Captain Kangaroo

Whether you pay or are scholarshipped, your eligibility clock starts with your first class attended. I guess you could consider early-enrollment a "greyshirt without benefits?" Ie. no "bonus" 6th year of eligibility possible. I'd just call it a "shirt."

How can he enroll early, and greyshirt? Once you enroll and take classes, your eligibility clock starts ticking. You have 5 years to play 4. Greyshirting is for non-scholarshipped recruits who enroll a semester after the scholarshipped members of their class sign, either with the promise of getting "the next available scholarship," or achieving a 6th year of eligibility (see D'Orazio, who enrolled in January, greyshirted, then redshirted).

Makes you wonder how many 1-year guys we'll pursue next season. Are we still on the lookout for guys like Williams, Commack, Magnum and Hines? Or is recruiting year #2 of the Bowden era going to be 75% Freshmen and 25% JUCO (as I predict)? Obviously with the stable of young QB's we've assembled, another Williams-like 5th year Senior QB is not going to be recruited for 2013.

I thought he meant Jermaine Reed?

"Yardbarker" is commenting on bad nicknames? That's like Rob Ianello commenting on "Winning Football Strategies."

By the time Akron is going 9-3...10-2...Bowden will be 60 years old. The market for 60 year old D1 coaching hires is fairly small, if not non-existent. Yeah, I know his dad coached until he was 97 (or thereabouts), but that's a different circumstance. The mid-tier schools that would be interested in a 60 year old Terry Bowden are in Akron's "league," and I think we would successfully compete for his services. Proenza will not drop back into the football abyss without a massive fight. Personally, I see Bowden staying here. He'll get good money, he's got great facilities, and Father Time is on the Zips' side. If he does leave...Tressel's banishment should be about over, and we can give him a whistle and a blue vest and let him have at it.

Do you realize we scored 3 or fewer points in 1/3rd of our games in 2011. The running joke of being out-scored by our soccer team seems like a lifetime ago.

I am tired of playing good MAC teams. Where the hell is EMU or Buffalo this season? I tend to agree with JZ84...if we can get some help on the D-line, we can compete. Otherwise, it is chasing points for 4 quarters...and as improved as our 2012 offense is...we can't successfully chase points against mid-and upper-tier MAC teams. The MAC is too improved this season. GP1's generalization that you simply need to wait for an opponent to blow the game is not applicable in 2012. The Zips picked a bad year to make big improvements...the MAC in on an upswing, and everyone else got better too.

Isn't K.e.n.t something like 5-1 right now? How putridly pathetic has K.e.n.t been for decades? How crappy are their facilities (in comparison to Akron's)? Yet it is possible they can get recruits, but the Zips cannot? If anyone thinks Bowden is a worse coach than Dennis Hazell, and/or has worse facilities, then they should be worried that Akron cannot get the recruits it takes to turn it around. If anyone feels TB is a coach at least the equal of Hazell...and that UA's facilities are at least equal to K.e.n.t.'s...then there should be no concern that the Zips will soon be the MAC team that rose from the dead to be 5-1 after week 7. I have no concerns regarding Zips recruiting. I cannot wait for Signing Day 2013!

Rats. We do better when we're 20+ point underdogs.

Awesome to hear. W/o McClanahan and Diggs, CG should post some monster #'s. And minutes. This is why he left UMBC, right? Time to shine!

I can't remember the last time I attended a BB game at the JAR and there wasn't an interloper (word of the day) in my seat. Maybe the Wisconsin GB CBI game, since there weren't any fans at that game.

I hope I never see Egner at the 2.

If it weren't for InfoCision taking their money, the old ladies would be blowing their life savings at the church bingo hall, or on their bi-weekly bus trip to Windsor or Mountaineer. Personally, I think it's better they build the Zips a stadium and give a few bucks to the diabetes association.

