Captain Kangaroo

I saw Hildreth punt in the spring game. Give me Stec anyday. Stec does need work. In my opinion...which means squat...he's too concerned with catching the ball. Hence he's too slow....hence the opponents are getting some easy shots at blocks. He needs to catch and kick quicker.

Vote for Akron’s “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” and the Zips Could Win $5,000 Instead of settling for the chance to tie the game with a field goal, Akron’s offense produced a “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” when quarterback Luke Getsy scrambled down to the 1 yard line. This daring move set up Akron’s game-winning touchdown with one second remaining against North Carolina State. Getsy’s aggressive play led the Zips to a 20-17 road victory versus the Wolfpack. Now it’s up to the Akron fans to determine if the Zips earned the “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” for the second week of the 2006 NCAA Football Season. UA fans can go to:Click Me to Help the Zips! where they can view video clips of the four finalists and vote for their favorite play. Voting begins on Sunday morning and ends at midnight on Wednesday. ESPN will announce this week’s “Pontiac Game Changing Performance” winner, on Thursday night, during the Pontiac Performance Halftime Report. The winning university earns a $5,000 contribution from Pontiac to their general scholarship fund. Additionally, the winning play will be nominated for the “Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year” in December. Pontiac will provide a $100,000 scholarship to the school selected by the fans as the “Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the Year”. New to this year’s program is that, each week one lucky individual who visits www.pontiac.com/ncaa, will also win a $5,000 scholarship for them self or their family. In total, Pontiac will provide over $200,000 worth of scholarships to universities and individuals throughout the season.

Surprised it has taken until Thursday afternoon to get this thread started?I believe the Zips defense is now big enough, deep enough and fast enough to make an ACC school punt with regularity. Especially one with such a shaky QB situation. That's all our offense needs.Make no mistake about it, this will be no cake walk. But I think 5th year senior Luke Getsy gets the nod in this one. If we can strike early and take the crowd out of it, and force NC State to throw...I think we're in great shape.Despite what Terry Pluto scribed in predicting the poor little Zips would be beaten up by the big, bad Nittany Lions...it didn't happen. We're as healthy as can be for this game.My prediction: Zips 29-NC State 28 NC State misses a 39 yard field goal as time expires. Pull down the goal posts. The crowd at Johnny Malloy's goes wild.

This seems to be the best spot thusfar. I will see if I can't get better info Friday night. But if nothing better pops up, this is where we'll hang out. For those who have my cell number, call me Friday night after 9pm and I should know the full story. If you still need my cell # to hook up for the tailgate, you have a short bit of time to send a message. I'm without a computer tomorrow & Saturday. Otherwise, happy hunting on Saturday morning!I'm guessing we'll have a group of 15 at this time. We'd love to have more. Player parents are welcome. Since the Zips road-following is growing, but still limited crew, parents have traditionally constituted the majority of our out of state tailgating group.See you there!

I disagree. I think we need two strong teams. We haven't had that very often in the past 8 or so seasons. With rare exception, our #2 team has not merited an at-large bid.MAC basketball is pulling itself out of a slump. While Can't has excelled, there have been too many teams that have fallen into the crapper. The Zips/Hipsher teams were a definite contributor to the crapper. EMU post-Boykins has been terrible, CMU, other than the Kaman era, has stunk, Buffalo has improved to "slightly above average," Miami, post Sczerbiak, has been consistently "good," but never great, Ball State has stunk the past few years, Ohio has had some decent teams, but no "great" seasons, WMU has been bad-to-mediocre, Toledo - yet another "good-but-not-great" last 8 years...BG had a nice run with McCloud, but has stunk up the MAC since Dakich decided to stiff WVa (boy, aren't the Mountaineers counting their blessings?).The Zips in 2006-7 are poised to dominate. Can't will be "in the hunt" too. OU? You never know. If Can't can improve on their last season, the MAC could get two teams in the big dance. That's our best chance. Charlie Coles has proven he can't do it, and O'Shea too much a question mark. Everyone else is mediocre to bad.

Thanks for the heads-up. I don't mind mixing it up a bit with the local fans or students. It makes for a fun game day. I'd rather that, than sit in a cow pasture by myself. I've been to just about every major stadium the Zips have played in over the past 20 years. Each game day is different, but always a blast. I look forward to seeing what it's like in Raleigh.

After my Penn State ticket order was screwed up, the new ticket office manager, Keith Ford, called to apologize. He found me six better tickets than the ones I was originally given and personally delivered them to Stow. Thanks, Keith.

My wife and I will be there. We arrive early afternoon on Friday. I'd like to begin some sort of tailgate at 8am Saturday...at least that's the goal right now. The fairground area is allegedly the best spot...maybe the only spot(?) to tailgate. I will send you my cell number. Give me a call Friday night and we can try and set things up. Or, give me a number where I can reach you (via the board message feature). I know of a few other Zip fans that will be there. It would be fun to get a group of 20+ together.

Shocker...The printing info from a "wire" story.

I will be there at 8:30am setting up shop. If anyone wants to hook-up, send me a personal message via the board. Article and Video of New NC State Tailgating - Click

Whether either of them is better than Dwight remains to be seen. But Dwight never had the likes of either of these guys to complement him. As a duo, Jones and Anderson are exceptional.Dwight's counterparts: Both great students, Rich Reliford was "ok" at CB and Jesse Smith played the softest corner I've ever seen.

