johnnyzip84

Both old schemes would suffer in the wind, our new schemes favor poor weather conditions. With that being said, I hope it is 71 degrees and sunny on Saturday. Speaking of weather conditions affecting a game, it's a good thing for Elon's sake that their game against Duke at Wallace Wade wasn't scheduled for tonight. Otherwise, the Fighting Christians might have had to face.........................................The Duke of Earl

The call for rain has been replaced by a call for wind.

Link to Game Notes A couple of things stand out to me. 1. Kevin Davis has been moved to LB. I thought he was EASILY our biggest hitter in the secondary last year. Even though he's a back-up LB, I think this is a good solution for the LB depth issue. 2. Does Hazime just keep getting bigger? 6'5" 279 LB....now THAT'S what I call a good sized DE. I have to figure he is one of those that "took well to" Cochran's strength training. IIRC, Hasan was a"young" true FR. We might have landed a gem here. 3. I'm still concerned about the offensive line, as is the staff I'm sure. We CAN'T have any more injuries on Saturday and expect them to perform well against what is expected to be a very good SU defense. 4. We're "down" to 7 tight ends on the roster

I'll just sit back and let Zipmeister conjure up something good for this. Cruz ALWAYS had the talent. I'm sure he'd love to play well against the Zips. Here's three possibilities: Ironic that Gulley would be penciled in as the kick returner. At 5'9" and 17 pounds He should be nicknamed "The Pencil." One pound less and they could also call him the bowling ball. Bet his body fat percentage is the lowest on the team. "Classy" Freddie Blassie might have referred to him as the "pencil-necked geek" (as he did to a very young, pre-roid Vince McMahon a long, long time ago).

I still don't see Potts or Schrock. I think Roo2 means Potts and Schrock are currently on the team but were inadvertently left off of the GoZips roster. I believe both were at the scrimmage (I'm sure about Potts, because he played both QB and on special teams). Edit: Both Potts and Schrock are on the "Game Note" roster of GoZips.

I have noticed an extremely subtle change on the football page at GoZips.com today. The former heading of "2009 Media Guide" now merely reads "Media Guide". Of course, if you click on this you still only have access to the 2009 (and years prior) media guide. I guess it indicates, along with the addition of the 4 un-numbered freshmen who were added to the roster recently, that SOMEONE is making changes to the site, albeit at a snail's pace.

The guy who write for the Examiner updated his lineup information for the 'Cuse game. Whether he just read Tom's article or not is for you to decide. Link

Maybe it's just me, but I'm getting mixed signals from you Cap'n. Do you think we'll see 25k+ or are you saying that marketing/TW have failed miserably if we don't get 25k+?

Without ever hearing Andy do a game, I like the choice. Anybody have news on what Stams is up to? PS Anybody actually subscribe to the BJ? Where have the recent Zip football articles been appearing? Front page of the sports section, or buried? Stams signed on with STO for the MAC games.

Here is an article from Tom Gaffney. One of these guys (Tom or Randy) must be wrong regarding the offensive line starters against Syracuse (see last paragraph). Link On another note, Andy Alleman will be joining Steve French in the booth.

There have been enough articles written on this game (many, thanks to all of the Syracuse grads covering sports out there) that I wanted to wait until at least mid-week to make my prediction. But I’m too pumped for this game to wait any longer. After an absolutely perfect afternoon of excellent food, beverage, and socializing for all involved, the game starts out pretty conservatively for both squads. The Info is raucous, with fans of each squad making their presence known. The Rowdies resurrect their VCU soccer taunt of “Akron Reeeeject” towards Jose Cruz almost from the beginning. Akron’s defensive front 7 does a nice job in bottling up Carter early on. The Syracuse defense is making it very difficult for the Zips to establish any running game, and Nicely doesn’t get many opportunities or time to throw either. A bad exchange for the Orange finally set up a scoring chance, but the stout Orange defense holds and Igor bangs in a 36 yard FG to give the Zips a 3-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter. On the next possession, Carter escapes for a few and Nassib hits Alec Lemon for a 30 yard score to put the Orange in front 7-3. With just over two minutes to go before halftime, Nicely moves the Zips downfield quickly with a nice assortment of pass plays, the key being a dump off to Nate Burney who motors 25 yards to the ‘Cuse 21 yard line. On the very next play, Nicely hits LaFrance down the middle of the field and Jeremy waltzes into the end zone. Zips are up at the half, 10-7. After a lively talk from Marrone, the Orange move the ball methodically and steadily down the field to open the second half. Carter takes it in from the 5 to give SU a 14-10 lead. The Orange faithful are exuberant in response, sensing a possible tipping point in the contest. The rest of the 3rd quarter, however, is dominated by both defenses. A key play takes place near the end when Sewell pressures Nassib into an early throw that is intercepted by Manley Waller and returned to the Orange 27 yard line. Alex Allen erupts for a 15 yarder on 1st down, and a few plays later he rambles in from the 2 giving the Zips a 17-14 lead. An early 4th quarter field goal by Igor puts the Zips up by 6. Syracuse answers by returning the kickoff deep into Akron territory. But the Zips hold and take over on downs. With the Zips desperately clinging onto their 20-14 lead late in the 4th quarter, the former Copley great finally breaks off a few long ones, the last of which leave the Orange with 1st and goal from the UA 2 with 15 seconds left on the clock. The Zips have their jumbo package in fully expecting another dose of Carter. Marrone masterfully counters this, and calls for a play-action rollout in which Nassib finds Jose Cruz wide open in the right corner of the end zone. To the dismay of all Zip supporters, Jose initially bobbles the pass but eventually gathers it in before falling through the back of the end zone. Instead of handing the ball back to the officials, however, Jose sprints towards the East side stands where the Rowdies have been momentarily silenced and inexplicably heaves the game ball in the general vicinity of Ian Tayek. Multiple flags are flown and a brief scuffle ensues. In the aftermath, Cruz is tossed from the game and the Orange are forced to attempt the PAT from the 17 yard line, making it essentially a 34 field goal. With the clock showing 8 measly seconds remaining, Ianello calls the last of his timeouts to “ice” Syracuse PK Ryan Lichtenstein. Special teams coach Vince Okruch signals in a few last second instructions. As the entire stadium comes to a virtual pause, the ball is snapped and Lichtenstein hits it hard and true. But much to his amazement, it rapidly decelerates high above the Akron line where the monstrous left hand of the Tonganator awaits. The ball careens innocently behind the Zip line for a moment, when all of a sudden UA’s own SHAWN Lemon emerges from the pack with the ball in hand. He heads to his left, and storms down the UA sideline like a magic 8 ball shot out of a cannon. Passing the Zips coaching staff, he turns and mutters “text THIS, mother-trucker” before shifting into another gear and blazing by the last would be tackler en route to the end zone! Zips win 22-20!!!! Zips win 22-20!!!

