Zips Win!

Looked like the Akron faithful by leaving early...At least they all rushed back in....

You must have missed my "Bush League" post after the Walsh game. 1350 bounces their signal to North Carolina and then back to UA and actually, it's an eleven second delay.This sucks and I hope UA/1350 can rectify this.I searched for other stations that might carry the game during the first half on Tuesday and found none.

Scoring...Or lack thereof....

Last evening ticked me off more than I can ever remember at a UA hoops game….And no, I’m not talking about the outcome of the game or the team. They will be fine.For years I’ve dragged myself down Route 8 to watch the Zips at the JAR. Rarely did anything ever really upset me other than a heartbreaking loss. I’ve had to endure some good teams, some really bad teams, good coaches, bad coaches, terrible officiating, fight awful weather, buy overpriced hot dogs, receive under-priced tickets, sit in seats with bad sight lines ....the list could go on….All in the name of our Zips..That was until last evening. As I get to my seat during the team introductions, and as I have for years, I pull out my radio and headset and tune in the voice of the Zips, Steve French.To my amazement, the ball is thrown up, the game is off and running and no Steve French. There is a freakin 11 second delay…. I come to find out that the garbage 1350 AM now bounces their signal off of some tower in China, I mean North Carolina. Are you kidding me..an eleven second delay..What a bunch of crap!! Frenchie’s calls on radio are classic….And now I cannot hear them.Memo to UA: Find another GD radio station with no delay or move my ass right next to Frenchie so that I can hear the GD game.

What he said.Ditto.It's fine with me that the front-runners, bandwagoners and 99% of the state worry about OSU. The UA students and alumni that worry about them without supporting (buying tickets, gear, going to games, making donations ) the Zips is what irritates me and makes for a very small "us".

It's always critical to have your TO's, but coaching gets a failing grade yesterday. With 0:52 seconds left, it was 2nd and 5 at the 12, we got flagged for an illegal substitution penalty--after an EMU TO. This was inexcusable, moved us back 5 and had a direct influence on having to kick at the end. I was confident DK would have gotten the first down with 2nd and 5...2nd and 10 made a FG try almost certain. Poor coaching here.

After watching that garbage, I'm not sure what can be done. We can complain about the 3-3-5 all we want. I believe that it doesn't really matter if we play a 4-3, 3-4, 3-3, 7-2 or 10-1.What we need to do is to design some blitz packages that will distrupt the QB. EMU's QB was awful..there were at least 6 3rd and longs and he had all day to throw. It's one thing to watch your blitzes with Nate Davis, but this guy stinks and we made him all MAC.Find a speedy db, move him around and send him after the QB.

After having a beer to celebrate, I stopped in at the first church I passed in Ypsilanti and said a hail mary for having our prayers answered on Saturday.How long did it take JD to design that play? Only in Zipland!

Just back from the hoops practice. There were about 20 fans/parents in attendence. Practice went from 7:30 to 10:30.Here are my observations:-Humpty is already my favorite. He hit the first 8 three pointers he hoisted up in shoot around. Seems to have a really nice form.-Bardo is in terrific shape. Led the way in many of the wind sprints. -Conyers looked good as well. I think he hit the weights over the summer.-B. McKnight seemed to have dropped some lb's. Can be dominant if he can play a lick of D.-My guess is that McClanahan, Sullivan and Parrish will redshirt.-It's unfortunate that the NCAA doesn't allow you to have 6 years to play 4. Swiech could use it. Don't count on him until his junior or senior year. Seemed to get in the doghouse early.-The matchups in practice were, with the 3's, 4's and 5's switching up quite a bit. Humpty and Ronnie going at it was fun to see. We won't know what to do with all this quickness.Humpty v. RonnieMcNees v. RobertsBrett v. ChrisConyers v. LinhartBardo and Nik C.The talent gets deeper and deeper. Thinking back just five ago....boy have we made some strides.I really liked Nik C.'s game. Has the body to play inside and showed great touch from 8-10 feet. Didn't see too many 20 footers go in, however.Two a days are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.Time for bed...Off to EMU in the AM.

