GP1

Not a chance. Look for a good team next year.

Nice work Big Zip. Hell, the list of great players that played at the Rubber Bowl could go on and on. The ignoring of the Zips program by both the Beacon and the Akron public has been a shame. There have been plenty of lesser known Zips to go onto the pros that people are missing as well. Shawn Vincent (St. Clairsville HS) Robert Lyons (St. Clairsville HS) John Buddenberg (Three NFL years, several CFL years) Reader Jake S. Mackey Vic Green (10 year veteran) Anyone hear of that Jason Taylor guy? Brake Brian Hilk (long time CFL player) How about non-Zips just to name a few? Randy Moss Culpepper Leftwich Watts Roethlisberger Charlie Batch Not a bad list of players and the list could go on and on as well. What a shame.......Quality players are playing at the Rubber Bowl at least six times a year and the people of NE Ohio, where they call themselves the greatest football fans in the world, don't go to see future stars play.

While I agree that Frye should have his jersey retired, now is not the time to do it. He needs to wait his turn. Some of you may not realize this, but Akron had a football team long before Frye came to Akron. In fact, possibly the greatest player of all time at U of A does not have his jersey retired. His name is Mike Clark and he was a running back in the mid 80s and holds many of the schools rushing records. Clark was a fantastic running back who could have played at the next level if he wasn't so little. I think he had a chance with the Browns but it didn't pan out. So I say before we retire #5, there needs be a #24 retired first.

You can take the seat if you want. In a couple of years it will be so loose you will easily be able to pick it up. Watch out for the fiberglass though. If you need extra pieces for a home upgrade project, take some of the junk pieces they are keeping (for whatever reason) by the Varsity A Room with the rest of the junk no one can figure out why it is still up there.

Yes, my wife graduated from Miami. I'll be hearing about this for a while and I don't even follow basketball that much......shame on me.

I have no idea how Mel holds down a job as a draft specialist. He is always wrong. Do you ever notice that his picks never change? I don't think he really puts any time into it now that he as a radio show and has become more "famous". Mel reminds me of the sales agents who work for me. Each week they turn in their project lists and all they do is change the date on the report from the previous week and they think they are getting over on me. Mel just changes the date on his draft positions on whatever web site he is on and people listen to it. He makes me want to

Today at 5:30 at the Student Center. $25 per person.

When is signing day?

Has there been any turnover on the staff other than Coach Verdugo? Typically this is the time of year when coaches move on.

I agree that they will surprise next year, but a sell out is selling a lot of seats. The Rubber Bowl is the second largest college football stadium in Ohio and that spells a lot of ticket sales. I wouldn't be surprised if they had two games next year in excess of 25,000. I'm still surprised there were only 17,000 people at the Miami. It sure looked like there were almost as many as the Marshall game. Your optimism is very commendable though.

No. No.

I just took out my press guide. 11,049 is probably correct. He had 2,053 in 2001, 2,824 in 2002 and 3,549 in 2003. Total = 8,426. He certainl didn't have enough in 2004 to get to 12,500.

I think the article has a statistic wrong. Charlie had around 12,500 career yards.....but I'm not certain. Does anyone know exactly how many he threw for in 2004? I have a press guide and I can figure it out.

I'm with you brother. I'm guessing you and I were both quoted in letters to the editor the week after Owens was fired, but they used our real names. Pluto is just showing how petty and silly most sports writers are when he continues to bring up LO's name. He doesn't have the balls to admit he was wrong about the firing of Owens and that JD is a good coach who is only going to get better. Most people love Pluto. Quite frankly, when I hear him interviewed he sounds like a really arrogant guy who is just full of himself. As far as working for the Beacon, I couldn't afford the pay cut.

Excellent work Guest Z_I_P_!!!! You are correct on ALL counts!!!

Why wouldn't part of doing things the right way be taking a chance on a marginal player and keeping him on a short leash? I just think it is a basis risk vs. reward scenario for a lot of programs, including Akron. We are not OSU, USC, Notre Dame or any other bigh time schools with a big time reputation that attracts the best players. Under Owens, they took no risk on players and there were no rewards. Why not take the risk and manage the risk and see what the rewards will be? As far as being patient, are you freaking kidding me? U of A has been Division I since the late 80s. What have we ever won? NOTHING. It's time to take a chance and start winning. Marshall took a risk on Randy Moss and he wasn't a single problem while he was at the school. I'm not saying fill the team with thugs, just take a chance now and then and see where things pan out. The fifth best JUCO linebacker in the country might be a good place to take a chance. I doubt he will pull his pants down on family day at the athletic center. Long ago college football ceased being about building quality people and became a business. If we continue to hide our heads in the sand and pretend it is something other than what it really is, we are simply kidding ourselves. If we continue to think we can win with nice suburban kids getting good grades, trying hard and not scaring the other suburbanites who come to family day in their mini vans, we are further kidding ourselves. Let's get some guys that perform well, not try hard. We have seen enough of that as well. It's all about results on Saturday. As far as the other programs not being on the same level as Marshall, you are correct. BGSU, Toledo and Miami have gone to at least two straight bowl games each. They are actually at a higher level than Marshall right now. Zip Watcher, I know you are well intended in your beliefs. However, if the road to Hell is paved with good intensions, we will continue to be on the road we started on in the late 80s forever.

