Z-P

Sad. I feel badly for the seniors. Especially Basch. Is it possible 5 and Blackie could do a better job of placing, directing and motivating talent than the staff at this point? I mean those two have been side by side with these guys for 4 or 5 years..........know what they can and can't do. I'm not saying that the new guys won't be a good staff in time, it's just that nothing is working right..........and I don't see it getting better. I'm thinking I messed up. I thought 5 should come back, fully expecting the O-line to be a year better, the defense to be a year better, and the new staff to be better than the old one. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but I'm not so sure that the new staff is all that great...............yet..............they are rookies...........and this is a learning curve for them too............. I KNOW the O-line is garbage and the defense sucks. Know what really makes me crazy? We've got some outstanding athletes on the team. They're just not being put into a position to make a difference. Biggs, Hickson, Charlie, Blackie, others.............. More later............... Go Zips..........beat the Buffs...........

Just a thanks to everybody for the great coverage. OTR again, (as usual, this year) but got 15 minute updates from a buddy on the phone. Congrats to the staff and the guys........ ILFSITF Go Zips........

Whoa guyz............ Don't take me out of context please. I'm not bailing on the new regime, I'm just saying they should embrace what has been accomplished before, and work to carry it on.......not dis and dis-associate themselves from it...........OK? Go Zips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lessons we are learning 1. Superman can't do it all 2. Maybe the OL of Smith, Big Grez, Conrad etc of 3 years ago was a key reason for the success of that era......a guy once told me "you're thru your best period before you know you're in it"......how true 3. All the wishing and hoping in the world can't replace the learning curve the new staff will have to go thru. 4. Nothing is ever as bad or as good as it appears. I hope the cats all understand this, dust themselves off and kick ass at Can't State. 5. I watched the game on the tracker yesterday, so don't have first hand knowledge.....but it appeared that the guys just gave up??????? Is that true????? With the previous regime, I don't ever remember the team just giving up.....especially with Charlie at trigger..........Butchie neither........I hope this is not a symptom of what's to come. I'm still 150% Go Zips no matter what....... Your thoughts on lessons 3 games in? And still ILFSITF

I luv 34.............. 5's still the greatest............. Start Rohr.......... 18's a wonderful safety now that he's back in his best position. Other opinions.......... I'm tired of hearing everyone rag on Owens for "leaving the cabinet bare".....bull_ _ _ _! His crew is also the one who gave you Charlie, Hickson, 44, 18, and others now pulling the load. Who said "the great coach"..........."he can beat you with his.........or take yours and beat you with yours".................I'm seeing nothing different this year. I see nothing new. Give it time? OK...........what else can we do now? Is this a D-1A level crew? Yes? Prove it. Hope it's not a difficult decision deciding wheter or not to go to home games later in the season. Pissed at the Z-P estate. BTW........marketing is still the greatest. The Boss and UAM are destined for bigger things.

I'm in!!!!!! I'm going to sit with the french fries in the endzone so I can watch our VETEREN OFFENSIVE LINE blow holes in the MTSU defenders for our running backs to walk thru.

Anyone else having trouble jumping on the MACbbs?

OK.......... Here we go.......... Before I dump my bucket, IMHO, this game should be thrown out.......the next one is the tell-tale contest.............so it's too early to know much. Guest........in this offense (which is all too similar to last years) Walter Payton or Emmit Smith wouldn't look good.........so get off the RB's. Frankly, I thought the guys did OK. They are primarily there to protect Charlie.....and they did as good a job as you could ask for. We again look like we are going to lack any kind of offensive line........damn. Hope I'm wrong. Where was 44? Thought we worked our asses off in the summer to get stronger and faster. Why do we look so slow and have our hands on our hips in the 1st quarter? That slug sitting next to UAM in the booth for the broadcast hit the nail on the head. We need YAC.............man oh man was Cherry good at getting downfield after his catches. Even Mike Brake added to his grabs big time when he pulled it in. We need this. 5 needs this. Speaking of UAM, man did he do a great job or what? Out of sight. He had no help whatsoever. I'm going to toss this out for your future discussion fodder...............think about Marino at Miami. When a team becomes "QB Centric" does it hurt itself? I luv 5, and am his biggest fan, but I'm just tossing this out for your consideration. Here's what I mean.............our D sucks, right? Let's pretend you are JD coming in to the program. There sits one of the best frikin QB's you have ever seen in all your adult life. What do you do? Do you say, "what the hell, I think I'll spend all my time working on the defense"? Hell no. You take 2 of your best defenders and put them on offense to pump up the All World QB.................what happens to the D? You get what I'm trying to say..............so run with it. ILFSITF BTW, I did see a lot of good things...........and after MTSU it will be easier to know what is really what..............toss this game out.

