ZippyTuba11

Don't tell Gonzaga and company that...

When did Bruce get hands?Haha, only in the MAC would this game be normal

For reference, Mr. Karriker must return next year based on the stipulations of his contract.

This argument is pointless because everyone is going to have their own opinion and there is no standard of measure. I can point out as many flaws with other bands that Akron does better and visa-versaWhen the new stadium comes, the band will march from Guzzetta to the stadium area, perhaps the JAR. The finer details are still being ironed out, but it is safe to say that they are planning a good march through campus at the very least.

I'm looking forward to French calling a great game. I have already stated why in another thread.

The Suckeye's band would be booed off the field if they performed at a proper Drum & Bugle Corps show. A lot of what they have to offer in terms of quality of a band is as much over rated as their sports teams. They don't exactly high step either. It is a modified bicycle step (very easy form of high step). The forms they run at half time and pre-game are also very easy, however due to their large size as well as being an all brass band gives the impression they they look and sound great. This works on a certain level. As a whole, they show very well. Individually is a different matter. They cannot and never will compare to say the Canton Blue Coats or the Glassmen who very existence is competition.Akron's troubles root from other, larger problems. They do not have the luxury that Ohio A&M has in that they hold auditions for every spot. Akron puts on everybody that can make practices and games. Akron also doesn't march an all brass ensemble. This means that sound production will never reach the level of OA&M and other such bands (don't get me wrong, OA&M has several members who suck, but the fact that they have so many others who can play very well means the poor performers are drowned out). Akron also marches at half time the tradition Corps style low step. This allows the band to focus on sound quality and complexity of the drills without being caught up in complex foot movement. This is very boring for an audience to watch. This if the very reason that OU's band is a huge crowd pleaser. They look entertaining. Akron's band blows them away in sound quality, but they can never match OU's level of 'chuck and jive' which really gets the audience going. But rating bands has huge problems. Outside of true competitions that the Drum and Bugle Corps play, college bands have no real level of standard to meet. Do you care about the music they play? The quality of sound? The style and accuracy of marching? The entertainment value of the show? The Zips band may not give an entertaining show like OU, or have the drowning sound that LSU or tosu does, but the quality of music and sound generally is at or exceeds other bands in the area. I know of some MAC bands that would dream to be able to do some of the things that Akron does or has. Some could care less. In the case of Ohio A&M the question arises does their band please their crowd, or is the crowd simply pleased that it is tosu's marching band? I have had this discussion with many friends and members of these different college bands. Specifically at tosu, I have heard several incidents where they band would say they had horrible performances, but the crowd went nuts regardless. At the same time they booed for the opposing team's band even before they started playing. Oh, and on the subject of tosu; the script ohio is not very challenging for a band. I was apart of a high school band and have seen several other high school bands do the same perpendicular marching through their own lines and they did it flawlessly. To say that Akron's band has always been horrible is very ignorant and buys into the OA&M mindset. The prime of the Jackoboice era is an excellent example of how good the Zips band can be. I would argue that they were better and more entertaining that any other in the MAC and quite possibly tosu. Akron has a long way to go to get to that level again.The real question is, who cares? I'm sure there is a significant number of football fans who would rather have rock legends perform at half time like the pros have, and play the pep music during the game from recordings over the speakers. How could any band live up to fans who have no knowledge of what a good marching band is? Perhaps the new stadium venue will change things for the better in all levels of akron sports.

If you haven't heard already, CSU is tossing around the idea of a new football team, as well as a name change. Would we want them in the MAC? We could finally balance the schedule. Would the conference do something stupid like it did with Temple and only bring them in for football?CSU article

Heh, I'll take the first prediction for this game.This is a 'win or go home' game for Akron. We MUST win here to have a chance at pulling past BG by the end of the season.The Zips and EMU have not met since 2003, where the Zips won 24-17 in the Rubber Bowl. Adjustments need to be made upfront with the D-line. EMU's strength is their running game and it is 38th in the country (akron is 72 in rushing). In their beat down over Indiana St., EMU's RB ran for 178 while a host of others rushed for a combined 238 yards. They have two RBs with 70 or more carries averaging about 5 yards per carry so far this year. At the same time, we cannot forget their passing game. It was their QB who was able to get it done against BG. EMU is capable of pulling off the big upset as well. Last year they beat Central Michigan in the last game of the season for them. This year they were able to beat BG. We are actually the lightest team on their schedule for remainder of the season. After us they have to run the gauntlet of the best West teams and Temple. That may play into a factor. A low scoring game is going to more favor EMU. Akron is actually undefeated when scoring more than 40 since 2001(13-0). If the offense can get rolling, they need to lay it on all game and put them away. Akron needs this win and in a big way. They have done well on the road so far this year and they need another one here.That said, I predict EMU having a decent day on the ground. The 3-3-5 just won't cut it as a run defense. It will however take their QB out of the game.Akron on offense will have a better, rounded showing. If JD lets Kennedy do his thing and the O-Line makes room for him like they did against BG, DK will have another career day. Jacq will look slightly better but still give up an INT, bad passes, and the receivers are still going to drop a few. But if he can limit the poor decisions and bad throws like he did until the end of the BG game, Jacq will have a mild day.Our KOR should make up for that though and give the offense short field to work with for the majority of the game.Akron gets another 30+ game.Akron 33EMU 24

