Captain Kangaroo

I think the worst part about not getting a bye is...it gives you one more opportunity for a loss than if you had a top 3 seed. Teams like Ball State and Western Michigan are dangerous opening round opponents. I'd rather not play them at all.EMU? Ok, that might be a nice tune-up.

I care about the QB. If we play people tight into the 4th quarter, then turn the ball over when the game is on the line, we'll go 5-7 again.The defense will be fine. RB's too.

Who knew there were two South Dakota's? :blink:

It is awesome that we are toe-to-toe with two Big East schools for a 6' 6", 240 lb DE that wants to be an engineer. From everything I hear, the kid has tremendous ability and character. His parents are very serious about finding the best collegiate "fit" for him. It could take a couple more days...or a couple more weeks.

On the schedule...I'll assume it is 2009

I've spent a lot of time over the past 10 years beating on the local papers for their shoddy-to-invisible coverage of Zips Athletics. So it is only fair that I give a little praise when someone does something well. Nice feature by Tom Gaffney. He's done several lately, and I've learned a lot from every one of them.Nice job, Tom. Keep up the great work!

It was worse than that. NIU only needed to inbound the ball, up by 2pts with about 5 seconds remaining, to win (K.e.n.t. would have fouled them). Instead, NIU inbounded the ball to a K.e.n.t. player...then immediately fouled him!! He made the FT's and they went to OT.NIU also went about 1-9 (my guess) down the stretch at the free throw line. They had a million easy chances to ice the game.

We had a 1-AA team scheduled, but allegedly a Big 10 team (Michigan?) offered them a lot more money and they backed out.

Steubenville-UA walk on will instead go to Tiffin.Too bad...I saw him play in the State Finals and he looked to be a great athlete.

If Tillman gets on-track and OU finishes the season strong, it is Tillman's to lose. If not, and the Zips continue to roll, C McKnight should get it. Wins over Buffalo and Miami would be pretty much mandatory for it to happen.

I agree. A good sponsor pick up. Tough call...great referees...or a nice chicken sandwich. You can't have it all on Sundays, I guess.

Those teams would get crippled if they played a D-1 team. Physically crippled. If you thought the 65-0 beating of Hampton, w/65 scholarships, was a tragedy, wait til you saw Duquesne vs. Akron. 100 points might be achievable. By halftime.

Detroit is dumping salaries big-time. It wouldn't shock me to see Dwight end up somewhere else in 2009. He still has another year or two left in him...if he can stay out of trouble.Frye and Alleman came to a game last season. I got a picture of my son with Charlie. Alleman was having a big tailgate with a bunch of other former players.

The PD's Elton Alexander is obviously lurking on the "Akron Fan Message Board" (God forbid he mention the name, even though he uses it for material). His latest column discusses Tillman's loosening grip on the MAC POTY award. Just to make the "idea borrowing" a little less obvious, he's omitted Chris McKnight from the POTY competition. It is also interesting that the MAC FOTY is apparently locked up by a center from Ball State? I hope Cventinovic takes that as a challenge tomorrow.

Attendance-related story from Sunday - My wife goes to the Chick-a-filet window at the JAR for a sandwich. The person behind the counter says "Oh, we only sell those when we're expecting crowds bigger than 1,000. We won't have any today."Defcon 75

I think Joe Akron is at Defcon 4 right now. 20 wins gets him at Defcon 3. MAC finals berth gets him to Defcon 2. MAC Championship and a mid-court confetti shower gets him to the ever-elusive Defcon 1.Anything less and a Championship (like a #2 finish and an NIT bid) and Joe Akron drops back to Defcon 3. Reference:DEFCON 5 This is the condition used to designate normal peacetime military readiness. An upgrade in military preparedness is typically made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and announced by the United States Secretary of Defense.DEFCON 4 This refers to normal, increased intelligence and the heightening of national security measures.DEFCON 3 This refers to an increase to force readiness above normal. Radio call signs used by American forces change to currently classified call signs. This was reached after 9/11DEFCON 2 This refers to a further increase in force readiness just below maximum readiness. The most notable time it was declared was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, although the declaration was limited to Strategic Air Command. It is not certain how many times this level of readiness has been reached.DEFCON 1 This refers to maximum readiness. It is not certain whether this has ever been used, but it is reserved for imminent or ongoing attack on US military forces or US territory by a foreign military power

It is not etched in stone, but SDSU was the odds-on favorite as of late last week.

