jupitertoo

So I assume he edits your copy?

What a tragedy. I have two kids in college so it also scares the hell out of me.

Oh my, a working journalist posting on a fan site for the team he is ostensibly covering. Never a good idea.

Excellent post. In a sense, this is exactly what KD has been saying for the past few years.

Frankly, before the U invests in any more new facilities, it needs to rethink its approach to its most important constituents. I know a LOT of current and former UA students who resent the hell out of the way they have been/were treated by the university. Ridiculous parking fees/experience, other hassles have caused a lot of bad blood among graduates and students who should be the U's biggest supporters (financial and otherwise). How about having to pay a parking fee even if you don't drive a car to campus? That's just ridiculous. How about the way they have jacked around their own season ticket holders with parking lot access? How about investing in some more full-time faculty so students can actually find their professors after class? By changing the culture, you can make a significantly bigger impact on attendance for both basketball and football. Some on here might not like this, but, oh well.

A few glaring errors: 1. "The city of Akron has seen a lot of growth in recent years" 2. "$300 million InfoCision stadium" One insult: "Akron is a lot like Morgantown, W. Va."

Marshall's stadium doesn't seat 40,000.

Not that I would automatically assume you're talking out of your a** about conference affiliation (you seem to be positioning yourself as an "insider"), but you got the AAC's name wrong. It's American Athletic Conference, not All America Conference. Make sure the AD's staff (whom you might be advising?) calls the right number.

Guys, are you reading the news lately? I appreciate the interest in shiny new facilities, but unless someone comes forward and pays for virtually the entire thing, UA is not going to be able to build a new facility for the next five-10 years. $30 million budget deficit this year, and enrollment expected to drop another 3-4 percent, minimum, this fall. There are a lot of bonds that are getting paid off by the university and no financial institution is going to look favorably on another large project when the university's income is declining rather than rising. This is not unlike a situation faced at Ohio back in the early 1970s - the administration overbuilt based on pie-in-the-sky enrollment and state subsidy projections. There wasn't a significant new building constructed on that campus for a full decade until the financial house was back in order. I too wish the Zips could have a new arena, but unless it is somehow a "city" arena downtown, I don't see it happening.

If they win three, would you keep Bowden? Mind you, even if they go winless, UA will not buy out Bowden's contract. My concern is that while there has been "some" progress in procuring talent, the Zips lost their single most prolific offensive threat (QB). And if Pohl gets hurt, then all bets are off.

I assume you folks are reading the newspapers regarding the financial situation at UA. Enrollment down, projected to be down again next year, plus state changing its funding model to reflect student success, which puts us at a disadvantage. Given the debt already incurred at the stadium and in other projects, simply don't see how a new facility (as opposed to a rehabbed one) is possible.

Once again, you're entirely wrong. Solich brought in a few Jucos and a very small number (3?) transfers in his first two years. He built the program right and it took five years to do it. Zach, you're the same one who claimed Jim Christian - he of the highest-ever MAC winning percentage - is a good recruiter but a bad game coach. Add this one to your resume - 100 percent wrong. What troubles me about Bowden is that he's bringing in some guys who have questionable pasts and, I'm afraid, he will be the first one looking for a new job if he can get to 6 wins with the Zips. Meanwhile, he's filled key positions with one-year wonders and will have left town with no firm foundation in place. It takes 4-5 years to build a program and you don't do it by bringing in bad characters for one-and-done terms.

Once again, you're entirely wrong. Solich brought in a few Jucos and a very small number (3?) transfers in his first two years. He built the program right and it took five years to do it. Zach, you're the same one who claimed Jim Christian - he of the highest-ever MAC winning percentage - is a good recruiter but a bad game coach. Add this one to your resume - 100 percent wrong. What troubles me about Bowden is that he's bringing in some guys who have questionable pasts and, I'm afraid, he will be the first one looking for a new job if he can get to 6 wins with the Zips. Meanwhile, he's filled key positions with one-year wonders and will have left town with no firm foundation in place. It takes 4-5 years to build a program and you don't do it by bringing in bad characters for one-and-done terms.

Honest question: What is Christian's head to head record against KD? It's got to be pretty close.

There has been a lot of discussion of that point among Ohio fans already. Most agree that while great, the Sweet 16 run was not an indication that the team would dominate in the MAC, as they hadn't finished higher than third previously. The team had holes, largely due to Groce's inability to get a high quality post presence. So when they were hot from outside, they were great; when not, well...we saw what happens in the second half of the MAC Championship game. Dambrot had a much more well-rounded team.

How do you square your analysis of Christian's gameday skills with the fact that he has the highest winning percentage in MAC history and went to the postseason five of his six seasons at Can't? The only thing he really hasn't accomplished is getting a win in the NCAAs, but he's not alone as you know. Given the fact that he came into a situation last year where he had an established team that ran an offense he does not prefer, and did not have a big man, I think he did as well as anyone could have expected. Groce never finished higher than third in the league with the same starting five before getting hot in the postseason. I doubt Groce would have won any more games last year than Christian did - in fact, if there's a gameday coaching weakness, it's on Groce's end, not Christian's. Groce lost a lot of games he shouldn't have in his tenure in Athens. Ohio will have an interesting team this year; they picked up a LOT of talent in the off-season, had a good recruiting class, had a very solid transfer point guard from the Big XII sitting out and will have an entirely new look and feel in 2013. Next year and beyond, they could be scary good based on whom he's picked up in recent months. As for his alleged preference for JUCOs, I think you'll see that he won't be allowed to go in that direction in Athens.

It's going to be a two team league.

Is any city or state government that you know of calling the elderly and trying to convince them to liquidate their IRAs so they can get better treatment from God? Are they requiring their employees to belittle gays/lesbians during phone calls? Are they cheating their employees out of their wages? Don't think so. Yes, I agree that "sin" taxes tend to exploit the underprivileged but don't see the correlation to openly lying to the elderly and others to try to cheat them out of their funds.

Please, some big "Whale" donor, come forward to replace InfoCision as title sponsor of the stadium. Today's piece in ABJ just disgusting about that company's business practices.

You guys have a package delivered to your address recently? You were supposed to sell it, not consume it.

By guaranteeing playing time; not by sending signals that they might get screwed out of playing time if a blue-chipper wants to finish his eligibility with you. I suspect Bowden prefers this approach for resume reasons, not for the best interests of Zips fans. He did the same thing at that small DII school, right?

I would ask, then, how a high school recruit would look upon a coach who might always decide to grab a blue-chipper for a year, thereby blocking your way to a starting position after having invested your time/sweat, etc. For example, if Pohl gets sidelined by the new QB from Colorado, how do you think prospective QB recruits would view that? It's no secret (I think) that I am an OU grad, though teach at Akron. A lot of Ohio fans were disappointed with the start of Solich's tenure, but he kept telling everyone he was building a total program that would feed on itself from year to year. I think he's done that based on the past four seasons. If I were in Buchtel Hall and the JAR, that would be my direction to Bowden.

Question for Zips fans. Is this the way you want your coach to be building this program? A plethora of one-and-dones sure seems to me to be about sprucing up his resume for one good year and then bolting rather than building a strong base.

Something tells me he'll be in uniform by midseason.

What a great ambassador for our league. Will be greatly missed.