UAZipster0305

An entertaining read as always, CK. Yes, Chisholm is one of the rare bright spots for the future. If he gets injured or doesn't play on Saturday, we lose to our second D-IAA team in two years. Otherwise, I think he puts the team on his back and we win.For me, the Cincy game was an all-time low for the program. Just imagine how much worse it would be had we not won the last game of the season last year or if we lose to VMI this coming week. Beyond that scenario, we can only go up from here.As you pointed out and GP1 has maintained, it's the MAC and we should win four games in the worst of seasons.The scorched earth policy shaped my negative opinion of iCoach very early. It was unnecessary.

Future NFL HC Jason Taylor? If his acting career doesn't get in the way... Maybe he should be talking to the AD and coaching staff, rather than the players -- I don't happen to blame Akron's players. They're not the Dolphins.What's worse: That I'm a Dolphins fan or a Zips fan?At least I'm not a Can't fan.

I brought it up earlier in this thread where I forecast how all this might shake out.

TW is one thing, but Dr Proenza seems like he does not care.That's what disappoints me the most. At this point, he needs to show his face to what Zips fans there are and make a statement of some sort. In fact, he should be standing at the Infocision entrance this Saturday personally thanking all those who show up. Hiding is not leadership.Just because he isn't visibly micromanaging doesn't mean he isn't leading. We have LP to thank for the new stadium and support of the football program. LP could have killed the football program before the new stadium was built, and I believe there was talk of this because of the lack of our success at the D-1A level and the cost of a new stadium. That didn't happen though. We have LP to thank for a greatly increased overall support of the Department of Athletics and all the facilities enhancements that have happened as a result. I guarantee LP was instrumental in keeping Coach Porter here long term...and Coach Dambrot.Until LP comes out publicly and says TW is running the ship (which won't happen), you have no right to question his leadership. Things like this debacle are handled behind closed doors, and that's still leadership...in fact, I would say it is the most crucial kind of leadership. Being a leader when everything is going well is easy.

I love this idea, ZtZ. But it won't happen because the current power schools won't want to broaden the pot that all the money goes into...it would dilute each school's share. And, this makes for a more fair playing field. The current system allows the power schools to exploit the others. See our need to schedule OSU in football and OSU's 8 home football games as examples. (No offense here, BuckZip, and no reason to start another verbal war...just an example.)A realistic solution needs to benefit all schools, not just those in power now or the underlings.

Where do you have Notre Dame?Very good question. ND is another school like Temple and Rutgers that could be left without a good fit conference when the music stops. ZtZ, there is no way the Big Ten takes ND as a football only affiliate. Though, ND might make a good pairing with Northwestern as a full member of the Big Ten.In prior posts, I neglected to include ND with other D1-A private schools that don't currently fit in with their current conferences and should form their own...ND, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Rice, Stanford (not a geographic fit)...a good nucleus but not enough for a full conference.I'd like to add that with the Big East falling apart and C-USA maybe being reshaped as a continued mid-major, I don't foresee any MAC teams advancing their overall standing to a 'BCS' conference. Geographically and academically, UT had a respectable sniff of the Big East and if we had our stuff together in football, we might too...but with the Big East blowing up, any move a MAC school might make would be lateral. C-USA is the absolute pinnacle of advancement for any MAC school, which would provide a little bit better bowl scenario in football and maybe a multi-bid league in basketball with greatly increased travel costs and opponents that are less locally familiar.

All the major conferences (Big Ten, PAC-X, ACC, and SEC) are going to 16 teams.The Big Ten needs to pick up four schools to make it to 16...I expect those four to be Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Northwestern is still an odd fit for the conference and if they ever decide to leave, WVU could fill their spot.After the addition of Pitt and Syracuse, the ACC still needs two schools...USF and UConn are likely choices.From the Big East, Cincy, Louisville, TCU, and Rutgers remain and will likely have the same fate...a new conference forms that also includes the remnants from the Big 12 (Kansas State, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State, Baylor...an odd fit, and Iowa State)...still two schools shy of 16...Memphis and Houston.The SEC needs four schools...this is tough without plundering the ACC...Vanderbilt is an odd fit similar to Northwestern and Baylor...I have no idea how this one plays out...IMO, the SEC is the key to where all the dominoes fall. Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas are a good fit here too.The PAC-X currently has twelve members and needs four...it takes Boise St., BYU, UNM, and Nevada-Reno or Idaho...this is more about conquering geography than finding academically similar schools...there really aren't any west of Colorado and east of California, Oregon, and Washington.The remaining schools fold into 3-4 new mid-major conferences and we're pretty much back to where we started. Temple remains on the fence between major and mid-major, and some D-IAA schools move up (e.g. Villanova). Hence, there are as many second-tier schools as there are first tier and Akron still hasn't really advanced its standing at all. As GP1 says, there is a great opportunity for the second-tier schools to form their own division and stop being punching bags for the first-tier schools.Rutgers, Temple, Akron, Toledo, Miami, Ohio, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, Middle Tennessee, Can't ( I hate to say it, but the rivalry is good for us), WMU, and CMU could make for a nice 12-member conference with nearly every school having a natural rival. If VCU only had football! If going for 14, include Buffalo and Bowling Green...Ball State and Eastern Michigan should be excluded at all cost though. Where we would get two more for a 16 member conference, I don't know.

