johnnyzip84

I've been looking at these, MDZip, and I'll keep my eyes open. But you make a good point with the BCS comment!

Our most recent JUCO QB snub Boo Jackson is looking pretty good tonight so far for OU. I don't care what their records are, beating either one of these teams on the road will be difficult for the Zips. I see a lot of speed on both teams.OU's defense looks to be pretty solid, too. The next month or so is going to be crazy in this conference.

It's nice to see a relatively unbiased view for a change, but it's still in the context of the Big East's woes rather than having anything particularly good to say about the Zips. But at least it's not as bad as the views most of the media had immediately after the Zip victory over the Orange.

I didn't realize that Temple QB Adam DiMichele was going to be back so soon. This guy could really make a difference for Temple. I know it's a long way off and a lot has to happen before the game remains meaningful in terms of the MAC East race, but I don't exactly relish playing the Owls with this guy back in the regular season closer.

Oh, make no mistaker about it, if Joe did that I am glad he did it. The YSU fan involved is someone who often "asks" for this sort of thing. Besides, that Penguin-Zip rivalry during that time was every bit as heated as the rivalry with Can't.

Look, I hate to be a pain in the rear, but those passing stats for CJ (12 TDs/10 INTs) are, in fact, absolutely incorrect. Here are two separate links, both from well respected sites, that clearly indicate a total of 14 passing TDs this year to date with ZERO rushing TDs (those of us who watch Jacq on a weekly basis know how improbable one of THOSE would be )CBS SportsESPN

I think Gary Pinkel still winces at the thought of that "sort of homecoming" (for him)

Andre Jones will be granted another year of eligibility by all indications. So he and Bowser should have two years of giving MAC corners fits.Of course, Kennedy and Johnson (but not Nixon) will be missed.

I love Frenchie too, but there is just one minor issue I have with him. When things are starting to head south for the Zips, I am already feeling lousy and sometimes his gloomy accounts just push me that much farther into a temporary depression I guess that's just part of having a play-by-play guy who wears his emotions on his sleeves. He IS an exceptionally knowledgeable and experienced person for the position, and we are truly fortunate in that respect. I mean just try to compare him to whoever happens to be the latest "voice of the flushes" Dunn is just as big of a homer IMO, but he seems to be a little more even keeled in his emotions. Having said that, I have a buddy at work who is a YSU grad, and he recalls a game at the bowl in which Joe became enraged at the behavior of my buddy's group. Apparently they were trying to showcase some sort of YSU banner, but they were in the way of Dunn as he was trying to get back to the field. According to my buddy, Dunn allegidly clocked one of the YSU fans with a left hook to the face! Nothing came of it, because the YSU guys has acknowledged some guilt in setting up the situation but it still makes for a good story.Stams has also been a nice addition. I happened to catch him in a bar in Syracuse, and he was very much into the Zips fortunes. That was nice to see (off the air) coming from a guy who played at a higher profile school.

That's assuming his rating of 81 is correct. Who knows if that accounts for 14 TDs or 10? Regardless, while I'd like to see Rodgers play some (I think it's always important for the back-up to get a few meaningful snaps) there is no question Jacq is a far better QB right now, even with his mistakes, than 90% thought he was last year. And while I agree to some extent that he's put the defense in bad positions with his late game mishaps, the bottom line is the defense needs to step up once in a while and cover for these kind of errors instead of basically always caving in and giving up the TD. Let's put it this way. If the defense could just play on a consistent "MAC average" level, the Zips (with Jacq at QB) would be the clear front-runner in the East and also compare reasonably well with the best in the West.

Jacq's stats are messed up here again. He has 14 TDs (all of Akron's TEAM stats), not the 10 listed in the table.

Well I predicted this defense would be one of Akron's best ever, so I think I win the 'worst prognosticator of the year' award In my weak defense, I was counting hugely on Bain, but I think we all know that even if Bain was every bit as good as advertised on game day, this defense would still have its share of problems.BWill probably saved the Syracuse game, lest we forget. I'll admit, he hasn't been as electrifying as I expected but there are bigger problems on the D than BWill. He's not even the most disappointing _Will -> DWill wins this one. He (DWill) has 4 games left to justify his "captainship" as far as I am concerned. Granted the scheme may handcuff some of these players, but COME ON guys.....let's start making some plays down the stretch.Speaking of _Wills, does anyone know how AWill is coming along? I think we miss his ability to get to the ball from the LB spot. This ability of his was quite evident against Army.

