Captain Kangaroo

...yet they will arrest you for tailgating in their parking lot. If you are looking to tailgate in Can't tonight, expect to be disappointed. Can't fans tell me there is a zero tolerance policy for personal alcohol in their lots...even if it is in a plastic cup. Nice job, Can't State. You'll piss off both your season ticket holders if you keep that stuff up.

We couldn't hold ANYONE to 21 points. 38-34 Zips Over/Under on turnovers: 12 (combined)

Someone from the Virginia board sent me a message regarding that column. He stated the Virginia fans on The Sabre were pretty embarassed and angry about it. They should be...is was pretty bush-league. It appears like that's their college paper, so it is somewhat expected...21 year olds write some stupid stuff. The author was Sean McLernon. I think Sean will have a tough time choosing from the PD or The Beacon upon his graduation.

There's a big difference between attending a season-opening Thursday Night game where both teams are undefeated...and one where after six combined games neither has beaten a 1-A opponent. Regardless, there will be a solid showing from the Zips' side. I'll guess 7K...and I base that on absolutely nothing.

I would taunt fans on the Can't Football board...if there was one.

Wow...even the hard-cores are silent! Zips fans claiming to miss the game because of TRAFFIC? Can't FOOTBALL TRAFFIC? You've got to be kidding me? Frye vs. Cribbs...the best QB match up you'll see in NE Ohio...maybe for the next decade or more? I guarantee Can't's defense will be a lot easier to move the ball against than Virginia. Look for another barn burner. If a Zips fan in NE Ohio sits at home for this one...and you're not confined to a wheel chair...I just don't get it. Weather will be beautiful. This is our chance to beat F-ing Can't on their own field?! What better feeling is there than that,...walking out of Dix with bragging rights for another year!? The Can't players fed off their crowd last year at the Rubber Bowl. I guarantee it will demoralize the team of sexual assaulters and drug dealers to be outnumbered in their own house! Show up Drink beer Have fun Beat Can't Go home That's a great Thursday night!

You're going to miss the AkronKent game to watch a tape-delayed version on Time Warner? Unless you're in a wheel chair or on crutches, I can't believe the parking situation will be a big deal.

#1) Marshall - Tough losses at OSU and Georgia. Troy loss isn't as bad as initially apeared. #2) BG - Played the Sooners within 16. Pretty damn good for a team that lost Harris. #3) NIU: Narrow road losses to Iowa State and Maryland. Big Drop Off to #4 #4) Miami: Beat OU handily, but are surrendering a lot of points. #5) UCF: Respectable (from a Zips fan's point-of-view) losses to Wisconsin, West Virginia and Penn State. #6) Can't: Held Iowa below 40, and Rutgers below 30. #7) Western Michigan: 42-0 1-AA win...but a 63-0 waxing by Virginia Tech. Played a good team tight last week before falling. #8) OU: Held Pitt to 24 points. #9) CMU : Scored 44 against a 1-AA team. Held Michigan State to 24. #10)EMU: Held Florida to 49, while scoring 10. Put up 32 vs. Toledo. Beat Buffalo. #11) Zips: Almost beat a 1-A team. #12) Toledo: Holy hell. Have surrendered 63 points on 2 occasions thusfar! Beat EMU by 10, but let them score 32! #13) Buffalo: Not getting waxed quite as bad as last year, but still getting waxed.

Looking forward to your tailgate party, Josh! "#9 in your game program...#90384752 in your police blotter!"

Big Game II: Tough to tell who's the best or worst between Akron (0-3) and Can't State (1-2). The two meet Thursday. The winless Zips, originally looking toward an eight-plus win season and MAC title contention, have given up a lot of points, albeit to quality teams in Penn State and Virginia, plus Middle Tennessee State. Can't has been sporadic in its play against powerhouse Iowa, a Division I-AA loser in Liberty, and a traditional Division I-A lapdog in Rutgers. What a dick.

