Captain Kangaroo

The small crowd in the stands belied the well attended parties in the stadium parking lots. There was no doubt Julian Hicks' foot was in-bounds for his first TD reception in a Zips uniform. The Zips celebrate after DeMarkus Glover snared his first career INT. ...and the Zips faithful got to break out The Takeaway Pencil! Boogie Knight nets 39 of his game high 100 yards receiving. Kato Nelson feels the force of the UMass pass rush. All day long it seemed like there were more UMass blockers than Zips defenders. Nate Stewart hauls in a 17 yard TD pass. Robbie Kelley had 8 pass attempts before giving way to Zach Gibson. An exuberant Zack Gibson bumps butts with Trevor Brown after leading the Zips to withing 8 points, late in the game. Gibson's strong play breathed life into a Zips team, and staff in desperate need of some positive vibes. 12-16 for 173 yards and a TD, Gibson did it all, even hauling in a 2-point conversion from WR/QB Nate Stewart. UMass QB Michael Curtis high steps it into the endzone untouched. The Zips' Zach Gibson does some high-stepping of his own. True Freshman KR/WR Michael Mathison continues to impress. Gibson gets a taste of what Kato Nelson has been feeling all season. Kato's status for the Kent game appears to be a game day decision...at best. In 1975 Time Magazine wrote "I've seen the future of rock and roll, and that future is Bruce Springsteen." For the Zips faithful that made the trip to Amherst, maybe...just maybe...in the abyss of what appears to be the mother of all rebuilding seasons...they saw the future of Akron football in true Freshman Zach Gibson. Time will tell.

He's the only reason we have a shot against Kent. He played GREAT. The team rallied around him big-time. If we could have gotten a stop on UMass's last drive, I guarantee Gibson would have tied the game up.

As always, taking photos and subsequently posting and commentating the day after a disappointing loss is a losing proposition. But I took the trip up to Amherst and thought I'd post what I thought might be interesting to Zips fans who'd never been to Amherst, and who may not have been able to watch the game. My wife and I arrived in Amherst Thursday night. It is roughly a 2-hour drive from Logan Airport to the UMass campus. Too bad we drove it in the dark, and in a rainstorm, because everyone who drove in during the day told me it was a scenic drive. Amherst is tucked away in the woods of western Massachusetts. The last 30 or so miles it took to get there reminded me of a trip to OU, winding through several rural small towns. We stayed at a bed and breakfast about 0.5 miles from the downtown restaurant and bar district, and a little over 1 mile to the UMass campus. We explored the campus during the day, and felt really old at night as we hit the bars where many of the kids were approaching 1/3 our age! But it was a great time. UMass has a small lake in the center of campus. If you take the library elevator to the 23rd floor you can see the entire campus, with the hillside in the background. It was surprising that we wore Akron gear the entire day, but not one person mentioned the game or seemed to notice. The game was promoted on campus. The stadium was open during the day, so we were able to get in and take some pictures. There was a great pizza joint on campus. Antonio's. Giant New York slices. We got some tortellini slices to end our Friday night. I wish there was a place like this in the Akron area! We set up shop in Lot 22, only 2 blocks from the stadium. It was a vibrant tailgate scene. Lots of cars, tents and music. Travelling by plane, it was tough to "seriously" tailgate, but we did the best we could. UMass fan Steve 1981 visited ZipsNation and invited us to his tailgate, so we stopped over and said hello. Super-nice guy, with a great wife and group of friends. I can't tell you how many great people I've met via ZipsNation.org, both in the Akron area, and across the country. We tailgated with new friends 3rd&twenty and his wife, and met up with Akronites Dave and Geno inside the stadium. UMass had a large, gated-off section where the students tailgated before the game. It was an absolute mob scene. Kids piled in from the dorms by the hundreds. It was like an army of ants! Unfortunately, the bulk of the students head back to the dorms after the block party. Very few made it in to the stadium. Game result aside, it was a great trip. If you've never traveled to a Zips away game, you should. I've seen some great wins @ Northwestern, Army, NC State and Navy over the years. Some close shaves at Wisconsin and Virginia. And some clunkers like yesterday. But it's always a great time travelling and supporting the Zips. See you @ Auburn next year!

UMass's Bilal Ally runs for 180 yards, but Kato's 4 TD's, 3 passing, 1 rushing, offset it. Zips win by 9.

Dre's departure is disappointing. There's no positive spin to put on it. I'm puzzled why he wasn't a bigger part of the offense this year. He's a legit D1 talent. We forge onward, I guess. Definitely a opportunity for Burkhart and Boogie to step up and seize some PT.

I can respect that.

Meh...it's the age we live in. Players constantly transfer. He did get a couple minutes of PT, but so do a lot of true freshman now-a-days. They can play 4 games before getting shut down for their redshirt. We presently have a lot of true freshman logging big minutes in the secondary. If he wasn't, then the writing was probably on the wall that he'd be better off elsewhere.

I won't let you down!

On the bright side, The Hudson Hammer Jonah Wieland seems to have shaken his early season yips. He had a great day punting the ball.

Why is Burkhart out?

I was disappointed that Joe took the bait when the interviewer called ZipsNation a "Cesspool." It would have been nice if he said "It seems like there're a lot of nice people on that site. Great game photography, some nice player stories and passionate fans. You spent a lot of time complaining about guys that sit in bars all day and watch the games. ZipsNation guys attend all the games." Oh well. As far as Beltz goes - I'll let his interview and content speak for itself.

I liked Zaire. I was hoping he'd see the field more this season, but it hasn't panned out that way.

