GP1

The only complaint I would have is the reserved seats. The way I see it, this is about $20 off the value of four tickets (ga), parking pass and $10 in food. That's a 25% discount. Feeding kids (assume 2) at a football game costs a heck of a lot more than $10.....especially if they are teenage boys. They make the $20 back in food sales. Parking? Who cares, the lots are there and people are hired to man them so you my as well use them. Right now, the ticket costs are too high for what the Zips offer. Just don't discount reserved tickets. The worse thing to happen now is someone buying the 4-pack of tickets, goes to the game and the Zips play bad. They might never come back at any cost....

I don't think fans are complacent at all. I think the emotions range from p!$$ed off to frustration. There is still emotion and lot of it. When the emotion stops, the program is in much bigger trouble than it is right now.

I wouldn't describe it as a fight as much as caving in. You are correct though. They will make drastic changes is this gets serious.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. KY and IN will not be good days. The MAC is terrible and we can still win some games this season.

Maybe a former player for the Director of Basketball Operations position. I would love to see Cedrick Middleton come back if playing in Europe doesn't work out for him. Any chance Dials would change his mind about working for the Sweaters? I know I'll get hammered for this, but it looks like the rats are abandoning the ship, like ASAP. Don't look outside your portals Zips fans, but that thar is an iceberg! One assistant coach moves on to a better position and a kid who graduated from the program 2 years ago and was never reported as having been offered a position on the staff takes a job with another school and the rats are abandoning the ship? Not sure I buy that. We've lost assistant coaches before (Shaka Smart and Jeff Boals both come to mind). I actually take it as kind of a compliment. Tells me that Dambrot is surrounding himself with good people and theres some recognition out there for the quality of program that we have been running here. Unless you are privy to some information that I'm not, I don't see how this is really an indication of a larger underlying problem. Not talkin bout one assistant coach Qz. Talkin about wholesale "changes", none of which at dis time appears mo bettah. KD is one of my favorite Akronites, no doubt, but my view from da i-lawns says da nex'two years are make or break time for UA BB. Unless Gamechanger's li'l one becomes a MAC POY type in the off season of one season, I don't see things gettin any better than last year. 4th place is not an unrealistic pick, given the circumstances. What does Dylan Ennis know that you don't? This may be your opinion, but I'd like to see guys like Euton, Gilliam, Egner, Abreu, Treadwell, etc, actually play together before I'd draw that conclusion. JohnnyZip, I wish I could share your confidence -- and, I'm hardly giving up on this team, but my analysis is, we've gone from competing with and at least once beating Big East and ACC teams for recruits, to being satisfied over taking "late-bloomers" and "hidden gems" recruited by the Wisconsin-Milwaukees and CSUs of the world. I think Dylan Ennis agrees with me. Outside of Zeke I can't think of one time where we've went up against Big East and ACC teams for a recruit and had any chance of winning out. A quick review of our history of recruiting on rivals bears that out. In fact, going back to 2004 I can only find a couple of recruits that the Zips even offered who had Big East & ACC offers. Brian Walsh-SG-2008 had offers from Maryland, West Virginia, Pitt & St. Joe's. Signed with Xavier, ironically recently transfered to Akron. Mike Shanahan-SG-2008 had offers from Pitt, Duke and West Virginia. Signed with Pitt. Zeke Marshall-C-2009 had offers from Pitt, Virginia and Virginia Tech. Signed with the Zips. Reality just doesn't line up with your line of thinking. Even the point about Dylan Ennis is invalid. Yes, Ennis decommitted from the Zips. His current list of offers, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Rice, UIC, Creighton, and reportedly UW-Green Bay. Not a Big East or ACC school among them. People need to stop looking at Zeke's committment as some sort of sign that we are ready to consistently steal top talent from the power conferences of the college basketball world and see it for what it is. An outlier situation where all the stars lined up for us to nab a talented big man away from some very good programs. I think the main difference between my thinking, and that of Quickzips and Daveingreen is that they are readily able to ACCEPT that Akron will never be able to compete with and secure High Major type recruits, and that therefore KD and staff should not waste their time on future Zeke Marshalls and get in line with the mediocrity of the MAC, while I REFUSE to accept that reasoning. I guess I've become infected with Porteritis, while the rest of the ZipsNation has gotten your shots to prevent it from taking effect. I only hope the bug is strong enough that it is immune to KD and Co.'s vaccine. And the smoke around my head? It's a screen against the nurses of mediocrity. UofA can get high mid major talent. They need 2-3 years of winning the MAC in consecutive years. Can't has done it, we can do it. The soccer team has had little to offer a recruit over the past 20+ years. Winning has been their selling point. Good players want to win. If the BB team would string together 2-3 years of winning the MAC, we could become a high mid major team because we could draw more Zekelike players. If we keep getting to the MAC championship game and losing more often than not with a trip to the NIT, Zekelike players will be further apart. I don't believe the BB program can ever become a national power like the Soccer program has. Soccer functions on its own level and we shouldn't make direct comparisons between various programs and the soccer program. The BB program can do better though and I think it is doing well right now. All of our sports teams can do better.

