skip-zip

Please clarify. You're a Zips fan but you want us to lose our game in Cowlumbus next September? Like I say all the time, we compete against that school down south for students, athletes, faculty, and media attention. I'm a Zips fan. When OSWho fails, and it affects their ability to recruit against us for students, athletes, and faculty, and diminishes their media attention, that's a good thing for the Zips. And I want as many good things to happen for the Zips as possible.

I did say 30, and I said I'd be disappointed with anything less. Nahhh. 27 is good enough. The benches cleared with around 5 minutes left. I saw enough good stuff last night. I'm happy with Quincy. Nice to see Abreu giving us a little driving and dishing ability. And nice to see that competitive fire in Brett McKnight. I'm just happy that we played hard against a bad opponent. That's why I wanted the blowout. On the negative side, I sure wish we could find a way to get Steve some more good looks. We also need Darryl to knock down those shots off the bench. Some nights he does, and other nights he doesn't. I'm happy as heck about the contributions of McClanahan. I really think playing on the wing has helped him a lot in many areas. But, he's taking more attempts than I would like to see. I'll never be impressed with his mechanics, and I sure hope we have no plans of relying upon him too heavily as the season progresses.

Well, one thing is for sure. Based on how everyone feels about him, and everything that transpired this season, his bar has been set pretty low. So, does that mean seeing a mediocre recruiting class would be an accomplishment? Personally, with the lack of talent, and my lack of confidence in the coaching, I think the the only thing that would change my thoughts is a GREAT recruiting class. If not, I'm afraid it is going to take many years for us to dig out of this hole. Akron should be a good fit for a lot of kids right now who want to be able to play early in their careers.

I must say, I was a little bit disappointed this year when I went to the brand new stadium, and found out that I still needed to negotiate my way outside and stand in line to use the portable toilet.

That's great, but excuse me for being unknowledgable about this draft. Is this event on TV anywhere? And do more than 10 people watch it? The publicity of hearing "The University of Akron" so many times would be great, but it needs a big audience. With the average attendance for MLS being around 17,000 per game, it's safe to say more than 10 people will be watching it. Yes, I was exaggerating. I really don't know, and have never heard of this draft before. But, if only 17k show up at games, that unfortunately puts it in the same level of an Akron football game. And it brings me back to the point earlier of what kind of publicity we can possibly get by having The University of Akron's name mentioned at this draft as opposed to if these guys stayed and won more titles? I just don't see this huge publicity benefit by the University from having these guys entered in a pro soccer draft. Sorry, I can't find the positives in all of them leaving. But, I hope it all works out for them. They're great kids, great athletes, and did us proud.

That's great, but excuse me for being unknowledgable about this draft. Is this event on TV anywhere? And do more than 10 people watch it? The publicity of hearing "The University of Akron" so many times would be great, but it needs a big audience.

When we point to the 1-11 record we can boast about how "bad" this team was. When we look at the team play the last two games of the season we find a different scenario. The Zips nearly pulled off the upset of the season (for MAC play) by barely losing to a good Miami team that went on to win the MAC championship game over a favored NIU. The win over Buffalo was expected. Still, the team showed marked progress toward the end of the season. Are the Zips really all that bad? In retrospect? I see potential and growth on the part of the players and the coaching staff. The learning curve is steep. Yet, manageable. Go American football Zips. Lets just hope it's not a repeat of 2009. We won 2 games in November in 2009, yet returned to being horrible in 2010. I actually predicted back in November of this year that if we beat Buffalo, hopes would be raised once again. I see this optimism in your post as well. So, lets just hope it means something, unlike our end of season victory against Eastern Michigan the year before. Here's the old "Team A almost beat Team B, and Team B beat Team C, so Team A could beat team C". However, you forget that Team C is NIU, who destroyed us. It's impossible to compare teams with these single-game scenarios.

I don't think anything will make me happier in this off-season than to hear that we have some good new talent coming in here. We lost a good amount of good players, from a bad team. And I'm not too confident about too much of what is left. So, I don't care so much about who's calling the plays right now if we don't have the talent to execute them.