Akron should be 6-2 by next weekend. But, so many people on this board are happy with mediocrity. And that is what you will always get. I've said it before, we should demand excellence! Just because we are in a lousy conference is no reason to say that we are OK being right there with everyone else. We should be in first place right now! And we have a good road record. We are winless at home! And you are OK with that? We need to demand excellence!Great discussion! Sure we should be 6-2, but we were not able to make one or two more plays in the UC or BG game that would have made us 6-2. Who is happy with mediocrity? But we are what we are!!! 3-4!How should we demand excellence? Who should do the demanding? What does this mean? In the end, you get what you pay for! UA's football program has been so poorly supported by the community and we have about the worst alumni base in D1 that you cannot really expect much more than what we got. I wish it was different, but until the alumni pony up and support the Z fund, attend games and buy tickets, I'm not sure how we can demand excellence when we don't give it.People support the athletic programs by going to the games and buying overpriced concessions, donating to the Z-fund, and doing the whole grass-roots thing like the Facebook applications. We do all we can to try and make our favorite teams better. We have rich alumni that contribute and buy us field houses and soccer stadiums, and we have the backing of fortune-500 businesses. We have world-famous athletes that go out of their way to give us support. We showed more support than any other fanbase in the country when Zippy became the greatest mascot of all time. Should we be doing more? I don't think we can do any more than what we already have done and continue to do. The only way we can do more is to get more fans. The only way we get more fans is by the athletic programs to respond to what they already have and use that to grow into something more. It's out of our hands.I agree on all points except the following:You don't fund your athletic teams on concessions.Most of our alumni have never even bought a ticket, let alone contribute to the construction of stadiums.People voted for Zippy because it was free. If you had to donate $1 to the athletic program for every vote, Zippy would have come in LAST.We do need to get more fans but this should come from our alumni base.It's clearly in our hands--not out of them.

Thank you for your support.

Akron should be 6-2 by next weekend. But, so many people on this board are happy with mediocrity. And that is what you will always get. I've said it before, we should demand excellence! Just because we are in a lousy conference is no reason to say that we are OK being right there with everyone else. We should be in first place right now! And we have a good road record. We are winless at home! And you are OK with that? We need to demand excellence!Great discussion! Sure we should be 6-2, but we were not able to make one or two more plays in the UC or BG game that would have made us 6-2. Who is happy with mediocrity? But we are what we are!!! 3-4!How should we demand excellence? Who should do the demanding? What does this mean? In the end, you get what you pay for! UA's football program has been so poorly supported by the community and we have about the worst alumni base in D1 that you cannot really expect much more than what we got. I wish it was different, but until the alumni pony up and support the Z fund, attend games and buy tickets, I'm not sure how we can demand excellence when we don't give it.

Absolutely not. Glen Mason is not the answer. I know all of you tosu fans on the board get all excited because you want an ex-tosu player/coach to come to UA, but this old retread is one of the last guys I want UA to hire if it comes to that. Sorry, but you would be mistaken if you all think that getting Mason would be another great recruiting tool because of where he played/coached. He wouldn’t be able to convince the D1 recruits that typically leave the state to come to UA any better than I would. (not to mention that he is also a former Can't State coach) Boy, in ten years at the U. of Minn. he was a whopping 32-48 in the medium ten and not once did he really contend for a conference title. Just the type of guy I want. Heck, a coach like Glen brings back memories of another former tosu assistant that won 40 games in nine years….But hey, he was a tosu assistant before we hired him!!!If we make a change at the end of the year, there are plenty of coordinators to select from. Mason will not be one of them.

Zips win a close one. Gary Pride will get some carries and prove to be the spark we need for a victory...

How can a party in an open lot be sold out? Unbelievable!

Fausty the Snowman might chip in!!