A variation of this is mildly being worked on. * Ohio A&M stole it from Michigan. It has actually been apart of the Akron past and tradition more than you might think. The Band used to do a "Script Zips" but was abandoned circa 1990. The Block zips you see now is an attempt to bring the tradition back a little bit. And have you even SEEN this years 'i' dot? The Suckeyes have nothing that can top the tuba player doing the splits out there. $10 general admission (that's before any deals)* [cough]by worked on I mean a few military members of Ohio's Pride, past and present, are dreaming of asking our commanders to allow something along these lines/cough]

To my recollection, Acme wanted to take all the money they were pumping into the University at the time and put it into just scholarships. UA wanted the straight cash and neither side came to a compromise and it was abandoned. Then again I may just be starting rumors as my memory on this isn't the best.

For Basketball games he is great. For football, it doesn't work so well. I agree with Zip81And getting the crowd pumped up on offense at the end is counterproductive. Cheer on defense, quiet on offense.

Had a few key plays been executed or calls gone our way (cough/cincirefs\cough), we would be 5-2 now. I can accept losses to Wisconsin and Ball St. We are definitely a tough team and contenders for the MAC East, provided we don't fall apart down the stretch.I think the biggest reason everybody is livid about the offense is because of the last drive. Sure the defense should have never let the situation arise, but Jacq and the offense were given a change to win it down the stretch and they stunk. Poor decisions by Jacq, combined with bad throws or bad catches equals a very sloppy drive that would have won the game. I am very excited to see DK do so well. I hope JD starts to go to the ground game more. That is our bread and butter. We are second in the East in rushing yards behind Can't (and they don't really count).How about our kick return team as well? I think that was the single biggest thing that kept us in the game and kept pressure on BG. Almost every return went for big yards and I we were very close to breaking a couple of them.

I'm been against him this whole time. He still does the same crap that has gotten him in trouble in previous games. This game I did notice that for the most part he did a -lot- better job of either throwing the ball away or running for it, even if he did look awkward as hell.I've taken a look at the rest of the schedules. I believe very firmly that we can win at least 3 more games. That makes us bowl eligible. I for one won't consider it a huge loss if we don't win the MAC East. We were picked dead last. Second place isn't so bad and going .500 as we go into the Info isn't such a bad note. The fact that we won 3 games already got so many peoples' hopes up. But as I have said a number of times, those 3 wins came over some of the worst teams in football. If we didn't beat them, then we should have definitely called for JD's head. But we won. JD is doing better than expected. Give the guy a little bit of credit.Now for what remains. I still think we can win 3 more games. However, I can still see us going win-less at home. EMU and Temple are games that we MUST win. After that we MUST steal one from UT, UB, or OU (I think Toledo is our best bet). Buffalo and Ohio look tough. If we can steal one more game, I think that puts us at a lock for a bowl, but that is a bit of a stretch for a wacky MAC team. As for the rest of the MAC East, I looked over their schedules and I honestly believe that BG, UB, and OU have a very good chance of finishing out the season at 4-4 in the MAC. That leaves us in a 4 way tie (as we have already seen in 2005, this can and does happen). What will make the difference is who looses to whom. They only thing that really scares me in the East is Buffalo. They have been playing very well and I really don't know a damn thing about them. They can be the biggest surprise in the East this year. They lead the East in both points per game and passing yards per game and gave Western Michigan a run for their money tonight. But then again the MAC is damn near impossible to predict. Akron could finally find that killer instinct and put away the rest of the teams on the schedule. They have the talent do to it. It is only a matter of the whole process coming together, coaches and players, to make the right calls and execute them properly.

