Athletic Dept.

[ZipAlumn]

I know we have a new A.D. and there are several new faces in the Athletic Dept, and I hate to sound like a whiner, but ..............The football schedule this year sucked. I know that this is the fault of the "old" Athletic Dept. but the first three games are away and six of our first eight are away. The basketball schedule doesn't seem to be much better in my opinion.The new web site design (GoZips.com) in my opinion is not nearly as good as the old one. Too many ads, the page is awful "busy", hard to read, and it loads a lot slower than the old one. And the information is lacking timeliness. Articles, quotes, and box scores on the games and matches usually come the next day or not at all. The rosters for the teams (usually girls) have no photos, is there a reason for that in today's society? The page lacks consistancy across the various team pages. I purchased a Family Pac for the football season, and after talking to many friends had to get more tickets for friends and relatives that wanted to go the games. The week before the Can't State game I went to purchase tickets for Miami, Bowling Green, and Western Michigan only to be told that they "weren't in yet". This was already after four games into the season. I won't even mention the $500 "donation" fiasco for parking in Lot #1. But why is it a parking pass cost $25 ($5 per game), when you can drive up the day of the game and park for $3.00?This season started off with such high hopes for our athletic teams and right now everbody seems to be foundering. The Men's Soccer Team can not score, and most of the starters are back. The Football Team seems to be going nowhere fast. And the Women's Volleyball and Soccer Teams seem no better than last year after such a promising start.Like I said, I normally don't like to complain but I really think some things could be a little better. I remember (in my undergraduate days when the university was smaller) when myself and some of my friends complained about Memorial Hall being closed on the weekend. Later that day Red Cochran stopped by my dorm room and told me that from now on it would be open at certain times on the weekend. That's the Athletic Department I was used to, and maybe today it is not possible, but it could be a little better.

[zipdad]

Coach Brookhart made it very clear to our recruiting group last January that the MAC was not a big fan of Akron's and that he felt that he and his staff were fighting against the management of the MAC for respect. He also said that the school was having a heard time finding other schools to schedule them following last season.

[akronad]

Non-league scheduels are done 2-5 years in advance. I know in thecoming years we have Cincy, Indiana, Kentucky & Army on the schedules. So we should only be looking to fill one game the first couple of years (game #12) and 1-2 games for the following 2-3 years. Why the MAC is not a friendly to Akron is beyond, unless they want to see the the "Old Boy" network of Miami, Toledo, BG, OU and Can't get all of the glory.We need to stay the course this year and hopefully Mack R. gan get things going in a positive manner.

[UA Fan]

Coach Brookhart made it very clear to our recruiting group last January that the MAC was not a big fan of Akron's and that he felt that he and his staff were fighting against the management of the MAC for respect. He also said that the school was having a heard time finding other schools to schedule them following last season.

Did JD give any indication of why the MAC mgmt. dislikes Akron?

[zipboy]

F them then. In 5 years when we go bigger, they can be whining all they want.

[zippyrifle32]

i don't notice much difference between the websites, but if they look inconsistant that's because there are 3 or 4 people with a few teams each. usually they have a fall, winter, and spring sport so they can focus on each more in season...etc. Since spring sports are a ways off, they generally take their time putting those things up. from my understanding, the guy who does the tickets is new and came from a school where they didn't have a football program. so he's learning from the mistakes he's making.also, men's soccer may have a lot of returning players, but they don't have ross. our forwards are struggling a bit, but we have to remember that even with us being down this year, we're still pretty good.volleyball is young, and women's soccer are on the turning point. they beat bg today and almost beat toledo on friday in one of the dirtiest matches i've ever seen. anyways, there's been a lot of change in the staff and coaches this past year, so i think it's understandable that things are a little rough. i expect things will be sorted out better as this year progresses. i like mack a lot and think that he's going to be doing some real good things for akron.

