Captain Kangaroo

Seems like a great kid. Click for a nice column in the local paper.

That's just f-'d up. Profoundly sad.

Hopefully it was just announced that Eric McLaughlin and Marcel Boyce were granted anlother year of eligibility? If not, based upon our last several games, I remain pretty concerned.

I think it is safe to assume his son was on MassilonTiger.org campaigning for dad to keep his job.AkronObsessed...to AshlandObsessed....to MassilonObsessed...to GreenObsessed...that kid has more obsessions than Calvin Kline.

After reviewing the recruit videos...a great way to spend a lunch break by the way...here are my thoughts:Jordan Miller has a strong arm. Noticeably stronger than what I remember Matt Rogers' appeared in his video last season. The throws a nice deep ball...not a floater, but a strike. Runs well too.Bowser looks to be the real deal. Nice moves, acceleration and a ton of yards-after-catch. Thankfully he isn't an inch taller or the Zips couldn't have gotten a return phone call from him. He'll rule in the MAC.Deshaun Miller - Looks fearless over the middle. He and Bruce will be a great slot receive combo.Nadir Brown - He's one of the guys the Zips offered after Gardner and Cooper stiffed us on signing day. Not only is he tall at 6' 5", the guy has great hands and reach. He plays with the athleticism of a basketball player. He could be a steal. If he weren't injured is senior season, BCS schools would have been all over him. All reports say his health is fine. He's a good one.Ryan Ladrach - Probably the least spectacular of the recruit videos...but TE's typically aren't all that sexy (for lack of a better term). Seems to have great size, good hands and a lot of upside.Andrew Colosimo - Looks to be a strong, strong kid. Technique looks good...I'm guessing his HS coaching was pretty good.Andrew Bice - Marked as an OL...but I wouldn't mind seeing him get a shot at DL. He looked excellent there. Mitch Straight - See Bice's comments above. Both these guys look to be agile, strong big men who could be successful on either side of the ball.Joe Pachuta - The guy just mauled opposing DLs. I wonder how many pancakes he had for the season...more than Waffle House and Perkins make for a typical post-church Sunday brunch, I assume?James Harvey - Yet another big man (6' 4", 280) who's athleticism stood out first and foremost. Played RB, TE and DL! I think the sky is the limit for him.Hassan Hazime - 6' 6", 245 lbs, and chiseled. Hopefully he makes the jump to the speed of the American college game quickly. If so, look out! It will be surreal for him to play in some of the bigger college venues...judging from a lot of his footage, my back yard is more of a football field than some of the sandlots he's used to playing in?Brian Wagner - Man, did this kid look impressive. Reminiscent of an early-career Nate Boyd or Brian Hilk. Yeah, he's from a Division 6 program, but's that's the only way the Zips could get a kid of his caliber. If he played at even an average D1 HS program, larger schools would have been all over him. Breakaway speed...strength...I'd be surprised if he isn't one of the 2008 true freshman that plays immediately.Nate Schuler - FINALLY the Zips start recruiting from the Youngstown-area's Inter County League...home of middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik (Lowellville HS) and yours truly (McDonald HS). The kid lays out some serious shots. Once he gets into a solid weight program, quits playing QB and gives up hoops, the sky is the limit for this 6' 2" 215lb missile. Troy Gilmer - Highlights were predominately on the offensive side of the ball, but he'll be an LB. Looks to be a great athlete. Very fast.Will Flemming - Not the sexiest highlight film ever, but the one thing that stood out was his anticipation. More so than anyone else, he seems to make big plays by being a 1/2 step ahead.Kevin Davis: He fell into the Zips hands when Maurice Harvey stiffed the Zips in favor of Nevada Reno. Davis looks to have excellent ball-hawking skills. Tackles well too.Jared Province - Most of his highlights were at RB. The kid glides...he looks like a young Robert Smith, or better yet Dominik Hixson. Like Wagner and Schuler, he's a small-school Ohio kid. But he has great size, bloodlines and burner speed. He seems to be an absolute steal.Kevin Funches - A JUCO DB that appears to have solid cover skills and good speed. Manley Waller - Fast and tough. reminds me of a pre-ACL injury Chevin Pace. He also had the best tape special effects!Marvase Byrd - His speed and toughness stood out.Norm Shuford - I loved his spin moves at RB. And his speed. despite being 5' 9", he has the "look" of a prototypical DB. Add these guys to Bain, Bruce and Johnson and we have what appears to be a very solid class. I'm pretty excited to see them all suit up.

Click for MAC Recruiting OverviewTake it from the source...an on-line publication that listed Jarvis Givens and Kyle Roddenberry as Zips commitments for the second consecutive year.

Lol, I love the Tarver reference.Can ZipWatcher get "Go Tarver" T-shirts printed before the next home game? I'm in for THU-REEEEEEEEEEEE!!

