InTheZone

I have a feeling once that new stadium gets built we'll get some QB's in here who will destroy every record Charlie or Luke may have set. Both are overrated.

And one more thing, for those of you who don't think the Zips can win out, look at the short history under JD Brookhart. The Zips have always peeked and looked like a different team at the end of the season.In 2004, after a horrific 1-4 start that included a loss to a Sunbelt team and three embarrasing blowouts, the Zips ripped off five straight and were one half away from beating a very good Miami team and going to the MACC.In 2005, after HUMILIATING mid-season losses to CMich, Army, and Ball State, in which the offense looked absolutely anemic, we come back to blow out OU and Can't and beat NIU for a second straight time in Detroit.In 2006, we've looked like crap midseason, but if the first two Brookhart years are any indication, this team will finally put it together and play up to its potential and steal these last three and COMPLETELY PISS THE HELL OUT OF THE REST OF THE MAC and slide into Detroit again.Not to get ahead of ourselves, but can you imagine how the Golden Flushes will feel after blowing us out if they're watching us in Detroit again??? I'd gladly let them keep the Wagon Wheel and their "Akron Efforts" if we add some more MAC hardware to the trophy case!!

Last year when everybody around here had thrown in the towel after Ball St. I said there was still a way, though a long shot, that we could back into Detroit, and it just so happened that everything fell into place. This year, I actually believe our odds are even better than a this point last year. Here's what I mean:Ohio- 5-1Akron- 2-3Can't- 4-2Bowling Green- 3-3If we win out, which will be a tall order, we go 5-3, just like last year. Ohio must lose out, which if we do our part, I actually see this as likely. Miami is playing well, despite their record. Final game for their seniors, rivalry game, I think they knock off Ohio, putting OU at 5-3 right with us. After a flush in the pan act, the old Can't is back. After struggling with Temple and losing BADLY to a bad Buffalo team, no chance in hell they beat a Ball State team that gave Michigan all it wanted. Their gimmick false read offense has been exposed, and I can see an underated Eastern Mich team beating them as well, with them finishing 4-4, but they'll prob finish 5-3. Bowling Green will lose to Miami and Toledo and finish 3-5.Can't must lose one of their final two.. With OU, Can't, and Akron all at 5-3, the next tiebreaker outside head to head matchups would be divisional record. We'd have one East loss, OU would have three, and Can't would have two. We go, and we even win the next tiebreaker, which is cross-division opponent's record, as Nav highlighted. We take that just like last year and go to Detroit.So... to sum it up...in order for the Zips to go back to Detroit.....1. Zips must win out.2. Can't must lose one of final two.3. Miami must beat OU in the final week.Putting it that way, if the Zips win out, I think they've got a great chance to go, much better than at this point last year. Can't will definately drop one of the final two, and the only thing we'll have to depend on is a Miami victory over OU, which like I said, is about a 50/50 shot. It must start with the Zips winning out however.

Followed up on this a little bit today. Apparently McPherson has had a change of heart and has rejoined the team. He will not play Saturday however. Butler is still MIA. Pace is back with the team and expected to start.In other news:-The offices/meeting rooms are nearly complete on the second level of the field house. The offices will include football, softball, and track and field coaches offices as well as football meeting rooms and a players lounge. Haven't seen it myself but supposedly it's pretty first class, with windows overlooking the indoor field. Also heard the plan is to eventually extend a cross walk from the offices over into the new stadium across vine st whenever that gets completed which is going to make the whole facility pretty sweet.- The panic over a wasted season seen in this forum is not shared amongst the team and staff. Apparently there's a fair amount of confidence that this is no time to panic and things are going to end up pretty well.- Look for more rotation and backups on the field in the coming weeks. The staff wants to avoid the 4th quarter letdowns we've seen by getting some fresh faces on the field throughout the game and letting the starters go into the final period with some gas left in the tank.That's all for now!

