Captain Kangaroo

Ohio beats Georgia Tech, @ Georgia Tech.

YSU gets blown out by Jacksonville on a neutral court. Ruins the hope that our YSU outcome would be considered a "good loss" by the NCAA selection committee. Damn...

I wish you were around to watch The Killer B's of Bryan Hipsher and Brian Wood. With Andre Simms coming off the bench. Those were the days...

In my "Way Too Premature" evaluation of the 2016-17 Zips, gleaned from watching exactly one half of basketball, I'll offer the following: I like Mike. Big Mike has good size, he's in good condition and he has a high motor. He seems to have the skill set and attitude to have a nice career at UA. Noah needs to impact the game more. His stats looked good at the game's end, but he seemed to play on cruise control last night. He certainly merits a pass for being a step slow last season, but this year he needs to amp it up. If Ivey can get his dribble under control this season, look out. He can dribble-penetrate, and makes his free throws. He could have a huge year if can keep the turnovers at a minimum. Kwan had a really nice performance under the boards. And a solid defensive effort overall. He actually had a couple nifty passes too. After 4 years I guess we have to live with his streaky 3-point shooting. It ain't going to change. But it looks like he's added a bit of rebounding and defensive intensity to his game this year. And we really need it. I wish Big Dog sat next to me in the stands to see what a complete mismatch he had in the paint all night. He should have scored 30 on that stiff. He gave him WAY too much respect, dribbling too much and tossing up shots at unnecessarily awkward angles. His rebounding was sub par, rebounding the ball instead of putting a body on someone. He got caught watching a couple times. Antino is still a water bug, and needs to increase his shooting percentage. We'll see how he settles-in this season. Utomi has a thick build. He could be good. But way to few minutes to gauge his potential. Olijapoke is long and rail-thin. In my limited view I'd project him similar to Ibitayo. He's not going to do much in year's #1 and #2. But maybe by his Junior season, if he works hard, he could begin making an impact. Dunn-Martin looks like a baller. Again, he only had limited minutes. But he looks very comfortable on the floor for a November Freshman. Josh Wiilliams - still the prettiest shot in the league. Didn't see enough of him to tell if he added anything to his game. How this American team played Maryland to within 6 points is pretty amazing. They seemed pretty crappy to me. I guess if they made their free throws, it would have been a closer game. But they were really soft inside. Lots of time to improve. Putting the ball in the basket would be a good start.

Combinations of Joyce, Middleton, Dials and Roberts come to mind. Toledo has had some very small, highly effective guards over the years too.

Of the 5 shots the Zips have had on goal, that was by far the most difficult. It could easily be 5-0 right now.

If Nelson is better, he'll get the QB job. If he's not, he won't. There will be 3 scholarship QB's on the roster from here-on-out. The good ones will see the field, and the others will transfer or switch positions. That's the same everywhere... Nelson will get plenty of opportunities to see the field in 2017. If Bowden could see into the future, I'm sure he would have pulled Nelson's redshirt and played him at mid-season. But Woodson's return was always "just around the corner," and Chapman won a couple games. By the time it was clear that Woodson's shoulder wasn't responding, and Chapman couldn't move the chains, it was too late to play Nelson.

Bet there were some hard-hitting questions. "Who's Big Doug? I don't see any 'Doug' on the roster?" "How's Antonio looking?" "Are you excited about Tree's final season?"

I would say that's the predominate theme of the Zips 2016 season. 1.) Huge defensive losses through graduation hurt our 2016 depth. And then we lose Marcus and Boxen for the bulk of the season...not to mention other's who've spent a lot of time on the IR. 2.) As Woodson goes, so do the Zips. And Woodson hasn't been healthy since MAYBE Ball State? He wasn't himself at Buffalo, a scratch vs. WMU, and played sparingly vs. BG. The old "cut the head off the snake and the body dies" adage is true of Woodson and the Zips. If he's out, we go from Contender, to Pretender. I'll remain hopeful that the bye week, plus maybe a cortisone shot, gets Woodson in shape to be effective versus OU. If he is, we can win. I liked what Amato did with the defense against BG. The 2-LB sets were effective. What hurt us is the two TD's surrendered via turnovers. And the late fumble on the kick-off that caused a final 7 to be tacked-on. The score looked bad, but the D certainly played well enough to win. If Woodson is healthy, we have a chance. Bottom line.