So much pro-Faust spinning I don't know where to begin.... You make an argument that Faust had terrible facilities. You are arguing with yourself. I never mentioned Faust's facilities. And everyone knows they were laughable. You make the argument that Faust was short scholarships. Again, you are arguing with yourself. Everyone knows we needed time to go from 63 scholarships to 85. To the point above - Faust left Owens with a complete train wreck. Jason Taylor, Nate Boyd...and the rest amounted to a can of beans. The graduation rate of Faust's last class was 17%. They were essentially all incarcerated, or flunked-out. Owens was short on scholarship players when he took over too, due to Faust's reckless recruiting. Faust had a 7-win season with Dennison's players. That skews his win percentage a bit? Put Gerry on the sidelines with Ianello's remnants...think he'd win 1 game? Faust went 7-3-1 as a D1A coach. Two seasons later he was Ianello's idol at 1 - 10. That 1 - 10 was will all his own recruits, with a full allotment of scholarships. I'm not even sure you were around at that time, but Faust did leave Owens with the starter "dregs" of his 1-10 team. Lucky Lee. When Faust was fired, he was 1-10. That's a 0.090 winning percentage. That's what he built the program to in 9 seasons. When Owens was fired he was 0.500 against 1-A competition (5-5) and 7-5 overall. That's what he built the program to in 9 seasons. Bowden is in the same situation Owens was in in his 1st season..inheriting a 1-win train wreck, and trying to scrape up a 2-win season anyway he can. He's a far cry from JD's post-Owens situation, where he had a decent nucleus of talent, and could win a championship.

If our OL can rebound from its butt-whipping in the 2nd half of last week's game, and play as solid as they have for the better part of 2012, I like our chances. W/o Pressley and Caponi, we will give up points and yards. But Williams will shred a depleted OU secondary...if he doesn't get snowed-under.

As a point of reference - The Zips have won 6 games in the past 3.5 years. That means a 4th year senior at UA has witnessed as many combined football victories as an OU freshman has seen in his first 6 weeks. Try marketing that. I agree that Bowden will turn things around. He's committed to it, and has the acumen to pull it off. But don't expect the stands to mysteriously fill up anytime soon. Bowden and the Team need to break through at some level before that will happen. And, it can be done. Look at Can't. They're the worst, most putrid program in the history of D1-A, and they have turned their program around while playing in front of crowds smaller than those drawn by a salmonella-riddled gyro stand. Now people are starting to fill up their smelly stadium. Pretty soon they'll have large enough crowds to make a full set of teeth. While Bowden can't promise an elite recruit a huge crowd...at least early in that recruit's UA career, he can offer: * BCS-level coaching * BCS-level training facilities * High mid-major stadium * Great education and campus * Immediate playing time Lee Owens took over a Faust team that was as bad as what Ianello left Bowden. And Owens was essentially .500, playing at the dilapidated Rubber Bowl, with crap facilities and a crap campus. With the above-listed amenities, Bowden should easily be able to exceed that, and at an accelerated pace. Then the fans show up. Go Zips!

Jerrod Dillard has gone from a fragile 6'5" bean pole, to a legit D-1 receiver. Glad he'll be back for next season.

I recall a pretty bad Zips team beating the #25 ranked team in the nation...it seems like only yesterday... If OU's secondary is as banged up as it appears, I like our chances. Williams can carve-up a suspect defensive backfield. Hope Caponi and/or Pressley is a "go." That will make a big difference.

True, it wasn't the year immediately afterwards. But as stated above, they lost quite a bit more than Bassett, and each in an unexpected manner. If we ended up in the CBI next year, it wouldn't be due to Diggs absence. Whether it is a blown ACL, grades, transgressions...unexpected stuff like this happens all the time. Great teams roll on. We'll see what the Zips are made of in roughly 6 weeks, I guess.

I thought Bassett got into some sort of trouble and applied early for the NBA draft? Coleman left early to pursue a rap career and Alex Kellog just flat-out quit basketball. OU had more problems that we do losing Diggs, and they survived quite well. If Dambrot is any good, our program should be in a mature enough state to overcome Diggs departure. Perhaps even be better, as the off-court drama and on-court "chippyness" (you know what I'm talking about) are removed.

Certainly sucks to lose him, but is there were a year to lose a guy like Diggs, this is it. It is a great opportunity for one of the young guys to step up and contribute. I'm disappointed that we lost a guy that could man-up on equal footing against a high-major opponent. But I will be exited to see who rises up to surprise us. And whose development is expedited because he's learning on the court and not on the bench. OU seemed to bounce back after unexpectedly losing Bassett. I'm sure the Zips can do the same.

One final note on the Miami game - a shout out to Broderick Alexander, whose blocking was responsible for a good chunk of Chisholm's 160 yards. Alexander is an awesome Zip...gave up his redshirt with 5 games left in his freshman year to try and help the Zips win a couple games...missed a full season with a blown-out knee...has his 3rd head coach in 4 seasons...lost his short-yardage job to Conner Hundley...and still dutifully does whatever it takes to help the team with balls-to-the-wall aggressiveness. Wish he could play CB. Keep up the good work BA2!

I know one cutting-edge coach who kicked-off to begin BOTH halves. Wonder how long it will take for the rest of college football to catch up to that renaissance man?