johnnyzip84

The Owls will turn the 1st half into a feathery fracas, behind the "hoot" hand of DiMichele. This will cause Cosby to awaiken from his nap, but alas Bill will soon be gagging on his Jello pudding when the Zips storm back in the 2nd half with forgotten TE's Poindexter and Kasparek EACH hauling in a TD reception! Zips 31 Owls 24

I agree about guarding against a "letdown". This is always a threat when you are talking about college football. I think the Zips are the better team, but I think Temple has shown that they can play well on a given day, and they themselves will come in on a high note with the win over NIU. I think the Zips will win, but will not cover (spread was 10 points at the beginning of the week).

Very few followers of the MAC this season would place the West ahead of the East. I'll admit, heading into the season the West appeared to be stronger, but the results on the field speak for themselves.

Wow, that "lateral" looked more like a no-look, chuck-it-behind-me, desperation toss, but that only made it more of an amazing play. Loved it!

I'm sitting here, watching ESPN2 and waiting for the playing of the game winning return, so I figured I'd listen to the audio 1st. Outstanding!!! As someone said, Frenchie always wears his emotions on his sleeve, and this play allows him to run the gamut! I can't wait to see it in a minute. Go Zips!!!

After watching some of the Chipps' dismantling of Ball State, I would not be surprised to see them win one of those 4 road games. Nevertheless, your point is well taken. Until the MAC can even out the divisions, there is no way to have both equitable and "bowl-friendly" schedules. If CMU wins the league (or just loses the MACC game) without being bowl eligible, it's there own fault for getting smoked at home by North Dakota State.

I was told Da'Von tore his ACL. I'll try to get more info.I thought I saw him on the sidelines during the Can't game?

I hate to dwell on ancient history, but I cannot recall the Zips ever winning in Kalamazoo, MAC members or not. I remember a Faust era game, where we were setting up for a FG that would have made victory likely (and it also would have extended a nice winning streak at the beginning of the season.....I think we were even getting some Top 20/25 votes at the time) only to have it blocked and returned for a TD that eventually won the game for Western. Other than that, I don't think we've been very competitive there. Does anyone have different recollections?

Hee hee ha ha ho ho!!!!! Dr Z!!

I realize it's a team game, and his O-Line may not be helping him much, but a 40.7 completion percentage is not even a very respectable HS number.

Through 5 games at Orange Coast JC, Hakes has the following passing stats:Att Comp Int Yards TD15 6 2 53 114 4 0 57 126 13 0 130 28 5 1 69 018 5 0 121 0He's not exactly lighting it up!

I realize they graduated some excellent talent on defense from last year’s squad (especially Ameer Ismail), but it’s hard to believe how far this Western D has dropped in such a short time. They TOTALLY shut us down in the Rubber Bowl last year. In fact, that was about as painful as it got for me last year. I hate to say it, but I think the Zips will play a pretty decent game this Saturday night, only come up a little short. I’ll say:WMU 31Zips 27CJ7 will come off the bench to lead a dramatic, yet ultimately unsuccessful comeback, causing many of us to wonder “what if?”.

Well stated, g-mann17! I couldn't agree more. We all have different opinions on the direction of the program, what's wrong and what's right with it, but there is no reason that we all shouldn't support the team, regardless of the circumstances. I, for one, am very grateful that the fate of the Zips is important enough for all of us on this board to share our thougts and let off steam every now and then. Go Zips!!!

My kids go to Northwest, and the word there is that he's waiting (I know, aren't they all) for an offer from the Red and Silver Football Factory.

uakronkid, you hit the nail on the head. I would add that UConn already has a full (or nearly full) Rentschler Field for all of it's games (witness Saturday) and huge name recognition (mostly due to the hoops program) in one of the most densely populated places in the US. Let's not forget the close proximity to the largest TV market in the country. I agree with Quickzips that their rise in football has been quite sudden, but the reasons listed above and by uakronkid allowed for it to happen. They also took full advantage of, what looked at the time, to be the dismantling of the BigEast (when the defectors began jumping ship).

You seem to think that, in 2007, Akron competes on a level playing field with Indiana and UConn. While I think the University has taken steps to get there, I do not think we are there yet. A win against them would be great, and I think we should pull one off (even now) every now and then (like NC State last year), but I don't see how we should EXPECT it to happen. The UConn fan is right. Some of us aren't giving them enough credit. There program is farther ahead than ours, plane and simple Any neutral college football observer would agree.

