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We can't lose this game.

I wouldn't confuse this year's squad with recent U@B teams that featured talent like Branden Oliver and Khalil Mack. Lance Leipold definitely seems to be having some trouble with recruiting, but this downturn in talent is only a fairly recent turn of events. Bulls fans are understandably concerned that they have Leipold signed until 2020. With all that said, I would like to see the weather forecast improve for Thursday. I'd like to not have the Zips huge passing advantage negated in any way.

It is unbelievable to me that Portland did not win a game on the road all year. After Saad's penalty kick last year that bounced off the cross bar many times (and helped Portland to advance), I will be rooting for sporting KC to do well this year.

Looks like we're finally one of the schools that has the equipment ready for ESPN3 streaming. The article mentions 11 out of the 12 schools are ready. Wonder who's missing?

A few observations... 1. No one has stepped up to do what Victor Souto could do at holding mid. 2. Can't finish; speed to the corners but not often down the middle; when they do get down the middle, often have to hold up for someone else to get there, by which time the defenders are there as well. 3. LB has been played by committee. No one has been able to claim the position. 4. Some upperclassmen are not playing as well as they have in the past.

I don't know, I thought Edwards and Morgan ran it pretty well last week. If Ball is better, but the weather sloppy, hold him back for another week.

This completely explains why the Bulls suck.

And interestingly they have Buffalo as the worst FBS school at 160 (behind a bunch of FCS schools). At least the Zips are rated ahead of every FCS school (including North Dakota State who is the highest FCS member). We better win this game.

This ranking is skewed big time towards the P5 schools. Realtimerpi is objective and has us at 59, which I think is representative of the season so far.

I should have put it in bold, but I think #1 is probably the biggest issue with this team. In the Zips system, the attack builds from the back through the middle and then up front. Without the right connections in the middle to get that going, it quickly falls apart as we have often seen. Of course, when you have to quickly get back to defend a counter, the midfield, as well as the back line, is crucial.

Akron vs. Buffalo Game Preview If the Zips show up to play, several players could have career days this week.

I had a wedding to go to Saturday so I was only able to watch the 4th qtr via the watchespn app on my phone during that period after the ceremony but before the reception. You can watch the games live and they re-post them the next day so you can watch them on replay as well. http://www.espn.com/watchespn/index#search/akron/type/replay/

Eric wears a size SEVENTEEN shoe, He has 2 or 3 more inches to grow, Very nice young man. Met him at Sunday practice. We are collecting a lot of Texas' best talent.

Any decision the University made was going to be met with criticism. An article about how inept the University is a popular narrative at the moment and generates more paper sales and web clicks than just some lame article about some dude they never heard of getting hired for a position that probably doesn't impact their day to day life.

At least the best of the East is not worse than the worst of the West. Akron has the only victory against the West (the East is 1-6 vs. the West) and looking at the rest of the schedule I don't see another obvious victory for the East. Its reverse basketball

UA is spiraling down the toilet bowl and you guys want to take a year or so to decide who the next leader should be! Until that decision was made no real progress on turning things aroundwas going to happen. People with "interim" in their titles are not empowered to make the kind of strategic planning decisions neccesary to turn things around. LA Zip, do you work for the government in some capacity? In the real world a big company doesn't wait around for a year to find new leadership while their stock price drops like a rock!

Jake Fenlasson, Brad Ruhaak, Victor Souto from my observations.

I'd put David Harvey in the category too. What could have been.

