GoZips

Diarrhea of the keyboard. The Zips have Charlie Frye. Enough said.

ZIPBOY, 'twas me that wrote a speculative piece about possible future scheduling changes. Comparing the new list with the previous list the TBA's were created by droping a future home-n-home series with North Texas State, a second home-n-home date with Middle Tennessee and the only sad note, an away game at Michigan State in 2010. That's one game I would like to have seen. At any rate, these schedule changes (and I still expect either the home-n-home with Utah State or Troy State to be dropped as well) leave room for some rather nice scheduling improvements if my information is correct. I strongly doubt a game or games with YSU in 2005 or in any forseeable future. For one, YSU is no longer a powerful Div. I-AA team, for two, not the fan interest one would have expected in YSU's glory days, finally, the Zips need a fifth home date against a I-A team to bowl qualify. YSU could not count even if they declared Div. I-A.

OLDER ZIP, well said. I concur. While I know Lee Owens personally and like him as an individual he just plain failed to live by the advise of several sources of council (of which I was one) to open up the defense. Lee stuck with the 50 FLEX defense for years after other programs had learned to operate against it. Even the 50 FLEX requires attacking the football. Lee stuck to zone coverages in fear of defensive breakdowns. The burden was always on the defensive secondary. Lee needed five or six Dwight Smith's each season to be successful in the way he approached defense. The HUGE mistake was bringing in an unqualified defensive co-ordinator when he already had Dick Flynn on staff. Flynn, if given the green light would have quickly made the Zips defense formidable. If you live in fear you soon die by fear. As for me, I was predicting during the final two minutes of the Can't game that it was Owens last season at Akron. Lee Owens is a decent coach. He will succeed at Ashland for much the same reason that Jim Dennison succeeded at Akron, by recruiting players from the next higher level. Its time to move on. Its time to give our full support to JD and his staff. Mike Thomas is an enigma. Mike runs hot and cold. Just like you and me he has strengths and weaknesses. In my mind's eye, Mike Thomas has done more for the University of Akron as an AD than any man since Red Cochrane. And, that folks, is saying a lot.

OLDZIP, meaning no disrespect, I'm an old Zip myself. And, YES, Glenville won a state championship, however, not in football, but in track. Most of the Glenville kids JD signed were the runners on the track team. Speed kills. Speed kills. Speed kills. There is no substitute for speed. You can't block it out. You can't out weigh it. You can't teach it. Speed kills. Speed kills. Speed kills.

Like most Zippy fans I have been following the trials and tribulation of the Pig Ten's Ohio State Suckeyes men's basketball trials and tribulations with a gleeful bias. That is, just love seeing them squirm in the national spotlight. Well, folks, its going to get a whole lot more interesting. The Suckeyes have hired Xavier head coach Thad Matta. On the surface Matta seems like an ideal candidate. He built lowly Butler into a formidable program prior to jumping to the job vacated by Skip Prosser at Xavier. Matta has continued his own and Xavier's success on the court. Now he moves on to the lofty (and greatly over paid) position of men's head coach at thee Ohio State University. Well, the Cincinnati Enquirer is going to be a most delightful resource in the coming months. Today there is a news article on the job change. AND, that Matta is contracted at Xavier through 2013. Going to be one EXPENSIVE buy out. A name from the past caught my eye in the article. I hope you are all buckled in your seats for this one. The Athletic Director at Xavier is NOT Mike Bobinski ... its Dawn (empty suit, queen bee) Rogers. Remember her? She was a worthless AD in training in Zippyland some years ago. Scum floats. It always rises to the highest level given the right medium. Here is at least two or three excellent examples of the Peter Principle at work. Enjoy this: Peter's Principle

Kicked back at my local Border's Bookstore earlier today. Picked up and perused a football rag of the type used in betting. Sadly, I failed to notice the name of the rag. But, it was not Jim Feist. This pub listed the Zips as the third best team in the MAC east behind Miami (#2) and that team from Gawd foresaken. They predicted that Charlie Frye is a given, the best talent in the MAC this year, and if JD gets a D the Zips could break out on top. Other than usually failing to cover the spread at home, the Zips are an excellent road "dog" and a good team to pick up some cash by taking them and the points.

