zipsoutsider

It would be a waste of talent and provide enough value to burn a redshirt at th8s point in the season, especially if Bowden is expecting Woodson to be back. You might as well say we have decided not to compete for the rest of the season if we burn the redshirt and that we are committing to Kato for next year. I don't think that is the plan. It looks like the plan is for Kato to start during his redshirt sophomore year and to be the back-up next year. It's a pretty reasonable plan. He should be ready to lead the team by that point. Putting a kid in too early can be counter-productive. I think trying to force Chapman into the starter role last year probably did more harm to his game than good

The kids who left were not better than Woodson or Chapman. They were not good fits. An offense can't be all things to all people. Yes, if you have a chance with a special kid you might change your offensive mindset to accommodate, but we did not have an offensive threat that fit into that. We are building into an offensive program with speed that takes advantage of big play threats. Kato Nelson will likely be the best QB to do that, but probably not until 2018. When Pohl was behind center we were terrible at red zone conversions. KP was a nice kid, but their was zero chemistry with receivers and the offense played without any sense of inspiration. We could not move forward as a program with him as the starter. I don't blame the coaches for going for a change. Woodson's weight gain took him out of the running and he responded, earned his spot and here we are, at 4-3, disappointed that we were soundly beat by top 25 team. BGSU has improved throughout this season and Ball State will compete. We should be able to win out, except for Toledo, but all of the teams on our schedule are capable of beating us. The MAC has a ton of parity and almost any team can beat any other team on any given day, except Toledo and WMU. We would be a different team if we had some more help on defense. It's hard to say what transfers we tried to get and were unable to secure. The young defensive players are gaining a ton of experience this year and maybe we have to suffer through a year like this to transition form a defense that relied on transfers to one that builds on our own developed talent. There is a lot to forward to as these kids develop. Players I am watching: Davis (Fr), Guiser (Jr), Kryon Brown (R-Jr), Deon'Tae Moore (Jr), Boxen (So), Hauser (R-Jr), Jordan George (So), Featherstone (R-So), Lako (R-FR), and Jest (Fr.) I haven't seen John Rachal on the field in a couple of games - is he injured or benched?

We had no legitimate choice but to stick with Chapman. Hoyer doesn't take reps with the 1st team and is no where near as good as Chapman. It would be a mistake to mortgage the future by burning Nelson's red shirt at this point of the season. It's hard to sit and watch a QB struggle but that doesn't mean we have viable options. I agree with this and when I saw the tweet from the MAC earlier in the week about WMU playing on New Year Day I was concerned. Horrible calls and no calls in Q1 broke any chance of momentum we had. As a result, Chapman tried to force the game. In the end thought, we got handled by a superior team. We were not effective running the ball, except for ta couple of scrambles by Chapman, until WMU put in their second team. Our short pass game was not a lot more effective than our long pass game, yesterday. It's hard to be creative when the bread and butter isn't working. We did throw to MTB a couple of times yesterday and that did not work, either. I think if we found some early success, maybe you go to a couple of trick plays if you are in it with a chance to win, but why show your hand when you might need it when you have a chance of winning a game down the road. Punts and kicks were good, especially punts, but we had a hard time bringing down their big guys. It's the same problem other teas would have had bringing down Warren Ball. Gasser nailed his punts and ought to get Special Teams player of the week. One note: I appreciate the military tribute and thought they did a great job. The band sounded great, the swearing in ceremony was pretty cool, and the WW II vet stories were amazing. I appreciated how all of our fans responded to the vets and the tribute. Here's my however....in all of the years where we have honored vets, I can't recall, and my memory might be incorrect here, but I don't remember a single time where we have honored as vet that was not white. I think we must do a better here. NE Ohio is a diverse area, our military has been diverse for decades, our players and fans are diverse. I think the vets we honor should reflect that diversity.

Great shots. I am glad you got the shots of Wolf knocking down passes to save the INT. He played a good game.