I will never know why you defend this guy so much. That last drive was one bad decision after another made by Jacq. He never looks at his outs. Had he bothered to look at a -wide- open DK instead of a covered Bowser at the beginning of that last drive, we would have had a touch down. The one time I say he made a proper call in the final moments we got a first down out of it. The 3-3-5 is never going to work against a run up the middle. It isn't designed to. Every play, at least one LB blitzes. That leaves only 2 LBs behind the line and they can be eaten up by blockers and leaves a lot of the tackles up to the secondary. This is why almost every team we play has a huge success up the middle. It does do a good job of defending deeper throws and outside plays, however.JD just needs to stop play calling for the team he would like to have and actually call plays for the talent that is on the field. Our biggest offensive strength is DK and Tuzze up the middle. Why do we not rely on this more?On a positive note, I am extremely happy to see that we have gone to having one of the worst kicking teams in the MAC to one of the best. Cheers to Igor!

If a male is playing Zippy, does that make him a cross dresser? I know almost all the guys that are in the marsupial suit and yes, they are all male. And you will almost never see the same person in the suit throughout a game. They take frequent turns in football and basketball because it gets extremely hot in that thing.

I don't know about you, but I expected 4-2 at this point. One of the teams we beat is on the top 10 worst teams in FB. Another is on the waiting list. Army is just Army and there is never a good excuse for a loss to them. Cincinnati is a beatable team and I really thought the Zips would have come out with a W after that one (we should have too as we outplayed them). Getsy may have played his best game in the second half of the MACC but the games preceding and the game that followed were far cries from that half. It doesn't matter how many yards he can put up in a game if they don't get the team anywhere.So no, I argue the results are not there. Up to this point, Jacq has done just enough to not be horrible. He may be able to throw a lot of short passes that start to add up for a lot of yards, but he has a very tough time going for a knockout punch. The mistakes are consistent and aggravating. Now we still have a lot of football left on the schedule, and a lot of time for Jacq to fix the stupid mistakes and actually play well consistently. However, he has not shown so far that he can make those changes. I hope I am wrong, but ignoring what's there won't make the problems go away.

The results are there? Frye was a much better quarterback and still never got us that MAC championship or even a bowl game. Getsy only got us there as a fluke (as much as I loved being there cheering on the Zips, we really lucked out getting to the MACC beating the three way tie-breaker against Miami and BG). Just because these quarterbacks can complete a lot of short yard passes doesn't mean they are any good. Those are the passes that should be gimmes. How many times has he actually been even -close- on a pass over 15 yards? How many times does he stare at only one receiver the whole play? If these things continue to happen, he is going to be eaten alive by good defenses. Last year he only won 4 games, threw 10 INTs and 11 TDs. This year he managed so far to beat three of the worst teams in football. He's already given up 9 INTs (his fault or not doesn't matter) and has been sacked 11 times. His rating against Ball St. was 88.4 as he gave up 4 INTs that game alone. He has been lucky so far in that Can't st sucks as bad as army and syracuse, but if he continues to get sacked and throw INTs, Blowing Green and company are going to run all over us.

You can't tell me that just because they are in a hotel that some of them don't go out and party, especially given the personality of a lot of these players. I know first hand that in high school, the players would go out and get drunk before homecoming. But then again, I went to a tiny little D6 school out in the middle of no where, so I am sure those kinds of things may be a little more strictly enforced at Akron. Still, I would almost guarantee that at least some of these players have a good night on homecoming, even if it is in their own room at the hotel.

Even though all of this is way too far out to project, the answer to this particular question is no. This is exactly the sitaution Miami found themselves in last year and were not bowl eligible - you must have at least six wins and be at or above .500.That puts a lot of pressure on the home games then. Our away schedule is far more winnable down the stretch than our home is, especially with the home games being of off days. So long as the refs give us a fair call down there in Athens this year It would be such a thrill to have a chance at playing the upset role against Ball St. in the MACC, but if they finish the season at 6-6, a whole lot more will ride on that game.