Call me a rationalist or a realist, but going into this season I did not EXPECT the Zips to win any of the 3 games against BCS opponents. In fact, besides the 2nd half collapse yesterday, this season has gone pretty much according to what most people would think has been expected. Is there plenty of room for improvement? Yes, of course. Do some of JD's decisions deserve to be questioned? Yeah, I'd agree. But what is with, what I consider, an expectation that the Zips should be playing SUBSTANTIALLY better than they have thus far? Have we forgotten games like the the 65-0 loss to Miami U not so long ago? I'll gladly take a 2nd half collapse against a decent (at least) UConn team over having a fellow MAC member offering a humiliating slice of "mercy" by taking a knee with the ball in our territory BEFORE HALFTIME!!! My point is simple. JD MAY not be the greatest coach in the world, but I'm not ready to take a chance at getting somebody worse.

I agree completely and will pass along my thanks to the Beacon. I was very surprised to see Akron and Can't on the cover, with the Zips coverage more prominent. It was a small consolation for the tough second half yesterday, but at least the Beacon seems to be listening (perhaps?).

I reserve judgement on this until we know (if it ever gets out) why JD disciplined CJ. I have no problem with JD making a point that could hurt the Zips in the short term but prove to be essential for CJ in the long run, because I think we need CJ in order to give us the best shot at winning week to week.

I wouldn't be surprised if JD was holding Big Nate back (to get closeer to 100%) for the games that really matter. I was disappointed that the Zips let this one get out of control, but it's not that surprising. I will say this, though. We NEED to play a good game at Western, even if it doesn't count in the MAC standings. The psyche of this team is looking a little fragile right now to me. Let's hope CJ is back and playing like he did against IU.

I might ask none other than the Marshall Blundering Turd whether the grass has been greener thus far in C-USA. UConn and South Florida both offer far larger markets than Akron (unless you count Cleveland, and obviously it's unwise to assume that, given how the TV stations THERE treat us), and that is how they got into the Big East. Well, that and the fact that the Big East had just been raided by the ACC and was in a bit of a desperate situation in the aftermath. We need to establish ourselves as a consistent MAC power before even thinking about another league. But for the sake of dreaming, I'd rather see a new league form, taking select schools from the MAC and possibly building from there. C-USA is the only likely candidate right now, and I think it's way too sprawled across the country for good rivalries to form.

I see the dude who wrote this was probably (mistakenly) swayed by the Beacon's incorrect caption of Paris McNeal "hoisting" the wagon wheel. Granted, I will allow that the whole team actually earned this right, but I can't help but think the error is being propagated.

I do feel that there was one critical point in the game where the Zips could have better utilized CJ's abilities. It was on the last 3rd down opportunity for the Zips. I believe the Can't defense was showing signs of fatigue, so instead of running inside like we did, I felt that some bootleg action, with CJ getting to the edge would have probably picked up the 1st down and the Zips would likely have held onto the ball for the rest of the game. It would have been a fairly "safe" call too, with the worst thing to likely happen being CJ going out of bounds before getting the 1st. In that situation, though, I'd take my chances with his speed against a tiring opponent more often than not. I'd like to see more bootleg action with CJ in general because of the pressure it puts on the defense.

I see on Yahoo that UConn has opened as a 13 point favorite. With the Zips banged up the way they are, this is probably about right. This, of course, does not mean that if we put together 4 solid quarters on both sides of the ball, we can't come away with a nice win on the road.While watching UConn beat Pitt the other night on ESPNU, I was pretty impressed with thier new QB (Lorenzen) and thier small, quick back. When they showed UConn's upcoming schedule towards the end of the game, Mike Gottfried gaves the Zips props, mentioning the win over Can't and the fact that it won't be an easy game for UConn. "Akron's got a pretty good football team" is what I believe he said. He's always pulling for the MAC, it seems.

You hit the nail right on the head, Zip81! It may have been "only" 22,000, but the atmosphere was outstanding. As much as I dislike Can't, I hope the football rivalry just continues to grow. I've been to VERY FEW games at the bowl where there was as much excitement and acknowledgment from the fans (on both sides, especially YOU, you A-K-Rowdies!!!) throughout the game. It was a wonderful day indeed!