My take is as follows...and this is from a 38 year old guy that wears a french fry(e) on his head, so take it for what it is worth: Lee Owens may have fared a little better than JD in the short term, only because he knew the players. JD had 7 months to watch what what inherited in practices and the gym. You never know what you have until you see it in game situations. JD is making some moves after seeing some of the guys in action on Saturdays. He also needs to learn how to motivate guys. Some guys get motivated by benching...some guys pout. Some guys need kit-gloves...some need in-you-face-profanity-strewn tirades. I'm sure he and his staff are learing alot about the psysche of the individual players on-the-job. We lost an NFL TE, an NFL WR, 2 other solid senior wide outs and Hendry...not to mention our best OL. Don't forget that. The new WR's can catch a football, but they're still learning to run routes...downfield block...knowing when to break off the route to help a scrambling QB, etc. Statistically they are comparable to last season's group, but there are a lot of aspects to being a WR that don't show up statistically. I've been to Penn State and MTSU. I've yet to see our OL open up any type of hole for Biggs or Ringer. Any running yards have been tough. Our OVERALL talent level is not up to par with the upper-echelon MAC teams. To say it is "bad" isn't fair to the kids that have committed themselves to being Zips...I love all the guys...but there are too many guys on the team that are closer to 1-AA talent than 1-A. Beyond that, I think 45% of the team is a Fr. or redshirt Fr.? That's a damn young team. Thomas would have taken a lot less heat if he fired Owens after this season (instead of last). I give him a lot of credit. It's like when Shapiro gutted the Tribe and began re-building. Everyone and their brother ripped him a huge a-hole for getting rid of Colon, Alomar, Thome, Ramirez, etc. Now people can see the guy knew what he was doing. Thomas is going to endure a lot of crap over the next two years before the dividends of his decision will be visible. I hope JD and the guys continue to improve from here on out. The schedule gets a lot easier begining Thursday.

Sadly, that is a very debatable point at this time.

Penn State whipped us 4-0! In football terms...that equivalent to 48-10. F-ing Nittany Lions...

Penn State loss was absolutely horrible. Penn State is a decent Big 10 team this season, but not great. It was men-against-boys...we were out of it from the start. MTSU is a middle-of-the-pack Sun Belt team. They have some good players...they probably would go .500 in the MAC...but they're not a great team. We lost to them at home in front of 17,000. We had the ball in the hands of our school's all-time leading passer at game's end (3:36 remaining) and the guy tosses an INT. It was only an 8-yard route. Ok, it hit Goodwin's extended hand...but I'm disappointed Charlie didn't put that in the breadbasket. I think Leftwich, Pennington, Rothlisberger, Harris...etc. make that play. Also, give MTSU credit for defending closely. Our DB's have played so loose for the past umpteen years that, if the shoe were on the other foot, we wouldn't have had a DB within 8 yards to catch that tipped ball. To this point in the season Frye is completing 81% of his passes. That simply means were throwing 2 yard dinks. I'd rather he threw 61%, and had some decent yardage and TD's. JD's offensive schemes are WAY too conservative. Virginia. Worst loss since LSU? Maybe Pitt? UVA is loaded this year...look for them to win the ACC and be Top 5 at year's end. However, scoring "0" is unforgivable. I saw Lee Owens take on National Champ Nebraska and score 14 points! Offensive line's play reminded me of the loss at OU 2 seasons ago. Beat Can't, JD Brookhart. Beat Can't, Senior Zips. There is plenty of blame to go around for the horrid start to the season. Don't point fingers...go to Can't Thursday night and make a statement. Take care of business and be 1-0 in the MAC. Miami is bad this season, Can't is Can't, OU stinksagain, Buffalo is their typical self, Ball State is terrible...the best team in the MAC east is Marshall, and they're 0-3 right now. We have them at home on and ESPN game. If you get on a good "run" here, the ESPN game will be a Mad House. You can make a statement for all the nation to see. However, it all starts on Thursday. A lackluster effort against a mediocre Can't team...or poor preparation by the staff...will be tragic. We are at a crossroads, Zips. Which way you gonna turn?

Hey "Rifle's Wife"...did you and your husband have a shotgun wedding? Too easy to pass up.

