendance, including audits. They aren't "made up" numbers. Bobby, I know you were hoping that soccer would reach an average near 5,000 this year. I was pulling for you. But as I said, the problem in reaching that average was going to be that there would be low games. With 4,300 and 2,300 at the last two home games, you will likely fall way short of that mark. I think your estimates showed that you would predict 5,100 and 4,500 at those two games just to give us a chance at a 4,500 average. Falling 3,000 short of your estimates in those two games combined is just an incredible shortfall to make up in soccer. Maybe a number in the 3.500 to 4,000 range might still be attainable? I don't know. Remember, season ticket holders in soccer that do not show up are also counted. And there are companies that buy tickets that don't get used, same as football.

That.......Is........Beautiful !!! It's about time.

Does that mean you pass on him as a head coach at this point in time? Or does that mean that, regardless of whatever he accomplishes outside of UA, you would NEVER want to see him back at his alma mater as a HC? I can't say never because I can't predict the future. However, he has only coached D2 and has been mediocre. Sure he has had some decent seasons, but not consistently. If he was a good HC he would have moved up past D2 by now. That's exactly what I say too.

PN7 has appeared in all three games this year. Here are his stats. 6 completions on 17 attempts for 43 yards. That's a 35% completion for 2.5 yards per catch. No TDs with 1 interception and 3 sacks. You can add 7 drops that makes him 13 for 17 and the interception was from a hit from behind Why do WR's only drop balls for Nicely? People like Dave and I keep asking the same question. I don;t think we've ever gotten an answer.

PN7 has appeared in all three games this year. Here are his stats. 6 completions on 17 attempts for 43 yards. That's a 35% completion for 2.5 yards per catch. No TDs with 1 interception and 3 sacks. .....and in two of those games, it was late in the game, playing against the scrubs.

If all of the Ohio schools competed with each other for the state title, I'd definitely have to say that they are clearly the team to beat right now.

I remember (not to long ago) a previous administration trying to make all the home games festive. They used to have live area bands, giveaways, marching band playing in the lot, cheerleaders, kids events, a visible (mascot) zippy, that big chocolate blow up zippy, beer tents, etc.. I thought they did a pretty good job. Do they have any of that anymore? I don't wander from Lot 9, but other than the same people trying to sell me some useless towel/rag, not much university sponsored stuff goes on. Personally I don't need all of that stuff, but I know most enjoy that kind of atmosphere. I see the problem right here in your own post. It's a lot harder to accomplish those kinds of things now with everyone scattered around campus on game day. It's definitely one of things I miss about the Rubber Bowl. But still, the Acme/Zip game included several days of build up too. You heard about it in the ads. Cheerleaders were in the lobbies of all of the stores, and everyone in town knew about the upcoming game.

Me too.

They should have done everything possible to ensure that it never went away to begin with. I don't care if it didn't make money for the U. It was at least one time a year that you could guarantee a festive atmosphere for an Akron football game. I looked forward to it, regardless of how the team was doing. We don't have games like that anymore. We desperately need something to fuel some excitement again.

Gardner Webb....haunting us once again. Why wouldn't a team like VMI gain a tremendous amount of confidence in knowing what their fellow conference member accomplished here last year? I'm not sure if we have all grasped the importance of this game. A loss tomorrow, coupled with the GW loss from last year, has the potential to bury our football program for many, many years.

Like all things Big Ten, the past is greater than the present. The game is now an opening act for more important games. But sadly, as I mentioned earlier, most of those fans are ingrained from birth with beliefs that aren't supported by fact, and will probably continue to lash out and maintain their position, regardless of what data you present to them, for as long as college football exists on this planet.

Why do you say that? What ignorance is showing in this thread? I expected to see OSU/UM. It's billed as "The Game". I expected to see UT/OU. I mean after all, Texas is the 800 pound gorilla in the state with the 2nd largest population. I sure as hell didn't expect to see Oregon/Arizona in there. I knew the SEC was popular, but I thought there would be some other conferences represented. I figured OSU/Wisky would be a potential top tenner. But I guess that shows his little I know about CFB. I am sure you could rattle off the list before you even saw it.I did too. But its absence speaks volumes.

Thanks for the info. Auburn-Alabama at the top? NO surprise at all. If you've ever been to the south, and been away from all of the brainwashed OSWho fans, you'd realize this is the biggest rivalry in college football. SEC title game near the top. No surprise either.Boise -VT is a shocker. I'm still laughing about the OSWho - Michigan game not even being in the top 10.

Zips 34-10Please lets put all of this misery to an end !!!!

