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Hey, with all of this WR depth and speed, wouldn't it be nice to see some 5-Receiver sets from time to time? I don't think anyone in the MAC would be prepared to defend such a situation.

Thinking of David Harvey....Last year's season was filled with such high expectations, and many of the guys that got it done for us during the previous MAC title season were not getting it done.So it makes you wonder....Even though we had a frustrating sub-500 season...it could have turned into a total disaster without some of the big plays made by David Harvey.We need you back!!

Again, I hope that happens. But 2 years seems like an optimistic timetable. As someone mentioned, we have to "clean all the junk out of that area". For those of you now familiar with the process, they have to negotiate land purchases with each individual property owner. Hopefully, that process is underway.If just one of them holds out, you can have significant delays. Believe me, I experienced this problem once first-hand when my company was expanding its offices.

I'm guessing this one will not be open to the public since they may be wanting to run some of the offensive and defensive plays that they will be using this season, and were "hiding" from the public eye during the first spring game.

Of course, that is what JD is being told. Sometimes people speak optimistically when telling a coach about those kinds of things, especially when they want to keep a coach excited about what lies ahead in terms of benefits for his program.I hope it's right. However, I have heard that our first home game, if the stadium is finished in 2009, would be Kentucky. Anyone else have any other information on this?

Folks....I am as big of a Zips fan as there is....but...Let's be realistic. A "bigger" league is not going to want us when, in terms of PEOPLE IN THE SEATS, we can only get about 5,000 people to go to a football game, and about 2,000 for a basketball game.Can you imagine an official from the Big East coming to an Akron football game and looking around and saying to himself, "Wow, look at all this fan support, we think this school should be a part of our league."Unless we can change that, it's not gonna happen.

I've actually spent some time around that campus over the years, making several business trips down to Blacksburg. I was also at the game that we played there in 1995 that we lost 77-27, and was at the game between VT and Florida State during Michael Vick's last year of college. The people there are great, including everyone I've met in the hotels and restaurants. It's such a nice, peaceful place. It's almost unthinkable that something like this can happen in a place like that.I join the nation in thinking about, and pray for, the nice people and students in Blacksburg.

I'll add some thoughts....1) A defensive unit tends to gel much faster than an offensive unit. So I was not surprised, especially since the Defense was the more experienced unit to begin with.2) I like Hakes' leadership and foot speed. He seemed excited to be out there. But he threw several passes that wobbled. That bothered me. 3) The offensive line seemed confused at times, and was not picking up the correct blocking assignments. 4) NO receivers were getting open, but please remember that Arthur, Lindsay, and Harvey were not there. Still, I HOPE this means that our DB crew is going to play as advertised this coming year. 5) I now believe that teams really do "hold back" on their play calls during spring for fear that opponents may catch on to their scheme for the upcoming season. If you noticed, you saw very few roll-outs from the QB's, and that is something we are supposed to see quite a bit of this year.6) I'm hoping that Cecchetti and Lively really do emerge as adequate defensive ends. And they both played well today.

For the last couple of few, myself and some other older alums have tailgated in the parking lot before the spring game. Unfortunately, we are going to have to do that inside this year. So, we'll probably be at BW3 or Jillians.

Hook, Line and Drinkers - Portage Lakes

GP1....for the same reason we wanted Charlie to go to the Browns. We want to have more opportunities to see him play. And we can do that if he is only an hour away. Plus, he's able to come to Akron more often. Don't you think it helps for college kids to get visits from their ex-teamate that is now in the NFL?Having a former Zip who becomes a pro playing close to Akron has a number of advantages. But I understand your point about not wanting him playing on a crappy team.

I've said it once, and I will say it again. Besides the few that are as tough as Charlie Frye, there is NO QUARTERBACK, college or pro, that can handle being subjected to the beating that any of them will take if they are the Browns quarterback over the next few years. And the Browns braintrust cannot possibly be foolish enough to put a multi-million dollar high draft pick into that position. It would spell disaster for this franchise.

