Quickzips

I think the big thing we need to focus on is finding replacements for seniors at key positions and stressing more balance in the offense. We had far to many games this season where we were passing 50-60 times in the game and that really isn't good. I think the o-line is gonna take care of itself. One thing that always makes o-lines better is playing together. This unit should return all 5 starters this season. With a year together under their belt I think this will be a really good unit. We have to be able to find good replacements for guys like Biggs, Hixon, Rohr, Kiki, and Montgomery too.

The capacity of the Rubber Bowl isn't really the problem. I don't remember an exact number but the capacity is somewhere around 35K. I believe it is the largest stadium in the MAC. There are two major (and many minor) problems with the Rubber Bowl.1.) Distance from campus. Students such as myself must drive 10 miles down 77 or route 8 to the Bowl from campus. It does nothing to help boost student interest in the football program when many students can go their entire college career without ever setting eyes on the football stadium.2.) It is old. The damn thing was built in the new deal era and years of neglect have taken their toll on the old girl. Case in point, the endzone stands which remained covered for most of the season because they were a safety hazard. It has been stated many times that to update the Rubber Bowl and bring it up to standard would cost just as much as building an entire new stadium.Bottom line is the U bought the Rubber Bowl for $1. It really doesn't owe us anything. We've gotten more than our fair use out of it. But it is time to move on with updated facilities in the heart of the campus. Continuing to play in the Rubber Bowl will only be a constant reminder of the lack of unity that has traditionally existed (and still does to this day to some extent) between the general population of the University and the Athletics Department.

Passive aggressivness at it's finest. Happy New Year all.

Just a lil point about arm strength. The QB with the strongest arm in the NFL (arguably) Mike Vick is also considered one of the worst passing QB's in the league. The QB who had the strongest arm since the return of the Browns was Spergon Wynn, a guy who never should have seen the light of day in the CFL let alone the NFL. Many experts agree, arm strength is one of the most over-rated characteristics for a QB prospect.

Tell me one college stadium where the seats didn't go empty when "X" team stopped winning. To not build a new stadium to replace the crumbling Rubber Bowl because "we might stop winning" is crazy. Why build all those new buildings on campus...hey, enrollment "might" go down?We are committed to being a real D1 school. Look around campus. This isn't 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. This is today, and tomorrow is the future. Thank God the University has a President that can see beyond yesterday. People in Akron seem to fear success and growth like the plague. I don't get it. I think you may be misconstruing my point a little here Captain. There is nothing I would like more than to see a new stadium. I am by no means lobbying not to build it. I am just saying to be smart about it. Put up an asthetically pleasing stadium with maybe a few less seats than the rubber bowl, but leave it open for expansion. The zips are not going to fill a 35,000 seat stadium any time soon anyways. A TRADITION of winning has to be established first. Keep the stadium within a reasonable budget and keep it looking good (not a glorified high school stadium like Dix) for now and let the fans force us to build more seats later on. That is what I am saying.

Feeding the troll only encourages him to continue coming out from under his bridge, I suggest we stop.

I believe there was a post on this about 2-3 weeks ago but I'm too lazy to go look it up. From what I remember there is nothing official yet but it is a pretty good possibility.

Yeah, you crack us up too. Akron losing to BG this year? The only legit talent they MIGHT return would be Omar. Until they figure out how to play D they are gonna struggle to beat people next year even with him. Miami? Well it is about time that we've broken through and gotten the W over them. They lose a lot of talent this year too. NIU couldn't beat us once this year, what makes them beat us next year? Toledo I'll hold judgement on until I see your new QB play in some games (and don't give me this crap that Getsy did just fine filing in for Frye and it shows that you can replace your star QB, We had plenty of struggles this year with Luke at QB). Penn State may be vulnerable next year with a lot of graduating seniors and a swelled head after their turn around this year. NC State if that game were to happen doesn't scare me that much. BC would be a tough game but if it is in Akron then that closes the gap there. By the way? What is your assessment of what Toledo is worth? You guys really moving to the BE here?

You still can't dispute that once the team stopped winning the seats got empty. On top of that it is just one example of what I am talking about.

All those twinkies have finally gone to Amstutz head.

