Hilltopper

Its over, 2-0 Zips.

How about this. In the second half BG took the kickoff and drove right down the field. They had 1st and goal and we line up with a back up saftey covering the best player(#7) they have in man coverage. Their QB simply lofts a short pass to him for 6. The guy covering him was way overmatched. That is stupid coaching.

Looks Like Stan has used up his 9 coaching lives.Numerous Violations

I popped into Memorial Hall on the day of the home opener for football. Its even smaller and crappier than I remember. By comparison, the JAR looks like the Q. Other than for a few of us old guys curiosity, I see no reason why we would ever play another game there ever! Its destined for the wrecking ball soon and I will not miss it at all.

That was embarrassing! That has to rank in my top five worst losses and this is year # 40 for me. Around 200 games and this one is right up there.

I'm watching a reply of the game right now on TWC 23. D'Orazio has 150yds rushing and 3 TDs in the first half. Cuyahoga Hgts is leading 28-0.

I thought Sullivan looked promising also. He looks to be a great athlete with a lot of leaping ability. Don't get me wrong about Swiech though, I do like the guy. Its just that KD isn't going to play someone who is a liability on defense. Bardo may not contribute much on offense, but he is a good defender and thats why he gets playing time. I wish there was a way you could combine Bardo And Swiech into one player!

Steve is not a D-1 player. Last night really showed that he just doesn't have what it takes. He got beat by his man over and over under the basket for lay-ups. If he gets any meaningful minutes this season it will take a miracle. Its obvious that his teammates really like him, because they did everything they could to get him the ball on offense, but he is totally lost on defense. If the Zips played alot of Zone, he might have a chance.

Like you, I really don't want to know what he did to the rest of the stuff you were served. He wasn't serving my table. Good thing too, because the Great GP1 would have had him shine his shoes before he left......."Hey Can't grad....Go get your shine box."Right..... you have never worked in a restaurant, have you? It gives me the willies just thinking about the stuff you chewed and swallowed. Thats just what I was thinking! I used to own a restaurant, and you are asking for it if you piss off a server or cook for no reason. The Great GP1 would be advised to remember he can't see what goes on in the kitchen!

Heres is the definition of a dirty player.I'm thinking she took a few lessons from Singletary!

This was the Zips team I expected to see this season. Way to go Zips.

Everyone's holding their breath .....Everytime I read one of Jakes posts, this just keeps popping into my head.THANKS FOR SEEING THE OBVIOUS. THE MAJORITY ON THIS SITE ARE EPITOMIZED BY THE LITTLE CHICKEN. THEY JUST DON'T GET IT. THAT IS WHY THEY KEEP ASKING THE SAME STUPID QUESTIONS. THEY GO ROUND IN A CIRCLE...LIKE THE BILLY PRESTON SONG!Will It Go Round in Circles 4:28 Billy Preston 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Billy Preston $0.99 R&B/SoulWhoooosh! Right over his head! There, I fixed it. I wasn't talking about Dave.

Everyone's holding their breath .....Everytime I read one of Jakes posts, this just keeps popping into my head.I fixed it

All you have to do is look back a few years ago to see how important this game is for the Zips. From the 006 Media Guide; With Temple, OU and Can't in a heated race for the MAC east championship, nothing would be more satisfying than dening the flushed a chance to be the MAC champs.

Thats why I voted for a succesful lower division head coach. Someone who has already proven they could build a winning program. I don't think we are talentless, just that the coaching staff doesn't know how to tap into what we have.

Same $hit, different day. All thats left now to salvage the season is a win over Can't.

Its on channel 5.

I think you captured what others may think, but aren't willing to say. As usual, the Great GP1 has to say it and then take the heat. Here we go.....The Zips are not a dominate mid-major team right now. KD doesn't say his team is Top 25 or even a dominate mid-major, he says he wants to get there. He knows where his team is right now and is living in the world of reality. Whether people want to admit it or not, the Zips were pretty harshly shown the door last year in the NCAA Tournament by a team that wasn't even that good. I think it is unlikely that a team goes from being harshly shown the door to winning a game the following season. When the Zips return to the NCAA Tournament again this season, they did nothing the previous season to earn a higher seed and the potential for winning is decreased.Most of the way I view sports is from being a Steelers fan. The Steelers are first and foremost built to win the AFC North or come in second. By doing that, they make the playoffs frequently and then see what happens once they get in. Winning Super Bowls is the benefit of winning on a regular basis during the regular season. If you put yourself in a position where good things can happen, good things will happen eventually. That's my point with the Zips. Keep winning the MAC, dominate the regular season so winning kids want to come to your school and let the chips fall where they may in the NCAA tournament.Was the MAC Championship last year more about a team putting themselves in a position to be successful, or was it part of the strange "building" conspiracy we read about so much on this board? I think it was more of a case where the Zips have put themselves in a position to win over the past few years and eventually were going to win one. There is nothing to be ashamed about because they lost their first round NCAA game.The Winthrop analogy is interesting because I live just a few miles from their campus. KD talks about the window of opportunity for the Zips. I think that is the wrong way to look at it. It assumes when the window closes, success ends because everything has to have a beginning, middle and end. This type of linear thinking is destroying our society and destroys teams. This happened to Winthrop in a conference that is better than the MAC. They basically had a class of kids that came in an won four straight conference titles, won some NCAA games and are gone. Now that they are gone (along with the coach that brought them in), they are back to not being a very good team. You guys saw what was left at Winthrop last season at the JAR and it isn't very pretty. I want to hear KD talk about the Zips dominating the MAC for the near and far future with him being part of that success. Take one game at a time and the success will follow. Worry about what happens at the end of the season when it gets here.I agree. Start with dominating the MAC and build from there.

