Balsy

Great news CK, Thanks for the update!

Zips: 31-0, book it!

It's time to move on from the Ball State game and begin discussing the game that will decide the MAC East. Despite losing two straight games, the Zips are still in the hunt, and in control of their own destiny. Bowling Green: 5-3 (3-1) Akron 4-4 (2-2) A win means that the Zips will be tied with BG at 3-2 in the MAC, with Akron controlling the tie breaker between the two. Where: Akron, Ohio When: Tuesday November 4th TV: ESPN 2 Discuss.

One that is more about local advertising than it is the Zips, and follows a formula of what happened last game, players of the game, opponent next week.

A championship visit is still possible folks...don't give up so easily. The Zips are still in control of their own destiny.

LeBron is growing on me. I am man enough to admit I was wrong. LeBron,

It was a necessary rant. We'll all feel pretty stupid when the Zips cream BGSU.

Great, great, great, great post. Finally some sense on this thread.

Wow. I'm shocked how unbelievable you guys are being right now. Are we really this delusional to think we could have had a 10 win year this season? Folks, reality check. I know I caught myself a couple of times starring at the schedule saying "what if..." or "we can do it..." But back to reality: This program has NEVER had even an 8-win season IN ITS HISTORY OF D-I FOOTBALL. That's the place to start. You don't go from 3-33, to 10-2. Yeah, I wish we could. I've was angry on Saturday after losing to Ball St saying to myself "why can't we be the team that goes from Zero to Hero in one year...why can't that be us for once?" But then hearing all the doom-and-gloom from you guys has snapped me back to reality. I know I haven't suffered as long as you guys have, but My first year of supporting the Zips was the year Infocision opened and Brookheart was fired (aka the dark ages). It's a miracle I'm a Zips Football fan at all. Many of us didn't even expect a 7-5 season this year, why on earth are we complaining about not going 10-2? Were we really that spoiled with the Pitt win? We lack Depth at many skill positions. We lack the athletes to execute on offense. This is a great season, it's not time to give up. We can still win 8 games. We can still win 7 games (and frankly should). If we were 7-5 at the end of the year, would you really be that upset? Go back to that number I mentioned before: 8. Akron hasn't had an 8 win season in over three decades of football. Checking the numbers, the last time we had a season where we won 8 or more games was in 1985 folks, when Jim Dennison was the coach; 4 years before I was born! Do you guys seriously think we're going to go from 28 years of less than 8-wins a year, and barely 2 seasons removed from 3-33, to winning 10 games a season? Really? So much so that you're going to doom-and-gloom/run and conspiracy-theory Bowden. Who would you rather have here? You have to be joking. Many of the comments being made now are absolutely ridiculous. If the Zips win 7 games, I will consider that a success. That what I said at the begining of the year, and I will hold to it. 3/4 is within reach. Should we be happy? No. Should we be angry over losing 2 games we could have won? Yes. Should we accept mediocrity? No. But we can't throw Bowden under the bus in year 3after 2 games. What an absolute joke. No wonder Akron has had mediocrity in the past, what kind of "big name" coach would commit to turning this awful program around. We're throwing around the "building process" as a negative thing. Yes it can be, but just how in the hell did you think we were going to turn around a 3-33 team? IT IS A BUILDING PROCESS FOR PETE SAKE! Sorry about the rant, but I'm really disappointed in some of you old-timers on this forum.

This conspiracy nonsense has to stop.

Keener that's exactly what Bowden has said in numerous interviews, especially those early last year '13. (The air raid year was '12, '11 was iCoach still ) Bowden said, even as far as interviews this year, that last year they realized that it was defense that was going to win games for them. His first year they didn't have the athletes to hold on defense, so they were able to gun sling the ball around (which also led to a lot of turnovers). According to Bowden, if you're going to have the defense win games or you, you need to give them favorable field position (not off a turnover). Bowden mentioned that they toned down the offense in order to put the defense in favorable positions. (and it gave us the first 5-7 season we'd had in a long...long time). What you should be even more disturbed about is Pohl. I remember Bowden saying sometime in '13, that they had toned playbook for the young signal caller (who was Pohl) so he could run it better. There was a minor discussion about it on this forum, while we were in a losing slump last season. There has been a lot of outrage the past couple of days on a non-existent QB controversy, but if Pohl wasn't able to handle the full offense, we need someone who can. Bowden is a great coach, and he's taking the long road with us to turn us into something great. Enjoy the ride everyone.

+1. Well said! You've got to realize, winning is new to us Zips fans when it comes to football. We see the enemy everywhere, especially within.

Thanks for pointing out what we already know/

Hirshman played so well during his only game as Zip QB (other than sitting on the sidelines) that it had ZN.O discussing whether or not Hirschman should be starting over Pohl. That game was against Lousiana-Lafayette last year. He was an instant spark for an Akron offense (that was led by Pohl at the time, whom had thrown two interceptions and was down 14 poitns). He led two scoring drives bringing the game to a tie. The bad thing was: he injured himself in that game, on a celebration. He jumped around and came down funny on his knee (from what I remember). He never looked the same since. During spring practice this year, he still seemed hobbled by the knee injury he sustained from that September game last year. Feel bad for the guy, but hopefully he's making the best of the free grad school.

Well said.

