Dr Z

Dri lost his job after ranking dead last in the NFL in kick returns. Dri Archer has the worst kick-return average among any return man with nine or more opportunities. At 17.9 yards per return, he's more than three yards behind the second-worst returner.

I'll venture to guess the answer is evaluation and progression. I think the staff envisions more out of the position. I see the same when I watched plays at those games. Too many missed plays. You would see them too if you were able to attend those 11 games. Even you thought that he should improve this year. I'm glad the staff holds players to high expectations. It reminds me a little of Pete Carroll's "compete philosophy." PS I am not comparing the two coaches. As far as I know coach Bowden has never helped fake a players jump to the death. I agree with just about everything g-mann writes above. I hate blaming a game on one play, but I'll say the same thing Bowden said this week, that Pratt fumble was a killer. He holds on to the ball, and we could be having a lot different debates this week.

Thanks for posting. Coach Bowden is a media pro, the other guy is not.

October 30th is the date it returns.

I love the 80's tv car chase scene music. Perfect soundtrack for a throwback player! ...or the soundtrack for Rick Simon to catch someone in his '79 power wagon.

Under the "gentlemen's agreement" is it fair to bring him off the bench for a series to see if he can light a fire under our offense?

If I were the Zips beat writer, here is the question I would ask..."coach Bowden, who is furthest along with the understanding of the offense between your two number one quarterbacks?" I think that answer will tell us why the position is in a state of flux. Something tells me that our QB next year will be the guy with the best knowledge of the offense. Meaning, he knows where all/most his receivers are (or should be) when he drops back to make decisions. I'm not sure who that will be, but I know it will take some hard work studying the playbook. So far, I think Dalton was our best decision maker in this offense. Here is to hoping somebody puts in the extra work necessary to solidify the position. I hope it is still possible to happen this year because we have the potential to have more wins than we have ever had, and other parts of our team are playing at a high level. With hard work, tough situations at the position can be achieved at Akron. After Frye's junior year, Owens was fired and replaced by J.D. Brookhart, a former Pitt assistant. An upset Frye considered coming out early in draft and was told by the NFL he'd probably go in the third or fourth round. Brookhart met with Frye and his family and convinced him to stay. "I couldn't let my teammates down," Frye said. At the first spring practice, Brookhart arrived an hour early and Frye was already there throwing balls. Over the summer, Frye ran players-only practices and helped install Brookhart's west coast offense. "Charlie sat in on our coaches' meetings and came in on Thursday nights to go over the game plan with me," Brookhart said. The system was so foreign to Frye that he admitted to Brookhart after the opener against Penn State, a 48-10 loss, that he didn't know what he was doing. Still, Joe Paterno sang his praises. By late season, he mastered it well enough to produce a 31-28 upset over Marshall, in which he rallied the team from a 21-point deficit. The Zips went 6-5 and finished second in the MAC East, and Frye was on the NFL radar screen.

Unless we have two QBs at the number 1 position, like coach Bowden indicated in his presser this week.

Day of the game.

Low blow. Frye is a physical education teacher and assistant football at Wekiva High School in Florida. Frye is on the staff of former Browns defensive end Kenard Lang. PS I know it's a terrible time to bring this up since they just lost there, but Jacksonville is a great travel game for Browns fans. I went to a Browns Jags game a couple years back. There were a ton of Browns fans at the game. Tickets are easy to get. Tailgating is pretty good there.

Nice video, thanks for posting. Start at 5:30, George asks about the run. Coach answers a lot of questions about the running game for over 2 minutes. "We didn't run the ball effectively enough causing us to throw the ball more." I don't totally agree with all his analysis, but I still appreciate the depth of the answer. Love listening to coach. Another note from the video: Both QB's slashed in at number one???? Tommy gets promoted. What is the saying if you have two QBs at number one? Should be an interesting spring 2015.

George Thomas ‏@GeorgeThomasABJ 1h1 hour ago @ZipsFB QB Kyle Pohl is back at practice. He and Thomas Woodson both took snaps with the first team offense. Not worth it's own thread, EA gives the Zips a grade of C.

Mike Tomlin called a play for another Lance Moore TD passed by another Mac player not named Ben. ESPN researchers provided talking-head-Tirico with lots of Mac notes last night. He mentioned the Mac multiple times and even read off his notes how JJ Watt played at Central Michigan with Antonio Brown. Too bad the Mac didn't get a dollar for every time someone said "JJ Watt" on ESPN for six hours last night. Players to watch at Ball State: CB #5 Eric Patterson, and RB #32 Jahwan Edwards. Just realized former Ball Stater Willie Snead is on the Panthers practice squad. He was cut by the Browns earlier this year. EA, writes a small blurb about Ken+ QB Colin Reardon gaining respect.

It's that time of year, Santa has arrived, ZN rejoices.

I had a Ten FIDY this weekend, best russian imperial stout I have had. The can was labeled NC.

Thank you! Looks like my kind of place. I'll being staying pretty close, so I might give it a try.

You can always go back and read previous years and insert new names if you don't want to wait.

The commissioner was on with Frenchy at halftime Saturday rationalizing this decision.

First and second down play calling did little to help our QB convert third downs. We were consistently in too many 3rd and long situations. This is, and was a recipe for losing to anybody. I remember one first down pass that went to the TE for a 5 or 7 yard gain. I liked that call. Marshall and OU have showed (on tape now) how to stop our offense when we consistently spread em out. Obviously you need the defenders to do it, but I think we need some play calls to adjust to that defense.

Most? Who are these posters? I want to run the ball to gain yards and put our QB in the best position to put points on the board. I don't want to "establish" a run. That is not happening while coach Bowden is here. PS One more thing I wanted to mention. Marshall had the best defensive corner play against us. OU's corners had a good day against us too. They play aggressive, and played well. If teams continue to play aggressive on the outside like that, we need play calls to take advantage of that.

There is a certain WR that wouldn't see the field for a while, but I'll agree with most, I can not get past the offensive game plan. Worth repeating, we are trying to pound a square peg in a round hole. I warned of this before the game. If I call plays yesterday, we win by two touchdowns. I thought it was a classy move when coach walked out to the field, and gave his QB a hug after he ended the game.

RUN THE BALL!!!!

Damn, ZP rulz!

That is some chicken-sh#t blocking by OU's line. Hollis has a beef. Finally, a first down carry. Come on AJ!!!

You forgot Harrison, Mitchell, and Suisham. All played in the Mac and had just as bad of a day as the other three. Gradkowski holds a clipboard, and Umass nicknamed "Baby-Gronk", Blanchflower is on the practice squad. All in all, the Steelers have NINE Mac players on their roster. Most will make it through the rebuild. Harrison will retire again. Moore will not dress when when younger talent takes over eventually. Dri could become a casualty if their OC becomes collateral damage. Still my favorite Mac media photo of all time. Cody may give AB a run for his money next year.