Zipsrifle

What did I tell you. Jump on the bandwagon early. If the wagon starts to go downhill, jump off. Expect to see a lot of Frye articles and little on UA till we turn it around. Hey, they're the hometown newspaper, they've got the market cornered whether we like it or not. Oh yea, F the ABJ.

Just getting back and made most of my comments in another post. I agree that once we got way behind, we were desperate to get back in it and it showed. In addition, it was obvious that the athleticism on the opposite side of the ball was a few notches above ours. Most of our guys would be 2nd and 3rd team at PSU. I was happy to see that Biggs and Ringer were about equal, I really thought we'd only have Ringer this year. Frye performed as expected, probably didn't have a lot of long passes 'cause everyone was covered and decided to get some yardage instead of an INT. I was also pleasantly suprised with the receivers, thought we'd drop a LOT MORE. Wish we would have/ could have run it more, seemed a bit one dimensional, but I guess that's what you've go to do when the other team scores every time the touch the ball. I really didn't expect the OL to be a drastic improvement over last year, I think they'll continue to improve as they become more familiar with the system but still won't be able to block that well....just too slow. The entire team was too slow. On one play, we had Robinson for a loss and he just ran around the defender?!?! WTF! The D, well, I think that everyone has pretty much summed it up above. Couldn't wrap up, didn't cover. We looked like a bunch of birds flying into windows and you'd think that PSU had taken Crisco baths prior to the game. I think we'd better find a way to keep the offense on the field a LOT and use up the clock cause we're going to have to out shoot our opponents. With that said, I'm sure that our obvious observations and more have been keyed upon by JD and are being Drilled into the guys. I have to believe that we won't be thrown into panic mode as early next week and that we will be on par as far as athleticism. We will have the advantage of having one week under our belt but also have little idea of what will be thrown at us. We got thumped by a Big Ten team and should learn from it and make our run in the MAC. If JD is the real deal, we'll upset someone late this season. This week is the real measure of the team.

I think we'll win, but after seeing the D last week, it won't be easy. I'll reserve my prediction till I'm better educated MTSU.

I hate it when a post becomes a spelling contest. I'd bet there is a National Spelling Bee message board out there somewhere. Look here it is: For Spelling Teachers ONLY! I think Dude hit the nail on the head, Dr. Pain is a Can't State fan. Good thing too, Can't is going to need a Dr. for pain in a little over 2 weeks! I bet Dr. Pain was responsible for writing up the Can't State diplomas! Glad we've got a Can't State grad correctign (oops, spelled that wrong) our posts.

Looks like Realist is back with a new name.

WOAH, Hit the brakes Z.I.P. the season is FAR from lost. Yea, we got it handed to us by PSU, but the rest of the MAC also got it handed to them by the BCS Schools. I think this is a case of the MAC schools NOT being over looked for the first game and the Big Boys prepping for us like any other BCS team. I was amazed the Toledo got spanked and that Michigan was able to blow out Miami. Oh yea, thank God that Marshall lost! I really hope that PSU does go bowling this year and to a bowl better than the Motor City. If not, we're going to be in for a long season. That said, I am in general agreement with UA Fan. I think that JD has a lot of pull with the kids he's had contact with while at Pitt and we'll see some results from that. I also believe that the new fieldhouse will pull some players to our side of the fence. It's up to JD now to shore up the defense, put in a good MAC run and pull out an upset late in the season. If we can accomplish that, we'll be playing in the MAC Championship in a few years. If we have a "Typical Akron Season", then I think we'll still improve due to the facilities, but we might not see the inside of Ford Field for a long time. Unfortunately, the thumping last week will not help our cause for having a big crowd against MTSU. I think we should be happy with the turnout at PSU 'cause JoePa could have really made it ugly if he wanted. It was better than the 70-24 loss in '99 and on par with the rest of the MAC vs. BCS schools. I hope the weather will be nice on Sat. and I'll be dragging everyone I can to the game. Other than that, I felt that Frye delievered as expected. Sure he didn't have more big passes, but our receivers were green and a lesser QB would have had more than 2 int's. I was glad to see him eat it or make smart passes to the sidelines when in trouble. I was in general happy with the offense but thought we were a bit one dimensional with the pass. Biggs was impressive and I think that JD will keep Ringer and Biggs fresh by having lots of substitutions which will give us a running advantage late in the game. I thought the O-line performed as well as I expected. I really didn't expect to see a step up in their performance from last year. I think they'll get better as they become more acquainted with the new offense. The Defense on the other hand needs a lot of work. I didn't see the new aggressive style I was expecting and think things will have to improve for them to be an average MAC defense. It was all too apparent that PSU had superior athletic ability when comparing the PSU O to the Akron D. Like UA Fan said, our best D may be our O. Having Hixon play both ways might not be a bad idea either. That's my 2 cents.

