skip-zip

Replying specifically to the subject of this thread, I'm reading between the lines a little bit in that article, and what I think I am seeing is a coach trying to light a fire under some people by suggesting that other people might replace them if they don't start performing. And I like that he's doing that. Now...on to the QB situation.I'm no football expert, especially when it comes to the handling of your field leader, the QB. But, I'm still a little puzzled that over only a 4 game stretch, some of my fellow fans seem to have breezed through this progression of thought:1) I look forward to seeing our Sr. QB play his last season and lead us to a lot of victories.2) Hey...wait a minute...that Rodgers guy has been in for a few plays here and there, and he looks good. I want him to be the starter now.3) Nope...Rodgers doesn’t look like he’s good enough, but hey...what about that Freshman I heard about?All of this...in just a 3-week period of time. I want our best players on the field. But, if coaches actually operated their programs this way, I don’t think it’s a winning recipe for a number of reasons. And unfortunately we have the Browns to thank for giving us a glaring example.

PLEASE tell me one of you guys....somewhere...has a picture of one of those old troughs so I can enjoy some good-old Rubber Bowl nostalgia.This thread just reminded me how great it is that OUR stadium is not the one being laughed about anymore GoZips88....you're the man!! What made you think to do that? But, I'm glad you did. Ahh..the memories.

PLEASE tell me one of you guys....somewhere...has a picture of one of those old troughs so I can enjoy some good-old Rubber Bowl nostalgia.This thread just reminded me how great it is that OUR stadium is not the one being laughed about anymore

OK...the season might be falling apart, but please don't tell me the stadium is too. The tailgating and the stadium are about all I'm looking forward to right now.

In my quest to find something to make me feel better this week, and give me some hope for an easier road ahead, and a chance to still win a decent number of games, I just took a look at a combined ranking system of all D1-A teams, and here's what I found.Our last 2 opponents:Central Michigan - 54Indiana - 61The MAC East:BGSU - 75Ohio - 80Temple - 90Can't - 103Akron - 104Buffalo - 108Miami - 120I know we'd rather be grouped up there with the first two teams at this point, but at least it gives me some optimism that the upcoming MAC East games "should" be much more winnable. Let's just hope we see a much better team in two weeks.

This logic is interesting to me. The logic is if there were leftover LO players then the team isn't his. OK then, JD has only been the coach for two or three years now and he should get three more years to make the team "his". Everyone should read that last sentence out loud to see if you feel stupid or not after reading it. How come the 2006 and 2007 teams wouldn't be his as well? Weren't there LO players left over at that time as well. The truth is, they were his teams. Brett Biggs, a JD recruit, was the reason they won the MAC. Luke Getsy played a huge part in them winning the MAC....Luke didn't transfer to UofA because of the nice climate. Alleman didn't transfer because of the nice climate as well. Kemme was a JD recruit and part of that team. JD rescued Hixon from LO's defense and put him on offense then turned him into an NFL WR....Owens didn't do that and JD should get the credit.As far as the players, did Owens produce an NFL player in his first five years? Taylor, but Faust recruited him. I really don't remember one, but they were all so easy to forget. Alleman is an NFL player. The Browns have a Zip on their team. Corner is there. Would Blackburn be in the NFL without JD?...there is no answer to that but it is always nice to have a coach and group of coaches who know NFL coaches.After this season there will be a new coach. We need one. I fully expect the team to be his on day one. There is enough talent to win and to put off winning for two or three years until the team is "his" is just stupid. I just hope the players don't throw temper tantrums and leave the team after he gets canned.Seriously guys, you don't have to come up with strange intellectual gyrations to justify firing JD. It's a waste of time. He isn't doing anything with the talent he has and will be canned at the end of the season. All the coachers will be happy until the Zips lose a game next year then they will all be back with the same logic.GP...I've always thought the same thing when I hear someone make this argument, like Spin just did. I'm not defending JD, and think he has a tall task to save his job. But, guys like Biggs, Getsy, Hixon, Alleman and Kemme were indeed a HUGE part of our success in 2004 and 2005. We gave up tons of yardage to Wolfe from NIU in that MAC Championship game in 05, and still pulled it out with a ton of offense ourselves. Does someone really want to try to make the argument that the offensive players JD recruited/converted did not impact that result?

Absolutely. But it's not going to happen until someplace, like the OBC did last year, creates a hometown-team atmosphere. Sorry, but Cowlumbus is hours away. This is Akron.

