Captain Kangaroo

No way a BJ writer was in attendance. Someone will forward a release to the BJ. A phone interview with Mack would probably follow...IF the BJ thought it was newsworthy. Sooo I'm lying? The woman said she was from the BJ. Why in the world would I lie about that? I was responding to Dr. Z's post. At the time I was typing, the post where you explain meeting the reporter at lunch was not yet viewable. I didn't see it until just now. I can understand you being PO'd, but I think we were simply typing at around the same time. Thanks for the insight regarding the stadium progress. We all appreciate it.

No way a BJ writer was in attendance. Someone from the University will forward a release to the BJ. A phone interview with Mack would probably follow...IF the BJ thought it was newsworthy.

It says the ESPN guy did Z-E-R-O homework. CMU lost by 7 to Boston College. They're a decent team by any standards.

While I'd like to see a heavier pass rush, I think that's being pretty picky. Our defense has been very solid. The sack #'s are low, but overall whatever they're doing seems to be working well.

Stop playing the martyr. Look in the mirror. 99.999% of the posts on this board stay as-is, unedited. There are a million negative posts on this board and you know it. Topic locked. Please move on.

You can bash OSU if it is tied to Akron. If you want to start a thread to bash OSU, or want to spin a useful thread to instead bash OSU, or you take up board space with 5,000 posts bashing OSU, then there's an issue.This is a Zips board. It contains a lot of quality information regarding Zips football that you'll only find here. I don't want decent Akron information pushed down or off the board because someone wants to post I HATE OSU 50 times per hour. And inevitably, someone replies "Why do you hate OSU so much?" 50 times per hour.If you want to create IHATEOSU.com, feel free to do so and post 1,000 times per day. ZipsNation.org isn't the place.You're a great Zips fan Bobby. But, please temper the OSU stuff. And also note - The moderators of this board really wouldn't care if an earthquake swallowed Columbus. We do care about the quality of the board.

Luke is our Brett Favre. Not Favre 2006, but more like 2002. Gunslingers like Luke are going to break your heart sometimes. I'm banking on a great game from him next week.

In case you haven't noticed, many of your posts have been deleted or edited lately. Your endless, back-and-forth Ohio State-based posts have generated numerous complaints to the moderators. They clutter the board and don't reflect well on the ZipsNation.In this instance a premier HS recruit has visited the University of Akron. The thread gravitated towards SoFlaZip explaining that JD takes a caculated risk on 5-6 members of each recruiting class who's grades may not be up to snuff, but who have tremendous physical talent. He further stated that even if only something like 2 of 6 of thse players "make it" the Zips team is far better off than if it took 5-6 undersized players with decent grades...hoping they panned out. That is solid logic. Your hyperbole that JD's losing recruits left and right is getting old. It was a judgement call to delete your post. If you hadn't had such a terrible track record recently it probably would have stayed. Stop with the condecending comments towards the Zips, towards JD's recruiting and with the OSU stuff on the Akron Zips message board and you will see your posts hang around rather than disappearing.

You can add in the terrible blocking on FG's and punts...the horrid long-snapping...the mishandled punts...our kicking game is a wreck. When you're struggling to hit XP's...life is bad. It bit us today.

I think this loss certainly kept Akron from a sell-out. We'll have 20k, but not 25k.The wild card would be if the Beacon pimps the North Texas game hard. If they do, a sell out is still possible.Can't saved themselves with the Miami win. They'll get 25k vs. Akron in two weeks. Had the been "tyipcal Can't" they would have drawn 20k...mostly Akron fans.In a nut shell...if the Beacon falls back to their former self...Akron lost 5k today and Can't gained 5k.

Click For Cheap QuackersI may end up going to Gander Mountain or Wall0Mart to get one, but these would be good and cheap in bulk.

That's some bizarre logic.

You are wrong, but misrepresenting the facts suits your argument, so go ahead and have at it: Henderson, Lemon, Smith, Stoudamire are all expected to be a part of the Zips football team next season. Jackson may be too, depending upon his Prep School results.Boone had a family situation that required he drop out of school the final semester of his senior year. He needed to care for his sick father. Marshall, Hight & Garner didn't pan out. Every team has stories like this. Andre Jones did pan out. Ditto David Harvey. That is what SoFlaZips is saying above. Read his post and learn.

