UAZipster0305

Our victory over PCCC tonight is Lebron's family obligation!

I like the addition of UConn for football only with the requirement that they schedule significant OOC games with MAC teams in other sports. This is a solid academic school with a good athletic brand name...a definite step up from UMass. Talk about helping MAC OOC scheduling and RPI... Make them play 4 OOC games against top MAC men's and women's basketball, and rope them in for an ongoing home-home series with top MAC men's and women's soccer teams. Then, seal the deal.

It's 12:17 on Thursday, 2/16, and...

Who are the other 9? I am sure Huggins is saying the same about us. For me, the nightmare part of that scenario is playing IN Buffalo. While convenient for traveling Zips fans, Canada is a house of horrors for us. I don't expect that to be any different in the NCAAT.

Yes, JAR renovations as well, but nothing detailed. Dr. Z provided the specifics to the extent this was discussed.

The feed via ESPN3 last night was excellent. It looked like a professional production, and I enjoyed it thoroughly here in MD. This may be a helpful tool in national recruiting due to potential exposure to recruits' friends and family. Our AD impressed me at halftime. He has a vision for investment, and he mentioned the ESPN3 feed as a good means of exposure for other lesser known and celebrated programs of UA Athletics. I found that to be encouraging and refreshing.

Zips at home against BUGS is as guaranteed as it gets...much like a loss in Canada every year. Here comes #18 in a row against them. Their fans must despise us. Should be a blowout, but I am looking forward to watching on ESPN3 nonetheless.

The key to being good in spite of a bad defense is keeping them off the field. If we can manage a productive, ball-control offense and get a turnover or two, that may be enough to win. We have to be very good with offense and special teams though. If not, this game could look much like WMU.

The amount of money spent at MU games is pennies compared to the hundreds each of the tens of thousands of OSU fans spend on the game day experience. If MU falls flat, we see no rise in local interest or attendance....OSU on the other hand...it's all daydreaming anyhow. We need to be a consistent winner before anything else matters.

I should have said two of the best teams this year, skip-zip. Thanks for the clarification.

Fair points, kreed5120. I will take as many wins against traditionally strong programs like Marshall and Miami as we can get. Even wins against P5 schools or schools with big name recognition are great regardless of their football tradition. Syracuse, UMass, NC State, UCF, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Pitt, Army, Navy, Cincinnati, Utah State, and Temple...all either big, P5 schools or schools with some success in OOC football that we have wins over. In my opinion, these are all big wins for us. In deference to your point that we are still 41 points worse than the MAC's best team, WMU 2016 may prove to be the best MAC team ever. Miami finished #11 one season. CMU got their doors blown off by this WMU team nearly as badly as we did. With a healthy Woodson, a few things would have gone differently early in the game, and I think it would have been significantly closer than it was. In the end though, WMU wins. They are just a much better team. I'll be ecstatic if/when we get to the point of competing with the best of the B1G.

Thanks for the respect, kreed5120. Ditto. 1) We had only won AT Marshall once before in the history of our program...and we blew them out by scoring a program record number of points. I don't care if Marshall is having a down year. They are an overall strong program, and that was a quality win to me. Ball State is also a place where we consistently lose and would have for sure just a couple seasons ago. We were down at halftime and came back. In my opinion, that makes it a quality win. 2) WMU and Wisconsin are two of the best programs in the country. Against WMU we were severely injured, especially without Woodson. We don't have the depth to lose key starters at skill positions and compete with the best in the country. That's the state of our program, but it's significantly better than years past. The improvement just doesn't show up when handicapped against the best-of-the-best.

You should feel good about the win AT Kent this year too. Woodson out, Chapman in and played a terrible first half. Turned it around in the second half only to still be down to an athletic Kent QB playing his heart out and making an amazing play to take the lead with little time left. And we walked away with a W and the Wagon Wheel. There was no quit in the team and Bowden respects the significance of the rivalry.