Post game presser:

Today as a nice game day atmosphere and unfortunately, the game went as I somewhat suspected it could go. With mounting injuries to key personnel, it becomes harder and harder. I knew going into this, our D was no match for their offense. My hope was that Woody would return and we could at least make it a game. Chapman does not have the decision-making abilities that Tommy has and needs to learn to play his own game. He can't throw across the field, but he is strong enough to be a good MAC QB. You could tell, he was doing everything he could to make something happen and it just wasn't. HE probably tried to do too much himself. The longer he is in the backfield, it seems the more prone he is to poor decision-making. The defense was clearly outmatched. I noticed Brian Bell moved to DE and Lako was in at LB. Not a bad idea, with Marcus out. I think Bell might be a better fit at DE. Deandre Scott got robbed of an INT by the absolutely horrific PI call early in the game. Larry Hope played a good game and Kyron Brown made a heroic athletic play and almost came up with an INT towards the end of the game. Alvin Davis, again, had some impressive hits and I heard Featherstone's name several times, as well. We don't lose a lot to graduation on defense, so I expect better performance next year. Boxen was playing well until he went down with the ankle injury. That looked like a bad one and I could see him being out for an extended period. I thought they really adjusted well towards the second half of the second quarter, but the game had run away by then. If Woody were in trouble, they wouldn't have him wearing the headset on the sidelines. Bowden said on Zips Live the shoulder injury is impacting his throwing accuracy. I love how people proclaim that it's all in his head. A bruised shoulder can be very painful and personally, I know how an injury like that can impact your ability. If he isn't throwing accurately, keep him out. I am sure if he was throwing decently at all, we would see him in the game. He is a true competitor and the accusations about him being a head case seem ridiculous, to me. This kid puts it all out on the field, every time he takes it. I am concerned about our mounting injuries: Woodson Ball Marcus Hauser Guiser Boxen Guiser has really been our defensive leader and it hurts to lose him. Moment is just further along than we are. We weren't poorly coached today. Our players were not lazy or undisciplined. We were beat soundly by a better team. A team that is ranked #24 and I think it is a legitimate ranking. They may be higher next week. I am not embarrassed by our team. They played hard, the entire game. Let's shake it off and go beat Ball State and ....come on, Woody!

I saw the unis at Info this AM - white facemasks. I still have my doubts as to whether we will see Woodson today. We cannot afford turnovers and if his shoulder injury is affecting his throwing accuracy, I think TB holds him out. Hopefully another week of practice with the 1's helps TC5 continue to progress. He threw a couple passes last week that were dangerous, but he also threw a couple of incredible passes. He just makes me nervous.

White face makes look sharp, too.

I find it odd that teams will zero in on Lane, like they do, ant the expense of Jojo scoring on them all day, or Austin Wolf. Honestly, we have add incredible productivity from all three guys, and we can go deeper onto the roster before we suffer too much. I would expect WMU to focus on Lane, again, and leave Jojo to tear it up all day long. I hlpe we are able to see Tommy connect with Lane on those few 1/1 coverage situations. We really need to get him up and running, again. I don't like to see an emotional player like Lane become disengaged.

What a class act.

They better be showing Jatavis Brown and Justin March NFL highlights. As a matter if fact, it they can't sell JB1 college jerseys, let's get some Chargers jerseys and sell them.

He hardly rushed the QB and when he did, he was effective The forced fumble was classic JB.

JB1, big time sack at clutch time in Q4, followed by forced fumble with a big league hit on the following play. Doing what we all knew he would do. Way to go JB1!!

Coach Cowher's difference maker of the game:

Heard part of what TB was saying on Zips Live this week. He said Tommy's shoulder is injured and that it affects his throwing motion, making him less accurate. It sounds like we will see both guys, for sure this week.

Our turnover conversaion rate has been very high this year as has been our red zone conversion rate. When you look back to 2013-2014, we couldn't buy a red zone conversion.

This might be controversial, but I can't stand Fleck. He is the CMU team. They have some very talented kids, don't get me wrong, but when he is gone, I expect it to sink into BGSU type of play. He isn't building a program as much as he is building a resume. I think he will be off to a P5 school next year and I won't have to tolerate his Harbaugh wannabe antics. Some people like that style, it isn't for me. I think this is a great game for the Zips to continue to demonstrate that they are a rising program. I love the team's attitude this year and think we could be ripe for an upset. Then again, I think the near upset at Michigan and the win against Pitt puts us in that position all of the time.

Straight from the game notes:

We had better attendance a couple of years ago when the LJFF kids got free tickets to the game. I hope we see that, again. Honestly, I think the team needs to build a partnership with that program. It would be great to see some our successful players mentoring and volunteering with the program as they do with the elementary school in Tallmadge and for them to continue to get free tickets.

I have noticed several articles saying something to the effect that WMU plays Akron as a ranked team for the first time. I am wondering if GT misunderstood those other articles or if he really just got it that wrong? Either way, lazy journalism.

Them, there are these, lol

I think both are possible, although, even though he is vague when discussing injuries, he doesn't outright lie. They might be leaking it so people show up for the game.