Just got some bad news on my semi-weekly trip back downtown to the bars. Talked to a current Zips player (won't name him because I don't know if the same season drinking policy applies to these players that applied to me!), but I started asking him about the situation with the suspended players (Crouch, Pace, Igor) and what the heck was going on when he brought up the fact that two reserve defensive lineman, Clarence McPherson and Brandon Butler, left the team during the off week. He said he really had no clue on the reasons or situation for either of them. With our defensive line already thin, this really hurts guys. I think Butler had only played sparingly in about half the games, but I believe McPherson was the Zips top backup player up front. With a d-line already thin on depth, I think this hurts. Those two were also two of the fastest guys we had up front, so so much for a revived pass rush this season .

Whats up fellas, once again I apologize for my long absence from the site, no I didn't give up on the Zips, I've just been swamped at work again the past few weeks. Sorry I never got around to posting that analysis of the Can't game defensive playcalling that I promised. I did look at the tv tape but since it's well past that disaster I'll just be brief in saying yes I still believe that one, as well as Cinci, rests squarely on playing calling, defensive for Can't, offensive for Cinci. To be brief, defensively the game plan seemed to be to put pressure on the then fairly new QB Edelman by bringing 6 on almost every down. My problem with that was the fact that we completely underestimated the talent Can't had in its recieving core and the ability of Edelman to get presnap reads, and were not blitzing linebackers, but rather our SS and Rover as the Zips call it in Mackey and Pace the whole game off the edge. This created a serious problem because apparently Flemming thought it was okay to man up our linebackers on Can't's slot recievers. If you want a perfect example of what I'm talking about, watch Can't's last touchdown of the first half. We bring the safeties off the edge, Kevin Grant is matched man on the slot, and gets burnt like toast. No offense to Kevin Grant, but he's never in a million years going to cover a reciever in man coverage. Why Flemming though he and the other linebackers could is beyond me, and this led to multiple breakdowns which accounted for a healthy chunk of that 400 yards passing. Also, when you bring the DB's off the edge like that and the DON'T get to the quarterback, once a mobile guy like Edelman starts scrambling around and getting to the second level the safties aren't there. The LB's are. Grant and others got shook out of their shoes all day. Poor, poor planning by the defensive staff and a terrible underestimation of what we could do against Can't's talent. We were the more talented team like I said, the staff just put the players in horrible positions all day long and failed to make adjustments from the apparent original game plan when they needed to be made. The result was 37 points and an embarrassing loss.Enough about all of that crap though, on to the Sweaters. Zips finally get their heads out of their asses and rebound.Zips 20Sweaters 10

GP1,Wow man. From one former player to another I'm stunned to hear you say that, if you watched the same game as me. The game plan for that game defensively was AWFUL. I'm going to go more in depth on some of the X's and O's of that when I get a chance to watch the tv copy off my DVR, but let's just say sitting in the stands I was stunned not only by what we came out trying to do defensively but the complete lack of adjustments made at halftime. I don't want to hammer Jim Flemming after the way the defense played the first four games, but I'm not sure what the guy was sipping on while putting that game plan together this week. Offensively, a complete lack of discipline and execution is what killed us, and I think you gotta chalk that up to coaching as well.Watching that game yesterday, we are still without a doubt in my mind the most talented team in the MAC, especially on defense. That embarrassment of a game does not rest with a group of players playing their asses off to execute a game plan that set them up for failure from the start. It sits squarely on a group of coaches that it looks like to me have become a little too smug and maybe starting to think their ready to mark their resumes and move on up the ladder.

I'm not buying into the hype on the Flushes. They're still a second rate program with a second-rate coach and fifth rate fans. They're talent level hasn't really increased since that drubbing we gave them last year, and the Zips are clicking at the right time. In my opinion, this one is going to be a fun day for the Zips at Rubber Bowl East, especially since so many Can't fans have gotten it into their heads that they actually have a chance to beat us.Zips rollAkron 38Can't 7

http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball

That's completely incorrect. Dionte was eligible, and practiced the whole week for Penn St, took reps and everything. Then on the Friday the team was supposed to leave, he decided that he should be a starter and quit the team so he wouldn't use the year of eligibility (he never redshirted) and is transferring to 1-AA for next semester. He really f'd the team over and left the coaches scrambling on a lot of special teams and someone to relieve Chevin Pace. That's the story from an extremely reliable source from within the team.

