72 Roo

I don't especially like the new uni's. First, we are blue and gold not white and grayish-blue. Second the university seal on the shorts cannot be recognized because it is too small. It looks like a blotch on the side. I would rather have had our Z in it's place. Can we please get back to a gold uni. I do like the Zippy head on the other side of the shorts. That's cool. It's unique. It's us.

Play calling plays a big factor I'd say. Chapman's strengths aren't the same as Woodson's yet Akron OC is stubborn in not wanting to alter his game plan to fit the strengths of his QB. With Chapman in they should do more QB draws, bubble screens, and higher percentage passes over the middle of the field. Instead they still try to dial up the long ball even though that's not his strength. That brings me to another point. Am I the only one that thinks Milwee needs to go? Milwee is out of his depth and should be replaced. My concern is that Bowden is so loyal to him that he will not make the tough call to reassign or fire him. Milwee is too predictable. He has forgotten the TE. He also has a passion for the deep ball rather than taking what the defense gives. I believe that replacing the OC is the single biggest improvement the Zips can make for next year.

Skip... Agreed. Next year our offense may even be better. The line may even learn to run block. But the OC position needs serious re-evealuation. i hope Bowden has the courage to look for more help. I know he likes Millwee, but that relationship should not stop him from improving the offensive coaching. I'm not sure Amato is the problem on D but the talent sure as hell is. A drastic upgrade is needed to get that side of the ball to just be average. I hope there is help in the transfer area or JC's. I don't see any freshmen talent that would come to Akron being able to improve this pathetic unit. BTW, let's stop this insane talk of canning Bowden. He can turn this around and is doing so. I am as frustrated as any ZN member, and Buffalo was inexcusable, but TW needs the time. Our situation is bad and it will take time to turn around. That is done in little steps. TW is making them.

Pathetic. Nothing short of pathetic. Bowden needs give critical review of both his coordinators. On O Buffalo knew what we were going to do each play, whereas our D was kept guessing all game long by what Buffalo would do. where the hell is any creativity on O and resolve on D.

If ever there was a case for cruel and unusual punishment this picture is it. I urge the mods to immediately launch an investigation as to why the Captain, a mod himself, would bring this photo to the board. He obviously is a sadist. Meanwhile I am now off to therapy. Hopefully photos of TB and Gorden Larsen can bring me back from the brink of despair. Oh the inhumanity of it all!

Blue and Gold, where did you go to watch the replay of the game. I did not see it on Saturday and would love to watch it even if it is over.

LA Zip, You make some good points. I like Matt, but it may have been better for he and the university if the search was longer and more thorough. I believe he would have emerged as the top candidate BTW. The immediate goals and strategy of UA should be spelled out clearly. That didn't happen and I believe it was because this board of trustees does not have the expertise to turn our situation around. Our last chairman was horrible and his recent removal points that out. The rest of the board are primarily political appointments with no love or passion for UA and/or greater Akron. The exception is the recent appointment of Bill Scala, the president of Kenmore Construction and unabashed Akron supporter. He is a great future chairman. Our politicians should get together and decide to get a strong board together. They can get Kasich to appoint who they want. The next appointment should be Bill Considine, the CEO of Akron Children's, former student body president and deep lover of UA. But he called out the board for not firing Scar and some of the trustees now dislike that he noted their incompetence. Without a strong board to support him Matt will have to rise above them and be as strong a leader as Proenza was. The board then will follow, but they, as currently constituted, are not capable of leading. That's all on Matt's shoulders. And all the risk will be his too.

Nice analysis. I disagree when reviewing the play of Pittman and hamilton. I feel they are both underachievers. They take plays off and don't muster any passion when they are out there. Thier talent is top of the MAC, but their effort is bottom of the MAC. Our D has to find a way to get better. I agree the LB's are not a factor in the game. That being said, I'd give more time to the younger guys like Lako if the vets aren't getting it done. In the end I can't see us competing with Toledo or WMU (again) with what we have. The are better teams.

There is indeed something wrong with the team. Jared is a good coach but he has to fix it now. the team has incredible talent. they are capable of winning it all if they stick together and play as they should. There's something wrong, but that is internal to the team and not for us to know. they know hat it is and they have to fix it. I'm talking p[layers and coaches. This team can still be great!

