Balsy

The Key to this game is QB. Christian Hackenberg is Penn State. Despite throwing for 450 yards against UCF, he only came away with 1 TD, 2 INT and was sacked twice. Pressure Hackenberg early, shake him early, keep him in the pocket and (most importantly) keep him off the field. This may sound impossible, but we've got to control the pace of this game. This is a winnable game.

Tuesday night games with ESPN coverage, or Saturday afternoon games (at the same time that OSU, Alabama (etc...) play) with no ESPN coverage. This is the reality of the situation folks. People won't come to Akron games on a saturday afternoon. They won't come on a Tuesday evening either. When will they come? Stop worrying about the Tuesday games. Until we're good enough to fill the stadium on a Saturday afternoon (with other big games going on that people could be watching) we have no business complaining about it. We need to stop bellyaching over Tuesday night games. If we're good enough to fill our stands, than we're good enough to start demanding National attention. We're not there yet, so make the best with these lemons. Toledo Game was on a Weekday game, and it was the 2nd most exciting Zips FB game I've ever been to. I didn't drink at that game either...still had the best time. Winning will change EVERYTHING. Period. End of discussion. Everything else is background noise.

A positive Tommy Brown ruling would certainly help.

In regular #MACtion fashion, the MAC has faired well against it's FCS opponents...but not well against anyone else. Can't and Ohio's game was exactly where I thought it'd be, except Ohio winning was not expected. Buffalo had a horrible 1st half against Duquesne, (right now) EMU is fighting to hold onto a measly 3pt lead. BGSU had a TERRIBLE game against WKU. Way to represent the MAC BGSU. Hopefully their Defense looks like that when we play them. UMass actually held Boston College to only a 23 pt lead. I was expecting them to be blown out by 40. Miami is the major surprise this week. They held in tough against the Mighty Thundering Herd.

Will update this list weekly. This is a place to discuss MAC football games for the 2014 season, while also seeing where the MAC is vs other conferences. MAC vs. FCS: 12-2 W Akron vs Howard W Ball St. vs Colgate W CMU vs UT Chatanooga W NIU vs Presbyterian W Buffalo vs Duquesne W Toledo vs New Hampshire W EMU vs Morgan St. W BGSU vs VMI L Miami vs E. Kentucky W WMU vs Murray St. L Ball St vs Indiana St W Buffalo vs Norfolk St W WMU vs Murray St W Ohio vs Eastern Illinois MAC vs. BIG: 3-8 L WMU vs Purdue L Ball St. vs Iowa W CMU vs Purdue W NIU vs Northwestern L Akron vs Penn State W BGSU vs Indiana L Can't St. vs State Ohio L Miami vs Michigan L EMU vs Michigan State L BGSU vs Wisconsin L UMass vs Penn State MAC vs. C-USA: 0-5 L Miami vs Marshall L BGSU vs W. Kentucky L Ohio vs Marshall L EMU vs Old Dominion L Akron vs Marshall MAC vs. AAC: 0-2 L Toledo vs Cincinnati L Miami vs Cincinnati MAC vs. ACC: 1-4 L UMass vs Boston College L CMU vs Syracuse L WMU vs Virginia Tech W Akron vs Pittsburgh L Can't vs Virginia MAC vs. M-WEST: 1-0 W NIU vs UNLV MAC vs. Big-12: 0-1 L Buffalo vs Baylor MAC vs. PAC-12 0-2 L UMass vs Colorado L CMU vs Kansas MAC vs. Sun Belt: 2-1 L Can't vs. S. Alabama W WMU vs. Idaho W Ohio vs Idaho MAC vs. Independents: 0-1 L Buffalo vs Army MAC vs. SEC: 0-4 L Ohio vs Kentucky L Toledo vs Missouri L EMU vs Florida L UMass vs Vanderbilt (very close game for a MAC vs SEC game) L NIU vs Arkansas

What happened to the "legendary" BGSU defense? They gave up 708 total yards, 569 passing yards, WKU QB Brandon Doughty was 46-56 with 6TD. Doughty for Heisman! What an embarrassing performance by the defending MAC Champs.