Great team win, today. The first half felt like everyone was adjusting to different personnel but they seemed to gel towards the end of the first half. We are a different team with Tommy Woodson. It's not just his arm, it's his fire. He knows when to hold it, and when to throw it. He picked up a couple of nice first downs with his feet today at key times. I love that we can have the confidence to put the ball in his hands to throw a big pass at the end of the 4th to seal the deal. JoJo Natson continues to be a workhorse for us and a warrior. I love that other teams cannot focus solely on Jerome or Natson without paying for it with Coney or Wolf. It was also nice to see Newman Williams catch a couple, but he seemed to hobble out a bit after his second catch. I hope it was no big deal. Nice to see Jerome Lane looking more like Jerome Lane, again. I like that we are keeping TC5 engaged. You never know when he might be needed, again, but also, he does gives a good look inside of the 10 yard line and in 4th and sort situations. The OL and run game were impressive. So much for having the second least experienced OL at the beginning of the season. These kids are playing their butts off, and we lose none of them this year. Quigley did a very nice job playing for Gathney, today. When you look at the stats, the thing that sticks out to me is that all of our tackles are coming from LBs and secondary. None from a DL, today. I think what it means is that Chuck Amato pulled off some defensive scheme magic today to shut down a productive run game with a patched together unit. I have heard people belittle the team's record, saying we have only beat losing teams. Ball State is a .500 team and they probably won't end up with a winning record, looking ahead at the rest of their schedule, but they are no slouch, either and have played well this season. This team has overcome a lot of adversity this year and they continue to find ways to win. Part of it is a higher level of talent, and part of it is a different culture. I am not sure if it is me or if it is noticeable, but TB seems much more personally connected to the players this year. He is celebrating with them when they come off the field after a great play and there seems to be more personal interaction. There could be a host of reasons for this (more reasons to celebrate, no longer deeply grieving losses of nephew or Tank, he was more involved with recruiting these kids, etc..) The Good: 100% conversions (all TDs) in the Red Zone 0 interceptions thrown Nearly even time of possession 8/12 on 3rd down, 2-2 on 4th down conversions Offense gave up 0 sacks to the second leading sack defense in the country Team rushed for 177 yards, Van Edwards over 100 yards, set up the HB pass from Morgan. Both RBs stepped up played a big game for us. Van Edwards is explosive and starting to move to another tier of RB. Trick plays worked - Woodson lined up, as a WR, TC5 rushed for 1st down, pass from Morgan to Wolf Lane was more productive. Alvin Davis and Ulysees Gilbert are beginning to emerge as defensive threats. Kyron Brown, Jordan George, and Larry Hope are also playing well for us. Featherstone is also making an impact. 2nd half play calling made Milwee look like a genius. The Not So Good: 8 penalties for 51 yards, 3 from Letuli for illegal formation - not sure if it was a ref with a bug up their butt or if Letuli was doing something wrong. Seems odd to start getting them at this point of the season. Maybe he was so distracted by how badly the TV announcers butchered his name. Ekkins was getting an earful from TB about this. We had another illegal substitution on defense. We have to fix this It has been an issue for 2 straight games. The revolving door defense is surely contributing to this, but after 2 games, we need to find a way to address it. The revolving door is the new reality, for now and we have to make it work. We can't afford to give up those types of penalties. 1st half run defense was like a sieve. Kickoff tackling wasn't tremendous. Bizarre play calling for final drive of the first half. Let's hope a reporter actually asks about that drive this week. Had to depend on a couple of reviews being upheld on fumbles. Thankfully, they both fell our way, but let's do a better job hanging on so we don't have to depend on good officiating. Side notes: Neither team gave up a sack today. Bowden said something to the effect, "Losing teams talk about injuries, winning teams talk about the next man up." on the post game interview. We wore that same uniform combo at Marshall. Ball was listed as out, but was dressed. Hopefully, that means he will be back, soon. He might have had a 200+ yard day, today. Camara went down in the 4th. He is the back-up DL. We really can't afford to lose any more guys there. I hope he is OK. Let's go to Buffalo next week and become bowl eligible for the second consecutive year!

Cranking it up already! Can't wait! Another huge game. UB got smashed by NIU 44-7 today. Hopefully they're beat up - because we sure are. As a longtime Zips fan, I'm not used to having big game... after big game... after big game... after big game... I LOVE it! Thank you Coach Bowden!!!!

I sure hope we get at least one uniform that is blue and gold. I get the alternate uni trend, but it's ridiculous that the men's BB team doesn't have one uni that is the school colors. (I'd like to see some gold pants on the FB team, too.)