Players do not deserve to play because they waited their turn. They deserve to play when they are the best players. Good clean hard working players get you 6-5 seasons, empty stadiums and overall apathy from the community and alumni. Great players who may or may not be a problem get you MAC Championships, bowl games, big crowds, community support, merchandise sales, alumni support, beer sales at the beer tent and donations. I certainly understand the desire for good kids on the team. We all want that. Let's just be realistic about what Akron needs to do to win. If that means taking a chance, then take a chance. There are 34,000 seats at the Rubber Bowl, let's start using as many of those as possible. I'm pretty certain that when Marshall, BGSU, Miami, NIU and Toledo fans are sitting around the bars at their bowl games they are not talking about the character of the players.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/10736494.htm Good article on the Zips this morning. As usual, Pluto was able to give that loser Owens credit some credit for the team's success last year late in the year. The players' actions are much more pragmatic and logical than Pluto can see in his small mind. Could it be that the kids stuck with the program because they need their scholarships to go to school? Are they from good families who may have encouraged them to stick it out? Are they smart enough to understand that the program was dead with Owens and they knew they needed a change and wanted a change? Where are they going to transfer to before their senior year losing many credits towards graduation? Could it be that they knew the first sign of being disgruntled would have earned them their walking papers or worse yet, hours of grass drills? Could it be that many secretly hated Owens and were glad to see him go? Do they have several friends on the team and around campus they don't want to leave? I could go on and on. What Pluto really wanted to write and is too sneaky to write is: "Part of the credit for the Zips holding it together is former coach Lee Owens. Although he only deserves about 1% of the credit, I feel compelled to use his name in each Zips football article I write as if he is the driving factor in the team's success without him. In fact, I will probably do this until Brookhart does so well he goes to a bigger school and I can write article about how the University of Akron should hire another loveable loser to coach the school. Why do I continue to place his name in my articles? I don't know other than Lee was a nice guy and I think I am secretly in love with him. Please don't tell my wife." Please Terry, enough of using LOs name in your articles. I have the perfect place for any credit he derves. I'm not certain about this, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Pluto went to Can't State. If he did, Owens is the perfect symbol of mediocrity a Can't State graduate would be attracted to. Just look at their football program. Have a good day everyone and by the way. Go see the basketball team. I went last night for the first time and they are worth every penny to go see.

He's Butkus.......I guess.....

Best of luck to the young man. I just hope he graduated or graduates. If he has graduated, he has fulfilled his biggest obligation to himself and the University. If not, he still owes both and his new family something. I doubt this will be a huge loss though. The kid never developed much after his freshman year. He should be easy to replace if not get an improvement on the position.

Blackburn does have one chance at the NFL that nobody writes about. He was the long snapper on the team. Although it is a long shot, he could make it in this position if he gets with a team that needs one. If he does, he could be in the NFL for longer than any Zip ever. Most long snappers play over 15 years.

Good post OL Watcher. Let's hope that additional work in spring practice will lead to the players development. Maybe they can bring some JUCO offensive linemen this off season to help the line. I still remain optomistic though.

I too am a little concerned about this kid. Faust used to bring in a lot of bad kids as well and it didn't work out for him. In the spirit of winning though, I say give him a chance and the first mistake he makes he goes away for good. There may be a difference between Faust and JD though. Faust was from Moeller and Notre Dame. Those two schools attract quality kids and Faust didn't have to deal with the bottom dwellers so he didn't know how to handle them. JD played in the NFL, coached in the NFL and coached at a "big time" program for several years coaching guys like A. Bryant. He has much more experience than Faust in dealing with this type of "me" guy. Maybe it will work out. Short leash though. I think the basketball analogy doesn't fit well with football though. Basketball only has 15 kids on the team and football has around 100. I'm sure not all the basketball players are friends with each other, but in a small group they are easier to control. It is too much to ask for all 100 kids on a football team to like each other. I'm sure that if you ask any player, they will say they have only about five or six player who they would call their good friends. Everyone is else is just some guy on the team who they may like but don't look at that guy as a friend. Keep your fingers crossed about this kid. I'm choosing to stick with optimism with the program.

Pre season polls mean nothing. I look for Akron to have a good season next year. Don't worry too much about what has left, every four years the players change anyhow. Certainly losing seniors is always a concern. As far as the o line, I think we could be just as good next year. Could it be any worse? The defense should be better next year also. If they are slightly better, that will give the offense more chances to score and better field position than what they have had in recent years. That plays in our favor. Next year, we have a QB starting who could have been the starting QB for a BCS school if his dad was one of the most powerful high school coaches in western PA the way Tyler Palko's dad is. There are many people who think Luke was a narrowly better QB than Palko. Luke will also have three fall practices and three spring practices in the offense. Think positive Zips fans. We have Can't, OU, Army at home. Buffalo and MTSU on the road. Miami will be down and throw in a win against a directional Michigan. Using the skills I used in my MUM class at U of A, that adds up to seven wins. Another win somewhere else, and we have eight wins.

Even a few days later, that comment bugs me. If a player feels he would get a better education elsewhere, he should have gone "there." I've fired employees with degrees from "better" schools. Why? Becuase they weren't pulling their weight. With a sand wedge from my cubicle I could hit 10 University of Akron graduates that are valuable contributors to our company. Accountants, engineers, graphic designers, heads of QC, product managers, marketing managers, and on and on. Allegedly "better" schools don't translate to "better" students. Nice work Capt. See my original quote. You are truely a high aimer. We need to expect more out of our players, all of them, than what we have seen. It's time to win!