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The positives out of the day - Beautiful weather! How often does that happen at a Zips home football game? Burkhart was great. To be honest, he had the type of game I'd have predicted from Boogie. It will be interesting to see if he's a 1-hit wonder, or he can back it up. He played well at Illinois, so I'm guessing he's going to have a nice season. While UAB isn't bucking for a New Year's Day bowl this year, they're not bad. Their QB was accurate. Their o-line gave him pocket time that Kato could only dream of having, It's amazing how good your passing game can be if you have all day to throw. UAB's D-line had good size. UAB drew 39,000 fans for their hope opener, and is building a $175 million dollar stadium. While Joe Akron isn't too familiar with them, they're a solid program. Even in what might be considered a down year. Kato never had all day to throw. He barely had 2 seconds from the snap to get rid of the ball. It's unbelievable that he could throw for over 300 yards under those circumstances. The Zips running game again disappointed. But the backs never had a gap to hit. Last season you could chalk up the Zips running issues to an unimaginative scheme. We tried a variety of different looks against UAB and nothing worked. Ineffective pass and run blocking gives you what we saw on Saturday. The Blazer D-line just pushed the Zips back and collapsed the pocket every time. Conversely, our D-line was easily fended off. Hope Council isn't hurt too bad. He returned to the sideline sans any air cast or crutches, so it seems like a minor ding. Keyondre White was on the sideline. Must be injured? Is the solution to Kato buying time to throw rolling him out? Seems like the obvious choice. It's either that, or the o-line needs to make some huge strides over the next couple weeks. Does Andre Williams get a chance to return some kicks? Hopefully the staff is just being cautious in bringing him back from his long layoff. His snap count needs to increase. Alvin Davis' name is not being called enough on the PA system. I realize the numbers game somewhat forces the staff's hand to play him at the corner (we have a little depth at safety, but none at CB), but we can't continue to get burnt deep. I would love to see Davis back at safety where he can make a bigger impact on the game. Tutu sat out 2018 as a gray shirt, so he deserves some patience as he acclimates to the college game. Hope he's a quick learner. I saw Wieland punt in HS and he was awesome. I don't know whether it's jitters...the 2 year layoff from playing...problems adjusting to the punt-on-the-run rugby-style kick...but he's gotta get it together. I never saw Fitchen kick in HS, but he's gotta get it together too. I've never seen such problems as the Zips have kicking the ball...or on special teams in general. There were bright spots Saturday - Lako and Bubba played well. Riley showed some resilience after getting off to a rough start. Jest had a great game. Scippio found the endzone for his first college TD. I thought we tackled well, and fought hard to the end. Kato is a gamer. Arth seems to me to be first and foremost a teacher. A very hands-on teacher. He now has 8 quarters of game film to start addressing our shortcomings. We'll see what he can do. To paraphrase Rick Pitino..."Andy Alleman ain't walking through that door...Brent Biggs ain't walking through that door...Rodney Coe and Jatavis Brown aren't walking through that door...". We are who we are...a team coming off a 4-8 season that lost 90% of it's defense from 2018. The final two 2017 games prior to the 4-8 season, we were down 35-0 to Toledo, and lost 50 - 3 to FAU. So anyone writing off Arth after losing to teams that were flat-out better than these rebuilding Zips...and funded beyond the Zips wildest imagination...should keep "I told you so's" to themselves. It just clutters the board. Go Zips. Beat the Chipps!

At the end of the day, you all can keep your agendas or lose 'em. You can choose to support the guys and coaches out there busting their asses or you can choose to sit around and bitch behind the keyboard about a decision that has already been made. I know where I stand and I know what decision is going to make me less miserable of a person. I'm a Zips fan and I'm going to root for whoever is out there, hope for the best, and try to be rational in analysis.

I had 11 hours of drive time to reflect yesterday. I don't think the game was a total disaster. We held their run game in check. Jest had a notable day. Total lack of pressure on QB needs attention. Riley got beat on a 75 yd TD pass. Give some credit to their QB & WR, but he also had an INT and he closed fast to make a nice defend at our goal line. He is a R/So with time to improve. We showed some heart closing with 14 Q4 points. I do think special teams lost this one for us. On their K/O to our 2yd line; I think Boogie made the right decision. That ball was either destined to go into the end zone or out of bounds; either of which would have been a good out come. The Blazers just got there in time to force him to cover the ball. When we finally did get a 50yd punt, their blind side block tacked on 15 more yds, but more notable to me was our coverage only allowed a 5yd return! Past years we got 40 yd punts with 20yd returns. Grade coaching a D? Let's see how we mature through the season before we post any grades. It's not even midterms yet!

