2021 Schedule

[Blue & Gold]

16 minutes ago, zippy5 said:

What makes it a rivalry?

You don’t detect the higher level of heat going in both directions from the basketball programs?

[zippy5]

16 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

You don’t detect the higher level of heat going in both directions from the basketball programs?

We're talking football here

[ZippyRulz]

2 hours ago, zippy5 said:

What makes it a rivalry?

 

Probably the 2 most similar schools in the MAC in terms of history, mission, size, etc., in the state's #4 and #5 sized cities. It would be a more natural rivalry than teacher colleges Kent for us and BG for them - if it weren't for the distance factor and the difference in football program history and community affinity/support.

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by ZippyRulz

[zippy5]

2 hours ago, ZippyRulz said:

 

Probably the 2 most similar schools in the MAC in terms of history, mission, size, etc., in the state's #4 and #5 sized cities. It would be a more natural rivalry than teacher colleges Kent for us and BG for them - if it weren't for the distance factor and the difference in football program history and community affinity/support.

 

So what makes it a rivalry? Why do they dislike us, because we're a similar sized city? And we don't have lots of education majors?

[zippy5]

We've beaten Toledo 3 times since 1938.

[Blue & Gold]

13 hours ago, zippy5 said:

We're talking football here

Not exactly.  You were referencing the rivalry between our basketball teams in my previous post.  But the ideas are joined at the hip anyway.  All of our rivalries are basketball-dominant.  If fostering a rivalry was solely dependent on our rather pathetic football program, our only rival would be almost equally pathetic Kent.  For a number of years our rivalry with Ohio was almost entirely a basketball rivalry which, over time, has naturally spilled over into all sports.  The same can be said concerning Buffalo.

 

Other than Kent, Toledo is our most geographically and demographically natural rival in the conference.

 

But I totally get what you're saying.  In a football-only scenario, UT's bringing much more to the table than we are.  Certainly.

[zippy5]

I was just referencing your first paragraph, my bad. I'm solely commenting on GP1's idea to schedule Toledo every year as an OOC game. There's just nothing in it for Toledo imo

[GP1]

On 4/16/2021 at 4:07 PM, Blue & Gold said:

Why are we not intentionally stoking that natural, regional rivalry every year? 

I don't know, but my guess is misplaced priorities by athletic directors followed closely by a lack of imagination.

 

What is a rivalry?  I have no idea. I would say that UNC and Wake have no rivalry. Wake really has no rival. UNC has Duke and NC State to hate.  UNC and Wake have decided that playing each other in OOC games when they are not scheduled for an ACC match up is good for the players, students, alumni, fans and general community. The last time they played it was a beautiful 6 PM, Friday night kick off in W-S. It was a great game with Wake having to hold off a desperate second half comeback by UNC. After the game, the bars and restaurants in uptown W-S were packed with smiling fans from both schools. Isn't that what Toledo and Akron should be trying to accomplish with an annual game.

 

What is in it for Toledo some ask?.?.  Some snark there would be an easy win. Maybe, maybe not.  The all time record between the schools is 12-9 in Toledo's favor. Two of the best games I have ever saw at the Rubber Bowl involved Akron kicking the longest FG in school history for a last second win and Toledo Tom's final season when the Zips won a well played game by both teams. 

 

Maybe the question isn't, what's in it for the Universities of Toledo and Akron, but what is in it for the taxpayers who support these programs? What is in it for the players, students, fans, alumni and general communities for these two schools?  Are they not intertwined? I would bet there is a lot more in it for these two schools playing each other than a game against a school like Troy or UNCC or ECU or Purdue or some other school people in Ohio have almost zero interest.

[Zipmeister]

4 hours ago, GP1 said:

I don't know, but my guess is misplaced priorities by athletic directors followed closely by a lack of imagination.

 

What is a rivalry?  I have no idea. I would say that UNC and Wake have no rivalry. Wake really has no rival. UNC has Duke and NC State to hate.  UNC and Wake have decided that playing each other in OOC games when they are not scheduled for an ACC match up is good for the players, students, alumni, fans and general community. The last time they played it was a beautiful 6 PM, Friday night kick off in W-S. It was a great game with Wake having to hold off a desperate second half comeback by UNC. After the game, the bars and restaurants in uptown W-S were packed with smiling fans from both schools. Isn't that what Toledo and Akron should be trying to accomplish with an annual game.