You gotta quit beating that drum, dude. Name me one of those vaunted 13 QB's that did anything once they left the Zips. Where are all these studs? Most were walk-ons who were worth a look back in the 1-11 days. But nothing more.

I recall an article on Hoyer when he transferred to UA from Mercyhurst. I don't think Hoyer has ever had any intentions on being the Zips starting QB. He is here to learn under Bowden and be around the program, and probably parlay that experience into a coaching job one day. He's a walk on. He's not the Zips solution at QB, unless we need someone kneeling in the victory formation with 00:02 remaining in a game. And unfortunately it's been too long since we've needed a QB with that specific skill set.

East Season Ends - A Few UA Mentions Included

Hey, I thought we had 2 of our top 5 starters that could have have transferred anywhere in the country? And we lost to YSU? Embarrassing. No other way to spin it.

Regarding "Why we can't hang with Toledo?" - I'd add: Our previous two coaches prior to Bowden are: 1.) Fired from UA. Selling Software. 2.) Fired from UA. Fired from Kansas. Coaching WR's at Buffalo Toledo's previous two coaches: 1.) Hired-away by Illinois 2.) Hired-away by Iowa State Putting it mildly - The table wasn't quite set as nicely for Bowden as it was for Coach Candle. One came in to rebuild Hiroshima. The other came in to comparatively maintain the Bahamas.

Did Kent burn any pre-game oars?

Serious answer - I don't have the least bit of concern that an undefeated Western Michigan team drove 6 hours to play a sorry Kent team in the cold rain, and overlooked them for a couple quarters. We beat Kent, at Kent, with our back up QB. That game holds more comparative weight to me. I hate that Toledo and WMU whipped our butts. It sucks to watch that in your own stadium. But what can you expect given our situation (recent program history, graduation losses, injuries)? I feel we're exponentially better off than 5 years ago, and progressing at a decent clip. IF we can get any semblance of a defense next season, we can have that great year we're all waiting for. The offense will be awesome. If we don't address or defensive needs next season, it will be a crime. And I'll probably put some really good season tickets back on the market...cause I can't take much more.

Good for them. Akron 31 Kent 27

Marcus was our best returning defensive lineman, and we lost him for the entire season. Boxen was our best interior lineman, and he's missing the complete 2nd half of the season. Moore and others have missed multiple games. For a group that was already thin, it was too much to overcome. How do you replace Coe, Grice, Monroe, Evans, Brown and Marcus? That's a tall order. Our front 7 is no doubt terrible. But if Marcus and Boxen had relatively healthy seasons, it would have been good enough to win another game or 2. Hope the free agent crop is good this spring. If I'm a decent DL or LB grad transfer, I'm pretty excited to join Chuck Amato, where I can be pretty much guaranteed I'm gonna get a lot of playing time, and have the support of a high-scoring offense. Next season could be awesome, but we need some serious defensive help.

Gettin' Ziggy with it

Not too shabby for 10 games.

Pretty much "Put up or Shut up" for the Zips this week. Nationally televised game...beatable opponent who thoroughly embarrassed the Zips in 2015...bowl eligibility on the line... No excuses...Zips need to win this game.

He has missed the last 2 games due to injury, so that affects his numbers a little. He also played 3 games with Chapman at QB. I think MTB would have been really effective over the middle against Toledo. Too bad he was hurt. Prior to the season's start we didn't know what we had in Natson, and didn't know how much Wolf had improved. With Lane, Wolf and Natson, there's not a whole lot of balls to be caught by anyone else. He has several TD's this season, so I guess I'm happy he's being utilized in some meaningful capacity, regardless of the position. Just my 2 cents...

Seems like the lighting was about perfect for photography last night? Bad game, great photos. If I'm Woodson, I take photo #1 and blow it up to dorm room wall size.

True. But most of that was in "garbage time." Unfortunately for the Zips, there was roughly 57 minutes of garbage time last night.