GP1

I guess if I'm calling anyone out, it is ME and everyone else. When I say we as in the Alumni, I am speaking as a member of that group which should be looked at as one body. I'm not trying to call anyone single person out though. Sorry if you are offended. However, if there are some people out there who are offended, they should ask themselves why?, and then ask if the shoe fits.I understand that there are people who give a ton of money, and that's great. The point is that this small group can not be the only people to financially support the program. If Akron is going to have a top notch program that pays coaches well and can support a new stadium some day, they must have a much larger group supporting them financially than they currently have. I don't think that asking the question, "With what?" when people say they need to pay JD more and we need a new stadium is unreasonable.The other end of the issue rests with the University. We should not always blame them for everything, but they do deserve some blame for the lack of money. I will take this point up at a later date though as I do not have the time to expand today. I think they do one thing HORRIBLY as it relates to generating money. The problem is easy to solve with a little time and effort.

Many of our fellow MAC schools were on television this weekand and many of us were able to watch them. With the exception of Akron, Toledo, BGSU and CMU, everyone else was pretty unimpressive. Most importantly, Akron and BGSU were the only two MAC East teams to score a respectable amount of points against bigger conference schools. What does this mean for us?Well, while we want to win every game, the real goal is similar to the first goal of an NFL team which is to win your division. Having Miami and BGSU at home is going to help us greatly. The rest of the MAC East is absolute garbage. In fact, Miami didn't impress me at all against Northwestern and I didn't get to see BGSU, but they had a similar score to ours on a neutral field against a much lesser team than what we played yesterday. I like our chances against those two schools.Most of the mistakes we made yesterday are correctable mistakes. We do have to stop giving up so many big plays though. Most importantly, we scored points against a very good defense on their field. Also, we played hard the entire game. If we can play hard against our MAC East opponents and score points consistently against them, we should make it to the MACC. Compared to other MAC schools, our team has a lot of talent even though it may not have looked that way at times yesterday. PSU had much more talent than we did on the field yesterday and I don't see how we could have ever overcome it.I don't feel like typing much today, so I'll just let you guys take it from here. We are the MAC East Champions and the Confierence champions though and as that bumbling idiot John Madden once said (I swear he said this, it's too stupid for me to even make up), "The champion is the champion until he's no longer the champion, and that's what makes him the champion." In his own crazy way, I think he is trying to say that someone has to take the championship away from us. I don't think Akron is the type of team to give it away this season. I really don't see anyone out there in the MAC East that can take the divisional championship away from us at this point, and I'll take my chances in a winner take all MACC again. I'm feeling good.

What are they going to pay him with? We have the cheapest and most short sighted fans in college sports. Even the people who consider themselves great fans complain the first time the cost of anything goes up.I'm convinced that it is not the fault of the Athetic Department that the coaches don't make more money. They would gladly pay it if they had it. It is the fault of all of US though. We are the alumni and fans of the University and in reality, very few are willing to do anything other than buy a ticket or two to support the program. We should stop blaming others and realize that WE are the problem and not THEM.

Frye is going to be one of a long line of QBs that Chicago defense makes look bad this season............

I would have to disagree with whomever told you this.I felt CMU was well coached and prepared for the game. They have one of the best coaches in the MAC. I do hate trick plays though and I didn't like what they did at the end, but I think what really would have lost the game for them in the end is the talent on the BC side.What scares me about CMU is their preparation and how hard they play. We had them down last year and they played hard the whole game and came back and burried us. At no time did they panic. That's the sign of a good coach.

I once told you guys that regardless of what your wives and girlfriends tell you, size does matter. When looking at NFL prospects, it is especially true. I think Luke is great for the program and I would even go as far as to say he is the second best QB in Zips history behind Mike Johnson, but I think a lot of NFL teams may take a pass on him because of his size. The question isn't who is better, it is will he make it?

If it rains, I may have to stay in the bar....which takes me back to one of my favorite sayings."No matter how warm or cold it is outside, it's always 72 degrees and dry on a barstool."

I don't think Akron can win a shoot out. If we win, it must be a lower scoring, ball control, field position type of game like 20-17 or 21-20. Shoot outs tire defenses too fast and I don't think we have the depth (compared to a top tier Big Ten team) to keep up the pace either on offense or defense. However, there is no reason why Akron can not compete in this game and possibly win.Getting first downs is a key component in winning a football game, especially in college. That statistic at half time will be the most important in predicting the outcome in the second half. If it is one sided in favor of PSU, the final score will be a blow out. If not, Akron can keep in the game until the end.