 

What is in it for Toledo some ask?.?.  Some snark there would be an easy win. Maybe, maybe not.  The all time record between the schools is 12-9 in Toledo's favor. Two of the best games I have ever saw at the Rubber Bowl involved Akron kicking the longest FG in school history for a last second win and Toledo Tom's final season when the Zips won a well played game by both teams. 

 

Maybe the question isn't, what's in it for the Universities of Toledo and Akron, but what is in it for the taxpayers who support these programs? What is in it for the players, students, fans, alumni and general communities for these two schools?  Are they not intertwined? I would bet there is a lot more in it for these two schools playing each other than a game against a school like Troy or UNCC or ECU or Purdue or some other school people in Ohio have almost zero interest.

 

Given the current state of both programs, predicting easy wins for the Rockets doesn't exactly qualify as a snarky comment. Also if you take away Akron's 6 and 0 record against Toledo that occurred before 1939, the 12 and 3 record since then in favor of Toledo suggests it hasn't been a very competitive series (something that is generally required for a true rivalry) since anyone on this board was born.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Zipmeister

[zipsfan33]

7 hours ago, GP1 said:

Two of the best games I have ever saw at the Rubber Bowl involved Akron kicking the longest FG in school history for a last second win and Toledo Tom's final season when the Zips won a well played game by both teams. 

 

 

I'll never forget Darren Alcorn kicking that game winner.  I believe I was 13 at the time.  I want to say it was 1992 and possibly even an Acme Zip Game???  It was at night, I remember fireworks, and a big crowd as some rushed the field!   Good memories, one of my best! 

[MDZip]

1 hour ago, zipsfan33 said:

I'll never forget Darren Alcorn kicking that game winner.  I believe I was 13 at the time.  I want to say it was 1992 and possibly even an Acme Zip Game???  It was at night, I remember fireworks, and a big crowd as some rushed the field!   Good memories, one of my best! 

And the following year Darren Alcorn was Mr. Irrelevant, the final pick of the NFL draft. 

[GP1]

13 hours ago, Zipmeister said:

Also if you take away Akron's 6 and 0 record against Toledo that occurred before 1939, the 12 and 3 record since then in favor of Toledo suggests it hasn't been a very competitive series (something that is generally required for a true rivalry) since anyone on this board was born.

That's a pretty loose definition of a rivalry. If the series being competitive is the benchmark, then the OSU vs. Michigan rivalry is not really one. In fact, it's becoming the Tennessee vs. Vandy rivalry in terms of national relevance. Besides, I'm not really interested in debating what rivalry means. I want them to play because they are two schools within two hours of each other, at the same level and that allows students, fans, alumni and the general community (basically the taxpayers of Ohio) to enjoy a day of fun and football on a late summer day. If the mayors want to have some sort of trophy, I could really give a hoot.

 

Akron won't always be this bad. We have been this bad before and have recovered to some level of respectability. Not that long ago we were in the MACC. The MAC is a pretty easy conference to get good in as long as you don't make catastrophic mistakes.

 

 

[GP1]

11 hours ago, zipsfan33 said:

I'll never forget Darren Alcorn kicking that game winner.  I believe I was 13 at the time.  I want to say it was 1992 and possibly even an Acme Zip Game???  It was at night, I remember fireworks, and a big crowd as some rushed the field!   Good memories, one of my best! 

It was 1992. Gary Pinkel's first season at UT. It wasn't just the last second kick. Toledo made a great comeback and scored with little time remaining in the game to tie it. Back then there was no overtime. Akron was able to get just close enough to kick the FG with no time remaining. 

 

https://utrockets.com/sports/football/schedule/1992

 

If there are any journalists who read this and have a copy of an ABJ article or a news video, that would be awesome. It really was a great college football game. I would love to know how Toledo scored late. My memory says it was 20-17 and they kicked a late FG to tie it but were really close to scoring a TD, but my memory ain't what it used to be.

