Captain Kangaroo

The RB does sell beer. $2.00 per cup Coors Light. If you don't like it, stuff a couple cans of your own in your jacket.Beer availability has as much affect on the Zips football attendance as the paint color in the Rubber Bowl bathrooms.

I guarantee if our backup QB sees meaningful minutes the remainder of this season, we will not be going to a bowl game. Barring injury or a blow out, Luke should continue to get all snaps. Buffalo and Bowling Green should be good opportunities for CJ to get some snaps. I don't see it happening @ Toledo.

Or like Matt Futch.

Zips offense appears back...just in time for the MAC tourney!Click for Beatdown of a Good Team

You forgot to mention the kid's reply:"EAT MY ASS, BITCH!"

In case you wondered...Click for Logic that Defies Logic

Nothing reflects better on The University of Akron than a guy in Zips gear verbally abusing children.

The Columbus Crew stadium looks like a HS stadium. The one shown in the graphic...if you can even tell anything about it from such a low-res, distant view...looks fine.

Zips have a breakout game, beating BG 4-1.Big match vs. UNC-Greensboro Tuesday night:UNCG Wins Their League Again

That doesn't matter in the MAC East race.We need OU to beat K.en.t this weekend to even begin dreaming about tie-breaker scenarios. Oh yeah...we need to beat Toledo on the road too.

Random, as per usual:* Always nice to beat Miami. It had been too long. Overall, Miami looks small and slow, a shell of the Prentice and R-berger led teams we've previously played.* Defense played very well. Nate Robinson got some extended PT and made the most of the opportunity. Best game, overall, by the D-line in some time.* Mackey is solid, yet again.The Carlton Jackson era has officially begun. Ug. The guy behind be began saying "Hey look...Jackson's warming up!" I replied "There is no way in hell they put Jackson in. We're semi-deep in our own territory...Luke has been moving the ball...two of his previous 3 incompletions were WR drops...no way in hell." In comes CJ...and his debut was not quite the debut Frye had vs OU 6 years ago. One of the worst coaching decisions I've seen in the Rubber Bowl in some time.* Ok...we're up 24-13 after a TD. We get a 5 yard penalty because the 25 second clock wasn't visible. Instead of trying for the XP to make it 12pt lead, we go for two? I don't care if the kicker missed two previous XP's, his chances of hitting an XP from 24 yards is better than getting a 2-point conversion from 7 out.* The excessive celebration penalty for the player slapping the hand of a student hanging over the rail was absolutly insane. That ref should be fired. Overall, a very poorly refereed game.* Plain Dealer sends no reporter to any Saturday MAC games.* Kennedy is a workhorse. But...can we get an RB that can bust a 65 yard run? DK runs tough the first 5 yards or so, but he is tackled way too easily in the secondary. * Nice job by the OL today! Good protection, and nice holes for Kennedy. Crouch is back a game sooner than I would have expected.* No sign of Chev Pace* Harvey's brilliant plays continue to cover for his freshman mistakes. * What is up with the separation of the GA seating and "Reserved?" I had to walk my reserved tickets over to some friends in GA that were prevented from sitting in our 30% full section. That's plain silly at the Rubber Bowl. * Best "total" game we've played this season...but still far short of our capabilities. We should have beat this Miami team by 25.Good crowd. Great day. Excellent tailgate atmosphere. F the very beatable Toledo. We'll see this week how badly our guys want to go to a Bowl game. This is a "must" win if we are tuely deserving of a bowl bid.

They'll try to be incognito in blue shirts, but the champagne bottles are a dead-giveaway!

He's so old he thinks a Podcast is a sporting way to harvest sugar-snap peas.Zips 31-29Miami favorite-son Big Ben wears funny-nose glasses to the game: ...but is spotted by the Zips student section who tants him the entire game with chants of "WEAR YOUR HEL-MET" (to the cadence of O-VER-RAY-TED).

OU has had 17 player arrests in the past 9 months...and they just beat Illinois. Control is overrated, I guess?The few things that have popped up over the past few weeks are nothing in the big scheme of things. We suspended a kicker that never played, and may have lost 2 reserve DL's. Pace's absense is somewhat of a hit, but we won a championship without him last season. Crouch? I like Tim, but it doesn't bug me to see the staff giving someone else a chance on the left side.Beat Miami and Toledo and the world will again be rosy.If you think JD has lost control, whaddya think about Larry Coker?