That third pine tree will get you every time. Happened me in shop class. I'm surprised P.J. and the boys took offense. We were only trying to get some extra credit work in before the game by making a present for Terry for use during his fishing trips.

Balsey I couldn't agree more. The culture is changing. Not fast enough for me, but it is changing. Sometimes we are so close to the situation that we can't see it and we, me included, get very frustrated. But change is coming and we have to stick with it, support Zip sports and hold people accountable. We are going to get there. We have good people guiding us. But for now let's beat Western. What a beautiful thing to happen. Go Zips.

Damn right! At the end of the day we need to do it regardless of what stands in our way. Well said! C'mon Zips, this progrum is moving up.

We have our work cut out for us against Western, but we never believed the Marshall game would play out like it did and look what happened. Some of the key players in that game are doubtful. Losing Woody, JoJo, Marcus and Ball is not what any of us foresaw as we looked to this game in early Sept. We need a "next man up" attitude and we need to believe in our coaches. We are probably going to be big underdogs, but the D is getting better and the O can still score. Losing JoJo hurts , yet we are deepest at WR. Woody may be back, while Chapman continues to get better and produces. The running game desperately needs Ball back. I hope he and Woody can go. We become a different team with them. Too many question marks for this game. It is for big time legitimacy. Our progrum has worked to get to this point. I, for one, choose to believe we will be ready, but don't ask me how right now.

Thanks Dr. Z. I really enjoy your work.

Kreed, you make a great point. Our D is undisciplined. i don't know how you solve that other than practice, experience and accountability. They are not as bad as they look if they execute the scheme. The tackling is so obvious as a weakness. I hope they work on it daily. If the D matures faster we may be able to make a run at the west that has three damn good teams.

Thanks so much for the write-up Capt. I could not attend and you helped me capture some of the atmosphere of a great game. I appreciate all the time you took to do it right. If we start a fund to get Joe Dunn some new jacket gear count me in. i know Joe and he is a good guy.

I have heard from a former dept head at UA that Matt is a great relationship builder but has questionable strategic thinking skills. I don't know about that but I do believe that he is building a strong case for removing the interim title. Scar was devisive. Matt seems to have an ability to get the best out of everyone and get all of us pulling oars in the same direction. I'd be comfortable with him keeping the job. I place a lot of value in people who are passionate about what they do and believe in making the place better by working thru others.

The university will not solve the student attendance problem until they change the culture, the hardest thing to do in any organization. They keep trying stop-gap measures which don't get at the heart of the matter. There should be a coordinated and concerted effort to let students know from the moment they step on campus that they should be involved in sports and extracurriculars. That effort should continue throughout the year. Students will come to games if they feel they belong (I'm home) and they have a sense of ownership (this is my school/team). I agree that the games are horribly managed from an event point of view. But that can change. One simple goal should be held for all involved, make the games fun and students will show up. I agree that students need to be given more input on how to mange the game day experience. Some of my best memories of life at UA come from things the students created not one administration planned. We thought if we built a nice stadium they would come. They didn't. We thought if we built more dorms they would come. They didn't. We have the parts to solve this issue but no one is putting them all together. Matt Newhouse brings hope but he can't do it alone. The university needs to have a total commitment to engaging, educating and empowering the students to attend games. Sure we are still suffering from Ianello and the Scar, two total incompetents. But we have to move past them and say it's up to the university community to bring the students out. All on this board want that but we can't do it alone. See you in Detroit.

FWIW I want to offer my late post on the App State game. Shame on our students for not supporting this team. There's a lot of talk about attendance in that mainly we all want more fans there. Joe Akron won't show up until Akron games become an "event". The students have to make it so. This game was perfect weather, good opponent, and a lot on the line. Our 3,500 students in the dorms and an equal amount living within 1 mile of the Info ought to be ashamed for their support of their school's team. I can't wait until the culture changes and the students get off their ass. We can't do it w/o them. Our DE's are overrated. ASU repeatedly ran outside and we had no containment. Millwee is back to being predictable in play calling. His counterpart constantly had us guessing. Amato also needs to up his game. Our D, especially the DL, brings little to no pressure on the QB Our special teams are below MAC standards. This starts with coaching and Terry has to hold Jeff accountable. The sky is not falling, we just lost a golden opportunity to position ourselves for a take-notice season. We still have a bright season left and we will achieve it. ASU was as good as any MAC leader, except maybe WMU. Keep the faith. Terry got us this far. He can take us farther. I welcome any criticism of my thoughts.

