Lee Adams

Sorry folks Ianello and his team failed the second big test of the year. They lost to a team that has perenially been the worst if not one of the worst teams in DI. The mistakes indicate a team that is not prepared by the coaching staff. The fact that the defense gave up 200+ on the ground against a team that is 1 dimensional in that regard means there has been no progress there. The Zips got 100+ yards on the ground but were still woeful in the passing game. Ianello keeps talking about play action. His QB can't run play action because teams know he can't throw the ball consistently down field. Moore's best play was when HE caught a TD pass. Thats pathetic. Ianello can't get him in a situation to succeed. Moore can not play effectively in this offense they way the coaching staff has it configured. Better hope FIU is uninterested next week. Otherwise its a blowout at home.

Obviously there is still not a lot of confidence in this team. It appears that both EMU and the Zips are viewing this game as a test to gauge how good or bad they really are. The fear here is that Akron gets behind early because of a long return or interception. EMU is going to force Moore to throw because they can see his limitations. The more he has to throw the more that get knocked down or picked. Stop Chisholm and take your chances. Unless the coaches get Moore a moving pocket or some opportunities to throw on the move we are going to see more of what we have seen. Only other chance is that the defense finally steps up and actually controls a game for a change against a legit opponent. Thats a stretch. Sorry EMU by more than a TD! Hope not.

the game winning fieldgoal against Marshall was a great experience as well. Sad truth is, I believe next year will be just as bad if not worse than this year. Gotta admit I enjoyed the Blizzard Bowl against Can't in '05 too. That was the best stretch of Akron football since the DII playoffs in '76.

Thats a little bogus. Didn't North Texas beat Indiana last week? Not that Indy is that good,but we can't beat 'em. New Mexico was dumb to get rid of the previous coach. At least he had some winning seasons. They seem to have the same disease Akron has. The folks in ABQ think the football program can consistently play at a higher level. ABQ is a nice place,just not for football. Great palce for B.ball though. Pretty good soccer team too.

If I'm recalling didn't he have a previous ALLEGATION of sexual misconduct of some sort down in Stark? He was never convicted,but a guy I used to work with who is very involved in sports in Stark Co. knew about this guy when he was in high school. Apparently he was a 'bad actor' back then. He was getting bailed it because of his athletic abilities,ALLEGEDLY. I don't know if he was originally from the North Canton area. Wasn't he living with someone else in that district? Guess that prep school thing didn't work ou too well. Akron was very fortunate at what did not happen. Don't need that type of problem on top of what else is going on.

Here we go with the Ianello won't last stuff,again. Ianello will be here AT LEAST through next season! If that doesn't work, would it be worth ASKING Winters if he would come here? Of, course it would be worth it. He has a D-II program that Akron used to play,winning. He could put points on the board. Would the current AD go there? Somebody in that office tell us,please!

I was listening to Chris Childers on Rivals Radio this morning and he made the comment that he looks for Leach to take over at FAU next year. Maybe it's not too late. He is a polarizing character, but he would create a lot of excitement and the offense would be fun to watch. I know. I'm dreaming. Leach may become a Lobo. It makes sense. He knows the area. Do you think he could step in and turn them around in year one? The Lobos are a dumpster fire. If I was a fan of that program, I would be on my knees nightly praying for Leach come to town. I am guessing there is probably a pretty sizable Mormon population in NM as well, which would be another possible draw. I would love to see him back on the sidelines. Leach would not come to this part of the country unless a real program wnated him. No folks not Akron. He is oriented to Florida or the Southwest. UNM. Locksley is gone. I watched his weekly radio show from a restaurant in ABQ. Nobody was interested. Kinda like....

I was listening to Chris Childers on Rivals Radio this morning and he made the comment that he looks for Leach to take over at FAU next year. Maybe it's not too late. He is a polarizing character, but he would create a lot of excitement and the offense would be fun to watch. I know. I'm dreaming. Leach may become a Lobo. It makes sense. He knows the area. Do you think he could step in and turn them around in year one? The Lobos are a dumpster fire. If I was a fan of that program, I would be on my knees nightly praying for Leach come to town. I am guessing there is probably a pretty sizable Mormon population in NM as well, which would be another possible draw. I would love to see him back on the sidelines. Knowing the area a little, I don't know that there are a lot of Mormons in ABQ. I do know that Mike Leach would play VERY WELL there. That area of the country is a great place to watch football. Lots of local rivalries.

