Zips embrace challenge, opportunity

AKRON, Ohio -- It was the day before Thanksgiving last November when Rob Ianello, then the first-year head football coach at the University of Akron, stood in front of his team and posed a question. "What is the most important game in the nation this weekend?" Ianello asked, pausing to let it sink in. To an outside observer, the obvious answer was probably Cam Newton vs. Nick Saban in The Iron Bowl. To most of the rest of Ohio, the answer was probably Ohio State-Michigan. Ianello had one answer in mind, and it wasn't long before he told his team why they needed to embrace Akron-Buffalo as such. "Because we've worked too hard," he told his players. "Because we've come too far, come too close. Because we haven't quit." At the time, Ianello was the winless first-year head football coach at the University of Akron. Going into that Friday afternoon home game, one that was played in probably a front of 1,000 warm bodies at Infocision Stadium, the Zips were the only winless Div. I FBS team in the country. Though it's unlikely to ever come up as a trivia question, the Zips won 22-14. Afterwards, they smiled. And celebrated. They'd just won the Most Important Game in the Nation. Is Akron playing in The Most Important Game in the Nation again this week? Though LSU, Oregon, Georgia and Boise State, to name a few, would disagree, the Zips certainly are going to find themselves back in the spotlight. Ianello may or may not have a Question of the Week for his team this Friday, before it makes the two-hour bus trip to Columbus. And though he's not answering, he knows the Question of the Week from a national perspective is this. Is this the best time for a team like Akron to play Ohio State? Or is the worst? High noon Saturday will start to bring the answer. The hope in Columbus is that kicking off the 2011 season will be part of the healing at Ohio State, an important step forward in both another successful season and the journey back to normalcy. With Jim Tressel and Terrelle Pryor gone and five other players suspended for Saturday, the Buckeyes are finding their way, too. They haven't lost a game on the field since mid-October, but the NCAA has erased the entire 2010 season. More sanctions could be coming. Ohio State, which still sports a talented roster and figures to reload rather than rebuild after losing seven key defensive contributors, is looking to use the circumstances of the offseason as motivation. Since April, the players and new coach Luke Fickell have promised to be a focused team that takes out its frustration on its opponents this fall. Enter the Zips. And a crowd of 106,000. Enter your own Romanslions reference. Earlier this month, unannounced, Ianello started pumping crowd noise through the stadium speakers as his team practiced. Every few minutes, the Ohio State fight song would play. Chances are, most of the Akron players recognized it. Chances are, most of the Akron players grew up wanting to be Buckeyes. "What opening up with Ohio State does for us is gives us a great focus every day in camp," Ianello said. "We're embracing the opportunity to play against a great institution, a great program with a long history and do it in a great stadium. Most of our team is from Ohio. Ohio is our largest recruiting base. "We want to show everybody how much we've improved. To be on national TV and showcase the University of Akron and our program is a great opportunity to show the improvements we think we've made." Like Ohio State, Akron conducted a training camp quarterback competition. Like Ohio State, Akron is light on game experience at the running back and wide receiver positions. The similarities basically end there. Akron, realistically, would like to finish in the middle of the Mid-American Conference East Division. Ohio State has finished in the AP top five in six of the last eight years. A year ago, Akron was outscored 421-187 for the season. It lost to Gardner-Webb. Later in the year, it lost conference home games by 50-14 and 56-10. The Zips only were guilty of three penalties in an overtime loss at Ball State, but two of those were illegal motion penalties on the kicker. They had the market cornered on bizarre and painful. But Ianello knows his team didn't quit. Lots of teams having tough years pack it in during November, and that's easy to do. After that Ball State loss, Akron had eventual MAC champion Miami (Ohio) on the ropes. Miami eventually escaped, 19-14, becoming the first team in Div. I history to go from double-digit losses one year to double-digit victories the next. So Akron has the bar. And, for now, the spotlight. "It's easy to say, but we're focused on the process and the improvements we see rather than the actual results," Ianello said. "I've seen guys embrace the chance to roll up our sleeves and get better. How much better are we right now? Like a lot of other teams, we'll find out. "I've seen improvements in our morale, our attitude, our effort and I've seen improvement in our execution. We've changed some things, and we've gotten better with some things. We just have to keep doing it." Akron junior center Adam Bice, who's generously listed at 6'4, 297, will be over the ball Saturday. He'll be snapping to a quarterback playing in his first Div. I game. Bice will be blocking, depending on the play, Ohio State's 335-pound improving defensive tackle Jonathan Hankins. The defensive front is probably the Buckeyes' strength. Bice knows what his team is up against. "We know Ohio State is one of the top programs in the country," Bice said. "That's an obvious thing. It's always exciting to go into a facility like that and play. We're working hard to make sure we're ready to represent ourselves well in that game. "We know what happened last year, but we're not dwelling on it. We're getting ready for a new year and a new challenge. We know it's a great one having to go to Ohio State." Ohio State has won 32 straight home openers, by an average of three touchdowns. The last time Akron played at Ohio Stadium, it was 20-2. The last time a MAC team played here, it was 73-20. Ianello and his team may or may not know those numbers. They certainly know the odds. All the Zips can do is keep working, keep cranking up the crowd noise, keep preparing for a pretty unique chance. "I feel we're a tremendously improved football team," Ianello said. "We still have improvements to make, and we'll go measure ourselves (Saturday). We know nothing is going to be easy. We look forward to getting into that environment and fighting for everything."