Dave in Green

What a fun day in Cleveland. I was worried about this game the way the Zips had been playing and the way CSU looked when I watched them on TV give Kentucky a scare. The new lineup worked really well. Deji and Melo may have started, but they only played 10 minutes each in the whole game. Q, who didn't start, played second longest minutes (28) and was running the show over the critical last 5 minutes. The Zips had fewer turnovers than their average, but more importantly had more assists than turnovers. Q did a nice job with 7 assists and only 3 turnovers, and Nyles finally started knocking down open 3s. I expect to see more lineup experimentation in the next 3 home games as they search for the optimum rotation. This team is still searching for its identity, but it made a good step forward today.

I can't promise anything because I don't have any details. But I've overheard that the announcement has enough good substance that it should spark a lot of discussion among Zips fans. Look for the announcement to be made late Monday morning, sometime before noon.

College Football Playoff Wiki: Check out the committee members listed on Wikipedia and guess how much respect they might have for a MAC team beyond the possibility below.

In retrospect, I wasn't paying close enough attention to BGSU. They really evolved over the season into the best overall combination of offense and defense in the MAC. Their early blowout loss to Indiana was their only bad loss of the season. The mid-season 1-point loss to Mississippi State and 3-point loss to Toledo showed good improvement, and they ran up a cumulative 176-17 score over their final 4 MAC regular season opponents. I had overlooked Matt Johnson as a QB, but it turns out he had a QB rating of 162.4 on the season. RB Travis Greene rushed for over 1,500 yards to complement the passing game. BGSU ended the season as the best balanced team in the MAC in all aspects of the game. I'd like to see the Zips develop into the same kind of well-balanced team.

"Break The Zips Fast" is the new theme to be unveiled at 2 p.m. today at the Wolstein Center. Looking forward to seeing my fellow basketball-deprived Zips fans show up for the long-awaited feast.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I must have passed right over any comment like that as not being worthy of attention. As weak as NIU's offense looked last nice, their defense was worse and had them playing from behind all night. Somewhere there's a BCS bowl selection committee rejoicing that they're not going to get stuck with having NIU blown out even worse in their bowl.

If NIU makes a miraculous comeback, they will deserve to be in a BCS bowl by virtue of BCS rules. They obviously do not appear to be BCS bowl-worthy based on their performance tonight.

OK, stop action replay just showed that there was definitely a penalty on the NIU onside kick. So the announcers and everyone else was wrong and MAC official conspiracies are still in play.

I wasn't thinking of Williams replacing Hundley in goal line situations as much as joining him in the backfield. The two of them together might make a great combination of blocking backs, decoys and ball carriers.

Your analysis was flawed. You said the Zips had played the LEAST games of anyone on that list. They're TIED with two other teams for least games. But I do agree with your conclusion.

Let's put an end to conspiracy theories involving MAC officials right here and now. The announcers and everyone else who saw it thought NIU legally recovered the onside kick. The officials said no. So MAC officials are conspiring to help BGSU beat NIU and keep the MAC from collecting $8 million in BCS bowl money? Right.

NIU's offense and BGSU's defense would make a decent BCS bowl team.

NIU's defense is horrible, giving up another TD and falling behind 24-13. Matt Johnson is eating Huskies alive, and he's no superstar QB.

Huskies starting to roll a little with a couple of long field goals making it 17-13. This is a big game for the Zips. If NIU wins and goes to a BCS bowl, it's worth about $375k to the Zips and every other team in the MAC. Go Huskies!

BGSU kicking NIU's butt 17-7 in the first quarter. BGSU defense holding Jordan Lynch in check and BGSU offense averaging 25.9 yards per pass and getting big play after big play.

Grambling State and Louisiana-Monroe are the only other teams in the country that have played only 3 games to this point, and they're currently ranked #3 and #5 in turnovers per game. It does stand to reason that teams tend to have more turnovers in earlier games before all the players get used to playing together under game conditions. The Zips will get better. But they need to get a lot better.

Turnovers per game

Unfortunately the lack of turnovers in the past few weeks hasn't helped the Zips' per-game average. At an average 18.0 turnovers per game, the Zips are currently ranked #1 (hint: #1 is not good in this particular category). The Zips are also #341 in the country in assists per game (8.7) and #351 in assists to turnovers (0.48). The good news? They can't sink any lower.

I haven't had a chance to see Newman play. Does anyone think he'd have a chance as a spot RB in goal line situations at the D1 college level or are his superior size, weight and speed only applicable for RB at the HS level?

ZipsNation.org is "the unofficial web home for Akron Zips fans." It's common accepted practice for fans to dump on other teams when they're posting on their own team's web home. It gets awkward when fans with split allegiances try to push their Team B agenda on the Team A forum.

The wording is vague enough that it could be anything from changing conferences to changing marketing companies. Sometimes it's hard to keep the lid on really major changes, but I've yet to find any insider hints anywhere. It could be related to the process started earlier this year: Zips Athletics to Hold Public Forums as Part of Strategic Planning Process

Jamel Turner played at least briefly in 9 of the Zips' 12 games, but not the last 2 after the Can't game. If he's back next season as a junior, the pressure will be on him to rise to the level of the Zips' growing list of quality LBs.

As I said earlier in this thread, there's logic in favoring a team that loses earlier in the season rather than later. A team that was strong early in the season can fall apart, and a team that started slowly could evolve into the best at the end of the season. Last season NIU lost their first game of the season by 1 point to what would turn out to be an uncharacteristically weak Iowa team. NIU then ran the table while all the other teams vying for the final BCS bowl slot were losing 2 or more games later in the season. NIU was at its best when it counted the most. The same BCS formula has been in effect both seasons, and NIU has earned its way both seasons so far by winning all the games it needed to win to earn a BCS bowl slot by the same formula that every team has to live and die by.

No way! Moving Christmas to June will enhance it, not diminish it. You just wait and see. After I make hundreds of posts on ZN.o selling the virtues of Christmas in June, you'll eventually all come around.

What I remember is that despite their coach leaving they're right back on the verge of making it to another BCS bowl game. I'm not sensitive to what Herbstreit says about MAC teams. The least anticipated of all the BCS bowl games is exponentially more anticipated than any lower division bowl game.