The point spread aside,this is the second part of the 'test' for the Zips this season. They flunked the first against Temple. Now they are playing another 'bottom feeder' in the MAC. EMU is a team that is playing at the same level as Akron. Everybodies 'excuse' for losing the first 3 games was that they were playing superior teams. Can't use that excuse this week. It ain't about covering the spread. If you can't beat a team like EMU then your program hasn't made much progress. There may only be 1 or 2 'possible wins' on the schedule after this week. Better win. I hope I am just reading this wrong. Are you saying that Temple is a bottom feeder? You were reading it wrong. I said the first 3 games of the season where supposedly against superior teams. Temple was one of those 3. Akron couldn't compete with a good MAC team. EMU is a bottom feeder. If you don't win this one where is the progress?

The point spread aside,this is the second part of the 'test' for the Zips this season. They flunked the first against Temple. Now they are playing another 'bottom feeder' in the MAC. EMU is a team that is playing at the same level as Akron. Everybodies 'excuse' for losing the first 3 games was that they were playing superior teams. Can't use that excuse this week. It ain't about covering the spread. If you can't beat a team like EMU then your program hasn't made much progress. There may only be 1 or 2 'possible wins' on the schedule after this week. Better win.

Was at the game. No,there were not anywhere close t0 14,000 in the place. Assuming they counted the high school bands and the no shows I doubt they could come up with 14,000. Our season tickets are in 212. It was REALLY sparse up there. Has been for both games. There were maybe 9,000 actually there. I also noticed the student section was practically empty. The grass was not crowded either. I am still not surprised at attendance. Even when the program was winning and going to playoffs in the 60's and 70's it was like this. I have season tickets in 212. Row 1, seats 3 & 4. Stop by and say hello. Will do. To illustrate the problems Akron has with the fan base, a guy I know and his wife sit behind us. At halftime I see them leaving. He said they were going to watch the Ohio State game. Nuf said.

Was a beautiful day. Zips did what they were supposed to do. They beat a terribly overmatched lower division team. It was a good game to watch individual players and units to see if the same things were happening as during the first 3 games. The two skill guys Chisholm and Sconiers contiune to develop. The offensive line was able to push around a smaller d-line and make some room for the QB and RB's. The coaches finally worked Ty Williams into the O at least a little. The Wildcat isn't much of a threat unless Chisholm or whomever shows as a threat to throw occasionally. Moore was able to hit a few more receivers mainly because he wasn't under as much pressure. He still can't throw the short ball from the pocket. How many more did he have batted down yesterday 5-6? We have also seen the limits of his deep ball. There were 2-3 occasions when a receiver had separation but the ball was underthrown just enough to allow the DB to break it up. No turnovers on his part I don't believe. Still not convinced he fits this system. Would like to see them move the pocket for him against better teams. The D-line is still shaky against the run. Radio said VMI had a hundred on the ground. Kick coverage is still awful into the 4th game of the season. Against a decent team that costs the game. Still some coaching screw ups which shouldn't be happening in the 4th game. Example. VMI had the ball around the Akron 20 maybe closer. With about 10-15 seconds on the play clock the D-coordinator decides to make a wholesale change. No way all those guys run that far and get positioned before the clock runs out. They had to burn a time out. I watched Ianello. He was practically running down the sideline yelling at the coach. Noticed they had Wagner trying to blitz a lot. That was a little different. VMI seemed to pick him up most of the time though. Seemed like Griggs had a pretty decent game against an undersized O-line. Wagner had a lot of tackles. Somebody mentioned earlier that any win with this team is good. But,they have a game with an Eastern Michigan team that should be winnable. Even though its on the road,if the Zips can't beat a team that basically plays at their level then you have to wonder how much progress they have actually made. There are only 2-3 more realistically 'winnable' games on the schedule after EMU. The players know what time it is. They know they need a win against a MAC opponent. It would be a huge confidence boost.

Was at the game. No,there were not anywhere close t0 14,000 in the place. Assuming they counted the high school bands and the no shows I doubt they could come up with 14,000. Our season tickets are in 212. It was REALLY sparse up there. Has been for both games. There were maybe 9,000 actually there. I also noticed the student section was practically empty. The grass was not crowded either. I am still not surprised at attendance. Even when the program was winning and going to playoffs in the 60's and 70's it was like this.

