Captain Kangaroo

....at this time of the year.... Football teams, get better throughout the season, get worse, or stay the same. We do have a chance to get better don't we? I remember former ZN regular ZipDude had the tag line: "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." The Zips only need one eye to win the MAC.

I think a better analogy is -- Say Dambrot schedules Fordham, Nebraska, DePaul and Penn State. Fan complains: "Jesus...the guy is scheduling the Atlantic 10, Big 12, Big East and Big 10...what a suicide schedule!" Nope. He'd be scheduling very beatable teams that just happen to reside in nationally recognized conferences. I would love it if we regularly scheduled hoops like we did 2010 football.

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).

Man amongst boys against Minnesota last week

Adding to the "little victories" topic -- We have lost 1 fumble and thrown 1 INT through 4 games. That's pretty good. Penalties are also minimal. I watched the NIU/Minnesota game last night. NIU is really good. They manhandled Wistersill's former employer. Oct 2nd could be our toughest game to-date. LaFrance will need to catch the ball, or it could get out of hand quickly.

+1. I liked the schedule too. Just because we suck doesn't mean the shedule sucked. All games were very winnable, if we were an upper-echelon MAC team. OU beat Kentucky a few years ago. We beat Syracuse. Others have beaten Indiana. Additionally -- In all three circumstances, the Zips received home games with these opponents (a scheduling debacle in 2009 robbed us of the home game vs. Kentucky). Additionally -- Title 9 means we need to play a "money game" each season. Someone has to fund Zips women's tennis. Additionally -- Northern Illinois killed Minnesota last night. Toledo pounded Purdue. Temple performed well in Happy Valley and beat UConn last week. Upper-echelon MAC schools have proven to be more than competitive against lower-echelon BCS programs. If the Zips get better, a schedule like 2010's will be perfect. If we don't improve, the schedule won't matter.

14 carries for 71 yards vs Louisburg College

Certainly. I've seen more aggressive "calling out" of players in my lifetime. Also - if any of our defensive players watched the game tape, they'd see that they looked like a more like kickers and quarterbacks making tackle attempts. We hit soft, shied away from contact, over-pursued and took bad angles. Some of that can be blamed on the offense never giving them a break. What's the old saying..."Fatigue makes cowards of us all"? But not all can be blamed on our 3-and-out offensive machine. The defense has regressed since week #1. That is certain.

At the last football game, I think they limited the students to 176 entries.

He is correct in saying that. We need to fix major areas of concern, not minor tweaks. IMO, we need to fix the offensive line play, defensive secondary and the wide receiver group. Those three areas have been grading below average each week. We need them to improve before we start to scheme against other teams. I hope practices are focused on such problem areas. Oh I tottaly agree... Ive had season tickets to this Akron team since 1990 and while we have seen some bad teams... I really think this is the worst one I have seen over 3 games by far. Its not a quick fix, but it needs a major rehaul for sure! In my book, no team compares to the one Faust left Owens. We played YSU, and they dwarfed us size-wise. Junko was a 187lb starting OLB. This team has much more talent and size. But if they get the elusive 0 - 12, I'll concede your point.

People look at stats and see what they want to see. If you don't like the QB, it is low-hanging fruit to point to his completion percentage and say the guy sucks. Game's #1 and #2, we had ZERO WR's that could shake their DB. No one was open. Ever. Beyond that, Nicely often ran for his life. Game #3 saw the first signs of improvement in the WR group. They actually began separating from the DB's. Unfortunately, Nicely missed his mark several times...and the open WR's dropped balls multiple times. If the WR's start catching balls, we will move the chains. If they continue dropping them, we won't. And changing the QB won't help. If the WR's continue to get open, and Nicely misses them...and it continues for another game or two, then he gets a seat on the bench. But be prepared for the INT count to rise dramatically. Rodgers throws a lot of them. And good luck banking on a running QB with that big ankle brace. It is a major disaster waiting to happen. How would Charlie Frye's numbers look throwing to LaFrance, Pride and Russell... as opposed to Cherry, Sparks and Irvin? Identical?

Luckily it is on a 1-AA website, so no one will ever see it.

I have been awaiting a certain player-to-be-listed from you all day long. Don't let me down! James Battle Geof Beuchesne Bret Hrivnak Jarvis Givens. I don't know who you mean. I'm very disappointed in you. Click here if you are a quitter.

I have been awaiting a certain player-to-be-listed from you all day long. Don't let me down!

I agree, that photo will last forever. You know OU students will be using that for the next decade. Looking at your signature, Dr. Z... is there any chance Joe Tuzze was inside that Bobcat outfit?

Bates Szakos at WR? Or do we need to place him on the all-IR team?

What would win me over to Ianello would be a response like this: Gaffney: "Your 0 - 3 record has led to disparaging comments from fans who want instant results and credibility." Ianello: "Jesus freaking Christ, Tom. I was part of a staff that just got canned at Notre Dame. These people in Akron are starved for what? A couple wins and hope for the future? Try walking off the field at Notre Dame after you just lost to some schlep program like the Syracuse. Then having to go in front of the Chicago media...the National media...then dealing with blogs and message boards that are read by hundreds of thousands of fans! Disparaging comments from 52 fans at a game? Or 39 fans on a message board? Come on. Have you ever been out of Akron? God Bless those handful of sorry bastards that have sat through four consecutive losing seasons. If they're disappointed after an 0-3 start, the uncompetitive, bumbling way we've started 0 - 3, I say GOOD! Because I hate it too. I'm just glad someone cares about our program."

I LOVE it (OU embarrassment). Man, what a gift to us hecklers in the stands. Can't wait to see what the Rowdies can do with this come basketball season. Where, oh where, is Jupitertoo?

I dont know how good i would be at legends of the practice squad, but there were some pretty good players during the Faust years that spent/are spending time in prison. Now that would be a fun topic. I'll have to put some thought into it. We could call it "Legends of the prison exercise yard brought to you by the University of Akron.....or something like that. If we can get 22 guys from that, it will be truly sad! Only guy off the top of my head that I played with that served any real time was Thomas Plummer. Mack Warren was crack dealer/DT (recruited by Faust, but busted under Owens). He was arrested, and subsequently kicked off the team. Of course, he finished his career at K.e.n.t. State.

The funniest line in this column is from Gaffney, regarding fan reaction to the 0-3 start: "That (record) has led to disparaging comments from fans who want instant results and credibility." Oh those unreasonable fans who are dissatisfied with scoring 3 points in the home opener, and losing to a 1-AA team at home the following week...those guys are demanding WAAAY too much from the Zips. "Instant results?" How about fans that are tired of losing, and who simply want to see some semblance of hope that the team is getting better rather than worse? It must be nice to be an impartial observer who could care less if the Zips won or lost... or got smoked vs. losing respectably.

Can EJ Lilly get the other RB spot? Or should it be Christian Morgan?

Bain was a bust, but Tonga is only in his 4th game (of a 2-year eligibility window). He has time to do something.

Ben Ruhlin - The Zips career leader in Blue Gold Game carries and rushing yardage.

Down in Lexington this past weekend an easy conversation-starter was former UK recruit Dakotah Euton ending up at Akron. Their basketball fans are as well-versed about their program as they can possibly be, and everyone I spoke to knew of Dakotah. People who attended his AAU games, and who saw him play in high school, all thought he was a pretty talented player. Good shooting skills and footwork. Not much to add beyond that. I just thought it was interesting that no one said "He was fat...slow...unskilled...not an SEC talent..."etc. A lot of Kentucky fans wanted to see what he could have done in a Kentucky uniform. Now Billie Gillespie? They hated that dude.