ZipGrad you beat me to the punch. So far I am not impressed with Dino Babers' team. Two red zone trips that ended with zero points...one turnover one turnover on downs and a missed field goal. Hunter has been kicked out of the game. QB and WRs seem out of sync. The Pride of the MAC, Flagship MAC champion is looking terrible.

If we expect ourselves to be "able" to give Marshall and Pitt (even Penn State) a run for their money, why shouldn't we equally expect that we can beat them? If we're ever going to get out of the "mentality of losing" we need to start thinking that winning IS possible. It IS possible that we can beat these three teams. It will be difficult. It isn't likely. But it IS realistic and it IS possible. What I was saying is that if we beat all three of those teams, are 4-0. It will do a lot with attendance issue. It will do more than being 1-3, 2-2, that's for darn sure.

How about win against all three.

I've been thinking for a long time that Chisholm is vastly overrated. I have always liked Conor Hundley over Chisholm in the running game. As for the ineffective offensive execution in the 2nd, hopefully it was because the coaching staff were trying different things to give the players experience/practice vs. a live opponent.

I guess I have to admit that I was wrong. Thursday attendance was terrible. Students were there in the normal "first game" numbers. This team desperately needs a "big" win. And a streak of competitive fun football. I sat in the stands with my GF yesterday, I'm the biggest die-hard zips fan, and I was almost not having a good time. A WIN is a WIN, but after scoring 21 in under 5 mins, that almost complete sucked all the fun out of the air. IDK if it was me, but it certainly felt that way. Now if that had been Penn State I'd be entertained to watch the game because of "can they hold on..." "is this really happening". This game I found myself thinking "good lord we scored 21...why aren't we scoring more in the 2nd?" (howard drives the field) "good lord, are we really going to let them come within 14, and go into the locker room with momentum..." etc. I do have a solution: Freakin schedule the Can't-AKRON game as the first game of the season instead of the last, and freakin beat 'em. Better weather will = more people. Beating your rival = more fun.

Pregame show Frenchie reported that there is still "no official word". I'd imagine that the NCAA would wait till AFTER the Penn State game to make such a ruling. Anything to screw non-darling, MAC Akron. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but being a Browns/Zips fan....I'm slowly becoming one.

It was an awfully small crowd. I'm not sure it was that low (9100)...but the surrounding NE Ohio community is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

I am very concerned about the run game.

Zips 57-7. Pohl 300 yrds 4td. Chisholm 120 rds, 2td.

Stats from game against MAC heavy weight EMU last season: G. McGhee 19/32 182 5.7 1 2 - G. McGhee 14 93 6.6 1 75

I expect the NCAA (just like the NFL) to drag their feet.

Yeah...being a THURSDAY night game on the first week, no-one will be heading home for the weekend. The REC Center will be closed. More off-campus student apartments are closer to the stadium than ever before. More "commuter" students (those living in apartments) are closer than they ever were before. Bowden indoctrinated the freshman class during the week-of-welcome (the entire freshman class filled up the 1/2 of the lower bowl basically). Student attendance should be rather good. Now Zips, bring us a win so we can keep them. There also is a grad student offering extra credit to her freshman students whom go to the game and take a selfie at the game. I may or may not have influenced that.

I love 'em. Don't want to see them every game, but 1-2 games (especially if they win in them) I'm all for it. It's time to shakeup the MAC, why not have a new look with it.

Some professors at Akron are phenomenal too. Oh, there's also some terrible professors at just about every university ever.

The excuse that is often given is the adage: "There's not a demand for it". Nonsense. The ABJ Sports section is quickly becoming a rag. I hope your reading GT...I hope your reading.

Tuesday Morning Update: Zippy leading Wilma: 89% - 11%

Zach, are point totals posted?

Good point Zach. That is an important thing to know. Especially if it comes down to us facing the Buckeye war machine.