johnnyzip84

I agree. It was a pleasure to attend last night and I was really glad to be able to thank the team for all they've done for UA. The last game may have sucked, but at least we were able to give a proper closing to a memorable season. Congrats to GoZips for being name fan of the year. Now I'm officially ready to focus on football for a while.

I'm not 100% sure, but there was a very large person in street clothes on the sidelines today at practice who could very well have been Dmitre. This guy was intimidating, whomever he was.

I observed some of today's scrimmage with Zips Win!, and I have a couple of updates. First, as Zips Win! pointed out to me, Rachal actually got his redshirt last year (just as the rule was orginally intended) so he's a RS freshmen this year. He appears to be making gains through the spring to the point where Zips Win! is considering him for "breakout player of the year" in 2013. He made a great goal line stop on DJ Jones (who has had a great spring himself) today among other fine plays. This guy has it. And in case you wondered who Zips Win! had as "breakout player of the year" in 2012, he picked none other than Dalton Williams. Talked to DW13 a little after practice and it's really great to have him helping out this year. It's obvious he bleeds blue and gold even after only one season at UA. Chisholm does look to be a step quicker to me this year as evidenced by his TD burst to the outside in the red zone. The passing game remains a work in progress. Pohl looked OK (besides a bad pick to Bre Ford), but the receivers are dropping too many for my liking (edit: SIX scholarship WRs weren't practicing after the 1st series, so this is somewhat understandable). IMHO, Franco may have been the best backup today. On the injury front, Pughsley looked luke e hurt his ankle as it was on ice. Hopefully, it's nothing serious. Stargel had the red (injured) jersey and limped a little, but at least he wasn't in a boot or anything like that.

GT's take on practice #6

I'm glad you brought this up, Dr Z, because this turn of events (his steady rise on the draft boards) seems to have gone largely unnoticed around here. Fisher was a HUGE reason why Tipton ran wild over the Zips in Mt Pleasant this past year. I've never been impressed with Enos as a head coach. It makes me wonder how the Chipps would have done the last few years with Kelly or Jones still at the helm.

GT's take on practice #5

+1!

They didn't do a lot of situational subbing (if any). He played LB mostly with the 2's. One thing I forgot to mention is that we might want to keep an eye on true sophomore LB John Rachal as it appears to me he might be turning into a vocal leader, even though he split time between the 1's and 2's. His 2012 season ended abrubtly at home early in the year, but I like his size and attitude.

Here are some things I noticed, several of which tie-in to GT's observations and TB's comments: 1) DJ Jones gives the Zips a nice "change of pace" option in the backfield. Like I noticed on video earlier, he has the ability to hide behind his line and uses his quick feet and excellent balance to prevent the defense from delivering a solid blow. Even the one time he did get hit hard he managed to bounce off the tackler and get another 10 yards. 2) While it's true the passing game was far less than optimal, I wouldn't worry too much about that at this stage. A lot of that is timing and TB seemed to concentrate on the running game when the offense was either backed up near their own goal line or in the red zone. I agree that a receiver (or two) who can stretch the field is needed eventually however. 3) The O-Line looks pretty good to me, despite not having a lot of current depth. I believe they're more physically imposing and athletic than last year. 4) I know it's early, but it looks likely that an injury to Pohl could be devistating UNLESS Tommy Woodson arrives ready to play in the fall. 5) Jamel Turner appears to be playing exclusively at LB this year, after playing a little DE last year as well. For Zipgrad01, I'm afraid he doesn't look to have hit the weights very hard over the winter (or perhaps there's a lingering effect from his shooting injuries?). Either way, he looks very thin right now (can't be much over 200 to 210 lb). 6) Safety JAMES Turner looks like a nice player and I'm glad they redshirted him last year. He has nice size and seems to cover the field pretty well. 7) I think the prospect of winning a few more games this year will likely hinge on players who did not participate today (James, Mizell, Hollis, Gauthney, etc). BTW, does anyone know why Hollis is either not enrolled or not playing spring ball?

The HS record in Ohio is 10.38, so that's seems plenty fast to me for a DE He clearly showed great closing speed behind the line of scrimmage a few times last year. JT was a pretty light DE when he was a freshmen. On a side note, I saw a lot of Ravenna's DJ Jones handling the rock in today's video. That should answer a few questions posed by the poster who asked about him several times since last season. He looks like he might have that knack some shorter RBs have to hide behind linemen and "pop" to daylight.

Tulsa is the official 12th (future) member of the American Athletic Conference.

Nevar!!!

Since this list is based entirely on last year's records, without taking into account things like relative conference strength for instance, it's not too surprising since we already knew the MAC did UA no favors with the conference scheduling and the MAC is coming off a banner year. I believe the schedule is daunting, but no way is it the 6th most difficult in the country. It is probably one of the toughest in the MAC, however.

EA of the PD weighs in, albeit with more than one word (and at least one factual error - Reggie is taller than 6'4").

It's good to see Fransohn Bickley from St V will be joining the team as a walkon. I was impressed with his skills as a returner last year. I think he'll be given a real shot there.

WKU to C-USA They will presumably be replacing Tulsa when the Hurricane spins over to the conference formerly known as the Big East.

I'd be shocked if it wasn't scenario 1.

It's great to finally get some information for the upcoming season. A couple of points come to mind: 1) Ben Karam has been with the team for at least a year. 2) William Houst currently goes by William Lee and played in a junior college out west last year instead of enrolling here, so it's unlikely he is headed to UA. 3) An unsung, but pretty important, position on any football is the long-snapper. Lost amidst the losing of the last four years is the fact that the Zips had a very good long-snapper in Adam Steiner during those years. I don't se a single long-snapper identified on the spring roster. I'm sure the staff has someone in mind and that's a position I'll be keeping an eye on over the summer and into the fall.

It seems unlikely that he had an offer here, but you're right that it would be disappointing to lose out to CCU if he did have one from UA. On the other hand, it's only 15.6 miles from Conway to Myrtle Beach......just sayin'

I don't believe THIS SCOUT PROFILE existed a few days ago.

These guys put together a nice montage of Akron references from films over the years. Pretty funny.

That dude looks a lot like Robert Allen Zimmerman.

Did you mean Dalton?