I don't really think the allure of the stadium has anything to do with attendance (other than the fact that having it on campus would be more attractive for students). Winning is what puts butts in seats. Look no further than the Indians. Back in the 90's when they were winning sellouts were a lock every night. The tribe set all kinds of records for sellouts and attendance. Then they purged all their talent and started losing. Guess what the attendance fell with the team. Look at the old Browns. Municipal Stadium was a complete and utter dump, yet when the team was winning the place was packed. Put a winning program on the field and the fans will come regardless of how pretty the stadium is.

Thanks for the advice, we will keep that in mind. I have to wonder though, why you are even checking here in the first place let alone posting? Ohh and by the way, what do you think of the pipedream talk of Toledo running to the Big Least in the next two years?

It's true that we would have had to drive 60+ yards w/ no time outs in little time. No real telling if we could have done it, but the problem I have is that we never got a chance to do it because of what easily could be considered a bad call. Either way the refs had established a good handle on the game early and kept it all game. The laundry was flying and it was flying in a lot of situations where some crews may have just let the players play. Just comes down to the philosophy of the crew. Are they gonna hold a tight leash or are they going to let the game play out and intervene only if necessary.

I kinda got to agree when it comes to the stadium of having a LITTLE bit smaller stadium than the RB. Right now I don't think the bandwagon has driven very many people to hardcore fan status just yet. For now attendance is still going to be a bit touch and go and there is likely gonna be times that the stadium is gonna be half full (hopefully not much less anymore). But here is the thing. IF we continue to have success with football, then the fans are gonna keep coming back. WHEN that happens we are then going to have to deal with increased ticket demands. It would be a marketing dream to have a headline like this written one day.UA to add seats to football stadium following increased demand.You can almost guaruntee that those new seats would be filled as soon as they are added, people would be there just to see what the hype is about and it would lend instant credibility to the program. I guess my thought it around 25,000 maybe a little less with room to expand. And ohh yeah. Just don't build a glorified high school stadium <cough>dix<cough>

GP, I really don't see where Getsy is better than Frye. Regular season wins this season and last are equal. You can't legitimatley call that a better season except for the fact that 6 wins was good enough this year to get us to the MACC game. The other big difference I see b/w Charlie and Luke is the ability to overcome. I'm convinced that a lot of Luke's midseason problems were due to injury. There was something there in that injury he sustained at CMU(?) that bothered him throughout the season. Then you look at a guy like Charlie Frye who spent the last half of last season with a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand and still played, and yes, WON. Granted they are different injuries, but it is stuff like that that sets Charlie apart from Luke at least at this stage. I really hope for the sake of this program that Lukes struggles this season can be contributed to lack of playing time the previous three years and injuries b/c if that is the case then he is going to be a damn fine QB for this program next year.

I think 23 did play himself out of a draft pick. I would be surprised if he made an all star team in January. Missing passes and not catching punts does not impress NFL scouts. As far as Getsy, I think he understands this offense better than Frye did, but he does not have the running ability Frye did. It really hurt Luke mid season when the offensive line couldn't figure out who to block. With a good offensive line next year, look out for Getsy! Getsy was helped by the defense, but he still moved the ball when he had to. They may not have scored every time, but they did pick up first downs with a balanced attack and a very efficient offense. You guys know my opinion of this subject. I'll take a winner any day over an underachiever or a guy who can't win half his games. Luke wins, Frye/Superman (whatever ) didn't. I was at the Browns game Saturday and one of the moronic Browns fans (Do you really have to use the word moronic when referring to Browns fans? Isn't it just assumed?) yelled out after Frye pooped down his leg for about the 20th time, "Go back to Akron!". I immediately felt the need to defend my school, so I yelled out, "No thank you, we don't need him. Four years of losing was enough!". Don't ever say I don't have the best interest of U of A in mind. Not to make excuses for Charlie though because he received enough of that over the years, but it is hard to beat the Steelers when they have home field advantage. GP, the big difference between Getsy and Frye is.......................................... Frye is playing on Sundays, and will for quite a few years, regardless of one game where the entire team basically gave up. Getsy never will. Mark my words on that one.

The D being tired at the end of the game brings up a good point. That being that they are on the field to long and have been at a number of times this year. When our D was most effective was at the end of the year when we really made a concerted effort to get Biggs more touches. I still don't know why we were slinging it all over the field so early on in that game. Biggs wasn't breaking off 15+ yard carries in the first half, but he wasn't loosing yardage. Then it just seemed like we abandoned the run all together and let Luke try and save the game for us. Luke gets a little sporadic and we have a couple real short drives followed by punts, the D is on the field a long time, they get tired, we get torched, and before ya know it we are down by 21. I would really like to see a more balanced offense next season with a good effort to stick with the run unless we are down big time (we weren't down by that much when we abandoned it Monday).