Prior to the Penn State game, the MAC had a fairly inauspicious start. MAC East - Miami only scoring 3 in a 21-3 loss to Northwestern bodes well for the Zips championship run. Looks like we won't need a tie-breaker to beat them this year. BG played Wisconsin "ok." They're nothing to be scared of. Can't got absolutely drubbed. OU beat a weak 1-AA team. MAC West - Toledo played very well. Woulda coulda shoulda beat Iowa State. Versus OSU, NIU seemed to have the same issue as the Zips. Poor, mistake-prone first quarter, then a solid 3 quarters. CMU played BC very well, but their coach choked late in the game. WMU...EMU...Ball State...nothing special.Penn StateSeems like most everyone gave a good game day breakdown. I'll add the following:We (11 of us) set up camp at 11:15am. Tents and grills. It was brutal. TV didn't do justice to the constant, cold rain. By the time we walked into the stadium, we were all numb and soaked.The crappy weather didn't deter many Penn State fans. The place was pretty jam-packed. The first pass by Morelli was perfect. Not much we could do about it.Andre Jones and Brandon Anderson are our best DB tandem ever. Both are lightning fast, and hit hard. MAC QB's are going to toss a lot of picks to those guys.To me, the most apparent difference between this season's Zips and any of the previous, is team speed. Those plays that used to go for 80 yards against us only went for 8. We closed fast.Last season, when our first-string DL went to the bench, we got pushed around. In this game, when Reid, Gonzales and Cichetti sat, we lost nothing when Robinson, McPherson and Lively entered. We're 6-deep at DL? Whoda thunk!?Luke played a solid game. Lots of poise and good throws under tough conditions.I wish we'd have ran inside the tackles more, and outside less.I wish we'd have thrown downfield more, and sideways less.Great FG by Domonokos. It was huge to come off that drive with some points.David Harvey rules. Jabari needed more touches. He had a huge size advantage on the PSU CB and we never really exploited it.Kennedy had a nice day. But, why wasn't he spelled at game's end? No carries for McMillian, Reed or Walker...or anyone else for that matter.Ditto Jacqumaine or Jackson. It would have been nice for them to see the field and take a few snaps on our last possession.Kasparek and Poindexter are a tough 1/2 punch at TE. The 4th down catch by Kasparek was awesome. BTW - Speaking to someone at a bar prior to the game...apparently Northwestern is pushing hard for the younger Kasparek. PSU is also still high on him.Stec is pretty quick for a punter. He saved us twice with his coverage. His punts were ok considering the circumstances. Our kick off returns were solid, sans the Jones fumble. I think when the 2006 season is complete, the Anderson, Jones kick return tandem will have at least 5 TD's. Tuzze...I don't think he's a threat to take it to the house. (what was he thinking on his lone "return"?)Overall, a very solid effort. JD always seems to be at his best evaluating tape and making adjustments. I think we'll play even better vs NC State. If we can get off to a good start...and keep the turnovers low...and aggressively challenge NC State's defense...we can beat them. Over/under on ABJ reporters travelling to the game: 0

"Bitch Slap of the Year" goes to Glen MasonOn his LB, converted to RB: "I thought he had his best practice at running back tonight, if you want to call that (Can't game) a practice," Minnesota coach Glen Mason said.Ouch!

I think the CMU coach gave this one away. I agree totally the coach cost CMU this game...going for it deep in their own territory, swithcing QB's and that dumb ass formation at the end of the game. They were moving the ball just fine. Stick with what was working for you I understand they were out of timeouts but, they had plenty of time to score and send it into overtime. The CMU coaching reminded me of Lee Owens.

That's because the OSU fan base can't control themselves. Win a football game and burn the town down. Nice.OSU fans are the reason YSU no longer has open tailgating. The inability of OSU fans to control themselves on gameday will trickle down to the Zips one day. Mark my words. The State (Ohio Govt.) will never let OSU be the only school to outlaw tailgating, so the State will pass laws barring tailgating at any Ohio college game.Check back with me in 5 years. I guarantee it happens.F OSU in the skull. (for lack of a better icon)

For the record - I appreciated the heads-up. Very neighborly of you!

Last game played during hurricane remnants:9/7 1996 Virginia Tech 21 - 18 AkronI like our chances in the rain. It negates speed.I'll have 2 tents and rain gear, so BRING IT ON!!!

My buddy told be the Rathskellar no longer serves Rolling Rock cases?? Say it ain't so!! If true, I:a.) Need a new bar to hang out at on Fridayb.) Will not have nearly the hangover I typically have on Game Day.

I also here the "Our information regarding the Zips is great, you guys are just a bunch of 'hardcores' and nothing will ever satisfy you." The caters to the "hardcore" OSU fan all day long. They love 'em. But Zips fans should be happy with their table scraps. F*ck that.

He'll say the same stuff when they play YSU in 2 weeks. That's just how JoePa rolls.

From the Rasor Blog:"Some good news for Morgan (David Lee): He doesn't appear to be one of the ABJ's job casualties. That's good news for Zips fans, who can be sure the team has a beat writer this season."You're KILLIN' me, Mike!

Word is he'll be brought along gradually. They don't want to put too much pressure on him Game 1. Look for his PT to increase quickly as the season progresses.

Hey, give him some credit for passing two semesters worth of classes and being eligible. That's more than we can say for a lot of our recent DL prospects.I can see the attitude rap on him having some merit. During the Meet the Team event, he sat against the back wall while most of the players were signing at the tables. Even Alex Allen, his knee shredded just 26 hours prior, was up at the table and signing for the kids. If you haven't seen Nate, he isn't fat. He is a VERY big, muscular kid.

If you ordered Penn State tickets and have yet to receive them, I would advise you to call the University ticket office to verify your order. They lost my order for PSU and NC State tickets. Luckily there were still tickets remaining. The more things change the more they stay the same...

"Parking Genius to Leave." For whatever reason, that post title cracks me up. Sometimes the simple one-liners are the best.