Zips Win!

As for strength of schedule, OSU was ranked #37 and beat two #2 teams at the time that they played them. Not bad if you ask me. Boise State, by comparison, was #83. Pretty big difference there. Yikes, so the Bucks strength of schedule was a daunting 37 in 2006. Looks like next years schedule is shaping-up into a top 5 ranking with the Zips, flushes and penguins on the slate.

Hey idiot, Take 2. What was OSU's strength of schedule coming into the BCS game? Somewhere around 40!

Hey idiot, who are you rooting for next September! Get off this board and find a red and gray board.

After a long day in Athens and a long drive back, here are my thoughts on the game.I had some time to visit the campus on Saturday and boy was I impressed. The uptown atmosphere was great. Numerous bars, restaurants, shops and many students hanging around. Too bad far to many OU students out and about don't know that their school colors are green and white, not red and silver....On to the game. It was a very nice atmosphere at the game. It seemed like well over 5,000 attended the game and the student turnout was great. They were loud and their cheers were great. Too bad we don't have over 500 students show up at the JAR.The game itself was a very physical game. Both sides played hard and physical inside. Unfortunately they got the better end of well, everything, especially the officiating. To begin, in an evenly matched game, how they shot 21 more FT's is embarrassing to the league. In each half, we were the first team to be in the penalty and while the majority of physical play was allowed-by both sides- when the whistles did began, we seemed to be getting called, not them. Rome seemed especially frustrated as their defense collapsed on him about every possesion and he could not get free. I must admit, it would be pretty tough when your getting hammered all the time. Give KD some credit, every time he got frustrated, he would rest him a minute. The last few minutes, OU was not covering him the same way and then he got and made his shots. We seem to play better when we get the ball inside, unfortunately we had way to many passes tipped before we could get it inside.Middleton was awesome all night long. His speed on D and in a few of the transition plays was great. The offensive foul in the middle of OU's run out in the second half was bullsh$t. Couple that with OU clearly charging on us (yet a block was called)a few plays before exemplified how the game went. Dials was pretty solid all night long. He hussles on every play at both ends. Liked his effort.Quade started strong and then fadded...He was jumping all over the gym on D, however. Boy has be come a long way!McKnight and Conyers seem to continue in their development. Neither seemed intimidated at all with the crowd. Dru and Wood seemed to struggle Saturday night. Didn't see the stat sheet, but it seemed like Dru had more turnovers than usual.Linhart too gave great effort....hit a few shots and played pretty well. He did foul out.Bubba on the other hand is a punk and a poor sportsman, although he definitely did improve his FT shooting. His initial 3 points were at the line on a phantom foul on Dials. The official waited and when the ball missed, then blew his whistle. Not sure how Frenchy called it, but when he hit his last three, he ran by our bench pumping his fist in an obvious taunt. How he wasn't teed up goes to show the lack of control the zebras had.Overall, I thought we hustled all night long. Nobody, even Rome, did not take the night off. While I wish the outcome was different, I've been around long enough to realize how tough it is to win on the road in the MAC....and when you are a -21 in FT differential, it's virtually impossible. If we continue to give this effort, we should be fine as the season plays out.

I was at the game on Saturday. I thought the OU fans were great. They were probably well over 500 in attendance and they were very loud, as a college atmosphere should be. Their chants were great.....if we just could have made a few more shots, it wouldn't have mattered.They only arrogant person in the building was Bubba and as far as classless, look at the zebras. When Bubba taunted the Akron bench, he should have been teed up immediately. The officials had no control of the game.

Good for you! I think I sat down to watch 30 minutes of bowl action thus far, luckily it was the end of the Boise State game. This topic comes up all the time. And no one will ever agree on the best set-up. 1. Of course there should be a playoff--a 6,8 or 10 team field set-up like the NFL with upper seeds having bye's and home games. Final game played like the Super Bowl.2. As for money, even I could find sponsors who would pay big bucks to sponsor a playoff, so I do not buy the money angle. The problem is there are too many idiot presidents who can't agree on how to share those funds......other than all agreeing to screw the mid-majors, but they sure like playing many of them for guaranteed wins...3. People always talk about a playoff. The first thing that needs done is for the NCAA to have some legitimate power in scheduling and make good teams play one another. If you haven't played at least a top 20 schedule, you have no business playing for the championship. Not sure why you think interest in the regular season has been destroyed. You watch because you enjoy it. Conferences have post-season tournaments becasuse they make more money AND it's another bs way for big schools to get even more teams in the field of 65. It allows bad big-time programs to get hot in their post-season tournament and get a bid they otherwise wouldn't get. (of course, the NCAA would not tell you this.) If a really bad mid-major does this, they just knock out another mid-major from the tournament. Again, the NCAA needs to have a say in scheduling of games. Post-season tournaments are great, however there should be a stipulation that you must be .500 or better in conference play during the regular season, to even make your conference tournament.I never quite understood why most like a playoff format in all sports, yet we can't come up with one in Div. 1A football.All I know is that if the NFL did not have a playoff system and they used the college system, the Team of the Decade in the 90's would reside in California and not in Texas. Thank goodness this is not the case and it was settled on the field.....

