Dave in Green

My thoughts are that you're a lot braver than I am in predicting this season's results. That's a good, optimistic starting point for a discussion about a Zips team that may start the season with an untested true freshman PG running the show. I'd be ecstatic with that kind of regular season record. But I foresee more early season losses. The 3rd, 4th and 5th games are going to be awfully challenging, and I think a Zips sweep is unlikely. It's also unlikely that the Zips will go a whole season beating every team they're supposed to beat. There's likely to be an upset or two along the way. I think that 22 regular season wins would be pretty good under the circumstances, though I'd gladly welcome a few more.

As Dr Z already pointed out, I haven't seen anyone posting here who wants to establish the run without concern for scoring points. I've seen some pretty dumb posters on internet forums. But I've yet to see anyone on a sports forum who doesn't grasp the elementary fact that the point of a football game is to score more points than the opponent. Wanting to establish the running game is simply a reference to wanting to take some of the defensive pressure off of the QB and receivers. If the defense has to focus more on stopping the run, it can make it easier for the passing game and vice versa. Coach Bowden has made it clear he wants his team to first establish the passing game and then mix in more runs after the defense becomes preoccupied with stopping the pass. I think we all agree that the desirable sequence of events on offense is to gain lots of yards with a combination of passing and rushing, limit turnovers, get into the opponent's red zone frequently and score points almost every time you get into the red zone.

What a fantasy league buster you are. For a time there I was also considering that the Zips needed to run more because they seemed to be successful when they did. Upon further consideration, Coach Bowden has a clear philosophy of using the pass to open up the run, not vice versa. His offense is built on that and the players he has do best with that. The reason the running has looked good at times is because Pohl opened it up with his passing. The running game is not strong enough to open up the passing game or Coach Bowden would have called that. There's a reason why he's a college coach and not a fantasy league coach. The reality is that the Zips are a better team than last year but still far from being a dominating team. They're already good enough to beat a team like Pitt one week. They're not yet good enough to beat a team like OU every week, especially without their starting QB. The Zips are still a couple of years away from being what Zips fans dream of. So, yes, yesterday was disappointing. We all feel crappy about the loss. But it doesn't change the fact that the Zips are still on the rise and the future is much brighter than the past. Yesterday's results do not diminish my trust in Coach Bowden's system for achieving the best longterm results.

Of course the solution to this is not to build your life on the backs of college football players. Forget about sports and go out in the world and focus on doing something you have total control over where you are responsible for the successes and failures.

Balsy, you're telling me that UA is still a commuter school and zippy5 is telling me that campus living at UA has doubled. Who am I to believe? OK, I do understand that different people see things differently from their own unique perspectives, so it's easy to see why there's disagreement on what may be the primary reason(s). Factoring in all the different perspectives, I think it's likely not any one or two reasons but a combination of all of them.

I was recently in the UA Student Union for the first time. After walking by the bowling alley, the big room full of pool tables and all the other amenities, it's pretty obvious why more students aren't at games. When I went to college we didn't have any of that. When there was a football game or a basketball game, it wasn't just the biggest thing on campus, it was the only thing. We are living in the age of many student options, and more and more are opting to do things other than attending games.

You have more faith in the students than I do. The world has changed, many more entertainment options are available than the good old days, and attendance at college sports in general is falling. More students may come to see a winning team than a loser, but not in the numbers they used to.

In trying to estimate how big Zips home attendance would be if they ran off a 44-10 record over 4 seasons like NIU, let's compare NIU's average home attendance history with UA's. Looking at the 4-year period from 2004 through 2007, both teams were playing in stadiums with more capacity than now, NIU with a 28,000 capacity and UA with 35,000 in the Rubber Bowl. NIU had a 25-24 record compared with UA's 22-26 over those 4 seasons. 2004: 27,052 (9-3) - NIU 2004: 15,849 (6-5) - UA 2005: 22,176 (7-5) - NIU 2005: 10,893 (7-6) - UA 2006: 20,770 (7-6) - NIU 2006: 16,132 (5-7) - UA 2007: 25,136 (2-10) - NIU 2007: 15,978 (4-8) - UA During those 4 seasons when both teams had no better than average records, NIU averaged more than 20,000 fans at home games compared with UA's average of less than 15,000 despite the fact that the Zips played in a larger stadium. Considering all of the above and considering where NIU's attendance went during their 44-10 run, I think it's unlikely the Zips ever average more than 20,000 home attendance, and a realistic number is more like 16-18,000 even with consistent 11-win seasons.

So NIU has been averaging about 75% capacity during this golden era of big winning seasons. I guess they were smart to reduce the number of seats knowing they weren't going to be selling them out. Zips would have to average about 22,000 attendance to reach 75% capacity. What home attendance average do you think would be realistic to expect for the Zips if they went 44-10 over a 4-season period?

