wadszip

Glad to see March starting, but to throw a wet blanket on this. I just saw he graded as the worst OLB in the NFL this week, according to Pro Football Focus. Not a huge deal because there were some perennial Pro Bowlers (Brandon Marshall, Antonio Gates and Earl Thomas) also on the "worst of" team in Week 1. Still, I think both he and Jatavis have bright futures ahead of them.

At least they didn't review that touchback. Would've been another two points for Wisconsin. That's about the best thing I can say about this game.

Well, we figured out you aren't a 18-year-old in the freshman dorms. ... But that's hardly a compliment, considering you are a fan of the mighty Big 10 Badgers who are up against a team from the lowly MAC, and you won't even watch the game live because of your "daughter's" soccer game. Yet, somehow, you still decided to post about this "gimme win" 50 times on the opponent's message board this week.

This is a guy I was really hoping was going to join the rest of the local kids in this class. He may be the best pure football player in Summit County.

How many of those games have been at a MAC stadium? Maybe 10 percent ... if not less. For example, I just looked up Purdue (which remember wasn't always the bottom feeder). 51 of the 55 games against the MAC in that span were in West Lafayette, and two more were in Detroit. No wonder that record looks as good as it does. Even with that, I'll pluck out four MAC schools, which have been historically among the best ... BG, Miami, NIU and Toledo. Purdue is 10-11 against them since 1950. That is despite 19 of those 21 games at Purdue (who did play two game @Toledo). Actually, if we take out Miami (which Purdue is 7-3 against since 1950, and all at home, but is now a MAC bottom feeder), Purdue is a combined 3-8 against BG, Toledo and NIU in that span. But yeah, they would be perennial favorites, despite actually having to play half the conference games on the road (as opposed to 96 percent being either at home or a neutral field.)

A lot this will be echoing a bit from what zips outsider already said. Yes, it's a (pass first) spread, no-huddle offense. Maybe TB decides to slow things down, but that would be a game-flow call. I'd expect 3-4 wide with the single back (Ohio State transfer Warren Ball) in the backfield with Woodson. Though, for this game, specifically, I wouldn't mind seeing our backup TE Newman Williams (a 6-2, 270-pound in-line blocker) take the place of Mykel Taylor-Bennett, a converted 6-3, 230 pound WR who is now a move TE. I think the Zips will need to run the ball and Williams, IMO, would be a better option crashing down on the line and trying to free up a running lane, and we saw Bennett struggle with that last week with a couple of holding penalties (though one was bogus on a big run that was called back) against a much-smaller and less athletic VMI front 7. While Williams can't create the same type of mismatches in the receiving game as Bennett can, Williams moves well enough where I think he could find some openings in the Badgers' 3-4 defense, if he is needed as an outlet receiver. The bigger reason for going with Williams, again this is all my opinion, is that this team now has weapons on the outside that makes having a move TE less of a priority. Like zipsoutsider said, Lane will be playing on Sundays. Physically, he is in the Josh Gordon mold, and he looks more like an actual WR (granted against an overmatched foe) than just a go-up-and-get-it target like he was last year. Most of his 10 catches and nearly 200 yards came off of WR routes. Then Natson adds a shifty game-breaker on the other side, along with Wolf (who was a state-final caliber100-meter runner at the big-school Ohio level in high school). As for Ball. Wisconsin fans will know this since they are also stacked at RB. He looks like a guy who could've started at 80-percent of colleges in the country (just happened to be behind the No. 1 RBs selected in the 2014 and 2016 NFL drafts, respectively) while at Ohio State. He has the size people drool about (6-1, 225). Not great speed, but has great feet. A one cut and go back, who has some shiftiness in the open field once he gets north-south. The question in the running game isn't Ball, who I think will have a Thomas Rawls type year. (For those who don't remember, Rawls was buried behind (lesser) backs at Michigan, transferred to Central Michigan for a year and was picked up by the Seattle Seahawks, where he supplanted Marshawn Lynch.) In the Akron running game, It's not whether Ball is legit, it's whether a pretty green Oline will be able to create any holes for him. That's TBD, big time. They struggled for the most part against VMI, but did open up some holes in the second half, where it seemed like Ball did most of his damage. The young Oline did do a good job in pass blocking, though, that will be a major step up in competition this week. On defense, both DEs are legit. Actually, both would likely be starting at Ohio State this year if both (who are OSU transfers) stuck around. Se'Von Pittman was a top 100 recruit who committed to Michigan State, then decommitted and went to OSU before deciding to transfer closer to home. Jamal Marcus was the starter for Ohio State (as a freshman) when the Buckeyes played Clemson in the Orange Bowl when 2016 NFL Draft early second-round pick Noah Spence was suspended. Marcus was the Buckeyes' best defensive player in that game. Inside, we'll see if the now locally infamous Miami transfer Jelani Hamilton does play this week. He's another former top 100 recruit who played early at Miami (Fla.) before injuries got him buried. But he is a guy the Zips will need inside against a powerful Wisconsin Oline. Darius Copeland and Brock Boxen are nice players, but they just can't match up physically. Hamilton, at 6-5, 305, can, especially since he has an elite pedigree. The secondary will hold up just fine against Wisconsin. The Zips have a likely NFL draft pick in DeAndre Scott, another Miami transfer Larry Hope and a Boston College transfer Bryce Jones. All three have a ton of experience. Zach Guiser is an All-MAC caliber player at FS. The question is the linebackers, but that was always the question. In Week 1, it was up-and-down. ... Though the upside is there. This unit has next to no experience but has guys who can run sideline to sideline with any P5 program ... and lay the wood with the best. The problem I noticed, however, was it was also the group that played the worst assignment football, which is too be expected for them being so young, of any unit on the team. You never want to take the aggressiveness away from a group like that, but you can get away with it against VMI, you can't against Wisconsin. It'll be a big coaching job this week for Chuck Amato to try to rein those guys in without making them think too much. But Akron has two LBers in the NFL currently (both probably starters in Justin March and Jatavis Brown). Ulysses Gilbert is easily going to be the third. Just a true sophomore, but you can tell he has "it". Brian Bell, the former Florida State recruit (before being black-balled on a bogus murder accusation) also looks to be a future star ... but he just got to the program during camp last year because of the political BS, so he is still learning. The one senior, John Rachal, made a couple nice plays last week and he is hopefully a guy who can shine now given the chance to play. One thing about him, is he knows Amato's system being a four-year guy. For the Wisconsin fans, trust me, you guys are the favorite. But you won't walk into this game and just out-athlete the Zips, who athletically, are probably just as good as any mid-tier Big 10 team. The two big advantages you will have is offensive line (and when considering it's Wisconsin, that's a huge advantage) and the Zips having a young, and if week 1 was an indication, kind of reckless LB core (which I guess could be a good thing against a run-first team like Wisconsin).