Agreed.And it's just not that we are losing. We are getting embarrassed on a weekly basis. In a brand new stadium, the program is at an all-time low with no signs of improvement and I actually think we might be getting worse.

If we were still in the Rubber Bowl, I might agree. With the new stadium, football isn't going anywhere.

This is embarrassing. How are we getting less competitive as the season progresses?

Chisolm looks great. Unfortunately, the only back I know of who was any good in the vacuum of blocking was Barry Sanders. What are the chances that we get a back like that at Akron?

I think we lost the pre-game too.

Outside of Northwestern, I didn't know the Big Ten schools were Ivy Leaguelike. I don't know how the schools rank, but WVU lives in the same neighborhood as the rest of the Big Ten with the exception of Northwestern. Pitt ranks right up there with Northwestern.I'm a Pitt graduate, and its not that great of a school. My experiences there were terrible. Pitt isn't even the best school in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.Wisconsin and Michigan are the only schools in the Big Ten that academically compare to Northwestern and even they aren't really comparable otherwise because the with the exception to Northwestern, the schools in the Big Ten are land-grant flagship state supported schools and Northwestern is private and urban. Pitt isn't that great of a fit, but WVU definitely is. Other D-IA schools that compare to Northwestern are Rice, Vanderbilt, and Baylor...not enough to make a conference, but if any other big, private urban universities become D-IA, it could happen. The University of Chicago used to be in the Big Ten...other schools that come to mind are Washington University in St. Louis, CWRU, and Rochester. Such a conference would be a midwestern version of the Ivy League. I don't know why the current D-IA schools that I mentioned wouldn't pursue such a thing. Don't they get tired of being punching bags for the other schools athletically. Sure, Rice baseball is good, but.... Stanford fits the profile, but not on a geographic basis...it might be the only school out west that does.

With EMU holding its own against Michigan, I'm starting to wonder whether we have more than one win on our schedule again for this year. The entire rest of the conference looks to be improved from last year.The Temple-PSU game is a good one...Two very evenly matched teams.

I would add that I'm sure that Porter is probably highly displeased with the small handful of balls that were played wide to the left with the entire wing open only to have mistouches out of bounds. I was very surprised to see that.A couple better touches in the final third could have lead to goals. The field condition can certainly never be an excuse.

Amen.And UT never had John Heisman as coach and still has not beaten Ohio State. And has UT had an alum become as successful in the NFL as Jason Taylor has?I still can't for the life of me understand we we don't have a statue of John Heisman in a prominent location near the stadium.The excuses about building (and rebuilding) are getting old. If schools like UT and Miami can reload in one year, we can too.And with great coaches like Brian Kelley and Urban Meyer, there is no such thing as a rebuilding year. The turn around is immediate.

Without that red card to Mattocks, I think we would have won. How spoiled are we that I think a tie against top 25 competition is hard to take? The growth potential in this team is tremendous though.

Mattocks really demonstrated a lack of discipline in getting that red card.

I agree about being lucky to be up 1-0 at half after Meves' mistake. Barson really saved us. I don't think we are nearly as sloppy as you suggest. You need to keep in mind that UNM is a top 20 program and we're a very young team that will only get better. I am satisfied thus far. We definitely do favor the right side of the field though.

I'll take one for the team and volunteer for this duty. :DSeriously though, I like the future opponents for the most part. I don't think we've ever played TN, ND, or UMich and we have a home-home from Pitt and their fans should travel well. And if they break the contract early, that's just easy money for the athletic department and we can schedule an easier team. UCF and Marshall are familiar opponents from their days in the MAC. The other opponents should be at our level and winnable.I'm a bit surprised we haven't scheduled WVU for a 2:1...I'd expect their fans to travel well too.

I've never thought about a cumulative number like this. WOW. It does make me want to also.And the worst part is, two-thirds of our schedule is made up of MAC opponents.

It's the MAC, so I'll go with three: VMI, EMU, and Buffalo. Though it would be an improvement in wins, I don't think this represents major progress for the program...only how bad some of our opponents are.

"Who cares, it's a rat with wings!"

And in two games we've been outscored 83-3. I had low expectations, but but this is ridiculous.There is no way even a respectable defense can hold strong for an entire game when the offense can't stay on the field for a few first downs.Cincy's offense and RB looked fairly strong against Tennessee. Next week is going to be another tough one to take.Let's just hope we can beat VMI. If not, I'm mailing it in for the season.

We're gonna need to play that well to beat New Mexico on Friday. UNM is undefeated thus far and easily put away Tulsa 2-0. UNM plays Northridge tomorrow, which is a common opponent and should be a good barometer of their strength.