Captain Kangaroo

If Kwan can keep that attitude and effort, it's the difference between going to the CBI or the NCAA for the Zips.

If you are a Buckeye fan, the rankings mean something. If you are a Zips fan, they mean nothing.

Let's say those rankings are weighted towards Freshmen recruits, and don't do a good job of taking into account traditional transfers, grad transfers and JUCO recruits? If that were true, it would probably affect the Zips "ranking" pretty dramatically? The programs ZipGrad listed as above would get waxed by 40+ if they came to Infocision. That alone shows the "rankings" have no bearing on the quality of the Zips recruiting class. I think this class is excellent. It addressed all our needs...as best as is possible in one class. As has been the case for a couple years, there will also be another couple impact signees over the next few months too. Bowden always holds a few back for the Coe's and Monroe's that inevitably come across the waiver wire. If Bowden came in and signed 24 freshmen in each of his first four classes, he'd have won a handful of games, and Larry Williams first major move would have been to fire him. Bowden's not stupid. He knew he had to win, and JUCO's and P5 transfers are a way to become competitive quickly. No one waits 5 years for a coach to turn a team around now-a-days. Some may ask - "But when will we start getting classes that are only Freshmen, so we can get higher recruiting rankings?" Who cares. If we have 30...40...or even 50 percent of a given class being transfers, and we win...and there are no excessive police blotter appearances...who cares? Give me a 5th year kid from Wisconsin over a project from Hoban any day of the week. Several months ago ZipGrad posted an article from a newspaper stating North Alabama had stopped taking transfers. It mentioned that North Alabama had a reputation for accepting D1 transfers, and they were getting calls from 70+ kids looking to transfer to NA because of their reputation. Seems like a bold move by NA, but they're winning 9+ games per year. For a decade+. Dating back to his North Alabama days, Bowden has a reputation for welcoming transfers. And he gets the call when a lot of the better ones are looking for a new school. Especially ones with Florida roots. It's a huge benefit to the Zips that he has those connections. And it was a big benefit to Zips fans too, as it gave us 8 wins, including a bowl win last season. You need to be creative to go from 1-11 to 8-5 in three years. Bowden accomplished it. I look forward to what the next 3 years will bring. I guarantee it's a hell of a lot better than what Samford, Lamar, Bethune-Cookman, Yale, Columbia, Austin Peay, Harvard, Sam Houston state, Abilene Christian, UC Davis will do. Any ranking that lists those shit schools in front of the Zips is a joke.

To an extent, I agree. But hopefully the kids chose the Zips because of the academics, campus, facilities, Bowden, etc. rather than Funk. Bowden will soon acquire a solid line coach. I have no concern on that hire.

I'll disagree with the calculation. If your wife dies suddenly at 43 years old, you have years to find wife #2. When your OL Coach passes away unexpectedly, you have weeks to find your next Coach. Bowden found 2 guys that ascended to P5 schools. I wouldn't call thise strike outs. We'll see if he tweaks his strategy this time around.

Here is the first guy I call for an interview His lines were always solid under Lee Owens. He's at a lower-division school right now, and I'm sure wouldn't mind a bump in pay.His son Clayton is walking on for the Zips this spring. Akron guy. Older - wouldn't use UA as a springboard. And he was a lot of fun to hang with at the old Zips Golf Outings. Interview a couple others. If someone's better, great. But give this guy a look.

I can't believe Bowden saw this one coming. About 26 hours ago he was in front of a crowd of fans extolling Funk's virtues. TB has enough connections that I'm sure he'll find a solid replacement soon. But it sucks.

Regarding 2015 listee Ray Ray Smith - word on the street is he never made the requisite test scores and decided to go JUCO rather than be a non-qualifier for the Zips. You never know if he gives UA another look, but he's thought to be "an SEC talent" and likely will end up at a P5 program. I thought it was interesting that Bowden said he got a large haul of really good OL's because we'd lost 5 senior linemen this year, The newcomers all felt the Zips situation was their best chance to see the field the fastest. Also - usually the coaches are reserved in discussing which incoming Freshman have the best chance to see the field the fastest, but he stated Davon'te Jest was expected to come in and at least partially fill the void of Rodney Coe's departure. The kid looks like a beast on film. Jo Jo Natson will be a HUGE addition to special teams and the offense. Unbelievable quickness & speed. Natson, Gladney, Lane and Traylor-Bennett...Young and Wolf...Woodson has to be licking his chops! It's gotta be a completely new look for the offense next season. And I would not be too concerned about the RB situation. Word on the street is there are a couple players still to be signed, including a back.