Maybe I’m Just a homer but this game looks winnable. Clean up special teams. IMO, we have been playing DB’s to see what is best for team. I think Riley & Hooks should get chance at corners & get Davis back at safety. Let’s go Zips Looks like Central Michigan pass defense is week giving up 300 yds a game. Maybe we can get rolling. I liked the up tempo game when we ran it. https://www.espn.com/college-football/game?gameId=401119263

https://sportsnaut.com/2019/09/15-most-jaw-dropping-performances-from-cfb-week-2/

I must disagree. Terry's Achilles heal was blind loyalty to an OC who didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. The sooner he would have shed that dullard from the staff the higher the probability that he would still be our head coach.

Lee shouldn't this post of yours be on the dead horse topic?

As I sat in the stands watching this game I reflected that we are first and foremost an academic institution. So what grades would this game produce? Here's my opinion for what it's worth. BTW, I support coach Arth and will give him the time he needs. Additionally, I thought coach Bowden deserved to be let go. Here's my grades. I welcome your criticism. Coaching - D Special Teams - F O Line - F WR's - B/B+ RB's - D- QB - C D Line - D+ LB's - B DB's - F Fans - F

I feel like Sampson would be a pretty elite pass rusher ?‍♂️ Doesn't seem to be getting many snaps though.

I agree. Maybe one of our speedy receivers would be good at blitzing ?

I think some sort of pass rush would help our secondary most.

As I get older, I tend to eliminate things from my life that bring me misery. As such, I don't get why you continue to follow the Zips athletic program as it seems to bring you nothing but misery. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge you following whoever you want for whatever reasons, it just befuddles me a little. I guess maybe it's a loyalty to your alma mater or a hope for a return to the "good old times."

Dustin Burkhart has earned MAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the East Division. Burkhart had a career-best 217 receiving yards on the day. The last time an Akron receiver had more than 200 yards was in 2007 by Jabari Arthur, who had 223 yards. Burkhart’s 217 receiving yards rank second on UA’s all-time receiving yards for a game behind Arthur’s 223.

Can't argue with any of these...Professor!

While the football team was creating major headaches on that forum, Chris Bassitt, new father, gets a career high 11 strikeouts in a 6 inning win. Way to go - once a Zip, always a Zip....

Excellent article. Learned more from that than I have in the last 5 years reading the ABJ.

This is a very good point

That's pure hyperbole. Bowden pushed the boundaries of the program and achieved what is reasonable to expect for us in the current climate of college football and given our history. He not only brought us back from the abyss, but also gave us our best ever D-1A season. As I stated yesterday, our performance at Michigan was great for entertainment and pride in our University, yet by your metrics counts for nothing. We will certainly never be Boise St and likely not NIU or Toledo either. I'm fine with that, and I don't think risking all these 1-11 seasons and consistently returning us to the joke of D-1A is worth it. It's problematic too that some AD's encourage these fire-hire cycles to build their resume only for the sake of moving on to the next position. It's an exploitive practice.

Let me catch u up: Bowden would have had us in the BCS playoffs. His teams were highly disciplined and the play- calling top notch. 4-8 and a loss to the lowly BG at home wasn't his fault. Arth is just a pretty face in over his head and was a huge hiring mistake that will destroy the football team and probably the university.

Let the Arth excuses commence...sorry, he's on the clock, now. The recruits had little to do with the lack of discipline and overall lack of gameplan. He seems in over his head.

Top-shelf pics once again, good Doctor! ???

And Here's the question that matters: do you think that Tom Arth, with his illustrious career of coaching D-III John Carrol for a handful of years and two years of coaching at FCS Chattanooga to a 9-13 record; can out recruit Terry Bowden (who has a 25-year coaching history with connections to Florida...whom's father is a legendary College Football coach). And that's not even mentioning transfers... I'd like to smoke WHATEVER it is everyone else is smoking who believes that Tom Arth will be able to put together a BETTER team talent wise than Terry Bowden. It doesn't make any, remote, logical sense. This isn't to say the Bowden teams were packed with talent...I just find it extremely hard to believe that a coach from John Carroll will be able to out recruit a Bowden.

I scoured my PD sports sections yesterday and couldn't find any story on the Akron or Kent games. Not even a paragraph wire report. Maybe the MAC coverage retired with Elton Alexander?