I am on FB. I have the UofA football site as a "friend" or whatever they call it. The last football alumni party I went to was at the WLizard and Gary Bogue put it together. Since Gary moved to the Law School, I really haven't heard from anyone personally from the Z-Fund. Maybe I'll try to make the next one. Me and my geezer friends can get drunk and race each other in our wheelchairs.

It's what many of us wish could and would happen to amateur athletes (Getting a life after college). But, I'm not sure what your point is GP-1 -- and come clean, did you marry a sweater girl? Miami BS Accounting UofA MBA finance So I guess the answer is...sort of. BTW, did you see that the Tea Party elected a woman who is against masturbation? If they outlaw jacking off, what are engineering majors going to do for fun on Friday and Saturday nights? Hey now, GP1, no ripping on us engineers unless you are one yourself. Take it as more of a trip down memory lane..... And also as a word of advice, GP1, don't mention your wife and j/o in the same post. In saying that, you're just asking for trouble with this crowd. Touche....

After ripping on the football team this past weekend, GP1 is trying to regain some street cred by making himself sound particularly distinguished and intelligent. Keep up the good work on both fronts, GP1. I'll go back to being GP1 on all of the other threads......

Actually, mechanical engineers understand phase change materials extremely well. An airconditioner uses a phase change material to cool air. They change a material from liquid to gas to liquid etc. They also understand latent heat management in buildings. The would also understand how one could save money by downsizing ac units. The key for the University is to find out whether or not local power companies are giving out grants to study this technology. Right now, we have a professor from UNC doing most of our scientific work for us. He owns a company that has been producing phase change material for pharmaceutical transportation for a while now.

You should consider sending emails about this to Drs. Chase, Chuang, and Ju of the Chemical Engineering Department as well. What you describe seems to be a multi-disciplinary problem, not one that is limited to polymers. It's complicated. There are basically two types of PCMs than various sub-types. The polymer engineering school should look at methods of encapsulating small dropets of petrolium based pcms in a form that will help it survive corrosive manufacturing process without significant reduction in specific heat.

It's what many of us wish could and would happen to amateur athletes (Getting a life after college). But, I'm not sure what your point is GP-1 -- and come clean, did you marry a sweater girl? Miami BS Accounting UofA MBA finance So I guess the answer is...sort of. BTW, did you see that the Tea Party elected a woman who is against masturbation? If they outlaw jacking off, what are engineering majors going to do for fun on Friday and Saturday nights? Hey now, GP1, no ripping on us engineers unless you are one yourself. Take it as more of a trip down memory lane.....

