72 Roo

Timmy.... You have either been drinking the Akron Kood-Aid or watched a different O-line last year. Our O-line was at times pathetic. In several games (Buffalo, Temple, Cinci) they could neither run nor pass block. They were never the best line in the MAC. That was just wishful thinking. But I will grant you this, whatever they were last year, they are many times worse this year. Fundamentally they are bad and an embarrassment to the many past athletes who were proud to call themselves Zip linemen.

The team with the best preparation, coaching and fundamentals wins. Buffalo 21, Zips 14.

Most of the estimates of attendance seem to me to be based on wishes and not reality. Interest in Akron football has been killed. My guess is that attendance will be no more than 13,000, with only 10,000 actually in the seats.That's sad and tears my heart out, but I would argue that it is the most realistic estimate so far. If you can't get many fans out for a Big 11 team (Indiana) in perfect weather, with one of the most important games ever played on campus, you surely will not do better with a program that is imploding. Anything more optimistic is wishful thinking. Please Zip fans, step up and prove me wrong. But I doubt it will happen.We are in the dumper.

It's arrogant to say the rest of the MAC East is worse than us. You aren't really watching Zip football.

In The Zone.... I find your posts very intereting. It's information I was not aware of. Thanks for sending it on.

Who to root for?? I thought it was a foregone conclusion they would be rooting for Akron. Aren't they all a bunch of front-runners? Too many sell outs. Gotta get that 72Roo Stadium built quick.BTW -- streaming thoughts out loud -- anyone notice who moved up to #9 in the rankings? Congratulations. That's the highest ever for Louisville, and as high as I would ever expect them to get, but the season's still young, and they should be near the top of the BigEast. BUT -- as much as I personally like their coach, I can't see them being consistently in the top-10. But, good luck to them. I don't see them as a rival, as we are unlikely to play each other.Z.I.P., thanks for the pick-me-up in posting on the "72 Roo stadium". Last weekend was a real downer to behold and then the fallout afterwards put us all in a funk. The last two days at work couldn't have been worse. So reading your post on our next stadium made me laugh. Needed that.Now that you've got me back on track, let's get our gridiron gang going too. I think you are just the guy to pull it off. Send a little of that island magic our way and let's start cranking out some wins. Even if it seems improbable this weekend.Once a ZIP always a ZIP!

Caleb better get used to it. He and the program are high profile whether he likes it or not. I have all the confidence that he will grow in the role. Conversely, JD may find himself less and less in front of the camers. That ain't a good omen for surviving. He must win, bottom line.

Our performance gainst IU was pathetic and depressing. Randomly, here's what I saw.1) We are not prepared to play. Forget the crap about going with the 2nd string QB. There is not a D-1 team today that doesn't get both ready to play because of injury. Offensively we were predictable and defensively we tackled poorly (#11) and put no pressure on Chapell.2) Where are the offensive wizzards Shane Montgomery and Walt Harris? We did nothing to keep IU off balance with what Rodgers could do best. IU's offensive play-calling put ours to shame.3) The students did their part. I can't get on them at all. The rest of the ticket buying public sent us a rude message that they don't think much of our football. Having any big 10 team on campus, in beautiful weather, with us having high aspirations should put a sellout crowd in Info. Realistically, I think the public is telling us they are sick of mediocre football. They want us to win before they come. 4) Defense starts with pressure. I saw little of that Saturday. We have the horses finally. Find a scheme that rushes at least four big nasties. I watched IU all day and they rarely sent less than four. We rushed three repeatedly thus giving Chapell time to pick us apart.5) The cops have been nice to me and my friends for two games now. No hassles when beer is not obviously put in front of them. Cut 'em some slack.6) Attendance, in my opinion, is officially in the dumper. We have never rebounded from this type of setback. With opponents that are all capable and probably predicted to win, coupled with the eventual diminishing weather we are back to square one. Marketing ain't gonna save this issue, as if we had marketing.7) The offensive line is officially outted. They can't drive block and are slow to drop and set up to pass block. This is not new. Last year, for example, against Buffalo, we repreatedly needed one or two yards to keep drives going and we couldn't get it. They are overrated and not very athletic or mean.8) Rodgers didn't fail due to lack of talent. He failed due to poor decision making. Throwing into coverage is a fatal mistake. I still want to see what he can do when behind a line that gives him reasonable time. For those who feels Jacq could make a difference, forget it. He is slow as molassis and makes even worse decisions. See the last three games of 2008 that we lost to begin with. Rodgers is still a better QB. For those in ZN who post that JD can only make do with the talent at QB that he has, remember he recruited these guys while other MAC coaches are getting better talent.9) I hear the bell tolling for JD. CMU, Syracuse, Buffalo and NIU are flat out better than us. BGSU could be also. Ohio and EMU are probably equal. Only Can't State and Temple are scrap. If JD can't go 7-5, I can't see how he can survive. This year he got everything needed to win.

I heard two hours before kick-off. It was pretty cool to see it for the first time last week.

