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Game 2 - Akron at FIU


johnnyzip84

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I traveled from Jacksonville fl to Miami to see the game, it was my first time going to see the zips play. A few fans from Akron made the trip. As I watch the game, I looked around and the Akron fans full of joy and the few that was there was loud, this gave the team life and they played their hearts out. Emagine if more people support the team and give them something to play for instead of turning your backs on them and talking down on them. These boys did not quit, they gave it all they had. I think they will be okay, but with a little help from the fan base they can win a few games but the fans need to support them

The team played very well Saturday. Very exciting game. To force OT on a team that was favored to win by 23 points is a HUGE step forward. A QB that can throw 5 TD's in a game? Last season we had one that struggled to throw 5 COMPLETIONS in a game.

Zips football is fun once again. 95% of the fans have the Zips backs and are going to be obnoxious on their behalf Saturday.

The other 5%? Don't waste your time on them. :wave:

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Couldn't read this whole thread - - so I will just throw my 50 cents worth from the game Saturday night.

First of all --- those kids want to win so badly - none of us can even imagine what they felt like during and after the game. I am so proud of each and every player -- they all played their hearts out - and even though it didn't show on the scoreboard at the end -- this was a win in so many ways ( in my opinion).

Amazing that FIU STOPPED kicking the ball to Imani after just 2 (I think) punts... This kid is already a star - and will just continue to get better and better. How in the world he was overlooked by other teams, still amazes me. Talk about the freshmen that we picked up in the last 2 weeks of the recruiting season -- Conor Hundley (are you kidding me????), Horner, Hakeem Lawrence, - just off the top of my head -- these four have already been contributing tremendously.

How about the fact that the FIU players were dropping like flies??? We did not have one injury, one kid with cramps, one kid taken out from exhaustion, etc... That shows that a) The S&C staff is doing a fantastic job and B) the players have made the commitment during the pre-season and the season to be in TOP CONDITION. We went down to MIAMI - in 88 degrees and 100% humidity - and played a hard fought, non-stop 4 1/2 hour game!

I heard that Coach Bowden said to the team after the game that if they kept playing the way they played Saturday, kept fighting and fighting - that we would be "going bowling" at the end of the season. I Believe that they will - and we will. We will keep getting better each week -- the sky is the limit for this team. I'm dadgum excited!

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This is basically the kind of game that a team loses before it starts winning consistently. Just can't get over the hump, and then...BOOM..here come the wins!

Must take care of business against Morgan State. Tennesseee...just survive without getting hammered with injuries. Not sure about bowling, but I do think 4-5 wins is now POSSIBLE.

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I can say with confidence that the Akron football team that played Saturday would have beaten any Zips football team from any game in the last three years.

That is so AWESOME to hear... its hard for those of us who are new Zips fans to really understand what the team and fans have gone through the past several years... But I can see the huge difference from the Spring, to fall camp, then from the first game to Saturday night... All good things...

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OK - so I went back and read some of the posts from after the game..

I will of course disagree with anyone who picks a play here or there and says "if we made that one, we would've won... blah blah blah".. Anyone who really understands football, knows that one call, one play, etc. does not win or lose a game. It is the entire team effort that wins or loses a game; and Coach Bowden made sure to tell the team that very thing right after this tough loss.

This was a 4 1/2 hour game! We all know that we lack depth on defense to begin with -- so the fact that they hung in there as well as they did is utterly amazing to me. Honestly - we lack depth EVERYWHERE. The o-line which was able to give Dalton more time earlier in the game, understandably was probably running out of gas toward the end of the game. Both teams ran a hurry-up style of offense - so not much time (if any) for tons of substituting, etc.

Regarding the penalties -- yes, there were a few "foolish" penalties. But in my book -- we needed to be more aggressive than last week. Playing more aggressively, will ultimately lead to a few more penalties. I don't want to be the least penalized team in the conference or country -- I don't want to be the most, either -- but somewhere in between - shows that we are playing aggressively and smart. The coaching staff will get that evened out.

And overall - the special teams was VASTLY improved from last week. There was a real sense that everyone on the field for the kicking game understood that those plays were just as, if not more, important than every other play during the game. Yes, we missed a FG early, but we made up for it with the 2-point conversion. And Stein making that 42 yarder was CLUTCH - for a young kid, whose brother had a very very bad game against UF a week ago. We gave up some big returns, but understand that FIU beat us in the speed department - big time. We will get there!

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This is basically the kind of game that a team loses before it starts winning consistently. Just can't get over the hump, and then...BOOM..here come the wins!