There is no "another" Rolling Acres with the Rubber Bowl. It is already there, and has been there for a while. The reason the city isn't embracing this plan, IMO, stems from this group thinking $11 million in renovations is all that is needed. That was minimally feasible, at best, when UA was still maintaining the property 10 years ago. The RB is 100 times worse now. No way can $11 million get it back to functioning. I'm a believer in not tearing down historical structures (and Rolling Acres is not one of them, btw, and needs to be torn down ... not that it would help make Romig Road look any better, since it needs a whole lot more than just getting rid of Rolling Acres), but unfortunately, it is time for Rubber Bowl to go. There just isn't any conceivable reuse for that property, considering you have InfoCision in a much higher-visibly part of town and, for outdoor concerts, Blossom is less than 10 miles away. The RB is actually more of an eyesore than Rolling Acres because it's actually in a part of town where people across the country still go to. Nobody goes to Romig, but thousands of people across the country go to Derby Downs every year. Way to welcome them to Akron as they enter that area by passing a dilapidated Rubber Bowl.

Even though I agree with you, why don't you just let it slide? You just can't help it but to defend OSU anytime something perceived as negative is posted here ... and I don't think that comment was negative, the poster was just pointing out that OSU poured it on BG ... which they did. J.T. Barrett was still tossing TDs well into the third quarter in a 49-10 game. As for Akron, the Zips also played a bunch of young guys, too. I noticed true freshmen Alvin Davis, Davonte Jest and Trevor Brown out there. Any others? Akron only has about 12 true freshman on scholarship (with QB Kato Nelson being one), so seems like TB isn't holding back on playing young guys.

VMI's coach was complaining all game long, even though Akron was flagged for nearly 200 yards in penalties. So, who cares about what somebody who complains about everything, thinks. The Lane celebration was a joke, too. He might as well have done the "Info Leap" if he knew a flag was coming out, lol.

I think Pughsley is a lock to make KC's practice squad, if not picked up by another team. He was a guy that was expected to make the 53 (was called up to the active roster during their playoff run last year). Coe should make Dallas' practice squad, unless, again, he is picked up by somebody else.

