zipsoutsider

Fumble by Lane was just a good strip. They will happen.

Finally some nice work by the secondary and a little pressure on the QB.

Really nicely orchestrated drive. Loved the pop by Alvin Davis on kick off coverage.

He's from western MY, let's get him. At 7-foot-1 and 400 pounds, high school football player Brave Williams is larger than life He actually doesn't move too quickly and Angola would be a small school league. Western NY is not really known for high quality football.

University of Akron football: Zips looking for better results against Thundering Herd If there is a way to spin a Zips FB story in a negative light, George will find it.

I had the same thought.

SMH

I just saw that this weekend is family weekend. Why would they schedule that the week of an away football game instead of making a home game a centerpiece for family weekend?

I put our odds of winning at 40% Marshall is a good program and is one of the few mid-majors where the home field is an advantage. The Herd is well coached and they have a solid base of talent. I think we have the edge with skill players on offense, but they have the edge with their front 7 on D, that being said, in both cases, they are edges and the battle could easily go the other way. JoJo Natson does give us an edge on punts. You either kick away from him or open the door to the threat of a score. I think this game will hinge more on how well a Zips defense that still seems to lack an identity shows up to play. I wouldn't write a Chuck Amato defense off this early in the season. I think this will be a good game to watch, whatever the outcome.

It sounds like they are used to practicing against larger receivers, our threat there might be somewhat minimized. It also might open the door for Coney or Wolf to have a big game. It also seems like another opportunity for Jojo to shine. It's harder to prepare for a guy like him because he improvised so well.

Akron receivers will test Herd secondary

FYI, I remember looking for the replay of CBS games last year both through CBS Sports and YouTube and could find nothing. Your best bet might be their mobile app I felt like this was the one big downside to being on CBS Sports.

I like the "thunder and lightning combination" comment - I think we should keep it.

I was in Florence, AL when Indiana University of PA played North Dakota State for the Div. II Championship in December. Really nice weather. They played at UNA's Braly Stadium, which at the time had a sand foundation and was a bluegrass playing surface. The weather was excellent and comfortable for all. That being said, it will be nice for UAB to be able to host us and they could use a little help after what they have been through.

Rodney Coe was signed to the Tampa Bay practice squad. Nordly Capi was signed to the Atlanta Falcons practice squad.

HI Q&A: Doc Holliday on Herd vs. Akron Sat. at noon Nice article.

UAB, Akron schedule football series for 2019 and 2020 I like this match-up. I think it's nice to be part of the UAB comeback, as long as they remain on the losing end.

EA has an article about him in the PD. JoJo Natson is Akron Zips big playmaker: MAC Minute

Sounds like George gets his scoops from ZN.

Recruiting for the kids who are not, "elite" is an interesting process and is more about the kids marketing themselves than it is about coaches "discovering" talent. The recruiting websites, famous for their stars, generally have incomplete or inaccurate information about these kids. It's also not unusual for some of the non elite kids to get a little more attention after their senior season. Jatavis Brown and Cody Grice both went under the radar (along with many others.) Brian Bell came in with 3 stars and has yet to overly impress me. (I think he has potential, but not seeing it materialize, yet.) At this point, one of the keys to the program's future success has to be getting butts in the seats. The athletic program is trying some different things, but one of the best way to get more local interest in the program is to get more local kids and to win with those kids. Last year, we turned the corner with winning, but it takes more than a year to change the reputation of a perennial loser and to prove it was not a fluke. You also have to find an angle to divert interest from the school in Columbus. Local talent can be that angle. From a purely football perspective, I agree, I don't care where the kids are from, play the best kids. If you have watched over the last 4 years, TB has been trying to do more than just increase x's in the win column, he is trying to build a program with sustained success and that takes money, and money comes from attendance. Also, attendance matters to recruits. Kids like playing in full stadiums. Attendance has become a negative by-line that keeps being brought up in stories about the program. That needs to change. Not only has the team improved since Bowden took over, but the entire gameday and player experience has improved. Coaches who win games, only, and don't build for the future are building for themselves. Coaches who build programs are in it for a little bit more than that. I think attendance is important enough, the team ought to consider sending the players door to door with flyers advertising games and ticket plans over the summer. Local support is paramount to the program's success. UA is still not close enough to front of mind, locally. There are steps being made, like the coupons on in utlitiy bills, but it is still going to require some effort. I remember seeing this article in the ABJ last year. The whole building process is happening but the part that seems to be happening the slowest, IMHO, is community buy-in.

What a shame. It would have been good for the team and him to have the exposure at Marshall and App St. Maybe we will throw to the TE a little or run Williams out of the backfield some. Do we have any defensive take-aways this year? That is concerning me.

Yeah, I wish we would. Edwards does a decent job, but would love to see us use Natson to the max. On the other hand, it does give Edward's a chance to develop.

Special teams: pleasantly surprised by delivering a solid performance. Nice punts by Gasser, one would have gone another 10 but our guy picked it up. O'Leary seems to have adequately exercised his demons. Good coverage on punts and kick offs and finally one to the house...the first one since 2004. Offense: Natson has come to play. I watched his catch in the end zone a couple of times that was ruled out of bounds. Pretty darn close and nice catch. He has lived up to expectations. Lane has such potential, but it seems like he slips into lazy football play. The penalties on Lane seemed a little ridiculous and he was held on plays that were not called. Last week might not be the best week to evaluate him. I thought the OL was OK - and that is probably a compliment considering the match-up. I am not worried about them. Ball looked good when he had opportunities. As previously mentioned, he wasn't sloppy with the ball, it was an excellent strip. BTW, did anyone watch Ritz take out the WI player on that play? Wow. I would like to have seen us try a jet bubble sweep or QB draw. I think Woodson has taken his game to the next level. I am not worried about his accuracy. The interception he threw was not inaccurate, it was that Lane was held. It looked like we were lined up for a little trickery when we had the ball around the 5 and WI called a TO. The announcers missed it, but there was something different about our line up. I will have to catch it on the replay. It was also nice to see Anthony Young come up with a tough catch. Defense: Brock Boxen is likely to small to be great at DL. He plays hard, but not sure that will be enough. We did a better job stopping the run when Hamilton was in the game, but it looked like he saw limited action. The announcer said he had been injured. Marcus was not impressive. I really don't understand that NFL prospect is still lining up in the NZ. The LBs were not impressive. Gilbert seems to be the only one aggressively pursuing the ball. I would be OK if we sat Bell. He doesn't seem all that motivated. Pittman played OK, but he wastes too much time flexing after plays that are not all that impressive. The secondary dropped some balls that could have really had an impact, early on in the game. Larry Hope played hard and seemed to be playing hurt. Scott doesn't seem as good as we has last year. Bryce Jones is working his tail off. I liked the new road game uniforms. They looked very sharp. I think we will win at least one of the next 2 games, which has us coming out of OOC play at 2-2, right where I thought we would be entering into conference play. I think we will be competitive in the MAC but I don't expect that we will have any cakewalks. The teams we blew out last year have mostly improved. If we stay healthy and if we can improve our Defense, we can compete for the MAC East.

I refuse to adopt the loser mentality and the attitude that it is ready to fire Bowden with every play that doesn't go our way. I can't help it if you choose to adopt loser attitudes.

Grow up, John Keener.