Great topic, K92, and welcome back. I enjoy your contributions. Toledo, Pitt, and Utah State were quality wins in prior seasons as are AT Marshall, and AT Ball State this season. I think part of the disappointment comes from thinking we turned a corner with the impressive win at Ball State two weeks ago. I wasn't expecting it and thought it foretold of another record season for us. Hence, the epic disappointment with the performance against a terrible Canadian school. Buffalo was a huge missed opportunity for the progress of the program and the MAC standings. The OU win at Toledo the same night made it even worse. If this is the only blemish on the season, I find it acceptable given the injuries. However, the progress of the progrum is significant. I give Bowden a pass on the first season entirely. Bare cupboards = 1-11. Fine. Since then, we are at .500 overall, above .500 in the MAC, and 13-10 in the last two seasons with our first bowl win and are competing for a MACC this season. This will likely be our first season with a win against BUGS in forever, and if we play to our potential, the same could be said for OU too. Things were bleak at this point of last season, but it ended beautifully. Keep in mind, we are coming from a place (2013 as documented by Balsy, kudos) where getting a road win and winning multiple games in a year were milestones to now having the most wins in a season and our first ever bowl victory (2015). That is tremendous progress in 2-3 years. Bowden isn't perfect, but he is perfect for the long-term stability and building of our progrum. I look forward to the "winning big" phase and hope you (K92) can remain patient enough to enjoy the (sometimes bumpy) ride in the meantime.

I watched on ESPN3 as a rebroadcast before I knew the outcome. Tremendous quality of the broadcast! Having said that, we totally dominated BUGS, but their goals came on defensive lapses...goalie out way too far unnecessarily (but a great finish from near midfield), and a lack of communication and marking from the outside back and outside midfielder on a cross. What is so frustrating is that the talent is there...this is largely the same team that made the College Cup last year. This season has been characterized by poor discipline, defensive lapses, a general lack of focus, and no sense of offensive urgency. These all have to do with coaching, not talent. Can you imagine a Caleb Porter team performing like this? Me either. Embick has been good up until this season, but I am starting to lose confidence in him. I'm okay with a down year every once in a while; however, given the talent, this season should not be one of those.

I actually like the overlap between BCS and FCS. And it is objective and takes into consideration the strength of schedule. The campusinsiders is a joke; 2-5 Arizona is nearly 30 spots ahead of us. I have no idea who we've lost 4 in a row at Buffalo though.

This ranking is skewed big time towards the P5 schools. Realtimerpi is objective and has us at 59, which I think is representative of the season so far.

I think we tried that once. #TeamOhio Seriously though, I have no problem with Indians/Cavs/Browns highlights or access at the Info. Anything that can be done to make UA games unifying events for the community should be done....except #TeamOhio...that was desparate and pathetic. Highlights celebrating UA football and athletics tradition, history, and success should be copiously provided as well.

How do you figure?

Unless the game notes released by UA are incorrect, there's no excuse for this. Why bother writing anything if it's gonna be wrong?

I watched part of the App St game last night, and the halftime show previewed the top-25 games for this week. When it came to our game, the thing they highlighted most was our 0-23 record against ranked opponents. This obviously neglects our win over Marshall at the Rubber Bowl. Anyone think they got this misinformation from our own local media?

Anyone remember the last time we beat WMU? 38-37 in 2007...I recall listening to Frenchy going nuts on the radio about a kick return. I believe it was very late and was the go-ahead score. Such a thrilling win would be very timely for the home crowd and the progrum.

This is great; however, how many of these people are casual fans? I am concerned that if we get blown out, they will be turned off for years to come. I believe we can win this game although a 2-3 TD victory for WMU is not out of the question given their quality, which the casual fan has no appreciation.

It's been a while since I've posted...particularly busy in the real-world for the past six months...however, I had to check-in... Is this real? We are 4-2 coming off a bowl win and having beaten Kent in dramatic fashion...now we host (in our own beautiful glass and brick on-campus stadium) a top-25 team (that has beaten two B1G teams already this season and is undefeated) for the right to remain at the top of the MAC! I must be dreaming. Those of you thinking we should save our best players for the rest of the MAC schedule are out of your minds.

Congrats to Reggie, Jake, and Pat on solid careers.