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VMI's coach complaining reminds me of Ianello complaining to Luke Fickell

After suffering through the iCoach years, I can NOT believe you guys are complaining about WINNING.

I agree with these thoughts. Here are a few additional of my own: Woodson had over 400 yards and 6 TDs. He looked more accurate than last year and demonstrated very good decision-making and excellent patience. I was very pleased with his outing. He continues to be a good leader on the field. He makes watching the Zips fun. Natson had a very good outing and I look forward to more of that jet sweep. He is as fast as I had hoped and seems to have soft hands. Lane has taken his game to the next level and I thought he looked a lot more consistent tonight than he ever did last year. Austin Wolf seems to have stepped up his game. 2 amazing catches tonight. Smith and Young are definitely 2nd tier but I could see them improving. I will disagree with a lot of folks on Ball. Although it was not a break-out night, he is, in my mind, better than any RB we have had in the Bowden era. I am excited to see more of him. I thought the OL performed fairly well. There is room for improvement, especially on the run game. but not a bad outing for them, overall. The kicking game has me worried. I am not sure we have a kicker better than O'Leary, so Bowden probably made the right decision letting him try to work out his issues tonight. The kicker from Miami was not dressed to play and appeared injured, to me. I hope Bowden scholarships a quality kicker and punter, early. There were some issues with long snaps. Foster did a nice job handling one snap, but the punter is going to have a rougher time. The punter (Gasser) is shorter than Paul was and Paul had excellent hands. The current punter has average hands. There is less room for error with our snaps, given the differences. Also, we used Zach Paul as an extension of our defense because his placement was so good. Gasser did not do a bad job, but he is not as good as Paul was. The other punter was not nearly good as Gasser. I am still quite worried about Special Teams play. I didn't appreciate the fan hurling personal insults at O'Leary. Did he really think that would help O'Leary kick better? What a jerk. Is there any word on Jelani Hamilton? We could use some help on the defensive line. Overall, the defense seems to be lacking leadership. Jamal Marcus had some nice hits, but overall, the D looked a little lost most of the night, until Q4 and even then was not superb. I think the secondary play was OK, too many passes that were in linebacker space were completed. This is at least the third year with penalty issues. This seemed to be the worst, by far. I heard one person say, "They are playing defense with their hands and not their feet." There might be something to that. I will chalk the ridiculous comments about Bowden on this thread up to the booze. It was not the showing any of us hoped for, but it was not apocalyptic, either. Gameday experience: Overall, an improved experience. Lot 9 open to other tailgaters might prove to be controversial, but I think it's a great idea. The whole atmosphere had a better buzz. Attendance seemed slightly higher, but I didn't see the official count. Aramark is the new food vendor. Long lines, not enough windows open, and inconsistent food experience. I was hoping for a better food selection, too. Pyrotechnics as players came on to the field were nice. New uniforms were nice. Zi-PS cheer went well. It needs to happen more than once a game. I still wish the guy starting the, "Let's go Zips" cheer would not say it so slowly. Overall, I like how he MCs the game, however. I hope we don't show the same Potato Bowl footage every game, 2x a game. Earlier tailgating, RVs in the lot, security, and interim president circulating were all good things. Having the AK-Rowdies tailgate closer was nice, too. We need a song to play before the 4th quarter, one that can become a tradition and gets the fans pumped up.

Thoughts: Zipgrad01 is entering a few other posters' territory in terms of negative nancy-ness. Thought the offense skill players were outstanding. Jojo looks everything he has been talked to up to be, though I am worried about all 151 lbs of him staying healthy. Ball is the best RB we've had in the 6+ years I've been a Zips fan. Woody looked better than last year, Lane looked more polished than last year, and Wolf made a few tough grabs. The new o-line seemed to do a good job in pass protection, but I think run blocking could use some work. On Ball's carries for no gain/loss, it seemed the guys who tackled him were untouched. I mean he averaged 6+ yards a carry and he was tackled numerous times at the LOS or backfield where a block was clearly missed. Not sure how you can be disappointed in his performance. Defense: I like our talent overall. Gave up way too many short passes. Assuming its mostly the LB's to blame. Personally don't think Hauser is good enough to start on D. Predict he will be replaced. Gilbert looked like everything I thought he would. Special teams: no confidence in O'Leary at all. Would have liked to see him get some FG practice in. Liked Edwards returning as well. Feel he will spell Ball nice this season and be a quality RB as an upper classman. Most concerning to me was the amount of penalties. 140+ is way too much. As of right now, I don;t think we can beat Wisconsin next week because we still need to work out some kinks, but I still feel our talent is better than ever since Bowden took over.

Zips win 47-24. The offense was absolutely vanilla. They could score at will if they wanted.

Reading these posts, you can tell that this is a fanbase that has endured a lot of punishment, football-wise.

