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How on earth did the Zips make it to the MAC championship this year? They have some of the worst stats in BCS football, they have no real notable names except for an inexperienced Re-read and A MAC preseason DPOY, and they have sustained injuries to the few players who seemed to breathe some hope into a team that was picked to finish 4th in the MAC East. If you have any familiarity with the Human Resources world, you might be familiar with Gallup's Strenthfinder model. The model relies on a study where 2 pools of people were taught speed reading. The first group was pretty poor at speed reading. The second group was decent at speed reading. Which group saw the biggest jump in speed reading proficiency? The group that was already decent at it. Gallup took these results and developed a model that helps people identify their strengths and encourages people to focus on developing their strengths, not their weaknesses. It seems that Terry Bowden and Chuck Amato have, at least to some degree, employed the Strengthfinder model and it has worked for them. They seem content to let stats be damned in favor of, "scoring one more point than the opponent" with a bend but don't break defense. They have won off of the efficiency of a few big plays by gaining enough of a small lead and playing to preserve that lead. We converted on third down, when it mattered, and our defense played good enough to stop the opposition on third downs and hold them to a kick. We had good enough kick return coverage to prevent run backs for TDs, but gave up a lot of field position in the process. The kicking game, pretty sketch at times, was good enough when we needed it to be good. From all accounts, the only player who really seemed to excel each week was punter, Nick Gassed, who's directional kicking ability and ability to punt with few touchbacks helped a Zips defense that seemed like a sieve, at times. The staff took some very fast receivers who seemed to have trouble catching the ball and somehow got them to a spot where they have started to make catches. We had a poor run offense but were able to run the ball at the end of big games when we needed yards on the ground. We did not rush the passer much, but when we needed to, we did so with a vengeance. And although we did give up points, we robbed more QBs with a tough secondary who seem to be ignored, all year. The Zips demonstrated a robust resilience in a whacky Sunday game against WMU and raw emotion with the MAC East on the line against Ohio where our defense got in the head of talented QB. We have had ugly moments, too. We had a stiff OOC schedule and it had yet to be revealed how good PSU and Iowa State would be when they soundly beat us. Toledo destroyed us, twice, and an improving Miami of Ohio beat us, taking advantage of our R-FR QB who was starting on 2 days notice. But, overall, the Zips did better than anyone thought they would. We won games we didn't expect to win and lost a game we didn't expect to lose. They clawed their way into the MAC title game, for the first time in 15 years in a year they were not supposed to and back to a bowl game, for the second time in three years, and only the third time, ever. The 2017 Zips are not your prototypical successful team and perhaps, that makes their season all the more glorious. We won and we defied the odds and now, suddenly, no one is discussing whether the coaching staff has a future in Akron as they defied the odds and are savoring the beaches and warm weather in South Florida and a chance for one more win. Go Zips!

Let's just remember, the odds have been heavily stacked against us, all season long.

You know your team is playing soft when the fans start throwing stuffed animals onto the court at half-time. I was glad to see Patton contribute some today. Besides that, everybody besides E-Man phoned it in. I think I already forgot this game even took place. Safe travels. Go Zips!!

What kind of inferiority complex must a fanbase have to have to come on the Akron board and tell us how much better your team is. There's a reason FAU is a 22 point favorite. It would be a surprise to most of the nation if we win. We'll see on Tuesday. Go Zips.

While not Akron specific....I thought that this might provoke some discussion https://www.socceramerica.com/publications/article/76115/college-soccer-a-game-in-search-of-definition.html

Congratulations to Zips Men's Soccer player Dener Dos Santos who is the student speaker at the Fall Graduation ceremony on Saturday, December 16, 2018 at 6 pm. https://uakron.edu/graduation/index.dot

Is it three games? My bad. Go Zips bring home three wins!

How about 3

JB was having a very nice game with 8 tackles last night when he was injured making a pretty crazy tackle against Kareem Hunt.it was hard to say what the injury was, it might have been a back injury. He sort of flipped himself and Hunt in the air and he landed flat on back. At first I thought concussion, but they were looking at his midsection on the sidelines.

That's fair to compare our competition vs. their competition. And I'd say there's at least a few teams that we played this year that are better than anyone they played in their league. Hopefully that difference makes us better prepared.

One day of bowl games and we already have 3 teams losing that were picked by 80% or more on ESPN's Capital One Bowl Mania!

Sleeper Athletes Twitter has alot of Zips Coaches/players photos from practice earlier today https://twitter.com/SleeperAthletes

The point differential doesn't mean anything if one team plays good teams and the other plays bad. Just saying.

Nope

We shot 47% from the floor, 62% from the FT line, and had 12 turnovers, and led by 15-20 for the majority of the game. We are averaging 45% shooting, 62% from the line, and 16 turnovers per game so far this season. Utomi shot 7/12 (better than season average) and had 1 turnover (lower than season average). Duvivier shot 4/9 (better than season average) and had 1 turnover(lower than season average). Not his best game, but certainly not his worst. I'm really not seeing this "uninspired performance" or "sloppy game" looking at the box score, nor did anything really stick out while watching the game. Go Zips. Lets get a win or two in Hawaii.

Agreed.

But Cykron, IMHO, has been a very gracious guest here...(and since he granted me the first official invite to ISU tailgate next year, it really isn’t kissing up)! BTW, saw your brother-in-law and KV last night at a HS b-ball game...

Anybody need an oil change? http://www.akron.com.mx/es/producto/akron-premium-pro This is fun.

Am I understanding correctly that the laws that were just reversed were put into place in 2015? If so the internet was fine before net neutrality

It's important to me because he left Akron similarly to how Ken Lolla did, spewing excuses left and right about the MAC and the JAR. I would love nothing more than to schedule Duquesne each and every year Dambrot is there, and beat him each and every year Dambrot is there. But I don't see them appearing on our schedule.

I went totally and unashamedly homer. These FAU fans have turned out to be the most annoying we have had visit us in quite some time and I am really hoping we pull off the W. Kiffin is an idiot flash in the pan who inherited decent players. Amato and Bowden will totally out fox him. Kato lights it up at home a d it won't be that hard because the Owls have a vulnerable defense. Zips D shows up like they did against WMU, frustrates their QB like they did against Ohio and turnovers make the difference.

As I approach my 50th year on the planet, whether I get a doll or a tassel cap means increasingly less. Hope whomever gets their dolls enjoys them. And those who don't find the appropriate therapist to make peace with it.

It was recovered by Perryman. Brown didn't play