Aaron

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the tailgate and the game - it was great to meet so many posters in person, and I was so happy to see the team put together a 'complete game' for the first time in a while. It wasn't perfect by any means, but this team seems to finally be getting back to the level of play that we had in the early Lee Owens and JD Brookhart years. I'm very optimistic for the wagon wheel game, and can't wait to see how things fall out in the bowl picture.

Being pleasantly surprised by a soccer bracket is a new feeling Given our past treatment by the NCAA, I did not believe that we would have a top 4 seed. I guess Larry Williams might understand NCAA politics a little better than Tom W? Time for the team to take advantage of the circumstances!

I've had poutine made with both zucchini fries and rutabega - both tasted ok, as long as you don't skimp on the cheese curds and gravy. My favorite poutine place (http://www.poutini.com/menu/) even makes a vegan option which isn't half-bad. I'm coming into town from Toronto late Friday, so I'll bring a couple bags of cheese curds, some good Canadian maple syrup, and maybe some peameal bacon. I'll have Alexander Keith's with me (a uniquely Canadian british-style IPA), but if any ZN.O members have requests for more Canadian items, let me know and I'll import them for you. If any of you have extra tickets available (I need 4) let me know.

I'd like to see more about BG's vs Akron's special teams. When the sides of the ball are as evenly matched as they appear to be (on paper), I'd expect the special teams to make a big difference in the game.

I am planning on being in town that weekend - I'll bring the "real deal" as long as the border guards let the cheese curds through. Some good dark maple syrup and Bacon (or other pork) make a good poutine GREAT.

The Zips really ought to win this one. Hopefully Woodson isn't passing much, as the Zips should take advantage of the EMU porous run defense. Our own defense should be strong and ready to go. If they only gave up two scores against Ohio, I think limited EMU to one score is reasonable.

A better question might be - if high school football games draw really well at Infocision, is there a marketing opportunity in the future to get a double-header with a Zips game and a HS football game? If a big HS game was played at 1, and the same ticket got you into the Zips game that starts at 3:30 (or so) could that improve our attendance? I'm not sure if this would send the wrong message about Zips football, or if it would be a nice way to get the local community interested? You can even have Zips halftime giveaways where you sell raffle tickets during the HS game and announce winners during the Zips game?

SavageHenry - not sure if you'll see this, but I appreicate it when opposing fans come on our boards and share genuine insights into the matchups, as you and pphilfran have done. Usually, when we see "OU", it's from people at Ohio University, one of our conference rivals who very rarely offer constructive conversations on sports. The 'FIFY' post is more of a MAC joke than a particular poke at you. Personally, if the Zips get blown out in this game, I will be disappointed. Akron's two worst losses last year were by 31 points. The team does not usually 'lose big', and I have high hopes that they will continue that streak. Given Oklahoma's depth, it will be hard to keep up for a full game, but maybe if the team land a couple good shots early, they have a chance. Realistically, my brain says a 21-7 halftime score, with a 38-14 finish. If OU's running game eats up enough clock to keep the total gametime shorter, I think it works in Akron's favor to beat the spread. My heart hopes that our defense gets one more stop in the first half, and our offense scores on a trick play in the 2nd half, leading to a 28-28 4th quarter, where the Zips get a field goal at the end to pull off the upset.

He wasn't even close on 5.93M - wrapping up now, apparently he'll get his medal later on. Still a VERY impressive performance from Shawn!

They've been adjusting the bar a while now - he does get gold (and the automatic Olympic qualifying), but he's been setting the bar just where he wants it to try for a personal best

Shawn cleared it! The other guy has never jumped over 5.80, so it looks great for Shawn. Honestly, I hope they let Shawn try for even higher. He looked like he cleared the 5.80 bar with a few inches to spare.

Both of them are now attempting to tie the Pan-Am record at 5.80M

Shawn is now guaranteed at least the Silver medal - he's competing with an Argentinian for first place

For those of you bored at work, Shawn Barber is competing right now in Toronto in the Pan-American pole vaulting finals. A win here will automatically qualify him for next year's Olympics (if he hasn't already qualified). He could very well break the Pan-Am games record, which is 5.80m. Shawn has already jumped a 5.90 this season. You can follow results close to live at http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/en/athletics/results-men-s-pole-vault-1-01.htm, and I'll try and post some pictures later, if they come out.

Bowden is guaranteed at least as good a record as they had last season. I feel like this SHOULD make me happy, but it doesn't. At this point in his tenure, I want to see that we're still improving, and moving up to 6-6 (or even getting a bowl game to add to that) would satisfy me. Winning a bowl game would make me very happy.

MDZip, I believe that we need to win at Buffalo to be assured the top spot. If we tie and WMU wins, then WMU would win the MAC by virtue of their win over us.