PN7 has appeared in all three games this year. Here are his stats. 6 completions on 17 attempts for 43 yards. That's a 35% completion for 2.5 yards per catch. No TDs with 1 interception and 3 sacks. You can add 7 drops that makes him 13 for 17 and the interception was from a hit from behind Why do WR's only drop balls for Nicely? They don't. They 'drop them' for both QB's.That ain't the biggest problem.

Trying to translate from business to sports, I'd look at the style of offense as a tactic -- a strategy planned to achieve a specific goal. If the tactic is an important element of a cohesive system, then you wouldn't want to give up on it too quickly if you thought it would negatively impact other elements of the total system. If the tactic isn't working due to inadequate execution, you'd want to continue working on the execution as long as you believed the personnel could in time get it right and run it effectively. Ianello appears to be committed to the pro set as an integral component of his total system. But the pro set is not as confining as some may think. There are variations avalable out of the pro set that can add flexibility and unpredictability. But no offensive system is going to be effective if it's not properly executed. If you can't properly execute the basics, adding more complicated wrinkles may only produce less effective execution. So as long as Ianello believes his players can be successful if they properly execute, it's understandable why he'd want to continue to try to tweak the basic pro set without blowing it up and starting over from scratch. I think there's a general misunderstanding that Ianello is inflexible about changing the offense to fit the abilities of his players. If you go back and look at what he said about the offense prior to last season, he was pretty clear on that subject: "On offense, we're going to base out of a multiple pro set and, for a lack of a better term, the very same system we ran at Notre Dame, which for the last five years was very successful," said coach Ianello. "It's the same system the (New England) Patriots run and the (Kansas City) Chiefs run and the (Denver) Broncos run. It's a multiple system and one that I'll fit to our personnel as opposed to us having to fit personnel to our system. That gives us a lot of flexibility in that regard." Analyzing a system failure can be tricky because there are many elements that can be incorrectly diagnosed as the source of the problem. Obviously, Ianello does not believe the pro set is the source of the problem. He believes he can fit it to his players. Some college football analysts believe that what we'll see more of in the future is a hybrid offense combining pro set principles while spreading the field. That suggests that the pro set is not dead but just needs a little tweaking. I don't see anything to suggest that Ianello might not be open to that kind of tweaking as long as he believes it fits his players. In the end, though, proper execution has to be the top priority. We will see Saturday what Ianello is 'open to'. But please tell me why the experienced players he has do not seem to be responding to what he is trying to do. I had a person close to the program tell me that the reason they look so bad is because they have been playing good competition(throw out the OSU game). DUH! By, inference that means this team can not compete with good competetion even in the MAC. What is the point?

Don't assume that VMI will run up the score(ha,ha,ha). Also don't assume that unless Akron gets on a roll early that it will be anything more than a clsoe game. Both teas have 1-AA capabilities.

I remember (not to long ago) a previous administration trying to make all the home games festive. They used to have live area bands, giveaways, marching band playing in the lot, cheerleaders, kids events, a visible (mascot) zippy, that big chocolate blow up zippy, beer tents, etc.. I thought they did a pretty good job. Do they have any of that anymore? I don't wander from Lot 9, but other than the same people trying to sell me some useless towel/rag, not much university sponsored stuff goes on. Personally I don't need all of that stuff, but I know most enjoy that kind of atmosphere. I see the problem right here in your own post. It's a lot harder to accomplish those kinds of things now with everyone scattered around campus on game day. It's definitely one of things I miss about the Rubber Bowl. But still, the Acme/Zip game included several days of build up too. You heard about it in the ads. Cheerleaders were in the lobbies of all of the stores, and everyone in town knew about the upcoming game. It wasn't just several days. People knew well in advance when it was going to happen. When we went to the Acme you saw them pushing the low price tickets. It was in the Leakin' Urinal. 30,000+ showed up. But,the team was winning at the level they were playing at. Larson and Dennison were winners. Attendance wasn't much the rest of the season,which is something that the younger people on this site will never understand. But,it was great for that one night to see the Bowl packed.

I guess the first thing you better figure out is if the present coach here is going to be leaving oh,within the next 18 months.

Al Bundy scored 4 touchdowns in one game! Why can't the Zips? Chisholm runs strong, and the Zips win 35-28. Good thing it wasn't Ted.

