Lee Adams

I'm gonna go back to something Detweiler said after the UB game.His observation was that when the coaches had the O-Line down in the 3-point stance (instead up in the 2-point) the running game with Sands carrying got better. He said the O-Line was getting a better initial surge into the D-Line than when they were standing up. I didn't really notice. But,if that was accurate you have to hope there was more emphasis on that in prep for the Miami game.

My wife almost refused to go to the 2005 game with me. In fact I believe they were contemplating cancelling the game because it was so cold and it was snowing/blowing so much. We sat in the parking lot listening to Frenchy on the radio to see if they were gong to play. It was quite amazing. Just before the game started the snow began to back off and a bright sunshine eventually bathed the players and fans(sigh). Its almost as if the football gods decided that this game had to be played that day so that the Zips could beat KS.u and go to Detroit. That game had to happen! J.D. was later quoted as saying he knew we were going to win when KSSU fumbled and Akron ran it in for a TD. I don't know if the official temp was 14 above or 14 below. I know I have never been to a colder game. We sat in front of the press box to try to avoid some of the wind. Every 10 minutes or so my wife went to the restroom to get 'warm'. I keep thinking if that many people would show up for that game,a 'meaningful' game under those conditions, just imagine if the Zips could play meaningful games on a regular basis. They will never fill that place but if the perception of the program changed it could make a difference.

Good catch.Not fast but is big body and can catch anything close. Tough match up. A little more pressure will help.

For figure filberts: MAC only/From MAC website: Miami Akron Total Offense: #4-427.6 #10-330.8 Score Offense: #8-25.2 #9-24.2 Rush Off: #6-169.2 #11-103.6 Pass Off. #3-258.4 #5-227.2 Individ. Rush #5-Young-86.6 No Top 10 Individ Pass #6-Bahl-205.0 #7-Woodson Total Defense #6-378.4 #9-451.6 Rush Def. #5-155.4 #8-204.8 Pass Def #6-223.0 #10-246.8 Score Def #7-25.4 #3-21.4 Time of Poss #4-31:17 #12-26:45 Penalties #12-43 #1- 16 Turnovers #7-(-1) #3-(+3) Some surprising numbers here. Statistically Miami would appear to have advantage. If Ragland plays healthy I think Miami has advantage at home. Would feel better if this game were at home.

Me too.

Watched the OU Miami game last night. OU in my humble opinion is the best team in the East. When Ragland plays for Miami they may be the second best team. Doesn't mean Akron can't beat both,but if Ragland plays he can run. Akron has trouble with running QB's,always has. Zips do not match up at all with OU's running game. Doesn't matter if OU loses to Toledo,if Akron beats Miami. Even if Akron beats Miami and OU loses to UT it still come down to the Akron-OU game. If Akron loses to OU both have 2 losses if I am not mistaken. But,OU would have the head to head tiebreaker. No reason to speculate now. Either they beat OU and KS.U or.... But at this point Bowden needs to get that offense focused.

Bad news for the Zips.

No what!? Thats what 'the experts' said in 2005. No way Akron could beat NIU 2 times in one season. I assume you know how that ended? Not saying that this team is as good as JD's 2005 team,its not! But If these guys get on a roll I want to be in Detroit to see what happens. Better than what has happened the last 6 years.

If you have never been there,and there has only been one other in 2005,for long suffering Akron fans there is nothing better.

Unfortunately, if what we thought made much diff. these guys wouldn't still be doing what they are doing. You have to remember that the Leakin' Urinal and even the Lame Squealer are not the highest quality of newspapers anymore. Used to be when I was growing up in the '50's,'60's and '70's. Not any longer. They can't attract quality journalists anymore. Please!

Why?

What you need to remember is that if OU loses to Toledo like Akron did and if OU has already beaten Miami,OU has 2 conference loses. Right? If Akron losses to Miami on the road they have 2 conference losses right? One in the division one outside the division,right? OU lost to Central previously. Thats 2 losses outside the division. Unless OU completely falls apart,which is unlikely, Zips, even if they lose to Miami and Toledo beats OU, HAVE to finally beat OU to win the division. When you are this close in November,you better do it yourself! It might be another 12 seasons before it happens again. And, for those who will settle for a bowl game,even if you lose the MAC Championship game you go to a bowl. Takes care of everything.

Who cares what Thomas and Alexander write. They have been doing it for years. Carping about it here won't change that and only gives them the 'credibility' of attention. Stop,please. If the Zips win the division then everyone here should start e-mailing Thomas,Alexander,The Leakin' Urnial and the Lame Squealer and overload them with comments. Enjoy this run.

Well,1 down and 3 to go. Not sure if I would lump Miami in with KS.U though. If Ragland is back at QB thats an even tougher one down there. Miami is solid. Buffalo with its #1 QB is and will be a tough out in the future. I still think its going to take getting the OU 'monkey' off their backs to get a trip to Detroit. But,Akron's defense doesn't match up well with OU's running game. But,just like the UB game you find a way to keep it close and win at the end. Right now it doesn't matter how. Don't know how many of you were around to actually see the 2005 season. What a hoot. But, the Zips did the same thing then. They kept games close enough to give themselves a chance to win in the 4th QTR. They beat NIU at the Bowl during the regular season at the last minute. At the time NIU was the best team in the MAC. Zips got some breaks with the tiebreakers,had to beat KS.U in the Blizzard Bowl on Thanksgiving And the rest is history. Right now folks don't worry about how, as long as they do it.