When I read this topic only one thing comes to mind. The old saying: "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you will be amongst the stars."

Because I was at the game I could not see the penalty on the fumble/illegal touching penalty. It was too hard to make out on the jumbotron. Does anyone have some better info on it? The papers didn't say anything, sportcenter didn't even mention it, and I can't find any replay of it on the internet. Would like some discussion on this so I can sleep a little better . On ESPN you could see a Zip reach out and slap at the ball before the snap. You must've been watching ESPN2 because that's not what I saw.......... though it was very close! Not sure that would've made a difference, but I've never seen a team try that hard that long! This is the new ZIPS! 2006 is looking better and better!!!!! BTW my two favorite teams are Akron and Whoever else beats Marshall. Good luck Tigers, thanks for a great game! In JD I Trust I believe the penalty wasn't that he swiped at teh ball but the player was in the neutral zone from the very beginning. Looking at the replays he was almost butting heads with the Memphis player. When you listen to the call, the referee specifically mentioned touching the ball before the snap. Make no mistake about it, it was not said as a simple neutral zone infraction.

Clearly there is more excitement about this program than there has been in recent memory, if not ever. I was cruising MACbbs earlier and they already have talk going about predictions for next year. Suddenly we have gone from "fluke" MAC East Champs let alone MAC Champs (not my feelings, but many MAC fans do feel this way), to a pretty consenus pick to win the East again next year. The term loaded is being used a lot and it has me thinking about what this team is gonna look like next season. QB: Getsy seems to be coming together as a QB. He doesn't looked scared going back to throw anymore and has made some pretty sound decisions on the run. Another year to work with mechanics and get rid of some of the ducks he throws should benefit him immensly. Many MACsters seem to feel that if Omar Jacobs leaves for the NFL that we may have the #1 QB in the MAC next year. I'll reserve judgement, but I no longer feel as uneasy about going into next season w/ Luke under center as I once did. RB: Obviously loosing Biggs is going to hurt things. The kid just has "it" as a RB. He runs, he catches, he blocks, he fights for everything he gets. Kennedy has shown some good things in limited time this season. This may be the big question mark moving into next season is how well we will be able to replace Brett Biggs. That said we are a pass first team (not sure I praticularly like that but whatever) and replacing our starting RB is not going to be as big a deal for us as it would be for a team like Memphis who rellies on the running game. WR: I was kinda worried about this until yesterday. Replacing Hixon and to a little lesser extent Montgomery is no small chore. John Long has looked solid all year and definitley warrants a starting job next season. Jabari Arthur was virtually invisible all season long, but then he comes out in the MCB and looks like a legit reciever. He has always had the physical tools to be a gifted wideout and it looks like he has finally gotten "it" and is able to play the position. On top of that Getsy seemed to develop the kind of confidence in him that he has had in Hixon all year last night. I'm not so worried about this anymore. TE: Kasparek has been incredibly solid praticularly late in the year. If Getsy continues to use him as an effective safety valve in the passing game next year he will put up some big numbers. Look for Merce Poindexter to come on a little more again next year too. He showed some good things during the season. O-line: As far as I'm concerned we should return everyone from the starting group for next season with four senior starters. A far cry from last year where one of the big questions was how well all the new o-line starters would be able to do. Chemistry is a big thing along the O-line and having the same starting crew 2 years in a row can really help that. This should be a big help next year for this team. D-line: This will be another question mark going in to next season. Kiki and White are both graduating and have both been a big part of the defense all season long. Who will come in to replace those two and how they will do will be a big determinant in how far we go next year. Jermaine Reid should be back and will be expected to step up as the leader in the trenches. LB's: Losing Rohr is going to be a problem, but we return Grant and Stokes who have been pretty solid all season long. Biggest question here if you ask me is who will step in as the new LB coach and will he be able to continue the success that this unit had last season. Secondary: This unit should stay intact moving into next season. That will be huge as we have had one of the better pass D's in the MAC this season. They are going to have to get over that performance in the MCB this summer though as they made a converted WR look like a Heisman winning QB. Special Teams: Swiger and Sullivan have been adequate but not spectacular this season. Replacing them will be big but not incredibly critical. Someone is going to have to step up in the returner role to replace Hixon who, although he was not as spectacular as he was last season, was still a damn good return man this season. What do you guys think?

