Captain Kangaroo

They are likely using Youngstown's Facilities because they are owned by Denise DeBartolo York and John York, The DeBartolos are from that area. Alex is a great kid and helping out with my Fighting Irish... DeBartlo's are big in Youngstown, as is noted in the previous post. If they aren't using the stadium, they will be using the WATTS which is nearing completion, 98% complete. Worth noting the DeBartolo's joined Jim Tressel and Anthony Cafaro in donating to the $12 million facility: Great practice facilities are the kiss of death. The only thing worse is to build a great new stadium. Welcome to the abyss.

We are behind pace. I got mine ready for Saturday. Who will be Saturday's MVBD?The ZipsNation Tailgate Crew is much stronger at home than on the road. Danny Sheridan has us out-drinking VMI 38-3 Saturday. Keener is 2:1 for Lot 9'er MVBD. Can anyone in Lot 34 make a serious run at him?

I remain baffled by the comparisons to Cristobal or Golden. FIU had no football program at ANY LEVEL until 2002! Now they are knocking on the Top 25 door. After 110 years, we're knocking on the Bottom 120 floor!We are a hell of a lot closer to Doug Martin and Jim Corrigal that we are to Cristobal or Golden.

What I learned yesterday -- Mike Bardo was no threat to be a 2-sport athlete @ UA...at least not in golf! The shot of the day was Mike bombing a 290 yard drive on Hole # 14....a 170 yard Par 3! Overall, we had an excellent time. It was a treat playing 18 holes with the MAC Champ Gonzaga Swatter!Us hackers finished at even par, which was amazing, considering our collective lack of talent. The rain wasn't bad at all, although the guys that tee'd off in the afternoon might tell a different story.No real inside scoops from this year's event. The rain drove the luncheon indoors, and Portage CC was not set up to accommodate so many people. We were placed in three separate rooms. No Coach's speech...or if there was, I couldn't hear it.I think I won a door prize...but they pulled my number before our group got to the banquet room...so they just pulled another number. That was the only complaint for the day. Always a fun time. I look forward to it being held again in August.

So that's what a College Game Day Saturday in Akron has become -- A Life's Lesson on Coping with Embarrassment and Loss49-0 at the half? C'mon kids...turn that frown upside down!

Because the upper-classmen were sucking hiney and the Freshman are better?Ianello is trying to get better, and people are complaining? If he DIDN'T burn some redshirts, I'd have been pissed. It was the first time in his UA career he got fed up, and veered from his 5 Year Master Plan.

He's been more injured than Evil Knevil. Whether he played offense or defense...he'd still have spent most of his career in warm-ups. It's just nice to see him on the field. Ditto "Sweat Pants" Simkovich.

I'd like to reserve comment until the end of the year. This can actually be a very good topic with a lot of ground to cover.I agree. The actual point of his post was to place a dig on the Zips. But if the intent is stripped away...what is the program's affect on young kids?I'll speak for my son -- of the last 26 times he's worn his Akron jersey on Game Day, the Zips have lost 22 times. Kids like to win, and support winners. They take losses harder the the old guys. The Zips abject ineptitude on the football field really makes it tough on kids. They're unfortunately too young to drink it all away...

Get the ball in #15's hands. David Harvey single-handedly won games for Brookhart. #15 can do that for Ianello, but not with 4 catches per game. Hit #15, and the other stuff opens up.How many deep throws has LR8 attempted this season? Can he even throw a deep ball? If he can, let #15 make a play on it.This is a recipe for winning a couple games. I want to see us win a couple games.

Until he needed to get a 1st down to close-out a tight game.Right now I'd kill for a Winters Offense. Warts and all.

Nobody knows. If you are an RI fan, you are in awe of the talent we're redshirting. If you are an RI hater, the redshirts are 90lb weaklings that we can only hope develop into servicable players.But the reality is -- no one knows.My gut feeling is -- if the kids presently being redshirted were D1 ready, they'd be on the field.Owens was more of a believer in redshirting than JD. He did a good job of getting 5th year seniors on the field.

Until we start getting within field goal range, I say "no."

I agree wholeheartedly, but too late for that now.And, hello K.e.n.t! We can't beat anyone outside the bottom-MAC, or bottom-1-AA right now. There isn't one BCS program that wouldn't be a 20+ point favorite against the Zips right now. Even Minnesota or Indiana.

Somebody should tell them that there are gates at every corner of the stadium. The other three entrances were ghost towns.Or maybe...just maybe they should have more than one ticket scanner at the home-side main gate?

Thanks, ZM

Tressel is an active coach?

Zach, send this comment to Wistrcill. Seriously. It is very honest and factual. The AD would like to hear this and it is solid student opinion. If he doesn't give you a response then let me know and I will submit too.That's what we need...Zach to be Wistrcill's advisor.Shoot me now.