Zipgrad01 could probably help you out

MAC vs. SEC ( 0 - 3 ) L EMU @ Missouri L Ohio @ 15 Tennessee L Kent State @ 1 Alabama MAC vs. BIG-10 ( 2 - 5 ) L BGSU @ 6 Ohio State W Western Michigan @ Northwestern L Miami @ 17 Iowa L Kent @ Penn State L Akron @ 10 Wisconsin L Ball State @ Indiana W Western Michigan @ Illinois MAC vs. BIG-12 ( 2 - 0 ) W CMU @ 22 Oklahoma State W Ohio @ Kansas MAC vs. PAC-12 ( 0 - 0 ) MAC vs. AAC ( 0 - 3 ) L Northern Illinois @ South Florida L Miami @ Cincinnati L Bowling Green @ Memphis MAC vs. ACC ( 0 - 1 ) L Central Michigan @ Virginia MAC vs. C-USA ( 2 - 2 ) L BGSU vs. Middle Tennessee W Akron @ Marshall W Eastern Michigan @ Charlotte L Miami vs. Western Kentucky W Ball State @ Florida Atlantic MAC vs. M-West ( 3 - 3 ) L Northern Illinois @ Wyoming W Toledo vs. Fresno State W Central Michigan vs. UNLV L Northern Illinois vs. San Diego State L Buffalo @ Nevada W Eastern Michigan vs. Wyoming MAC vs. Sunbelt ( 3 - 2 ) W Toledo @ Arkansas State W Ball State @ Georgia State L Ohio vs. Texas State L Akron vs. Appalachian State W Western Michigan @ Georgia Southern MAC vs Independents ( 1 - 0 ) W Buffalo vs. Army MAC vs. FCS ( 9 - 4 ) L Buffalo vs. Albany W Central Michigan vs. Presbyterian W Akron vs. Virginia Military Institute W Eastern Michigan vs. Mountain Valley SU W BGSU vs. North Dakota L Miami vs. Eastern Illinois L Kent State vs. North Carolina A&T W WMU vs. Northern Carolina Central W Toledo vs. Maine W Ball State vs. East Kentucky W Kent vs. Monmouth W Ohio vs. Gardner-Webb L Northern Illinois vs. Eastern Illinois

Even though I agree with you, why don't you just let it slide? You just can't help it but to defend OSU anytime something perceived as negative is posted here ... and I don't think that comment was negative, the poster was just pointing out that OSU poured it on BG ... which they did. J.T. Barrett was still tossing TDs well into the third quarter in a 49-10 game. As for Akron, the Zips also played a bunch of young guys, too. I noticed true freshmen Alvin Davis, Davonte Jest and Trevor Brown out there. Any others? Akron only has about 12 true freshman on scholarship (with QB Kato Nelson being one), so seems like TB isn't holding back on playing young guys.

They should have moved that game to Infocision. Actually it's pretty ridiculous they didn't.

I heard we could get a bargain basement paint job from the paint crew used at the Hall of Fame game.

I think once of the big differences is that you usually start to see more separation at the end of the first half because a weaker opponent get really can't keep up physically. The Keydets were is excellent physical condition and hung tough for 3 1/2 quarters. It was nice to play a mentally tougher team to help us find where we are weak. I don't know that it is fair to say that the Zips didn't come ready to play or that we took them for granted. I just think the defense has a long way to go. The good news is that Chuck Amato knows how to help them get there. The comments about the offense being plain vanilla might be true, but really something to complain about. Why tip you hand in week 1 against VMI? Putting points up was not a problem. I am glad TB let's score 3 TDS late in the game. It let's us see that we can win games with our offense. I like Woodson's attitude in this interview. https://youtu.be/1TTQBzdaOPg

I agree that our defense and special teams left a whole lot to be desired, but I was quite pleased with our passing game. I think Woodson looks like he really is ready to take the next step and be a great MAC quarterback. After his first play fumble, Natson was everything that he was hyped to be and Lane picked up right where he left off. Obviously, the talent on the other side of the ball only goes up from here, but this was a great building block in that phase of the game. Side note, Chapman looked awful in his few attempts at the end. It seemed like every throw was 5-10 yards away from his receiver. We need Woodson to stay healthy.

VMI's coach must have been mad about the Zips throwing deep late. To be honest they didn't even deserve to be in the game. If you don't want Akron to score, stop them. Usually I'm the most negative person after a game like this. I still think the Zips will lose next week. But, I really hope it was the coaching staff trying to hide something. Obviously the penalties were the main reason VMI was still in the game in the 3rd. But the lack of adjustments only makes me think they were holding back. I mean Jerod Cherry was basically begging the Zips to switch to a zone defense after they kept getting beat.

Discipline is most concerning. Also, kicking.

I like the way you think.

fOSU.