Captain Kangaroo

A lot is expected of Tuzze. I'd expect him to be one of the Fr's that gets a lot of PT early in the season. I asked a coach about the fullback situation last month and he didn't seem too concerned. He said blocking would be fine, and "we don't run too many running plays for the FB anyhow." BTW: Basch is a TE.

If you're looking for Belle Vernon's Dave Pastorkovich next week, you'll have to go to Italy. Pastorkovich, who's been the Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball assistant and recruiting coordinator for 12 years, will be guiding the Global Sports All Stars along with Duquesne University aide John Mahoney Making up the team, which will be touring Italy in early August, are West Virginia University's Mike Gansey, Patrick Beilein and Darris Nichols, Akron's Romeo Travis and Rob Preston, Penn's Ibrahim Jaaber and Mark Zoller, Richmond's Kevin Steenberge, Sacred Heart's Drew Shubik and Carnegie Mellon's Nate Maurer.

Dione Elie for pre-season anything is a real stretch in my opinon. He's had a pretty non-descript career thusfar. If two Zips were to be picked, I'd go with Sullivan or Pace after Hixon. Swiger or Gonzales would be candidates for "honorable mention."

In place of NC State or Penn State, I'd assume? NCST, PSU and the Huskers would be one hell of an uphill climb for such a young Zips squad. Sounds like that LSU, Nebraska, I-forget-the-other-team death march the Zips endured in the late 90's.

My all-time favorite Zips road trip opponent! I would LOVE to go back to Lincoln!

Will we ever get any kids from Massilon now that former Zips coach Tom Stacey is at the helm? Then again...we had former Massilon head coach Lee Owens for 9 years and only had 1 or two Massilon kids ever see the Rubber Bowl field. TE, OL for Duke Tight end Brett Huffman of Washington High in Massillon, Ohio, has committed to Duke. Huffman is 6-4 and 225 pounds and caught 24 passes for 278 yards and two touchdowns last season. Washington coach Tom Stacy said Huffman also considered Akron and Toledo. Syracuse offered a scholarship after learning of the Duke commitment, Stacy said.

Just a heads-up: I was informed this event was changed to August 4th (from the 8th).

Wes Jordan - Zips Walk-on - Click Me Click for another game summary

Center Josh Kiner is the only Zip participating. Regardless, it is always a fun game to watch.

I saw in the PD that Tarver was 1-4 from the field in the summer league. Four shots...hmmm....I would assume he played...oh...maybe 38 seconds? With the Zips he shot four by the time the national anthem was at "...by the dawn's early light!"

2006 9/2 @ Penn State 9/9 @ North Carolina State Tough road trip call. Penn State is a blast the night before a game...and we'll be in much better shape to compete with them, and their new coach, in 2006 than we were in 1999 or 2004. NC State is allegedly a great time, and early September should be great weather too. Such decisions....

I read this and I harkened back to the old Katheryn Place and May Day parties. These were turned into "riots" by the media, with all sorts of reports of student violence. Since attended these things "back in the day" with some frequency...as did thousands of other students...I can say the following ALWAYS happend: Party is cool until later in the evening...band of young, non U of A student kids walks through the crowd and begins causing trouble. Fights begin. Once word of the party spread amongst the non-student, thug crowd, the problems worsened. See below: ************************************************************************ Youth arrests mar Akron celebration Firecracker thrown into police group, injuring 3 By Marilyn Miller Beacon Journal staff writer Akron police said although this year's annual Akron Family Barbeque downtown was successful and without incident, several rowdy youths outside the festival gates were arrested for fighting and throwing firecrackers. Police arrested about 15 youths for disorderly behavior and fireworks violations Monday. An M100 firecracker was thrown in the middle of several police on bicycles, causing minor injuries to three officers. Capt. Daniel Zampelli said a crowd of 100 to 200 youths were gathered near the north end of the festival at East Mill and Main streets after being dispersed from the south end. He said every year teens end up fighting, but this year was worse because of the large number involved. ``Every year a bunch of thugs come down to create problems,'' Zampelli said. ``They were just a group of teens who either couldn't get into the festival or didn't want to get in and just hung around the periphery causing trouble. They weren't there to watch the fireworks.'' He said the trouble was contained outside the festival. Inside, only one person was arrested for intoxication during the four-day event. ``We did more dispersing of the crowd than anything else,'' he said. ``We had to use pepper spray... '' Zampelli said the fights, involving boys and girls, broke out after the fireworks. The officers injured by the firecracker were treated by paramedics at the scene. One officer was cut on the hand and two others experienced some temporary hearing loss. Zampelli said it is illegal for individuals to detonate fireworks in the state of Ohio and one can only be in possession of them if they are being transported out of the state. Staffing more officers outside the festival is something the department is looking into for next year. Zampelli said staffing the festival leaves only a skeleton staff for the periphery. He said 15 or more officers staff the festival and that number can reach 50 to 60 during peak times. On July 4, there were 20 to 25 officers who worked the Innerbelt, outside the main gates of the festival and Cascade Plaza. Akron police and city officials met Tuesday to plan a new strategy for handling rowdy youths next year. Zampelli said the event will be handled similarly to May Day's zero tolerance policy. During the 1990s in the University of Akron area, setting fires, throwing bottles, drinking and loud music became a tradition in celebrating the end of the school year. Police began cracking down on the disturbances in 2000 after the incidents became more serious. ``If you are fighting or taunting, you will not get a summons,'' Zampelli said. ``You are going to jail.''

