skip-zip

My thoughts....OSU gets the front of the sports page in the Beacon Journal every Sunday during football season. I think this is why I hate them more than anything else.Michigan lost to Ohio State by 3, on the road, for their only loss. If there is a better team out there, I want to know who it is. Urban Meyer definitely got some sympathy for all his complaining about the BCS system.I still want to see OSU lose. It will still be a HUGE upset if we beat them next year.

It looks like we get more press coverage on the road.I bet Joyce and Travis are about tired of being asked "What was it like playing with LeBron James" by now.

It still amazes me that we can't get people to go to Akron games, but Missoula Montana can pack a football stadium.

I made this same point with someone last night!! I can't wait for the polls to come out this week!!

Nice win for the Zips. Nice to see that our OWN PAPER made little mention of it in the back of the sports section. Sad.We'll be lucky if we get 5,200 for even our most anticipated matchups this year.

I love the comments. I really hope that everyone can come together for the most practical solution. This type of facility would open up SO many possibilties for this county. But, if Akron Football is not a part of the equation, its a HUGE waste of money.

Rowdy....Thanks for the pic of Boise State's stadium. I agree that a stadium like that would be nice. I know I don't want anything like they have at Bowling Green where they have a big set of stands on one side, and it's mostly open the rest of the way around.I still like the idea of an indoor stadium, where they can use it for big basketball games as well. It was originally proposed in the 80's as a smaller version of the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. But that was when a previous administration had wanted to build us as a major independent. We'll NEVER see anything like that as a MAC school. But, I can keep dreaming.

I was wondering how long it was going to take for someone to bring this up.First of all, I want to ask anyone out there if they think that 20,000 people will ever attend a soccer game in Macedonia? I think this is clearly a situation where Wohlstein wants this ego-gratifying stadium, and is trying to sell it to us by pointing out the potential for other things to be built around it that will create jobs.NO, I do not believe that the taxpayers of Summit County will want Akron to build a new football stadium with any kind of public funds after this soccer stadium is built, if the soccer stadium does in fact get built first. The logical question is: Why can't the university build a 25,000 seat retractable-roof football stadium, and allow it to be used for soccer as well? I think the public will buy into that idea much better. If any of you are old enough to remember this, Bill Muse and Gerry Faust tried to engineer some sort of joint project with the city of Akron to build a multi-purpose indoor facility downtown in the mid-80's that could have football, soccer, AND host some of our larger basketball contests. And the project fell through due to lack of support.If this soccer stadium does get built first, I have a bad bad feeling that we'll be playing in the Rubber Bowl for quite a few more years.

Wow. How quickly I forgot about Louisville and Cal. Probably because we were blown out. We do need to BEAT a tournament-caliber team if we want to be considered for an at-large.Let me point something else out. I know a bit about the Sun Belt conference because I have family that graduated from a couple of those schools. They aren't a MAC level conference, but they aren't that bad. And Arkansas Little Rock will probably win that conference this year, and receive an automatic bid. Which would have made it GREAT for us if we had beaten them. But I just wanted to point out that we did not lose to a bad team.I really believe that the Nevada game cost us our at-large bid last year. So, the game against them this year, and the bracket buster game will have a big bearing on our chances of getting an at-large if we do not win the MAC.

No doubt that people will be looking at this game if we are contending for an at-large birth in March. Fortunately, we have other quality opponents outside of our league this year. As opposed to last year when they only had the Nevada game to look at in deciding how we stacked up against non-league foes.

Zipcode. I just looked at my own diploma (can you tell I don't pull it out of the drawer very often?), and it does say "The University of Akron", and it's from 1987. I wonder why I had that t-shirt as a freshman that said "Akron University"?