Let's look at NIU's average home attendance over the past 10 seasons (along with win-loss record) to see how recent attendance in the big winning seasons compares with the leaner seasons that preceded them: 2004: 27,052 (9-3) 2005: 22,176 (7-5) 2006: 20,770 (7-6) 2007: 25,136 (2-10) ----------------------------- 2008: 18,185 (6-7) 2009: 14,889 (7-6) ----------------------------- 2010: 17,760 (11-3) 2011: 18,903 (11-3) 2012: 20,877 (12-2) 2013: 20,669 (12-2) Bottom line is that NIU's 4-season 2010-2013 average attendance during the recent glory years of great records (44-10 combined) and an Orange Bowl has not even returned to the 4-season 2004-2007 average when their record was a combined 25-24. The reason I point all this out is that Zips fans should not have unrealistic expectations about how many will show up for Zips games even if they string together a 44-10 record over 4 seasons as NIU just did. Attendance may increase with winning, but may never get much better than the 15-16,000 season averages the Zips drew to the Rubber Bowl in the mid-2000s when the Zips' win-loss record was about the same as NIU's in that era.

Would attendance really skyrocket if the Zips went 12-1 and made it all the way to the Orange Bowl? Why Can’t NIU Football Draw A Crowd In DeKalb?

Time to relax on standing guard over the Zips soccer turf. The Columbus Crew has made it clear they embrace working with the Browns, and apparently Columbus sports fans are not protesting. Makes sense for Cleveland and Columbus to make the direct connection in multiple professional sports, bypassing sports backwaters like Akron where there's more risk of being confronted by angry locals with pitchforks.

At first I thought they were ranked by team position, i.e. Mississippi State is #1, Eastern Michigan #128, etc. But it is by QB rating. They apparently had Pohl ranked #50 at the beginning of the season.

Dallas hospital workers who came in contact with the Ebola patient were not supposed to travel for 21 days until it was determined they were showing no signs of being infected. This woman made a major error in judgment. New guidelines are being put in place to make it mandatory that these people not have contact with the public for 21 days. It's now becoming obvious the Dallas hospital was not fully prepared to deal with Ebola. Other hospitals in the U.S. have successfully treated Ebola patients flown back from Africa under quarantine and have reported no cases of health workers being infected thanks to strict adherence to safe treatment protocol -- an absolute requirement in controlling the spread of this disease.

I don't understand why there's a Hirschman-Woodson debate in the middle of the season. The two QBs battled each other all pre-season to see who would backup Pohl, and Woodson has been listed on the two-deep charts ever since the opening game against Howard. So far Woodson has rushed 11 times for 67 yards and passed 28-53 for 305 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions or fumbles. These are all fine numbers for an inexperienced freshman backup QB. Coach Bowden selected Woodson over Hirschman for good reasons and Woodson has so far delivered.

No matter how noble in principle, there's no human endeavor that's immune from perversion.

Akron is a great sports town, just not for the Zips. There's lots of love for the Browns, Cavs, Indians, tOSU, etc.

It's not even debatable that the Zips need more help on offense than defense. Nationally the Zips are a top 25 team in scoring defense and a bottom 25 team in scoring offense. If the offensive performance level was as high as the current defensive performance level, the Zips would be performing like a top 25 team. The good news is that the outstanding performance of the defense is likely to help attract more offensive talent to UA to play for a winning program.

I was only speculating it might be a concussion based on all the circumstances I saw. It's good to be cautious whenever there's a blow to the head, even if there are no immediate signs of a concussion. It's also good how seriously they're taking this issue and not exposing a player to more potential head trauma by keeping them off the field for a few days until it's clear there are no symptoms of concussion.

Bickley has earned his PT on the basis of his overall performance. If Coach Bowden had a player smaller than Bickley who could outperform him at that position, Bickley would be sitting.

Great timing on the safety shot. QB was definitely on his way down.

I suppose a partial MCL tear is a possibility. But when Pohl walked off the field he looked a little shaken which led me to believe he might be showing some signs of concussion. I didn't see any noticeable limp as he walked off the field, and he seemed to be walking normally on the sideline in the second half, which doesn't fit with a partial MCL tear. I can't find any official reports, so it's all still speculation. EDIT: Just found a semi-official report that says Pohl's injury is a quadricep.

Zips are currently #21 in the country in scoring defense, giving up an average of just 20.8 points per game. That includes games against Penn State, Marshall and Pitt. It's not unreasonable to expect that the D should be able to maintain that average against MAC teams. If they do, that takes a lot of pressure off of the offense to need to run up a lot of points in order for the Zips to win. I'd like to see the Zips continue to put more emphasis on the running game and hog more time of possession to give opponents even fewer opportunities to score. Zips averaged 4.1 yards per rush against Miami, and our upcoming MAC opponents have no better record defending against the rush than the sweaters.

Woodson definitely has some moves that Pohl doesn't. But he's still raw and inexperienced and doesn't have good timing with the receivers. It's hard to say how quickly he'd develop if he were forced to start the next game in place of Pohl. But as far as I know there's nothing official on Pohl, so all we can do is speculate. GT's last report was that "his status is unknown." I did find a video on the Pohl sack: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=11681529

Hilltopper and I discussed during the game that the offensive line play looked surprisingly good most of the time. They did an overall good job of providing a secure pocket for the QB and opening good holes for the RBs.