Hit the link: http://www.nfl.com/partners/aol?http://www.nfl.com/ Matt and Conrad were let go by the Jags this morning, sucks.........especially for Mattie. I still think he'll hood up somewhere. The Jags are loaded at wideout. Looks like Mike is going to make the team in STL..........another TE bit the dust in their cut down. Hit NFL.com and pop the Ram to see that story. ILFSITF Where's that dudie been?

BZ..........thought provoking post I for one like the MAC, and being part of it. You're too quick to dis Ohio, CMU, EMU and Buffalo. Ohio had great teams in the Grobe era, and has facilities to do it again. They have a very long and quite favorable FB tradition. CMU had us for lunch until the last 2 meetings. They also have a pretty strong recent rep.............however most recently not too strong. I have a funny feeling that EMU is going to get it together this year or next..............and you may have to eat your words...........Buffalo? Just don't know about that program. It's kind of an enigma. They have facilities, a quality school educationally, big metro to draw from but no pulse. They pulled 30k if memory serves me correct for a home game vs Syracuse a year ago or so.........right? Keep this in mind.............when lots of people dis the MAC (or mid-majors in general), the name they pull out of their incorrect memories to call out a grim program always seems to be us. They come up with the lame "like the Akron Zips or something"...........know what I mean? I've heard it too many times...........even on TV. So we get zero run in anyones book. With that in mind, who's going to schedule us if we leave the MAC? Where will we be able to play after Oct 1st every year? Appreciated the report on the Golden Ticket Night last night.............sucks to have a job on the second shift sometimes........... ILFSITF Oh, one more thing.............on my Mercur radio last night I bumped into Todd Porter (Canton Rep) interviewing Lee at about 7:15PM. Lee's soooooo good in that regard. He was very professional, quite complimentary and appreciative of his time at Akron, but somewhat "conservative" ............. more conservative than the past.........with his outlook this year for Ashland.............I was glad I caught it, and wish those guys well.

Yea, I agree with CK, it's hard this year to fire up. Is it just me (I think I sang this tune back in spring also) or is something radically different about the marketing and personal support FB is getting this year? Hey, I'm all on board, so don't get mad at what I'm saying.......it's just my observation. Examples.........here we are inside of 2 weeks to kickoff, and I just now get my Gridiron Club App in the mail. It used to come twice, once in June and once in July. Cripes, all I wanted to do was know where to send a little jack (I sold the Pinto with the XM and have some spare pocket change) and it took this long to find out where. I missed the golf outing (couldn't be helped) for the first time in 5 years, but reports coming back said the staff wasn't even there for most of it. Rave reviews on facilities, but other than Charlie working his ass of shaking hands, nothing else got mentioned about how the staff mingled. Shawn's still there isn't he? He used to do daily reports on GoZips. What are we getting now? Where is Tommy G with his reports? On the positive side, I've had my bumper sticker on my bumper (I bought a Mercur once the Pinto crapped out)......... and poster in the lawn since the spring game, and the Charlie for Hero campaign has been pretty darn good. I don't know.............I just don't get a warm fuzzy from JD and his posse like I did with LO and his gang. Yea, I agree...........screw warm fuzzies, because winning will take care of this bigtime, you're right............. but what if the wins aren't forthcoming for some reason? The downside risk of not doing the big PR exceeds the difficulty experienced in trying to get it done right. I think Marketing is wasting a lot of pent up good will here. Maybe it's just me however..........and if so tell me.............and I'll apologize for ragging on it.

Sluggies........... When the turf was being changed last Summer, I rescued some of the old rug and some of the new rug on it's way to the trash bin. Thought maybe someday someone might like a little of the rug so many great athletes layed on as High Schoolers and College Players. Anyway, I'm getting tired of looking at it in my garage, so if any of you guys want a little piece or two please let me know.............before I toss it.

When I saw the "Kangaroo" comment I laughed Garendamteeya he knows the whole skinny on "Zips" but like me, he's worn out from telling it..............and has learned to just say "it's a Kangaroo" and avoid the 10 minutes it takes to explain the story to someone who really ins't listening 95% of the time anyway. Charlie coooo.........and smart too. He had a giggle to himself with that one I'm sure. Where my dudie

CK........... I'm just guessing here.........but I'm betting the dealio is that this staff has placed game one vs PSU into a "Manhattan Project" status. They want this so bad, they'll do anything to protect and preserve every bit of "the unknown" Paterno and his staff will be facing. Relax. This is going to be fun. Dillio? That's a gal's little buddy isn't it?

