ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net

I'll agree with most of GP's points. Several times this year I've turned on MAC weeknight games and they were atrocius, almost depressing to watch. The vibe is completely small-time in most of the games and I end up sitting there thinking "well why the hell would anyone want to give up a weeknight evening to watch THIS when they have to be up for work in the morning"? And then I think "and that applies to me too." And I change the channel. Have you noticed how watching TV games played under the lights in a mostly empty stadium makes for an eerily unexciting event, even if the game play is good? Bad bad bad. At this time Akron is absolutely part of the MAC problem. This team sucks and not one of us should even be mentioning anything about the MAC somehow being below us. We are the ugly, morose and craptastic MAC in its purest form right now. Damn I hope that changes. Second, as long as the MAC is so bad these ridiculous weeknight games are the Worst Thing Ever. Give me Saturday games. Always. Screw ESPNU and the pathetic job they do with these games. Weeknight MAC football couldn't make for a more lame entertainment product. OK, one last point. We all know that money won't guarantee the best coach ever, but the cheap-ass low-rent salaries that Akron and other craptastic MAC programs have been scraping by on for many years certainly narrows the pool of quality candidates. There is no way that's a good thing. Pay these guys something that will attract a solid candidate pool and make this program a less-unattractive option and we'll all be the better for it.I'm still waiting to see whether the UA President and Board are intelligent and driven enough NOT to completely waste the money that has already been invested in this program. How monumentally idiotic will it be if they continue to low-rent coaches and fail to do something, anything positive with this program? I hope for better here, but I will not declare any optimism until much, much later. Hey Luis and Co., you want us to be excited about buying tickets to Zips football games? Make it happen!

GO FUTBOLERS! National Championship within reach. Do it to it fellas!

If I knew that wearing a paper bag to the games would guarantee that JD and this staff will be gone in a few weeks, I would totally wear one, and maybe nothing else, with zest.

It's too early to panic. KD was doing what coaches do. They speak in BS coach speak, hoping to gloss over bad losses while also motivating their players. Over time, all coach speak becomes grating, positive and negative. This program is growing (or is supposed to be anyway) to the place where fans can just ignore the BS coach speak and enjoy the team and the games. Come on KD, make it happen. MAKE.IT.HAPPEN. Life is about action. Go Zips.

If you look closely, you'll see that at any given time, the Zips Nation consists of about 15-30 active posters, more or less. It's my opinion that all of those posters keep this place vital and interesting. GP1, I find you annoying as hell sometimes, and to learn that you are at least a couple years younger than me, when you post as if you are the most learned and saltiest dog ever, well, you're full of crap and I'll never let you forget it. BUT, I sometimes love what you post and always find your observations interesting and worth reading and chewing on. Likewise, Zip Watcher is the board Mommy, nannying all of us about bad words and name calling, but makes great points and I give him and the other mods credit for taking the time and energy that it takes to police these boards. Hey, when the man pulls you over, you hate the man, but he's just doing his job, so you cut him a break and recalibrate.So where am I on this little blow out? First, KD, get your head out of your rectum and get this team to win. NOW. We love you but that loss sucked badly. Shame on you, your staff and this team. Get it right. No coach-speak, just win bro. Second, I find that my normal days include checking in on ZN, even when traveling. We argue, we bicker, but we've chosen a hard lot, and that is fanship in the one of the lowest life forms forms of collegiate sport. In the end, we can all be douches (not a bad word since you can buy them on grocery shelves--no warnings please), but we really only have each other in this fanhood of pain. So, GP1 it's all good. Zip Watcher, it's all good. Go Zips.

If they don't push hard THIS off season to put something better on the field, than I will totally agree with your last sentiment. What an odd thing to sit there last night in the fourth quarter. There were maybe 300 people in the stands at the end of the game. From section 210 I could hear coaches on the TEMPLE side of the field, I could hear Zips conversations, there was less energy in the place than there used to be at Rubber Bowl intramural games. The marching band was over in their spot rocking away (thank goodness for them last night!) and they were the ONLY good thing there last night. It was haunting. If I don't see some serious energy in the form of coaching staff and recruiting in this program starting within minutes after the last game I will be sorely disappointed. How could they spend so much money on facilities and not demand better on the field? Is it possible that UA could completely waste the investments made in the football program? Could the Info become a gigantic, gorgeous white elephant on the corner of Spicer and Exchange? I am afraid to answer that question right now.

It should be a veritable golden shower of basketball goodness on Sunday. GO ZIPS! May you rain down on the opposition...

