zipboy

Quiet confidence my friend. I am bringing a group of 10 to the game. This week will tell the story on how the rest of the season goes. My take from the VA game was Zips did not even prepare for that game. They had no confidence of keeping the game close and focused on Can't with the short week. From listening to the game, I think the D is improving. They forced 3-4 punts in the 1st half. If the O had any sustained drives like Penn State, it would have stayed closer. Containing Cribbs is the key. QBs who can scramble always tear us apart. The O Line needs to step up. Zipdude said it best earlier, what is up with them? I too thought they would be the strength of the team especially up the middle. It's too late to keep waiting, time for some production. Maybe the Zips weren't going to win 8+ games this year and a MAC title, but they have underachieved so far. Time to start playing football. Only 1 MAC loss going into the Marshall game and we are playing for first place on ESPN. Go Zips and F the running game. If we can't move the ball early, go back to the shotgun. Charlie will get beat up but at least the O will put some points on the board. 34-30 Akron before a crowd of 19K.

Great find Dr Z. That guy summed it up perfectly. What are the odds we see any of these guys listed in the Beacon before next spring? Thank goodness for this board.

Nice article. I say F Shelly. If Walt Harris got an offer to go to a bigger school than Pitt, he would leave in a heartbeat. Where is his loyalty to the players he recruited? It should go both ways. If a coach can jump ship at anytime, a player should be allowed to leave too if he wants to. Here is hoping Pitt comes to the Rubber Bowl next year. Too bad Harris won't be around to see the game as he gets canned after 6-5 season in a watered down Big East.

I guess that I am one of the people that sees the sunshine part. I saw a lot of good things on Saturday. The offense is averaging almost 450 yards per game after the first 2 weeks. They can move the ball without much of a running game, they just can't put it in the endzone. Biggs looks to be a great find. Receivers looked 100% better than last week. This was #81's coming out party. With #81. #23, and #12 at receiver, I feel pretty good the rest of the year. Run blocking was bad, but I thought Charlie was protected pretty well. It seemed to me that it was more coverage sacks than anything. The Zips should be averaging 30 points a game rather than 17, but they will correct that. On special teams I liked the consistency of Swiger on kickoffs. Even Derr was not that consistent on getting the ball into the endzone. Punt coverage was horrible. Kick return team was solid. Is it Swiger or the line on FGs? He had to shot put the one before the half because of the penetration. Defense played ok. 14 points were from the offense and special teams. The D gave up 17 points. They gave up yardage, but caused 4 turnovers. They moved to the ball better and hit people. They made adjustments at halftime and made progress. They still play soft coverage, have no pash rush, and gave up the game winning TD when we needed them to step up the most. This looks like the worst MAC level of play in 10 years. Yes Marshall and BG look tough, but no one else. Until Haidl comes back from his stress fracture, NIU looks mediocre as well. I would not give up yet. The guys competed and left it all on the field. They just made and continue to make stupid mental errors as in past years. MTSU did the same thing. Both teams are mediocre and can't have much room for error if they want to win. But mediocrity may be good enough to go 7-4 this year. Thank the Lord that we aren't Toledo. What is up with them?

I will be there. And JP, go Herd. MAC needs some quality wins. I think Marshall pulls the upset this week. But hey, I picked the Zips last week, shows what I know.

Wonder what the odds were on the Blue Board of Akron winning last week, about 3 to 1 in favor of Akron winning (me included!). Can't fault MTSU for getting pumped up.

The Urinal putting down the Zips . . . Shocking!

#44 played, at least he started. First play of the game, they go a 2 yard screen and #44 was in on the tackle. After that it was all down hill.

Glad to see that he told Harris to F off. Looks like Can't is recruiting too hard in Western PA as well. This should not impact Flaherty or Shoemaker. Getsy only has 2 years left. Those guys will be juniors when he graduates. And I still like Jabari a lot. But it is good to have some depth. This may hurt Ferguson's chances.

My 2 cents . . . On the glass half full side 1.It was just 1 game. I am anxious to see what personnel changes are made over the next 2 weeks before MAC play starts. 2. The ball got spread around to a lot of people. Too bad they were all within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage. 3. The receivers caught everything thrown their way. 4. Sullivan can punt. 5. The league looked horrible except for NIU. 6. This team can't be this bad 7. First down plays usually netted 5-6 yards On the glass half empty 1. All the above posts and then some. I have been to some bad losses over the past 10 years but never one as bad as yesterday. If I had gone to Iowa, that would rank up there. I know these guys try hard and they worked their a$$es off all off season, and JD has not seen his family in 2 weeks, so I don't want to rip on anyone. But my gosh, what the heck happened? Are we really this bad? Except for Earl, no one on defense competed. It was like Akron was afraid to hit somebody. We must be the best team at getting 9 yards on 3 tries before punting. Even when we got pounded in the past, the Zips would put up a fight, hit people, be physical. What a showcase for the program's coming out party and the Zips play about as bad as they possibly could play. Regardless, I am here for the long haul and will be there Saturday. But a team does not get that much better over the course of a season. It may be time to play some of the younger guys. I saw that Cloud got in as well as Stokes and Grant. We need speed. I hope for a good week of practice and a victory on Saturday. MTSU got hurricaned out so at least we have a game in under our belts. Go Zips!