Yea Zipboy, I agree with your post. Both teams will be fired up....ALL the teams will be fired up tomorrow. To me it is the mentality underlying it all. Penn State expects to win. Penn State has the mentality that they are superior. Not just the fans, but I'm sure the players and the coaches too. Not that they aren't preparing for us, last year taught them better than that. I just don't believe that we got the preparation that Michigan or another BCS school would. I'm sure that a fair amount of time has been prepping for the BC rematch. I really don't think they'll throw the entire playbook at us. I think they still see this as a "tune up game". Bottom line, I don't think that PSU is in any way going to come into this game feeling that they've got to play their best to Beat Akron. They are playing against the Media and the Critics and it happens to be that Akron is the opponent. They would have prepared essentially the same for this game as if they were playing Can't, OU, or UCF. Now for Akron, we're going to have our hands full with the new stuff from JD. BUT, the big difference is, we're NOT holding anything back. We're NOT looking down the road to a rematch. We know we ARE the underdog. If we get blown out (we won't), nobody will think any different. If we make a game of it an lose, JD will be praised. If we win, Heads will roll at PSU and the Zips will be darlings for a week. AKRON HAS NOTHING TO LOSE! For PSU on the other hand, if it's the 4th and it's close, the ENTIRE PSU TEAM will feel the crushing weight of 100,000 fans and the National Media on their sholders. Paterno and the coaches WILL feel the pressure of the final unraveling of a storied era. The same superiority that makes PSU and 99% of the country think that PSU will win is the same thing that can hurt them the most late in the game. It is our biggest advantage. What I hope what Akron does is concentrate on is minimizing mistakes. I hope that JD makes intelligent decisions. I hope that we get a few breaks. Like the Captian Said, PSU has no idea of what is coming at them. If we can play a fundamentally sound game and make as few mistakes as possible, we will be there in the 4th to take advantage of the PSU reputation. BE BACK AFTER THE GAME. A NEW ERA IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! GO ZIPS!!!

Who wouldn't expect the hometown fans to predict a good season for their team? If you were to do the same post here, I think you would get about the same records. If all goes well, you might even get a 9-2 prediction. I don't think we'll go 9-2 but I do believe that we have an excellent chance to go 7-4 this year. If JD takes us from losing the majority of the games against evenly matched teams to the inverse. In addition, we should at least expect to pull off more than one upset every 10 years. If JD is going to build us into an upper echelon MAC team, we should see it by the end of the year and be poised to give NI, Miami and Marshall a serious scare or even a loss. As I said before, I really like what I've seen from JD so far and hope he lives up to my expectations this Saturday! ONE MORE DAY!!! GO ZIPS!

This was a good article I dug up while surfing the PSU board. You must read it all the way through. I got to tell you, JD is REALLY impressive so far. I have a feeling I'll feel even better on Sunday! Go Zips!! JD revving up the troops

OK, in the article is says "Harris said he won't allow players to transfer to a school that the Panthers recruit against or play". So if this is true, no players will move to Akron because we are recruiting heavily in Pitt's area. I think that Harris's stonewalling is a good sign, he must know what JD is capable of and is trying to stall him. Seems like the players at Pitt really liked JD since it sounds like a few of them wanted to follow. LESS THAN 3 DAYS!!!! Let the new era of Zips football begin!

I was under the impression that if you were released by your current University, you didn't have to sit out a year but if you weren't released, then you did have to sit out a year. I'm sure that for a player who thinks he can make it to the NFL but is stuck behind some else and want's a transfer could take this thing to court. I agree that it sucks that a school can screw over a students future 'cause they don't want him to transfer.

Someone posted a link last year, and it really got me fired up! Akron Gold and Blue!

ZIPMAN, Don't know what channels you get on the island, but in the Sandusky area it will be on channel 10, PAX 23. I'll be in Erie county visiting the folks, and watching the game with some friends. GO ZIPS!!!