Click, and Prepare to be Puzzled

Wide receiver Toney Clemons, who has received 17 scholarship offers and said he will make a decision at the end of the season, has been quite the attraction at Valley. Approximately 10 coaches have visited the top prospect during the school day. Coaches such as Michigan's Lloyd Carr often call his cell phone just to keep in touch.On an unofficial visit to Akron, Clemons called a play at practice. "Four vertical," he shouted, before four receivers went flying at the sound of Clemons' voice and quarterback Luke Getsy connected with his target for a deep touchdown.The recruiting process makes Clemons feel like a star. The always-humble senior likes the attention, because he said, "It makes you feel like all of your hard work paid off."He said he fields 15 text messages each day from coaches. His mother complains because 15 letters a day fill the mailbox and she doesn't get half as much mail."You just have to keep going hard and keep working," Clemons said. "You never want to get your head in the clouds. You just have to keep a level head."

The whole "White out <insert team here>" or "Red Out <Insert team here>" is so f-ing unoriginal. Its about as original as playing freaking Michael Buffer's "Let's get ready to Rumble" before a game. I hope to God we don't "Gold Out" North Texas.Here's an idea for Can't State we came up with a week or so ago: Give all the students cheap toy duck calls and turkey calls. Every time we sack the Can't QB...make Can't punt...create a turnover, etc. the student chant "ON THE HUNT" and blast into the duck calls. That would be sweet.

I wonder if it will be on the Direct TV sports package?

Great. Now all we need to do is beat a team like NC State every day and we'll get coverage.The Beacon issues are well documented. Most people are tired of it, including myself. If the Beacon truly has changed their ways, great. I'll believe it when I see it, and see it consistently. Pluto's column was a good start, but it is only a start.

I am told it will be replayed friday morning @ 6:00 am on ESPNU.

Good for Mr. Pluto. 6 more consecutive years of columns like that and we'll call it even.

All can say is I never saw so many holding calls in a game. In the late 3rd quarter Crouch got called for something...facemask or holding, I forget. He wigged out...picked up the flag...started jawing with the refs...and had to be restrained by some of the other OL's. Very disappointing loss of composure in such a close, critical game. Especially from a senior.Crouch didn't see the field after that outburst. And the holding calls subsided. It will be interesting to see the starting OL this week. Glad to see the 'Dude still checks out the board!

The biggest cheer ever at the JAR was when Bryan Hipsher's eligibility expired.

