Captain Kangaroo

Can't argue with Alexander if he's actually taken the time to check out the practices.Like it or not, he offered more insight in that small column than David Lee Morgan did in 5 years.

1.) Over the summer we all saw an interview with Hunter Yuracheck. In it, he stated (paraphrasing) - "The stakes have been raised for Akron Football. .500 won't cut it anymore." Seems pretty clear to me.2.) I am still awaiting the results of the UA investigation that forced Coach Ferri to resign. It should be scrutinized heavily by fans. 3.) I am glad to see JD has cut down on our missed PAT's dramatically. I'm disappointed that he's elected to use the strategy of scoring dramatically fewer touchdowns to achieve it.4.) Our offensive line is really, really bad. Our running backs are really, really bad. The team should be able to overcome the loss of a player like Joe Tuzze...but it can't. 5.) JD played Bowser despite his penchant for dropped passes. But, he won't play Devoe Torrence despite his penchant for fumbling. What gives? Torrence is our ONLY chance to move the ball on the ground. The only chance of keeping defenses from teeing off on Nicely. Allen is a shell of his former self. Dale Martin and Ronnie Steward are crowding up the Athletics Department whirlpool. Tuzze is hurt. Nate Burney apparently will never see the field, and Broderick Alexander is obviously going to be redshirted. Adrian Peterson fumbles way too much. But he's a gamebreaker, so he plays. Torrence needs to play.6.) Andre Jones may end up the most under-appreciated Zip ever. Some NFL team is going to get lucky with him in the late rounds, or in the undrafted FA market. He's like Hixson...special teams...WR...defensive secondary...and he has played all those positions at a very high level.7.) Stec's crappy rugby punts at Buffalo still bother me. 8.) Like a lot of other fans, I wonder how a coaching change would affect the minds of a lot of the recruits presently verbaled to UA. I'm guessing we'll lose a few. In a perfect world they would look at the coaching change as a sign of commitment from the University to winning. Time will tell.9.) I'm guessing we'll be a 6-...maybe 7-point underdog to K.e.n.t. in two weeks? 10.) I wonder about Nicely in 2010. Since he played as a true freshman, he could transfer and use 2010 as a "redshirt" season. He could go anywhere he preferred. He seems like a team kid and a good leader. I have to believe he'd stay. But him playing as a true Freshman could be the worst thing that could have happened to the Zips. It opens the door for him to transfer to a D1-A school without losing a year's eligibility. Just something for Skip-Zip and the other rabid "sky-is-falling" posters to ponder....Watching the Zips ain't no fun right now. Can we petition to have this week's game removed from TV? Or moved to ESPNU where no one will see it?

I disagree. When we win, we draw. 15k people drove to Detroit to see the Zips play a mediocre Memphis team in a non-BCS bowl game. They will drive to the corner of Brown and Exchange if we can ever put a winning team on the field. The do care, when the Zips are good. They do not care when the Zips are bad. It is that simple.Seriously - If you are "Joe Akron," why the hell would you want to endure a Zips game right now. Why would you want to buy a ticket or a ball cap? If the Zips are 6-2, it is an entirely different story than 1-7. No it doesn't. The Zips can easily draw 20,000 fans per home game if they have a winning product. When YSU was winning, they would draw 20,000. When YSU is losing, they draw 12,000. The people of Youngstown and Akron are no different. Winning draws fans, and losing repels them.I attended the Viking/Steelers game yesterday. Vikings fans were everywhere.I attended a Vikings/Steelers game 3-4 years ago, when Minnesota wasn't so hot, and I was one of two Vikings fans in the entire city of Pittsburgh.How many tribe fans are there when they win games? How many empty seats are there when they suck? Yes it will. The examples are everywhere. Locally, and across the nation. Compete for championships at any level, and you will capture the public's fancy. Rack up losing record after losing record and you will draw flies.

No debate here. We all would take that kind of suck right about now.20 - 11 home loss to K.e.n.t.Like I said -- OU sucks. I asked people from Tennessee and BG...they agreed.Just because the Zips suck more doesn't change the fact that OU is a crappy football program in an insanely crappy conference.

Which means he'll be 20 when he graduates high school!? How are his academics? I don't know if it applies to Dylan or not, but Canadian kids are always a year older than kids from the states when coming out of HS. If he transfered to a US school from Canada he may have lost a year.I think Jabai Arthur was 20 as a Zips freshman?

I saw Nicely sitting on the slope of the endzone grass this morning. The slope was not too steep, and his ankle looked fine.

Interesting quote from Elton:"Speaking of recruits, a peak into a recent Akron practice showed all the talents most have heard of for 7-0, 215-pound freshman center Zeke Marshall. Yet based on the first weekend of his Division I basketball education, Marshall is not even close to being a starter."

BTW - Nicely's ankle looked fine? When did they tape that video?

By the sound of it, I'm guessing about 1/2 our team will be there.

Most likely. A majority of kids will still have an inch or two left to grow when they are Juniors. Either way, if only remains 6'0" he's already taller than all of the true PG's currently on our roster. It would be nice to have a PG in the 6'2"-6'4" range, but we've been playing for years without one. I don't think it is entirely necessary to the success of this team.Dylan was born in 1991, so he's probably done growing. He's a pure point guard.I want to check his birth certificate! He looks like he has PLENTY of height upside?

Since the source is the same one who said the grass endzone was too steep for seating, I'll hold out hope that this is bogus.