Zip 88 Now, to my take...I'm glad that all the PSU guys know how Akron is going to do 'cause I don't. The folks on this board have been following this program closer than anyone outside of the UA Athletic Dept. Though we we have an idea of what JD implimented, he's done a pretty good job of keeping things under wraps. For that reason alone, PSU should be wary. What little info that has trickled out makes me believe that the Zips WILL BE IN THIS GAME! The guys on the team liked the old coach a lot, the first thing that JD did that said he is special was keep the best college QB in the country from turning pro! This is a feat when you're a middle of the pack MAC team. He has also turned up the conditioning a notch. We lost 3 games late in the 4th last year partly because we ran out of steam....we've got a bigger boiler this year. Sure Dr. Who, you can say we almost went 5-5 last year, I say we were even closer to 10-2....hey, now I sound like a PSU fan! Yes we've taken a hit on the offensive side of the ball. Here are a few more reasons why PSU should be wary. We've got the top returning offensive player back. Keep thinking that Frye won't hurt you 'cause he lost his receivers. When the PSU D is having a hard time tracking him down and our "Phantom" receivers get balls hitting them chest all day, you'll change your tune, just like Wisconsin did. Oh yea, we lost our best running back. Hmmm, well, I think we'll be fine in that dept. See....the Slugs couldn't figure out why LO didn't play Ringer more last year. When he did get to play, he averaged 8 yards a carry. I think that the reason he didn't play as much last year was that LO wanted Hendry to have another 1000 yard season. Hendry was a GREAT Back but it would have been nice for Ringer to get more carries. I think that Ringer will have lots of rest during the PSU game too, since Biggs has apparently been as good as Ringer running the ball during camp. Receivers. Yup, Charlie will have no one to throw too. Especially since Ellington with his 28 games of experience is back from an injury hampered season last year. Too bad that he'll probably take a back seat to Hixon who's moved from DB to receiver per Supermans request. Hixon was recruited as a receiver and LO moved him to DB. And our coaching staff is not going to know how to train new receivers either. I mean JD coached 2 Biletnikoff award winner at Pitt, what good is that! In addition to the Offense, I think our Defense will be better than last years. True, our D hasn't been the best in the past few years, but that means there is only one way to go. From the sounds of it JD has not only changed the Defensive scheme, but he has also installed a new attitude. We've got our core back and it sounds like we're going to be attacking more. Again from the trickle of info out of camp, sounds like the D is much improved. Bottom line, we won't know what is going to happen till game day. Sounds like JD is a pretty straight shooter and if that's true, I like our chances from what I've heard. So...here's my call. First Q, JD mixes it up and Frye works his magic with "No" receivers. Put PSU on their heels. State comes back but the Zips keep it close for 2 and 3. Late in the Forth, Zips down by 3, First and one on the goal (shades of Wisconsin). Zips punch it in. The D makes a stand Zips win and shock the nation 42-38. Paterno gets fired, Frye becomes the sweetheart as the underdog Heisman candidate. Go Zips!

BANDWAGON. I don't know what happened up there, fat fingered it or something. I think that the ABJ has officially decided to jump on the UA bandwagon. Unlike some others, I do log on to Ohio.com and see what has been popping up. Over the last few weeks there have been a LOT of articles (remember, this is relative). And not the "Lee Owens Replacement at Akron" kind of thing (though Pluto did get his jab in at the end of the latest article). I think that there must have been a meeting in the building that is only a block or two from campus. Someone must have been hit on the head by one of Frye's warm up balls while walking out of the building. I think that they had enough sense to realize that they will be the home town press when Frye lights it up this year. If 5 puts up the numbers we all hope, you can bet that press from across the country will be making the phone call to the corner of Exchange and High Street to get a scoop. What someone must have also realized is that UA is putting serious $$$$ into the athletic facilities and have made the statement that they are done with mediocrity. Do I think that this is a Genuine change for the Stinkin' Urinal.....No. They are only in it for their own benefit. If JD and the boys give PSU a tough time, or Superman has a Heisman day next week, they will be able to say, look we told you so. If things go in the crapper next week, expect the coverage to return to the normal, near Zero level. Either way, this is a benefit for UA. They are at least getting the word out to the City that this is a special year for UA football.