QuarterbacksLuke Getsy : BWhen he's had time to throw, he's been very good. He's had little time to throw and had little running game to support him. He's typically throwing to 2 Fr. WR's + Jabari, who remains a hot/cold work-in-process. Considering the circumstances, he's doing fine. Wish he was a bit more elusive...it would help his health.ReceiversB-Jabari has been inconsistant. Harvey has been pretty solid. Overall, too many drops...routes abandoned too soon. A #3 WR hasn't stepped up.Tight ends CKris Kasparek hasn't done much since that nice 4th and 7 snag vs. Penn State. One of the bigger disappointments of the 2006 season. Merce Poindexter is playing well, but still has some key drops. Jose' Cruz seems to has fallen below Flaherty? Not much help coming from the TE's in run or pass blocking.Running backsCRunning game has disappeared since the team left Raleigh. Even NTSU shut us down in the 2nd half. And before you say "Who cares...we were up 33-6," I'll offer this: When you're up 33-6 in the second half you should impose your will on the opposing defense...run it down their throats...eat clock and get out of dodge. We couldn't move the ball to save our life against a really crappy team. K.e.n.t and Cinci were no-shows by the RB's too.Offensive lineD"It has been hit and miss," Brookhart said about the line. "Little bit inconsistent..."I would say our collective OL has been very consistent. Consistently bad. No time for Luke to throw. No holes for the RB's to hit. Penalties galore (how familiar is 2nd and 25 to this Zips team?). The opponent has a sack-fest every week. Unlike the WR's, where one guy can be outstanding and make the overall WR grade good...if only one, two or three OL's are pulling their weight and one or two are not...it is crippling.Defensive lineC+Good run defense, Z-E-R-O pressure on the QB. LinebackersBGrant, Mackey(I'll call him an LB) and Groza have been great. Stokes is solid.SecondaryB-They aren't playing too poorly. The lack of pressure on the opposing QB is really making their job difficult.Special teamsDBad punting and punt protection. Horrific place kicking.Kick offs have been ok (deep enough). Kick returns have been good. Special teams coverage has been good.

Really? I thought you were pretty indifferent on this topic?

Akron (AP) Miami University mascot "Mr. Scabs" arrived in Akron today and was immediately quarantined. Said Summit County Aviary Specialist Roy Brookhart; "We has reports of a foul stench approaching Akron from Columbus and Mansfield authorities. It was pretty easy to narrow the source down to the Miami cheerleader van. Cars were diving into the median...doing just about anything they could to avoid it. It was a very dangerous situation." Miami cheerleader spokesperson Janet McGillicuddy (shown top) was stunned; "Mr. Scabs has been to K.en.t several times and no one noticed a smell any different than normal. In fact may of the locals seemed to enjoy our mascots scent. I am shocked." Akron hosts Miami University Saturday evening at 6:00pm.

Phil Steele is a God.

Not to change the subject...but how bad will it suck to see K.e.n.t football in the "Others receiving votes" sections of some polls in a week or two?

Click for Recruit Info

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For as much ridicule as the football schedule received this season, I'm surprised no one is bitching about the atrocious hoops schedule. One D-1 home game through December 18th. K.e.n.t on a Wednesday night?

I think the topic of replacing Luke with a Freshman QB is ludicrous. Luke is the man. Period. Rarely has Luke missed his man when he's had a few seconds to throw. He's made some great tosses this year. Unfortunately, he's getting snowed-under about 0.56 seconds after the ball touches his hands. I think Alleman and Wills have done a solid job this year. However, some of the other guys have struggled. You can tell by the penalty calls...those are the guys that are getting beat. When 2...or 3...or even 4 of your OL's are pulling their weight, and even one doesn't, your QB is in trouble.Is Luke the most elusive QB in the conference? No chance in hell. But with the time he's had to throw this season, I don't think even Fran Tarkenton could buy enough time. In addition - Keep in mind he's throwing to a converted QB and a Freshman as his primary tarkets. That's not exactly Cherry, Irvin, Sparks and Hixson. As nice as Harvey has played, he's also in the very early stages of learning to run college-level routes. Him being in the wrong place has contributed to some of Luke's seemingly errant attempts.The easy "out" is to blame a coach or the QB for our troubles. It goes much much deeper than that. Our DL can't pressure the opposing QB to save their lives. That's killing our pass coverage. We also can't stop the opposing QB from getting 10-15 yards per rush. Our LB's have been solid in run stopping, but are letting the opposing TE run wild. Or RB...or whomever is 7 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The don't get near the QB on blitzs, which sucks when you have a 3-man front.Offensively, our running game has been terrible. Some of that is due to Kennedy's injury. But a lot is due to our run blocking that seems to pack it in after one or two quarters. Our WR's and TE's are dropping passes.Our kicking game has been terrible.Get rid of Luke in favor of either CJ is waving a white flag on a season that is only half over. That would be pathetic. The remaining 6 games are emminently winnable. The seniors need to suck it up and pound these next six opponents. They should. If they do, that's an 8-win season and a bowl bid. We (the MAC) get three bids this year. K.e.n.t will get one. The MAC West winner will get one. The last one is up for grabs...and to be honest, the competition isn't all that stiff. We beat BG, OU and Toledo and the third bowl bid is ours.If we play like we've played the first 6 games, finishing 8-4 is pretty unlikely. I'm hopeful the Zips start playing with some pride and effort. And the coaching staff starts getting a little more creative. If so, we have the talent to be 8-4 in the MAC. JD said exactly that in the preseason. He should know.