Thanks guys. I don't understand pro soccer salaries. Yes, I know it's more than a normal college grad makes. It's actually A LOT more than I made when I came out of college a looong time ago. I'm never crazy about athletes in any sport leaving college for the pros. But, when we are only talking about these kinds of numbers, it's a little puzzling to me.

Please, someone tell me what we're not understanding. I see all of the Akron guys making somewhere around 50K.

Good Lord. I had no idea. Is it worth giving up your college career for that?

That's a downer. Having them here winning more championships is to our greatest benefit, by far. Really, what value are we going to get out of the occassional mention during a pro game that a player is from Akron, when nobody watches pro soccer anyway (comparatively speaking....so relax soccer nuts)?

From 2004-2009 the Zips took 5 of 6 games against Can't. What did it do to advance the football program? Nothing. Having the Wagon Wheel is nice, beating up on the Portage County Step-Child is fun, but it has no lasting effect on the football program. Recruits don't care, Joe Akron doesn't care, the local media largely doesn't care and the national media doesn't even notice. If you can honestly look me in the eye and tell me that the same could be said about one win over OSU then you my friend are delusional. I completely agree. We can debate whether someone would like to beat Can't rather than OSWho, but the question of the value of the victory isn't even a debate. I don't think the publicity generated by every win we've ever had over Ken+ combined could equal that. Especially if OSWho is again given their customary favoritism from the sportswriters, and is near the top of the writer's poll before they even play a game.

Better yet....Wood was the Player of the Year in Finland last season.

Cincinnati did a pretty good job of that last year. Their local radio ads were HILARIOUS, if you ever got to hear them.

Absolutely agree about working the rotation for depth and continuing to adjust to having a real PG. On the officiating, there's nothing that can be done about it. There's good, fair and poor officiating. It's luck of the draw. What I would really like to see is the Zips adjust to the level of officiating rather than trying to fight it. If the refs are calling tiny touch fouls, back off and don't make tiny touches. Most of all, under no circumstances ever give tiny touches to opponents driving to the rim, allowing them to score and go to the line for the and one. Either foul them hard enough to cause them to miss the shot without being so hard as to get a flagrant, or admit you got beat and give them the bucket without the plus one. In other words, play smart. Dave, Good point about the officiating. Coaches and players normally aren't as frustrated as fans about bad officiating, as much as they are concerned about a pattern of inconsistent officiating during the course of a game. If the officials are calling everything, you adjust. If they are calling nothing, you adjust to that too. But when I am at a Zips game, I still complain about a lot of calls against us, even when I think it might have been a good call. I can't help it.

