Captain Kangaroo

"House of Horrors" looking all-too-accurate.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback? Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true). Gosh that QB was crappy wasn't he? That would be a good point, if I had stated the NIU had a crappy QB. But I didn't. And it isn't. But congrats on your win anyhow.

The guy came from a losing program at Notre Dame. Easily in excess of a million fans "down" on the program and staff. Every loss was nationally televised. Now he's facing 3 Zips fans on Waterloo Road, and they're more interested in free wings than football. While I appreciate his availability, it is as gutsy as walking a foot-high tightrope over a tupperware container full of minnows. I think he'll survive. Excitement regarding Zips football is at an all-time low. And that's really saying something. My question for the guy - "After witnessing what has been on display the first 3 home games of the season, why should I come back for game 4? What is going to change?" Question #2: "Will you beat K.e.n.t. State?"

I miss Dwight Smith. He shut down his side of the field. If the ball was up in the air, he considered it "his." If his man caught the ball, he ripped it out of his arms. I see no DB with that attitude. No anticipation. Our secondary plays on it's heels.

Answer - A mirage. Also - Maybe I should have been more specific when I requested to see a Zips blowout.

Dr. Z's Doctorate must be in Culinary Arts. He was the unanamous winner.

Ribs have been smokin' for 4 hours. Getting near done. Threw a chicken on too, just for fun.

...will JD Brookhart be on the invite list?

Definitely not the match that would turn Dr Z into a futbol fan. 90 minutes, and FAU never mounted any sort of threat. I like the fact that there are seats in the west end, but those seats ain't the greatest. Only 5 rows high, your vision is constantly blocked by passers-by. They really need a scoreboard facing the west-enders. Nothing fancy...just time and score. Hell...I'd take time-only. The Rowdies make the East side rock. A totally different event on that side of the field. Nice evening and a good crowd. I look forward to more exciting opponents.

I can't imagine soccer parking will be bad with a 5:30pm start. The scrimmage and football game don't start until 2 hours later.

Huskies 41 Zips 24

I thought it was a pretty lame column too. I hate wishy-washy.

Cool beans!

Nuthin' fancy...

Anymore, I'm exited when I see someone older than me described as "young."

Sounds like someone might have this guy on their Fantasy Football team?

It has to eat at him to constantly be looking up at AKRON in the standings, year-in-year-out. Not what he envisioned when he skipped town, I'm sure.

We'll be holding our 12th annual Zips Rib Burn off on Saturday in Lot 9. If you were on-the-fence regarding what to cook, feel free to join-in. Last season, the ABJ covered it.

Thankfully there are teams like K.e.n.t. who always collapse. That gives me hope for next week. K.e.n.t. always finds a way to beat themselves. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

ZipswWin! has a good story about a couple of former UA baseball players that wore their OSU gear to the Zips/OSU game a couple years ago. Sucks when former players sport opponents gear. It's cool to see a Zips player outwardly proud of his school. You'd think it is common, but it isn't. Makes me want to support him all-the-more.

Imposter's call Frenchy's call

New Guy Soon to Eat Old Bay

Referees? Thug play? Classless fans? Wah wah wah... Ohio State was down 1 man for a significant portion of the game, and the Zips couldn't do squat with the advantage. Allowing a goal with 2 seconds on the clock, to a short-handed team? That's terrible. Call a spade-a-spade -- The #1 ranked Zips laid an egg last night. It happens...man-up and accept it. There could be bigger eggs laid than tying the #19 ranked team 2-2. 11 consecutive shutouts against insanely tough competition is pretty amazing. Time to re-group and start another streak.

I don't see anything wrong with it, nobody playing on NIU played in that game anyway, what should they care. If they are focused on that, great. Too bad Luke won't be there, Pitt has a game Saturday also. Hixon might be there since he is on the IR and not practicing with the Giants right now. Still time to send a ZTV camera crew to Pittsburgh to get video commentary from Luke to play on the InfoCision big screen.

The Syracuse game was as non-competitive and a 26-point loss as you could get. Defense was so-so, but everything else was non-existent. The Gardner Webb game goes in the books as the worst loss I've witnessed as a Zips football fan. Getting beaten at home by a 1-AA program in your shiny new stadium is about as low as it goes. The offense perked-up a little, as they should against a team with 22 fewer scholarships, but the defense got rolled, as they shouldn't against a team with 22 fewer scholarships. The Kentucky game saw the first signs of legitimate life from the offense. The WR's actually got separation from an opposing DB. The offensive game plan gave us a lot of opportunities to score. But PN7's passes were either errant...or the receivers dropped the ball. Defensively, the Zips hung in there...until the offensive drought wore them down. After 1.5 quarters, fatigue caught up to us. The Indiana game saw the game slow down for PN7. The WR's continued to build off the Kentucky game, and also made some catches. Gary Pride showed games 1-3 might have just been shaking off 4 years of rust. The OL created ample holes for the Zips' two Youngstown-bred backs to average 5+ yards per carry. The defense played well enough, and Igor showed why he was rated the #5 kicker in college football a few years ago. Unfortunately, a few lapses, and dropped passes, ruined the chance for a Big 10 upset. Now we face MAC opponent Northern Illinois: Can Latina continue to keep the opposing defense on it's heels with clever play calling? Will the WR's continue to get separation? Can the Zips finally connect on a home run ball? If Hixon is returning for the reunion (he'd better be!), can he have a short meeting with Jeremy LaFrance to relay the importance of catching a deep pass? Can someone on the defense step up and have a "wow" game? 14 tackles from an LB...3 sacks from a DL...an INT returned for a TD from a DB? Can Igor keep kicking like it's 2007? Can we keep "First 1/3rd of the Season MVP" Zack Campbell off the field? Will the game continue to slow down for PN7? Does Phil Tonga see his first action of the season? Can the defense keep Chad Spann from going "Travis Prentis"/"Garrett Wolf" on us? Bad MAC teams always have the appearance of a disorganized, ill-prepared train wreck. This is what kills K.e.n.t. State every single year. They do stupid, stupid stuff that you never see even at the pee wee level, and they lose. And lose. After being emotionally crushed by our performance in the first two weeks, I'm heartened by the improvement in weeks 3 and four. We now look like a good football team. The Zips look well-coached. They look organized. They look to be improving every week. Now, it's pretty much up to the players to win a game. Can PN7 lead his team to a victory? We have a MAC-level opponent, at home, homecoming. It is time to put on a show. Absolute worst-case, I want to see a good college football game in Akron on Saturday. Ideally, I want a Zips blow out.