ZipsVoice

Stop over across the street early before the game and bring a cup of coffee and watch the Zips nationally ranked swim team before tip-off! That'll help your misery index as well.....

Coming into the Ohio game, we had a total rushing yardage of 999 yards on 302 attempts, and lost 464 yards rushing, for a net total of 535. Our opponents net yardage was 2,311! We had 41 rushing yards against Ohio, 73 positive and 32 negative.

Xavier was ranked 19th in the Coaches Poll in December 1996 and was 8-0 when they visited the JAR and pulled out a 113-111 triple overtime thriller against the Zips with Jimmal Ball scoring 44 for us. That was my closest and most depressing loss to a ranked team.....

I know everyone likes to hold up Solich as the Gold Standard, but how many offers from bug schools has he had in the past 5 to 10 years, after solid performance seasons? I know his age is a factor now, but does anyone remember the last time his name came up in a serious discussion about moving on to a "bigger" program?

So, basketball's going full on now, and football, soccer and volleyball are done. If you want to root for a nationally ranked Akron team, this weekend the U hosts the Zippy Invitational at Ocasek, and it should be a competitive affair. I saw on gozips.com that the divers were at the Magnus Cup at Cleveland State last weekend, but no results for swimming. I checked the results and we didn't send a squad, which surprised me. We had won this meet I think like the last 3 or 4 in a row. Maybe it just wasn't competitive enough for us anymore? But Friday, Saturday and Sunday should be great. Ivy League Cornell comes back, and a lot of the men's pool and meet records bear their names. Horizon Champs Oakland should challenge on both the women and men side. Cincinnati will be there from the American Athletic Conference, and St. Bonaventure from the A-10. Small school power Bloomsburg are back, and so is Clarion, and Malone should add some local flavor. Zippies should be the favorites but Cornell and Oakland will press them hard. It's warm and humid in the O, but so much more fun and comfortable that watching the FB team inside Info the past few weeks. Never thought I'd like this sport, but it is exciting as heck.

Oh and you do Lee? So what's your claim to fame that makes you have "cred", and how dare you to decide what REAL fans are? A little pomposity my Ashland friend....

Yep...still happy.

ZMs right. Watching Nick Johns motion form one side of the O-line to the other ad nauseum just signals to me where the staff wanted him to block. I can't remember a time when he was actually thrown the ball. Decoy is not entirel correct, becasue the opposition has scouted well enough to know they ain't gonna chuck it to one of our TEs, should be called "Extra (try to block) Blocker".

He was there....but big whoop! It's not like it's real journalism now is it?

or more!

Great job here LZ, and lots of thought in it. My only addition is that just because someone who played sucky this season at a position, and they return next season at that position, we shouldn't assume they won't make progress, learn, grow, get comfortable and thrive in the future. Case in point, at center. if current position holder busts his butt, gets coached up, and has some serious competition for his starting job, he could become a competent player as he matures. Just using that position as an example - but we can't think about this as a static situation and that the current crew won't improve as players.

Me too! Surprised Ms. Voice let me, as had it on while she was watching DWTS in the other room, and I was "distracting".

While we're on the subject of putting butts in the seats, if anyone has had any remote connection to high school bands you know that their parents are some of the most loyal and will go to Timbuktu to watch their kids march in band shows and or halftime shows. Those of us that remember the Acme-Zip games knows that their were hundreds of kids from various marching bands performing, and that in turn brought in lots of relatives/parents. So, every season, we have something called "Band Day" at one of the Zips games, and the bands end up being from an APS school with maybe 30 kids in it, local rural schools with bands not much bigger. So who's in charge of recruiting these bands to perform at InfoCision? How come we can't get Stow, Hudson, Wadsworth, Green, Medina, etc. to attend and perform? I think Hudson has 200 kids in their band, Stow probably the same. Is it our Director of Bands Galen Karriker? I say, fire him now! ? Is it our crackerjack marketing department? I think we should demand Karriker step down if he can't bring in 300 kids next year on band day! (Bored - felt like writing - but still!) ?

In the case of any leftover TB recruits, it's not up to the staff to design offense/defense to meet their talent, since they're more than likely gone in a year. However, the talent, despite it being on the thin side, brought in by Arth's staff should have been brought in for the system he has or is planning to have, and the subsequent classes likewise.

I think there will be a lot of underclassmen walk away, but it will be because either they see their future is bleak or the staff nudges them that way. There are a lot of kids on this team who have busted their butts week after week in practice, and have basically been blocking "dummies" and scout team players, and were brought in because we needed numbers. Next season there will be more talent arriving and unfortunately for some of the underclassmen, less room for them. Just my thoughts.....

Especially in crunch-time, he kept coming up great. I believe you are right, never heard his name called at all....

Yeah, but he's in Chicago, so, you know, time change to Central vs. Eastern....

Understood. He is a great kid, what we used to call and over-achiever, plays well above his rating, but 72 Roo is right, but so are you, he is very active. Lako, imo, would also need to bulk up to compete in the NFL at LB, he reminds me of Jason Taylor size-wise coming out of Akron. He's got the attitude.

You are so spot on on this, used to be a car-crash-waiting-to-happen with Zips bouncing off one another in past years with multiple strikers and mids going to goal, and there were lots of opportunities taken by lots of Zips shooters.

Okay - a few of us on another thread have said we're going to be at InfoCision Friday for the Hoban-Massillon game, and I know a few friends who are going to Mentor vs. St. Ed's. Are there any recruits or commits from these teams to UofA? I mean for the 2020 class?

Good stuff, guys...

I'm a little skeptical, mainly due to the same thing B & G and Alum said about the Hoban side..and I can't argue with the numbers that Massillon will bring. I just think the independent ticket-buyer attendance will be the determining factor, and the Northern Summit County independents may side more towards going to Byers and watching Mentor and St. Ed's. Plus, the numbers aren't the same, but Manchester, Aurora and Mogadore are all playing that night too. I'm saying 18,000.

?‍♂️??

Okay...so the moment of reckoning is near. Tomorrow night at InfoCision is the "dream" match-p so many HS football fans in the area, just good ol' fans, not parents, of the team, band, cheerleaders, or kids who can't drive from either school, have supposedly been waiting to see at InfoCision. Massillon Washington High School vs. Archbishop Hoban High School. Interested to see if any of you independent HS fans are going, and also, what do you think the total attendance will be? Here's your choices: 1) - biggest in-seat attendance at InfoCision this season including the Zips games (that should be easy) 2) - less than 10,000 3) - less than 15,000 4) - a sell-out, as some ZNO posters have suggested Just curious....

So are you suggesting that our"list" would be a better one than what theirs would be?