CDMac

https://twitter.com/TerryBowden last tweet (which was a retweet) was March 2016.

AR12 had a kid on his HS team that Boogie reminds me of - A LOT. Just a hard working, football playing DUDE with an infectious spirit. Glad to see him get more opportunities in the kicking game and now getting into the 2 deep receiver rotation. He's a redshirt freshman so expect to see many more highlights from this young man. At 5'8" myself, I root extra hard for guys like this who have probably heard the, "you're too small to do x..." more than their share. Put him one-on-one in the slot with some option routes and let's go to work!

I went 13-19 1st downs too (no reason, just hopeful we can sustain some drives) Zips win by more than 6. We jump out early and D really locks it down. Passing yards 200-299: Quick passing games gets various receivers multiple receptions and we have a couple slants or crossers go for big gains. Van will lead the rushers: He looked like he was finding some room against EMU and I think he pops a big one (40+) to get his total well over 100 for the game. Fearless Forecast: Boogie catches a TD pass (probably a slant or crosser that he takes to the house from WAY out (70+))

Thanks, @zipsoutsider I figure I came to this board to provide insight where I could; no sense in hiding from rightfully frustrated fans. I think y'all have been more than fair in your assessments of the team, players, and the program. It's a good growth moment for us parents too, to be honest.

Allow me to chime in: I agree with the assessments that AR12 hasn't looked quite "right" in game action this season. There are myriad reasons for that and you guys have identified several; being "tight", aiming the ball, not comfortable with the speed of the game, not getting his power out of his back leg (aka throwing off his back foot), etc. I suspect that it's a combination of all of that. If you've seen his high school film, you know it's not that he "can't" throw the deep ball or that he lacks the arm to make any throw out on the field. Some of this is just timing and understanding how deep to throw a given route based on the receiver that's running it. As fans (and certainly as parents) it's tough to watch a young player go through the process of growth. We'd like them to be 100% ready and prepared as soon as they step on the field. QB is probably the hardest position in sports - there's only roughly 1000 +/- people on the planet that can do what D1 QBs can do (counting the NFL guys plus all the D1 QBs on rosters right now). There is a growth process that takes live games reps to be a catalyst. KN1 has grown a lot with his playing time last year and this year as you would expect. The game of football is HARD. It humbles you. You have to want to get back up and go back to battle for the men next to you more than your ego hurts in order to succeed. AR12 will be fine; he'll get back to work and assess his weaknesses and come back stronger. The Zips will be fine too. They have a lot of talented, hard-working young men looking to build something together. It's unfortunate that the seniors won't have finished their climb to claim the MAC Championship but they have laid a foundation and set the bar for the next mob of Zips. #FearTheRoo

And I don’t even think he as all that good of a passer. He’s big, strong, and mobile. They’ve put a team around him and play to his strengths but I wasn’t all that impressed seeing him in person other than tall dudes aren’t supposed to be that nifty.

I’ve been quiet on the board recently while I finished my (2 month) deck project, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the ebb and flow of fan reactions (and processing my own). We have been to every game so far this season - Including the lightning-cancelled Nebraska kerfuffle. I’ve read and agree with a lot of the statements of HOPE - hoping our defense was good enough to keep us in games while the new faces on offense could get in sync; hoping that our recruiting classes would start to pay dividends in better depth when injuries arose; hoping that the Zips could put it together and have that magical season. And this season has already had several highs and lows. The defense is even better than anticipated and the offense appears to need more work to get in sync than initially imagined. Add injuries into the equation and it’s a brutal reminder that a football season can be as much about attrition as it is about the X’s and O’s. Early in the year, I shared the belief that our offense would eventually be better than last year because I felt like, while the new faces were inexperienced, the new parts appeared to be talented and potentially more dynamic as a group. Last year we lived and died by the deep ball and the big play and we lived more often than died (at least in conference play). I felt like this season we were a more well rounded group (they all had different skill sets) that would be better able to attack opposing defenses in ways we couldn’t last year. While we have lived and died by the big play (even though we’ve seen far fewer than last year), I still feel like we are better equipped to have offensive diversity and not rely on the deep ball to bail us out. I have seen glimpses here and there, but they still haven’t quite put it all together - as evidenced by our last place “Points For” ranking in the conference. AR has been through a similar situation in his high school career where they transformed to a truly diverse and complex offense that was hard to defend. It can happen - it takes some risk and there are some lumps, it requires trust from coaches and openness to collaboration - but it can pay off! We were also at several Spring and Fall scrimmages and, not that it was my personal preference, I could get my head around why the coaches started KN1 - he helped the team get to the MACC game last season, he’s shown potential and ability, and they rightfully expected that a young QB with half a season under his belt would get better with more live game reps. The first scrimmage in the Fall that KN1 was “benched” by TB for getting into a skirmish with teammates was a watershed moment for a few reasons. AR got his first reps with the 1s, and he stepped up in the scrimmage and showed that he could lead this team (went 10-14, 71%, 177 yards 3 Tds) - it was after this scrimmage that TB stated AR was “pushing” KN1 and we had a real QB competition on our hands. As we all know, game reps are king to the development of any player - and particularly at the quarterback position. The Morgan State game was the first live game reps AR had in two years. He threw a pick in that game which was a good decision, as far as where to go with the ball, but was under thrown allowing the safety to get over to the ball. In the Miami game, for the read option - RB and QB aren’t on the same page as far as whose taking/giving the ball. It wasn’t a deal breaker because it was in mop-up duty but just goes to show with every QB, you have to allow for time to acclimate. I’m not sure what’s in store over the remainder of the season and whether they will give AR a shot to play with the ones, get game-week prep in line with being the starter going into the game, etc. AR does bring a set of skills which helps an offense’s overall efficiency - the pace and rhythm with which an offense operates when he’s under center can be a difference maker. And even though he may not be perceived as “explosive” - he can be an effective runner, as TB has said. KN1 has demonstrated some nice things this year. However, I think he sometimes tries to protect the ball too much and it becomes a detriment. It appears that he mitigates the risk he sees on the field by pulling the ball down and running. I’d imagine the coaching staff has made it very clear they want the QB to take care of the ball and I think sometimes KN1 looks at a play and says, “don’t like it”, pulls the ball down and tries to get what he can with his legs. This “indecision” can manifest as him holding the ball too long (which I see as a common complaint) but I think it’s more about him trusting his legs more than his reads. However, today I saw something I haven’t seen a lot of. On one play KN1 kept his eyes down field instead of running. He climbed the pocket, and hit his guy over the middle of the field. So there’s room for both young QBs to grow and that’s the challenge: finding the guy that can make the plays that are there to be made. You’re going to take your lumps with both young QBs - all QBs to be honest. I watch a lot of QBs and even Rodgers throws some head scratchers from time to time. It’s the nature of the beast. I think coaching is mostly about risk mitigation. Most coaches are conservative to a fault realizing that a lot of games come down to who make less mistakes - as evidenced by the W/L ratio of teams winning the turnover battle. I would like to see the offense run more route concepts with a primary read to the middle of the field, running clear outs help the receiver get open - especially against cover 2. This has been effective - KN1 hit Dre on that type of concept a couple times today. I will continue to hope that our offense will find a way to gel, even though that may not prove out in the overall record, MACC or bowl game appearances. TL;DR: Offense is young. They will make mistakes but also grow. Go ZIPS! Fear the Roo!