Nobody would want to pay for it........There will be 50 bars around Akron with the ability to get ESPNU. Winking Lizard is one, BW3 is another, Jillians is another, Damons is another, Gipettos (sp?) at Chapel Hill is another.......... GP1 are you saying that those places have it or they could have it but they don't want to pay for it ? i am confused. I was just cracking wise about our fan base...........They will all probably have it. Winking Lizard for sure should have it. I've watched other games on ESPNU out there. If you are a student and live on campus, Panini's will probably have it downtown. They had the basketball game from Nevada there last year.

Nobody would want to pay for it........There will be 50 bars around Akron with the ability to get ESPNU. Winking Lizard is one, BW3 is another, Jillians is another, Damons is another, Gipettos (sp?) at Chapel Hill is another..........

Your probably right near the mark. Over the past few years, our season ticket holders have declined, from around 2,000 per game to around 1,250 per game last season. With four weeks remaining until the first game, they shoud be able to beat the per game number of season ticket holders from last season. Four weeks is a long time to sell. My understanding is that they are happy with the progress of season ticket packages so far.I know a few people who have sold several packages for the Family Plan who have not turned them in yet. Add in walk ups, single game purchases, new ticket holders who do not buy through the fund drive, credit for students and other sources they should be able to hit 15,000 per game. In additiion to ticket sales, this group is bring on a lot of new donors to the Z-Fund so that revenue will now be moving through the Athletic Department.In order to make the Fund Drive a long term success, they will have to do it every year and not give up after one. Continuity has always been a problem at UofA because of the amount of people who come and go from the Athletic Department. We'll see if they can keep it up.

By the end of the fund drive, I should sell well over 200 tickets myself. The family pack is by far the most easy sale. 8K for OU is probably a total number if you add all the tickets for all the games. That is still pretty good.If I sell 200 and others doing the fund drive sell around the same, it should be a pretty successful fund drive. I look for this group to sell at least 3,000 tickets. Add in other sales, it should work out well for us.

In 2003, we allowed Can't to score 17 points in the final 3:29 to win in regulation on a last second fieldgoal. I still refer to this game as the "Divine Intervention Game", because only through divine intervention could we have lost that game and it happened.

I don't know how many of you have been to a professional golf match or not, but there is an interesting dynamic that takes place I think UofA fans should exploit.At every match, there are a certain number of drunks who follow around the players yelling things like "you're the man", "get in the hole" and my personal favorite "get legs". Why? I have no idea, but it takes place.I would challenge any ZipsNation member(s) attending the match this weekend to get boozed up and yell "FEAR THE ROO!!!!" after every shot. See if you can get others to do it with you. At least do it once for me as I will not be there this weekend. I can only be an a-hole in one place at a time and I need some support this weekend.Let me know who does it.

For those of you who may or may not know, Luke Getsy is the QB of our team. He is also the only QB to ever win anything at this school. Broke Limpwiches Motor City Bowl record last December 26 for the most passing yards in the game. He completed a 35 yard TD pass with seconds to go in the MACC last year.Here's to finally having a winner.

I have something more exciting than high school football to do. With all the extra rain this year, my grass continues to grow so I will be outside watching that this fall on Friday nights.

I would think that we would have at least one also. If there are approximately 130 D-1A teams in the country and each has 22 starters (130 x 22 = 2,860) Kiki and Luke would only be .07% of the list. Surely one of them deserves to be on the list.

We "hear" about a stadium all the time. If you want to "see" physical evidence of how far along the stadium is, call the purchasing department and see if they have any projects bidding pertaining to a new football stadium. The answer is yes they do. I looked on McGraw Hill Construction News and it isn't there yet (I may have done the search wrong though), but there are projects in the purchasing department. The University is a public institution and you have a right to see it if you wish."But GP1, but GP1, what are the projects?" Thanks for asking. They are playing a little catch up right now. There are still some routine engineering studies that need to be competed and that is what is out to bid. These studies are pretty easy to do. Things look good. Patience is all they ask.As far as the remainder of the property, someone mentioned a good idea to me last week and someone else told me they did this at one of the Hilliard high schools outside of Columbus. To Hell with the two or three houses they need to buy. Threaten to build the stadium around them and leave their access to the road. Build a fence around three sides of the homes so they will be protected. If this happened, it would drive down the value of those homes to next to nothing like it did to the guy in Hilliard. If those owners want to play hardball, they University should play right along with them. Enough being nice.