Good points GP1. I can't believe some of you are actually respecting the Flushes. They embarrass themselves as usual in their first two games, come back and beat two very down MAC programs, and now we're supposed to think they have a chance of beating a team they haven't beaten in a decade (forget that '03 fluke) that also happens to have its best team in that decade?? Give me a break. We'll walk into Dix, probably have more fans than they do there, and the Zips will wipe the turf with the backs of those ass clowns and go home, much like last year, only with no snow and 40 mph wind to hold us to only 35.

Give me a break guys. We own those bitches. I think you're going to find next week that Can't State really isn't that good, Miami and BG are just that down this year. We roll through Can't next week by three touchdowns +. The offense is starting to click and our defense held PSU and NC State to under 300 yards. What will they do to the flushes. Nough said about that bullshit.

He's not being redshirted because he's playing special teams. From what I've heard from back in the spring, he's really struggled with getting the concepts of our offense and he's a liability in the run game. Being that a third tight end almost always comes in for running situations, that's going to keep him off the field. The fact that he's behind Brian Flaherty though, a converted quarterback, is pretty suprising.

What kind of crowd do you think we'll see at the bowl this weekend? Since N. Texas will probably only bring about a hundred or so this far north, it's gonna be all Zips fans in the count. After NC State the community was pretty excited and I would put the number at around 22k. After that embarrassment last week (yes, I know CMich is a good MAC team but when the average fan hears the name it's like "Akron lost to Central Who???"), I think we're going to be down around 15-18k.

Actually, interestingly enough, I heard from one of the guys on the team a couple years back that Kevin Grant could kick better than any kicker on the team. Apparently just messing around he'll blast 50 yard field goals through the uprights before practices. I know his legs would be worn out in games, but shit, maybe he could at least kick extra points for us.

I think we're seeing why this kid was a big time recruit two years ago. He belongs at a BCS program, but I'm thrilled we've got him. JD has got to start throwing down the field more at the beginning of the game instead of playing conservative until its shit or get off the pot time in the fourth quarter, and then opening up the play book. With recievers like Arthur and Harvey, and Kasparek down the seam, there's no reason why we can't have an incredible vertical passing attack the ENTIRE game, not just in the fourth quarter.

First of all I'll just welcome myself back to the site, I've had an incredibly busy work schedule and have had hardly any time for fun and play, but things are cooling off now so I'm glad I can get back here and do one of my favorite things, discuss our MAC Champion Zips.But to the topic at hand, the thing I've noticed most after watching the first three games on television (unfortunately couldn't make it out to Penn St., even though I had tickets), is that we have absolutely no pass rush whatsoever. I think we have one sack all year, and that was by a linebacker, if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure others of you have noticed this, but I would bet money that no one on our D-line even has a QB pressure. You can't win football games like that, especially once we start facing more open attack teams (Miami, Toledo, Western).I've been extremely disappointed with Jermaine Reid. I understand he had a knee injury over the summer, but he seems like he's really fallen off from a great year last year. He looks slow out there. Kiki Gonzales has done a great job stuffing the run, which is his what he does, and you can't expect much of a pass rush from a nose in a 3 man front (double and triple teams all day). Cechetti seems like a tough kid and he plays hard, but doesn't look to really have the athletic ability to be much of a passing threat.What do you guys suppose we do to help this problem?? Maybe go to a four man front on passing downs?? If I were the coach I would take Reid and Cechetti out on passing downs and try to get some quicker guys in there. Bottom line is we've got to do more to get pressure on the QB or we're going to be hurting in MAC play.

Holy crap, I wouldn't want to be #23 getting hit by that huge kid in blue in the background. He's over three times his size!! JD should get that kid on the phone tonight!

You gotta remember Getsy will have a new cast of receivers too though.

And if you are, what are you expecting. I'll be there. Anyone know when tickets go on sale?