TB stated in his post-game presser that they had specifically worked on this type of end-of-game scenario and that it had "always gotten us 7 seconds". He went on to state that the reason it didn't in this case was because the D, having seen several rollouts from Kato already in our burn-the-clock sequence, was collapsing on him at a faster rate than planned for and he had to get rid of the ball sooner than he wanted lest he risk getting hit/tackled, etc. I agree with TB's assessment there but I have to disagree with several of the clock/game/point management decisions they made prior to that penultimate play. Coaches are often unduly criticized for good decision that have bad outcomes so I think it's only fair to not criticize them too harshly for poor decisions that ended up with a good result.

He lined up in the backfield as the "H". He was behind and offset half body width to the left of the left tackle. It was a great play call. Mav runs the wheel route from that position and the OLB passes him off to the corner as he (the OLB) plays the WR who's sitting down in the flat. We'd thrown that often enough (WR to the flat) that the corner stepped up as if to be the flat defender and that gave Mav the step he needed to allow Kato (after pump faking the flat route) to put the ball over his (the CB's) head an right into Mav's breadbasket. Good play call, good route, good throw = TD!

Man, Brian played LIGHTS OUT last night. He was all over the field. It's like we had 3 players named "Bell" by how often his name was announced on the PA. He was strong against the run, on point in coverage, and was putting some big hits on those little cats. Except for the two pick 6's from Davis, it would be hard to not have Bell as DMVP of the game.

There were 2 15 yarders in the play and the play itself gained 8 yards. The first 15 yarder was on Bell during the play so tacked on to the end of the play. Then there as a second 15 yarder ( dead ball foul ) on a different Zip (Sampson). They only announced it as ‘unsportsmanlike’ so I think it must have been something he said to ref or other player as I didn’t see him involved in any post play kerfuffle. So, by rule, that sequence cost is 38 yards. In years past, Bell’s tackle would have been fine but they have made an effort to clean up the body slamming stuff. I’m not in agreement with that rule: but it’s still the rule.

I have no voice left!!! The Zips family, friends, and fans gave several raucous “let’s go zips” chants. These men battled their butts off overcame adversity (some self inflicted) and earned the right to fly the flag!! It was a beautiful night and a tremendous win for the program. GoZips!!

@WD UA 2015- I can still see the Morgan State game on ESPN+ on my laptop. If I go to the main ESPN+ page then click on "Schedule and Replays" from the nav bar, then click on the "Replays" tab, then use the scrolling calendar to select September 8, you can scroll down to the "NCAA College Football" section and the game is listed (or you could use CTRL+F) to search for "Akron" to locate the game that way once you hit the listings for Sept 8th. Not sure how different devices display the menus, nav bars, and date selector stuff though so you may just have to dig around. Alternatively, once you're logged in to ESPN+, click on this link Morgan State at Akron and see if it will load for you.

Like @LZIp said, you can watch them after the fact (I did the Morgan State game) but I’m not sure how long they keep them in the “replay” section.