Okay, I looked at the tape over and over. Played it in slow motion. Paused it, rewinded it and played it again. Here is what I see. Whoever was playing over the center (not sure who, forgot to check) did take a swipe at the ball, it could be considered offsides even if he does touch it BUT, hold the presses. The previous kneel down that Memphis made the same thing happened but with no fumble. The result, no flag thrown. It is VERY close as to whether or not the ball was touched. It appears that the center moved it back before a hand was thrown in, but the ball does tilt in the direction that it logically would have moved had it been touched by the swipe that was thrown. The call on the field was touching the ball before the snap resulting in an offsides penalty. There isn't a whole lot of evidence that the ball was clearly touched. If the ball wasn't touched then it isn't offsides plain and simple. My conclusion: Too little evidence that the ball was touched to make that call. It would have been an excellent no call and let the teams play but we saw all day long that the refs were trigger happy with those hanky's. What are ya gonna do.

Just woke up after getting back home around 2AM b/c someone on our bus decided to stop at hockeytown and order carryout for the way home. Definitley need some better organization on the busses for next year My thoughts. -GREAT showing by the zipsnation. Wow, if we get half of those bandwagoners back to the bowl (and hopefully the new oncampus stadium) for a few years we are gonna start putting to rest our attendance problems. EXCELLENT, SIMPLY EXCELLENT. -I've got the game on tape as well, have not watched it yet, but I intend to pretty soon. Talked to my parents who aren't the most informed football fans ever but neither of them seemed to see any evidence of offsides on the penalty. I'll reserve judgement until I see it for myself from all angles though. Either way the refs were pretty questionable all night long. And what was with the overturning the penalty on our first drive by looking at the jumbotron? Was that not the most bizarre thing you've ever seen? I know it went our way eventually but man. -Memphis beat us when they started to run to the outside almost exclusivley. We weren't bad containing them when they ran up the middle, but when they started to use the outside we got toasted, repeatedley. Overpursuit to the ball, arm tackling, and poor speed can be blamed there. -With the exception of John Mackey who was all over the field making tackles all night a pretty poor performance by our secondary. Guys out of position and not looking back for the ball combined with some interferance problems made their WR turned QB look like a Heisman winner. -Probably the biggest bright spot I found out of the game was Jabari Arthur. I have to admit that I have been worried about who will pick up the slack at WR w/ Hixon and Montgomery leaving, but man did Jabari put some of those worries to fear. He went from being invisible most of the season to looking like a legit WR and having good chemistry with Getsy. I think him and John Long should be able to step in just fine next season. -Kasparek was effective but not quite as much so as he was in the MACC. Memphis wasn't giving him the YAC that NIU did. -Live by the pass die by the pass. If you've got a good passing game you've got to get it going, but if you struggle to like we did for the good part of the game it leaves your D on the field for a long time and they get tired. Case in point, the second half of that game. -Getsy was starting to revert back to his midseason form there in the 2nd and 3rd but found his rythm in the 4th. The thing I liked though was that he no longer looks like a deer in the headlights when he drops back to pass. He looks comfortable throwing the ball now and that will pay off huge going into next season I think. -What a great call on that 70+ yard TD pass to Biggs. I remember seeing the D going for the blitz and thinking "man, if we can get Brett behind the LB's and have time to get him the ball there will be noone out there to stop him. -A good kicking game would have made a lot of difference in this game for us. Sullivan is nothing more than an adequate punter while their guy was spot on all game. Swiger ALMOST pulled of 2 onside kicks in a row (can't blame him for not though, its hard enough to pull of 1 of those in a game let alone 2) but the kickoffs out of through the endzone by their kicker made a huge difference in this game. -Overall I am damn proud of this team. We are gonna be good next year. Count on it. This program may very well have turned a corner this season. Keep up the good work.

Dude if thats true I gotta get me a picture of that. FEAR THE ROO! :macc:

It's not the fact that he's leaving that people are upset about, it's the tone of the article which suggests that Price is making a charity case out of us by allowing him to stay and coach the MCB. That said, if the guy wants to be here and coach the bowl game and is going to put 110% effort into it then he's welcome to in my book. If not then have fun in Kansas and lets see if we don't have anyone on this staff who might be able to fill in. No use having a lame duck coach in the locker room who isn't going to give it his all.

Ahhhh.....The Leakin Urinals influence is spreading! Seriously though, not a bad read.