The MAC has not reported what order bowls will select MAC members in, besides the GoDaddy Bowl getting first pick (usually conf champion). If Wikipedia is to be trusted, the MAC is the ONLY conference not to publish their bowl tie-in selection order : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_bids_to_college_bowl_games The latest NCAA rules state that bowls first must select conference affiliations, down to 6-6 teams. If no 6-6 teams from the conference is available, a non-conference team with a winning record must be selected before a non-conference 6-6 team. In other words, being 7-5 or 8-4 puts you above 6-6 teams, but being 9-3 doesn't put you above a team that's 7-5 if the bowl really wants the 7 win team instead. In 2010, the NCAA changed the rules so there is nothing that favors 7-5 teams over 6-6 teams. Every year there are typically 9-10 teams bowl-eligible who don't get an invite (counting 6-6 as bowl-eligible), and the MAC is often the 'screwed' conference that has teams with better than 6-6 records stay home. We probably need to be one of the 5 'most desirable' teams in the conference to get a bowl; hopefully the Bowden name is attractive enough to Florida bowls to give us a leg up?

My current frustration is not that the Zips are losing, but rather the new ways they are finding to lose. At the beginning of the season, if you were to tell me that the Zips would struggle as a road team, and only win two on the road all season, but only lose one at home, I would be happy. That's 7-5! If you were to tell me that the Zips started to turn the corner, but will have a mid-season slump, losing against teams with crappy records, I would have been as upset at the beginning of the season as I am now. I have come to expect a more consistent effort from Bowden and Amato. Buckzip, I don't think the title of this thread is intended as sarcasm. Our defense is FANTASTIC - giving their all every game, not making many mistakes, and I couldn't be happier with their level of play right now. This is one of the best Zips' defenses that I can remember. Our offense and offensive coaching on the other hand is making me sick to my stomach with all the turnovers, inconsistent play, limited play-calling, and puzzling personnel decisions. It is easy to think that I know better than the coach - if our winningest QB in years is healthy enough to play, he should play right? If he can't play, we know that his backup is turnover prone, so we should be running the ball more and more short passes right? Connor Hundley ran roughshod over a P5 school - he can handle the MAC right? We as fans get justifiably upset when we believe the coach has problems, and Ianello has made most of us twice-shy when dealing with coaching incompetence. The next 10 days, I just keep repeating to myself 'Bowden is not Ianello' and hope and pray for a convincing win over BG. This one game puts us in 1st place in the MAC east, and in charge of our own destiny for winning the division. This would be much easier to take if Bowden gave convincing explanations about Woodson, Pohl, and run vs pass playcalling.

It will only work in our favor until our next few games - then all of a sudden we play and win against numbers 119, 132,152 and 153 and our RPI drops considerably each time. Penn St. will be a 'quality win' but I think that if we win out, we still can't do better than where we are now without teams above us losing.

Just hearing Ianello's name still gets me slightly depressed. On a more positive note, I'll be in town for this game over a long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). Are there any season ticket holders on here who won't be using their tickets to the game? Please PM me if some are available. Thanks!

The only MAC school I see winning any area in the country is Northern Illinois, which has a top of somewhere around 12%. MAC doesn't have a very good facebook presence it seems, since this map is based on facebook likes. I wonder if they included Cincinnati Bearcats as a possibility, since it looks like the Bearcats aren't even in 3rd place in the Cincy area. Sad state of affairs in B1G country.

George, As an out-of-town Zips fan, I rely heavily on your coverage, hustle belt, and zips nation for the insider's view of Akron sports. This week in particular was probably a bad one to log on after 6 months, as Penn State's coverage of the Akron game has produced some great Akron-centric print news articles. In the lead-up and aftermath of the Howard game, I felt that you provided good coverage of the team's preparations and excellent analysis both before and after the game. For the Penn State game, it seems like you are being 'scooped' (for lack of a better term) by the Penn State media machine. From PSU sources, I have read matchup analysis, Zips player-interest stories (amazing Chisholm article) and even reminders of the Zips' success last season. I assume that your 'five things to watch' column and other matchup analysis from the Akron point of view will be coming later today or tomorrow. The two types of articles that really get me fired up for games are in-depth matchup reporting, and human interest stories on the players (beyond awards won and practice reps). The player videos just don't do much to get me excited, personally. I appreciate the effort that goes in to them, and getting information from direct sources is certainly important, but doesn't get me looking forward to watching a game or get me further invested in the team. I know that I'm probably not indicative of the wider market, but I also have not complained on the boards about coverage. Your writing quality and style is far greater than many of the blog posts I find online, and much better than what I could do myself. I appreciate your skill and invested time into the matter.

Personally, I would love to see something similar in size and setup to Savage Arena - the capacity was recently reduced to 7,300 (a great size for the Zips right now IMO), and was previously 9,000 (a good size for future planning, if we play basketball in a bigger name conference). Savage is a good example of how arenas can host other events and be a good compromise between college basketball and civic activities. Yes, the seats are a little far away from the court, but not nearly as bad as Miami and parts of OU.

It wasn't just you - I was also getting the 'account suspended' message for a couple days.

Thanks for the clarification