Captain Kangaroo

X Gray in street clothes

Interesting stat as we move into Game #12 on our schedule - Brandon Lee is the team's top rusher with 179 yards on 61 carries.

FYI Bob - We haven't had a punt blocked this season. Source. An impressive statistic considering how often we punt (2nd most punts in D1 @70, trailing only Vanderbilt's 72). We'll definitely move into the top spot tomorrow night, but "can we hold on through the weekend?" is the question on everyone's mind.

A couple final beers in Lot 9 before Zips Athletics pregaming moves to The Score for hoops season.?

QB: No idea what Kato will do next season. If he transfers it'd likely be to a MEAC program. I'm a big fan of Gibson. If he can get a decent line in front of him, I think he can do some great things at UA. Assuming Kato departs, a 5th year senior makes sense to bring in and compete with Gibson. RB: Hayes-Patrick has a ways to go. But he'll be a RS Fr next season, so it will be interesting to see how he improves in the off-season. Tough to bank on Reese. He was off the roster for the bulk of the season, and was injured almost immediately. Is he another Deltron? We need a game-breaking RB so freaking bad. When't the last great back we've had at UA? Brett Biggs? Dennis Kennedy? It's been 15 years since a marquee player toted the ball for the Zips. TE: Wofley is a beast. But can he hold up? I'd LOVE to see the Zips get a tall TE. A 6'5" or taller legit pass-catching threat who can also help protect on the edge rush. WR: Tough to be a Zips WR this season, when 1/2 way into your routes the QB is on his back. Looking forward to getting Morris back. I'll take a game-breaking WR if he's out there, but we have much greater needs than WR in 2020. OL: To me, Council and Gray are the only two guaranteed starters in 2020. I hope the other incumbents have monster season's in the weight room and surprise next year, but I'd go hard with JUCO's and Grad Transfer's here. Love to see 3-4 of them. DL: We need a lot of help here. Ditto with 3-4 JUCO DL's. We also need edge rushers BADLY. Our defense under Bowden was so effective with guys like Jamal Marcus, Jatavis Brown and Jamal Davis. Opposing QB's jersey's were way to clean in 2019. We need disruptive ballers coming off the edge! LB: Definitely room for an impact JUCO or two here. Scott and Glover are ok. Bubba is ok. but if we're running a 3-4, we need to upgrade here. Will Sampson ever get above 210 lbs? If he could put on 15 ponds this off-season, we'd have something. He has the motor, but not the strength. CB: The young guys did a nice job as the season progressed. Adding a JUCO or two would be helpful. Safety/Nickel: We'll miss Davis. Daranijo is my favorite to make an impact in 2020. Watts can definitely play too, but will he play CB or DB? Punter - My Hudson homie Jonah Wieland had a very pedestrian season. I don't know that we'll see him punting for the Zips in 2020. Kyle Romenick was a 5-star recruit, and will definitely get a long look next year. Kicker - Corey Smigel seems destined to assume the PK role. He's looked reliable in limited opportunities. 0-12 is what it is. Everyone's job should be up for grabs. Hopefully we get a big time talent influx next season. Especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Best of both worlds with Jaquan Green...JUCO kid that's ready to contribute immediately. And also from NE Ohio (Youngstown).

I count ten...TEN cupcakes to begin the season for the Dukes. Ah ah ahhhhhhhhh!

A string bean in sneakers

I agree with you.

X is selling himself short by shooting so many deep 3’s. He needs to start working down low.

Big time kickoff by Fitschen

BS celebration call on Scippio.

Is 3rd and 1 any different than 3rd and 21 for the Zips offense?

Is Kato trying to get thrown out?

Thank you for all your recruit updates. They're greatly appreciated by everyone!?

So God's a Kent State fan...who knew? I know absolutely zero regarding the Zips 2020 recruiting mindset, but after what's likely to be an 0-12 season we need mature bodies that can step in right away and play big boy football. There is no time to bring in Freshman...redshirt them...work them into the line up on special teams as a RSFr....and wait 3 years before they make an impact. Redshirting kids is essentially saving them for the next head coach. If I'm Arth, the whole "recruit local kids from NE Ohio" mantra needs to be put on ice for a couple years and we need to get JUCO's and Grad transfers to InfoCision asap. 330/216/440 area codes be damned. If a "stud" local kid wants early playing time that he otherwise wouldn't get at a P5...or even a "Toledo", by all means get him on campus. But every available 2020 scholarship is precious and I can't see spending any on "projects" with "upside." If this sounds like early-era Bowden, it is. He was in the same situation.

Fearless Forecast: #43 Austin Gillespie sees the field for the first time, and rushes for 275 yards and 6 TD's. In the ABJ game column the next day, Gillespie is referred to as Brandon Junk.

Didn’t root hard enough...OU’s rolled up a whopping 66 points on BG with 2:03 remaining in the 3rd quarter! Have we scored 66 points this season?

Hard to spin that one positively... Hope the JUCO RB is a baller, I guess.

More than the $4, it's the time invested to travel down to the JAR in the middle of winter. Coaches and players want the JAR packed with fans. I do too. But it's really tough to justify a weeknight trek down RT 8 to watch uninspired, rec league style basketball against bad competition. Hope the team puts forth a better effort tonight.

We scored a TD!!!

Bright spots - Boogie and Alvin playing hard. Not much else... Definitely the worst Akron football team I’ve ever seen. Worse than Faust’s 1-10 team. Hope we get 5 grad transfer OL’s and 5 grad transfer DL’s for 2020.

Win, or lose by 40?

Wow...that was the play call of an 0-9 team.

Trevor Brown moved to RT. It will be nice to have that side adequately covered for the first time all year.