Sharp eyes there CAP'N. Oddly, the PSU web site lists the article as being posted 7/2. But, I looked at the web site late yesterday (7/3) and that tidbit was not posted. At any rate a definitive time, especially 3:30 PM fits in very nicely with ESPN/ESPN2/ABC television coverage. Which, btw the article did mention that the game would be on TV. Penn State's Offical web site

A poster reported that one of the football coaches hinted that YSU may be on the 2005 football schedule. Since the schedule is pretty much complete out to 2010 this got me to wondering. The only likely game of 2005 to be dropped would be the home game against North Texas State. Now NTSU is a pretty fair opponent. Dropping that game for the likes of YSU must mean that the game against NTSU in 2007 on the road is being replaced with a much tougher road opponent. I had heard from an excellent university connected source that TWO future opponents for near term future games were in the works. Due to the caliber of these opponents (I know who they are) the deal will be a two for one as the Zips WANT home games against major schools. Look for the home-n-home against Utah State (about equal to playing Buffalo) to go bye-bye as well. This is entirely speculation on my part. Any thoughts?

FALLINGZIT its obvious to me a long time personal friend of Bob Huggins that you do not know jack about Coach Huggins. Hugs would NEVER even consider coaching the Suckeyes. Hugs was great friends with Coach Fred Taylor the former truly great Suckeye coach. tOSU screwed over Coach Taylor. Thus, Hugs would coach at Cant State before he'd been seen in Suckeye land. ZIT you are chuck full of crap. Just once it would be a huge change to see you write something intelligent, to the point and most of all ... POSITIVE.

I had to chuckle at RATFINK's tirade about Ohio State. I am no fan of the Suckeyes either. It warms my heart to see more and more Zips fans who refuse to clump along with the brain dead Ohioans who follow the Suckeyes. Well RATFINK seems to be a lot more on target today than I suspected when I first read his/her comments. Check out this national wire syndicated story in the Lame Squealer. OSU's Troubles Just Beginning

Food Fight ... !!! Boy, oh boy, finally a little heat on the boards. These boards were getting pretty mushy stale for weeks. Its about time there be some signs of life. Cap'n, I hope you are right on the mark. I can't judge any of the folks knowledge level. I do know that I was at Coach Dambrot's introduction press conference AND I reported on his speach at the Hall of Fame luncheon. Where I "scooped" every one on the desertion of Allan Hanson. Zip Watcher seems to be a solid Zips supporter. Charles In Charge comes across as your basic flamer. Ratfink seems to be a Zips supporter with a cutting and often caustic view of things. Any way, happy that there is a sign of life on the boards.

New men's basketball coach Terry Weigand completes Coach Dambrot's staff selection. You can all read Coach Weigand's "bio" on GoZips.com. Coach Weigand aside from being an excellent young basketball mind has that one great quality I love to see in a coach. A qualtity nearly all Zip's coaches possess. INTEGRITY Welcome aboard, Coach Weigand.

EIGHTY BUCKS ....???? Whoa, my eighty bucks is tied up in my pocket rocket '91 Buick Skylark that CARMAN once sold to the original little old lady. CARMAN has plenty of my money. He tries daily to get more of it tempting me with exotic cars I can not afford. Lord knows that CARMAN has filled my driveway with iron. EIGHTY BUCKS ....???? Good Lord, can I find enough pennies to cover the cost? Perhaps the SLUGS can fund the jersey purchase. I'll donate ten bucks. CARMAN, how about you?

Now a dude my age (I'm ancient) seldom watches MTV. But, of late, MTV has been hosting a show that I throughly enjoy. Pimp My Ride is a delight. West Coast Customs takes a "beater" and transmogrifys it into a fine looking street rod. Having had a life long love affair with hot American street iron (I have purchased as new a '64 GTO and a '67 Z-28 which are extremely rare, and now am building a '91 Buick Skylark with a supercharged 3800 Buick engine), this show delights me. Which leads me to an observation. XHIBIT, one of the principal characters on the show wears a different jersey for each episode. I did not catch this until I saw XHIBIT wearing a King James jersey. Perhaps, some one could present XHIBIT a #5 jersey. Perhaps it could be seen on a future episode of Pimp My Ride. Perhaps I'm nutz.