After watching both Wisconsin-LSU and Akron's game against VMI, nothing really has changed for me since a couple of weeks ago, outside of my point No. 4 (Wisconsin defense maybe taking a step back with the loss of Arnada and some losses in the back 7). Wisconsin's defense looked every bit as good as the No. 1 defense in the nation last year. With that being said, LSU, despite having a stud RB in Fournette and a bunch of 4 and 5 star talent, is hardly an offensive juggernaut (and really hasn't had a great offense in the past 4-5 years, if not longer). Plus, the Zips' offense will give the Badgers a very different look than what LSU gave them a week ago. So, I'm not ready to quite say that Wisconsin's defense is once again, a marquee unit ... though basically shutting out LSU is very impressive (LSU's TDs came on a pick-6 and a short field after a Wisconsin turnover on the following possession). My overall tune for the game has changed a bit. Two weeks ago, I thought Akron had a very good shot at pulling the upset. Now, I'm going to tone that down a bit to "a shot". I still think there will be some sort of emotional let-down on Wisconsin's part, especially since they did pull off the win in Lambeau for what is probably the biggest non-conference win in school history. I still think Wisconsin's offensive strength plays into the hands of Akron's defensive strength (stopping the run). Akron won't shut down Wisconsin's running game by any means, but as I mentioned before, 200 is the magic number. ... LSU held them to 134 and hence, Wisconsin only scored 16 points. Give the Badgers another 65 or so and another TD and it's still 23 or so points, that's kind of what I figured they were always going to get in this game. Question is, can the Zips score more than that? I think they have a shot. The passing game looked good (albeit the competition). It was more than just looking at the stats, but more looking at the throws Woodson was making and the plays guys like Lane, Natson and Wolf were making. IMO, very encouraging. The offensive line's pass protection was great, and that's still something we don't know about heading into this game against a much bigger and better Wisconsin front. If the Oline can protect even 70 percent as well as it did last week, I think the Zips can make some plays vertically. I'm a bit more worried about the running game. I thought the run blocking was poor, though Ball was impressive. It's mind boggling how much talent Ohio State has that this guy had to be kept off the field. He looked like a legit NFL RB last night. Not too many guys his size that have feet that good. The jump cuts and spin moves were impressive, and when he gets N-S, he's a load to bring down. He had some problems, since he isn't a burner, when VMI got him going E-W, but that's not his game. The line has to open up some holes in the middle and let get up the field. Obviously, that will be a huge challenge. Overall, while the secondary didn't play great against VMI, I'm not worried there (since Wisconsin doesn't have a great passing attack). The LBers showed they were inexperienced, but I loved the speed and aggressiveness. The key will be Amato reeling that in a bit to keep them in their assignments, without losing their "want" to get to the ball. ... there was at least 8-10 plays where they got burned by VMI due to being way too aggressive and trying to go for the kill shot. The DL played well, I thought, Marcus and Pittman were constantly getting pressure. ... Though I'll echo some others in saying "where's Jelani Hamilton?" Hopefully, saving him for the Wisconsin game (may be wishful thinking). He's a guy, with his size and pedigree can really help inside. I'm still confident. Akron 27, Wisconsin 23 The 27 will be due to a missed extra point, which looks like a HUGE concern, and one I may not be taking into account as much as I should.

All I'm concerned about his how Bowden pronounces "we won." That's pretty universal, regardless of dialect.

You and me both. And for legacy reasons, Terry Bowden will likely never do here what Bobby Bowden did at Florida State, but he could have a similar type of impact. Remember, when Bobby Bowden took over at FSU, it was essentially what Akron is now. Bobby just happened to be 30-40 years younger when he took over that program. That's actually why, not that the Bowden name needs another chalk mark on its college football legacy, Terry could be even more inclined to win faster. If he can somehow put Akron at the "big boy table," it probably would be even more remarkable than what Bobby did at FSU, as crazy as it sounds. And it would easily cement "Bowden" as the greatest last name in college football history.

