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LZip is right. the Dambrot era Zips teams have rarely contained any clear-cut "stars", and that hurts when we want players to be included in lists like these. Forsythe could possibly be the only other player we see on the rest of this list. Unfortunately (as you read in Reggie's article), it's hard to make this list as a single digit scorer. And we have a lot of good contributors who are still only single digit scorers.

Keener. Fantastic analysis. I believe in your findings. But, it does makes you have to ask an obvious question. Why don't we have a scheme in place that maximizes our offensive talent, and therefore maximize our point output as well, if there really isn't much of a difference between the two teams, talent wise ?

Not scientific, but it clearly proves my point that we "should" win our last 4 games, and get the 7 wins we need. But, this team needs to recover from Saturday, utilize the bye week effectively, get some things accomplished against CMU, even if we don't win, and start getting our act together to close out strong. I'll gladly throw away the CMU game to get those last 4 victories.

Initially, I didn't like seeing the CMU/Buffalo score, because CMU is our next game. But upon further thought, I like that Buffalo appears to be emerging as a very winnable game, despite how badly they beat us last year. Put the BG game behind us quickly. The "Schedule Gods" appear to have given us 4 games against bad teams to close the season, and a clear path to a 7 win bowl season. We can't possibly ask for much more of an opportunity than we're going to get from that November schedule.

The stupid Kick Return play was unbelievable. Changed the entire first half. We can't get a break anywhere. They've made every big play and gotten every big call. And the "late hit" was ridiculous. The WMU blowout win over OU isn't making us look very good right now either.

Well, it's game day. So, let me recap a previous post about where we stand. I said last week that there were likely 4 more wins on the schedule. We got number 1 last week, and still have 3 to go. That would get us to 6-6 overall. So, where's the "bonus" game that gets us to 7 wins? Could it be today? It's tough to ask for that with probably the best remaining team on our schedule, and on the road. But if we win today, I am going to actually PREDICT that we get to 7 wins.

This gives me a much better idea of what it looks like. Thanks. It looks like what they did was just paint the fronts of those stairs (or, the "risers", for those who understand building terminology), and left the tops (treads) alone. Probably a good idea, since the paint on those would wear over time. Actually, that produces a pretty cool effect because it doesn't darken the entire arena, and the blue risers with the wood-toned treads gives you the something close to the Blue and Gold effect, without having to paint the gold. I think this was a fantastic idea.

This is so tough, because Jerome is such a talented athlete who can help us in several areas. I'd like to see him play a little bit of receiver, and a little bit as a 3rd down pass rusher. I'll stick with that unless I see a point where he's dependable enough catching the ball in a number of pass route situations to where we must have him as an every-down receiver. Last year, I felt like he had a super high ceiling as a pass rusher. Now I think he has the same potential as a receiver. I think the best thing for the coaching staff is to wait and see how this latest phase develops, and adjust his areas of contribution accordingly.

And it never should be.

Here's what is astounding to me. It's a testament, I'm sure, to our incredible depth. A Zips basketball report, talking about key players, leadership, etc. And not one mention of Reggie or Jake.

Here's my Formula: 1) Score as many points as we can, any way we can....against a weak defense. 2) Force them to punt FOUR times (once per quarter). 3) Get to +2 in the Turnover margin. Zips Win !!

I don't think we should stop what we are doing well to try to have a ball-control offense for one game, just because BG scores a lot of points. We still have to score as much as we can, whenever we can. But in order to beat BG, we have to make some stops. Plain and simple. I'm not convinced at all that we can win a high scoring shootout, when all I have to base it on is one previous conference game against a bad team with a really bad defense. Which was right on the heals of a game where we could not get into the end zone at all.

Rowdy.... If we do get 170 rushing yards out of Hundley, and 60 out of Woodson, and another 175 in the air.......I can GUARANTEE you that we will score more than 17 points

Come On, Zip Grad. I am usually always the one asking for caution in elevating the Zips too much. But, whipping a top Sun Belt team and losing by 2 against a good OU team shouldn't prompt someone to bury us down near the cellar of the conference. I'll agree with you that there is maybe 5-6 MAC teams that might be better than us. But right now, that's as far as I would go, and that's really giving the benefit of the doubt to a couple of other teams that are questionable.

I'm ready to see that "top level, major" program this season.

I'm stunned that anyone thinks we're the 10th best team in the MAC.

The intentional grounding just made it a Sack, and a loss of down, and it was 4th down anyway. If the flag had not been thrown, the ball would have gone back to the line of scrimmage, which was 6 yards ahead of that point, but they still would have had to punt. It might be reasonable to think that the kick out of bounds was only a 10 yard difference, as opposed to a touchback. But gosh, just handing a team great field position by your own mistake, at that point in the game, is just a huge blunder. A quick 3-and-out by OU, with a sack included, should have never resulted in Akron getting the ball all the way back at the 27 yard line to start that last drive.

Johnny, unfortunately I have to agree that beating Ohio at Home was a key early piece of the puzzle that we needed to get to 7 wins. As I said earlier, I still think we can win 4 more games to get to 6 wins. But without OU, we need a big bonus somewhere else to get to 7 wins. I'm still going to stick with 2 key plays that really cost us on Saturday: 1) The end-around trick play that failed miserably on the first drive, when it seemed we were easily headed in for a TD. 2) Inexplicably kicking the ball out of bounds and giving OU the ball at the 35 right after that Field Goal to pull within 2 points, which absolutely killed our potential field position when we got the ball back for a final drive.

I always see something around this point of the season, and I always have to comment on it. With 7 games remaining, I am already seeing the "If we just win out..........." We're not going to "win out". We've already lost a home conference game to a team who's likely not even the best in our division. Looking at what will happen if we do win out is just so unnecessarily looking at ridiculous scenarios right now. I think we CAN win about 4 of them. Hopefully a bonus occurs, and we'll get the 5th one that would basically guarantee a bowl bid. A few things happen to OU or BG, and we might have a chance at the East title game bid. I'll stick with this realistic hope, based on what I've seen.

I think we're finding that this is somewhat related to all of the basketball discussions over the last several years. We just want to get BETTER. The difference is that we're not yet to the level in Football where we can be satisfied. And yes, we're playing competitively with teams that had blown us out a few years ago. Being near .500 is a dramatic improvement, but we've been stuck there for a few years now. Guys, we're a win or two away from the difference between mediocrity and competing for a MAC title and going to a Bowl game. In fact, after yesterday, you can say that we were only a field goal away from possibly getting over that hump. I hope this is the year. And I still believe that Terry is the guy who can get us to the next step.

I got ya.

Keener. To be honest, I don't know ANY coach who wouldn't try to paint a rosy picture of a 2-10 team. They always believe that they are headed somewhere. It's not just Bowden. If your coach is NOT doing this...especially in the face of their fans and their own players...that's when you have to be concerned. But, it still doesn't necessarily mean that he's right, and that someone shouldn't question it.

Zipgrad....no doubt. You CANNOT kick the ball out of bounds there. That was the most boneheaded mistake of all.

It was 4th and 9. Gotta take the field goal there. We got the ball last, at the 27 yrd. line, plenty of time, two time outs anyway, and only needing a field goal. That totally justified the decision to take 3 on the second to last possession.

Division title would be a stretch right now, with a Home loss and a road game to play at BG yet. But, I sure hope that "Bowl Game" remains a goal, and that would 100% keep Bowden's job.