If that were the case, we would have been playing 2 on 5 last night ...On second thought .. maybe we were. If you give up 80+ at home .. you're not guarding anybodyNo one shoots 65% in a game unless:a.) They flat-out over match the opponent (like when my intramural team got waxed by BUS FREE AFRIKA back in 1988)b.) They have confidence out the ying yangNIU didn't over match us. They're a bottom-feeder MAC program. They were supremely confident, because they knew they could get their shot off. It is SO much easier to shoot if you know no one's going to bother you.I agree with ZW - KD needs to figure out another way to win. Winning with defense isn't going to happen...these guys simply aren't good defensive players right now. And I don't think that's going to change over the next couple months. It'll take the whole summer.When Pitino got replaced by O'Brien a few years back, the Celtics progressively started playing better defense. A reporter asked Paul Pierce "What gives?" Pierce replied - "When Pitino was here, he yelled at us 'PLAY DEFENSE!'. When O'Brien got here, he TAUGHT us how to play defense."KD has some teaching to do with the youngsters. Until the "D" starts clicking, I'm inclined to let the McKnights "go Tarver" and take our chances until Wood returns.

Our 22 game home win streak got snapped by a team that was 0-10 on the road. Said team shot 65% against the Zips. To quote Luis Proenza: "Wow..."

Screw that -- Do whatever it takes to win THIS season! The MAC East is still there for the taking, and it would be a disservice to the seniors to put this team in a "rebuilding" mode, even for one game.No - You don't run Dials and Middleton into the ground. But you don't stick Bardo out for 30 minutes just for the sake of giving him "experience" either.Like Dambrot alluded to in the post-game Saturday:Bubba left, and Middleton stepped up his gameWood got hurt, and Travis stepped up his gameWood is out, and C McKnight seems to be stepping up his gameThis is an opportunity for a youngster to seize. We need someone to step up and be an impact player for the rest of the season. Regardless of how the season plays out, we will not go into The Q with a bullseye on our back this season. It'll be fun to be the underdog for the first time in a while.

CJ7 is no longer a Zip. But I do agree...I don't see him improving, regardless of where he ends up. If it does, we are in a world of hurt. No one is banking on them. That's why we signed the JUCO guys. They are the key to the WR position this year. That, and a QB that can get them the ball.

I've heard similar rumbling. I think it would be awesome.From what I've heard, he has a legit shot in the NFL as a DB. But probably not as an RB. It would also allow us to put our best 22 players on the field, instead of sitting Allen or Johnson.

He was ineligible in the fall, so like any fall non-qualifier, he would not be eligible in the spring. Assuming a minor miracle, you could see him in summer camp.

Since you bring up the topic of scheduling...I hear rumors that the Florida State Seminoles could end up on the Zips 2009 schedule (away). That would be a sweet road trip. Regarding getting upper-tir B11 teams @ home...forget it. It ain't happening. Michigan can get 110,000 paying customers to see them play 1-AA schools. UA would need to charge $2,000.00 per ticket to get anywhere near close to the $$ required to get OSU or Michigan to come to our 30,000 seat stadium.Like other MAC schools, we need to get the Syracuse's...Rutgers'...Purdue's...Iowa State's...Cincinnati's..Minnesota's...teams of that ilk to make an attractive non-conference schedule. Or, we waste our brand new stadium and play a neutral-field game in Cleveland againsts a top-tier school. I want to tailgate in Akron and watch games in Akron once the stadium is built. Why spend 55 million dollars, then play games in Cleveland's stadium? Why screw the local merchants who invested in business around the new stadium by giving Cleveland our $$.As far as innovative ideas to grow the fan base - Play better, win games and do so for an extended period of time. That will draw fans. I think the Zips' 2009 team will be excellent...we'll have the new stadium to showcase them...and the bandwagon will spontaneously erupt, much like the Motor City Bowl's "instant" Zips following. And for once, I think people will pay for their tickets and we may actually start crawiling out from the red.

I saw Larry Dawson didn't catch on anywhere either.

Harvey is in school this semester. That's all I know.

I wouldn't sell Alex Allen short. In my book, Williams is #1, Allen is "#1a" and anyone else has a lot of proving to do to beat those guys out for playing time.

So much for waiting 2 days for gozips.com... Thanks, Cap.Two days was generous. I'd have guessed a week!

Click for List

Which (below) is OSU's Kosta Koufos?Answer - Both. Picture #2 was taken during Koufos' post-game interview.

I think the soccer, softball and rifle squads would beg to differ on the "everything" generalization. Regarding everything else - I think if UA had OSU's budget and corporate sponsors, you'd see a slightly different level of marketing that what's presently on the street.

Add Fleming, Straight and Colosimo to the list!

Thusfar, as of 8:17am, I can confirm Shuford, James Harvey, Nate Schuler, Manley Waller, Ryan Ladrach and Joe Pachuta has submitted their paperwork, and are "officially" Zips!If I hear more, I'll be sure to post it.

He was listed as a soft commit on scout.com.Do we get Marquis Avery now?I doubt Avery is an option. I also wonder if the Gardner info is true. It is crunch time, so I'm not going to bug anyone for "scoop" info. The next 18 hours or so will be pretty frenetic.

Scout.com "announces" 2-week old news. And people pay for it? I gotta get in on that scam.... Can't wait for Jarvis Givins' name to roll off the fax machine tomorrow...per Scout.com