I agree that coaching made a big difference in this game. Our personnel were about equal with maybe a slight edge to Marshall, but our coaches did a better job in utilizing what we had. I have criticized Milwee in the past. He deserves full credit for keeping our offense rolling and recognizing mismatches. Congratulations coach AJ! In like manner we've got to credit coach Amato for making good adjustments to what Marshall was doing. I especially liked the way he used so many players. What a testiment to a coach's confidence in the whole team. He kept the legs fresh and the pressure on. If you played for the Zips wouldn't you want to come to practice and work your ass off because the coaches recognize effort and commitment? This team will get better and it all goes back to Bowden. He has systematically rebuilt the progrum bringing in better talent and allowing it to be seen. I've said before that he is a better coach than we deserve but I am thrilled we have him and he wants to build his legacy here. Keep going coach! What a great win! More are coming. Let's put the butts in the stands for this team.

1987, I agree that there is always something the D gives you. We all know our O had trouble with execution but what they were being asked to do was boring, predictable play calling. There is no creativity to Milwee's play calling. For instance, have we forgotten the TE? What about slants or quick hitters? For as good as T. Bowden manages a game, it seems little has rubbed off on Milwee. The world will not collapse and our problems will get solved. Bowden is too good of a coach. We just have to accept that we got pounded by a superior opponent, that is was nothing more than a fun dream to think of upsetting. There is much more ahead of us to create a great season. Keep the faith. It's a long road back from the depths we were in.

I agree with the Captain on his post. To me this game boils down to the fact that we are the underdogs and to have a chance against a better team we need pressure from our DT's, time from our O-line and improvement from our LB's. Those things come about and we have a chance to beat Wisky. We are not as talent poor as our uninformed Badger visitors think. Most of them are ignorant as to what we have. If we can play to our potential we have a chance, but we are by no means their equal. An unfortunate by-product of this forum is that posters can hide behind the impenetrable cover of the internet. They can be immature, personal, ignorant and off-topic. To me that was running rampant on this board 4 years ago and I stop posting. The excitement that I have for this football team and the rise in Zip athletics has brought me back. I've gotten a thicker skin and a better attitude. I encourage others to "keep it classy Akron". I hope Balsy and others keep posting. I enjoy their comments.

Amato is a good coach and we are lucky to have him. But he did not have the D ready to stop VMI. Perhaps he didn't want to show Wisconsin anything or perhaps he just had a bad day. Regardless, there is talent on the defensive side and I look forward to them getting better. It's a long season and this is a good team. They will be heard from before it's all over.

In an effort to excise the demons of last night's game I'm offering these opinions on the VMI Game: 1) We are not as prepared or as disciplined as we need to be. Our enthusiasm for this year's team needs to be tempered with the time needed to correct mistakes. Too many of the penalties were caused by mental lapses. 2) Amato got out-coached. His defense did not stop VMI when needed. It was VMI mistakes and the offense who turned the game around. 3) Our offense was predictable, VMI just could not stop us. Wisconsin can and will if we don't become more creative. All Milwee called for was going deep and running Ball. That's not going to cut it. BTW, we do have a TE. Is AJ trying not to show too much to Wisconsin? Don't know. 4) The uni's look good, but they can be great if we go with the chrome gold helmets. Now that's a great look. 5) The field looked faded, almost washed out. there has got to be money to repaint the grass, numbers and lines. 6) I disagree with others in that I feel our DT's did not do their job. That middle has got to be clogged up. They were knocked back repeatedly for 3-4 yards on runs. 7) The people of Akron missed a good evening. True the game was not well played, but we had a chance to get to see a wealth of talent that bodes well for the future. The weather was great and the post game fireworks were a joy. We have to grow our attendence. I for one believe it will grow but until it does people are missing a good event. 8) Bowden will fix things. He is too smart not to. He is better than we deserve. All we need to do is get out of his way and let him do the job. he will and we will win.

Thanks K92. Looking forward to it. Go Zips.