Dave in Green

"Scared" is shorthand for the fact that tOSU would not get much credit for beating UA but would suffer great embarrassment if the Zips upset them. In other words, it's a low-reward/high-risk situation. That's why the Buckeyes have scheduled OOC home games this season with the likes of Walsh, Mount St. Mary's, Grambling, Texas Arlington, VMI, Air Force and Northern Illinois. Their only semi-tough OOC home game is with Louisiana Tech, which is about at UA's performance level but from out of state so an upset wouldn't cause quite as much embarrassment within Ohio. Their home game with Virginia doesn't really count as a regularly scheduled game as it's part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.

Louisiana-Lafayette will be a good test to see where the Zips really stand this season. The Ragin' Cajuns destroyed a weak Northwestern State team and lost by just 7 to a Kentucky team that beat South Carolina. Louisiana-Lafayette looks to be roughly equivalent to top tier MAC teams, and they have a bye week while the Zips are playing Savannah State. Beating Louisiana-Lafayette could go a long way toward setting the Zips up for a good MAC run.

Haven't heard any official word so not sure if it was a concussion or not. But he bravely took a heck of a hit trying to turn a 9-yard run into a 10-yard run and a first down. Could have been a blow to the gut that caused him to double over. But I saw what you described and thought the same thing you did. I do worry about KP16 being injury-prone due to his style of play and apparent lack of ability to make the kind of moves that take the edge off of big hits.

Dr Z, this is your best ever. You really nailed the camera settings and compositions to capture the feel of playing in the rain as well as I've seen it done. Thanks for taking the time to share with everyone.

Unfortunately the lady I care about most knows all of my weak points.

Coach Bowden is halfway toward building a great MAC program out of the shambles left behind by his predecessor. The defense is already there, arguably the best in the MAC. If he can maintain the defense at the current level or even higher and turn the offense around the way he did the defense, he will have fulfilled the dreams of every Zips football fan. But patience will run thin if it doesn't happen soon.

Sounds like the words of a modern politician: "We are the party of patriots and the other party is full of traitors."

Last season the Zips started hot and finished cold. At this point I only hope it's a reversed season of starting cold and finishing hot.

This will be a good discussion to have after the season is over and the final record is in the books.

You didn't listen to me when I said weather reports are correct about half of the time?

No O.

Front stalled out. Looks like rain all game.

The hourly chance of rain forecast for this evening appears to be changing hourly.

This may not help the most grievously afflicted get the Pats out of their heads, but it will do for most of the world: NFL clears Pats of headset suspicion; electrical issue, weather at fault

I've watched a lot of videos of various football, basketball and baseball tricks over the years. But this trick is the most impressive I've ever seen in hockey, and maybe any sport. Of course we don't know how many misses he had before the hit, but it's still pretty impressive.

Looking at the hourly weather forecast, it's now predicting that the chance of rain will greatly diminish between 5 and 6 p.m. Saturday. Since weather forecasts are correct about half of the time, we may or may not be sitting in the rain tomorrow.

Has any team had a tougher first 5 games than the Zips? A 4-1 record with that SOS is pretty amazing.

This is looking more and more like a pretty special Zips team.

Shhh, don't spoil the fun for anyone who may get a buzz out of being wound up tight over anything that moves.

Right, they can't do it on a whim. But football is not a whim in some quarters like the SEC where it's life or death. So maybe Alabama was just lax for many years before abruptly updating their COA when it became advantageous for football. Maybe they would have never bothered to look if not for football. How Alabama's cost-of-attendance scholarship jumped 39 percent

Before Gonzaga was a national power they had a UA-size budget and little clout to attract decent teams. Since the Zags first made the NCAA tournament in the 1994-1995 season, let's look a little earlier at their OOC home games for the 1990-1991 season: Boise State Idaho State Fairfield Eastern Washington Iona Howard Boston University

For perspective, in the 2001-2002 season when Gonzaga was in the process of building itself into a national power, here's what the Zags' OOC away schedule looked like:: Illinois St Johns (tournament) Texas (tournament) Marquette (tournament) Fresno State Washington Monmouth St Josephs Pa And this was the Zags' OOC home schedule: Brewster Packing (exhibition) Delta Jammers (exhibition) Montana Arkansas-Pine Bluff Portland St Eastern Washington Washington State Eastern Oregon State

The successful mid-majors like Gonzaga, Wichita State, Butler and the like built their pgograms up by traveling around the country scheduling tough high majors on the road. Their home OOC games weren't much better than UA's. But that's not all. Other important points that set them apart from other mid-majors include not funding Division 1-A football programs, committing to make basketball their signature sport and funding their basketball programs at a high-major level. There's a total success formula involved, and you can't get there without employing all aspects of the winning formula.

Step framing through that video it certainly appears that the GK's hand was on the ball before it crossed the line. After the stop the ball dribbled outside the post and at a slight angle toward the end line, which is another indication it hadn't crossed the line. I don't know how that could be called a goal unless the official was right on top of it at an optimum viewing angle. That's a bad place to make a weak judgment call.

As others have said, it's good to have some better teams in the MAC as it helps raise the Zips' RPI and makes a MAC championship more credible. But BG's 4-0 record bears closer scrutiny -- all 4 games were at home for BG and none of the opponents are anywhere near national powers. When BG can go 3-1 on a 4-game road trip like the Zips just did, knocking off powerhouses like Maryland and Georgetown along with VCU, they will deserve national attention.