Akron to play Ohio State to open the 2024 season

[GP1]

20 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

There is absolutely no upside in playing YSU. Anybody who thinks it's a no-brainer is brainless. The miniscule jump in attendance it might provide is not worth giving a regional lower level school a chance for bragging rights. 

Good post. 

 

Further, if we kick the crap out of them, we learn nothing. If we bring in a Sun Belt team, or something similar, we learn how our team is stacking up against teams from like conferences. We need this more than a gimmick game against YSU. 

[dre22era]

Its a shame folks take pride in us being mediocre and playing nobody defending that logic to the core. 

[dre22era]

Playing YSU every year?

So folks want to see us get our ass kicked by a FCS school who does a hell of a better job recruiting locally every year. Ha

[Spin]

19 hours ago, dre22era said:

Bunch a grumpy old men.

How about go ask your kids and grand children's opinion on the subject. 

My three sons don’t really show any interest in going to the games anymore. They went with me during the Bowden era, we had season tickets. We catch some hoops during the winter.
 

Football? meh. I usually catch a couple games by myself every season now. And a couple at the high school I played for BITD. If they have enough players to play…

[Spin]

51 minutes ago, dre22era said:

Playing YSU every year?

So folks want to see us get our ass kicked by a FCS school who does a hell of a better job recruiting locally every year. Ha

I’d be worried there would be more fans on the east side of the stadium than on the west. 

[Reslife4Life]

4 hours ago, dre22era said:

Its a shame folks take pride in us being mediocre and playing nobody defending that logic to the core. 

Akron football seems to be a lot worse than mediocre

[Blue & Gold]

19 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

There is absolutely no upside in playing YSU. Anybody who thinks it's a no-brainer is brainless. The miniscule jump in attendance it might provide is not worth giving a regional lower level school a chance for bragging rights. 

You're right. Silly idea to stoke a natural rivalry to increase attendance. Much better to just keep "thinking outside the box" and tarp our bleachers and play our games in Florida.

 

It should be an annual W to begin each season.  And the SteelTire Trophy game would draw better than Gardner Webb or Morgan State.

 

I'm the very last person on this board who wants us to drop to FCS. But if JoMo can't get us to the point where we'd at the very least handle our business vs. YSU ~80% of the time, maybe we should drop.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, if they'll have it, we should schedule Pitt as often as possible in all sports.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Blue & Gold

[Hilltopper]

6 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

You're right. Silly idea to stoke a natural rivalry to increase attendance. Much better to just keep "thinking outside the box" and tarp our bleachers and play our games in Florida.

 

It should be an annual W to begin each season.  And the SteelTire Trophy game would draw better than Gardner Webb or Morgan State.

 

I'm the very last person on this board who wants us to drop to FCS. But if JoMo can't get us to the point where we'd at the very least handle our business vs. YSU ~80% of the time, maybe we should drop.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, if they'll have it, we should schedule Pitt as often as possible in all sports.

https://570wkbn.iheart.com/content/2022-11-04-the-attendance-at-fcs-football-games-and-ysu/

 

"Did we build FCS stadiums too large? At one time they were right sized for Youngstown State. It was common to see 20 thousand turn out for a Penguin game. In this day and age 12,000 is a good crowd and that has not happened much this year. Saturday 65 and sunny was poorly attended. 

Despite some of the best facilities in division one football, the fans are not turning out. Youngstown has a complete indoor practice facility, convenient athletic quarters, and top-notch competition in the Missouri Valley conference, but the fans want to see Ohio State and Penn State. "

 

Same problems as us. There is no rabid fan base clamoring for a match-up between UA and YSU. 

 

 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, Hilltopper said:

https://570wkbn.iheart.com/content/2022-11-04-the-attendance-at-fcs-football-games-and-ysu/

 

"Did we build FCS stadiums too large? At one time they were right sized for Youngstown State. It was common to see 20 thousand turn out for a Penguin game. In this day and age 12,000 is a good crowd and that has not happened much this year. Saturday 65 and sunny was poorly attended. 