This maybe a blessing and that is the only way we can think of it. Welcome to Matt. This is your team. Take it out on the field and win. I have never been impressed with Jacq. His biggest flaw is not physical but mental. He makes bad decisions under pressure. Good luck Matt, win us a game tomorrow.I am extremely impressed with JD. Here's a guy who has his job on the line and he doesn't hesitate to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. JD stands taller in my eyes. Let's rally around the team and run off a bunch of wins to the MAC championship and beyond. Love ya Zips!

I studied kazoo at Julliard. This was after transferring from Faber College's highly regarded kazoo program.

i concurWhat about the pep band that's coming? Can't we get credit for a goal? You guys get all the credit in the world. Thanks for coming. Our #1 team deserves to have a great atmosphere for this game. The students, Rowdies, you guys and the fans will make this a night to be remembered. Our team will seal it by staying undefeated. Thanks again.

+1. Great minds think alike.

Funny story...I was down at Ohio University for the Can't/OU game in 2007 and I was sitting in that park area on the north side of the stadium with a megaphone just heckling any and all Can't fans(i was a big intoxicated). So this lady walks by with a few guys and she has a Jarvis jersey on. I yell at her "Eugene Jarvis SUCKS!" and she responds "Eugene Jarvis is my son!" So i came back with "well your son sucks!". And let's just say i almost had to run away from a mom because she started coming at me and i thought she was going to kill me.So it's no surprise that he's so tough because i know his mom sure is.Met a fella at a bar called 69 Taps who said he was your roommate. He loved club baseball too and said you guys would be great this year. What he didn't say was that you were nuts enough to put down a Jarvis cub in front of momma lion. Not a smart move. I would have bet on mom to beat your butt. I hope to share a beer with you and hear more of this harrowing escape from death. Mom's know two things: 1) they will always protect their young and 2)

Ken Lolla left Akron when he became convinced he could not win a national championship at Akron. Louisville's asst AD was full of crap in saying he was blown away by what Louisville offered. Akron matched everything, but Ken still went because he didn't feel he could the respect, seeding and recognition necessary to win a national championship. U of A was rocked by Ken going, but decided to do something about his concerns rather than run from them. We recruited Caleb after Sanchez turned us down to go to UNLV and Todd Yeagley wanted too much money. Boy did we hit the jackpot. It is ironic that Ken's position is no better than what Caleb has now and if we get a new stadium Ken will have actually downgraded his status.Since hiring Caleb we have increased his travel and recruiting budgets, gave him more money to guarantee top teams expenses for coming to campus, funded two full time assistants, created a soccer support group and recently taken the new stadium issue to the board of trustees. We all know how Caleb has responded.All we need to do is fund the new stadium and get us into a better conference. There is no timeline on either, but you got to believe if we win it all this year, the pressure to have a first class facility will cause the university to find the money to fund the project. I always liked Ken and still feel he is a good person. Caleb is our coach now and I can tell you firsthand he is as fine a man as you will ever want to meet, a great coach and a fantastic recruiter. We stepped up with him.

SeeTee, these things take time but the eye of Proenza, the board of trustees and our AD is beyond the MAC. We have to earn the right to move up and that means we have to be attractive to another conference, whether new, realigned or expanded. We ain't there yet, but we are on our way. Top attendance and wins over bigger opponents are benchmarks that show we are there, among other things.Keep the faith. We are moving in that direction.

We must earn everything we get. Forget about anything less than a spirit of "We're coming after every opponent and we're going to beat their butt."You're only inferior if you let the opposition make you feel that way. It starts and ends with us, not them.

It must be an event that leaves people talking about how great it was to be there. Prediction: Zips win, 27 - 7.

Zippy ... I have not seen one post that expected us to win against Penn State. I think you are taking the desire to play competitive, respectable football with a statement that we must win. It is not. Everyone knows PSU is one hell of a team this year. But we still want to compete. We didn't come close to reaching our potential and that's what is so disappointing.GT .... Adjustments should always be measured against results. Those adjustments should put us in the position where we have the opponent scared we can turn it around. That never happened. For all the adjusting we did it took us halfway into the 3rd quarter before we got our first 1st down. PSU coasted the second half and why not. They were up 31 points and only gave up 7 the entire second half. They got more minutes for additional players while never having to worry. Let's judge adjustments by production AKA points.I'm not down on you or Zippy. You guys share the passion and are the good guys. I'm just offering why I posted what I did. Come Saturday it's a new game and the past is forgotten. I hope that we are a machine against Morgan State. Let's defend our house and start a Boise State-like tradition for playing at the Info.