I was a student in the early 80's, and remember having a t-shirt that said "Akron University". So, I believe they were using that name for awhile, and changed it to The University of Akron sometime around 1990.I've worked in sales and marketing for the past 15 years, and some things I'm seeing are really hard to believe as well. Not only is the volume of marketing really lacking, but the message is flawed as well. Has anyone heard the basketball commercials that say something like "come fear the roo and support the zips"? Well, if I remember correctly, its our OPPONENTS that are supposed to fear the roo, not us. Plus, the Fear The Roo concept is supposed to be a mean characterization of Zippy. Yet, the music in the ads sound like The Wiggles are singing it. It just totally misses the mark.This really is the nature of athletic administration. It's not anyone's fault. People are brought in from other places, and simply do not have a grasp of the school, the city, and the fans. This creates a situation where you can easily communicate the wrong message, or target the wrong audience. And those are essential elements in a marketing campaign. Look at Can't's ads in the Beacon Journal with their "On The Hunt" campaign. You can say what you want about Can't, but I can easily tell that those ads were created by professionals who knew what they were doing, knew their audience, and came up with a very creative concept to try to reach them.However, in spite of their ads they still suck.

I know. This early part of the season is when I like to take my clients to games. And there are very few early games this year. And I wasn't going to miss seeing Charlie (although I wish I had) to go to the Tiffin game.

I hope you're right. Because, I think we desperately need his size. I just hope we can get it done with 6-6 post people. That could be done in the MAC.

I LOVE that Can't is staying home. It's the only real enjoyment I got out of this season. I remember walking out the Dix Stadium, and watching all of the Can't fans thinking that they were going to win the MAC. It's sweet to think about how they must all feel now.

Rowdy...I hear ya. Although, back in my time, we got by on borrowing about $10,000 to get us through 4 years. Took me 10 years to pay that off!!

All I know is...Gary Watters left Can't to catapult his career into the big time, and now finds himself in East Cleveland trying to make a living. That's what happens to people who win a little bit in the "small time", and think that they deserve so much more.

I have a hard time buying that he is the worst in the NFL. But frankly, I am just happy that an Akron quarterback is a starter in the NFL. That really helps our visibility tremendously.

After watching OU's defense manhandle us. And seeing that a good Western Michigan team wasn't able to score much on Central recently, I just can't see many points scored in this one. Central appears to be the better team. And if they play like they played against Western, they could turn it into a blowout.Central-17 OU-10

Rowdy... You're probably right. NIU would have gotten that bowl bid over us because of the draw that Wolf brings. However, if we had won our last two games, and been 7-5, and had just beaten WMU, we probably would be going to the International Bowl instead of WMU.

Interesting. Bubba likely made the decision to transfer after Nick Dials took his playing time. And since he's left, it allowed Cedrick Middleton to develop more as a backup. I think we have better team unity without him, even though he was talented. I'm sure there will be some nights this year where we could use his 3-point shooting streaks.

A reminder that we wasted a great opportunity in the last two weeks of the season, even if we were not going to win the MAC.

74...you make a couple of good points.Our linebackers are a bit undersized. This could explain why we had some games this year where we were worn down by a good running attack, especially from the quarterbacks we faced.We don't have a hard hitting safety. John Mackey is the closest thing, but he plays more of a rover-small linebacker position.Ironically, we complained all year about the kicking game, and I don't really think that ever cost us a game that we were not going to lose anyway.

Hey Guys,Ahh.. Who can forget the things he said after he lost to Akron. if I recall, he referred to the fact that the MAC allows "lower standard" for player admission, which only applied to 2 guys on our entire roster.Now.....Most "big conference" schools would just woop our butts, and nothing else would be said about it. But, since he could not do that, he is left with nothing but excuses.What makes me laugh is that he had to sit in the AD's office this morning, trying to save his job, and I envision the conversation going something like this...AD: So, you think you should still be here?Coach: Yes, we had a tough year. We'll do better next year.AD: Dude, you lost to Akron, a 5-7 team from the MAC, at HOME.Coach: Yes.....but.....they cheat.AD: Dude...drop it....it's time to go....here's a box to clean out your desk.

TX. I really hope JD does not leave. And it looks like everyone is expecting that the UC Coordinator that has the interim post could very well be their next head coach.I see the name Paul Winters circulating on here. For a number of reasons, I would really be dissappointed if we went in that direction.Honestly, I don't think UC would hire JD at this stage. And if that does happen, I would also want to see a D-1 Offensive or Defensive Coordinator get the job.