Game Recap (Very late…but unfortunately work sometimes gets in the way of my hobby)What an unbelievable weekend! Where to begin? The wife and I arrived in Raleigh around 2pm. Our hotel was right on campus, about 4 miles from the stadium. Hillsborough Avenue was a great place to go out at night. It didn’t offer the pre-game night environment of Penn State, but it was a great time nonetheless.Saturday: We set up shop for our tailgate around 8:15am. Tents, beer, grill…and the parking was FREE (Did I just hear Pat Kreiger have a heart attack?). We hooked up with a few other Zips fans as time rolled on. Had the pleasure of meeting SoFlaZip. Great guy, and a very astute football fan. He brought some awesome Carolina barbeque with him, and Peach moonshine too. I will soon initiate a ZipsNation fund drive to get him up for the home opener. Please donate generously!Once about 11:30am rolled around we packed up shop and headed for the stadium. To get there we walked through a corridor of several thousand students, fans, etc. all partying pretty hard. It was definitely impressive…something the likes of which I hope to see at Zips games one day. Several NC State fans approached me before the game with well wishes. I didn’t meet one jerk the entire time in Raleigh. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The people couldn’t have been nicer. Many of the college girls wore red or red/white dresses to the game. Hands down the prettiest girls per capita I’ve ever seen. They alone were worth the flight 1 ½ hour flight!All right…on to the game. The place was packed. Mike Waddell is trying to assemble a “Sea of Red” for the Akron/Cincinnati game. He could go to school off the NC State’s fans. 57,000 were in attendance and about 50,000 wore the red. The students and fans alike were very vocal. Lots of cheers…the best being when one side of the stadium roared “WOLF” and the other responded, “PACK.” Lots of great graphics on the multiple Jumbotrons…again, something I hope to see at Zips games one day. The Wolfpack team emerged from the stands via a fan-level tunnel and walked through the crowd down to the field (as opposed to entering from a field-level tunnel). It was pretty cool.Once the game began, it was pretty evident NC State was red-ripe for the picking. There was no real size or speed advantage from the BCS-anointed Wolfpack. In fact, the Zips appeared to be even quicker than the ‘Pack, with Dennis Kennedy breaking off several nice runs on wide sweeps. Our running backs almost NEVER successfully take the ball wide in BCS games. It was amazing that we only had a 7-point lead at the half, considering how the had Zips dominated every facet of the game to that point. I’ll break off the paragraph format at this time and go into random note format…it’s already Wednesday for Rick Chryst’s sake:Kennedy was a stud. To have 25+ carries against such a premier defense for the second consecutive week and still finish off the game as strong as he did…with his third TD…was the stuff legends are made of. In a post last week I predicted 15 TD’s for Dennis this season. I may be on the low side. Complementing Kennedy, Walker showed some real quickness on his few carries. If Kennedy is going to last a 14 game season, he’s going to need a break every now and then. Looks like Walker will be a great change of pace back. Hope his carries increase as the season goes on. I also think the duo of Tuzze and McDaniel is working out well. Have two fresh blocking backs seems to be a big help to Dennis. It’s a luxury Brett Biggs never had.Luke ran for his life much of the game. If he did ever get time to throw, it usually was nullified by a holding penalty. I believe the Zips had 16 penalties? That’s utterly amazing. Some of that was BS home cooking by the ACC refs, but much of it was legit. I thought the holds that happened late in the game we the result of exhaustion. But on thing struck me as odd. Crouch was benched…reason unknown…in the 4th quarter. If I recall correctly, Kemme moved to the left side, and Schepp filled the spot vacated by Kemme. After that switch, no more holding calls. Coincidence? Do we see a shake up within the Zips OL 2-deep for CMU this week? As mentioned on this board several times in August…David Harvey is blatantly awesome. He’s pretty much the #1 WR in my book. Jabari was seemingly invisible for the first 119 minutes of the season, but came up HUGE on the last drive. I hope the competition brought on by Harvey’s emergence sparked something. BTW: Where’s Johnny Long?Kasparek was really no factor in the game…at least with his hands. Did we keep in to help pass-blocking? Beats me, but I hope we can get him the ball soon. He’s too good an offensive weapon to stay in the blocks.Talking to some “newer” Zips fans after the game is was interesting to hear some critical opinions regarding the Zips defensive showing. I can’t buy into that at all. Compared to the Zips defenses I’ve watched over the past 15 years, this one is awe-inspiring. Stopping the opponent on 3rd down is now almost expected. BCS-level opponents now need to ice their punter’s leg after the game. Unheard of! Take away Morelli’s perfectly tossed bomb to begin the Penn State game and the Zips have totally taken away the “big play” from the opposition. Again, unheard of! I was disappointed we let NC State convert that 4th and 5 into what could have been the game winning TD on such a simple, and predictable, RB screen. But overall, despite being on the road in the severe heat and humidity, our defense played one hell of a game. Stec shows great promise, but something needs to be done on his punts. He’s either taking too long to boot it, or the blocking is terrible. Or both. Regardless there needs to be some shoring-up of the punting game very soon, or one of these times it’s going to bite us.As some others stated, Groza had a great game. He’s really developed into a solid player.What can you say about Luke? He’s as cold-blooded as they come. How daunting a task was it to follow an act like C-Frye? It really didn’t even take a full season for Luke to escape Charlie’s shadow. He’s pretty much established his own identity as “Mr. Clutch.” He’s a winner personified. I know Chuck Amato would give his left nut to have Luke instead of Stone. The one question that results from his latest performance is: Since Luke seems to have such a penchant for late-game heroics, why not institute a little no-huddle into the Zips repertoire? The drawback is that we risk a quick 3-and-out. But if you look at Luke’s performance at the end of the NIU Championship game…the two quick TD’s at the end of the Motor City Bowl…the NC State 4th quarter…I have to believe no-huddle is worth a look? In the interest of full disclosure: I’m not a coach…and for good reason… so what do I know?After the game I had the opportunity to thank one of the player’s parents for giving me the thrill of winning such a landmark game. The parent was very gracious, but you could tell they didn’t know the pain so familiar to those of the ZipsNation prior their son coming to Akron. I now realize that, if you’ve only been part of the Zips family for two or three years, you really only know winning. 7-5 under Charlie. MAC Championship and a Bowl game last year. BCS win to start off 2006. “New” Zips fans almost expect to win games like the NC State match up. It’s time everyone does.A final closing note: A local writer wrote a Zips related column a few weeks ago that, amongst other things, stated the Zips should be playing YSU. That the Zips would get beat up both physically and mentally by the big, bad BCS teams they faced to start the season. He inferred the game was really all about the money. The Zips got paid $325,000 to travel to Raleigh and physically beat down an ACC school. Yes, it was NC State that had their hands on their hips, gasping for air as the Zips pushed them down field late in the 4th quarter. The Zips didn’t get lucky. Far from it. Despite playing Penn State the week prior…despite the heat and the pundits and the opposing crowd and the 100million dollar facility…the Zips won. They were the better team and they won. To be honest, it could be said the Zips played well below their capabilities, as evidenced by the 16 penalties. And yet they beat an ACC school on the road. It begs the question: “What are we capable of when we put together a ‘complete’ game?” I hope I find out this week.

CMU has had BC and Michigan back-to-back. They're physically in no better shape than us, and mentally they're coming off a beat down. Zips 27 CMU 17