K92

IMNHO, this is a real good home schedule next year on both an entertaining/interesting level and importance of winning the MAC East (If Miami can do it, we can do it) level. Some think getting our butts kicked by BCS teams is an indication of where the program is...maybe. I believe a better indication is how we do against other non-BCS D-1A teams. Playing FIU at home will allow us to better measure our program in the world of reality. Please tell me that you are joking. Nobody cares about FIU or VMI. That is a joke of a home non conference schedule. A gauge of our program needs to be against the Indiana's of the world. We already play garbage in the MAC. Measures against other garbage teams does nothing to get fans interested. 1. Nobody cared about Indiana. 2. Nobody cared about Syracuse. 3. "MAC Garbage" Temple defeated Big East Champion Connecticut this year. 4. Negativism for the sake of being negative needs to stop on this board.

It was news to me too, Dave.

No it won't. Who are we playing after Bufalow? Who are we playing after Bufalow this year? Nobody. I just have my doubts that a win against Buffalo is going to get us off that list. Why? The rules of the Bottom Ten list are very clear. A win gets you off the list that week. My apologies to Zipmeister. I am ignorant of the bottom 10 rules.

No it won't. Who are we playing after Bufalow? Who are we playing after Bufalow this year? Nobody. I just have my doubts that a win against Buffalo is going to get us off that list.

No it won't.

Everybody relax!! Maybe Martin faked his resignation to see how the team would respond.

This is the question for you zn.o'ers: What keeps you coming back? Why do you put yourself through the misery of losing season after losing season? Why do you come to Zips games by yourself? Why do you wear your Zips apparel after another embarrassing loss? Why subject yourself to the ridicule from fans of other more prominent programs? Why do it? Seriously. I want to know. I have been asked questions like these this year and found it hard to put my reasons into words. UA is my school. It's where I earned my B.A. I wasn't born in Akron, but it's where I came of age. And when I come back, it feels like home. I have heard patriotism described as "My country, right or wrong". I guess the Zips are "My team, win or lose". I know that's really simple and doesn't really answer the questions asked. After all, there are a lot of alumni with the same Akron experience as mine that root for the Buckeyes. What would you say?

Bottom line is this folks...We can argue all day when the last time out should have been called, but the simple fact is that time outs should be saved for critical spots in the game. They come in handy when you want to stop the clock. Or challenge a play call. Our team consistently wastes our time outs either in non-critical situations or to avoid a delay of game penalty because we can't seem to get a play called and lined up in time. It's been a recurring theme this year. Count on the Zips to totally suck at the fundamentals of sound clock management. I am sick of it. Junior High teams do a better job of managing the clock than we do.

Attached is his career record. All the guy does is win in a brutally difficult conference. He probably isn't a great coach under my standards, but he is one Hell of a good coach. Les Miles has a great record despite being a complete and absolute bumbling moron. His game time decisions are absolutely horrible and many LSU fans would love to see him gone. So the answer to the question is yes, you can win with superior talent and inferior coach.

When Kelly gets a QB like Dan L and Pike at ND, he will win 8-9 games. The secret to coaching is catching lightning in a bottle then moving up the pay scale. Kelly will do that at ND for a couple of years and then fall back down to 6-7 wins a get fired like all the rest. He can then retire on a giant buy out. Good players made Brian Kelly and all other coaches. Remember two years ago everyone talked about Jim Grobe being the best coach in America? This season, his Wake team is sitting at two wins against the mighty Blue Hose of Presby and Duke. Hear anyone saying he is the best coach in America? He was a great coach when he had the Seahawks Aaron Curry, the Lions Alphonso Smith, the Panthers Kenny Moore and Riley "Rhymes with Winner" Skinner all on the same team. Those guys leave and he is back to the guy who coached at OU. How many people know Jim Grobe has a sub .500 caree record as a head coach? There are few great coaches. Kelly and Grobe are not great, but they are great when they are like all coaches who get surrounded by great players. Take away the great players and they are no longer great. Go figure. Anyhow, back to the Zips...... I'm going to go work out. So... if you really can recruit great players then you don't actually have to be a great coach to win? You tell me.