Ah yes ... Amerika the Beautiful. Reminds me of an instance behind a hoop at the JAR. UA handed out those long balloons to wave and distract the opposing free-throw shooters. The guy next to me starting making squeaking noises with his balloon, squeezing it. The ref walked over and said "You do that one more time and I'll kick you out."

If he's 6' 0" as a HS Junior, you'd have to think he's got some upside to his size too?

Hey...it's a giant casserole for 12+ hungry Zips fans...you gotta go B-I-G!

Article from Today's ABJ

Big deal...I was one of the top 2011 prospects in the state of Ohio back in 1984. I think I #2004?

Goal!

Just don't stop believing this football season can turn around.If you believe that, all I can say is "Welcome to the Grand Illusion."

well putting it that way you make sense. I'm interested to see how this plays out. like I said it's just my opion like it or not.I know you're a big Sweich fan. How'd he spend the off-season? What part of his game did he work to improve?

It was interesting to see the Zips place a DL in the backfield in a "Jumbo Package" inside the Buffalo 5 yard line last week. Alex Allen went into the endzone with ease. That might have been the first "easy" TD we scored against D1 competition all year? Previously, you could expect to get stuffed for no gain in that situation.Bring out the Power-I with Torrence and Tuzze. We will move forward.

its very well made. Im impressed, actually, with the quality of the entire production. I wish we had something like this for Akron athletics though...Maybe the Marketing Dept can pull footage from the Morgan State game and produce one? Oooooh...that'd fire me up!

Adding to Zipsrifle's comments -I learned long ago that simply traveling to a Zips away game to watch football is a bad idea. Thus we got a nice hotel with a pool, took the kid to see the falls, brought a nice propane heater to the tailgate...tried to create as many guaranteed positives to offset the very cold game day and highly probable loss.Had a nice tailgate, with the ZipsWin's, Rifles and Z's all joining the fray. Corey Woods parents were also near by. Quality beer including Brooklyn Brewing Octoberfest and Roo-Topia helped make the weather more tolerable.There really is no cheaper event in the world than a Buffalo football game. The on-campus parking is free, and it took me all of 5 minutes to score 6 free tickets from a Buffalo fan. Free parking and game tickets...that's the best thing about MAC football.Buffalo's stadium is nice enough. But the stands in the endzones are a mile away from the action. That track absolutely sucks from a football fan's perspective. That said, the 6k in attendance easily fit within the confines of the side stands. Since the two disputed pass interference calls happened directly in front of me, and in front of the Buffalo bench, I can say without hesitation that both were BS. To call-off the first flag because "there was no contact" is boarderline criminal. To call offensive pass interference when the defender, with his back to the ball, physically impeded the WR's path to the ball, is criminal. I am guessing two referees made their way to a Niagra Falls sports book to pick up a pile of money after the game.Andre Jones looked great at WR...but his absence in the secondary killed the Zips. The deep-middle was wide open all day. #27 and #23 ain't no #21. But with Bowser out, Jones has to finish the season at WR. Torrence had a great day. Too bad he only had 13 carries. JD needs to live with Torrence's ball security issues and run him 20 times.The "jumbo package" the Zips ran to get Allen into the endzone was heartening. At least it showed me the staff was capable of coming up with some fresh, effective stuff to get us into the endzone. I'd like to see that package on 3rd and 1 too. It beats the hell out of the shotgun.As Zipsrifle said, Nicely was short on several of the long routes. But I think he will get a lot better over time. I agree with the assessment that The Kid is almost as good as a 5th year senior Jacquemain should have been...and light years ahead of where Rodgers was before his injury. Buffalo's QB made some nice tosses, and Roosevelt made some nice grabs. Buffalo had plenty of excuses...loss of an NFL-caliber QB...loss of Starks...loss of a starting OL...but they persevered. In the end, it came down to who would execute, and who would make the mistake." Buffalo drove the length of the field and scored. We drove 3/4 of the length of the field...and made the mistake.Buffalo has now beaten the Zips 3 consecutive times. Here's hoping The Kid learns from the mistakes of this week and has a big game vs. Syracuse.Here's hoping our special team's coach ditches that sh!tty rugby-style kick and lets Stec boot the ball. To paraphrase Dr. Z "Why the hell give a scholarship to a punter if you're going to relegate him to kicking 20 yard line-drives? Anyone on the team can do that."God Bless any of you making the trek to Syracuse. I've seen enough. I'll be at the Vikings / Steelers game Sunday. Go Vikings...my Pigskin Prozac this football season! McDonald HS update: 7-0 on the season. No truth to the rumor they're applying for entry in the MAC next season.

Captain Kangaroo should like this one. Even when we win the greatest game in program history, we create reasons for why we really should not have.We back-doored into the 2008-9 MAC basketball championship too. Humpty got lucky...we should have lost to the 12-seed. Right?

my life sucks...I think I will bash the kids on the football team today because it might make me feel better even though I have no clue what the heck I am talking about...yeah thats what i will do because my life completely sucks and because I am such a winner I will continue to bash and stomp the team because my number of post listings increase my stature as a zips basher and it will show the world I am one step away from actually jumping from the Y bridge, but thank god i have zips nation to express true negativity throughout the world....i only wish more positive people read my post so i can bring them down to my low level of life!!!!RUMPLEMINTZ - You are on ZipsNation, but maybe you need to spend some time on -

"We" as Zips fans, are cursed with more excuses than any other team in the history of collegiate athletics.