I believe that the statement the divisional champs will be "protected" assumes bowl eligibility first. However, in a case like we are seeing this year where there are probably 3 or 4 teams in the west who would LIKELY be SELECTED (if given the chance) over the East Champ by bowl commitees, this statement would seem to "protect" a 7-5 East Champ from losing out on a bowl bid. BTW, don't be surprised in Northern Illinois throws the West into a tangled mess before the season is over.

Former walk on. Marginal talent, at best. True freshman Redshirt Freshman True Freshman with a broken handThree freshman and a walk on aren't playing much. Man, that really sounds like grounds for a conspiracy theory to me. Why not throw in Cowles Stewart while you're at it? He's out for the season with an injury...but I hear it is all a cover up. He's healthy as a horse...there's just a vendetta against him. To clarify, I wasn't implying a conspiracy theory at all. I named Pendelton, because it DOES seem like the coaches have a bug up each of their asses towards him. Just look at the sidelines during a game when the defensive front is getting "coached up". The other names were mentioned, because the D-LINE has collectively had about as much gas left in it during the 4th quarter of the last three games as a Dominos driver in a Hummer on a Friday night. WTF happened to the "we're going to play 22 players on defense" strategy?

I'll bite...Who is being benched because of coaching vendettas?Wallace Pendleton (allegidly) for one. Haxime, Rash and Harvey don't seem to see much, if any, action either these days but I don't have any reason to suspect it's for disciplinary reasons.

Nice find, MDZip. Let's hope the MAC East team "protected" is Akron!

While you might be accused of looking at the season thus far through , I have to admire the positive approach and I generally agree with much of what you said here, skip-zip. The bottom line for me is that with 4 regular season games remaining, there is a decent chance that they'll all be meaningful. And that makes it much more interesting to be a fan at this time of year. I share the same concerns a lot of us have expressed regarding the defense, so I'm not necessarily expecting a MAC East crown, but it's nice to have a shot at it anyway.

AA is not only a JR, but if by chance he DOES get another red shirt year (someone reported here earlier he would seek a 2nd red shirt), we would get him for TWO more years.

where bouts in Pittsburgh?We could have some common ground here.When I was born we lived in Morningside, and when I was 5 we moved to Crafton. I went to Canevin (now goes by Bishop Canevin) High School before attending UA in 1979. There were VERY few non-athletes from PA attending UA at that time. I settled in the Akron area after graduating with an engineering degree in 1984. But I still get back to my mom, two brothers and a sister in the Pittsburgh area. My mom still lives in the same house in Crafton, also the hometown of Bill Cowher BTW

What can you say except OUTSTANDING effort, DK! Glancing over the top rushers I am reminded once again of the pretty nice job the Zip D did against FB Mooney of Army. He's been running wild ever since.

I simply wore my Zips gear proudly every place I ventured while visiting my family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

Lighten up Francis! This kind of thing is par for the course in Zips football, only we generally end up on the wrong end of the craziness.I will say that it was much less of a strain on my emotions in that I could only follow the ESPN ticker from my location yesterday. I am REALLY glad that I never saw the 35-34 EMU lead or else I might have been thinking similar thoughts as you. IN the end, it's a W and we have 18 days of rest to prepare for a home stretch that MATTERS....imagine that! Let's please usher the old lady out the RIGHT way Zippers. LET'S GO ZIPS!! LET'S GO ZIPS!! LET'S GO ZIPS!!

That's true and it was Lemon who was the "extra" lineman. It was sort of his break out game coming off the edge. But I think Army had some trouble running it up the gut too.

I thought there was talk of an injury sometime during camp. Maybe the staff has considered him a certain red shirt since then. Does anyone know if you have to put red shirted players on the roster?

I was thinking about this during the week, and does anyone else find it strange that the one game that sticks out this year in which the defense did a pretty nice job in stopping the run just happened to be against a team that focuses almost solely on the run? Now perhaps because the Zips didn't have to worry too much about Army's passing game, this may have made the job easier. On the other hand, other Army opponents didn't have to worry too much about the pass (against EMU, the Knights failed to complete a single pass) either, and they have still managed to run the ball pretty effectively.One other thing I remembered about the Army game. It was the ONLY game this year in which Wally Pendleton was forced into a starting role. In fact it's the only game this year in which he really saw the field very much at all. Now if you look at the game stats, I don't think he had many tackles, but that really isn't the NT's job. Am I oversimplifying this by concluding that the big guy is very effective in stopping the run?