One thing tOSU fans are really good at is leaving out analysis about their team. While it is true all of the above is a fact, let's have a closer look...... GP1, Although I can certainly understand why someone might have the point of view that because the Buckeyes have underperformed in the National Championship games they are in fact inferior as a football program to the top-level SEC teams over the past 5 years, to say blanketedly that the BIG 10 conference is second tier, and in the next sentence say the BIG 12 and PAC 10 are first tier, is more than a little suspect. As a conference I would certainly put the SEC as the top one over the past decade, but after that the Big 10 is at least the equal of the PAC 10 and the BIG 12. The PAC 10 has realistically had one top program in football over the past decade, USC. The rest have been very mediocre with Oregon the past two seasons being maybe the next best( with their lone BCS appearance spoiled by a Big 10 team) and the BIG 12 has had Texas and Oklahoma and everyone else, with Oklahoma having lost their last 5 bowl games. In fact their next best program is leaving them for the Big 10 this year. I actually think that Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State over the past ten years, and this year Michigan State, would hold thier own in either of these conferences so I do not get the second tier reference to the Big 10 if you are not also counitng the Big 12 and PAC 10 in the second tier as well. Also, I hope you are not saying that Miami in 2002-2003 was a washed up program already when Ohio State beat them for the National Championship, because that would be laughable at best as they were clearly the best program over that 3 or 4 year period and that team in particular was arguably the best, or at least most talented of any team in either the BCS era or the decade prior. (Note- I do not think that is what you were saying as I think your meaning was that now they are down, correct?) Lastly, I am by no means an Ohio State homer as I am a Zips fan and University of Akron Alumni first, but I would certainly root for Ohio State over anyone else they are playing as they are my home states biggest school, and in most regards best chance for a nationally competitive team. I do enjoy reading all of these posts and can appreciate everyones differing perspectives, but I do not understand the strong hatred displayed for Ohio State and the Big 10 on this board. Have a great day. +1 (minus the whole "I root for them because they are the state's biggest school" part) Believe it or not, many OSU fans were rooting on the UA soccer team in the tourney too. The hate doesn't go both ways even in the sports UA is superior in. Buckzip, Sometimes I actually intently listen to what you have to say. Other times, I see you as the typical delusional OSWho fan. This comment from you would fall into the latter category. I'd like to introduce you to some people I know, who have done nothing since December 14th but say, "Enjoy your title in a Euro-sport that nobody cares about while we keep kicking your tails in football". And, "You guys keep talking about your soccer title because you aren't good in a REAL sport". I'm seeing a concerted effort to discredit our title that I didn't even expect. Have you seen the footage of the OSWho player kicking Nagbe in the head this year? You don't think that's frustration and a blatant lack of sportsmanship from not being able to beat us? And did you hear the comments from their coach? You don't think that's yet another example of them displaying their arrogance and self-perceived superiority over Akron? I can also introduce you to at least a dozen Zips fans that will tell you that when we go to road games, the games at OSWho are unquestionably the games where we get harrassed the worst by the home fans. Although I wouldn't believe you, you could possibly try to convince someone that these are "isolated incidents". But to flat-out say that there is NO hatred towards Akron coming from OSWho is simply ridiculous and untrue. The highlighted part is the only part I will respond to because the rest is garbage. Yes, I saw it. I also mentioned it was BS and the coach was a complete jackass for saying the red card was harsh. I also posted that clip on the OSU board to see what type of reaction it would get. With the exception of a couple of "who cares about soccer types", which by the way, we actually have here too, everyone attacked the OSU player. Not one defended him. I actually posted that when it was being discussed too. My point was that your statement indicated that there is NO hate coming from OSWho towards Akron. I see none. I can guarantee you that I know many, many, many more OSU people than you do. I can also point you to sites to prove it. All you have is your supposed friends that act that way. I also would bet that you started most of the crap with your supposed friends. This remeinds me of Cincy last year. Most OSU fans were happy that Cincy was doing well. Then the Concy fans started coming to OSU sites and saying they were the best in Ohio and OSU wanted no part of them and being complete jerks. Then of coruse the OSU fans changed their tune. I feel this is you. I have stated many times that there are bad apples everywhere. When you have as big of a fanbase as OSU does there are going to be a decent amount of jerks.. However, your thoughts that most or many are that way is completely incorrect. Again, you indicated that hatred does not exist from OSWho's side. And you'd be incredibly naive if you think that is true. We could debate the magnitude of the hatred all day long and not accomplish anything. That wasn't part of my response.