Despite some of the best facilities in division one football, the fans are not turning out. Youngstown has a complete indoor practice facility, convenient athletic quarters, and top-notch competition in the Missouri Valley conference, but the fans want to see Ohio State and Penn State. "

 

Same problems as us. There is no rabid fan base clamoring for a match-up between UA and YSU. 

 

 

Thanks for the link. It's a good read. 

 

Society has changed a lot. OSU is struggling to sell out games. It's not just us or FCS schools. 

 

The trendy thing to do years ago was athletic directors boosting their resumes by convincing schools to expand facilities. Now those stadiums are empty. A lesson is to be careful of who you listen to and their motivations. 

 

This is a very complex problem and is probably a new normal at this point. 

[dre22era]

20 hours ago, Spin said:

I’d be worried there would be more fans on the east side of the stadium than on the west. 

That too

Good point

YSU has a solid core of fans 

[dre22era]

The common denominator is Akron needs to win. 

If we win  = fans will come.

Nobody wants to sit out in the cold and watch mediocre football.

Aside from not producing a winning program on the field our merchandising department still SUCKS. 

It would be nice to go into the team store and be able to buy a Akron Zips Jersey of any sport vs having to buy from a student athlete selling their apparel under the table on Ebay or buying fake jerseys from dhgate made in China.

I once emailed the AD asking about buying a pair of Lebron's Akron Zips colorway shoes the basketball team wears. I Told him I was also willing to add a donation on top of the purchase. Was pretty much told no. I Went right to ebay and got them. I would rather my money go to the University but the powers that be fail to see the bigger picture smh. 

@ZipsEquipment is my favorite Twitter Handle in regards to Univ Athletics on social media. Whoever runs that handle does a great job even though it irks me seeing merch us fans can't have. 

 

 

[Captain Kangaroo]

Feeling supremely confident regarding the Zips chances for an upset next fall! 
 

osu 🦨

🦘💪🏽

[GP1]

3 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Feeling supremely confident regarding the Zips chances for an upset next fall! 
 

osu 🦨

🦘💪🏽

I don't give much weight to bowl games, but OSU looks like a program in decline. Missouri is a low level SEC program having a once in a decade season. 

[72 Roo]

Just goes to show that in all of sports QB is the most important position. OSU had poor QB play and the inevitable result ensued. We have the same problem to a worse degree. Please Joe bring in better talent than Taj and Wassel.

[GP1]

10 minutes ago, 72 Roo said:

Just goes to show that in all of sports QB is the most important position. OSU had poor QB play and the inevitable result ensued. We have the same problem to a worse degree. Please Joe bring in better talent than Taj and Wassel.

I agree with everything. 

 

OSU did have bad QB play, but they also have one HS All American QB after another on the team. They had 30 days to get one ready and another ready as a back up. It's a football factory and the production line is broken. 

 

12 team playoff and a cake schedule guarantees they will get a post season beating next year as well. 

[Zipsfan10]

3 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

Just goes to show that in all of sports QB is the most important position. OSU had poor QB play and the inevitable result ensued. We have the same problem to a worse degree. Please Joe bring in better talent than Taj and Wassel.

Taj got two full games last season. 
Wasel got nothing. 
How do we know their true talent level? Taj came from P5. Wasel had lots of P5 interest and was ranked as the #9 dual threat in the nation by Rivaks until he committed here. 
While it’s no doubt important to get a good, experienced QB out of the portal, I think the statement above is unfair to two kids who have chosen to be here and haven’t had adequate time to show their abilities. 
We have to decide if we’re gonna give one of these guys or both time to develop and mature or do we want to continue to find experienced band aids who couldn’t make it at the higher level to probably leave after a year or graduate. 

[MangoZip]

22 minutes ago, Zipsfan10 said:

Taj got two full games last season. 
Wasel got nothing. 
How do we know their true talent level? Taj came from P5. Wasel had lots of P5 interest and was ranked as the #9 dual threat in the nation by Rivaks until he committed here. 
While it’s no doubt important to get a good, experienced QB out of the portal, I think the statement above is unfair to two kids who have chosen to be here and haven’t had adequate time to show their abilities. 
We have to decide if we’re gonna give one of these guys or both time to develop and mature or do we want to continue to find experienced band aids who couldn’t make it at the higher level to probably leave after a year or graduate. 

