Captain Kangaroo

To your points - 1.) No doubt it would be a better game day environment if more than 76 students filled the student section. I think the section could be full one day. It was around 2008 when UA filled up several student buses and essentially filled the endzone AT Kent. That student section was responsible for the Kent kicker shanking a field goal attempt in OT giving the Zips the victory. JD Brookhart made the coin flip decision to defend the Zips student section endzone because the students created such and an advantage. The point being - someone got off their butt and really rallied the students. They, in turn, got off their butt and supported the team. Hopefully Matt Newhouse's return to campus gets the student ship righted. But it won't happen overnight. At least Bowden has the team winning some games for the first time in a decade. That's the biggest hurdle. 2.) Are the DE's overrated? I know Marcus has been banged up. Pittman really hasn't done much. But I don't pin all the defense's problems against the run on the D line. LB's really haven't made an impact. There's unfortunately no more Jatavis wreaking havoc in the backfield. We'll see what happens over the next 2 weeks. App State had a great O line. Our D held them to 14 points in the 2nd half. If they can build off that 2nd half performance and spread that effort and energy over a full game, we can beat anyone remaining on our schedule. 3.) Other than the last possession, I can't complain much about Milwee vs. App State. He took what their defense gave us, and the offense put up some big numbers. It's a lot of pressure on the offense to essentially need to play perfect football against a good team. And that what they needed to do for the Zips to win last Saturday. The two Woodson INTs really put us in a hole. That said, the Zips waving the white flag at the end of the first half was a coaching decision that ended up costing us big time. On 2nd and 28 we ran clock and punted. That gave App State plenty of time to carve up our D and get a final TD before the half ended. For some reason Bowden thought it was 2015, and not 2016. And that last possession? Jesus...we had 2 full minutes left on the clock, and played like we had 19 seconds. 4.) I don't know that Amato can do more than he's doing. Any coach will tell you he'll take talent over scheme every day of the week. You can only scheme so much when the talent and/or experience is limited. We lost too much talent from last season. Hopefully we get better, and healthier as the season wears on. And there are no more weddings. 5.) The kick off game was atrocious last week. We gave a potent offense a free 10-15 yards on virtually every kick off. When your D is suspect, that is a deal-breaker. I can't complain about our punting game. It was an easy week for Michael Buddenberg too. 6.) WMU and Toledo are fairly scary propositions. Somehow we need to summon that "Marshall effort" on D. The upside for the 2016 Zips lies in the improvement the defense makes from here-on-out. If the D is maxed out, and it may be, 8 wins is still to be expected prior to our MAC Championship game. I think Bowden is doing a great job. But I reserve the right to change my mind if we finish 6-6. I don't think we will.

Unless he has another brother getting married between now and the remainder of this season, he should be available to play.

Kent info from Hustle Belt Looks like they have one decent player on Defense? And it looks like a VMI-like victory for the Zips.

I don't think anyone attending that game would be deterred from coming back. If someone didn't get $15 worth of entertainment out of that game, there's something wrong with them. Let's pound Kent, whip Miami, and see what the crowd's like for WMU. If we take care of business, it will be pretty decent.

I'm watching BG. Down 70-3 to Memphis with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. Worst beat down ever. If the Zips don't win the MAC East, it's their own fault. KD is laughing at the cupcakes the Zips need to beat to make the MAC Championship game.

Yeah, the Rubber Bowl was packed back in the Faust era. Several hundred people per game if I recall correctly? I would love to see a Faust Tweet.

A buddy of mine called UA and was told Lot 9 would be accessible at 9:30 am. Not earlier.

Maybe Lloyd gets his chance?

Happened in May?

I watched some of the OU/Kansas game last week. Kansas would finish last in the MAC. They are absolutely horrible.

I predict Alabama's pimp hand will be strong.

To our App State visitors, I have one question: “Is it Ap-uh-lash-un, or Ap-uh-LAY-shun?”

Before the Secret Service swooped in and silenced his microphone, I believe Steve French had said Ball's injury looked like a 4-week recovery. We'll see how it pans out.

Ever the optimist...

A quick Zips-related strip club story - Back in the Rubber Bowl days, "Rumors" was a strip club across the street from the stadium entrance. Heading into the stadium circa 2004, my 3-year old son in his back booster seat asked "What's that place?" I said "Rumors. Its a place where girls dance on tables." He says - "Can we go there?" I reply - "Maybe after the game." After the game we're heading home and pass Rumors. I thought the kid was asleep, but he starts screaming "YOU PROMISED WE'D GO TO RUMORS! I WANNA GO TO RUMORS!" Tears were streaming down his face. We hopped on 77 North and went home. It took him at least 10 minutes to settle down. Go Zips.