To be fair, we are playing like MAC champs for 1or 2 quarters per game. That's what's most frustrating. You can see the talent is there.

Random, as usual:* Great day for football...FINALLY. No cold, wet rain to be seen...just sunny and in the 70's.* Nice tailgate party. Had 15 or so Zips fans in the schoolyard. It was an "urban" setting, amongst an older student housing area, but close to the stadium and paved, with a port-o-let. Several excellent local microbrews were unearthed. Helped to dull the pain of what was to come...* As usual, the 2006 hot/cold Zips were true to form. Unfortunately, the heat only lasted about 15 minutes. The frigid cold drug on for 45min.How about these stats:39 total combined offensive yards in the final 45 minutesSeven consecutive 3-and-outs beginning in the second quarterFive of the seven 3-and-outs went for negative yardage* In the history of college football, there can't be many teams that rolled up 180 yards in the first quarter, then ended up below 220 yards for the game. That was horrific to behold. Cinci has a good defense...but that is utterly ridiculous.* The defense only made Cinci punt three times, but did create 3 turnovers. At games-end, after being on the field almost the entire game, they needed to make one more stand and couldn't do it. I can't blame them too much.* Defensively, out least-imposing players again stood out. Someone told me last year, when I asked "Who'll replace Jay Rohr?" that "It will be someone stronger and faster." It doesn't appear to be the case. John Mackey has stepped one of Rohr's shoes. Groza stepped into the other. Both these guys "bring it" every down. Grant and Reed do too, with a nod to Jason Nedd and his 11 tackles Saturday (shows why he passed Chevin on the depth chart). BUT - Our D-line is really bad. And we're coming up with ZERO blitz packages to get any pressure on the QB. AND - We're missing a ton of tackles. In summation - We have a few guys on D that you can bank on play-in-play-out, and some guys that lost their fire somewhere along the line. Or, that simply aren't that good.* Offensively...holy hell. The collective O-line continues to struggle. Crouch is the easy scapegoat...and justifiably so...but he's not the only guy not pulling his weight. When Luke has time to throw, he is deadly. You can see it in his pin-point TD tosses to Jabari and his bombs to Harvey. But there is a cumulative bad effect when he's heavily pressured. Luke ain't the most elusive QB in the MAC. If there's a breakdown, he's usually going to get hit. And we have way too many breakdowns. When a breakdown occurs, Luke's only outlet has be a swing pass to an RB for no gain. No WR's or TE's seem to be in a position to help him out. Jabari, for all his progress, seems to quit on his routes with some regularity. Lindsay and Harvey are freshman still learning how to be a WR. That combination of "green" WR's...plus no protection...plus and immobile QB...plus some conservative playcalling...plus a TON of simple mistakes...is adding up to some terrible football.* The running game? How is a back as good as Kennedy getting 29 yards in a game? It is because our OL isn't getting any push up front and he's forced to swing it wide...often for negative yardage. It seems like we're way too predictable. The defense knows what's coming before we snap the ball. Maybe it takes them a quarter to figure it out, but after that, we're sunk. Our best offensive plays are when an opposing DB is called for interference. If it weren't for that, I seriously wonder if we'd ever move the ball?* Once again, the opposing QB leads the team in rushing. How old is THAT becoming?* At games-end you saw some new faces on D...Kabir...Pendleton...Balaam...at least we were subbing to try some fresh faces. * Tired of going for 4th-and-anything when we're in field goal range. Kick the ball.Is Luke too immobile...does he hold on to the ball too long...is our OL total swiss cheese...is our playcalling so vanilla it should be sold at Strickland's...is there an inter-team competition for "Most Missed Assignments" and "Most Crippling Penalties?" It really makes you wonder. Despite some nice individual efforts, we're playing terrible, Jeckel and Hyde football right now. I hope the off week is put to good use, because it couldn't come at a better time.We still have a very good shot at an 8-win season. That hasn't been seen in Akron for 2 decades. We still have a decent shot at a bowl game if we run the table. K.e.n.t is one QB hit away from losing every remaining game this season, so the MAC championship is still a feasible goal. We haven't beaten Miami in forever, so a win against them would be HUGE...there's a lot of season remaining for the Zips...a lot of football to be played. It will be interesting to see how the team responds. We could go 4-8...we could go 8-4. How we adjust over the next two weeks will dictate which is more probable. If we don't make some major changes in personnel, philosophies and mental preparation we're on a collision course for sub-.500.39 total yards over three quarters...after we took a 14-0 lead. Terrible.