Buckzip I like and respect your posts here, but let me challenge you and the other posters who talk about the talent we have on this team. Who exactly are you talking about? Go beyond Wagner, Lemon, Nicely and a couple other frequently-heard names. I'll tell you what I see: slow, soft, small, unathletic, unintelligent players who don't match up well with solid teams and get beat play after play.I see LaFrance signaling "field goal" when the Temple kicker puts it through the Akron uprights on a kick off from the 45 after a terrible face mask penalty by the Zips on the previous play, a Temple touchdown.I see Bowser having a blast on the sideline, as the score is sliding up into the 40s and 50s for Temple, yucking it up with other offensive players as the Info now has about 1,000 people (maybe) left in the stands. Bowser is racing around as if he has no injury, Mr. Prankster and his merry bunch (including the aforementioned LaFrance) while I'm contemplating a brown bag on my head for the next game.I see an entire secondary of tiny little players. I would guess that JD'd intention is that they are small but fast and will cover well down the field. Except that they don't! They don't chuck, they don't cover and they get killed when actual football contact occurs upon their little selves. I'm waiting for one of them to literally be "smote" on contact with larger opposing players one of these weeks, and I don't even really know what "smote" means. I see an undersized D-line (all three of them at a time!) and a well-sized but sluggish and oafish O-line. They both get beat, play after play.I will pass on even commenting on the kickers and the special teams players. I'm not a former college football player or coach, but I see what I see. I see players that don't fit. I see some players who are OK with getting demolished. I see a supposed NFL-type talent playing around with other players who are supposed to be prepping for their next possession. The whole thing has become painful. So, someone please provide specifics regarding the "talent" that is supposedly on this team. Who will magically turn into players when JD disappears?

I have to strongly agree with Lee on this one. There are some long term posters here who talk about the talent that the Zippers have accumulated over the years, that our biggest issues are the coaching and the athletic culture in the program. Having watched the games closely this year, I don't see the talent. I see a few players that are stand outs and then an alarming and large fall off thereafter. Regarding the D, I absolutely cringe any time I see an opposing offensive player running toward the edge. I have learned that (1) our linebackers (with the exception of Wagner, who has been outstanding, and magically appears from the bottom of every pile on every play) are too slow, and that (2) once a player makes the edge and turns up field, we are utterly screwed. The secondary is tiny, unathletic and doesn't hit. Oh, and they usually don't cover anyone either. I'm sure those little corners are fast as blazes and yet they seem to get beaten BADLY on every downfield throw. For goodness sake, if you're playing smurfs on cover, they should at least excel at coverage shouldn't they?We all know the 4 or 5 players that appear to get it done every week, but where's the rest of the team? Sorry fellas, but if the Zips' talent level is better than it was in years past, then we are still totally bottom of the barrel talent-wise and have a long, long way to go before we're even year-in-and-year-out solid in the crappy MAC.I was stunned last night looking at the obvious talent and size differential between these two teams. During the very first series I looked over at the guy sitting next to me and said how much bigger the Owls appeared to be on both sides of the ball. Bigger. Check.Faster. Check.Smarter. Check.Smoother. Check.I'm becoming afraid that we're seeing....nothing. This entire season is taking me right back to where I was as a student all those years ago when the Zips were little more than a local joke. I'm beginning to worry that without major, major changes in the program and an ugly and aggressive drive to win that is pushed from Proenza himself, that 5 years from now we'll be watching the same slow, uninspired, talentless team get beaten by other crappy, talentless teams in this most dull of conferences and the only silver lining will be that we get to watch at the Info.Talk to me about talent when these kids actually DO something on the field worth talking about.

...and you're proud of it. I'm embarassed as a Zips fan to have you as a fellow Zips fan if indeed the story is true. I also really, really hope the bar keep adulterated your food and/or beverage "Color Purple" style, or worse.

Doesn't make sense? Let me help. You got bitch-slapped.It's funny. We have spent years making fun of Can't grads for holding low level jobs. When the Great GP1 actually sees one working a job like we have made fun of for years, breaks the guys balls to his face during the Akron vs Can't game and now we aren"t supposed to make fun of Can't fans for being losers?I'm sorry, but Can't sucks and they deserve all the crap we can throw at them.Exactly. Can't sucks and i could care less about anyone who makes a conscious decision to go there.In the context of sports fandom of course, all good with the venom. But dudes, when you're several states away and you happen to run into someone who is from your effective home town, and you slam them the way The Great GP1 apparently did here, frankly, you're just a dick. Most would never do such a thing and I hope that GP1 was just going "balls out" for the board's entertainment, and didn't actually upbraid some poor bar keep. It's one thing to be a fan, it's entirely another to just be a sore A-hole, and dressing down some kid who probably didn't care at all about sports when they were at Can't State would be a crappy thing to do, and I would applaud said kid if he added a little extra chowder to GP1's chowder after such a verbal assault.Seriously, I've got several family members who attended Can't State, as I'm sure most here do, and I would never want them to take that kind of garbage, especially so far away from home and in that context. Having said all of that, I will finish with GO ZIPS!