I just saw there is an Energy Research Center starting at UofA to develop clean coal technologies. I'm going to throw another idea out there for them they could develop in conjunction with the Polymer Science School. I goof off a lot on this board, but this is dead serious. I'm working with a company pioneering a bio based phase change material that can be used in the construction industry. We refine soy and palm oils to create a product that increases the thermal mass of a building and shifts energy use from peak to off peak time and reduces energy consumption. Thermal mass is going to be the next big thing in the construction industry and building products. We've trademarked the phrase "Smart Thermal Mass" (concrete id dum thermal mass). By 2020, drywall manufacturers are mandated to raise their specific heat from .75 j/g to 20 j/g. There is no other way for them to do this than by using a phase change material as you can't make a rock do anything more than what it already does. The Polymer Science school could help develop methods of molecule extraction from various bio materials to make phase change materials. We use materials such as soy oil, palm oil and coconut oil (for high temp pcms). It's the most interesting thing I've seen in my 15 years of selling building products.....by far. Right now, power companies are giving out millions in grants for the development of these type of products. They make more money when you run your electricity off peak hours than they do on peak. Once a power plant hits 80% capacity, the profit margins drop drastically. They charge you twice as much to run things on peak because they don't want you actually running anything. They can charge half as much off peak and make three times as much profit. Everyone wins. They want you to use products such as this.

I just received my alumni magazine today. Summer 2010. I see the Alumni Association is putting on an event at some football games and they are advertising for them. The first event against Syracuse looks like a good one, maybe I'll go........What?........It what?........Oh.......Scratch that. I guess I won't be going to that one as it happened three weeks ago.

Ttile IX is federal law. You're not getting out of that one unless you don't wish to accept any more federal funding. That includes grants. So they drop every sport except what it takes to match football/basketball. Why would they have to drop any? The additional revenue would enhance their ability to support non-revenue sports. Title IX compliance would actually become more easy for them.

It's what many of us wish could and would happen to amateur athletes (Getting a life after college). But, I'm not sure what your point is GP-1 -- and come clean, did you marry a sweater girl? Miami BS Accounting UofA MBA finance So I guess the answer is...sort of. BTW, did you see that the Tea Party elected a woman who is against masturbation? If they outlaw jacking off, what are engineering majors going to do for fun on Friday and Saturday nights?

Be careful what you wish for. As Bull-In-Exile stated, this is most likely not a good thing for the MAC or Akron. A split like this has been coming for a long time, but the most likely scenario has the BCS conferences fractioning off from the NCAA. This would leave the MAC, C-USA, the Sunbelt, etc. somewhere in college sports purgatory between the BCS and the NAIA. You could pretty well kiss any kind of significant TV deals goodbye, the BCS schools would be taking those with them. The NCAA basketball tournament would be a shell of its former self. The soccer team would probably take the biggest hit as the College Cup would be stripped of top competition like North Carolina, Wake Forrest, Virginia, Indiana, etc. thereby dilluting the significance of future tournament runs by Zips soccer. As much as the NCAA deserves its criticism, and needs to make some changes, this kind of harm to the organization would be akin to cutting off one's own nose to spite one's face. Didn't listen to the CBS-CSTV, but I find the whole scenario quite hard to believe. It is hard to believe at first blush. If you just look at it a little though, it makes sense. There is nothing in law about the NCAA. Participation is voluntary. I'm sure there are ways to get out of it. Nobody heard about the BCS 20 years ago, but look at where we are today. I was typing about this over a year ago thinking it would be 5-6 years before anyone caught onto my brilliance. Someone has hit the fast forward button. If I remember correctly, Tim Brando is the person leading the discussion in the video. I don't know who the other two asshats are, but if Brando is talking about it, other people are talking about it. Brando is a good reporter and wouldn't bring it up unless there is something brewing. When he goes to cover SEC games for CBS, he is talking to people at those schools and this idea is coming up more than we might think it does. I have a feeling this idea is going to come up a lot more with the talking heads on TV and radio. The MAC and UofA need to think carefully about what their plans are going to be over the next few years. I'd love it if the MAC, Sunbelt, C-USA and pick two other conferences (non-bcs) got together and had their own football division. Four divisions and a playoff system like I describe for the BCS teams. I think the competition would be great and each game would be exciting and fun to watch.

Ask me after the season. I'm still holding out hope (hope isn't proof though) that the MAC is as bad as I believe it to be and if we can get past three BCS teams and the GW disaster, we might be able to turn the season around. We did in 2004. We are bad right now, but how bad will be answered at the end of the season.

I agree. Is this the video you were talking about? If you have not seen it, they talk about the new governing body close to the end. I've been telling you guys.............