"If you don't consider JoPa "sportsman" of college football coaches, who is? Having met JoPa and sat through a quarter of an NFL preseason game with him, IMHO, you couldn't be more off." Well, let's see. I believe I said something to the order of "true sportsman, my ass" I think any reader with an ounce of sense figured out right away that my opinion of JoePa ranks right around the level of whale crap. In case you didn't get it the first time let me spell it out for you. The point spread on the game was a mighty FORTY-FIVE points. The Zips played their hearts out and trailed only 42-24 with less than nine minutes to play in the game. The temperature was in the 90s. The kids were beat. But, they were holding their own against PSU's second line. Frankly the dig tired Zips were "leading" PsU's (as in PeeYew) second line 7-0. Some one alerted true sportsman {my ass} JoePa that he didn't have the point spread covered. True sportsman {my ass} JoePa replaced his second team with his now rested first stringers for the REST OF THE GAME. Thus, a 70-24 blowout compliments of "true sportsman {my ass}" JoePa. What kind of "true sportsman" runs up the score against a dog tired, out manned opponent for the sake of a betting line point spread? Frankly I don't care if you spent a week in Siberia with the A-hole .... if he were really a sportsman he would have let the kids walk off the field with their heads held high and their dignity intact. JoePa is a flaming A-hole NOT a sportsman. You understand now, Bubby?

Let's not have anyone flap jawing to this uninformed soul. Neither he nor any other Nittiany Lion fan, coach or what ever needs any update on the current status of the Zips. Its nice that he believes the same Akron kids will suit up for the Sept. 4, 2004 game as were embrassed in 1997. They, like their former opponents will have to watch from the stands just like the rest of us. I remember that game quite well. Midway into the second quarter the score was 14-10. The PSU fans were agast. The previous week thay had demolished Arizona (or was it ASU?) 52-7 with the AZ team getting their TD with :52 seconds left in the game. Unfortunately two horrible events fell upon the Zips. LO went into the game conceeding in his own mind that there was no chance of winning, so he foolishly alternated QBs starting in the second quarter. The second string QB (I'm not going fishing for blame names) promptly cost the Zips two quick PSU TDs. At the half the score was 35-10. Going into the fourth quarter the score was a "respectable" 42-24. However, some one alerted JoePa (long known as being a true sportman {my ass}) that the spot on the game was a whoping 45 points. True, gracious sportsman {my ass} JoePa quickly re-inserted his now refreshed starting line up when his second line was unable to move the ball. These refreshed warriors rolled over the tired, out manned Zips and saved the day for true sportsman {my ass} JoePa.

RLN, Thanks for the heads up. It sounds promising for Matt. In poking around on the Jags web site (www.jaguars.com) I found Konrad Dean's name on their roster. One message board poster has all 88 of the Jags players ranked by his vision of their talent (prior to Sunday's last practices) and has Matt at #69 and Konrad at #79. Probably not likely that Konrad Dean has much of a chance. But, you never know. Good fortune to both of them.

Sanity, sanity, sanity. Let's inject a bit if sanity. Both RATFINK and ZIPALUM87 have valid points. But, its way too early to start skinning the cat. The Lady Zips badly need an inside presence. Bad enough to question signing another pint sized guard. Yet, Coach Kennedy can only recruit players that are willing to come play on a program that historically shall we say "sucks"? Coach Kennedy is saddled with a program that doesn't draw flys let alone players. It is to her credit that she has eeked out a few wins. What she took over was for all intents and purposes a lousy division TWO program. Coach Kennedy needs another three or four years just to make the program respectable. Unless, of course, some one donates lots of new cars to intice players. Believe it or not that is how some schools get their players. Oh, did I say that? BLUSH.

No more non-collegiate is fine by me. All too often I have seen foreign and post collegiate players take out their anger and frustration when losing on the college players. Many college teams, Akron included, have suffered injurys at the hands of these often older, more experienced players. Since foreign teams, AAU teams and the like seldom have the cohesion of a team, these individual "stars" often "vent" by clobbering the college player. All too often it is a blind sided cheap shot. Good riddance. Actually, I enjoy watching the Div.-I team "tune up" on a Div.-III team. Its usually a lot better basketball all the way around. Finally the NCAA made an intelligent ruling.

GO ZIPS doesn't know any of you "slugs" except for HulaZip (forgot his real ZO name) and CarMan. I'm sure CarMan WILL be at the Spring Game. Also, sure that Honolulu located HulaZip will NOT be at the game. So, you other "slugs" can spot GO ZIPS because he will be wearing a bright red-orange Heidelburg pull over. Yeah, Heidelburg, its warm and cost three whole bucks at the local Village Discount Outlet store. CarMan can vouch for GO ZIP's inherent cheapness having sold GO ZIPS at least four cars in the past five years. One for $200 and one for $300 and two decent ones. GO ZIPs can't afford CarMan's luxerious junkets to away games. Twice CarMan scrapped GO ZIPs off the bus's rear bumper. The walk home from the Toledo rest stop was a memorable one.