One thing tOSU fans are really good at is leaving out analysis about their team. While it is true all of the above is a fact, let's have a closer look...... GP1, Although I can certainly understand why someone might have the point of view that because the Buckeyes have underperformed in the National Championship games they are in fact inferior as a football program to the top-level SEC teams over the past 5 years, to say blanketedly that the BIG 10 conference is second tier, and in the next sentence say the BIG 12 and PAC 10 are first tier, is more than a little suspect. As a conference I would certainly put the SEC as the top one over the past decade, but after that the Big 10 is at least the equal of the PAC 10 and the BIG 12. The PAC 10 has realistically had one top program in football over the past decade, USC. The rest have been very mediocre with Oregon the past two seasons being maybe the next best( with their lone BCS appearance spoiled by a Big 10 team) and the BIG 12 has had Texas and Oklahoma and everyone else, with Oklahoma having lost their last 5 bowl games. In fact their next best program is leaving them for the Big 10 this year. I actually think that Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State over the past ten years, and this year Michigan State, would hold thier own in either of these conferences so I do not get the second tier reference to the Big 10 if you are not also counitng the Big 12 and PAC 10 in the second tier as well. Also, I hope you are not saying that Miami in 2002-2003 was a washed up program already when Ohio State beat them for the National Championship, because that would be laughable at best as they were clearly the best program over that 3 or 4 year period and that team in particular was arguably the best, or at least most talented of any team in either the BCS era or the decade prior. (Note- I do not think that is what you were saying as I think your meaning was that now they are down, correct?) Lastly, I am by no means an Ohio State homer as I am a Zips fan and University of Akron Alumni first, but I would certainly root for Ohio State over anyone else they are playing as they are my home states biggest school, and in most regards best chance for a nationally competitive team. I do enjoy reading all of these posts and can appreciate everyones differing perspectives, but I do not understand the strong hatred displayed for Ohio State and the Big 10 on this board. Have a great day. +1 (minus the whole "I root for them because they are the state's biggest school" part) Believe it or not, many OSU fans were rooting on the UA soccer team in the tourney too. The hate doesn't go both ways even in the sports UA is superior in. Buckzip, Sometimes I actually intently listen to what you have to say. Other times, I see you as the typical delusional OSWho fan. This comment from you would fall into the latter category. I'd like to introduce you to some people I know, who have done nothing since December 14th but say, "Enjoy your title in a Euro-sport that nobody cares about while we keep kicking your tails in football". And, "You guys keep talking about your soccer title because you aren't good in a REAL sport". I'm seeing a concerted effort to discredit our title that I didn't even expect. Have you seen the footage of the OSWho player kicking Nagbe in the head this year? You don't think that's frustration and a blatant lack of sportsmanship from not being able to beat us? And did you hear the comments from their coach? You don't think that's yet another example of them displaying their arrogance and self-perceived superiority over Akron? I can also introduce you to at least a dozen Zips fans that will tell you that when we go to road games, the games at OSWho are unquestionably the games where we get harrassed the worst by the home fans. Although I wouldn't believe you, you could possibly try to convince someone that these are "isolated incidents". But to flat-out say that there is NO hatred towards Akron coming from OSWho is simply ridiculous and untrue. The highlighted part is the only part I will respond to because the rest is garbage. Yes, I saw it. I also mentioned it was BS and the coach was a complete jackass for saying the red card was harsh. I also posted that clip on the OSU board to see what type of reaction it would get. With the exception of a couple of "who cares about soccer types", which by the way, we actually have here too, everyone attacked the OSU player. Not one defended him. I actually posted that when it was being discussed too. My point was that your statement indicated that there is NO hate coming from OSWho towards Akron.

Beating OSWho...without a doubt. It's an easy choice because it would do more to help our program than 20 wins against Ken+. But Dr. Z is right. An Akron team that is good enough to beat OSWho is probably going to beat Ken+ rather easily.

