GP1

I'm going to say this for about the 5,000th time on this board. The reason the Zips played better in the middle of the season was three reason: 1. Biggs, 2. Biggs, 3. Biggs. The play of Frye was good throughout the year and didn't change whether they were playing Penn State or Ball State. What changed was the starting running back from Ringer to Biggs. The Zips were able to move the ball with him, control the clock more and keep the defense off the field more. No secrets here.

One coach left after the season last year. Did any more leave? Was the position filled?

http://www.soonerfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34064 I wanted you all to see this.

Akron will have a certain number of tickets for sale also and the visiting team usually has a will call. Any tickets bought through U of A will benefit the school more than buying them through Can't. Warning though....If you buy the tickets through U of A, you may be stuck in the lower seats at Can't that were designed for dwarfs. Also, Ticket Master sells tickets for the game as well. You can actually print your tickets up on line on a regular piece of paper and take it to the game. The ticket is printed with a bar code that can be picked up by the scanner at the game.

Thanks for doing my work for me zipper. However, the basketball team is a much bigger story than the football team was. The football team had a meaningful game at the end of the season which was good and unexpected but as usual, they couldn't win their last game because of a lack of talent... which is on the way. The football team was also a one trick pony. As Biggs went, so went the team. A one game improvement against D-1 teams was better, but I think in time six wins will be expected. The basketball had such low expectations coming into the season and that is what makes them the biggest story of the two. I don't know much about basketball, but I do know good effort and team work when I see it. KD is getting more out of those kids than even the kids thought they had. That's why the basketball team is the story.

This is a good idea, but no small undertaking. One basketball season would be impacted by the change. Where would the team play......Gund Arena, CSU, Can't State, Canton Civic Center or a little at all of the above like WVU did when they worked on their basketball arena? How about a couple of old school games? Bring in some temporary seats and play at Memorial Hall.

He makes for an easy target and good humor at Pluto's expense when I really don't have much else to say.

Actually, no. The purpose of a university is to get the best students possible and educate them; however, I don't think you were writing about the overall University. An even bigger NO goes for athletics. The purpose of the athletic department is to field teams that win games regardless of where the players come from. We saw too much charity for local players being handed out with Lee Owens. We don't need to go down that road again. I'm just shocked that that sneaky prick Pluto didn't find some space to credit Owens for the success of the basketball team this year. He could have said: "We can't forget that Lee Owens, the former football coach of Akron and the apple of my eye, deserves some credit for the success of the basketball team this year. On several occasions, he said 'hello' to the basketball players walking down the halls of JAR Arena's administrative offices".

Wow, this post points to a group of seniors who only produced 19 Division I wins in four years as a group we can not replace. What a load of crap. There is not a player on that list who can't be replaced. The key to the success Akron had in the last part of 2004 was not the play of Frye, Blackburn, Basch, etc., it was the play of Biggs and the development of the running game. Why do people point to OU as an upstart program? Frank Solich? Are you kidding me? The only reason the guy took the OU job is that no other school in their right mind would hire the guy. What would his recruiting slogan be: "Come live in Athens and play for the guy who ran Nebraska into the ground". Getting OU at home next year should be a guarantee win for Akron. I would bet that on over half the college fan internet boards across the country, they are filled with hand wringers who think their seniors can't be replaced. What a lack of foresight...and that goes for some of you on this board. Every freaking four years the players change!!! If you are sitting around wringing your hands worrying about how we are going to replace that bunch of seniors who gave us no real success over the past four years, STOP. Young players improve from year to year as they mature. Many of the kids who may appeared to have no promise last year will all of the sudden be much better after off season workouts, spring practice and two a days. Look forward, not back. The past is too ugly. I'll take my chances with the next group of players......JDs players. Finally, the post mentions "reloading". We are not going to reload, we are going to improve. Six wins minimum should not be out of reach for the players next year. I've done this before, but I'll do it again. OU, Can't, Army, Buffalo and MTSU should all be wins. Split with Miami and BUGS. Throw in a win against another cross conference team and we have six wins. Why not beat both Miami and BUGS? Is Josh Betts so good we can not beat them? Miami is also losing really good players who actually took them to a Bowl game. I have no idea what BUGS has or doesn't have, but if we get them at home, we could beat them as well. Go Zips!

These are all good questioins. I think one of the major driving forces is maybe a kid wants to go far from home. Toledo is a good pick for a kid from Akron because it is two hours from home and not to mention that they won the MAC this year. A MAC Championship is a better recruiting tool than a new practice field. When we win our MAC Championship with JD, we will have to turn players away hand over fist.

God, this just proves everything I have ever said about most high school coaches. They have no clue what makes a Division I player or what it is like to be involved in Division I sports. Even Cant wasn't stupid enough to give these players scholarships. Owens was a high school coach and we had below average teams most of his time here. Let's start with Brown's comments. If Akron is recruiting a player who signs with ODU and Edinboro, Brookhart is at fault for recruiting less than Division I players. Enough said, Brookhart made the right decision. Secondly, a kid that runs a 4.7 or 4.8 fourty yard dash will get eaten alive in Division I as a cornerback. Basic skills are necessary for any job. This kid didn't even have the basic skill to compete at U of A. Enough said, Brookhart made the right decision. Thirdly, these idiot high school coaches need to understand that Akron is not running a charity with the football program. The purpose of the program is to win football games with whatever players they need to win within the rules of the NCAA. The purpose of the program is NOT to give free scholarships to local players because they think the community owes them something. We saw enough of this type of behavior with Owens. What did that get us......nothing. Good players don't need to come from Summit or Stark County. Let me name a few players. Frye, Biggs, Jason Taylor, Dwight Smith, Jake S., Butchie Washington, Brake, Payne. None of these players were from either Summit or Stark County. Finally, this article begs the question: What made Morgan write the article? Either one or more of the coaches quoted in the article called him to complain or he wrote the article to try to stick it in the eye of U of A. My guess is that it is the second choice. For whatever reason, the Beacon has a hard on for U of A football since they fired that loser Owens. My guess is that it is that sneaky prick Pluto leading the charge. All they want is loveable losers in Akron. That way they can write their feel good stories about the good guys who are trying their best but can't get over the hump. Wouldn't it be more fun to write about a winning football program? As a fan, what do you want, loveable losers or winners? If you say anything but a winner, you yourself are a loser, or a former Owens player......they are actually one in the same. Don't worry about articles like this. JD knows what he is doing and the program is going in the right direction. JD's staff knows how to scout and recruit players without relying on the high school coaches for advice or help from these huge ego high school coaches who should just worry about football in the fall and teaching whatever classes they teach the remainder of the year. Good grief, we have the highest rated class in the MAC. Losing that dwarf to Can't will do nothing to hurt the program. When Akron has a winning program, these high school coaches will be crawling on their hands and knees to get players signed with Akron. Well, off to a cocktail party ............have fun at the BB game Wednesday. My plane gets in too late to go. GO ZIPS!!!!!!

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.