[Jalapeño Zippy]

ZipAlumn - That is informaiton is striking that you couldn't by home games four games into the season. I am curious on who you talked to? As for the Men's Soccer team they lost two HUGE members of the team last year that were cause for much of the success in Ross McKenzie and Yohann Mauger. Yohann controlled the middle and was able to get the ball into the gaps and Ros was one of the best if not the best finisher I have ever seen wear a Zips jersey. Thos two players would be difficult for any coach especially a new coach to replace in only one season.As for woman's soccer there record has much to do with the scheduling. The coaches scheduled cupcake teams to make the record look better. If the woman were better than last year they would have won the Westfield Cup tournament. There was not one good woman's soccer team in the field.Zips football is my biggest concern. The offensive line concerns me the most. With all five starters returning they should be better than what they are showing. Granted they have had a tough schedule, but they have only played in two really hostile environments such as Penn State and NC State and they went 1-1. I think the team is having a total let down from last season. I see a lack of effort. The best team in the MAC by far at this point is Central Michigan. Akron should be right up there but this lack of effort is disturbing. I have counted 12 dropped balls in the past two games that would have prolonged a possession. Lindsay looks lost out there running the wrong patterns and it is obvious that Getsy is not on the same page with any of his wide recievers other than Harvey, but even he dropped a ball against Cincinnati.Hopefully things get turned around.

[ZipAlumn]

ZipAlumn - That is informaiton is striking that you couldn't by home games four games into the season.  I am curious on who you talked to? 

I stopped by the JAR and stood in line at the ticket window. They offered to give me a "ticket application" and if I gave them my credit card they would mail me the tickets. Several others were in line also, one was given an application for season tickets (kinda late), but I don't know what the others were there for.I understand that the Athletic Dept. does not have a direct influence over the year's success for the various teams. What really bothers me is the fact that there was the $500+ parking lot doonboggle: the new and improved web site (isn't the Athletic Dept responsible for this?); the fact that they offer a season parking pass for $25, but you can park at the five single games for $15. I understand that the majority of a team's schedule is set years in advance, but I am not sure exactly what the MAC has to do with the scheudling. I also heard a rumor that some people who supposedly qualified for the 1,500 "Fear The Roo" blankets for purchasing season tickets never got them. I'm not sure this really happened, because I got mine, but did hear a couple complaints. It just seems that the Athletic Dept. could be better organized, and some of these problems eliminated.

[ZipAlumn]

Last night I broke down and shelled out $3.00 for a program for my grandson. Later on I borrowed it back to check the starting time for the Bowling Green game. Guess what! THERE WAS NO SCHEDULE IN THE PROGRAM. Lots of statistics, advertisements, "puff pieces" and fillers, but NO FRIGGIN SCHEDULE. Will someone tell me how you can have a football program without a football schedule inside!

[Sergeant Zip]

The new web site design (GoZips.com) in my opinion is not nearly as good as the old one.   Too many ads, the page is awful "busy", hard to read, and it loads a lot slower than the old one.   And the information is lacking timeliness.   Articles, quotes, and box scores on the games and matches usually come the next day or not at all.   The rosters for the teams (usually girls) have no photos, is there a reason for that in today's society?   The page lacks consistancy across the various team pages.

I went to look at the box score for the Tiffin game at "Official Athletics Site of The University of Akron" and they provide a broken link for the box score. Nicely done.

[Zipsrifle]

I took my season ticket stubs to the game last week, went to the merchandise stand and got my blankets. Football Progression over the past 4 years:Coach Offense Defense Special TeamsLO Explosive Horrible GoodJD Good OK GoodJD OK Good OKJD Bad Good HorribleI don't understand how JD was an Offensive Coordinator, and our offense and ST appear to be getting worse? Why did the players come out so prepared against Purdue, NC State, but don't seem to have it together other times?

