Captain Kangaroo

And he called Keener "a bitter member of the venomous minority"! I'd love to have seen Buffalo coached by Elton Alexander, with George Thomas as the offensive coordinator. I bet the game's result would have been completely different. I-and-II-o would be the star of that staff. Go Zips!

I felt we would roll because a freshman QB was scheduled to start for Buffalo. He didn't. We won. Again. Go Zips!

Kyle Vantrease couldn't beat Hudson last season, so he certainly won't beat the Zips. Look for the Zips to romp. 38-16

Miami, Buffalo and Kent are at, or below our competitive level. Those need to be "W's." OU has the advantage of being a steady winner for an extended period. We're still figuring out how to win. But at home, a bowl-worthy Zips team should match up well with the Bobcats. No excuses...we're healthy, and in-line for a championship berth. Time to roll.

Two star recruits can turn around a basketball program in one season. Turning around an 85 student football program takes time. Especially turning around one that was the absolute worst in D-1A. If Bowden would have chosen from Day 1 to recruit freshmen, redshirt them and slowly build a program, he would have been fired within 3-4 years max. You don't win with 18 and 19 year olds. And no AD in today's world waits 4 years to become competitive. So Bowden chose to heavily utilize transfers in the beginning. And we became relatively competitive in a short time. And being relatively competitive allowed us to get a nice recruiting class this past February, and redshirt most of them. For the first time, we have some depth, and can let players develop. This year's recruiting class, by seemingly everyone's estimation, is Bowden's best to-date. The bulk of those kids will be redshirted, and we have the makings of a deep, year-in-year-out competitive upper-tier MAC program. I see us winning 3 of our remaining 4 games. 7-5 would be a great season considering our original circumstances, and the future would look bright too. Our program is now appealing to some decent HS talent. That's my view. Like it or not.

Love those 20-win seasons in basketball. Om nom nom.

We're 4-4, with a decent probability of going 7-5. or 8-4. That's acceptable for me in October 2017. We'll see how the final 4 games play-out.

A couple final thoughts on the Toledo game - Chapman had a really nice game. He made a great catch in traffic over the middle for a first down... on 3rd and 19 he made a nice move coming back towards Woodson...unfortunately the catch netted 18 yards, and we ended up punting...and his diving TD catch showed great hands and timing. A small ray of light in an otherwise forgettable day. We had zero penalties. I don't know how that was possible in a road MAC game, but it happened. Having no Amanda Sauers in the officiating crew probably helped.

I made a solo trip to Toledo yesterday. I miss my bud Dr. Z's pics, and layout skills. No one likely wants to read about the Zips getting their butts whipped, but I went...and here it is. Toledo.pdf

We"ve been a lot better team since both Wolf and Bell have returned. Need Wolf to amp it up a little more though.

Communist.

Should anything happen to Logan Woodside, his back up is Hudson's Mitchell Guadagni. The Zips could conceivably face two Summit County quarterbacks in successive weeks?

So how do we beat Toledo? Looks like beautiful weather, so there's no chance we play on a Sunday. Damn. I can see us holding the Rockets to under 30 points, but how do we score more than 30? Beating WMU gives us a little swagger and confidence. That will help. But...

So a college tasked with education should use its basketball arena to compete with Regal Cinema? Mom can take the kid to a movie theater to see a movie. I'll be ecstatic if I can look somewhere in the arena and see a simple graphic showing player points/rebounds/assists. What a day that will be if it ever happens.

Bowden will have no say in the hiring of the next Zips HC.

How does that change? I don't think it will. Maybe getting Booker more involved in the offense helps a bit. Maybe Sands can add a home run threat. But JoJo Natson ain't comin' back. Our offense pretty much is-what-it-is.

The MAC sure had a lot of different teams back then?

I guess you can consider a TD pass to the tight end, and a wildcat formation TD run as somewhat creative too?

At season's end, you would say: "We beat a 4-2 WMU team that finished the season 4-8." If you beat a 6-6 Utah State team in a bowl, you beat a 6-6 Utah State team. It is obvious that they would be 6-7 after you beat them. There's no other way to state it. Correctly, at least.

I would disagree. I'm sure any HS recruit considering the Zips took note of the win. And any committed recruits possibly wavering on their decision felt a little bit more secure...or even excited about their it. Milestone win for the Zips. Assuming they finish the season strong.

So if the Zips beat 13-0 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl, we'd have beaten 13-1 Ohio State? Ok... Only the talking heads on TV who have hours to fill for their vapid audience care about too many bowl games. There may be too many reality TV shows on the air...but I could care less because I don't watch them. If you hate that there's too much football to watch in December and January, you don't need to watch it. Watch the Food Network. Bowl games are crucial to MAC football programs. There was a time, not too long ago, when 10-2 MAC programs went nowhere for the post season. They went home. Now there are bowl tie-ins to reward good seasons. I couldn't be happier. I enjoy watching football, so I like bowl games.They're always a lot of fun to watch. And I'm happy players and coaches get rewarded for a solid season . I saw videos of the Zips team in Boise, and it looked like they were having a blast.

Utah State was 6-6 entering the game. The only reason you'd want to state they were 6-7 is if you wanted to diminish the win. The "glorified exhibition," just for clarification, is also known as a "bowl game." The only reason you'd call it otherwise is if you wanted to diminish the win. Amazing that our own fans want to diminish an Akron Zips bowl win. I liked that 2015 Zips team, and appreciate the bowl victory. I thought it was awesome.

The "moving the pile" personal foul penalty was as bogus as it was crippling.

Have you seen Miami spiraling down the toilet, or are they too far down?

Last year we lost countless key players. Right now we're healthy...healthy, at least, as any college football program can reasonably expect to be 7 weeks into a season. Our defense was strong the entire game yesterday. That speaks to the depth we've accrued. They also played at a pretty high level. Everyone wants to credit Amato...and they should. But Stroud has done a great job. Mounds and Woodford too. Throw Gildersleeve in there as well - our guys are in shape and strong. Great win for the Zips yesterday. It gets some legitimate MAC Championship talk going in Summit County. That's awesome.