Must take care of business against Morgan State. Tennesseee...just survive without getting hammered with injuries. Not sure about bowling, but I do think 4-5 wins is now POSSIBLE.

Nice to see some people are paying attention again. Think that the Miami game might be the key to the season. Not only from the team perspective but from the fan support perspective. Somebody close to the program told me that ONE of the concerns this year was fan support. Said they NEEDED to WIN at HOME in September or there would be a lot of empty seats later,again.

Assuming they can handle Morgan State,a W over Miami would be huge for team momentum and fan support. 1-4 going into October...no

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Nice to see some people are paying attention again. Think that the Miami game might be the key to the season. Not only from the team perspective but from the fan support perspective. Somebody close to the program told me that ONE of the concerns this year was fan support. Said they NEEDED to WIN at HOME in September or there would be a lot of empty seats later,again.

Assuming they can handle Morgan State,a W over Miami would be huge for team momentum and fan support. 1-4 going into October...no

You're absolutely right, Lee. I suspect our defense will match up much better against a throw-first team like Miami. At this point, Dysert versus Williams would seem to have the makings of a classic shootout. But I'll worry more about that in two weeks.

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"No moral victory" in Coach Bowden's eyes. Thanks, GT!

Coach Bowden continues to say all the right things. As a coach, there are no moral victories. As a player, there are no moral victories. Winning is paramount and they can never be satisfied. Even in victory, the team must strive to become better and correct errors.

It is the fan base that attaches the "moral victory" tag to a great effort that comes up short. It is fans like me that get way too excited about just being competitive that allows this to happen. Guilty as charged. :rolleyes:

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How about the fact that the FIU players were dropping like flies??? We did not have one injury, one kid with cramps, one kid taken out from exhaustion, etc... That shows that a) The S&C staff is doing a fantastic job and B) the players have made the commitment during the pre-season and the season to be in TOP CONDITION. We went down to MIAMI - in 88 degrees and 100% humidity - and played a hard fought, non-stop 4 1/2 hour game!

I heard that Coach Bowden said to the team after the game that if they kept playing the way they played Saturday, kept fighting and fighting - that we would be "going bowling" at the end of the season. I Believe that they will - and we will. We will keep getting better each week -- the sky is the limit for this team. I'm dadgum excited!

In regards to the first paragraph above, you must have missed my earlier post. FIU scored only 7 points until right before halftime. They scored another 34 points in the 2nd part of that game ! That's pretty tough to make a point that we somehow fared well against them on the fatigue factor.

On the 2nd paragraph above, I say that we need to duplicate you several thousand times!! Please don't lose your naive enthusiasm !! Our attendance would triple overnight if people in this area thought we might be headed to a bowl game. But, I also have to remind myself that you were the poster who said a couple of weeks ago that you thought we had a chance to sell out the first game too. Inexperience can be both a blessing and a curse :D

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Another thing I noticed about Bowden that is really unique is - he has embraced the program, warts and all. When he discusses the recent Zips football history, it's always "We haven't won more than 1 game in each of the past 2 seasons...we haven't had this/that...we...." If you didn't know better you'd think he'd have been the coach during those bad times? I love the fact that he has never said a bad word about the previous staff...nor has he avoided discussion of our problems. His point of view is absolutely perfect for supporters of the program. Honest, realistic, dedicated and optimistic. The guy is 100% a Zip. I think it's awesome.

It was interesting to hear Chisholm speak about Bowden last night. "He's a stand up guy," "He'll tell you the truth,"He's always positive and never puts you down," "He really knows football"...it doesn't take an optometrist to read between the lines and see he was comparing his previous season's experience to this one.

Everything is going positive, except the wins. And the winning begins Saturday. :rock:

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In regards to the first paragraph above, you must have missed my earlier post. FIU scored only 7 points until right before halftime. They scored another 34 points in the 2nd part of that game ! That's pretty tough to make a point that we somehow fared well against them on the fatigue factor.

That is some selective math.

14 points in the first half, 24 points in the second half. We scored 20 points in the first, 18 points in second. We scored three times in both halves. They scored twice in the first and 4 times in the second. Is that fatigue? Not really we gave them awesome field position for one of those scores (the only TD of the third quarter). We out scored them in the 4th. We trailed after the third and the "Fatigued" defense made two major stops in the 4th to let us come back.

Again, we need more depth, but considering what NZF is pointing out, it proves our guys were better conditioned. FIU had several guys cramping up and coming out of the game, their center made the mental mistakes on the two botched snaps. That shows they were more tired then we were.