Interesting win for the Zips. In a game that we always led, from 6-9 throughout most of the first half, upping it to 13 before half and they taking that to 19 in the second half, I for one, never felt totally comforatble until about the two minute mark in the game.Milum was outstanding. Best game ever as a Zip. He made several nice jumpers, the alley-oop was great, in fact I thought he was heading over the basket when he caught the ball and was coming down and his interior defense was solid as well. Linhart and Conyers were very good as well. Conyers finally seems to be getting it. His offensive flow was nice, he made all three shots and his defensive presence was even better. Did a very good job of moving his feet, taking charges and playing interior defense. I have no idea how that YSU team beat Can't. They play the weakest on the ball defense I have ever seen and offensively, they have a lot of guys go one-on-one. I didn's see much team play. We shot 45% from the field, yet seemed to miss wide-open jumper after wide open jumper. I believe Joyce was held scoreless....The officiating for the first 32 minutes was about the best I have seen. Seemed to get every offensive/no call right and they let the guys play. The last 8 minutes, eveything was a foul, esp on the Zips. That said, we lost two guys to fouls and they outshot us 27-10 at the line, and YSU fans are complaining?This team seems to be getting better.....now we need all 9 guys to do it collectivley. THe OU game is a very winnable game. Remember, the football team is in the bowl so a lot of OU fans should be missing. Here is a prime opportunity to steal a conference game on the road.

I agree with GP1, although it doesn't apply only to NE Ohio...it applies all over the state. As long as you know who exists, most fans consider MAC schools to be second class citizens in this state, including most UA alum.Winning 13 games with Hipsher or 23 with KD unfortunately does not register with Akron fan. As CK said, winning at the Q last year and being undefeated when Nevada came to town is what is needed.....it will take several years of winning championships to go from 3300 to 4500 consistently..... not sure what it will take to pack the house every game.

I'm in for a tailgate behind the Nat as well....

If Saturday's performance is any indication of the type of team we have, we are in trouble. Please, remind me how we are picked to win the MAC this year? Saturday's performance was awful..where the heck do you begin.Rome- Sure he was a warrior...for the first 35 minutes. He disappeared at the end of the game. If this is because he was spent, then Dambrot needs to get him more rests throughout the game. When Quade M. is taking two crucial shots in the last two minutes, you are dead meat. Travis needs to take and make those shots.Rebounding- Disastrous...In the last eight minutes of the game, in every possession that UIC missed, they got at least one offensive rebound. When they were able to get the offensive rebound on the missed free throw at the end of the game, it was over. At that point, we did not deserve to win the game and we didn't.Joyce- All-time assist leader maybe....But when he plays versus small, cat-quick point guards, he gets eaten up, as he did Saturday. How may times were we 20 seconds into a possession and there's Dru, dribbling out at mid-court trying to get free to run the offense? What did Dambrot have to say about Dru's last second decision making at the end of the first half? You mean all this veteran can get -off is a 26 footer to end the half......And the best he can do to set us up at the end of the game is a Linhart 23 footer? Ridiculous...and when did he become such a piss-poor free-throw shooter?McKnight-Very solid....getting better every day.Linhart- Are you kidding me? Bad decison after bad decision.....and why is he always on the floor? Dials and Middleton were solid. As I have said many times, Ced would play virtually every second of every game. Dials and Joyce would be battling for the other minutes at the other guard position.In a game that we made 11 three-pointers and still lost, does not bode well for the rest of the year. (unless everyone else is just that bad) Enough with the excuses...Wood hurt, Travis spent, etc. This was not the defending national champs that we played...it's frickin' UIC, who by the way played the second half with their best player on the bench in foul trouble.. ..We were exposed on Saturday.....Any good team will defend the hell out of Dru and crash the boards, as UIC did....March is a long-way off...here's hoping that guys step it up or our trip to C-town will be short-lived.

Middleton played only 19 minutes. This has to change, and fast. He should be on the court between 33-35 minutes a game.

Are you kidding? If we win 3 conference games, Kest should be Coach of the Year.

Ridiculous.....It's the University of Akron.......Deal with it!

You are not missing anything......

