skip-zip

I guess it really is hard to put a finger on a number after all. I'm just thinking that, with the 5 closed end zone sections, that only leaves about 20-25 thousand available. So, if the rest of the place is half full, you'd have 10-12 thousand. And several sections (like the student sections) had very few people in them.I may sometimes guess a bit low because of my frustration over the community involvement, and the lack of a good marketing effort. I've sat in the home reserved section for over 20 years, and it's still very dissappointing to look around and see so many empty seats. Yes, I know they are sold, but I wish more people would come.

Sure, JD has been placed on a pedestal too early in his career at Akron. But, I do take exception to the comment that Lee Owens doesn't deserve the criticism he gets. In the year Owens was fired (2003), he was 7-5. The 7 wins were against two 1-AA teams, and five 1-A teams with a combined record of 12-50.The other year in which he won 7 game (1999), the seven teams he defeated had a combined record of 18-60.And these were his two BEST YEARS!!!I think Lee Owens should have lost his job because of his overall record, which shows that he was 20+ games UNDER .500 over 9 years, and he never made any progress against the contending teams in the MAC during that time. Plus, he never even WENT to a MAC Championship game during that time, let alone win one. Gerry Faust gets alot of criticism too, but he had worse facilities than Owens had, and had to start the 1-A program from scratch, and still managed to be at the .500 mark going into his last season as coach.I'm just not buying into a theory that Lee Owens would have done better than Brookhart in the 2004 season. After 9 years, he could not get it done, so what makes anyone think that he could have done it with one more try?The bottom line is that you need to make progress towards championships. And with 9 years, and no progress, you have to make a change. And in Owens' case, I think that the change took about 5 years too long.

mcperp....love your comment about people asking for returns on their waxbeans. That's hilarious. Folks, please guess wisely. The bowl holds about 34,000. With 5 sections closed in the horseshoe end, that cuts it to about 20,000-25,000 capacity. So, if you say that you think there was about 10,000, you would be assuming that about half of the other seats were filled. And that's really an incredible stretch. The student sections were about 10% full. I sit in the 40 to 40 yard line reserved section, and that was about maybe 20% full at best. I would grant you that it was one of the better crowds of the season. But, I know the rubber bowl, and I will honestly tell you that there was not any more than 5,000 there.

Herein lies a great question. When a coach is honestly stating what he thinks is wrong, is he making excuses? or just trying to be frank with the fans?In Lee Owens' case, he always seemed to saying what he had to in order to save his job. In fact, it still makes me sick to think about how long we put up with his mediocrity because he continued to be able to snowjob his superiors.In JD's case, only time will tell. I've never bought into the "if only a few more plays went out way, we'd have won 5 more games" mentality. But, it's far too early to tell if he's making excuses to protect himself.Please, we don't need to get rid of our football program. Akron is a large school, and should indeed be playing 1-A football. I'm looking forward to spending a few hours in the Rubber Bowl parking lot tomorrow for the last time this year.Go Zips !!

Zipgrad....we come from nearly the same era. I was a Junior when we won the OVC basketball title, and Gerry Faust was hired. At the time, I was excited that the University wanted to move up a level. AND, I still believe that, with Akron being one of the 50 or so largest schools in the country, that our University needed to play 1A in Football. The problem was that they lacked the facilities to get it done, and didn't have the money to get those facilities quickly enough. If you recall, Faust didn't even have grass practice fields to get his teams ready for road games. Muse and Faust were also unable to get the city to come together with them on a proposal for a new downtown stadium. It was a great idea, but maybe too premature. So, in hindsight, maybe a few more years of Bob Huggins would have made a difference for basketball. Then we could have watched someone else be the first to move to 1-A in football, and learn from their mistakes.

If anyone realistically believes that, when you factor in the holiday, vacations, shopping, the game time, students out of town, etc., that there will be more than about 2,000 people in the stands, THE TURKEY IS MAKING YOU DELUSIONAL. Historically, during a non-contending year, the attendance dramatically drops as the year progresses anyway. Everyone will be with family tomorrow, if they are not working. And unfortunately, "spending time with family" does not include "let's go to the Rubber Bowl" for most people that live in Akron.