[Zipmeister]

7 hours ago, GP1 said:

That's a pretty loose definition of a rivalry. If the series being competitive is the benchmark, then the OSU vs. Michigan rivalry is not really one. In fact, it's becoming the Tennessee vs. Vandy rivalry in terms of national relevance. Besides, I'm not really interested in debating what rivalry means. I want them to play because they are two schools within two hours of each other, at the same level and that allows students, fans, alumni and the general community (basically the taxpayers of Ohio) to enjoy a day of fun and football on a late summer day. If the mayors want to have some sort of trophy, I could really give a hoot.

 

Akron won't always be this bad. We have been this bad before and have recovered to some level of respectability. Not that long ago we were in the MACC. The MAC is a pretty easy conference to get good in as long as you don't make catastrophic mistakes.

 

Point of order.

I didn't define a rivalry, and you're the one who brought up how close the all time W/L record was; I just added a time dimension.

[zipsoutsider]

It seems like expanding out rivalries to teams we can't beat is not a winning venture.

 

Maybe we need to get in a position of winning the first one before we add a second one?

[GP1]

3 hours ago, zipsoutsider said:

It seems like expanding out rivalries to teams we can't beat is not a winning venture.

 

Maybe we need to get in a position of winning the first one before we add a second one?

It's not about rivalries. It's not even a rivalry.  It's just a good idea. It's working for Wake and UNC.  We can beat Toledo. We have in the past. We will beat them again at some point. 

 

They need to do something interesting. Getting destroyed by Auburn and OSU isn't interesting. We've seen that far too much already. The idea of playing the likes of Troy, ULM, UNCC, New Mexico, Temple, Howard, etc makes me want to fall asleep. 

 

If I still lived in Ohio, I think it would be awesome to go to Toledo every other year to watch the Zips play a late summer game at the Glass Bowl. If any of you haven't been there, it's the Wrigley Field of the MAC. 

[zippy5]

It's a good idea for us, I agree with that

[zipsoutsider]

Agree that the program needs to do something interesting....but there is a lot of low hanging fruit that doesn't involve getting another program on board that could be achieved, too.

 

As far as being able to beat Toledo, not in our current state.

[Zippy7373]

I think if the players and staff have a good summer. Get kids to camps and grind it out I think they can surprise in the fall. Now I’m not saying win 8-9 games but at least compete for 6 that should be the goal. 

[LZIp]

2 minutes ago, Zippy7373 said:

I think if the players and staff have a good summer. Get kids to camps and grind it out I think they can surprise in the fall. Now I’m not saying win 8-9 games but at least compete for 6 that should be the goal. 

I don't see it (and I'm okay with that this year), but would love to be proven wrong. Just keep moving forward....

[Zipmeister]

1 hour ago, Zippy7373 said:

I think if the players and staff have a good summer. Get kids to camps and grind it out I think they can surprise in the fall. Now I’m not saying win 8-9 games but at least compete for 6 that should be the goal. 

 

Camp Y-NOAH is close by and they can taylor the players camping experience to fit their needs.

[GP1]

On 4/18/2021 at 10:05 PM, zipsfan33 said:

I'll never forget Darren Alcorn kicking that game winner.  I believe I was 13 at the time.  I want to say it was 1992 and possibly even an Acme Zip Game???  It was at night, I remember fireworks, and a big crowd as some rushed the field!   Good memories, one of my best! 

Sorry they are upside down. Don't know how to turn them. The only piece I am missing from my memory is how much time was remaining in the game when Akron got the ball back.

Edited April 23, 2021 by GP1

[ZippyRulz]

I was there but the only thing I remember is the kick. I was thinking it was later in the season and frigid cold but obviously I'm confusing it with a different game. I also don't remember what happened with DA in the NFL after being drafted... did he make a team and get any FG's?

 

[Zipmeister]

2 hours ago, ZippyRulz said:

I was there but the only thing I remember is the kick. I was thinking it was later in the season and frigid cold but obviously I'm confusing it with a different game. I also don't remember what happened with DA in the NFL after being drafted... did he make a team and get any FG's?

 

 

After an exhaustive search I came up with:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daron_Alcorn

 

I have to go rest now.

 

[Blue & Gold]

Hey fellas,  If you were putting together a group outing which game would you pick?  Which game do you think will give Zips newbies the best experience? 

 

Sept. 11 -v- Temple

Sept. 18 -v- Bryant, or

Oct. 2 -v- Ohio?