It is; however, is that the most funny part of this thread? Everyone think about it. There is one poster I find strangely interesting and funny that he still feels the need to come in here and post. Being a self promoter myself, I always enjoy reading other self promoters comments hoping to use one myself some day. Nice work......even from afar.It's good to see everyone this week. I was away on business and now that I have a BlackBerry I don't take my computer with me on the road so I can't post when away.

Maybe I should apologize to some of you for supporting the program regardless of who the AD is, but there is no chance of that happening. I think I say in my original post that "these guys are far from perfect". Maybe in a fit of paranoia, some of you missed that. At the risk of getting accused of being the Athletic Department's Mike Trivisano, I'll add this. The small fan has a great chance this year to get involved with the program and spend time with people from the Athletic Departmen on a 1 on 1 basis. They are all more than willing to talk to anyone about the program during the call sessions. You all could help with the Fund Drive. It's not like this has not been publically communicated to the masses or on this board. If anyone chooses not to participate, then you are missing a good chance to get in on the ground floor of something really fun and productive. Speaking of production, I've sold 167 tickets in two days, and combined ticket sales and Z-Fund donations are $2,246. What is everyone else doing to improve things? Call nights are 6-8 PM, Tuesday thru Thursday.CK is absolutely correct when he says that everyone should let some time pass before judging the new AD. Like all things, time will tell. I honest to God can't tell a major difference between Thomas and Rhoades. How could any of us, he hasn't been here long enough to make a judgement. The only area I would disagree with CK on this is that Rhoades has big shoes to fill. By the look of the attendance numbers the past four years, we weren't making great strides anyhow. The best decisions he made were actually the two no brainer decisions of letting the former football and basketball coaches go. All of us had that figured out, and if we had it figured out then it shouldn't have been to difficult for him. Mike and Mike were nice guys and all, but posting a state of the nation letter on this board doesn't make them brilliant communicators.Have a nice weekend everyone.

I don't know what the Hell is going on with everyone, but I've never seen so much bitching and complaining on a web board as I have on this one recently. Everyone is turning into a bunch of old ladies. We are going into what is going to be a great year for Akron sports and all some of you people do is cry about the most meaningless things.Anyhow, I don't like to golf so I try not to. However, I played in a scramble last weekend and tee time was 7:45. We were off the course at noon and the next outing started after that. We ate lunch, presentations were made and I was home by two o'clock.Does anyone think that four hours is plenty of time for the vast majority of people to go home, take a show, take a nap and go to a game? I do.Does anyone think that having an all Zips day might be fun for some people? I do.Is it really necessary to go home and take a shower after golfinig in the fall? I don't think it is. The air is so cool that you really don't sweat. Besides, your going to a football game and not a black tie charity ball.Does anyone think that maybe they can get more people to go to an outing on a weekend than during the week thus make more money? You're stupid if you don't think so.I hope you guys will start to be a little more open minded about what they are doing with the Athletic Department. These guys are far from perfect, and what they are doing now is not really all that different than what they have done in the past.Oh well, I'm going to try to go sell some football tickets. You guys just stay at home and think about the next thing you are going to bitch about. Keep tearing things down you nothing but a bunch of God damn crybabies.Have a nice day!

I'm not 100% certain, but I think they do. Something to do with student fees to attend sporting events.I think that whether or not the tarps get removed depends on how many tickets are sold prior to the game. They probably know what the average walk up crowd is for the first game and combined with pre-season tickets, I'm confident they will know whether or not to remove the tarps.Here is the question: What has anyone done to sell a ticket today? I sold a family pack to the bartender at one of my favorite restaruants today. I'm looking at the form and her check right now on my desk. For those not in sales and marketing, it is called a one call close. Very few can pull it off.

Don't hesitate for one second. Buy some tickets. This season, the most important thing a Zips fan can do to support the team is to buy extra tickets whether they get used or not. Don't give away extras outside of the ticket booths the day of a game either, make those people buy a ticket just like you did. The citizens of Akron need to start taking ownership of this team. For basically $100, you can buy a Family Pack to the games. That's 20 total tickets toward the 75,000 we need to average 15,000 per game.It is also up to all of us to help sell tickets for the University. There are enough concerned people out there that the University is doing well with it's Fund Drive. I would challenge each of you to participate in this Fund Drive effort. It's one thing to talk about the problems selling tickets, but it's another thing to actually do something about it. It's time for all of us to start doing.

On the hunt for what? By the looks of those uniforms, it is very possibly a gay bar.

For the pleasure of not reading about your hometown Zips, they charge 50 cents. ...........................but is it worth fifty cents to read the daily comedy of grammatical and factual errors?