I have a feeling that the Stinkin' Uri

I have to say that I give Marshall the credit for what happened last year in the MAC. I've only been following the MAC for about ten years, but it seems that Marshall raised the bar for all other MAC teams except maybe Toledo. It was either get better or get stomped. If I were a Toledo fan, I'd be pissed, they get no respect. They are consistently a good team. No way should Akron leave the MAC. CK is right, we'd be DI-AA in no time. The only way I can see Akron leaving the MAC is if we become consistently better than the rest of the MAC teams for an extended period of time, say 7-10 years. By then we'll have some tradition of winning and I don't think we'll have a considerable slide backwards. Remember '99 and '00. Pretty good years, MAC East Co-Champs in '00. Things looked to be moving up till '01. I think we were a "Buffalo" prior to '00 and now are percieved as a level or two higher. Not a team you blow off, but a team that you can probably expect at least a shot at a win against no matter who you are. Marshall and UCF moving on, well, I hope that CUSA actually turned out to be a weaker confrence than the MAC. I think that Marshall will continue to excell in football, wait and see on FUC. I think they get more attention than deserved. They had a great year their first year in the MAC, but were bottom dwellers last year. We need CUSA to be weak so that we can snatch a few players from them in order to help our move up. As for the attendence thing, I think we'll make it. I know that again this year I'm going to be draggin everyone and their brother to the games. I'm hoping that the MTSU game will be similar to the Can't State game last year. If we can get 30,000 at that game and don't SUCK the rest of the year, we're covered. If we don't have a good turnout on the 11th, we'll be in trouble if we have an "average" year. I really don't care much about the SOS right now. We couldn't win the games we needed to last year with a super easy schedule, why should we make it harder? We need wins to increase attendence. In addition, I saw something on the Buffalo site that shows that the rule doesn't have much teeth right now. The link doesn't work there anymore but still some good reading. Buffalo More Worried than we are!

I'm sorry, I guess it's Getsy not Palko.

So IF he comes to Akron, he'll have 2 years left (assuming Pitt lets him go). I'll take that. I really haven't seen Jabari play....So would there be a battle next year or would Palko be a shoe in for #1? I guess Jabari could be the next Nick Sparks if this happens. This brings up something I don't know a lot about. Can he get additonal years of elgibility? Since he hasn't played a game this year at Pitt, if he doesn't play, can he get that year back if he transfers? I always thought that the rule was you have 5 years from the time you start school to play 4 years. I think there are some exceptions if you get hurt or something isn't there? Anyway, you hate to see talent sitting on the sidelines of another team when it could be put to use somewhere else. Imagine if Charlie signed at OSU or Michigan. :blink: Probably LOTS of underutilized talent there. That's why the Penn State's of the world hate the scholarship rule, can't hoard all the good players anymore and have to face some of the "would be bench players" on the other side of the ball. ONE MORE WEEK!!!!

SWEET. Close to home. Now you guys can make the 4 hour drive to see the Zips play a game this year.

Read the columns at gozips.com. Either the D has made some HUGE improvements or the Offense is sputtering. I fear the latter. Seven posessions with field goal attempts! Second team O was "disappointing". If we're going to come out of the gate and shock Penn State, we better be doing a little better. I really hope that the D has made a HUGE improvement. Was it me or did LO sugar coat everything! Hell, I thought that we had all the bases covered for every game. At least JD isn't keeping us entirely in the dark. We'll have to see till the first game to determine how much he is sugar coating the situation.

For any other shooting geeks WOW :blink: , It is really amazing that Emmons lost the gold to a cross fire AND Anti shot too many shots! These are novice errors! Maybe every 2 years with one of the newer shooters has someone cross fired or shot too many shots in one of the UA matches. I could see if he just blew the shot (been there too many times). Rifle is about 99.99% mental so I find it hard to believe that these guys were jittery about winning the gold. Hell, the guy won 4 NCAA titles at UAF. These guys are WAY WAY above most shooters level. Well, that's why you shoot all the shots. The only thing that is more amazing is that someone sabotaged his rifle! :blink:! This is about as exciting as 3P shooting gets folks.

Got my tickets today. I was pretty geeked when I saw the magnet. Anybody know where I can get another? Not online apparently. I got to have 2, one for each door. The little lady was going to have a few of these made up at the local print shop before we saw these. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a Frye For Heisman yard sign. Being 4 hours away, it's not like I can get to campus to get one. Need to make the Wolverine fans aware of who the best QB in the land is. Anyway, glad to see that the PSU game is televised by Sandusky so that I can at least visit my parents and see the game. Twelve more Days!!

Yea, you better clean things up at South Bass. After we whip Can't State I'm spending the weekend there. I figure that I'm going to have to drink A LOT to fend off this virus. Isn't that the reason everyone drank wine in the old days, cause the water wasn't good?

I don't think that Joe will have to whine much to the refs. From my experience, when the Mid-Major plays the Major, the calls seem to go to the major.