Good report, CK.Agree on Conyers-- completely lost until he had a few uncontested dunks...Milum seems to give a good showing 1 out 5 games...The alarm clock didn't go off yesterday.And Rybek--Actually, it looks like he belongs on the Tiffin team. He gives KD nothing..a junior BHip in the making?Even IF he were to make a few of the 3's, do we really need another slow player who can't rebound that can shoot the long ball? Those minutes need to go to McKnight/Conyers. Rybek looks like a wasted scholarship....

You can blame Frye all you want for the W/L record vs. BR or any other player/team but the ONE game that I refuse to tag on Frye is the 'hail mary' game mentioned above. Down big in that game, Frye outplayed BR every step of the way, yet Lee Owens found a way to lose that game. Calling timeouts before half to give MU more opprtunities to score, kicking FG's when we should be going for it (on 4th down) and going for it when we should have been kicking......and finally having your db's tip the ball up in the air, instead of knocking it down. If there ever was a game, when the coach should have been fired on the spot, that was it.......and to think I had to endure two more years.....

Don't order any food, it was awful the one time I ate their!

The word is that Andy Wills has a partial tear of the MCL, a bone bruise and no meniscus damage. There is a possibility that he may be back for the OU game.

It looks like the best place to set up shop to tailgate is in lot 25 behind Rocket Hall. Rocket Hall is located at the corner of Dorr Street and Secor Road.I was informed that there are no time restrictions (come as early as you wish) and it is a 12 minute walk through UT's Greek Village to the stadium.I plan to be there setting up around 2 pm.

Phil Steele or that espn guy do not have any more credibility because they picked Can't.Neither of them had any clue Edelman was going to be the quarterback. Both just looked at a roster that had many returning starters and then they guessed.Congrats to Can't..not to the prognosticators....or whatever the heck they are......

Huh! In the Aikman discussion, you give him (the QB) much (if not most) of the credit for the teams success...Now after watching a superb performance by Edelman and I want to give him (the QB) the credit, you disagree.The reason Can't goes from 1 win to already three is primarily because he ie quarterbacking and Machen (sp?) is watching...On Saturday, his pinpoint "jumpball" passing, elusiveness on all types of runs--options, called qb runs as well as scrambles enabled Can't to spread the field and open-up their offense...something Machen or anyone else on their roster couldn't do. He is the difference and we couldn't stop him.

He did on Saturday!

Yes tickets are available. I received mine in the mail on Saturday. There was a letter sent with the tickets stating the following: "Please not that the game versus Cincinnati has been moved to 2pm".First of all, I think they meant to say "Please note.....".Secondly, has the game been moved up to 2 pm or did the ticket office get confused with the Can't game getting moved to 2pm?Dare I ask, where is Scott when you need him?HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

WOW is correct! After that, I can't say that I agree with much. (of GP1's comments)You are truly the Bill Walton of posting.....You have the unique ability to make a point that will defend any and all sides of a discussion.....Look, your comment that "We were out playerED" is correct...to a certain extent. Can't did have ONE better player and he happened to play quarterback. The notion that they have better players up and down the roster is simply untrue. Combine this fact with as ITZ says, "an AWFUL defensive game plan" made for a horrendous day.The defensive game plan and performance reminded me of what I watched under Owens. At no point in the game did we have any idea what Can't was doing on offense. The handful of time we did get good pressure, Edelman side-stepped the tackler and made a play. We were out of position on virtually every play..Did the coaches even watch any game film of Edelman? My take on your eight points are as follows:1. Sure we were flat-footed on D.....Edelman made us miss..with both his running and passing....much like CMU's qb did.2. Can't's quick defensive players? Really? I saw KD sit down on the carpet on 3rd and 1....he could have run for ten yards. Were our heads in the game?3. LB's were too slow...... to catch Edelman...4. Can't's guys did catch the ball .....it helps to have perfectly thrown balls by Edelman.5. Did Can't's line really create lanes for Can't's runners or do you mean for Edelman? He was their best runner!6. Tall receivers for sure......meaningless, unless the ball was placed properly as Edelman did.7. There were missed tackles....On Edelman. Doesn't help that Flemming had no idea were to place the defenders.8. You got me on this one.....Our line has been dissappointing...As any really good offensive football team will show, it does all start up front. This line really never gives the offense much of a chance to get into rhythm. It will continue to be a long year unless the line gives DK a chance keep defenses honest and Luke is given time to set and throw. This was not the case on Saturday. Looks like even the most average d-lines will give our o-line fits.....Edelman was the difference maker on Saturday. He made great plays. At the end of the day, it does take "Jimmy and Joes". Can't had ONE......ours did not show up.

I was on campus this morning to pick-up my Can't tickets and as I was leaving the JAR I noticed JD walking out behind me. As I turned around to see who he was talking to, my heart almost stopped......it was Fausty the snowman. I hope JD didn't hear a word he said or we may be in trouble!