If he couldn't beat out Ferguson for the #2 spot this year...he'll struggle to make Cinci's roster. I see him playing intramurals unless he transfers to D2 or D3.

If Robinson and Hight live up to their potential...holy hell will we have a defensive line! Thanks for the confirmation, HighZip. BTW: Did you ever meet "Highfl@sh?" He a FA WR with the Browns now.

Jazz eyeing Green; Loyer to join staff July 5, 2005 Green and John Loyer already are feeling a domino effect in their respective professions in the NBA. Green, the 76ers' restricted free-agent guard, has drawn interest from the, which is seeking a replacement for, the former Sixer who has an agreement in principle to join the Noah Croom, Green's agent, confirmed that he has fielded a phone call from Jazz senior vice president of basketball operations Kevin O'Connor and said they could have another conversation as soon as today to gauge the level of interest. Green was listed with a salary of $620,046 this season. Sixers president/general manager Billy King has said repeatedly that he fully intended to match any offers for Green, and. The Sixers can match offers for Green and Korver up to the average league salary, which is expected to be about $5 million. There are no limitations on their ability to match offers for Dalembert. King confirmed that Loyer, who spent the last five seasons with the organization, would be joining the Sixers as an assistant coach. New coach Maurice Cheeks already has brought along Bernie Smith from his Blazers staff, welcomed back former Sixers assistant John Kuester and has been awaiting a decision from former Sixers star Andrew Toney. That would indicate that when Jim O'Brien was fired as Sixers coach after the season, it was equally the end of his staff: Dick Harter, Lester Conner, Joe Gallagher and Frank Vogel. Loyer spent two seasons as an advance scout, one season as a video coordinator and two seasons as an assistant coach with the Blazers. He spent 12 seasons on the collegiate level at Wabash Valley (Mount Carmel, Ill.), Akron and Cincinnati.

Trip to MTSU in late September is too tempting to pass up. Hope the Purdue game is on local TV! Sorry the board is so slow...mid-July swoon, I guess.

Leftwitch.... Our B-I-T-C-H! F The Turds. In the skull.

I find it amazing that Youngstown can support 3...maybe 4 major local TV stations, even when Pittsburgh and Cleveland TV is readily accessible and Akron can't support one. Then again, if Akron ever got a "real" TV station, instead of a bush league piece of crap...maybe people would support it.

That wins the Adjective-of-the-Day award!

Again...I have no idea if Nate Robinson is the Rutgers transfer or not (I'm working on it)...but it would make sense that Nate is the guy. From a Big East football web site: ****************************************************************** RUTGERS sophomore defensive tackle NATE ROBINSON, who was one of the nation's top high school prospects just a few years ago, and transferred back home to New Jersey after originally signing with the University of Miami, was released from the program for violating un-specified team rules... there has been no formal reason or explanation for his release, but it was clear last fall that he was not nearly the player that was seen on tape during his high school days... he seemed overweight, under-conditioned and hardly ever dominated at the point of attack... still there is a lot of un-tapped potential here, but his work ethic and level of responsibility for his actions must come around before he will ever be able to take advantage of his vast potential. ******************************************************************** BTW: I'm sure there's a major at U of A that an 800SAT kid can be successful at? I think that's double what Katzenmoyer's SAT was entering OSU?

I think you're right about the Buchtel kid, but I don't think that's the Rutgers guy. From what I understand, the mystery Rutgers DL will have only 2-3 years of eligibility remaining. I looked around on the Rutgers site and a DL by the last name of Robinson had left the team. My guess is he's the one...but I don't know for certain.