I guess things are so bad that no one wants to go on record with a prediction thread this week?

Jim Dennison is very unhappy with his "Promotion" right at the peak of his coaching career and does nothing to convince Huggins to stay. He soon bolts for greener pastures. Gerry Faust is a great guy, but a lousy head coach for an emerging D-1 program. One of his brilliant ideas is to move the Home sideline to the stands opposite the pressbox side of the RB. It will look better on national TV, the season ticket holders are told. The zips go from a top 1-aa program to bottom dweller in the MAC.

Aren't the chants of Charlie-Charlie-Charlie how he started his illustrious career in Cleveland? Like I always say, everything Cleveland fans want ends up blowing up in their faces. Charlie was just another example of that.

Remember just a year ago, many thought it would be very difficult to replace Wood, Dials and Middleton? at best we could expect a rebuilding year. Zips ranked dead lastOur Head trainer was leaving because things were so bad.Ray Eady to leaveI expect C Mcknight and Conyers to step up like the seniors they are and others to show the kind of progress that KD needs to keep us a 20+ game winner and competing for the MAC title. This is why I love college BB, its always changing.

Can I have your autograph CK?

I think Nitros rise to the top might have something to do with defense. The Zips need a shutdown defender to replace Linhart. One of the reasons the Zips were so sucessful last season was Nates ability to shut down the other teams best scorer. In the MAC, most of teams best players are either a 2 or 3 and Nitro matches up well size wise at 6-4. McClanahan has the size and the athletic ability to be that type of defender.

I disagree that we experienced a "perfect storm of problems." Then what did we experience in 2008...or 2007...or 2006...etc, etc, etc? Another series of "perfect storms?"I believe we have experienced a "perfect storm of excuses." That's it.Lee Owens didn't have the stadium or the training facilities. Then JD had the training facilities, but not the stadium. Now we have the training facilities and the stadium, BUT <insert next excuse here>.In JD's 6th season, playing what is likely the easiest schedule in D1 (maybe it is tied with some other MAC East program, but I don't count them). He's 1 - 5. Not only is he 1-5, but he's 0-5 vs. D-1 competition. He's 1-2 at home, and winning 25% of his home games over the past 1 1/2 seasons.Was Jacquemain's suspension crippling? Sure. But who's idea was it to tether the ship to this train-wreck of a kid? His history as an unreliable player on-the-field were only exceeded by his known issues off it. Yet JD rolled the dice that Jacquemain could keep his hands out of the cookie jar for 1 semester. Shocking that this 5th year senior QB...who mysteriously escaped the nomination of Team Captain prior to the start of the season...couldn't do it? Rodgers as the #2 QB was again not any "perfect storm" problem. He's a great kid. He's not a Division 1 QB. If he was, JD would have played him over Jacquemain in the first place. Rodgers blowing his ACL is a convenient excuse to play Nicely, but the truth is, Nicely was warming up on the sidelines prior to Rodgers' injury. If not for the quick OU turnover, Nicely would have entered the game on the ensuing series. There's a reason JD told Nicely not to play in the Football World Championships this past summer...he knew there was a damn good chance he'd need to play him this season, and it was more important that he was in Zips camp.The Ferri "recruiting scandal" is a joke. If this is the excuse for 1 - 5, I have to laugh. I think Tom Gaffney and Elton Alexander have given it all of 100 combined words of print. The University's reaction to the "scandal" (BTW - now downgraded to "an investigation of recruiting practices") has been more damaging than the allegations themselves. Go to a BCS school and see what a real "scandal" looks like. Like Dr. Z, I'm tired of losing. I'm tired of excuses. I'm tired of traveling to support the team, only to watch 20yard rugby punts, pop-up kick off and the 3-3-5 defense get shredded late in a close game. I'm tired of watching other MAC programs go bowling while we sit at home with our woe-is-me laundry list of "prefect storm" excuses. I'm tired of explaining to my kid why, as a Zips fan, he always walks out of the stadium a loser.F*ck losing. I'm tired of it.This is my 41st season of supporting Zips football and I have never felt as low as I do this season. The only thing JD has done since his arrival was to slip in the back door to win the MAC championship in 05. Even that should be viewed with skepticism because of how it all played out for us to get to the MCB that year. Since that highpoint we have been in a serious downward spiral. As much as I hated Lee Owens, at least his teams were good enough in one area of the game to make things entertaining. This years team is a disgrace. If this is the best that JD can do, when he knows his back is against the wall with all the expectations of the new stadium, than he will never be sucessful. I would be thrilled to see the AD hire a known quantity at head coach to create some hope about the future of Zips football. The only thing left for me this season is the hope that we at least can take down the flushes. All the rest is meaningless at this point. I have a feeling that Ron Zook might be available at the end if the year. He couldn't be any worse than JD.