Whatever you want to call it, "Built in Akron" or "The State of Akron," there is merit to building a winning culture around local talent. Look at what Lee Owens did in the late 90s (or Dennison before him, but that's before my time). Owens inherited a losing team that was still in its D1 infancy and was recruiting to the Rubber Bowl and built it into a program that in a seven-year period between 1999-2005 had five winning seasons and a MAC championship (Yes, I know Owens was canned in 03 after a 7-5 season, nonetheless, but the 04 and 05 Zips were majority his guys.) I remember going to a couple of those team photo days 2002 (albeit not a good year) and 2003. At the end, the team would split up for photos. ... The Summit County guys would pose for one; the Stark County guys would pose for another; the Cuyahoga County guys for another. The team was built around NEO talent and they were winning at a pace that if the current bowl system was around, would've led to three more bowls for the program. Of course, Lee Owens was canned before he was able to recruit to the indoor facility that he pushed so hard for and J.D. Brookhart inherited his talent and went on to win a MAC title, but then floundered when his "great" recruiting classes came aboard ... Didn't he land back-to-back No. 1 classes in the MAC by the "experts" by going more regional/national? Ianello was then 10 times worse, completely wiping out the program at the time it should've been taking the next step. But Bowden gets it. Northeast Ohio has some of the best talent in the country in its backyard. Yeah, he isn't stealing the OSU/Michigan/ND kids, but even that second and even third tier of local recruits is better than a lot of states' tier 1. Then you mix in the Florida ties, along with the facilities, and you are seeing the transformation. Win again this year, and I believe this program will take another big jump forward. The local talent (Akron-Canton) is already starting to buy in. Another 8-plus win season could cement it ... why go to a middling B10/ACC program when we could play in front of family and friends, win more games, have just a good of a shot to be drafted and help build something special in our backyard? Bowden has it right: NEO/Florida/transfers. You can win big with that combination. How big can you win with just NEO as your top area?: 2006: Ohio State had 17 of their top 44 (roughly 40 percent) players from NEO, including both top RBs (Beanie Wells and Antonio Pittman, Akron guys) and the top 6 WRs (for the people who only think Ohio produces lumbering LBers and offensive linemen). That team nearly went wire-to-wire as No. 1 before being blasted by Florida in the national title game ... hmm, Florida, we are getting kids from there, too. 2014: Ohio State had 8 of its top 44 from NEO (roughly 20 percent) on a team that steamrolled its way to national championship. 2015: As been pointed out, 8 of Akron's 22 starters (not two-deep) went 8-5 and beat a western team, out west, who a month or so earlier embarrassed Boise State. Final was 52-26, but Utah State was winning that game 45-10 at halftime. OK, maybe that was a down Boise State team, but Boise did go on to beat Northern Illinois 55-7 in a bowl game. ... Not trying to do transitive property, just saying.

Nice. Very solid addition for 2017.

Can you provide some perspective as to why you posted these links? The first one is not even Akron's Dennis Mitchell. The other one is just the bio of an assistant that has been with the school since 2013.

One positive is having some of the toughest MAC opponents on their schedule coming to Infocision Stadium. Toledo, Western Michigan and Bowling Green will all visit Akron, although Bowden isn’t so sure that playing such games at home is a huge advantage over having to play them on the road. “If it can attract more numbers in terms of attendance, it’s big, but we’ve had Northern Illinois, Bowling Green and Ohio at our stadium before,” Bowden said. “If having those two at home can bring more people, that’s big, but the truth is that nobody averages over 20,000 fans in the MAC and so in terms of the noise and the atmosphere, the homefield edge is not the same at the MAC as it is in other places.” Lol, don't let the Ohio people see this.

Good point on Chryst at Pittsburgh. One more thing I'll add on that, is that 2014 Pittsburgh team (while probably a little less talented than Wisconsin overall) did have some legit weapons on offense in James Connor and Tyler Boyd. What allowed the Zips to win that game was shutting down the run game and the mediocre QB play from Pitt's Chad Voytik. Both Wisconsin's QBs are just as green as Voytik was in that game. ... Clement, IMO, is more explosive than Connor, but both are/were very, very good RBs.