Thanks to the date change there will be 3 empty seats in my section. Mine. It sucks.

Especially considering he was rated the third best returning QB on our own team in September 2015!

I think the preseason cupcake buffet didn't do a great job of preparing this team for the MAC season. It took us a few games to remember what it takes to win in conference play. Big Dog has been outstanding. Whether it's driving to the hole, or kicking the ball out, he's making good, quick decisions. He's as aggressive inside as any Zip I've seen since Jeremiah Wood. I agree that KD & staff deserve a lot of credit for getting the Zips back on track. His rotations have been good...no player can complain they're not getting a chance at extended PT. I think that's keeping everyone motivated. They're stomping teams like they should. And playing solid D...at least as solid as is possible in today's Arm Bar Era. I hope Kwan's back on track. He was pretty much invisible for two months, but has looked like he's reborn over the past couple games. I think it's obvious we will live and die by the three, but we have enough guys that can shoot it that we get a ton of open looks...so why not? Over the course of the game we hit our share of dry spells, but over a full 40 minutes it seems like other teams can't keep up. Big game tonight. OU has laid some major whuppin's on us at the Convo over the years. But we're rolling and our veterans are playing well. I say Zips by 8.

Dorrell Daniels-Vaught

I like the announcer talking about K.e.n.t's "Spicer-Hall Combination."

I don't recall too many greyshirts from Bowden, if any? There are non-qualifiers who sit out 1 year and enter as Sophs, redshirts who sit and enter as Frosh, and prep school kids.

I love that the local kids are buying into the Program. I love that a classy former Zip like Marques Hayes is proactive in getting his East High players to play their college ball at home. I hope former Zip, now Saint V Coach Marcus Whattley has that same enthusiasm about funneling kids to his alma mater.

Elton Alexander's pick as the #1 team in the MAC sits at 10-10 overall, 2-5 in league play.

Yeah...why would anyone want their Coach to be coveted by a school like Arizona State? Hurley was great for the MAC. An entertaining, great coach. It sucks that he's gone. I don't want to see KD get a technical in every game. It makes no sense to get T'd up against Malone. But the tight MAC home games...the times when he's getting jerked-around by the refs at home...he needs to blow more fuses. That seems to be the only way to get the blue hairs to shake their canes, and the millennials to look up from their phones.

KD's technical made that game go from a "What a freaking waste of a Tuesday" to "Man, I had a lot of fun Tuesday!" The ref's BS Whistlemania™ absolutely sucked the life out of the building. After he blew a fuse, the place was electric. Like an OU or K.e.n.t. game. Big Dog is really playing tough, hard-nosed basketball right now. I love it! No one can match up with him when he's aggressive. I love that some of the formerly-lesser MAC programs are now giving us a run for our money. It makes for a much more entertaining evening. The 4-game Thursday in the MAC Tournament will be awesome once again! I hate that the Zips are jerking the schedule around to get on CBS Ocho television. Fridays conflict with HS basketball...and this upcoming week, the Cavs / Celtics game. You go through a lot of effort to clear your schedule to attend games, and UA moves the weekend dates. Move weekday games, but not the weekend ones.

Certainly are some bugs. We are waiting a couple days, because some of the problems seem to be "self healing." Starting Monday, whatever problems still exist will be corrected. For those of you who don't know how this works - most of the problems require us to submit a "ticket" to Invision to get the problem fixed. Most are not correctable on our own. We will get everything fixed soon enough. Until then - This thread is brought to you by Keener Auctions.

The site has been updated. This will add features, and also make it more immune to SPAM and viruses. While usable now, there are a lot of background things still running. Some features will not up-and-running for a few hours. Skins (colors, logos) need to be re-done. Some work remains. Thanks for bearing with us.

We expect the board will be upgraded today. Hopefully it is seamless, but there may be an interruption in board availability. Hope everyone likes the improvement. Me included. We'll see how it goes.

Ryan should have visited?

Look out for the Huskies

Akron fans are too cheap. They'd lose money if they were sold.

Best-refereed game I've seen this year by a mile.