Both will need to show some serious progress spring

[Zipsfan10]

19 minutes ago, MangoZip said:

Both will need to show some serious progress spring

Agree. Just saying if you judged the majority of even these P5 freshman being paid massive amounts of NIl off their first start, they’d be at same level…not very good. It takes time. It also takes time for a Re-build. The one thing I think we should all expect from QB play to overall play is progress.  That’s definitely not too much to ask. 

[LZIp]

I think what last night shows us is no matter how highly recruited you are, you likely need time to develop.

[GP1]

1 hour ago, LZIp said:

I think what last night shows us is no matter how highly recruited you are, you likely need time to develop.

They have 8 months between now and the first game. 

[Let'sGoZips94]

On 12/30/2023 at 3:26 PM, LZIp said:

I think what last night shows us is no matter how highly recruited you are, you likely need time to develop.

 

And an offensive line. 

[Spin]

On 11/21/2023 at 3:37 PM, LZIp said:

I guess this means we are replacing our home game with Kentucky for an ass kicking by OSU. 

If they play like they did in the Cotton Bowl we might have a shot…

[UA1996MAENG]

On 12/30/2023 at 3:37 AM, GP1 said:

I don't give much weight to bowl games, but OSU looks like a program in decline. Missouri is a low level SEC program having a once in a decade season. 

 

I know you made this comment in December (and I hate OSU), but OSU at the moment seems to be in full control of its destiny in the new landscape of top-tier college football, which is a de facto professional league. OSU always had the tradition and money and now it has integrated NIL and the Transfer Portal into its system.  What happened in the bowl game was the result of opt-outs and transfers, which occurred because OSU was not in the playoffs and the bowl was "meaningless". I doubt we will see this kind of horrendous performance by OSU again in the 12-team playoff.  UA vs OSU next fall only does one thing - it helps finance the UA athletic program that is deeply in debt. I’m not looking forward to it, and I think we will see across CFB and within Power 5 conferences fewer and fewer compelling games.  OSU vs Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, etc.?  Always boring matchups and now it’s going to get worse. 

[ZipCat]

On 11/27/2023 at 4:41 PM, Spin said:

Football? meh. I usually catch a couple games by myself every season now. And a couple at the high school I played for BITD. If they have enough players to play…

 

Same. Zips Football is unfortunately basically dead to me at this point. Used to have season tickets. Used to get hyped about every game. Now I don't really care. I'll watch Akron vs. OSU, I'll watch a few games until they get out of hand and then move on to something else.

 

Playing YSU definitely wouldn't interest me any more either.

 

WINNING CONSISTENTLY is just about the only thing that would reignite my interest in Zips football again.

Edited February 9 by ZipCat

[ZipCat]

1 hour ago, UA1996MAENG said:

 

I know you made this comment in December (and I hate OSU), but OSU at the moment seems to be in full control of its destiny in the new landscape of top-tier college football, which is a de facto professional league. OSU always had the tradition and money and now it has integrated NIL and the Transfer Portal into its system.  What happened in the bowl game was the result of opt-outs and transfers, which occurred because OSU was not in the playoffs and the bowl was "meaningless". I doubt we will see this kind of horrendous performance by OSU again in the 12-team playoff.  UA vs OSU next fall only does one thing - it helps finance the UA athletic program that is deeply in debt. I’m not looking forward to it, and I think we will see across CFB and within Power 5 conferences fewer and fewer compelling games.  OSU vs Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Rutgers, etc.?  Always boring matchups and now it’s going to get worse. 

 

IDK I agree with GP1 on this point. That particular program for next season looks like it's definitely in decline. If we had a better Akron team, that's one I would highlight as a potential upset like the Akron vs. Michigan game a decade ago.