I do not regret the money I have spent on the 2010 Zips. What I regret that I can't hogtie anybody to come with me for a tailgate and a game. I will be flying solo for the Western Michigan game, so I am actually going to work Saturday morning at an auction in North Olmstead, instead of coming to tailgate. Not much fun by yourself. I am almost afraid to see what kind of a crowd shows up. I picture something similar to last year's EMU game. I have not been able to confirm this, but the story on the MAC BBS says that we are ranked 119 out of 120 for FBS average attendance at 12,716. Only Ball State trails us. The very real prospect of drawing the fewest fans is so depressing. Just a little over a year ago there was so much optimism and excitement. Sigh.

Lack of respect? Have we covered one of these "disrespecting" spreads yet?

Nicely is the least of our problems. He's a better QB than Rodgers. But the guy has no OL, and no WR's. Because he's apt to run, Rodgers may be a better QB for our present situation. I'd like to have seen him get a shot. But I'm under no illusions that changing a QB is anything but, to quote ZipsWin!, "rearranging chairs on the Titanic." Not sure you'd say Nicely is a better QB if you had been in Athens. Go to ohiobobcats.com and watch the recap videos. There were three or four cases where he just panicked under pressure. BTW, major, very aggressive heckling of iCoach by a few Akron fans throughout the game. Matt Rodgers deserves a chance to start and see what he can do. The team is Ohfer 7 under the on-field direction of Patrick Nicely. He has been given ample opportunity to prove himself. Start Matt and see if there are any signs of life. Sometimes changing the QB changes the dynamics of the offense. Chemistry. See if Rodgers can be a catalyst. What do we have to lose? This season is rapidly becoming a total write-off. No position on the team should be safe, especially one where the performance has been abysmal. Another call for Matt: http://www.examiner.com/akron-zips-in-akro...s-time-has-come

Why did he say the cupboard was full, then?

Why can't we be like Bowling Green or NIU? No joke.

I have thought the exact same thing, Skip. Make the defense wonder if we are running or passing out of the Wildcat if we put Rodgers in there. That would be a little "test" that would cost you nothing. Perhaps RI is afraid of a QB controversy? Doesn't make sense.

How do you think Youtube Tom feels about it? I'll probably get bored and change it before too long, but I had to come up with something quickly! I didn't even realize whose picture you doctored at first. Had to stare at it for a minute. It was like John Wayne Gacy as AD. Very disturbing, JZ!

After his performance in the Bowling Green game last year, I was optimistic about Patrick Nicely. My optimism has been proven to be erroneous. For the first 5 games this year, I watched this guy stink up the field. I was a proponent of PN over MR from the get go and like Dave, I have tried my hardest to continue to give him the benefit of the doubt, although all proof pointed to this kid not having what it takes to compete at this level. I realize this offense is a whole new deal not only for him, but for the rest of the team as well. My patience reached its end yesterday. I was there at Dick Stadium to watch us lose the Wagon Wheel. I watched a Zip team that was ready to play. They showed the fire I felt was lacking through the first 5 games. The effort and execution put out by our players and coaches should have been enough to win the game. The Wagon Wheel should still be ours. The reason it isn't is 100 percent Patrick Nicely's fault. Period. Terrible throw out of the end zone for pick-six. 7 sacks. The majority of which were avoidable. Horrible clock management, especially at the end of the first half. Butterfinger fumble on the flea-flicker. Awful, terrible, horrible, piss-poor mistake(s) on the end zone fumble at crunch time. Aw, what the hell. Throw a couple of more picks at the end of the game. These were just some of the highlights of his typical overthrow/underthrow/overlook open receiver performance. If we don't have anyone else on the roster to play QB, we would be better off running the wildcat exclusively, only with PN on the sidelines instead of lined up at WR. This is pathetic, folks. I can see some progress being made in every aspect of the game but one. That includes coaching. Granted, the rest of the team is far from stellar, but the rest of the pieces were competent enough to win this game. It is the ultimate humiliation to lose to Can't. I stayed until the last snap of the game and watched them run over and grab that trophy. X100 To top it all off, now we have to see JohnnyZip's new avatar for at least a whole year!

I figured we would be in the pillow fight of the week...Thank God NM and NMState are playing this weekend!