Brad Detweiler made an observation in their postgame that seemed pertinent. He said when Akron really decided to or needed to run the ball late they had the O-Line down in the 3-point as opposed to the 2-point. His observation was that was helping the O-line get a better push at the line of scrimmage as opposed to when they were in the 2-point. Obviously,when Sands got the ball late the running game took off. Anybody notice what the O-line was doing on runs earlier in the game. I was too cold to notice.

Didn't think it deserved ejection either. Initially I thought they might have flagged him for raising his forearms up around the head but not targeting with the helmet. If he has had ejections previously they were looking for him. The zeebs do that.

Gotta figure out how to grab a piece of something to put over my fireplace. Any ideas? Last game at the Bowl in 2008. Against who? The Buffalo Bulls. Several OT's. Great game to watch. Unfortunately UB(with James Starks) won the game. Probably cost the Zips any realistic chance of winning another division.

After looking at the prediction not sure about the Akron defense 'bouncing back'. I think the offense is going to have to put up some higher numbers than it has been averaging in the conference so far(see above stats). I realize that UB's stats got skewed during the WMU multi overtime game but if the passing game doesn't step up tomorrow its still looks hard for the Zips to run the ball. They are #9 out of 12 conference teams. UB hasn't been any better in that category though. But,Akron has been gashed all season on the ground. Chuck needs to dial up some heavy pressure early on their QB to see how he reacts. Make him throw into the strength of the Zips D,the corners. And, Bowden needs to figure out how to get Woodson off early and score early. The longer UB hangs around,well we know. And,they are certainly not intimidated playing here. The weather looks like it could be a factor especially if it becomes windy. Biggest November game in quite a while. They have a real chance to win the division IF they beat Buffalo.

Some numbers on the Zips and Bulls from the MAC website. These are CONFERENCE STATS only. Buffalo: Scoring Offense:#4-30.5/game; Scoring Defense: #10-30.5/game; Total Defense: #11-474.8/game; Rush Defense: #11-222.2/game; Pass Defense:#11-252.5/game; Rush Offense:#10-107.2/game; Pass Offense-#1-321/game(54.5%); Total Offense-#3-428/game. Akron: Scoring Offense-#8-25.0/game; Scoring Defense-#5-21.8/game; Total Defense: #10-451/game; Rush Defense-#9-220.8/game; Pass Defense: #8-230/game; Rush Offense: #9-110.5/game; Pass Offense: #7-212.5/game(56.7%); Total Offense: #10-451.0/game.

Ya think!?

Used to.The Motor City Bowl went to the MAC champ in 2005 after Akron beat NIU in the MAC Champeenship. That was nice because both games were within easy driving distance. There were actually more 'front runners' at the Motor City Bowl than at the MAC Championship. But,thats the way its always been with Zips football. 'Come talk to me when you actually win something meaningful'. And thats NOT a bowl game in Idaho. Bowden and his crew need to step up now and win the division!

All kidding aside,Bowden and his crew now have a chance to make a statement IF! They have their own fate in their hands. When you are this close you HAVE to take advantage. They have to win AT LEAST 3 of the next 4 games to have a chance. Those three wins almost certainly have to be Buffalo,OU(Hi Frank) and KS.U. I would lean toward OU beating Miami which would almost certainly eliminate Miami(w/o a lot of help). Buffalo is eliminated so Zips HAVE to beat them to stay with OU. Buffalo will be tough. Stout defense,sneaky offense. If Woodson doesn't throw the ball with more consistency they will have trouble. He has to play his best ball the rest of the season for this team to win the division because they can't run. The Miami game on the road is a tough get. It comes down to Bowden getting rid of the Solich curse. Bad mouth OU all you want but they win consistently and are usually always competitive. I believe they still have to play Toledo,however. The KS.U game will be what it is depending on what the Zips do over the next 3 weeks. Take it and run with it! Weather on Saturday will be ugly.

The stats from the Toledo game unlike the stats from the WMU game don't lie. Bowden said it: we got whipped defensively,offensively and physically! Brad Detweiler said it also: the Akron defense 'got exposed'. Did we learn anything we didn't already know or suspect? No! The offense can't CONSISTENTLY move the ball much less score enough points. There is little running game. And, the passing game is woefully inconsistent. The defense can't consistently stop the run. Even in the WMU game it gave up lots of yard on the ground. As I said before,the Corner Backs are the strength of the defense. Time to move on to Buffalo!

Anybody know? Is Ragland out for the season? I couldn't find it on the Miami website.

Had to look at the game stats to see how this rolled out. Obviously if you didn't know the score you would think the Zips got steamrolled. WMU: Total yards-426; Rushing yards-244( Franklin-130); Passing yards 182(17-29-1); First Downs-26; TO's-1; Penalties-6-62 Akron: Total-215; Rush-88(Morgan-53); Pass-127(13-24-1); First Downs-14; TO's-1; Penalties-9-93. But,14-13 on the board. Go figure.These are the types of games that happen during a season that can help a team do special things. But,with the lack of offensive production that we see here,you aren't going to win anymore like this. The defense set up the offense big time for one TD on Kyron Brown's pick. Give that side of the ball a lot of credit. It made some big plays at crucial points in spite of giving up a ton of yardage. But,the offense can't keep putting up numbers like this and expect to win from here on out. In 2015 it was the defense that carried that team. In 2005(the best season in my memory) some crazy things happened that led to a MAC Championship. The last month of that season was crazy fun. Who knows.