ESPN Story

I think LeBron will show, but Brown will not. What about Larry Csonka?

I'll just sit back and let Zipmeister conjure up something good for this. Cruz ALWAYS had the talent. I'm sure he'd love to play well against the Zips. I'm sure Cruz would love to play well, but I bet he has always wanted to play well. But I bet he does what he always does and that is drop passes. Bennet is not a Cuse grad...BTW, Cruz won't be catching passes (he still drops them at Cuse)...he'll be used for the power run game or blocking for a WR. Provo is our TE that catches passes. Thanks for the info Bennett seems to have written a few SU stories recently, so it got me thinking. I knew he had worked for a Louisville paper prior to taking the ESPN gig. Cruz as a blocking tight end is new thing for us. He was a relatively speedy, but not overly physical TE in his time here (at least from my recollection). I see he's up to 250 LBS, and that is a BIG increase from what I recall.

Bump! I was just wondering if anyone thinks there's a chance we'll see a minor surprise or two in terms of uniforms when the 2010 Zips take the field on Saturday. Often a new coach will dramatically change things, but I don't foresee any major changes since the sailing roo (or whatever you want to call it) is still fairly new. Thoughts?

You can't be serious? It will be 25k+. And everyone in Akron knows Syracuse is BCS. And I will drink a lot of beer on Saturday. Those are three stone-cold locks. If we had 15k in attendance for our home opener versus Syracuse, Tom Wistercill (AD) would be fired before halftime. I'll say 21k, but I'm in complete agreement with your other two locks

More ESPN discussion. Help me out here, Syracuse folks. I realize SU has many grads in the sports journalism business, and I was wondering if Brian Bennett is one of them. ESPN Link

More discussion on the freshmen and other new faces who will play for the Orange on Saturday. Link Among the interesting quotes: I'll just sit back and let Zipmeister conjure up something good for this. Cruz ALWAYS had the talent. I'm sure he'd love to play well against the Zips.

Frankly, I expect Cuse to "Paste Colgate"! Colgate was an eastern power back in the 1900-1950 time frame. The last time they beat Syracuse was like 1951 or something. Our AD canceled out on a 2 game series with Virginia Tech about a year ago. VT got Boise State instead...our AD office couldn't find another 1A team to play at home so the past Spring they settled with Colgate. The idea by te AD was to lighten the OOC schedule as Syracuse usually plays the toughest one in the Big East. It is hoped to help our rebuilding. Colgate gets to hop on a bus for 45 mins, collect 400k or so and hopefully lose. BTW, Colgate is one of the better 1AAs out there. Agreed! Especially for a non-scholly FCS program. I wouldn't want them coming to the Info.

Here's a template for GoZips to follow, no charge. They (GoZips.com) used to produce a very similar document for all of our games. It's pretty sad when we'll probably be able to get more information out of the opponent's official web site than our own Link

I just called the ticket office to see how many tickets were sold. I have 2 season tickets, but I am bringing along some people with me who do not. I figured we would be safe just getting them at the box office but wanted to be sure we wouldn't be in for a surprise Saturday morning. Was not able to talk to a live person, but listened to the message and learned the game is sold out! No, not the Syracuse game on 9/4/10! The Can't State game on 5/5/09. No, I am not kidding. That is not at all surprising. It's the famous Cinco de Mayo effect on attendance. This had to have been the 3/5/2009 basketball game at the JAR, although nobody probably wants to be reminded of it

I'm waiting until the end of the week before I make my prediction. Here is some new information on the Syracuse depth chart heading into this weekend's game. Of note: a true freshmen is starting at LB AND ex-Zip Jose Cruz is the apparent starter at TE. Link

What I found to be of interest in one of those FCS match-ups, is that 'Gate actually has a slight edge over 'Cuse in the all-time series. For a program with as rich of a history as SU has, that was pretty surprising to me. Link

Here's a pretty interesting read on the "behind the scenes" machinations prior to the recent WAC/MWC convulsions. Link

Awesome!