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Here's my early take on next season: Returning Players Who Took Major Steps Forward in 2014 DB DeAndre Scott – Had several big plays over the course of the season. I’m sure it must have happened more than once, but my only recollection of him getting burned for a TD was the early one OU put on us in Athens. It was a perfect throw as the coverage wasn’t too bad. It seemed as though MAC teams quit throwing his way midway through the season. LB/DE Jerome Lane – Showed tremendous ability to rush the passer in limited opportunities. I’d like to see him move to his more natural LB spot, but have him used as a primary rusher in blitz packages. Amato was seen on film calling him the best athlete he’s ever coached. Returning Starters with All-MAC Ability LB Jatavis Brown – With Mizell (never caught on with pass coverage) and March not quite living up to the hype, JTB1’s 2014 performance has set him up to go down as the best LB in UA history. DL Cody Grice – I think his 1st team all-MAC status was at least partially a result of his impact on the other side of the ball. I know I’m in the minority on this, but I hope he doesn’t carry it that much next year. Our lack of depth on the D-Line, coupled with his short yardage ball-carrying duties, wore CG36 out a bit and contributed to our struggles against the run late in the season (IMHO). He’s an excellent leader, so I hope he can focus on defense next year. WR Zach D’Orazio - A true, consistent bright spot in the receiver corps. Zach should be the safety blanket for whoever wins the QB job in 2015. P Zack Paul – Had terrific opening half of 2014 season, but lousy weather tapered off his stats somewhat down the stretch. Other Key Returning Players RB Connor Hundley – Hopefully will fully recover from knee injury in time for 2015 season. CH34 has certainly showed promise over the years when given a little bit of blocking. OL Tommy Brown – Proved to be an effective run blocker in short yardage situations. K Robert Stein – Only missed three kicks all year, but the one at Dix will probably serve as off-season motivation. DL Se’Von Pittman – Nagging injuries seemed to really slow his progress later in the season. He may benefit from being able to play more DE with Coe in the mix. WR Mykel Traylor-Bennett – Had a few really nice plays in 2014, but far too often he was a non-factor. He needs to step it up immensely in 2015. Redshirt Freshmen Who Could Have Immediate Impact LB Newman Williams – Should be able to slide in for Mizell as the run-stopping LB. May also see time as FB in short yardage situations. DE Brock Boxen – Was impressive in fall camp with his high motor. DL Anthony Clark – Has size not typically seen in a Zip D-Line HS recruit. QB Chandler Kincade – Should also be in the mix for the starting job. The Super Six Transfers RB Donnell Alexander – Rushed for over 5 yards per carry in two seasons with Colorado State. His size (219 lb) and speed are an unusual combination at UA. DL Rodney Coe – Iowa State transfer is the 1st 300 LB Zip D-lineman of the Bowden era. He should be the middle-of-the-line run stopper UA has lacked since Kiki Gonzalez. DB AJ Coney – Was 1st-team all Big-Sky (not that much different than the MAC) as a FR for Weber State. QB Tra’Von Chapman – Former 4-star recruit for Pitt is thought to be a favorite to take over as the starter by numerous observers. DB Larry Hope – Former Miami Hurricane will provide some size in the defensive backfield. DE Jamal Marcus – Showed promise in 2014 Orange Bowl for another college in the state of Ohio. Team Strengths Defense Special TeamsTeam Weaknesses O-Line Wide ReceiversSummary The UAB opportunity is a nice surprise. If there is ANY way the Zips can snag 1 or 2 ready-made WRs or O-linemen from the Blazer exodus, that would really help the Zips’ chances in 2015. There is enough talent on defense to be pretty good on that side of the ball. Special teams look to be set. Regardless of who wins the starting QB job, massive improvement in the O-Line and WRs is needed to compete for a MAC East crown in 2015. If the Zips are not improved as a whole in 2015, I’m afraid 2016 doesn’t look any better due to the reliance on transfers with limited eligibility. Simply put, it’s put up or shut up in 2015 for Zip football.

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/dec/09/buford-seniors-tyler-shipman-and-jordan-perlotte/

Shouldn't you be out making sure Kelly Leak is staying out of trouble? There have been innumerable threads about Zips scheduling explaining some of the challenges but do you want the Miami philosophy they used to employ where they played a murderers row of teams (and lost to every one of them)? How often do you think its possible to rise up and beat a top 25 team at their place - which unless you do the tournaments like the Zips do is the only way you're going to play them - I'd much rather do what the Zips do and have a chance to beat them on a neutral court (which happened two of three times this year). If you recall South Carolina destroyed the Zips twice last year, so the Zips get no credit for beating them this year? Oftentimes these games or tournaments are set well in advance and you have no idea how good the team is going to be when you actually play. EMU looks like they caught Michigan in a down year (unless you think good teams get beat by both NJIT and EMU at home in the same year), good for them, wonder how the outcome might have been a couple years ago during the year Michigan was National Runner Up? And I don't know who you think thinks the Zips are on a Butler/Gonzaga level but I haven't seen it. There are 340 D-1 teams and you're going to complain because the Zips played four in the top 109 and beat two of them? Good that your expectations are high but it probably needs to be tempered with a little realism.