Doesn't make sense? Let me help. You got bitch-slapped.It's funny. We have spent years making fun of Can't grads for holding low level jobs. When the Great GP1 actually sees one working a job like we have made fun of for years, breaks the guys balls to his face during the Akron vs Can't game and now we aren"t supposed to make fun of Can't fans for being losers?I'm sorry, but Can't sucks and they deserve all the crap we can throw at them.Yeah, the Great GP1 is an all-around great guy. Maybe the greatest ever. Hope you enjoyed the chowder fella, and keep doing UA proud... :lol: :lol:

Again, what would it prove to fire JD right now?That college football IS bloodsport like it should be! And it would make the fans calling for his hide FEEL GOOD! That's what, and considering it's those fans that pay to keep the lights on, it wouldn't be such a bad symbolic move, IMO.Should we consult that fat slob Big Dawg next to see who we should hire next so the fans will feel better? There must be too many Browns fans on this board if we are going to start firing coaches to make the fans feel better.Well, considering that the fans are the customers, and that the customers pay the tab in the end, and that there have been way too few of said paying customers interested in the Zips over the years, I would say that pleasing the fans sure ain't nothing, in the dialect of your adopted home.

Maybe, but I'm sure you did and were more than willing to swallow. :lol: :lol: Dude that response doesn't even make sense. Seriously, I love the Zips, but if you actually berated some poor bar keep all the way down there in Deliverance country, well, that's just uncool. I'd also be willing to bet a paycheck he provided a little extra "something" in one of your drinks or your food. Go GP1, Go GP1, Go!

So, really, Great One, did you have the chowder? I bet you did...

Again, what would it prove to fire JD right now?That college football IS bloodsport like it should be! And it would make the fans calling for his hide FEEL GOOD! That's what, and considering it's those fans that pay to keep the lights on, it wouldn't be such a bad symbolic move, IMO.

All of that investment made in the football program is wasted without the right people running the program. The other sports rightly deserve their upgrades, no doubt, and from a purely merit-based standpoint the footballers should be playing at Hardesty Park and the futbolers should be at the Info. However, the money maker in college sports is football, and UA has prepped the battlefield for a solid program. We need a field general now to take us where we need to be. KD and Caleb will get theirs, but will then be that much better off when the football team isn't a complete embarassment.

I'd take that sort of fluff here! Thanks JD for the great game last Saturday. And for the one win over a D-1 opponent in the last year.And for the slimy 3-3-5 defense that screams "Beat Us" each and every week.And for trying to squeak by with CJacq even though he had already proven to be a huge risk.And for failing to deliver on the promise of the first season in the Info.And for using the idiotic rugby punt so many times.And for landing the UA program in the illustrious ESPN bottom ten (maybe bottom 3 or 5 even) this year.And for making me worry about your ability to beat a pathetic Can't State team last weekend. Great stuff! Thanks!

I'm over the Can't State win. One win over a D-1 opponent in an entire year. The inaugural season at Infocision obliterated by this terrible team. A team that has gotten worse every year under JD. JD is reputed to be a good human being. I get that. I wish him well in life. I hope that he prospers. Just not in Akron at UA. He's been a very bad head football coach at UA. JD is Rubber Bowl quality. The program is moving along to new territory and he is not the guy to take it there. May I make a helpful suggestion JD? It's a buyer's market right now and you need every edge. Consider neutral, warm interior colors as you paint your house to prep it for sale. There isn't a lot of time before you get your walking papers and you're going to be hitting the market at the toughest time of year. Photos that go into the MLS need to be summer or fall shots to provide an image buyers can embrace. Move some of the furniture out to make the rooms look bigger and consider bringing in a "stager" since they're all the rage out there now.J.D.HAS.GOT.TO.GO.

It will make for a rare bit of lunacy from President Proenza and the UA board if they were willing to pour big money into the new facilities but aren't willing to pay a solid coaching staff enough to attract better than we've had. The amount that the next head coach is contracted for will say a LOT about UA's long-term plans for the football program. Oh, and before anybody even THINKS about suggesting that JD could be retained after beating a pathetic Can't State team for his only D-1 victory in a year, just stop it. He stinks. He's gotta go.

It's entirely possible the Great GP1 had the chowder Saturday afternoon and didn't even know it.

It was a blast no doubt. Now how about some more games like that one JD?

I really like Nicely. Job number one for the next coaching staff will be to ensure that Nicely stays on board. Good skills, good size, good brain and I like the fire he showed tonight. He's going to be a keeper.

Great weather, good crowd, fun game, Zips win! I hate it that the wagon wheel game is what our season was reduced to, but what the hell? It was a really fun game today. What a nice thing to be able to cheer a win for the Zippers.GO ZIPS!

Man we REALLY need Nicely to pan out at this point! I've been dancing around the talent situation recently on the boards, but when the team hasn't beaten a D-1 opponent in a year, we as fans have to start questioning the talent level, or at least the coaching/talent-positioning of the staff. Since Ferri is so recently departed, and since several posters have been strong proponents that the talent on this team is good, I have been reticent to aggressively question the actual talent level of the Zips. However, as this season of nightmares drags on I'm having trouble understanding how the talent level could be ascending while the team is so obviously getting more terrible. Come on Nicely, no pressure, but my hopes for the talent of this roster kinda rest on your shoulders bud. I know you're a 19 year old kid but let's see what promise you hold. Do us proud.