I think this team has too many question marks to make an accurate prediction. My experience however is to never bet on the home team during homecoming. I was really disappointed when we scheduled a tough MAC opponent this year instead of the OOC teams we have in the past for homecoming. You can just ask BG about this curse that seems to predominate sports. EMU was their homecoming game. Perhaps this may be in connection to the dance being the night before? I'd bet my house that a good number of the players will be out late and drinking despite whatever J.D.'s rules are on it. After all, boys will be boys.I would really like to see a study done to see how homecoming games affect the home team. I know I am not the only one that has noticed this over the years.I hope I am wrong, I really do. I'm still not going to have high expectations on this one with Akron coming out for Homecoming and BG smarting after an embarrassing loss to EMU on there homecoming night. There is just as much on the line here for BG as there is for us, if not more so. This raises perhaps some bigger questions that might seem pretty pessimistic given the team's high right now, but after BG, the Zips only have 2 more home games. We rarely ever play well against Toledo and I never know what to expect against Buffalo. How successful can the team be if they go the whole season, and the final season of the Rubber Bowl at that, without a home win? If we can manage to win out the away games (which could done easier than winning out at home IMO) and lose all the home games, that puts us at 6-6 on the season. If Ball St can make a BCS game, that means at least four teams from the MAC get to go bowling this year. What would the reaction be if Akron made a bowl but lost all the home games?I know this is really early to be bringing up, but I see it as a real possibility.Something else I see is Akron winning the MAC East again in a Tie-breaking scenario with a 6-6 record, maybe a 7-5 record if they can really step up. If Ball St. can keep the train rolling and finish the season undefeated, they likely go to a BCS bowl, no? Would that leave open the Motor City bowl to us, being MAC runners-up (with a possible losing record if we go 6-7 with the MACC) or would they take a MAC West team if they have a higher record and possibility of better fan turn out (specifically Western Michigan). I know the rules have changed for bowl eligible teams in the last couple years. Would we even be able to go bowling at 6-7, if they last loss game in a championship game?Again, I know it is early, but the MAC is such a mess this year; these and worse scenarios are in play. I would love for Akron to actually put all doubts aside and run the table down the stretch and make it a clear clinch, but my limited time as a MAC fan has told me that the MAC will almost never have a clean finish. That's just how the MAC isAny thoughts on this?

I'm never in the crowd of putting in another quarterback once the season has started. That always turns out poorly (just look at the Browns). However, there does get to be a point when a bad quarterback is a bad quarterback. In the Cinci game, I swear Jacq couldn't get within 5 yards of a WR when he threw it for more than 15yds. He is fairly consistent when it comes to hitting a receiver under 15, but then the WRs don't catch those passes. He also does a HORRIBLE job of looking at the receiver he is going to throw it to. Every toss at Can't I knew exactly where he was going to throw it because he never looks at anybody else. The defense picks up on this too. If he keeps this up, the INTs are going to be close to breaking records at the end of the season.I wouldn't take him out yet though, but there definitely needs to be something done with the offense system. I think Jacq would be better off with a modified west coast offense. He does very well when he can take a good 3-5 step drop and pass right away. He really looks lost out there when the only receiver he is going to throw to for that play is covered. He also really needs to learn how to get rid of the ball. I saw far too many times against Can't when he could have thrown the ball away but instead just ducked down and waited for the sack.

A new arena would be nice, but can anyone really devise a way to construct one as massive as being suggested while not raising tuition? From what I understand, major contributors to UA are already exhausted with all the donations of the stadium. We are already deeply in debt from landscape for learning and the stadium, so where is the money going to come from for a new massive arena?And for reference, the addition to Guzzetta Hall did not benefit any student from the school of music. The new classes are mainly for dance students. The old part of Guzzetta Hall is still crap and has not been touched. In all honesty, they might have well not connected the new part because they serve two entirely separate student bodies and functions.I would rather the University focus on academics. This is part of the reason our sports teams are taken as jokes to major BS schools. The demolition of Carroll is a great first step, but most of the old buildings are STILL in horrible condition and need major renovation or demolition. Or how about new books for the library? Has the U still not bought a book in what...8 years or was that ever resolved? And how about parking? I would rather see a brand new parking deck and parking lots than a new basketball arena any day.So before we start looking into raising the bill for a new basketball arena, there is still major work around campus that would benefit the students far more.

Wow, the one time I criticize the coach for making a bad call I'm a can't fan? I'm actually like Dambrot most of the time, but nobody is perfect. This year I have been paying a lot more attention to him on the floor to get an idea of his coaching styles and throughout he usually makes good calls, drawing up good plays, and does a good job usually keeping the team up or at least close throughout the thick of gameplay. However I have noticed over several games that he has not done a good job at closing. We've had several close losses over the last several years that should have never happened. We've had the talent to run teams off the floor in the closing moments but can't because the team breaks down, takes early shots, turns the ball over, and stops playing KD's basketball.For the record, I'm not criticizing his style of basketball, only his control over the team in big or close games down the stretch. Look at what happens when the team actually does settle and play his style, then look at home many games we've blown or nearly blown when they lose control.

This loss is on Dambrot in my mind. The good coaches can settle their guys down and get them to play level-headed in the face of an opponent's runs. KD is horrible at controlling the team in the face of a run. Dials gets mad and throws up prayers early in the shot clock, turn-overs like crazy, and bad defensive breakdowns in these clutch moments makes me question KD's coaching style. No way the really good coached teams lose a big game when they are up 12 coming down the stretch.