One thing tOSU fans are really good at is leaving out analysis about their team. While it is true all of the above is a fact, let's have a closer look...... GP1, Although I can certainly understand why someone might have the point of view that because the Buckeyes have underperformed in the National Championship games they are in fact inferior as a football program to the top-level SEC teams over the past 5 years, to say blanketedly that the BIG 10 conference is second tier, and in the next sentence say the BIG 12 and PAC 10 are first tier, is more than a little suspect. As a conference I would certainly put the SEC as the top one over the past decade, but after that the Big 10 is at least the equal of the PAC 10 and the BIG 12. The PAC 10 has realistically had one top program in football over the past decade, USC. The rest have been very mediocre with Oregon the past two seasons being maybe the next best( with their lone BCS appearance spoiled by a Big 10 team) and the BIG 12 has had Texas and Oklahoma and everyone else, with Oklahoma having lost their last 5 bowl games. In fact their next best program is leaving them for the Big 10 this year. I actually think that Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State over the past ten years, and this year Michigan State, would hold thier own in either of these conferences so I do not get the second tier reference to the Big 10 if you are not also counitng the Big 12 and PAC 10 in the second tier as well. Also, I hope you are not saying that Miami in 2002-2003 was a washed up program already when Ohio State beat them for the National Championship, because that would be laughable at best as they were clearly the best program over that 3 or 4 year period and that team in particular was arguably the best, or at least most talented of any team in either the BCS era or the decade prior. (Note- I do not think that is what you were saying as I think your meaning was that now they are down, correct?) Lastly, I am by no means an Ohio State homer as I am a Zips fan and University of Akron Alumni first, but I would certainly root for Ohio State over anyone else they are playing as they are my home states biggest school, and in most regards best chance for a nationally competitive team. I do enjoy reading all of these posts and can appreciate everyones differing perspectives, but I do not understand the strong hatred displayed for Ohio State and the Big 10 on this board. Have a great day. +1 (minus the whole "I root for them because they are the state's biggest school" part) Believe it or not, many OSU fans were rooting on the UA soccer team in the tourney too. The hate doesn't go both ways even in the sports UA is superior in. Buckzip, Sometimes I actually intently listen to what you have to say. Other times, I see you as the typical delusional OSWho fan. This comment from you would fall into the latter category. I'd like to introduce you to some people I know, who have done nothing since December 14th but say, "Enjoy your title in a Euro-sport that nobody cares about while we keep kicking your tails in football". And, "You guys keep talking about your soccer title because you aren't good in a REAL sport". I'm seeing a concerted effort to discredit our title that I didn't even expect. Have you seen the footage of the OSWho player kicking Nagbe in the head this year? You don't think that's frustration and a blatant lack of sportsmanship from not being able to beat us? And did you hear the comments from their coach? You don't think that's yet another example of them displaying their arrogance and self-perceived superiority over Akron? I can also introduce you to at least a dozen Zips fans that will tell you that when we go to road games, the games at OSWho are unquestionably the games where we get harrassed the worst by the home fans. Although I wouldn't believe you, you could possibly try to convince someone that these are "isolated incidents". But to flat-out say that there is NO hatred towards Akron coming from OSWho is simply ridiculous and untrue.

I don't even think "improving" was even part of the process here. This guy was clearly ready to produce from day one. I think the only thing that slowed the process a bit was our coach feeling comfortable that he was going to do what he wanted him to do.

Since we're talking about another secondary sport like hockey, it brings up an interesting thought. I'm a huge college sports fan, and have been for all of the nearly 50 years I've been on this planet. Or, at least as long as I can remember. However, I don't believe I've ever watched a college hockey game. And I do like the sport. I do know they have a championship, but I've never seen that either. Do they televise any of the games? I do have some familiarity with some of the best teams, at least in the sense that they come from places like New England, Minnesota and Michigan, but mostly from having an interest in the 1980 Olympic hockey team, which featured players from schools in those areas. But, I don't think I could pinpoint one specifically. There's certainly no way I can tell you which schools won any recent championships, and couldn't name a single players on any team. I also have some knowledge of Miami and BG being competitive at times on the national stage over the years. With this being my limited knowledge of college hockey, can I really expect even the more avid of college sports fans to take notice of our soccer championship? Is that even realistic? Nearly everyone I've talked to over the last couple of weeks claims to have no idea what just happened here, and it's frustrating to me. For our benefit, I sure hope that college soccer is a lot bigger draw than college hockey. But, I simply have no idea.

When I first saw "Holiday Cupcakes" I thought it was going to be another thread about the majority of the teams on OSWho's football schedule. I would not have been worried about this game at all if it wasn't for what I personally witnessed about a week ago against Bethune-Cookman. The scary thing is that we just have no idea how this team is going to play from game to game, and I had hoped that these two games WOULD have been practice games. And this UAPB team is going to be athletic, which can create problems for us Fortunately for us, we just added a guy to the rotation that this team has relied upon many times in the past to pick up the load offensively. And if the Miami-Fla. game is any indication, maybe we'll have to worry a lot less now about scoring droughts. With that said, I'll say the same thing I said before the Bethune game....if we don't win by 30, I'll be disappointed.

I was wondering the same thing. I was hoping he was maybe on a path to become a head coach someday.

I have a friend who has always said, "Tressel is one bad pass interference call away from being John Cooper" I actually know a lot of people who say this. And it's pretty easy to take this point of view when you consider their recent record against high-ranked teams, and in those national championship games.