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Another thing I noticed about Bowden that is really unique is - he has embraced the program, warts and all. When he discusses the recent Zips football history, it's always "We haven't won more than 1 game in each of the past 2 seasons...we haven't had this/that...we...." If you didn't know better you'd think he'd have been the coach during those bad times? I love the fact that he has never said a bad word about the previous staff...nor has he avoided discussion of our problems. His point of view is absolutely perfect for supporters of the program. Honest, realistic, dedicated and optimistic.

It was interesting to hear Chisholm speak about Bowden last night. "He's a stand up guy," "He'll tell you the truth,"He's always positive and never puts you down," "He really knows football"...it doesn't take an optometrist to read between the lines and see he was comparing his previous season's experience to this one.

Everything is going positive, except the wins. And the winning begins Saturday. :rock:

All great observations. Leaders (which Bowden is) have a sense of ownership. You need that to be accept that there are problems, you can't just blame people that were there before you for the issues you are having, you have to recognize there are issues and correct them.

Bowden was the right choice, and I honestly can't get enough of this team right now. The coach's show is great though I did notice that they chose Suel for Player of the Game (99 yds 2 TD). I have to wonder if the player of the game isn't chosen with some team input. I'm sure Dalton would have been the first to commend Suel considering he caught 25% of all of DW's completions.

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Good observations, Cap’n. My wife and I looked at each other and grinned as Jawon was talking at length about the former coach without ever mentioning his name.

I’m with G-mann in that I can’t get enough of this team right now. I wanted the Morgan State game to start last Saturday night at around 10:40 pm! I’m sure the team is glad it didn’t, though :lol:

While I’m enjoying the coach’s show so far, they REALLY need to do something about editing (as pointed out earlier by another poster on a different thread). I know it must be extremely hard to record this on Sunday morning after a long road trip. So someone should have been able to help Coach out on Cody “Griggs” (twice).

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That is some selective math.

14 points in the first half, 24 points in the second half. We scored 20 points in the first, 18 points in second. We scored three times in both halves. They scored twice in the first and 4 times in the second. Is that fatigue? Not really we gave them awesome field position for one of those scores (the only TD of the third quarter). We out scored them in the 4th. We trailed after the third and the "Fatigued" defense made two major stops in the 4th to let us come back.

Again, we need more depth, but considering what NZF is pointing out, it proves our guys were better conditioned. FIU had several guys cramping up and coming out of the game, their center made the mental mistakes on the two botched snaps. That shows they were more tired then we were.

What is "selective math" about pointing out that FIU scored just 7 points on our defense in the first 29 minutes, and 34 points on our defense over the last 31 minutes and one overtime possession?

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While I’m enjoying the coach’s show so far, they REALLY need to do something about editing (as pointed out earlier by another poster on a different thread).

I thought they really missed the boat in the initial show when they introduced what was supposed to be a "Game Day Atmosphere" segment. I expected it to be video of Lot 9 and Lot 9A, showing the parties going on, tents, music and the game day excitement. Interviews with fans, etc. That would have been a GREAT thing to show the casual fan, highlighting the party that's going on @ UA on Saturdays. Instead they showed predominately the same game footage shown earlier in the segment, with scant video of the real atmosphere. The segment drug-on about 2 full minutes too long. And the music selection was really lame. A great segment idea was poorly executed.

Hope someone wants the show to improve. It won't take much effort to get it to a high level.

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In regards to the first paragraph above, you must have missed my earlier post. FIU scored only 7 points until right before halftime. They scored another 34 points in the 2nd part of that game ! That's pretty tough to make a point that we somehow fared well against them on the fatigue factor.

On the 2nd paragraph above, I say that we need to duplicate you several thousand times!! Please don't lose your naive enthusiasm !! Our attendance would triple overnight if people in this area thought we might be headed to a bowl game. But, I also have to remind myself that you were the poster who said a couple of weeks ago that you thought we had a chance to sell out the first game too. Inexperience can be both a blessing and a curse :D

If you mean that my "naive enthusiasm" and "inexperience" is as a Zip fan - then I will accept that. If you somehow mean that I am a naive or inexperience college football fan -- you would be very, very wrong :) I am very well versed in the game - the business - and what can happen when the right people and pieces are in place at a program.

As Coach Bowden said last week -- buckle yourselves in... we're going for a ride!

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What is "selective math" about pointing out that FIU scored just 7 points on our defense in the first 29 minutes, and 34 points on our defense over the last 31 minutes and one overtime possession?

Because of the way you chose to select the time periods.

The game is played in quarters. You can break it down however you want, but the bottom line is scoring went like this.

15 15 15 15 OT

7 7 7 17 3

13 7 0 18

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