It's not about the people on the board not liking OSU. That's not part of of it. I even indicated that in my post. No it's about the fact that we do recruit from areas where the kids don't care for OSU. They are Penn State fans, Michigan fans, Purdue fans. You basically state that we should schedule OSU because we are an Ohio school and all other big programs we should give the thumbs down to if they won't play us at home. That's poor logic. Do you not think that the recurits we have from Appalachia Ohio and Western PA don't want to go to Beaver Stadium and play a program that snubbed them? I'm for money games. Especially when the money game pays better then any bowl game we might qualify for unless we manage an undefeated season. Do I think we should play Penn State, OSU, and Michigan in the same year? No. Do I think we should schedule them on a once a year rotation? Yes. Because it is a great recruiting tool for the pipeline states we recruit in. Hell if we could get a game against Georgia Tech that would be a big coup for our Atlanta recruiting base.Since I'm on UA1987's ignore list, you can inform him I'm actually 13 living in my mother's basement and I haven't been to a Zips game in decades. Putting the PSU-OSU argument aside, you also mentioned scheduling as a recruiting tool. While I agree that a schedule that has a major BCS opponent on it may entice a kid to commit to UA- as opposed to selling them on coming here and then having to take a bus to Middle Tennessee, for example. But I'm not buying that playing tosu is this really great recruiting tool. Does it hurt in recruiting? No- But what type of player did we recruit in 2005 and 2006 because tosu was on the schedule in 2007 that we wouldn't have signed if they were not on the schedule? Honestly, did we sign a player who was going to BG or Miami for example, but changed his mind. Other MAC schools play them to. Where is the impact?Every year there are 2-3 dozen or more D1-BCS caliber Ohio seniors that don't get the big, bad tosu call and every year these same guys end up at Illinois, Mich State, Iowa, Indiana, UC, Pitt, Northwestern, etc. So again I ask, where is the real recruiting advantage gained by playing them?

What am I missing? You rip the AD for scheduling Penn State, yet tosu is an exception? Huh?Over the last decade PSU has been pretty good a few years and really average the others. Take the chance we catch them on a down year and take the cash as well. I am banking on Mack getting FMV for the game, unlike what tosu paid us last year- yet you want to schedule them?Over half of our team hails from Ohio. It is the dream of almost every young football player from Ohio to play for OSU. Where have you been? Ohio State has developed a history and a winning tradition. A game in Ohio Stadium is truely a recruiting tool for those athletes that get snubbed by that program. So there's your exception. Duh.What a stupid exception! Is sounds like you just want to watch OSU. Now playing tosu is a recruiting tool, yet a very large number of current players on the roster hail from Pennsylvania and playing PSU isn't a recruiting tool? Ridiculous.I thought you wanted wins...not recruiting tools...

I see that Johnny Long had an impressive day. As a freshmen, I thought he had the talent to be a top tier MAC receiver....It's good to see he is doing well..

What am I missing? You rip the AD for scheduling Penn State, yet tosu is an exception? Huh?Over the last decade PSU has been pretty good a few years and really average the others. Take the chance we catch them on a down year and take the cash as well. I am banking on Mack getting FMV for the game, unlike what tosu paid us last year- yet you want to schedule them?

Very Nice!

Agree. The reason he remains our QB is because he is the best one on the roster. While this isn't saying a whole lot, JD's hands are tied. Sure, I would like to see Rogers get a series or two, but we would need to get a huge lead for JD to do this.As noted, the offense will struggle to score points and CJ will struggle to play consistently with what we got. Coaches always talk about QB's having "it". I don't see the "it" with CJ and now is not the time to find someone who has it. This needs to be done in February. (signing day)All of the above will continue to hurt the offense and hamper his development.-The high snaps.-Virtually no running game. DK may be healthy and doing his best, but his best won't cut it. Alex Allen continues to be a huge void in the offense and we need to get someone else some snaps at RB or we are in trouble.-The drops.-If his first option in the pattern is covered, he completion percentage drops considerably.-He is no threat wih his feet.-The long pass plays (calls) on third and short.-The delayed play calling at the LOS. This is unwatchable at times.

Zips 31Flushes 30 Final

Maybe...but please explain how the money you paid UA in the past for parking passes and fees had anything to do with the game on Saturday.You didn't give them anything on Saturday. You purchased a ticket for the event.

Hey Win! .. what did KD say when you told him that?! That it wasn't going to happen.So I ask again, if some of our best scorers aren't playing as much because they are sitting due to not playing defense, will we really be able to score a ton of points?