Motivation, look out, blah, blah, blah. What is going to win is talent, preparation, and execution. JD will give the talk that Penn State did not recruit you, you are the underdog, now is your chance to show them what they missed out on. Joe Pa will say last year was an embarrasment, we are all dedicated, let's get out and show them. I like and respect Penn State, and your fans have been great. But when you come over here and say look out Penn State is really mad, we will show the world, I don't get it. Every team in America right now is fired up and ready to show the world how good they are. I look for a good game tomorrow. If we get hammered, I doubt it will be because Penn State wants to win more and show the world the great heart that every Penn State player has. It will be because Penn State has been vastly underrated and Akron has been vastly overrated. I don't see a huge difference in talent, and I would have taken Lee Owens straight up vs Joe Pa. We all hope that JD is a serious upgrade from Lee. Good luck tomorrow.

Elton Alexander picks the Zips for 3rd, Can't State beat writer for the Urinal picks Zips for 5th behind Can't and FUC. At least Elton has not stooped that low yet.

Hope your post is wrong Dr Z. Zips down 3 driving for the final drive, Frye leans over, he scores, no wait the back judge over rules the line judge. Oh wait, that was Wisconsin. If it comes down to the end, Big 10 refs screw us, no question in my mind.

F Walt Harris. He talks earlier about how great this kid is and it was the toughest thing that he had to do in his life to tell him that he was 2nd string. Nice job of showing how much you are looking out for someone's best interests. Pitt will go 6-5 this year in a watered down league and Harris will get canned. What an a-hole.

I am not driving 5 1/2 hours 1 way with no hope. Zips 31-28. Looking forward to experiencing State College and the Penn State environment. I believe in the boys. Go Zips!

Great topic BZ. You raise a great point, how doe the MAC get stronger with Marshall leaving. Anyone that we bring in will be making a step up so I don't think we get stronger by adding to the league. The current programs including Akron need to get stronger. I don't see Buffalo, EMU, Akron etc getting booted out of the league. Buffalo showed in basketball last year, they could give some serious exposure to the league and receive support from their fan base. They also have great facilities, hopefully they turn it around. I think that we will see a lot more 2 for 1 with bigger schools where the MACs home game is on a neutral site like Browns stadium, Ford Field etc. If we get those bozos on a neutral site, I like the MACs chances. It is important to follow up last year with a strong year again by the conference. Great idea on CUSA, but it will never happen. I remember LO saying last year that CUSA was told to stop scheduling the MAC. The MAC had something like a .750 winning percentage against CUSA. That's the kiss of death, a conference perceived as being stronger gets their lunch handed to them over and over. Good luck to Marshall, but I still they think made a mistake in leaving.

I am all for getting fired up too, but until the Zips actually beat someone like Penn State, why should Penn State worry about us? If it was Toledo, Marshall, BG, Miami, there would be a different level of respect. Those guys have all proven it before. We have not. The only way to get this respect is to beat a few Penn States or Virginias a couple of times. I like our team, I like our players, I like our coaches. We still have some unproven guys that will need to step up and a few guys will need to surprise. JD is unproven too as he has yet to coach a game. I got my tickets for PSU on Friday. I believe the Zips can pull it out, and want to be there to see it happen.

Per the Dayton Flyer website, Zips are in Dayton Dec 23rd. Looks like a good road trip!

Good luck to Sutton. I wish we got him, but I like Briggs and Kennedy along with the 2 PA kids coming in. If he is going for academics, good for him. If he is going for football, Miami usually lays a 30 spot on Northwestern every other year. If Akron and Northwestern play this year, Zips are favored -7 in Vegas.

Wait, the real question is what that ZIPMAN who replied? No capitals???

Nobody excites me except Dayton. Too bad we can't get a 2 for 1 with them. This should still leave 3 or 4 more non conference games. I hope the Zips beef up the schedule. Cleveland State is a nice rivalry. I assume that we will play them again as well.

Gozips.com has several TBAs on future schedules. As someone predicted, North Texas is gone.

MTSU is a solid program. This is one of those we should win at our place and you should win at your place. In order for the Zips to have a good year, we need to win out at home. Looking forward to seeing you in a couple of months.

Don't you need 16 to be Div 1 in football as well? Bobinski got bumped up to a higher job about 3-4 months ago and Rogers got elevated to AD. Does Dan Hipsher become an assistant at Xavier?

1. You never know, I like what I see and he seems more prepared that LO when he made the jump. Hard worker, smart guy, says the right things. Let's hope it translates to wins. 2. I hope that he doesn't become the next Charlie Batch of the MAC, great QB, played in the pros, no better than 500. If Charlies throws for 1000 less yards and goes 9-2, he will be remembered much more than throwing for 1000 more and going 4-7. One of my best Zip memories was playing Marshall for a title a few years ago. I hope Charlie has a better legacy than Butchie did. 3. Undersized, but quicker. The influx in the secondary of Corner, Henry, and Pace will help. They won't be world beaters, but they will make strides this year. 4. Yes 5. Interesting to see what a team that exceeds expectations would draw. We need several years of consistent winning, but averaging 20k year in and year out is doable. Shock Penn State, we still only draw 20K for MTSU. Go into Nov 5th with 1 loss, beat Marshall on ESPN, the Zips show it ain't your grandpa's university anymore. And attendance for 2005 picks up.