In a Univesity ad in the sports page of today's Beacon Journal, it still shows the baseball game is taking place. Unbelievable.

Wow. I can't argue with the Maurice Clarett comparisons. Very Interesting.

blueandgold...That could be a factor. This area certainly has quite a bit more competition for fan support.

You know, after reading that article in a little more detail, some of the data is pretty compelling.What really go me is that the worst.....WORST.....average attendance of any team in the MVC is 4,300. This surpasses all but a couple of teams in the MAC. Does this make anyone sick? And it's Indiana State, which is located in the middle of nowhere, in a town about the size of something like Ravenna. I'd like to know if these schools saw dramatic increases in their attendance after they made these decisions that raised the overall ranking of the conference. If that is the case, it would be hard to argue that these folks haven't identified a formula for mid-major success, both in increasing your number of post-season bid, AND in increasing attendance numbers.

Wow. You hate to see this, but it's really not surprising. I made numerous posts on here during the season about this program having a long, long, long way to go. They won a few games during the non-conference schedule to some nobodys, but then the conference schedule ended up being pretty predictable. It has to be frustrating to someone of her caliber when you lose games by 30 and 40 points to teams in your own league!!....at home!! And with no light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon, you get this kind of news.

I've been in favor of a dome for 25 years now. It would be a nice and unique type of facility that could really help our growth as a University, and a community. Especially if it has multiple uses.It also solves our problem of not having a facility large enough to have big basketball games. Which would also provide a solution to having to replace the JAR with a larger basketball arena.

I still would like to see a couple of high-ranked teams on our schedule each year. It helps recruiting and fan interest.And this year in particular, the Nevada game presented a great opportunity for some national notoriety. And those kinds of wins really get the attention of post-season selection committees, if you can pull an upset.

Zipmeister, you couldn't be more right.Women's Archery stands a better chance than Men's Hockey because of Title IV.

Army beat us 20-0 two years ago. And that was our MAC championship season. It better not be a repeat performance.

The NBA only has two rounds these days, so we won't get drafted.Although he was a good fit in the MAC, he has too many negatives as an NBA player. Not big enough to be a post player, and not a good enough jump shot to play facing the basket as a small forward. And he doesn't have the foot speed to guard an NBA small forward, many of whom love to slash with lightning quickness to the basket. Many good MAC post players over the years have fallen into this category. Sure, maybe the Cavs will give him a tryout due to his LeBron connection. But if he wants to, I think he can play pro ball for the next several years somewhere in Europe.

Blue and Gold...you hit it on the head.Dru Joyce would never be able to shake an NBA defender. And the NBA has no room for a guard who cannot penetrate or create his own shot. Plus, I'm not sure he could guard any NBA-level guard either. If you look back, Eric McLaughlin never made it to the NBA either, and he had some of these skills which Dru does not have.But this is not to say that Dru has not done a nice job being our floor general for the last few years. We'll miss him.

My observations...It's too bad Jabari didn't have two years left. If so, he could have possibly been moved back to quarterback. But, I don't think that is our problem area.I keep hearing about the secondary over and over and over. Yes, we know we have a great and deep secondary. And I'm thinking the linebacker crew is in pretty good shape too. But again, where's our defensive line? According to the starters listed on the depth chart, Robinson is probably the only legitimate defensive lineman, in terms of his size, speed, and ability. Fleming says that Cecchetti is a "proven stater", and I'll have to see that to believe it. That would be a HUGE surprise to me if he's developing into a good, every-down MAC defensive lineman.Here's the real area of concern for me...We had trouble running the ball last year with an experienced offensive line. And I'm just HOPING that guys like Tim Crouch, who appeared to be losing skills during the course of last year, were left in as starters out of respect for their career accomplishments, and not because they were far better than the guys backing them up. If the latter is the case, we're in big trouble.

Until Title IX is evaluated again, logically, several programs will continue to exist in order to fulfill those requirements.