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Yes, that's kind of when they were just establishing themselves as a premier mid-major. What separates a program like St. Mary's from a George Mason or Middle Tennessee is that St. Mary's has shown they aren't a flash in the pan. This also brings me to the point of how much I miss BracketBusters.

Great question. We have 3 players who are best suited at RT (Blanchard, Thomas, Walker) but one of them will likely play LT. My best guess is Blanchard since he started there last year before injuries limited most of his season. LT = Blanchard LG = Davis C = Williams RG = Seymore RT = Thomas Coach Rodriguez likes to play anywhere from 8-10 linemen each game so I’m sure if this ends up being the actual lineup we’ll still probably see Walker, Lyons, Fox, Burrell, and Fields work in. If James is ready to be the starter at LT like he was in the spring game, that’d give even more options. Perhaps Shor starts to play up to his potential too? We finally have an experienced OL with enough versatility and depth, should a few players get injured for any length of time, it shouldn’t derail performance like it did last season.

That's not Professional Zip. Ohio - based on what we know - should be the favorites going into the season. They returned the most from last year's squad, which was a second half collapse away from the MAC Championship game. Kent lost everything. Who knows what type of talent they swindled into transferring to that dump heap, but they're outlook isn't nearly as optimistic. Toledo lost everything as well, and arguably backfilled with less than even Kent did. Kowalchoke might not even have a chance to choke in March. Miami - largely uninspiring offseason for them. Akron arguably has the most to replace between the Unanimous MAC POTY (Freeman), Ali Ali, and Hunter. However, I am quite a bit more confident in the guys they brought in via the Portal than any other team in the MAC. Sharron Young has a legit shot at MAC Freshman of the Year. Chemistry and execution are the two biggest question marks, obviously, but the pieces to the puzzle make sense. If it all works out how we hope, this could be one of the most talented Zips teams we've ever seen. So, EgregiouslyNegativeNancy, let's not be ripping on fellow Zips fans for their optimism. There are grounds for said optimism.

Vann Kavals article

They have played 4 times and Kent is 1-3 against them, at least according to Kent's website. Then again we all know how much Kent struggles with numbers. The last time Saint Mary's played at Kent was 2008. That was before they established themselves as one of the premier mid-major programs in the country. It's certainly a golden opportunity to add a quality win, but I don't expect them making a return trip to Akron next year. The reality is Akron needs to elevate ourselves to Saint Mary's level before we start getting schools like St. Mary's to agree to come to Akron. We're not that far off, but we need to be more consistent and find ways of beating programs like UCLA, Utah State, and UNLV instead of just hanging around and narrowing losing.

The first home opener at InfoCision was one of the best football atmospheres I've ever been a part of. It felt like a big-time game and the crowd was electric (at least when the game was close for that first quarter lol). It was more fun than I've had at any Browns game or even when I went down to State College to watch the Zips play PSU. We have one of the nicer stadiums in D1. Football is king in Northeast Ohio. If the Zips ever become relevant again, the fans will come.