This is something I have been thinking for the last month or so when I did a little research on the OOC opponents for this year. And since there is now some talk about that game on the Bryce Dixon thread, figure I'd start its own discussion thread. It was mentioned that it wouldn't be a surprise if Akron beats them this year. I actually tend to agree with that. Not saying it will happen, but there are some things about that game that makes me believe the upset could happen. 1. As was mentioned, Wisconsin is breaking in a new QB and neither of the guys in competition have any meaningful playing experience. While Joel Stave wasn't a great QB by any means, I believe I read he was the winningest QB in the program's history. Maybe the guys they have now are more talented, but I doubt either will be as good right away as Stave was last year. 2. Wisconsin plays a mega game against LSU at Lambeau Field the week before the Akron game. The fact that it's against an elite SEC team and at the hallowed grounds of Lambeau could make that the most hyped and emotional game in Wisconsin history. While I don't think Chryst will take the Zips lightly, I do see the possibility for an emotional let down, regardless of how that LSU game turns out. 3. Wisconsin is one of the few true smash-mouth running teams left in college football. While it's unknown if the Zips will be as good against the run as they had been the last couple of years, I'm still pretty confident (depending on how the young, but pretty talented linebackers fare) that this will still be a solid defense against the run. There is no way that Akron can totally shut down the Wisconsin running game (the Badgers have their usual strong offensive line and get stud running back Corey Clement back after missing most of last year), if they can hold the Badgers to less than 200 yards on the ground, I think they can stay in the game. 200 is a big number for most teams, but Wisconsin is going to run the ball 40-plus times, and historically a team that could put up 400-yard games on the ground against teams. Clement will probably pop a couple of big gainers, but if they can consistently hold him (and the other backs) to three, even four yards a carry and put the Badgers in a lot of third and 3s and longer, that could put some pressure on whoever the QB is (haven't checked lately to see if they named one) to making some plays with his arm. 4. The Badgers lost their elite defensive coordinator Dave Arnada to LSU. They were the top ranked defense in the nation last year, IIR. That's a blow in itself. On top of that, they lost quite a bit in the back seven. If Woodson can build off of last season, with the weapons he will have on the outside this season, I think the Zips could do some damage in the passing game. Overall, while Wisconsin is easily the most talented of the OOC teams, just based on how the Zips match up, it wouldn't shock me to see the Zips win this game ... and then go on and lose to both Marshall and Appalachian State. Nor would it shock me to see the Zips lose to Wisconsin and then beat both Marshall and Appalachian State. I guess what I'm getting at is that all three of those games, IMO, are "toss-ups" (for lack of a better word).

I don't believe so. Wasn't that game around Christmas? I believe attendance was in the 4,000 range.

A Valpo-like team would be an awesome addition. Though, I wouldn't be upset at all if KD has them blacklisted after the hatchet job the Zips got out there in this game: http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/boxscores/2011-11-18-valparaiso.html I don't like to complain about officials, but this is the one game were I can't be convinced the fix wasn't in (I believe it was Horizon refs at Valpo). Looking at the box score still makes me want to puke. 31-14 foul differential; 38-7 foul shot discrepancy; Zeke fouled out in 11 minutes, Harney in 23, Tree with four fouls in 22 minutes ... while their two stiff big men who were hacking like crazy were called for 1 combined foul in 69 minutes between them.

Let's not get carried away with calling American and Georgia Southern "excellent" mid-majors. American was 12-19 last year and ranked No. 302 in the KenPom rankings (below Bethune-Cookman). Georgia Southern (14-17) was a little better at 199, and at least it's a Sun Belt school. Hopefully, both will be improved this year.

An NCAA-sanctioned conference has to have six members. Only five full-time MAC schools offer men's soccer, so a sixth is needed. West Virginia is now that sixth school, replacing Hartwick, a small, 1,500-student school in upstate NY.

I read that the newcomers may never become fully vested (financially) into the league. Unequal splitting of revenue is how the Big 12 operated from its inception until it nearly fell apart with the defections of Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri and Colorado, which was partly due to the unequal revenue sharing ... though I believe Nebraska was the second highest paid member, so the reason for moving wasn't simply due to uneven revenue splits. But this would be completely different as long as the 10 legacy teams get an equal split of the Tier 1 and 2 TV money/bowl payouts, etc. Those schools would get more money if four schools are added to increase the total payout as long as the new schools are taking a lower split of the pie as to not lower the legacies' payouts. At the same time, there is no doubt schools like Cincinnati, Memphis, Connecticut, Central Florida, Boise, etc. would still jump aboard since even if they are, for example, taking 50 percent of what the legacy members are taking. It still would be a pay bump despite the travel increase, and the Big 12 is the only path left to the P5 since ESPN gave the ACC a lifeboat in terms of the ACC Network (which I don't see how it turns a profit, but that's another topic). And the P5 status is the overriding factor in this, even though I don't think adding any four non P5 schools will settle the Big 12 in the longterm, but it buys them six more years until the Big 10 is back open for TV renegotiation. To me, this is simply a move to try brace for when Texas and Oklahoma eventually leave for greener pastures and hope to build up some more products to maintain a P5 setup once those schools leave. Houston and BYU are interesting to watch. BYU has said it would join for football only. Will the Big 12 go down that road for a religious school not named Notre Dame? Houston seems like a no-brainer (and has turned itself into a P5 caliber school). But there is pushback from the Texas members to not add them (and I don't blame them for that). Also, would Houston accept a lower longterm payout or would it roll the dice and stay in the AAC and wait for maybe an SEC (or longer shot Big 10 offer)? If Tom Herman sticks around and the basketball program continues to get better, you are talking about a legitimate sleeping national-level giant considering it's in a top 10 market and a recruiting hotbed for both football and basketball. There are very few markets that could stake a claim on being top 10 areas for recruiting in both sports, Houston may be No. 2 behind L.A.