Feel free to critique and give your own analysis, this is basically just an opportunity to state your opinion on the condition of the Zips heading into '06 (heck, I would say half the people on this board could write a 100x better preview of the Zips than anyone at Lindy's or Athlon, so this should be educational).Quarterback: Getsy has been given a lot of preseason accolades and the consensus in the media seems to be that he's the best quarterback in the MAC. While I'm not disagreeing with this, I will say that the media at large has a very short memory and seems to only remember the Getsy we saw in back-to-back games in Detroit. The rest of us remember a little more vividly some absolutely God-awful performances against Buffalo, Central Michigan, ARMY, and Ball St. I'll be the first to admit I was one of the ones calling for Getsy's head after Army in favor of the now departed Ferguson. Because Getsy no longer has the reliability of two proven top notch targets, he's going to have to be that much better and more accurate to help his young recievers grow. Which Luke Getsy shows up next season will in most ways define the team's success. Should Getsy go down, what's behind him is an absolute wildcard. I've heard mixed reviews on both Jacquemain and Jackson, and both have had both good and awful performances in the scrimmages I've seen. Depending on how Hakes adapts to the college game in camp, should Getsy go down JD may consider pulling the redshirt and kicking off the Sean Hakes era at the U a year early.Grade: BRunning Back: NEWSflush: Dennis Kennedy is going to lead the MAC in rushing next year if he stays healthy. I know thats a big statement but from what I've heard behind closed doors he became a player this spring that will be feared by opponents for the next three years. What we saw in scrimmages doesn't begin to do justice to the flushes of brillance he showed throughout Spring practice. Biggs was a good back who did a lot with limited talent, but we're not getting a drop off with his departure, we're most likely getting an upgrade. Behind Kennedy, a guy who should not be discounted is Frank Berchie. While he's done little outside of special teams since he's been here, from what I heard he outperformed the more highly touted Alex Allen in spring and should get some quality carries in the fall. He and Allen will battle for the No. 2 spot in camp. Joe McDaniel is a solid blocker at fullback.Grade: A-Recievers:We all saw Jabari Arthur's potential in the MCB. Now he just has to take all that athleticism and become more consistant. This young group needs a leader and a go-to-guy, and Arthur's the only candidate to fill those shoes. Jermaine Lindsey has all the talent to be a big play threat, and Johnny Long has great hands and good rout running for a viable possession role player. Brandon Williams is also a guy who has showed flushes of being a solid contributor. All in all this group is going to need to grow up fast and make a lot of progress in camp to be up to par for the season opener. At Tight End, Kasparek will never fool anybody into thinking he's the fastest or most graceful guy on the field, but he's big and strong and gets the job done. Look for him to get a lot of short range passes thrown his way to keep the defenses honest. Merce Poindexter should also see a lot of snaps as a more athletic tight end.Grade: B-Offenseive Line:With four proven seniors and an extremely talented sophomore, this group as no excuse to be anything but exceptional in 2006. While they did an excellent job of protecting Getsy in '05 (only 16 sacks given up, eat your heart out Charlie Frye), they struggled at times to open up holes for the running game, and Biggs was forced often times to grind it out for his yardage. While this improved towards the end of the season, it's got to be better in '06 for the Zips to repeat. Andy Alleman and Tim Crouch both have NFL-potential and should be the cornerstones for the group. Behind the starting five lies some very talented young guys who should be able to step in should they be called upon without much being lost. All in all this group should be a huge strength.Grade: ADefensive preview coming soon....

I have a hard time wishing someone well when they are making a lateral move like this one (does Illinois really pay their assistants more than we pay our coordinators??) but Pry was a good guy from the times I was around him so I'll go ahead and say good luck.

Well, ok, I didn't think it was really necessary to give a name being as there's been no official announcement and there might be players at home for the summer who haven't been told yet, yes, I got a call yesterday saying Jim Pry to Illinois. So going into fall camp it looks like our Zips have no QB coach. I assume JD is going to step into the role.

Can't get any confirmation on this yet but look for an announcement to be made about another loss to JD's staff.

Sporting News has us at 46. I guess Lindy's isn't the only one who's wildly optimistic.Look guys, last year I predicted a MAC Championship and was laughed at by most. Well, perhaps with a stroke of luck, we ended up winning the MAC Championship. This year, we're going to be pretty damn good, and you should take that to the bank. We as fans should EXPECT a ten win season out of this team. Not just hope for one. Expect it. And if it doesn't happen we should be pretty disappointed and pissed.