Toledo and OOC Scheduling

500 members probably equals at least 2,000 potential customers, assuming family and friends. These people are football fans used to paying $100.00 for game tickets, big money for parking, sitting in nosebleed seats and watching their team get waxed every week. At the Zips game they will be getting tickets at 1/10th the Browns' price, great seats, field access, a shirt, cheap parking with tailgating... and a chance to see "their" team actually win. I hope it works out, and they have a great experience. If so, the dividends will only multiply in the future.

If this were the Zips basketball team, the App State game would be the one where fans get all excited, buy in to the team 100%...and then Lucy yanks the ball away. Without placing any undue significance on game #3 of a 12 game regular season...App State is a big one for the Zips Program and Joe Akron. Can the Zips pull through? A win gets the bandwagon in high gear. A loss... and it's "the same ol' Zips."

Those guys can lumber to the line, but we need someone that finds the crease and hits it hard. That's Warren Ball. Hope he's healthy soon. It will be interesting to see if/how Chapman is used in the red zone again this week. The little guys did a nice job gaining positive yardage Saturday. We'll see, if Ball remains out, if they can do it back-to-back. Our best bet on 4th and 1 might be the play-action quick slant to Natson.

For the record, you're the only one that compared the crowd noise to the Wisconsin game. I only mentioned that is was great to hear the Akron crowd loud and clear in Huntington. I will stand by that comment.

One interesting note from this game as I watched it on TV - If you'd have told me I'd be hearing the Akron fans in the stands loud and clear over the Marshall crowd, I'd have said you were nuts. But you could. Nice job Zips road warriors!

To all ZipsNation members - I want to put in writing the following - This site was created to allow Zips fans an venue to discuss the various athletic programs. There's no other reason. Rather than sit around with our thumbs up our butts waiting for media coverage, a few of us banded together and did something about it. It would be very easy to drop out and move to a back page of the MACbbs board like K.e.n.t. But I think that would be embarrassing. We created something nice here, with high functionality and a higher standard for content. When opposing fans visit our site, I want them to be impressed and think we are legit. I pay to maintain ZipsNation. Happily. I deal with all the a-hole opposing fans attempting to post, and a bunch of stuff that's invisible to the general public too. I'll sit in a dark Subway parking lot at 10 pm, after a 14 hour work day, talking to some Marshall Podcasters/bloggers to help promote the Zips and ZipsNation. Whatever it takes. Dr. Z has done yeoman's work to ensure to make it look sharp, and install upgrades. He also gives us great pics, which you don't get on other MAC boards. This site has to be about Zips athletics, and fun. It can't exist to cyber-bully other fans. I do not want good people to avoid posting for fear someone will threaten, or just be downright disrespectful to them. Can you tweak someone's nose? Yes. Can you have a passionate debate? Yes. Can you say "The AD sucks!" Yes. But when it gets to the level of "Meet me behind the church after school..." or "Suck <insert something lame>", that's not acceptable. It can't be. One of our posters was a bit out of line the other day, and penned an apology. It takes a man to do that. It isn't easy. It's 100% accepted, and we move onward. I've got around 10,000 posts here. I'm pretty happy with most of them. A couple... I wish I hadn't posted. And I've had to apologize. It happens. I hope K'92 returns to posting. The backbone of this board is the guy that travels to Wisconsin and posts a trip recap complete with a humungous soft pretzel pic. I wish we had 100 more of him. Times are great for Zips football. We've won 7-of-8 games, with the lone loss coming at Wisconsin. Compare that to the Brookhart recruits on Bowden's first team - they won 6 games in their entire 4-year careers! This weekend should be a blast. Great weather and a great home opponent. And I look forward to seeing what that guy under the scoreboard has cooking in his smoker.

App State - Miami Game Day Environment Sounds awesome.

If Woodson keeps getting that time to throw, look out MAC. I agree with LZip & BuckZip that seeing some of the young, new names shine was great too. Kwad Smith was another one. Of all the guys contributing on offense today, only Natson won't be there next season.

The Zips win screws me out of a 3-for-Thursday title (damn Zips), but I'm happy with this prediction.