Men's basketball
GoZips.com conducted a thorough interview with Keith Dambrot, looking ahead at next year's team. It's a good read.
Football
The Zips are unhappy that the media picked them to finish last in the MAC East, according to the ABJ's Tom Gaffney.
When you look at the MAC East, a last-place tally should not have been a surprise. Buffalo and Temple are improving quickly. Bowling Green and Miami played well with young teams last season. Ohio and Kent State… Well, that's debatable.
With the wealth of mediocrity, it won't matter to Akron how other teams are playing. The Zips must ascend, not wait for others to fall.
Akron will begin practices on Sunday. I plan to report from training camp as much as possible.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The Zips are "unhappy?" How about us poor fans who had to sit thru the last two years' debacles? The pressure's on, big J.D., because UA has invested heavily in your program, and in a mediocre conference, the Zips have fallen flat year after year. Questions have to be asked: If this is all Brookhart's team, the players he selected as Div. 1-A players, how can he have any excuses for not winning? Why does UA come out flat to begin most games, scoring zero first-half points, then fail to make the proper adjustments at halftime?
We've seen enough of the frantic "last 5 minutes of the game scramble" for points, Zips. It's time to put up, or shut up. Two subpar seasons after a luck-in trip to the Bowl game is just not a way to capitalize on the Bowl hype. There better be a QB in this bunch, or JD needs to start looking locally for Akron talent, which is just as good–if not better–than the players he brings in from across the USA.
"Unhappy?" Yeah. So am I. But for different reasons.
If the Akron talent you speak of is so great why do they not get offers from D-1 schools anywhere else. Your argument is flawed. Get over yourself.
Exactly. If Akron players are not recruited by other D-1 schools, why are they so highly-thought of here? Time and again, our players resemble D-3 athletes.
Take a look at the scouting services (Scout.com, rivals.com) and read the list of prospects/commits. Each has a list of other offers received. Many Akron prospects hold offers from Big Ten, ACC and SEC schools. For example: Marvase Byrd ('08) held offers from Indiana, Minnesota, and Cincinnati before committing to the Zips. Will Fleming ('08, local product) had offers from Hawaii and Boise State. Deryn Bowser (JUCO XFer) had offers from Kansas State and Oregon State. These are just a few examples I picked out for some '08 commits. All this goes to prove is that Coach Brookhart recruits at a very high level. The problem here is that with all the talent brought in, the total product is still not up to par. To me this is beginning to point to a coaching issue rather than a talent issue. To me, this is Coach Brookhart and staff's last chance to get things right. As much as the athletics department would HATE to open ICS with a new staff, a sub-.500 record could force their hands. This staff has done an excellent job recruiting. To expect all recruits offered to have resumes like the ones I've pointed out is unrealistic. Despite all of the facilities upgrades and the recruiting advantages they should give, the majority of UA recruits will be "mid-major" recruits. You get some studs and then focus on finding the other "diamonds in the rough."
All of the Akron area coaches send their good players to Ohio State, then they want Akron to take their scrub players with criminal records.
Brookhart has done a good job finding the Division I talent. I'm impressed by what he has done as far as recruiting.
The on-field meltdowns are extremely frustrating. Brookhart's sophomores and juniors were both MAC #1 recruiting classes and he has huge offensive and defensive lines this year. If the Zips don't win at least six this year, Brookhart won't be around to open the new stadium.