Blue & Gold

This, sadly, is exactly where I am. I went with two friends (God bless them) to the game on Saturday. If... if... IF they want to go to any others, I'd be happy to have the company, but I'm not going to subject anyone to any more of this. We left after halftime because I also felt guilty having taken them to the game. I've still got my season ticket, but I'm planning on just flying solo @ these remaining games.I was going to put together a middle school group outing to the VMI game (the only game on our schedule I know we can win) but I'm calling it off & we'll find something else to do. I just have a feeling that the vibe in the Info is going to start turning from sad/depressing to bitter/angry & I don't want to subject middle school students to such an experience - especially if it would happen to be their first Zips game - they'd never want to go again.

BTN Analyst: "Toledo continues to use mis-direction to keep Ohio State on their heals."Hmm. How novel. Why didn't we think of that?

I just logged on to post exactly what you just mentioned. CMU outplaying Kentucky. Toledo outplaying Columbus.Toledo's getting homered as well. There have been 3 "ify" calls now taking away UT momentum & a holding no-call I saw on Columbus. Phantom face-mask penalty on UT as well when Toledo sacked Bauserman on 3rd & 10.

Interesting article here. A high school senior basketball recruit eliminated Baylor from consideration because he doesn't like their uniforms (more specifically, their colors and affiliation w/ adidas). I did not read the article in it's entirerty, but I believe the author's spin is that this is a whack decision. However, I'd be willing to bet that colors & uniform design are a lot more important to many 15-17 year-olds than we adults would believe.

So he should have tweeted formally, "..."The University of Akron has a great one"? Idon'thinkso Good point. As much as I try to avoid the old name, and encourage others to do the same, it is a lot easier to say.Maybe we'll someday reach the point where people just say AKRON. Places like ALABAMA can do it. They don't have to worry about whether people are saying Alabama U. or The Univ. of Alabama. That would be nice. I grew up calling the U "Akron U" and, of course meant nothing negative by it. It was a pet name - I and all my friends liked UA & we all just called it Akron U w/out thinking anything of it. Now, of course, I just say Akron, but someone calling UA, Akron U doesn't offend me. For perspective, I'm 38.Coach KD still calls us Akron U, for crying out loud.

I want to see Rossi get some carries this week. I want to see us take more shots downfield this week to stretch the D. I hope our OL can give LR8 & the WRs time to get down field.I love the 4-3 but I'm hoping Temple can't go 3-yards & a cloud of dust on us like Columbus did.Of course I'm also hoping to see us limit the big plays as well as we did vs Columbus.

Via twitter:"Just leaving the gym working out with probably my favorite coach ever Coach Dambrot. Akron U has a great one."

Mount Union, in nearby Alliance.It was the Bluffton University baseball team whose bus crashed in Atlanta in 2007. Mount Union's wrestling team bus crashed on US30 (I believe) in January 2011 returning from Ohio Northern.That's right. Thanks.

I was surprised we didn't go after a big this year, so, as a freshman, he'd be on campus & practicing w/ the team during Zeke's senior season.

Mount Union, in nearby Alliance.

Could be half of the Bottom Ten next week!! And we play three of the other four this year. Show a little progress and we could at least give the illusion of improving with a much-improved record.Good news for the MAC, only we and Buffalo are presently in the Bottom 10 w/ Can't State in waiting. EMU is off the list and neither CMU nor BGSU are still on the waiting list.

Amen. It is so refreshing seeing a more tough-nosed defense w/ 4 DL. If we get shoved around w/ 4 DL, so be it; our opponent deserves to win. But I was so sick and tired of watching our 3DL D get shoved up & down the field year-after-year.

I'd assume that, due to past successes, TW was salivating at the opportunity to hire RI. TW probably just wanted to cover his bases & go through the charade of interviewing other candidates, but knew who his dream-candidate was all along. It hasn't worked out like - or as quickly as - we all had hoped. That's for certain. And, perhaps it never will under RI. Who can say? But I'm with the party of those who want to give iCoach some more time.

Just a little F.Y.I. According to RI's presser, we had 8 true freshmen play last week: FB Nick Rossi (boy, I hope we get him more involved this week!) LB Justin March SS Bre' Ford DE Isaiah Williams RB Karl Bostick DT Dajour Morris FS Devonte Morgan LB Gary Ransom (PT on special teams) That's a lot of true freshmen seeing the field. Additionally, 4 redshirt freshmen saw action: RB Jawon Chisholm S L.T. Smith LB Jamar Williams TE Anthony Ritossa

Awesome breakdown! Thanks! As for me? Well, I only know that in soccer you aren't allowed to use your hands.

+1 L.T. Smith was absolutely ALL OVER the Columbus WR Devin Smith when he caught his TD from Braxton Miller. I watched the replay of that reception about 5 times and can't believe it squeeked past L.T. Also, Columbus' longest passing play of the day wasn't due to poor man-coverage abilities or a breakdown in coverage scheme, but was simply due to that absoutely amazing one-handed catch by the Columbus WR. Nothing you can do about that, other than say, "Wow, good for you." Stoneburner was the Zips killer last week. We had no answer for him. On two of this three TD catches, our defenders were in the correct position. But on the first (IIRC) Stoneburner shoved Emmanuel Lartey out of the way like a rag doll and on the third (IIRC) Stoneburner out-athleted our SAM LB Troy Gilmer. Again, what are you gonna do? Too big for our DB's & too athletic for our LB's. He's got to be one of the best TE's in the nation this season.

"Football returned last weekend, and amid all the uncertainty surrounding the sport, it was reassuring to see that some things remain the same. Ohio State (2) can play defense with or without Jim Tressel, shutting out an admittedly awful Akron program that now has scored a total of 10 points in its past three season openers."

Good question. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the magazine. I do remember that they were your usual BCS suspects. But I also specifically remember the MAC, Mountain West, Missouri Valley & C-USA also listed as High Majors. (They probably had the Atlantic-10 in this category as well.)

Unfortunately, no link. It was on the newsstand @ Giant Eagle.

I was looking at the Sporting News Basketball Preview rag today and I found two things interesting. 1. They have the Zips picked to win the MAC East, w/ Can't Statecks as #2. 2. They have the MAC listed as a "High Major" conference. They had High Majors, Mid-Majors and Low-Majors, and, yep, I was pleasantly surprised to see them list the MAC w/ the High Majors.

The idea that haunts/scares me is that when TW hired RI, both said that this was not a rebuilding job; that the cupboard was not bare.

I agree. To lose the number of players that we did and to begin this very next season ranked between #4 - #5 is insane.