You're not the first one to make this assumption. I guess you have to wonder. I want to see Moore's production improve a lot this week also. And he should be pressured to start showing us more, and become more efficient. But regardless of what happens, he's still roughly 16 games short of the other experiment that failed. So, if Moore does not start to show his ability during the next several games, I sure hope we don't wait that long to pull the plug. Although, we really only have one more QB that we haven't seen play very much, don't we?

Yes, that is correct. An OSU win knocks down Louisville further in the polls, and also bolsters Akron's RPI.Hope for a win from a sports program that already believes they are superior to us, kicked a ball at the head of one of our players last year out of frustration, and has a coach that seemed to excuse it as something minor?I have them 2nd to Ken+ on my list of schools I like to see lose. And if they didn't have an attitude like they are God's gift to college athletics, I probably wouldn't care what they were doing down there.

Forget about soccer for a moment. Soccer merchandise doesn't sell, which is why you don't see much of it. But....just the idea of having ANY type of shirt that says AKRON and NATIONAL CHAMPIONS should be enough to move more Akron merchandise in this town. I'm shocked that this opportunity hasn't been exploited.

And what makes you think that someone with a coaching job at UCLA is going to leave that for AKRON?Anyway, please don't hijack the thread. This is not about "who" we could get.The question is, should UA take a shot at getting Hix if his playing days are over?With his experience, I think it could be a great fit.Because he'd be a Head Coach at a D-1A school instead of an Offensive Coordinator? JD didn't seem to have any problem leaving a longtime OC job at Pitt to take over a D-1A program as the head guy. I'd love to see us pursue Johnson too. Hixon? Has he ever coached anything? Maybe a WR coach somewhere would be more fitting? For those of you who haven't noticed, I am wholeheartedly against bringing a particular D-2 coach up to our level, and he is an Akron alum. So, how on earth could I find a way to support bringing in another ex-player who hasn't even coached at all?I really find that these kinds of discussions add to our "small time" complex. Becoming our football coach makes you the head of one of the 120 schools who are at the highest level of college football. That should attract interest from a heck of a lot more good candidates than an ex-player with low level experience, or no experience at all.

All of these cities I am referring to don't necessarily have winning programs either.It's a matter of local school pride and support. Unfortunately, too many people see the school two hours away as their "local" team. Trust me, I've been to many cities with D-1 colleges, and I see their merchandise and signs everywhere. And they aren't the merchandise and signs of the "main team" in that state. Akron could do the same, and for whatever reason, they don't.

I'm not surprised. What sickens me is that I have been to so many other cities with major colleges across the country. It seems like every one of them is PACKED with merchandise for their team. All of the store fronts are painted with the school colors and "Go __________ " signs in the windows. And these are in places where the state has other major programs, just like Ohio.It doesn't happen here. I don't get it.

You build success with great people. With visionaries. With calculated risks. With money, spent wisely. With intestinal fortitude.The Zips spent a ton of cash on a football practice facility and a stadium, and thought that was all that was necessary. There's a reason Notre Dame has sucked for two decades -- it's more than money.I assume I will be dead before the Zips figure out a way to be competitive at any level of D1 football again. It's too easy to be cheap, unimaginative, short-sighted, low-aiming, and K.e.n.t.-esque. Good old K.e.n.t....they suck, so why should we try to be better? Let's play them in the Toilet Bowl every season, and hope for a win or two against 1-AA programs. Yippee.Losing 23-of-27 sucks. Does anyone else care? I think many of us have this same common understanding. I'm seeing "it takes more than money" and "if everything goes right". And here's another example that we lived through right here in Akron. I was still on campus as a student when Gerry was hired as the coach in the mid 80s. I totally bought into the what the administration was selling....that bringing in a high profile coach could send Akron to the upper echelon of college football. And we did get tons of media attention. And we did get some great players.And the community got interested. And our number of wins began to climb. And we did have several winning seasons.But, the deficit in scholarships took awhile to overcome.At times, injuries became a problem, and the depth wasn't there. The grass practice fields didn't come for years,Players were still using classrooms in the back of the JAR as a weight facility. Stadium ideas never materialized. When our prez eventually left to go to Auburn, I had a bad feeling that the commmitment and the vision had come to an end. So again, some things came together, but not nearly enough to give the improbable dream a chance to become reality.

There are some good comments in this thread, but I think this one is the most notable.Far too many people on this website talk about Akron becoming Temple or Boise or TCU. Just like in basketball, where we talk about being Gonzaga or Butler.Unfortunately, dozens of football programs are working hard every year to become part of the elite category. In basketball, it's hundreds of programs yearning to be mentioned with the top dogs, and working their butts off to try to get there. Using these examples to say "Why can't Akron be like that" has to come with the realization that these cases are extremely rare, and need so many things to fall into place. So, yes. Unfortunately, we're far more likely to "crash and burn", than we are to join the few who have risen from the ashes to join the elite.