What the hull was that? Geesh......... Hey herdude

Couple observations ZFF.......... I like Chase "with his head up".......by that I mean at LB so he can see things develop. He's great at "throwing guys out of the way" and in pursuit. When I saw him "down" in the spring, I didn't like what I watched. You were right there next to me so you can remember our surprise that he had no impact when on the line. One option might be to show a 3 man front, but give him the option to attack or react.........kind of an "accessory lineman"........... On depth, Rohr is not a starter. I know, he's a little "small", he's a little "slow" yadda yadda yadda.............but the cat is an animal between the lines, and has the best nose for the ball I've ever seen. He's got to be on the field somewhere for the defense to be it's best. Where dat dudie?

Hey slugs, just for the record, I've not been involved in this ridiculous thread.....my log in on the old ladies PC was OLZIP................but I could care less about any of this stupid chain of lame crap.............. Move on........if LO is good, he'll get another chance at D-1, just as Paul Winters will if he proves himself...............let it gooooooooo.

All Right Mike! Keep chopin the wood! http://www.nfl.com/partners/aol?http://www...depthcharts/STL Sub Jac for Stl and see Matt is holding up the position......but there are more WR's than TE's.............

In case you guys missed this, it's a great read. http://www.vandelaysports.com/news/2004_06_20A.htm Cap'n's (can you use two of those in one word?) met this guy and put the CK Seal of Approval on him (even though he's a Marshall cat)........he runs the MACbbs which I assume you all visit........... Anyway, slow board lately..............here's something to do while eating lunch at your desk Sure miss that big guy

FYI......... I bumped into Joe, Christmas shopping in December. As always, he was gracious and more than happy to share a few minutes with another Zip Fan. He explained that his Rep Business in the Medical Field had really exploded to the point where he couldn't devote as much preparation time as he thought necessary to do the quality job in the booth every week for ZSN..........so at that time he was considering backing out for the 04 season. I'm just glad to hear he'll be doing some TV for us. He's one SUPER SUPER guy. I know I can speak for all of us when I wish him all the best in the future. ILFSITF

Hi Pardner........... I'll pick up this grenade because I owned a home in Franklin TN and worked in Ohio for 18 months, commuting back and forth about once a month (whew, glad that's over) . I'd pull out Friday and come as far as Canton, OH. Bunk in one of the hotels in the "Belden Village" area of Canton. Exit 109 on I-77. Depending on where you hang your Nascar hat , it'll take 7 to 9 hours to make that drive. 24 to Louisville...71 north thru Cincy and Columbus heading toward Cleveland. Exit on US 30 at mile 176 and head east toward Canton. Come into Canton and take 77 north a few miles to exit 109...then you'll be at "Belden Village". There's a Holiday Inn I like right at the Shopping Center. Also, Comfort Inn, Hampton, Residence and Fairfield...........so take your pick. Saturday, run over and see the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton (5 minutes from Belden). Come back to Belden and have a late lunch at one of the 1000 restaurants in the area, suit up and get ready for the fun. The game's at 6. The Rubber Bowl, where it will be played, is just 15-20 minutes up 77 and east on 224. Cap'n K will fill you in, but you'll want to stop by Zippy On the Stick and have one of his choice home brews in the tailgate before you head into the game. Don't worry about seats. Just get them there (someone might even hand you a few), and you'll be able to find your own preferred view due to our weak attendance and big house. Go back and crash at Belden, and hook em south the next morning. That's what I'd do if it were my first visit to the area.............. Enjoy.............we're all pretty laid back so no chance of anything but "Welcomes" from us.

Hi Slugs.......... Just back for a few then OTR again, so I'm catching up (the pitiful little there is to catch up on)......... Hey, one of you old timers.............tell us how it was when LO arrived. How was it during this comparable time period. What did he inherit compared to JD. Who did he open against.............how long before he got a W. Who were his returning stars etc. Thanks in advance. Oh Dudie...........been missing me much?

Sorry Amigo, I'm OTR.......... Another time for sure..........

Bumping around looking for info on Mike and Matt, I stumbled across this: http://www.theredzone.org/2004/draft/udfa/school.asp It's a pretty good read. Still can't believe Osunde wasn't drafted. Here's my take on what's happening with the NFL these days..............with the AFL, the AFL2 and NFL Europe all going on at the same time, the NFL has a harder time getting bodies in spring camps these days..........to evaluate their draftees and free agents. So.........almost anybody coming out of D1 who will put the work into getting into shape can get into a camp. They pay these guys 3-5K to come play football for a while until veterans, EuroNFLers and selected AFL players come back. Poor guys get their hopes up and whammy..............deflation and return to the real world. I just hope these guys didn't trash classes and miss graduation. I don't mean Mike and Matt speciifically, I mean the seniors in general.

Damn..........that's 2 conflicts. The Ashland game competes with BSU at the Rubber Bowl, and this game is the day after our ESPN appearance vs the turds in the bowl the night before (Friday night game). Shoot...........I wanted to go jump around on the sideline and show Paul we luv him. May still have to do that and bail on the BSU game if the Dude will give me a date