1.) Beer store directly across the street came in handy...couldn't say that for the Rubber Bowl lot. Learned never to let the wife pack the cooler ever again. Never, ever ever.2.) My son got a nice photo with Zeke, who remembered him from Summer basketball camp.3.) Great people tailgating...always the fastest 4-6 hours in the world for me.4.) K.e.n.t. seems to be horrible yet again.5.) Best field goal I've seem come off a Zips foot since 2009.

How would you rate our building process and project those thoughts into post 2012?We have torn whatever structure previously existed to the ground, but there is no visible evidence of any building yet. We're still sitting at rock bottom.

Boy, has the bar been lowered.For a 3rd-year soph, a sub-200 yard. zero TD performance doesn't wow me.

Week #2 Updated List!

Here's 11 observations for what looks to be another 11-loss season --1.) Nice tailgate weather. Great to see so many ZN.o members in the lot. The fragmented parking situation does make me pine a bit for the Rubber Bowl lot, however. I miss the mix of students and old farts partying along the fence, music blasting and all that jazz. It will never happen, but until the Zips can draw more than 10k consistently, filling Lot 9 should be a focus for UA athletics. Spreading out 7k people all across campus is a shame.2.) Were there even 7k at the game last night? By far, the saddest Opening Day crowd I've witnessed in my 28 year history in the Akron area.3.) I used the word "sad" a lot last night. I don't know that there's a more-appropriate word to describe how I feel watching the Zips play football. Jesus...we aren't even remotely competitive anymore. Week #2 is complete and I don't think the Zips offense has been in the Red Zone, let alone scored a TD. That is beyond pathetic.4.) 2.8 more years of Clayton Moore? Yippee. Did he look adequate at times? Sure. But give any D-1 QB 28 throws and there'll be a couple keepers. Overall, he's not dazzling anyone. And we need a dazzling QB.5.) Our OL is terrible. Run blocking, pass blocking...all bad. The only thing we seem to be good at are untimely penalties. Most of our OL is really young, so I didn't expect much this season. But that doesn't mean they aren't really bad. Conversely, man was Temple's OL good. They fired off the ball like a bunch of steamrollers. 6.) For the 2nd consecutive Saturday, our football Zips were outscored by our soccer Zips. The UA football staff should really be embarassed.7.) Suel is a player. He's the one offensive player on our team that can play D-1 football today. He needs to get the football in his hands 12-15 times per game. There's no excuse for him only having 4 catches...IF the Zips want to win some football games. If Ianello simply wants to make progress, get everyone some work, stay-the-course....then give Suel his 4 catches, and hand the ball off to Chisholm on every 1st down.8.) Temple Special Teams were awesome. They made multiple, absolutely vicious hits on kick coverage. And had several fantastic run-backs. The Zips special teams are no where near Temple's level. We stunk.9.) Several years ago, I was friends with a Zips OL (Owens era). He told me about the rift between offense and defense, where the O would ask the D "How many points do we have to put up this week to win? 50? Can you guys force more than 1 punt per game?" Now its the opposite. The defense never even gets to sit down before the O completes another 3-and-out.10.) Temple is really good. The Zips are really bad. Thus 41-3 was expected. But that doesn't mean it doesn't totally suck. Ianello is now 1-13. 1-14 after next week. And getting beat like a drum. Wonder if he had any angry post-game words for the Temple coach, who classlessly ran up the score calling a fake punt, up 28-3. 11.) I didn't like Ianello trotting Nicely out for 2 minutes of garbage time. BS move. PN7 did make some nice throws. Nice deep tosses...of course without #15 underneath them, there's no chance our other WR's would catch them. It appears we're going to be seeing a lot of LR8 until 2014. Yippee.Bonus: Hated the long line to enter the stadium. Longest line ever, for such a small crowd. We can't do anything right with InfoCision. We're still The Beverly Hillbillies. Massive beautiful mansion, with a handful of Hillbillies inside.Great to connect with all you Lot 9'ers. I'll update the beer list soon. As hoped, we took a big leap forward! Advancing the Beer List may be our only positive memory from the 2011 football season.

I reluctantly agree. Another phenomena that affects the small school kid now-a-days is open enrollment and transferring. 25 years ago, the best small-school kids played for their local school. Now many of the better small-town kids go to the nearest Catholic football machine to get exposure.I think the only caveat to small school kids being generalized as not-as-D1-ready as their bigger-school counterparts involves the Catholic Machine programs like Cardinal Mooney or Youngstown Ursuline. They are D-4 and D-5 by enrollment, but play at the high D-1 level.

I bet Barrett would rather spell Mattocks or Holmes than Ampaipitakwong.