1) Getsy will throw at last 3 balls that should have never been thrown, trying to force the issue by attempting to prove something to everyone out there who thinks this is the last football game he ever plays in his life. It will be sad to see his career end this way after last year.2) Costly holding penalities and a couple of personal fouls will add to the mess.3) Up until the Central Michigan game, I thought that Western was the best team in the MAC, and they are virtually guaranteed a bowl bid with a win.The only chance we have to is play like we played at NC State.Broncos - 28 Zips - 17The only thing we have to celebrate? Can't WON'T BE GOING TO A BOWL GAME.

If we actually are the most penalized team in the nation, the coaching staff needs to take the criticism for that. And the leaders on the field should take some responsibility for the personal fouls as well. Someone on the field needs to be demanding that everyone else concentrate on what they need to accomplish. I agree that we didn't do the "little things" as well as we did last year.I like the 3-3-5 defense because it seems to utilize our talent in the best way, but its inability to contain a quarterback on the run is now a glaring weakness that everyone has started to exploit. But I still can't figure out why there are 8 linebackers, corners, and safeties on the field, and nobody is a watchdog for the quarterback that might take off.I just hope we find that this year was the "fluke", and and not last year.

It seems to me that many people just looked at the fact that we were MAC champs, and were returning 16 starters, and just assumed that we ought to breeze through our schedule this year. I believe that we had quite a few breaks fall our way last year, and we really were not that good yet. People raised their expectations too high, and now the coach is taking the blame.

Most of the problems stem from bringing in so many people from out of town to coordinate your marketing efforts. They are unfamiliar with the program, the city, the buying behavior of its fans, etc. Without this understanding, they seem to try to mold a program based on things that may have worked for them in another place, in another conference, etc. This is the nature of administrative jobs in college athletics.

Some interesting commentary here. Let me add some insight.I was a student in the early 80's, and have lived here ever since. I have been close to our athletic programs ever since, and have known many people within the administration. So, let me clear up a few things....Jim Dennison was a great guy, and a decent football coach. But for many many reasons, he was not going to give us the things we needed to grow into a I-A football program. Spending the rest of his career as an NAIA football coach is all the proof you need to justify this. His exit may have been less than cordial, but it was necessary. After 20 years, we need to let this go, and move forward. We were never going to be able to pay Bob Huggins enough to stay here...period.I totally agree about Bobinski. He was completely out of his league being an athletic director of a D-1 school at the time he was hired by Akron. And the president at the time let him make some huge mistakes. Unfortunately, the painful Owens and Hipsher eras were the result. KD does indeed want to be an Akron basketball coach. And since JD probably has no other choice right now but to stay here, lets hope our current administration has the right guys in place for us for now. Only time will tell. But the last couple of years have given us some encouraging signs. Go Zips!!

Hello fellow Zips fans. I'm an alum that has been a big follower for about 25 years. I've been reading the posts, and want to get involved.I'm loving this site because, back in my time, there weren't many opportunities to converse with fellow fans, except for my fellow alums.I still go to most of the home games, and follow the road games on the radio and tv, and here is what I see.I like the 3-3-5 defense because it is the best utilization of Akron's current talent. But I would like to see them be more flexible and change to 3-4 to match-up better in certain situations. I am, however, concerned that this defensive scheme somehow cannot contain a quarterback on the run. But, we've played better defense in the last few years than we've played in the previous 10 years. In my opinion, John Mackey is one of the most solid tacklers I have seen in an Akron uniform in quite some time, despite his size. Maybe he's not the size of a linebacker, but he's very dependable. JD has us getting attention at the national level like we haven't had since the Faust era. We need to give him time to get all the pieces in place. Frankly, Akron's recruiting suffered a drop-off for a period of time after we moved from Independent to MAC, and the MAC's growing reputation is starting to improve that situation for us. We're finally recovering from the ill-fated Owens era (which cost us both recruits and attendance), and I believe things will get better in time. Getsy seemed better as a Junior than as a Senior. Maybe because he had the receivers to bail him out last year. He's had a difficult time producing with lesser talent in those spots, and seems antsy under a heavy rush. Although, I'm still wondering why the O-line hasn't developed better with experience.Don't want to rant, but I plan to appear again when subject warrant a comment from someone of my vast experience following this program.Keep the faith. Although this year seemed like a failure, last year was great, and we'll be there again.