Captain Kangaroo

His name surfaces every so often in the "What ever happened to him..." category. Grad Assistant at 13-0 IUP. "Franco is joined on head coach Paul Tortorella’s IUP coaching staff by his younger brother Stevie, a graduate assistant coach who is working with the defense and handling assignments like putting together the scout team playbook for the IUP players. “He played with 70 percent of the current players, so he knows how to talk to these guys and he’s a nice go-between guy between the players and coaches,” Johnny Franco said of Stevie, a former all-state quarterback at Tyrone who started for three years as a safety at IUP after transferring there from the University of Akron. “He’s helped us a lot since he’s been in the system for so long.”

2pm starts are better than noon. I still prefer centering my Saturday evening around a 7 pm Zips BB game, getting a couple near-campus beers and some food prior to the game. At least with a 2 pm start I can get my errands run in the morning, and have Saturday evening free to do whatever.

I am thinking 20 on the nose, with 18 in the regular season, and two more in the MAC tourney. An injury to any starter would make my 20-win my prediction look really bad.

We have a pretty good Engineering department at UA. Maybe some physics major can figure this one out?

Good point...the shirt cannon killed Maude Flanders.

We have a "cannon" that shoots tee shirts into the second row. I feel bad for the kids up top...they scream like crazy for a shirt, and 99.7% of them land in Blue Hair Land. How many shirts can the elderly use? We need an "Adult Diaper Cannon" if we aren't going to fix that thing.

A friend of mine was listening to the radio feed and said Frenchy mentioned someone from Groce's staff noticed Smith playing ball in the UA Rec Center and asked him to join the team.

Me too.

Just like I predicted - Poke and Cotton lead the Zips in scoring, with Poke being our most reliable free throw shooter.

Former FAU Recruiting Target

I saw him play against Hudson this year. The kid is Julian Edelman Jr. Tough, strong...I'd LOVE to see him in a Zips uniform.

It would have been interesting for him to use his 5th year of college eligibility to try his hand at offensive line for the football team.

He seems to have a little bit of "Paul Pierce" in him? Coming off the field you'd have thought he had a serious injury. But after a 10 minute break and a re-taping, he was doing sprints up and down the sidelines trying to convince the staff he could return to the game. I'm sure the ankle feels bad today, but I have to believe he's good to go for the 19th. Just my gut feeling.

Went to a couple of the state championship games on Friday. If I'm UA I get some tape on Antonio Salinas from Eastwood HS. Had a monster game - 3 sacks and 6 TFL's. 1st team All Ohio. Played DL, but would be an LB at the next level. 6' 1", 205. Runs track. He's Division 5, so maybe he's under the radar? He looked like a Division 1 college recruit to me.

"Akron is, no matter how you look at it, not a “great” football team. A win Saturday pushes the imagination to conjure up what exactly a great Akron team might be capable of." I like that observation.

IMO - Manny Morgan has become way more effective than Grice was in short yardage situations. Once the defense caught on to Grice, he frequently got stuffed. Morgan seems to find a crease every time.

Gavin thread

100% agree. Every year there's some egregious omission...this year Kyron is the lucky recipient. Hope he uses the Toledo game to show the voters the error of their ways...

Joe gets the Mississippi State gig. Good for him!

Brad Stevens would disagree.

This guy must be Nostradamus's relative?

Love the energy the pics capture! Being out of town for Thanksgiving I'm grateful for the window into the spirit of this Akron - Kent game! Looking forward to Detroit!

Because the game is a lot slower - People aren't scoring every 15 seconds. Do you really want to know when a player goes from 13 to 17 total yards rushing? I can't believe I need to explain this....

Why do you need to make the choice? Did't you watch good basketball for the past 13 years, and have some stats? It is simply bizarre, in 2017, to have a brand new hi-def scoreboard, 4 high-resolution sideboards, and you don't use them to tell the fans the game point, rebound and foul information. Was this equipment installed simply to have grainy footage of elderly people making out on the Kiss Cam? Why does Steve French, during his broadcast, tell you how many points or fouls a player has? It's because fans want to know this information. If I'm at the game, and there are 5 different scoreboards in my immediate viewing area, it is bizarre that I need to check my phone to see how many points Daniel Utomi has scored. It happens no where else in the world but the JAR.