I promise myself that I would not post after the game as I would probably say something I would regret. So here's a lame effort to give more thoughts on the game.1) We were not prepared for this one. I know the D did good but as a team we were playing like we had no belief we could compete.2) J.D. got outcoached. His staff got outcoached. Akron is terrible at making any meaningful halftime adjustments.3) Can the offense try something new? How about the old adage that you take what they give? We never threw to the TE in the entire game. How about throwing to a back coming out of the backfield? How about after an entire half of running up the middle we try something else.4) QB is a problem. CJ can not win the game for us, but he can lose it. I'll take Rodgers footspeed over CJ's throwing any day. Rodgers can learn to throw but CJ will never get faster. If we had used Rodgers more PSU would have had to watch for the run more thereby putting some receivers one on one. Rodgers has never had the investment in playing time that CJ has had. Give him a chance. In 2010 Nicely will be the next Lefleur anyway. BTW, CJ is in his third year of starting and he still locks onto one receiver and ignores his progressions. If this is our best then we have been taken for a ride by the coaching staff.5) We have little to be proud of because we didn't play good football. We were not going to win, but we needed to earn respect. That didn't happen.6) Why did we continue to play Jake Anderson? He drew three penalties for offsides and one for delay of game when he was late reporting in on a fourth down punt. We have heard so much about the depth of the O-line. Well give someone else a chance to go in and get their butt whipped also. That's better than drawing penalties.7) 7-5 or better is the only performance that can save JD's job. That will be a challenge with CMU and BGSU looking strong; 'Cuse, NIU and Buffalo being no easy marks; and an upset somewhere along the line. Granted we will probably upset someone too. Outside CMU, there is the possibility we can run the rest of the schedule. Do you really believe we can with this kind of offensive leadership from the O-line, QB and coaching staff? I hope so, but Saturday did not inspire anyone. I don't want J.D. to be fired. I just want to see proof he can build a team that can dominate the MAC and be competitive in any game. Over this game and the last two years I have yet to see performance that says he can. He's got 10 more games to show it. 8) I feel sorry for Bain. I heard from the non-coaching staff that he was not responding to therapy for his back. W/o him and Tonga and Henderson our D-line is not the strength we thought we would have. It is much improved, but not enough to make a top team worry. Against PSU we still slipped into the 3-3-5 too much. With no pressure, Clark eventually found open receivers. To win the MAC we must bring pressure.9) Our LB's are only OK. They are still too small, especially when they blitz out of the 3-3-5. There was so much hope for this season that perhaps we lost our perspective. One game doesn't destroy the season, so let's get back on track and take 'em one at a time. I'll be screaming my head off for the boys to take it out on Morgan State. See you in the SRO Info.

Zach, you forgot one little thing. How about the money to pay for the new building for international business? We don't have it. That is why the Coleman Commons has not been finished. That is why the new college of education building is on hold. That is why the soccer stadium has yet to make it off the drawing board. The economy sucks. The board of trustees are worried about our bind rating slipping and they will not go into an aggressive building mode. They may be right. BTW, the college of business tried to build the institute for global business on its own, but could only raise $5M of a $10M price tag. The cost has since gone up again and still won't give us the space or room to grow that we need. Our business program could be so much better if we had the facilities. Yet we are still damn good and continue to grow, just not as fast as we could with the funding needs we have.So Zach, how about a loan?

Beautiful. If I had that building on my campus, I'd pop my collar too. Congratulations Redhawks.BTW, if you have ever been in our CBA building you would have a better appreciation of how remarkable it is that our college of business gets such a high ranking despite that crappy building. It is nothing short of horrible. The architecture is early Lego blocks. I teach there several times a year as a guest lecturer and I can tell you the faculty does a great job with this limited facility. The new colege of education building will not break ground until the board of trustees are more sure of the economy or the state gives us more money for the building, highly unlikely.The Info is still the best new facility, in any sport, that the MAC has seen in years.

CK, is Henderson a lost cause for this season?

Z.I.P., I had a chance to stop in and talk with coach Pfau about our lady booters. He is the right man for the job. He will have this team at the top of the MAC this year or next. The verbals he has for next Fall could be our best class ever. We all know that the men are building something super, but don't be surprised if the women are up there too in five years. Akron is building a reputation across the state, and Midwest, as a school that has a fantastic soccer culture. If we ever get the new stadium that will only get better and make us the place to be. BTW, the issue of the stadium apparently was soft-pedalled under Mack, despite all we heard about its progress. But it recently made its way to the board of trustees. They have achnowledged something must be done. Let's hope it turns into action as soon as this season is over.Mahalo Oh, BTW In Hawaii do they know

Can't wait to see and hear you guys perform. Your enthusiasm is infectious. I can guarantee there will be one Zip and his wife on campus at least two hours before the game to follow you from Guezzeta Hall to the stadium.Go Zip band. Create your new traditions! You guys will make us proud. Hey Mr 72, I have a suggestion for a tradition you can be responsible for starting: The Seattle Sounders Emerald City Supporters fan group marches to every home game behind the club band from Occidental Park, about a quarter mile from Qwest Field. You and the Mrs. should become the pied pipers who pull in tailgaters and your fellow Zips to follow the band members to the stadium. And if you get a great Mexican torta truck to set up outside the stadium, like they have at Qwest, I might come myself! Z.I.P. you're quite the innovator, but I think some Rowdies would be better suited to be your leaders of this new tradition. I'll tell you what, though, we'll be glad to give you full credit for the idea. Wouldn't it be cool to see the Rowdies follow our pep band into a new soccer stadium on Jackson Field? And then terrorize the opposing goalie for 90:00 minutes of misery. Now that sounds superb.