Dr Z

How do you "rank" special teams? Is there a formula between punting, kicking, tackling and returns I am unaware of? Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate. Go to NCAA football stats. Every stat is located there for almost everthing. You can go back to compare for past years. The teams with the most favorable stats are all have winning records. Special teams is 1/3 of the game and if you ask Coach Tressel what the most important phase of the game is, he will always say, "The kicking game". Even if a team is sub par you can win games due to a solid special teams core. Most coaches look to fill depth while recruiting, but a kid that can nail a 45 yard fg and a punter that won't hurt you are so important! Okay, I'll entertain you. I'm not a very big stat guy, I go by what I see on the field. Maybe I'm taking your "do something about your special teams, you were ranked in average 100 places lower than from last year" post too literal. "Special teams" refers to place kicking, punting, kick offs, punt returns, kick off returns etc.. I took your advice, since you gave me no specific link to go to, I googled "NCAA football stats" and assumed you are referring to this site. So I click on punting and see that Zach ranks 88th in average. That would mean last year he ranked better than first!?!? Punt return yardage defense we ranked 37th in the country. 61 spots ahead of your buddy in Columbus. Kickoff returns 109th. Kickoff return defense 47th. 22 spots ahead of your buddy in Columbus. In the other special teams categories I didn't see any "Akron" listed. I'll stick with my original conclusion "Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate." While I will agree that special teams are important, other than finding somebody that can make extra points, we have bigger issues. Offensive line play and our secondary should be our biggest concerns. We make those a strength next year instead of the weakness they were this year and we could see a winning ball team.

I think that is an excellent idea. I'm guessing the chances of that happening are very slim. I would bet JT would be happy to do it though.

No way Zips lose to those guys after watching that. Zips 1, UM 0.

Can you ask them if they will be doing any more music

....they are one year ahead of Indiana in the rebuilding process.

How do you "rank" special teams? Is there a formula between punting, kicking, tackling and returns I am unaware of? Other than our place kicking game, I thought our special teams were adequate.

Nice article Tom. Please fix this iCoach. If you can't with the current coaching staff, please hire a secondary coach.

I didn't see the first half of that game, but I saw the second half. It was empty. They kept showing this little girl in the stands building a snowman all by herself. If it was full during the first half, everybody bolted in the second half. They showed repeated shots of empty stands during the fourth quarter. There must have been fans there early though.

Did anybody notice the attendance of that game? Zips might have had more people in the stands at their last game!?! PS Waddell is not at Cincy anymore.

Does anybody still buy the Beacon? If so I was wondering where the location of today's articles appear? Soccer Article & football article I have to guess soccer on the front page with photos right?

"Vegas" does not try to predict winners, "it" only tries to keep an even amount of money on either side of the bet so "they" can make money. I'm sure there was very little money on either side as to move the line one way or the other. I'm guessing many times throughout history, I may have been the only one betting an early season Zips OOC game in the country.

I Agree with you. Most the time if I post that the opponent lost the game, some Zip fans will start to argue what great defense we played and how our great play made IUC look bad. Hope Zeke feels better. I will say one thing. Winners win, and losers lose. I like being on the winning end. The Zips are finding a way to win when they play bad.

Zips pull their butts out of the fire...and win. Any win on the road is a good win?

Another sloppy game by both teams.

He preys on the weak and innocent.

I can't wait to go to Miami's forum and read how for years their fans claim that they "backed in" to winning the championship.

I really don't understand why we have to "model" our team after anybody. If I learned one thing about iCoach this year, it's the fact that he is going to do things his way and not "model" after anyone.

I ended up at an Akron bar watching the Cavs/Heat game. About thirty or so 50+ year olds gathered to support LBJ on one side of the bar. Every time LBJ would score they would cheer. Nothing more than "yeah" and some clapping. My friend and I sat on the other side of the bar because it was the only table open. It was mostly 20 to 30ish year old Cleveland fans. If LBJ missed a shot they would start screaming "d*bag" "you s*ck" "eff you" etc. If he would make a shot "where was that in game 5" "I hope you die" "have a heat attack." One of the more sad and ignorant displays of human nature I have seen when it pertains to sports. Hatred is ugly.

I agree. I wonder if it has anything to do with tv contracts? It would be silly to sign a contract that wouldn't allow you to stream like that. If the Horizon league can do it, why can't the MAC? BTW, I read others coming down on the guy that announced it. He made some mistakes and wasn't Joe Tait by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he did a decent job for online streaming. The dude even took his headset off and used his mic to do a one on one with the coach when the first half expired. I give him an A for effort.

Nice thoughts QZ. I'll add this. I was expecting Eli Holman to be a big factor last night from all his press and fan fare. Looked to me as if Zeke towered over the 6'10" center. Zeke's height alone seem to alter Eli's game. I'm sure Eli does very well against teams without a seven footer. I know a lot of Zip fans like to complain about the refs, but Zeke needs to learn how to defend without picking up ticky tack fouls. In a lot of match ups we will need him defensively at the end of the game. He needs to be available to provide that. I'm lovin his hook. That should be unstoppable in MAC play.

Speaking of flying, did you see your buddy miss another point blank dunk last night? I hope this doesn't become an issue.

The Titans turned the ball over TWENTY times!

Detroit is a sloppy team. Zips would beat them 9 out of 10 times in Akron.

It's nice to see the dribble drive penetration into the lane. He had a few nice passes tonight also. I hope he progresses throughout the year.

Looked like a block to me. You just can't bail somebody out with the shot clock at 01. Zeke has to be smart with his fouls. He was keeping Eli out of the game. With Zeke out, Eli is starting to heat up.