MDZip

And #22 in the ESPN Power Rankings. How sweet would that be to knock them off at home? Man I hope Woodson, Ball and Natson are ready to go.

Seeing it close up makes me appreciate even more the difficulty of the one handed Wolf touchdown catch.

Would happily give that touchdown back for Natson to be okay

Do we start calling him tractor Traylor-Bennett yet? :-)

I'm thinking this Natson guy was a pretty good offseason pick up :-) And Chapman has been pretty impressive.

You know a lot of people don't love the Z only logo - wonder if it would be possible to make something with a similar A and the current Z aligned with the top of the Z going across the center of the A. Then we could say The University of Akron - we have everything covered from A to Z.

Love that they're doing it as a tribute to Dennison. I like the look too.

Wow. Think I might just pull back on my letting people know he attended Akron. How disappointing.

Hustle Belt is usually a pretty reliable source but I don't know who provided them the information that the Zips defense "is one of the best in the conference". I do expect the Zips should win this game. And if we can get a few of our injured starters back (especially Woodson) I think it should come down to the final game of the year against Ohio. Nobody in the East scares me but everybody in the west does.

Loved it. Thanks for taking the time to put all of that together even without your star photo-journalist to help. Love getting the perspective from someone who was there for one I am not able to attend myself. Pretty incredible game.

Also not bad, Ulysees Gilbert III named MAC East Defensive player of the week. Defensive Player of the Week: Akron LB Ulysees Gilbert III Akron sophomore linebacker Ulysees Gilbert III (Ocala, Fla.) led the Zips’ defense with a career-high 16 tackles, including a career-best 10 solo stops and a career-high 3.0 TFL, in the 31-27 Wagon Wheel victory at Kent State. In just the fifth starting appearance of his collegiate career, Gilbert record double-digit tackles for the fourth time this fall. After five games, Gilbert is the Zips’ leading defender with 55 tackles, including team-bests of 31 solo stops and seven tackles for loss. He has two sacks and five hurries. Of course the irony here is that our opponents QB was named offensive player of the week

Chapman called out as Ryan McGee's backup QB of the week in his ESPN weekly Flipping the Field Column: Frank Reich Backup QB Of The Week Award: Tra'Von Chapman, Akron. Just prior to kickoff Chapman was informed that starter Thomas Woodson would be sidelined with a sore shoulder. It all felt a bit serendipitous as Chapman would be taking the field at Kent State. In 2013, when he was a player at Pitt, he was arrested in Kent, Ohio, for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend. The former four-star Kent Roosevelt High School prospect pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, spent several nights in jail in his hometown, was dismissed from Pitt and bounced from Division II Ashland to Akron to play for Terry Bowden, where he became the starter and then lost the job. Chapman fired a 43-yard strike to set up the game-winning touchdown as the Zips defeated Kent 31-27. "There are guys who make headlines for the wrong reasons and never get it turned it around," Bowden said late Saturday night. "But there are also kids who work hard to right their wrongs. This is one those of stories."

Even better since he's actually from Kent.

With as many good receivers as we have I always feel most confident when the ball is in the air heading toward Wolf. And a bunch of us owe Chapman an apology. :-)

I think Van Edwards could have run all the way back to Akron there and not been caught. Good to see Chapman playing a lot better

At least Kent States kicker gave us a laugh by tackling the wrong guy on the kickoff :-)

I would offer to trade our second string QB for Kent State's fourth string QB

Ksu receiver Rankin broke seven tackles on that last play

Z I -

To be fair there are a couple of articles although not much to the second one. http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/university-of-akron-football-timing-of-little-consequence-when-zips-facing-rival-flashes-1.715746 http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/akron-zips-take-on-kent-state-in-wagon-wheel-challenge-1.715725

Fantastic story. As an (old) Hudson grad makes me just a little prouder of this kid. Considering that and the things that Matt Wilson has done in his short time as interim president, maybe that interim tag needs to be removed.

You folks are obviously not big Pretenders fans since they actually have a song named Downtown (Akron). Lyrics might not be appropriate for what we're looking for but its still a cool song.

Zach, Think that was a great post and gave a lot of insight into the situation and even some good suggestions on how to address it. Traditions that everyone can participate in are important. Rocky Top in Tennessee, Toomers Corner at Auburn, the Grove at Mississippi (and by the way zipsoutsider they no longer do Sweet Caroline at Penn State, something about the lines touching me, touching you after the Sandusky scandal didn't sit quite right so they abandoned it, but if you want you can count that for the Boston Red Sox they still do it). The Baltimore Orioles play Thank God I'm a Country Boy during the 7th inning stretch but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

I'll answer as long as you agree to change the first part of your user name. ;-) I think we have mostly the same lineup from the beginning of the year, Larry Hope and DeAndre Scott on the corners (with some Bryce Jones mixed in) and Zach Guiser and Shawn Featherstone at safety. Featherstone is #20 and has played in every game (and has played pretty well in my opinion other than getting burnt badly once against App St). #26 is Darian Dailey and I think his playing time has been somewhat limited so maybe that is what you are thinking of.

App. St has a great offensive line. So while understanding games are not transitive this is the team that took Tennessee to overtime (and should have beaten them) the same Tennessee that has taken out Virginia Tech and Florida. Tough game against a good team. Zips should be fine I don't think there's a team in the East that can compare to App State