johnnyzip84

Michael Beaven writes a nice article about DK in the Beacon. It'd be awesome if DK can keep playing at a high level from here on out. One concern is JD's admission that he (DK) is not 100% (in terms of injury) at this point. I suppose all of the players are nursing various bumps and bruises at this time of the year.Link

That's a good point, GJGood. The only Pac-10 team I recall the Zips playing was Oregon St. in Corvallis back in the Faust days. If I recall, we gave them a decent game too, but this was before this particular OSU got decent again in football.I would figure the main reason you don't see these match-ups is because the MAC teams would rather keep more of the "payout" by playing at BCS schools that are closer to home. After thinking about this a little, I remembered that Toledo opened up at Arizona this season. I recall listening to the game on XM on the drive back from Syracuse. But this is certainly an exception and not the rule.

I'm kind of there with you skhorbotly. Oh I'll turn to the OU-UB game at times (mainly to see how they look in terms of stacking up against us) and I understand the logic behind rooting for OU, but it's getting to the point for me where I'm getting a little tired of hoping for "all the cards to fall in place" for us to win a MAC East crown. I say, forget the rest of the East (the crown is IN THE ZIPS OWN HANDS after all) and let's just roll the next four games and be done with all the "what ifs"! Go you mighty Zippers!!!

It would be great to see the O-Line get 100% healthy and just dominate the rest of the season, even more so than they have already. I just hope the timing is still there after the long break. If there's one unit that I think the entire team can lean on, it's this one.

I was just checking in on Cleveland.com and apparently it was none other than Elton Alexander who made these picks for the Sporting News. It's nice to see the program's reputation continue to grow with someone who follows it more closely than the national media.Link

If this holds true in the MAC this year, then Northern Illinois will eventually win it all. And believe it or not, but that just might happen

I'm enjoying the thoughtful discussion so far. Maybe we're all a little tired of rhetoric with the elections approaching I have a few points to add. Buckzip and sgm405, I agree that OSU will pretty much always get the pick of the litter here in Ohio. And since Akron will probably always focus the bulk of its recruiting in the Ohio/Western PA region, this is a definite "built-in" advantage. Will this advantage ever be eliminated? Probably not, but it could diminish somewhat over time given the right circumstances. The fate of college football programs can be difficult to predict. Witness SMU's crazy ride (pre and post death penalty) over the last 30 years or the rise and fall of Miami (Fla) or Snyder's miracle work at Kansas St or Boise State's ascendance.Demographics could possibly prevent the Zips from ever seeing a meteoric rise in program status, like the ones seen in Fresno, Boise, USF, etc. But a consistent improvement is certainly achievable with the resources that are now in place.Buckzip, your statement about the "hatred" being one-sided in the UA-OSU debate made me think. You probably have a point here. But is it better to be hated (in return) or to be ignored? I think that's where a lot of Zip fans who hold any resentment towards OSU are coming from. I think they'd at least like to be recognized and not ignored, whether it's by the media or by "Joe the Football Fan".Oh I do need to share a pretty funny (and related) story. I took my son, who is a Sr in HS this year, down to OSU for a campus visit last Friday. My whole family knows of my disdain for anything OSU-related, so I think it's a fair statement to say that I put aside my own personal feelings to support my son's interests. Anyway, we're in these tour groups and the guide is naturally a big Buckeye fan so he keeps trying to get our small group to do the whole "OH-IO" chant when we run into another tour group. True to form, this is where I simply had to draw the line. They must have done that goofy chant a dozen times, and each time I would stubbornly refuse to engage whatsoever.BTW, I grew up in PA as well BUT I always rooted for Pitt against Penn St in those days. So you think I might pull for OSU against PSU, right? Nahhhhhh!!

I don't know about you guys, but watching part of that Toledo/CMU game, a week from Wednesday scares me a little bit now. They looked pretty good out there. Granted, LeFevour was clearly not 100% (let's hope he gets there before the BSU/CMU matchup), their defense performed well. The offense seemed to struggle with the same unimaginative redzone playcalling as the Zips, having stalled out inside the ten several times to settle for fieldgoals. For some reason I don't have the faith in the 3-3-5 to stop a team in short yardage with 1st and goal...I think the key will be jumping on UT early. They obviously have enough talent to play with a lot of teams (Fresno, Michigan) but they have laid some major eggs as well (Ball St., NIU, FIU). I look at it this way. If the Zips can't win this one, then we have no business talking about a MAC East Championship.

On a related note, I happen to have Massillon Cable TV and I get a channel called CBS College Sports. Well on their ticker (ESPNU USED to do this too) they include the top 20 scores in college soccer......well at least every team EXCEPT Akron! I was watching it yesterday and I noticed all the other teams, including Cal-Irvine at #20 tying somebody 1-1. So I KNOW it's not just the "BCS" teams that are included. This just seems like another example of the soccer powers that be simply not knowing how to handle this Zip juggernaut. Please win out Zips and force these people's hands!

I made this point in an earlier thread, but I copied and pasted here (below) for convenience.As you can see, only 4 (MAC) teams were ABOVE 0.500 over that period (JD's tenure). Here's another interesting note. It's Ball St.'s records under Brady Hoke.2003 4-82004 2-92005 4-72006 5-72007 7-62008 7-0If you look at the 1st five years, he's well under 0.500. What would have happened if Ball St. decided to give up on him after last season? I think if JD can finish 6-6 this year (much like Brady's 7-6 last year), he has to be given a chance to open the Info. Kelly's job at CMU was a pretty quick fix. I think he only has one losing season before getting the Chips going. I do agree with one thing you said though......DUH is just about right!