You can't say that Nicely had a fair shot lats year if you are saying that the rest of the offense is bad and it is Moore's first year in the new system. Thats exactly what happened to Nicely last year. The thing I still wonder about is Nicely's freshman year. He did pretty well under the circumstances and in a different offense. I don't know if Nicely would have performed any better in the first 3 games this year, but it would have been nice to see if he improved after being with Ianello for a year. Well,we'll see Saturday what the rest of the season may hold.

Maybe GE will sponsor the resurrection of the old 'Acme Zip' game. I was told by a suit in the AD that they are looking at trying to stage something like that again.

Since this realignment thing is all about money,TV,fan base BIG bowl games,I am trying to figure why the MAJORITY of teams in the MAC would be attractive to any conference particularly where football is concerned. Temple is understandable. In a big market,recently successful. Northern Illinois? Near Chicago market recently successful. The directional Michigans? Even near the Detroit market Michigan and Michigan State are the big dogs. Not attractive. Toledo? Near Detroit,successful program,fairly strong fan base. Maybe. Miami,OU out in the middle of nowhere,no big market attraction.Akron,Can't State? No recent success,no great fan base and they get little attention in the Cleveland TV market. And, the MAC is allowing a 1-AA football prgram in as football only. That doesn't upgrade the conference.There are going to be lots of teams like this in other conferences too. Sunbelt,C-USA,WAC etc. Is it realistic to continue to try to compete with the BCS and the top non-BCS schools anymore in football? Maybe the football program could latch on to another bigger conference on the coattails of the basketball program. Thats still seems to be stretch. Might be time for some of these schools to start looking at a level just below BCS and just above 1-AA.Just a thought.

Where do you have Notre Dame?Very good question. ND is another school like Temple and Rutgers that could be left without a good fit conference when the music stops. ZtZ, there is no way the Big Ten takes ND as a football only affiliate. Though, ND might make a good pairing with Northwestern as a full member of the Big Ten.In prior posts, I neglected to include ND with other D1-A private schools that don't currently fit in with their current conferences and should form their own...ND, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Baylor, Rice, Stanford (not a geographic fit)...a good nucleus but not enough for a full conference.I'd like to add that with the Big East falling apart and C-USA maybe being reshaped as a continued mid-major, I don't foresee any MAC teams advancing their overall standing to a 'BCS' conference. Geographically and academically, UT had a respectable sniff of the Big East and if we had our stuff together in football, we might too...but with the Big East blowing up, any move a MAC school might make would be lateral. C-USA is the absolute pinnacle of advancement for any MAC school, which would provide a little bit better bowl scenario in football and maybe a multi-bid league in basketball with greatly increased travel costs and opponents that are less locally familiar. Are you sayng Stanford doesn't fit with the PAC-(name your number)?

No,whether they win or not,Ianello's job is not on the line this year. Not that losing to VMI is going to help anything. It won't. But,the AD is not going to get rid of him this year,nor should he. I was not a fan of hiring someone with no successful head coaching experience. But,Wistrcill did. That is HIS responsibility. Hopefully,Proenza will hold him responsible one way or the other. What I want to see is if Ianello can correct the mistakes he has made not only with personnel and who is playing but the way he is handling the team in general. Obviously the team is not responding to what he has done so far. As far as the QB situation Ianello made the decision to go with Moore over Nicely based not on Moore's better performance in the spring or summer but what Ianello perceived to be more of an upside as far as leadership and style. Right now that is obviously not paying off. I felt Nicely should have been the starter. Then if he didn't show improvement from last year,then Moore plays. Now Ianello is sort of limited. He could make some changes to his offensive scheme to better fit Moore's physical skill set. Or, he could paly it out and hope Moore makes better progress as the season goes on.As far as palying more underclassmen,if the stareters are dogging it,fine. But, what do you say to a guy like Wagner when you replace him? The defense isn't controlling the game so we have to play younger guys to see what they can do. What about Waller,Marcoux,Hazime? What about Anderson,Simkovich,Kasperak on the other side of the ball?

With all the realignment of the big schools/conferences teams like Akron,Can't,EMU,most of the rest of the MAC and most schools in the Sunbelt will find themselves on the outside by default. It may pull some of the bottom feeders from coferences like the WAC,C-USA,MWC. And, these schools and others could in essence if not name find themselves playing in a lower level division by default. It could be an entirely 'new' division that is not 'attached' to the really big conferences anymore. Maybe its a division one cut above 1-AA. Maybe it has its own playoff and or bowl system. Get away from the thinking that you want to try to constatnly play with the the big boys. Who knows?