[zipboy]

One thing that Mike Waddell said a few years ago was and I am paraphrasin - the dept should care about the people who do come and give them a first class showing. A few things that we had in the past which made gameday experience more enjoyable that are now gone include1. Showing stats on the side scoreboard during the game. Why is this so hard?2. Showing MAC scores and national scores on the side scoreboard during timeouts. And actually updating the scores throughout the game. Why is this so hard?3. Giving a 1 page game notes and summary before the game with rosters.4. Doing a live feed for the postgame show so those still in the JAR can hear it as they leave.There are no billboards, commercials etc. I understand that takes money. Maybe we have none to spend. (Although the previous admin found some). But when can be controlled is the quality of service. How about when putting the halftime stats up, you get the stats for the team in the right column. Again a small thing, but when I saw that I thought about the spelling errors in the ticket notice.On Thursday my work group gave me a Fear the Roo shirt as a Christmas gift as I incessantly talk about Akron and work to get people to games. They gave it to me and said "We ordered it online. We ordered a large but they sent a small. We are so sorry." I thought, shocking another minor screw up that has several more people think we are idiots. Last Monday I was listening to French on the morning news. The main guy mentioned $1 game for St Francis and asked French about it. French said, he did not find out until it was in the Beacon that day and no one told him. Where is the communication within the dept? I certaintly don't find timely information on gozips.com anymore.Everyone is new and Mack has done a good job on what his main priorities were 1. hire coaches 2. get extensions for JD and KD 3. get the football stadium built.MT had it easy, he had Mike Waddel to take care of this stuff. I realize that people are new and I usually don't complain. People are hopefully trying. But what I see is1. A lack of quality and attention to detail which is either due to laziness, incompitence, or plain not caring.2. Things being done without thinking about damage control. (Hey I get the parking thing and selling the student tickets. You want to generate money. How it is handled is as important as what you are trying to do)3. A lack of understanding or care about the fans who support the program. Put yourself in our shoes and ask what can you do to make things better for us be it not having Sam's Club vegetables, happily addressing customer concerns, or whatever.4. Have some ideas and try them - the little gimmicks at halftime are at least something. The marketing/external relations was nonexistent until 5 years ago. We have come too far to fall backward. Thanks

[ZipAlumn]

I simply can not understand our Athletic Department. Are they simply incompetant or are they incompetant and apathetic. Today on Monday (Dec. 25th) the home page of gozips.com contains an advertisement fot the Friday Dec. 22nd game. Maybe they are still trying to sell some more tickets due to the fact that they didn't do such a good job the first time around. I have to laugh when they describe gozips.com as a premium content provider.By the way I have not capitalized gozips.com on purpose because, in my opinion, they are a "lower case" operation.

[ZipAlumn]

I went to Radio Shack and bought a "high performance" radio so that I could pull in 1350 AM without the interference and garble that I normally got. Then with more than six minutes left in the BGSU vs Akron game the "Akron's ISP" had technical difficulties and lost their signal. They got it back with about three minutes left in the game and promptly lost it again.Becasue I enjoy beating a dead horse I have to mention that with our Athletic Department why should I be surprised that they choose a radio station like 1350 AM to broadcast our games. You can't hear it if you're over 10 miles from the station, and when they have technical difficulties you get an education on credit card balance transfers, not just once but twice.

[ZachTheZip]

I went to Radio Shack and bought a "high performance" radio so that I could pull in 1350 AM without the interference and garble that I normally got. Then with more than six minutes left in the BGSU vs Akron game the "Akron's ISP" had technical difficulties and lost their signal. They got it back with about three minutes left in the game and promptly lost it again.Becasue I enjoy beating a dead horse I have to mention that with our Athletic Department why should I be surprised that they choose a radio station like 1350 AM to broadcast our games. You can't hear it if you're over 10 miles from the station, and when they have technical difficulties you get an education on credit card balance transfers, not just once but twice.

Weird. I can hear it just fine in Lake county. Except when I'm at work, because the idiots who designed the building used bronze mesh to filter out all external signals including cell phones and radio.

[timmyboy]

i didnt even need to listen to the game, because i knew the ZIPS were going to whip BG's @$$ lol. great game guys