If I remember correctly, Igor is a senior. You guys shouldn't have to sit at your seats scared to death a senior kicker might miss an extra point or a FG less than 40 yards. Hell, I'd say that about a Junior kicker. I'd say that about a freshman kicker on extra points. If a freshman kicker can't make an extra point, he shouldn't have a scholarship. ZipsWin! is right. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We have seen too much non-performance on the part of our Zips over the years. Sure, in the fourth quarter the pressure is on. Some players respond to pressure, others don't. Most of the time we have not. It really needs to change if we are ever going to have a winning program. We were winning Saturday 31-17 around the end of the third quarter or at the break between quarters 3 and 4. There was absolutely no excuse for letting them back in the game, let alone losing it. I know we can do better than this. It needs to get done. The players need to start playing better. They know what to do, now they need to go out there and do what they already know how to do. I don't believe the players and coaches spend two hours a day at practice looking at each other and not practicing, or that 0% of what the coaches are doing is meaningless. I'm sure the coaches are teaching the players. Maybe they aren't the best at it, but something is getting done. They all go to the same coaching clinics so the information is about the same as what they are teaching at other schools. Surely what they are doing should be enough to beat a I-AA team when you already have a 31-17 lead. They should have never needed a kick at the end of regulation to win the game. I still can't believe we lost to GW.

Good luck inding anyone here willing to drive to Indiana at this point much less pay Big 10 face value to see the crap that will undoubtedly be served by Icoach andthe Zips. OK--How about $60 for the pair? Bloomington is beautiful this time of year. People are complaining about $15-$25 to watch them at home. Good luck. Thanks for the price break though. SHHHHHHHHH!!!! Don't tell them parking isn't free either.

I certainly didn't. It doesn't make me upset, I'm downright pissed off at what is going on. I haven't been this mad at a Zips team since couldn't even get a first down against Can't State in the last seven minutes of the game 2003. We were up by 14 and lost by three. A first down would have won the game.....ten steps is a first down. Lee Owens should have been fired walking off of the field. We are in the MAC. We have enough talent to win in the MAC. We need to start to win. I blame the players most of all.....They ALL need to get going and fast. How low can we go? Ask me after the season. Everything is still a mystery.

The mismanagement of the QB should be a future post. 21 passes? Are you freaking kidding me? He is the best player on offense. Let him throw the freaking ball for crying out loud. If you weren't at a Wake game you'd realize -- Nicely has NO ONE to throw to. LaFrance would be the #4 receiver on any Owens team. None of the other active WR's would even make an Owens practice squad. Did he have anyone to throw to when the score was 31-17? From the looks of the statistics, he was 5-6 for 80 yards in the first quarter. Even if you discount the long td pass, he still had arond 8 yards per attempt. He was 2-4 in the second for 22 yards. 7-10 at half for 102 yards it looks like. 5-6 is pretty good. 2-4 is OK. I don't blame PN as much as I would like to see the ball thrown more. From the looks of the first quarter stats, he can complete passes. Guys can get open. We should have won 45-17 or at least 45-21. There is no excuse for that loss over the weekend. The same talent was on the field at the end of the game that was on the field at the end of the game. Typo or Yogism? Neither.....straight brainfart.

Kentucky is middle of the road SEC. That means conference powerhouse anywhere else. Our D gave up 31 in regulation to Gardner-Webb. Kentucky will probably score 31 in the 1st quarter if they want to. Just to add a little to this. KY also has played two games so it isn't like we can sneak up on them in week 1 when some of their new starters don't have any experience.

Many would read this and not see the sarcasm. I think it is funny. Nice work. Our offense had 31 points at the end of the 3rd quarter. What that tells me is they can score points....a big concern of mine after only putting up 3 against Syracuse. Against a I-AA team they should have had 45 at the end of the game. I could care less what happens against KY and IN. I still think this team can win. They need to get their heads out of their butts at crunch time and play well. The MAC schedule is just around the corner. Let's see how they do. They need to execute when it matters.

I am still guilty of being too optimistic at 35-0, aren't I? 55-0 Kentucky 7 X 8 = 56, not 55....unless you think they will score on the last play of the game and not try the PAT.