I thought of that as well but I will let LZip answer that. But EMU's win was in Ann Arbor - but since Ypsilanti is only about 10 minutes away maybe it was considered a home game?

Here is my analysis so far; Football - ADVANTAGE CUSA - more bowl tie-ins, better TV deal, top teams Marshall, MTSU, La Tech, Rice, UTEP - average attendance CUSA - 21,510 average attendance MAC - 16,739 Mens Basketball - ADVANTAGE CUSA Six C-USA teams earned postseason bids in 2014. Tulsa played in the NCAA Tournament and Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss participated in the NIT, advancing to the quarterfinals. average attendance CUSA - 3896…….5589 for conference tourney average attendance MAC - 2869……….3542 for conference tourney Womens Basketball - ADVANTAGE CUSA - don't know why but since the men are better, I bet the women are too ;-)……I know ODU is a powerhouse Men's soccer - ADVANTAGE CUSA Three teams (Charlotte, Old Dominion and associate member New Mexico) earned a berth to the NCAA Championship, with New Mexico becoming the fourth C-USA school to advance to the College Cup. South Carolina is an affiliate member. Womens Soccer - see comment on women's basketball CUSA Highlights http://www.conferenceusa.com/ot/competitive-highlights.html CUSA Map http://www.conferenceusa.com/ot/c-usa-members.html School Endowment/Enrollment - ADVANTAGE CUSA Avergage CUSA Endowment $521,000,000 Average MAC Endowment $201,000,000

Pont played in a foursome with Hilltopper during one of the recent football golf outings. But it wasn't until the 4th or 5th hole until Hilltopper knew who he was Pont was a very accessible guy from a famous coaching family. It's hard to say whether this was his decision or TB's.

good for emu.now go beat somebody other than n. j i t.

EMU just notched a bigger win than KD has had his whole career at Akron. Play somebody already.

Thanks for explaining. In my day, you got 4 years. The fifth was in Saigon.

This is Caleb Porter level dominance. Never truly a rebuilding year even when there is a lot of turn over on the team...amazing! The accomplishment is especially incredible given how terrible the program was when Coach Kest took over. Unlike men's soccer, there wasn't tradition or a recent history of success to build on. I hope she stays at Akron for a very long time!

I can sympathize with y'all on this one, the feed for Ohio's games are less than desirable as well, its not uncommon to have the camera operator forget to follow the ball and sometimes appears to have walked off, leaving the camera facing one basket as the game moves up and down the court. Today the issue was with the audio, they would forget to reconnect the radio feed after the timeouts. But fret not, help is on the way. For those that don't know, as part of the renegotiated contract with ESPN every MAC school is required to upgrade their basketball broadcast operations to meet ESPN's standards, that includes announcers, multiple camera angles, instant relay, ESPN's score graphics with shot clock and timeout icons, the whole 9 yards. An additional $24m was added on to the last 3 years of the original deal with ESPN before the new 10yr deal kicks in in 2017, I'm assumingly those additonal funds are to be used towards upgrading the bball broadcasts. The MAC has 4 years to complete the upgrade and a tentative schedule of 3 schools/yr will be used to spread out the costs. In year 1 (2014) Buffalo, CMU and Northern Illinois were chosen to be the first to upgrade, likely because they already had most of the infrastructure in place. As a result ALL home games for those teams are being streamed on ESPN3 and as more schools upgrade all of their homegames will be on ESPN3 as well. If you have access, go check out an ESPN3 game replay from UB, CMU or NIU, the quality is full on ESPN, none of this bush league Sports Time Ohio nonsense with their cheesy graphics and inability to rack up a replay in a timely fashion. The only noticable difference is the on-air talent, that's still going to be local and home grown. So believe it or not but your prayers have already been answered and its going to be even better than you could have hoped for. The only unknown at this point is how quickly will you get the upgrade, will it be year 2, 3 or 4? In my very biased opinion it is in the best interest of the MAC to make sure that Ohio, Akron and Toledo are the next 3 to get the upgrade next year. Those are the 3 best programs with the biggest home crowds, they need to be the most visible. Have no idea who or how these things get determined but keep your fingers crossed.