Scott Uziel (TE) played a lot. I didn't see any passes thrown his way...his blocking was pretty rough, as was the entire East teams...but builing an OL for one of these games, with only a week's preparation, is impossible. My gut feeling: He has the body to be a solid TE, but he definitely needs to redshirt. Merce Poindexter played defense (DL). He's a big dude, height-wise. He looked pretty good. Wonder which side of the ball he'll be on @ Akron? With Cruz & Kasparek in the fold, the TE position is locked up for the next several years. Kevin Garner looked the best of the bunch. A very strong kid and a solid tackler. I found an article on him with some interesting tidbits (see below). Also, Can't's Eugene Jarvis looked very good. Can't fans are going to like him. Since the words describing Alex Allen @ the golf outing were "stallion" and "stud", and Kennedy's made great progress, losing Jarvis to Can't isn't a big deal. We're solid at RB. ********************************************************************** Titans' Garner will play as fooball all-star All-Star games are sometimes forgettable contests. After all, they are exhibition games played by makeshift teams. But Kevin Garner, a West Mifflin Area grad on his way to the University of Akron, is looking forward to Saturday's Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association East-West All-Star Game at Altoona's Mansion Park. "I'm real excited. Since I'm redshirted this year I won't otherwise get a chance to play," he said. Few doubt Garner's athletic ability. In addition to collecting 14 sacks from his left defensive end position last year to lead the Titans to the WPIAL Class AAA final, he also averaged 16.4 points a game as a power forward-center on the section-champion basketball team. He also ran the second leg on the 400-meter relay team that qualified for the PIAA Class AAA track finals, registering a low time of 42.5 seconds during the season. He has been timed at 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash. Garner is 6 feet 21/2 and 230 pounds and is ranked among the top 50 players in the state by Rivals.com. "I'm not the biggest player, but I can use my speed to get past the linemen," he said. "I was talking to one coach and he said I wasn't recruited heavily because of my size." Garner received the most attention from Mid-American Conference schools, although West Virginia and Indiana also offered him scholarships. He chose Akron because of its coaching staff and facilities. The Zips will play in a new stadium by the time he's an upperclassman. Garner was a four-year starter on the West Mifflin defensive line and by his junior season he was registering double-digit sack totals. "He was our defensive leader," said West Mifflin coach Ray Braszo. "He was very tenacious and always going full speed." In addition to his athletic ability, Garner credited his success to "my aggression; my hunger to get to the ball. I want every tackle I can get on the field." That desire displayed itself in a 20-7 WPIAL quarterfinal playoff win against Canon-McMillan, where he sacked quarterback Doug Rheam twice. The play that stands out came in the closing seconds of West Mifflin's 10-6 win at Peters Township Oct. 8. With the Indians deep in Titans territory in the closing seconds of the game, Garner broke through the offensive line and hit quarterback Tyler Porko as he released the ball. The football went straight up into the air and into Garner's hands for the clinching interception that evened West Mifflin's record at 4-4 and kept the Titans alive in the playoff hunt.

Cal Pa. is a good test for an exhibition. Jake Schifino's little brother finished up there last year. They're always a top team in that division. What happened to Xavier? Overall, I give the schedule a B-. Certainly an improvement over last year. FINALLY some games against marquee teams. But, the home non-conf schedule blows goats.

Quick notes: Balaam may/may not be a Zip. Iowa out-of-state tuition is $22,000, and Balaam probably doesn't have that much cash lying around...unless some Iowa booster "helps" him out. Odds of him being a Zip are better than 50/50...but not yet near 100%. A Pitt recruit from this year's class didn't make grades, so Pitt dropped their offer. He'll prop 48 at Akron this year an be eligible next year. A big DL, but I didn't get a name. A DL has transferred from Rutgers. He'll sit this year and be eligible in 2006. Again, no name. Getsey #1, Jabari at WR. Done deal. Ferg. #2 QB. Two Fr. QB's will hopefully redshirt. Height will prop 48. Tuzze expected to be the starting FB, but most of this year's class is expected to redshirt. Alex Allen looks great, per the RB coach. Kennedy looks good too, and will likely get carries on every 3rd series. (Biggs gets the first two). Expect the Zips to be "ok" this year, good next year, and champs in 2007. OL's were described as "more physical" than last year's group, but short on experience (obviously). Lots of work has been done over the spring to get them as game-ready as possible. Coaching staff could not be any more esctatic about this year's recruiting class.

Tygers' Avery headed to prep school By Larry Phillips News JournalMANSFIELD -- Colleges will have to wait a year to acquire the talents of Mansfield Senior basketball standout Jonathon Avery. The 6-foot-5 third-team All-Ohioan is headed to Harmony Community Prep School in Cincinnati. Av- ery hopes to raise his college entrance test scores while honing his basketball skills. "It's like a family-type environment and not a military-type school," Avery said. "I don't think I'll get homesick there, either." Avery averaged 16.7 points and 10.4 rebounds as Mansfield Senior won the Ohio Cardinal Conference and reached the Division I Final Four. The willowy leaper with fine timing was the OCC and District 6 Player of the Year. "I think (prep school) is great for him," Mansfield Senior coach Gregg Collins said. "He'll have a chance to mature physically and advance with his academics. "He's got a number of MAC schools keeping their eye on him." The Tygers ripped off a 24-game winning streak while compiling a 24-2 record this season. Avery shot 70 percent from the floor and was the hub of that charge. His presence in the lane at both ends of the floor carried Mansfield Senior into the state tournament. Senior High was finally stopped by eventual state champion Canton McKinley. Avery made the all-tournament team. He completed his career with 984 points, 676 rebounds and 144 blocked shots. Avery hopes to carry that momentum through Harmony and into college. "I graduated from high school and I'll graduate from prep school. I'm just trying to improve my test score," Avery said. "This gives me the opportunity to get better." Among the colleges expressing an interest in Avery are Bowling Green, Akron, Toledo, Morehead State and Stephen F. Austin. "I don't have a favorite," Avery said.