LZip has it right. Any of the three bars he mentioned are what you’re looking for, and immediately across the street from the stadium. Lot 9 is the tailgate lot across the street from the bars, at the south end of the stadium. I’ll be there with a Zips flag and a black F-150. Stop by and say hello. Safe travels to the AK.?

Kato's been fine. There's only one person who thinks otherwise.

Troy Message Board

Blaine Gabbert’s little brother Brett looks like a keeper for Miami. True freshman.

Pencil Power™ - The tag line that writes itself!

After 1...maybe 2 games, I was done with I-and-ll-o. It was a combination of what I saw on the field, and how he treated people as a human being. He was a first class jerkwad. There was no way he succeeded as a HC. Arth has so many positives...he's a great person (Ianello wasn't), he's a tireless, energetic hands-on teacher (Bowden was much more into delegating). I haven't seen anything from Arth that makes be believe he won't be highly successful at Akron in a few short years. It sucks that turning around 30 years of, at-best, mediocre football, takes time. But he seems to have the acumen, tools, and energy to do it. Barring injuries, which always screw up any predictions. I expect the Zips will continue to improve as the 2019 season progresses. They definitely won't tank, and finger-point. Heck, they could be 2-2 at the end of September? Go Zips!

Wonder whatever happened to @Cykron. He was posting regularly through the deadness of the summer...then mysteriously disappeared. Hope he didn't meet with foul play?? I did see his nephew, Stow native Kyle Vantrease of Buffalo, appears to be Buffalo's back up.

It's been a long time since we've had a raucous thread worthy of the Kent State game. We'll see if we can have some fun with this one? Hopefully Kent fans show up at InfoCision in large numbers...but they will probably stay home and cuddle with their instead.

I will be traveling to this one. If anyone would like to tailgate prior to the game, just PM me. Happy to meet any and all Zips fans for pregame chowda' and beers!

Just getting the thread started.

The Most Active CMU Board The Seldom Used CMU Board that Hosts the All-Time Greatest MAC Poster Name - CHIPPEWA ENEMA

The positives out of the day - Beautiful weather! How often does that happen at a Zips home football game? Burkhart was great. To be honest, he had the type of game I'd have predicted from Boogie. It will be interesting to see if he's a 1-hit wonder, or he can back it up. He played well at Illinois, so I'm guessing he's going to have a nice season. While UAB isn't bucking for a New Year's Day bowl this year, they're not bad. Their QB was accurate. Their o-line gave him pocket time that Kato could only dream of having, It's amazing how good your passing game can be if you have all day to throw. UAB's D-line had good size. UAB drew 39,000 fans for their hope opener, and is building a $175 million dollar stadium. While Joe Akron isn't too familiar with them, they're a solid program. Even in what might be considered a down year. Kato never had all day to throw. He barely had 2 seconds from the snap to get rid of the ball. It's unbelievable that he could throw for over 300 yards under those circumstances. The Zips running game again disappointed. But the backs never had a gap to hit. Last season you could chalk up the Zips running issues to an unimaginative scheme. We tried a variety of different looks against UAB and nothing worked. Ineffective pass and run blocking gives you what we saw on Saturday. The Blazer D-line just pushed the Zips back and collapsed the pocket every time. Conversely, our D-line was easily fended off. Hope Council isn't hurt too bad. He returned to the sideline sans any air cast or crutches, so it seems like a minor ding. Keyondre White was on the sideline. Must be injured? Is the solution to Kato buying time to throw rolling him out? Seems like the obvious choice. It's either that, or the o-line needs to make some huge strides over the next couple weeks. Does Andre Williams get a chance to return some kicks? Hopefully the staff is just being cautious in bringing him back from his long layoff. His snap count needs to increase. Alvin Davis' name is not being called enough on the PA system. I realize the numbers game somewhat forces the staff's hand to play him at the corner (we have a little depth at safety, but none at CB), but we can't continue to get burnt deep. I would love to see Davis back at safety where he can make a bigger impact on the game. Tutu sat out 2018 as a gray shirt, so he deserves some patience as he acclimates to the college game. Hope he's a quick learner. I saw Wieland punt in HS and he was awesome. I don't know whether it's jitters...the 2 year layoff from playing...problems adjusting to the punt-on-the-run rugby-style kick...but he's gotta get it together. I never saw Fitchen kick in HS, but he's gotta get it together too. I've never seen such problems as the Zips have kicking the ball...or on special teams in general. There were bright spots Saturday - Lako and Bubba played well. Riley showed some resilience after getting off to a rough start. Jest had a great game. Scippio found the endzone for his first college TD. I thought we tackled well, and fought hard to the end. Kato is a gamer. Arth seems to me to be first and foremost a teacher. A very hands-on teacher. He now has 8 quarters of game film to start addressing our shortcomings. We'll see what he can do. To paraphrase Rick Pitino..."Andy Alleman ain't walking through that door...Brent Biggs ain't walking through that door...Rodney Coe and Jatavis Brown aren't walking through that door...". We are who we are...a team coming off a 4-8 season that lost 90% of it's defense from 2018. The final two 2017 games prior to the 4-8 season, we were down 35-0 to Toledo, and lost 50 - 3 to FAU. So anyone writing off Arth after losing to teams that were flat-out better than these rebuilding Zips...and funded beyond the Zips wildest imagination...should keep "I told you so's" to themselves. It just clutters the board. Go Zips. Beat the Chipps!

I’d have gone with “The Turnover Tire” chain, but that’s just me. ?