Captain Kangaroo

Wow. How can this offense grow when an already-inexperienced group is missing so many pieces? We're paying someone $350,000 this season to figure that stuff out. This week is a mid-2000's "Akron vs. Marshall" type game. Our record is bad. FIU's is very good. We're at home and desperate for a signature win. This is where LR8 needs to shine. He needs to carry the team with his feet and arm. If he completes passes at a 50% clip again, and throws for less than 200 yards again, we lose by 30. No excuses. The Zips need to defend their "house" this Saturday. Another ass-whipping-game-over-at-halftime result isn't an option.

Remember that a big reason why Wistercill was hired was his connection the The University of Minnesota, whom he helped sell-out their brand new outdoor stadium. It was assumed that he could bring that magic to InfoCision. I thought about the irony, as I watched North Dakota State dominate the Golden Gophers in that same stadium a couple weeks ago. He has certainly brought the Minnesota magic...

I'm starting to see a lot of coverage of Mentor's Mitch Trubisky in the Cleveland papers. His dad Dave was in several of my classes @ UA, and if there were an Akron Intramural Hall of Fame, he'd be a 1st ballot enshrinee. He was always on the flag football teams that made the National finals, and always on the top intramural hoops teams. Excellent athlete. His son seems WAY above UA, but you never know. If I were Ianello, I'd start recruiting Mitch yesterday. His pop is a UA alum, and a big Zips supporter.

One.

Believe in "The Plan." We are losing games at a breakneck pace, so we're just like Al Golden and Temple. Championships a-plenty are just around the corner.

Oh, the typing and typing and typing...

Xavier, Dayton, Temple and St Joes have all played the Zips, in the JAR.

Actually Cap'n, some of the best baseball quotes come from politics! Can you believe, she wasn't talking about his son? Wow. Ann Richards. One of the original Lee sisters. This seems to tell another story about the quote. Next, you guys are going to tell me ZipsWin! didn't coin the phrase "Rearranging the Chairs on the Titanic?"

I wonder if Vida Blue or Golden Richards have any kids the Zips can recruit?

Why is that a shocker? VMI (terrible 1-AA team) running backs averaged 5 yard/carry against us. Ohio State's 4th and 5th stringers were pushing 100 yards against the Zips. Temple and Cincinnati's RB's were in sweat pants in the second half of our games. Our run defense is terrible.

There's an old baseball saying -- "The guy was born on 3rd base, but acts like he hit a triple." TW was born on third base in men's basketball, men's soccer and also academics. No propaganda I read on this board can convince me otherwise. I'm sorry, but I give TW absolutely minimal credit for anything basketball-related. Keeping KD in Akron? The Coach has stated a million times he isn't going anywhere. Pay KD a fair salary and let him do his job...that's how you handle men's basketball. If he wants to impress me in men's basketball -- fill the arena. THAT is a challenge that a quality AD should accomplish with a perrenial 20-win, NCAA-caliber program dropped on his lap. Soccer? Do you really think TW did anything extraordinary to keep Porter here? Maybe he signed the check that Proenza handed him, but that's about it. The soccer field improvements? TW should get some credit for that...but soccer is a machine that has a small but zealous following. A following who's happy to open it's wallet and toss money at the Program. Academics?! Mack Rhodes cleaned up UA's athletic-academics after Brookhart's recruiting debacles. What you see now is the fruit of the labor Mack put in. To-date, Zips athletics-wise, TW should get credit for "managing-the-game." He hasn't screwed up men's basketball or men's soccer. There's certainly something to be said for that fact. If he was Dennis Helsel Jr., he'd be gone already. But until football begins winning, and InfoCision begins rocking, he's failing his core class. The class he was hired to pass. Was TW "born on 3rd base" with football? No. He was born at the plate, down 9 runs in the 8th inning, with 2 outs and the bases empty. But as GP1 said earlier, "He's swinging at pitches being tossed into right field." That's unbelievably tough for a Zips football fan to watch.

+1 At least a hyena can laugh. I don't see much funny about Saturday afternoons in Akron. I'll be positive - Here's to another 30+ point loss on Saturday.

18 year olds have upside. Everything about them changes from 18 - 22. 45 year olds are completely different. Not much changes from 45 to 49. Maybe the belt size goes up. And the hair line goe back. That's about it. I agree with you that Ianello deserves the remainer of this season to show some significant progress. But I'm not going to sit on my thumb and pretend what's happening ever Saturday isn't really happening.

I gotta agree with Zach. TW's body of work is good and getting better. Every program is on the rise or about to be made-over to get it there. Good grief. Can anyone other than me look at the state of college athletics and realize TW has horribly missed at hiring a new football coach...the most important sport in college athletics. Am I the only one with a television? He just didn't swing and miss, he was standing in the batters box and swung at a pitch thrown into right field. I am with you 100%. Wistercill was brought to UA for one reason - to get the football program on track. His hand-selected coach is losing around 90% of his football games after 1.5 seasons. If he continues to lose, and the football stadium remains empty, TW has failed. And there are varying degrees of failure. A 65% is almost a D-. TW is no where near a D- right now.

3 FGs?? lol We certainly do see things differently. My prediction is Zero FGs but Akron finds a way to win. (or are you predicting a missed extra point?? That I must say...is ballsy) I think we'll botch a 2-point conversion as time expires in regulation (Zips were trying to make the score a more-respectable 38-18). Remember -- last week I predicted the Zips would win 22-10, and the score was actually 22-7 at one point. Bad MAC teams always post some goofy final score like 22, 11 or 8.

EMU 38 Akron 16

Nice to see Butler still in the mix, unlike the wussies from Gonzaga. Hope we get earn a good draw...it's the absolute greatest thing in the world to happen to Zips Men's basketball scheduling. No chance we'd get two games with Nevada, VCU, Creighton...or any of these other nice mid-major programs without it. It might be the only thing ESPN has done in the past 10 years that's good for college athletics.

Dan's NFL "career" is all the validation I need that the guy was a good MAC-level QB who lucked into a great MAC situation...but who has no business being mentioned alongside the all-time great MAC QB's. Put him on this year's Zips team, and people would be screaming for Zach D'Orazio.

Only GP1 is allowed to review books on ZipsNation.

Anyone know if the O$U/Zips shirt swap was successful?

I remember Tressel telling the kid to renege on his Zips commitment and attend a prep school so he could play for Ohio State. Didn't work out.

If we did honor him, it's certainly fine. But it's been 10 years since he passed, and he was not a Zips player. Although it's history, I don't know that it's worth re-hashing. Personally, I wouldn't place an unnecessary buzz-kill on what will be an absolutely electric home environment. My 2 cents.

I don't know if it makes their job easier, but his abilities certainly make the o-line look a lot better than it is. He hits seams harder and faster than any RB we've had since Hendry. If Dennis Kennedy had that mindset, he'd have been in the NFL. Now if we could only get a QB that makes our OL look a lot better than it is...

Hence the term - Fair Weather Fan