NIU's defense held Sheehan under 100 YDS passing and the whole BG team well under 200 YDS. Next weeks' Ball St/NIU game in Muncie should be outstanding. I'll be the old "irresistable force vs. immovable object". I hope it's on TV.

ESPN scoreboard is so slow.Wow, this is HUGE for us! Now it's all in our own hands. Come on Zippers!!!

"Going into the wind"I thought NIU had an indoor football facility!I'll bet your thinking of Northern Iowa's UNI-Dome.

We sure do need NIU to pick it up in the 2nd half. Besides helping our cause, it might help set up a repeat of the 2005 MAC Championship Game. That's my favorite scenario, if given the choice.

Hmmm........Youngstown?.......Sanitation Engineer?...........known associates such as Z-P?The good Capo.....errrrr..... I mean Cap'n need not worry about ME failing to fall in line from now on

First of all, Cap'n, nice job on the Acme-Zip story. I believe we're clearly better off without it or some half-hearted attempt to revive it or something similar. Why would we discount ANYTHING or rely on gimmicks with our brand spanking new facility awaiting?Now I will go a little farther out on the limb regarding Ball St. IF NIU gets past BG's road warriors this weekend, the Huskies will not only ruin the Cards undefeated season (in Muncie no less), but THEY will win out and capture the MAC West crown in stunning fashion. Their defense is head and shoulders the best in this crazy league.

I'd love this one - you guys can hang at my house. DC would be cool as anything. I'll bring a growler or two of OBC beer, MDZip!

I like your restraint here and I nearly agree (except I'm not ready to demand an East crown for JD to keep his job). But LOU TEPPER? What other ex-Big 11 wash-ups do you have in mind? Gary Moeller? John Cooper? Lee Corso? Oh I realize old Lou is still gainfully employed in the coaching ranks as HC of the Crimson Hawks (formerly Big Indians), but he was only 25-31-2 in his tenure at Illinois. Improved records at Edinboro and now at IUP might be of interest to the likes of 'eguins, but I see little difference between these accomplishments and those of LO at Ashland. Unless the Zips fall apart, JD should stay for at least one more year. But if the wheels DO come off, I sure hope we don't go after a re-tread like Tepper.

Is it anymore frustrating to think if we had continued the way we were going against Can't that we would be out of it?Yeah we lost to BG, that's just the way the chips fall, it sucks. But we still have the chance, that doesn't happen that often. So forget about the BG loss, there's nothing the team can do about it, and think positive about the fact that if we can win out we can roll into a bowl game and a MAC championship.exactly what i was going to say. The way I see it, this break offers us a chance to go into our final 4 games with a lot of energy. We should forget about every other game thus far and see these last 4 as a whole new season. Hell, we could even think of them as our playoffs and that to reach our goal of a bowl game, we need to win every game. Yes, those expectations are high, but if we want to secure our spot in the MAC championship and have a fighting chance against the west champ (more than likely Ballsack State) we need win out. Just my $.02I like that approach. I hope the players and staff treat every game like it's an elimination game.

I think there are two other factors to assess, and these are "trends" and "special considerations". For instance, if JD had come out in 2008 with say a 3-9 record, that could easlity be viewed as a trend in the wrong direction (linear even) coming off 5 and 4 win seasons in 2006 and 2007 respectively. I believe the move to the new stadium warrants "special consideration". With the projected revenues being necessary to pay off the financing, it is vital that the product on the field lives up to reasonable expectations. I, for one, have said all along that a 6-6 record should secure JD another year in 2009, and a 5-7 mark is borderline (4-8 or less should be cause to at least consider letting him go). Of course now that we're already 4-4, I won't be too pleased with anything less than 7-5 But I'll still stick with my original criteria.BTW, has anyone else noticed that the MAC in general seems to be fairly stable in terms of head coaches lately? Parity (or mediocrity, take your pick) tends to help in that regard I suppose.

Huh?

That reminds me of the time I rented an Armani suit for my vasectomy

Perhaps we should ditch the "all blues" at home as well! They are attractive, but aren't we 0-3 with them this year? Do we even have gold pants anymore as an option?BTW, look at what I stumbled upon when trying to verify the last time the Zips wore gold pants. Here is a link that ranks our UNI's (although the image they use is from the 2005 season!) as SECOND WORST in the country behind Tennessee. Must be a Can't website Link

With the free fall the Badgers are in, I wouldn't mind seeing that either. But I'm not sure if UW will be bowl eligible or not. If they don't beat Illinois this weekend, I'm not sure if even the closer against Cal Poly will save them.I think we'd all be glad to be playing anywhere.

Carlton Jackson and Sean Hakes have each found their way to the Delaware/Maryland area, both seeing some action this year at Morgan St. and Delaware respectively. CJ has been the starter for Morgan St. this year and looks to have played fairly well (Link 1).Link 1Hakes looks to be the backup at Delaware, which is having an uncharacteristicly poor season. He only has taken one snap all year (Link 2).Link 2