+1. Don't forget we also have Travon Chapman who throws a great ball can move in the pocket and scramble. Zips have a good stable of QBs after this year. What we all should be worried about is other offensive weapons. WRs are desperately needed.

Hearsay. I expected better from you GP1. I beginning to think your anti-Bowden. Because when it comes down to being Coach's word (a primary source of information), or ZipsWin!'s word (secondary source)...or rather the word from the source that ZipsWin! got it from (so hearsay on the hearsay, so a tertiary source) you choose Zipswin! Ridiculous. ZipsWin! If you read this, I'm not trying to throw you under the bus.

I agree. Despite Ohio, and Ball St games being upsetting...we're still second in the MAC East. The Zips are still in control of their own destiny. A win over BG would tie the Zips with BG at 5-4, 3-2 (with us controlling the tie breaker). BG has a more difficult schedule after they play us: Playing Ball State, Can't and West Powerhouse Toledo. We play Buffalo, UMass and Can't. We have all this talk about Bowden keeping Pohl out and such, but I'd rather have him rested, healed and ready to go for BGSU than rushing him in against other lesser "hungry" opponents. The Zips can beat BGSU, and all this freaking out will end. Go Zips!

That is what the facts support.

According to you. According to the rational universe, it's a solution to the fact that one suffered an impact to his head that cause a "concussion like injury" not 14 days earlier.

I wouldn't want him on the field either, when (two weeks ago) he was hit in the head to the point that he couldn't even return to the sidelines save for a couple of minutes, and was inactive for one game (last week) because he had a "concussion like" head injury. Cut the crap.

Because the personell decisions you're criticizing are those that deal with a freakin injury! It's not like the hotly debated discussion hear of Hundley vs Chisholm...where I ALWAYS criticized the use of Chisholm over Hundley, but I trust Bowden and his experienced staff more than I trust Balsy or GP1's. We didn't lose this game because of Pohl vs Woodson. We lost this game because a young team forgot how to win. Imani Davis fumble, the blocked punt... Note: I'm not advocating Pohl or Woodson. I'd like to see Pohl in again this year, yet I also think that (with time, practice, etc) Woodson has a much higher ceiling than Pohl does. Pohl will be in next week anyways, so all of these comments are irrelevant. Bowden IS immune to criticism when that criticism is conspiracy-theorist-esque with zero facts to back it up.

I'm angry about losing 2 straight games, but I think I'm more angry at the fans trying to canabalize our coach, who has turned this awful program around. Get real folks. There were (what I thought) some bad play calls. I hate when we're throwing the ball on first down when we have a lead. I'm assuming our heterogeneously constructed OL didn't help with that.

I completely disagree GP1, and to be honest I'm disappointed in you that you're sounding like a conspiracy theorist. Facts matter, and so does context. Facts: It's not like Bowden up and benched Pohl in the middle of a game in lieu of his "Pet" Woodson. Pohl was smacked on the last play of the first half against Miami. He de-dressed from the game...came out of the locker room (somewhat gingerly from what I remember)...rode on the bike for a couple mins, and IMMIDIATELY went back to the locker room. It may not have been a concussion, but something wasn't right. Nothing official about Pohl's status was made (despite claims of the conspiracy contingent here) until about Thursday of this week. Everything I saw with Pohl is consistant with a head-injury (non concussion) re-introduction. And I'm sorry folks, I don't care how "connected" you are. If it's not coming from the coach's mouth publicly (thus officially) it is to be disregarded as hearsay. Pohl Facts: Miami: Left the game, de-dressed. Came back on field, went back to Locker room. Ohio: Did not dress for the game. Woodson Starts, Hirschman Backup. Ball St: Pohl cleared to play (according to Bowden on Thursday). Woodson Starts, Pohl backup. For all we know, coach talked to Pohl about playing and Pohl's response was: "coach I don't know if I'm ready today, but I'll be ready for BGSU!" We don't know. THIS is the proper protocol of reintroducing a player who had head injury. Those claiming Bowden is playing a game with a "pet", you could easily argue that Bowden will follow the proper procedure of reintroducing a player regardless of the outcome of a game. That is what a responsible coach does. Now I will not object to the criticism IF AND ONLY IF Pohl doesn't start next week (or there is a very good reason why he doesn't) against Bowling Green. I would be shocked (simply based on the progression of injury and reintroduction) if Pohl didn't start next week. In fact, Bowden is in a perfect position. He didn't introduce his starting 8-3 QB too early (and possibly lost the games because he was back to early from a freakin head injury) and he can reintroduce that 8-3 QB into the conference game that matters a lot more, after being fully recovered. The biggest take away from this is NOT conspiracy BS about our coach. Its that the Zips lack depth to win games if we lose our talented players. Marshall, Ohio and Ball St. can each be chalked up to the loss of our talented players. Hell even Penn St's performance could because Justin March left the game for some time. We're building something special here in Akron, and we're going to have more growing pains folks. We're not there yet. Bowden IS here for the long haul. He WILL bring the success we all desperately crave.

I agree 7 games is the magical number, but we also need to be Top 5 of the conference. Period. Top 5 of the conference guarantees a bowl game. Overall record wise we're sixth. Toledo, NIU, BGSU, WMU, CMU, Akron. Our closing schedule is favorable. We need 3/4. We need to get our OL straightened out, and get Pohl back into the game.