How many coaches go with a scheme they don't know and continue with the current/former one? Give me an example. I can give one, it turned out to be the correct move, but at the time it was highly controversial among the fans. Tommy Tuberville? I also give a lot respect Nick Saban and Rick Neuheisel for taking their offensive coaches out to Nevada to learn the pistol from Chris Ault this past off season. Takes courage to grow.

Rolled into lot 34 around 10 AM Saturday morning. We were the first ones there, got set up and waited for the onslaught of tailgaters that were sure to come. After visiting with everyone in our lot (about 20 people), we walked down to Lot 9 and I got to meet Captain Kangaroo, JohnnyZip84, Dr. Z and Zips Win! which was very cool. Very nice folks and die-hards! Hopefully we will meet some more ZNO posters this year. So who had the best ribs?

The silence is telling, but what can be said that hasn't already? The lack of effort and execution on the field is flabbergasting. The defense in in a total state of disarray. When you have defensive backs who can't cover ANYBODY and combine that with the total absence of a pass rush, you get what we've got. A long season where a team known for running the ball can pick you apart though the air and hang half a hundred on you. Chandler Harnish. 16 for 20; 281 yards; 3 TD; 0 INT. Really? He's just that good? I have never before in my entire life (and I have been watching football every week since about 1976) seen defensive backs who look more clueless than ours. They are constantly getting burned. Receivers are always open. They never look back at the ball. The best defensive back we have is playing wide receiver. He did have 3 catches this week, though! The decision to not move him back to defense in unconscionable. Such a terrible decision that it should be grounds for the immediate dismissal of whoever's bonehead idea the switch was in the first place. Mind-dumbingly stupid. Before anyone who wasn't at the game points out that Chad Spann was held to 86 yards and count that as a small victory. . . He spent half the game watching from the sidelines. The NIU coaching staff must have figured early they could easily win without him and decided to rest him for next week's Temple game. Not as if the running game really missed him though. As a team, they still ripped us for 5 yards a carry. The offense can do small things well at times but just cannot put it all together. I was frustrated with the play calling last night. I think we could have established the run on them, ate up some clock, moved the chains. Nope. Wasn't in the game plan. But what do I know? Perhaps the most disturbing part about watching this team is the lack of energy, fire, excitement, ferocity, whatever you want to call it. They are positively sleepwalking out there. Look at the body language on the field and sideline. They are telling the other team "we're already defeated". I know this is all a broken record. You have heard it before. It's five weeks into the season and we are still waiting for the team to gel and grow. I never thought for a minute we would be THIS bad.

I agree with a lot of CK's views. The Syracuse game was a debacle. We didn't show up for that one. It was a sleepwalk. The GW game was like watching a trainwreck in slow motion. Way too great of a disparity in athletes versus Kentucky. Signs of life against Indiana. Question there is "how bad is their defense"? I am afraid, pretty bad. I hope the appearance of progress is not an illusion! I think the defense can keep Spann in check. Not stymied, but in check. They did an OK job not letting Delone Carter run roughshod over us. I think they can turn the trick again. (Knock on wood). Make 'em pass and cross your fingers and say your prayers our defensive backs can do a whole lot better job than they have done so far this year. I am (cautiously) starting to feel better about the offense. I want to see another big step forward Saturday. What I want to see is the Zips emerge with a hard fought Homecoming victory, healthy and ready to beat the flushes, ruin their homecoming, demoralize their team, coaching staff and fanbase. Saturday is the first blow of a one-two punch that brings back the Wagon Wheel!

I have thought for a long time that Toledo was most similar school to Akron in the MAC. Urban campuses in medium sided industrial cities. Both play little brother to a larger city to the north. Very similar demographics, I believe. I have always been a closet admirer of the Toledo football program. Since the time I enrolled at Akron back in 1986, they have beaten Purdue (3 times), Michigan, Iowa State, Kansas, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and Penn State. Not a fantastic list, but some nice quality wins over the years. They have given their fans something to cheer about, although they have had their ups and downs. It is a shame they don't get more fan support than they do. I think there are definitely positives to scheduling lower tier BCS programs. We just have to get good enough to beat them. Until we have progressed to that point, I would be in favor of home-and-homes with other non-AQ schools. I never liked the idea of playing 1-AA schools because nobody cares or can get excited about them.