I cancelled my trip yesterday. I'll be pissed if the weather turns out good. :angry:

I'm not sure when you started attending the Rubber Bowl, but how could you forget the Eastern game for a come back? That was AWESOME :blink: Eastern game in case you forgot Maybe the "spirit" of the comment was "When are we gonna have a comeback in a game that counts?" EMU was horrible that year...the game shouldn't even have been close. Ditto the OU game last year...it was technically a comeback win...but they had 1 win going into that one. Our comeback-to-blown lead ratio is unbelievable. A few blown leads that come to mind are: Pennington in 99(?), Leftwitch(2001?), Rotlisberger (2002), CMU (2002...up 21-0 at the half), Can't 2003, MTSU 2004. INT's vs. UVA (2002) and Miami (2003) and a 99 yd TD vs. Wisconsin (2003) are also "big" games that we could have pulled out in the 4th quarter, but which ended up as double-digit losses. Oh yeah, UConn (2003) too. When we had the ball with 3:36 remaining against MTSU I turned to the guy next to me and said "If we play a clean game, we've got this one. A first down and we can run out the clock." Boom...INT and we're toast. It was soooooo predictable. We simply can't beat a good team in the 4th quarter of a close game. We can beat bad teams...but not the good ones.

I deleted the other UVA game posts...they weren't too substantial and cluttered the board. We'll see how this goes: Last weeks loss to MTSU still disappoints me. Two consecutive years of losing the home opener by blowing a 4th quarter lead. And, in front of the largest crowd of the season (Marshall will be larger, but 50% will be Herd fans). What a massive disappointment... How do we beat UVA? I have no clue. I assume we'll be missing our best defensive player in Blackburn? He looked like the Chase-of-old Saturday, until the injury. Can Howe, Stokes or one of the other Fr's make a big debut Saturday? They'll need too. The hurricane looks to be in full force for the game. That should even the playing field a bit? Maybe it's shades of the '96 Va Tech game, where we battled Drukenmiller, Oxedine and Cornell Brown down to the wire with a team that had no business doing so. The 1st half was played in the tail end of a hurricane. I want a victory like anyone else, however...like others have said...if we play a mistake free ball game, fight for 60 minutes and leave the game as a respected opponent, I have to be happy. That didn't happen vs. Penn State. I'm 50/50 on travelling to the game...even though I have hotel reservations. Hurricane is putting a damper on my plans...

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Devanzo played in the Big33 Game 2 years ago! From Austintown Fitch. Pic of Devanso in Big 33

Roster Additions... The Zips made three additions to the roster after the opening week of the season, though none of them are eligible to play this year. QB Luke Getsy, OL Andy Alleman and CB Devanzo Tate all enrolled in school this semester and can practice with the team. Getsy and Alleman both played at Pittsburgh most recently, while Tate comes to the Zips from West Virginia. All are scheduled to be eligible to play in 2005. Getsy and Alleman will have two years of eligibilty remaining and Tate three.

I didn't have too much of a problem with our defense against MTSU. Two horrible turnovers gave MTSU great field position, and MTSU got a punt return for a TD. We lost that game because we gave it away. Frye's fumble was bad. Ringer's was worse. Frye's INT at game's-end was a killer. Charlie tossed for 400 yds, but it wasn't one of his better games...those few mistakes were killers. Goodwin's catch effort on the INT didn't help. Does the ball EVER bounce our way? It was nice to see us make some adjustments at the half...but we aren't good enough to overcome such an avalanche of mistakes. Lee Owens wouldn't have won that game. Even if he made the half-time adjustments to mount a comeback...something I rarely saw from him...he wouldn't have gotten the first down needed to ice the game at the end. Somehow, he'd have blown it. History proves it. Hope Chase is ok, but it doesn't look promising.

A friend told me a DB from the Mountaineers has transferred to Akron and will be available next fall. Don't know the name. Guessing it is Marcus Law from Northwest/Canal Fulton. Strictly a guess: 31 Marcus Law DB Fr. 1V 5-10/190 Canal Fulton, OH (Northwest)

We aren't very good. More later.

Now that the show's on Thursday I may never hear it. Anything of interest revealed last night?