They are probably saying the same thing about Akron.I doubt it.

Eric McLaughlin would approve.

I think reducing Conyers/Bardo's minutes while increasing the McKnight's and Cventinovic's minutes...+ adding McClanahan to the active roster = the most significant reasons we're scoring more points. Overall, everyone is playing well. Humpty gets a little crazy with his early-in-the-shot-clock 3's...but you'd really need to work reach to find anything negative to say about how the Zips are playing right now. Cupcakes or not.

Ray Charles could tell the difference between this Sunday's crew and the CMU crew. The game was a pleasure to watch. And it wasn't just because the Zips won...we won more handily vs. CMU and I wanted to punch a brick wall at the end of that game.

If you have a $5million donation, I think the groundbreaking could only be a month or two away?We need it, but we can't afford it right now. If we have any extra money, I would tuck it in Caleb's pocket rather than build a stadium...at least until the economy turns around.

If playing Sunday games is what it takes to watch a quality-ref'd game, count me in for changing all our games to Sundays. It was great to watch a basketball game and not a free throw shooting contest.

Here are a few notes I jotted down from Wednesday -The Spring Game will be held Saturday April 4th.The 1-AA opponent for 2009 is looking to be South Dakota State.Keith Huebner (OL) has left the football team and will focus on track for Dennis Mitchell's squad.Henderson's high school weight was listed at 285. He's now 325. Apparently he is close to his expected playing weight. Kind of a "Jerry Ball" type nose guard.Other than Steiner, there were no "local" kids signed. I asked Coach Ferri is he expected to hear any grousing from local HS coaches regarding the Zips not recruiting in their own back yard. His response was - "I'm personally responsible for recruiting the Akron-Canton area, and we recruited every local D-1 caliber athlete very hard. If a local coach complained that the Zips didn't recruit one of their players, I'd immediately pick up the phone and give him a call." It seems like the local crop of now-HS Juniors is pretty good. I think we can expect a couple local kids in the 2010 class.There are no members of the 2009 class on-campus this spring with the exception of Fleming and Pechuta. Nicely could have graduated early, but he wanted to enjoy his senior year of high school. I can't blame him.Punter Josh Couch is a relative of Tim Couch. Cousin? Although a punter/kicker in HS, he's expected to only punt for the Zips.I asked if there was an "Infocision Effect" on recruiting. Coach Ferri stated definitively "YES." He specifically mentioned a key recruit that, after seeing the stadium, walked into the Stile Center and said "This is where I'm coming!" You could also see the effect the stadium had on the number of recruits that de-committed on signing day - Zero. That's the first time it's ever happened. Other schools tried to sway several recruits late in the game, but now wavered. Ferri also stated that the effect will be even bigger once the stadium is completed. They expect to go after a lot more high-caliber HS recruits in 2010, and also expect to get them.Although we have Bowser, Miller and Bruce as our top 3 WR's, LaFrace will definitely be in the mix for a starting position in 2009. He also talked about LaFrance being displaced by hurricane Katrina. He said to keep your eyes open over the next few years in the NFL because there's going to be a lot of kids from lower-division colleges, kids who were displaced from the hurricane and slipped through the recruiting cracks, who will be drafted. If you were from Louisiana and the hurricane hit during your Junior year...the year when most colleges review tapes and recruit the hardest...you probably ended up @ a non-BCS school or JUCO.Look for two new coaches to be hired this week. Brookhart doesn't want to go into spring drills without a QB coach on-staff.Ferri also told a story about when he was recruited by the Zips (he attended Army). He looked at UA in the mid-90's and got absolutely no feeling that the University was supporting the football program. Of the eight schools he considered, UA was probably last in line. He stated that's changed 180 degrees from then to today. He said "Proenza doesn't want to be last in ANYTHING." He stated that once the stadium is completed, there will be no other MAC school in the Zips league facility-wise. It won't even be close. It took the UA about 12 years, but the "Worst-to-First" story is almost complete!A million Thank You's again to Coach Ferri to take the time to speak to all of us!!! He promised he'd do it again next year. We'll give everyone more than 4-days notice next February, I swear!

I have a zero tolerance for any douche who enters ZipsNation specifically to belittle its members. If you want to be condesending...act like you're superior...your participation on the board will likely be short-lived.Yes, everyone has an opinion. But if that opinion is a smug slap in the face to ZipsNation members, it stands a good chance of generating ridicule.