CK, Thanks for the heads up. Here's a link to an article about Lamont Paris www.iup.edu/varsitysports/sports/mb/parisresigns.shtm

HEY, YOU, DUFUS ...!!! Yeah, the one with the orange and purple hair. Where do you get off calling me a "dummy" for reporting exactly what I saw? Jabari has at times looked down right AWFUL with his throws in practice. Didn't I also comment that I thought this could be corrected by the coaching staff? Well, didn't I? Sorry, but one performance against who, one of the worst defenses in college football, doesn't make the kid the second coming of Warren Moon. Perhaps it will bolster his ego or with luck actually improve his game. You want to start him in place of lack luster Charlie (the real deal) Frye based on one performance against who? Oh, yeah, that's another thing. Let's blow off the kid's red-shirt year late in the season because by some golly gee whiz miracle he'll step up and single handedly beat Marshall. Hey, Hula Zip, and you thought I was a homer ...!!!

Since none of the loyal, faithful slugs reported zip on the Zips second scrimmage let me tell one and all about my visit to Ashland. As HulaZip knows, GoZips lives in Wadsworth which makes for an easy jump down the I-roads to Ashland. First off, Ashland's Community Stadium (where the Div 2 Eagles play) is even harder to loacte than the Rubber Bowl. But, as luck would have it, I finally found it. I was greeted upon entering the facility (more a sports complex with a football field than a stadium) by former Zips coach Tom Stacy. We had a pleasant chat. He told me that most if not all the Ashland FB coachs will be in attendance for the Zip's Spring Game. Next I spend several minutes with Lee Owens. He was as cheerful and bubbly as ever. The "game" was played with heart. They used the same scoring system Lee had brought to Akron from Ohio State. A bit different than the one reported on Gozips.com for the Akron scrimmage. While the kids are decent sized the thing you really notice is the lack of speed. A Div-IA team only has to run sweeps and fly patterns (kind of like Nebraska, Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Penn State did against the Zips) to anilalate Ashland. Lee installed two things he did at Akron. The superb offensive scheme that the AU kids were just beginning to grasp. And, the pathetic inability to tackle the ball carrier. AU has several kids vying for the starting QB slot. One kid did show that he wants the job. Although he wore #4 he most reminded me of Charlie. I heard he was also from Willard. Talked to several HS head coachs in attendance. I spent the entire game with the defense along the side line. One head coach (Nance of Hamilton, OH) told me that his daughter is attending Zippyland on a track scholarship in the Fall. His son, a red-shirt Freshman is a starting cornerback for the Ashland Eagles. Kid played well, too. Oh, yeah, the defense "won" 66-35. A close game.

My observation of Saturday's scrimmage: Charlie looks like Charlie. He moved the offense well. Jabari is late, under throwing, makes bad choices. But, since he has excellent coaching and the opportunity he may come around. Since NONE of the WRs are making great impressions (no Matt Cherry or Jake Schfino types), perhaps Arthur could get a workout at WR. Personally, I like the bazooka arm John Fergusson is sporting. He needs more reps. I am favorably impressed with what the coaches have the defense doing. I thought the D fared well until late in the scrimmage when they fatigued. They managed to "sack" Charlie a couple of times. A tweak here and there and the "pocket" got a lot better. Swarm to the ball and play until the whistle STOPS seems to be the watch words being drilled into the defense. I particularily liked when a defender slipped, fell, and the pass was completed to his man. He lay on the turf and watched the play end. Then, the wrath of gawd chewed him a fresh hiney. "Get up off your ass and get the ball carrier!" "Don't just lay there." etc. etc. I think he got the message. Lee's boys always just watched the play from their comfortable prone position. A couple of those and he can watch the game from the bench. Oh, and Jerrell Ringer gets it done. Tough as a box of rocks. I like the kid.

2. LeFall and Crouch got in a fight during the scrimmage 3. LeFall sucker punched him in the locker room after the scrimmage and may be suspended for the rest of the spring. Ain't nothing like getting beat off the blocks to piss off an underachieving player. With a little luck and a police report, Mr. LeFall could do some jail time. In my opinion, and some what aware in more detail than was previously reported, LeFall made his move after 15-20 minutes of cooling off with a coach. My suggestion, he'd be gone if I were the HC. No excuse for this.