I doubt if my group will be going back. We were there to watch a Zips game in a Zips atmosphere....in the Zips home town. Instead, I heard the sound of the Suckeyes most of the time I was there, and the Suckeye game on about half of the tv sets. And that game was a blow out too, with very few OSWho fans in the place. I'll be looking for a new place to go as well. I loved the atmosphere in the OBC last season. I hope that comes back.

Matt will be the starting QB, and I think it will stay that way through the season...barring injury. I'm not the only one who shook my head a couple of times after some of his throws, but with us being out matched, no run support, and some bad blocking, he completed a good percentage of passes, made no major mistakes, and carried a good efficiency rating. If Bowser doesn't drop that long pass, we'd have to credit Matt with going 13 of 19 for 150-200 yards against the best team in the MAC. He's also found a way to make some things happen on his own, which I love to see. I have a hard time finding many problems with his performance.

That's funny. Don't doubt it, there will be plenty of people there in their red and silver. They will tell you that they are really "fans of both teams".

I'm sorry, but there is just no way that JD is coming out of this without taking at least some of the blame. It's his ship. He's the captain. When the ship starts taking on water people are inevitably going to start looking at the captain. There is just no way that he's coming out of this unscathed. Especially with a new AD and the massive investment that the University just put into the program.No doubt. Although I've stated previously that I am happy we took action in these situations, I'm sure the timing of all of this (new AD, new stadium, etc.) is not good if you are the one running the ship. But for the immediate future, we should get behind this team, support them, and hope for the best. There's a lot of kids who have dedicated themselves to Akron football, and they need us right now.

I hope you're right about that.A mid-20's per game scoring average in high school in both his junior and senior year, and I know people who've seen him play many times. I hope it coverts to the college hardwood myself.

I had heard yesterday that Jac was gone. I was hoping it wasn't true. Oh boy.

If there is anything we can take away from this game, it's that some of those Indiana drives in the 2nd half were short....following interception returns. Those interceptions, along with the 25 yard double-penalty that stopped another drive, can really demoralize an offense. The lack of a running game still bothers me. It seems like we are fighting to get 3 yard gains. That can't continue. It's reminding me, unfortunately, of the year after we won the MAC title, where it appeared that an experience OL was underperforming.

Well....I guess the only saving grace if we drop to 1-3 after this week, is that I think nobody is going to breeze through the East division this year. So, we can at least hold onto a chance to play for the MAC championship. I'm just trying to stay positive. Just like some of you think when it comes to basketball, maybe we can all hope that at the end of the season, when it really matters, we'll be playing good enough to steal the East title, and appear in the MAC championship game.I'm not thinking there is any chance that JD would get the boot in mid-season, however that 3-game stretch of @NIU, @Syracuse, and @Buffalo has the potential to really bury our season, unless we get it together in a hurry. However I do expect, regardless of how this year turns out, that the new AD will be taking a really close look at whether we can improve the leadership of our football program. Prediction for this week? CMU has even handled us well at home over the last few years, and we never seem to play well at their place. I'll be happy if we can at least make it a game, and stay within a couple of touchdowns. CMU 34 Akron 21...and we'll miss at least one field goal.

I caught that too. McNees at the point, and Humpty playing 2-guard, which they are suggesting.....I don't see that ever happening.I agree with Quick about Chris M. I'm not seeing him as a low-post scorer. I think Brett is actually more effective scoring close to the hoop, but he does often get more favorable matchups. I think over time, Nik will become our best option there, and Brett will spend more time facing the basket.The McClanahan situation is interesting. In the last several games last year, when we were down to basically 3 healthy active guards, his playing time was very limited. Actually, the whole guard situation is going to get really, really interesting this year. If Ronnie can stay healthy, and with a big-time scorer like Sullivan becoming active, I'll be curious to see how it all shakes out.

Well...I think possibly the game wouldn't have gotten so out of hand with a more experienced QB in there last week. So, I think that would have ranked us higher. But the real question is...how fast are we going to recover from losing him. Hopefully, soon enough to salvage the season.

Wow...16.5 against another MAC team. I guess the "lets just dominate the MAC" philosophy is still a long way off.The problem with their QB isn't necessarily pressuring him, but containing him in the pocket. That guy has destroyed us with the way he can run. Kind of the same frustration I used to feel when we had to play against that kid from Can't (I'm so glad he's gone).

And rightfully so...we still don't have what I would consider an IMPACT win. In the last few years, the MAC title game, and the Syracuse and NC State games are probably the closest we have gotten. And I enjoyed them all. But unfortunately, under the national radar, none of those hold the same kind of clout as CMU beating Michigan State in Lansing.I really think JD has taken some positive steps to build a program over the last couple of seasons. But, this season is going to be tough. I think we were all hoping for a win against Indiana to give us a chance to have a good season. And right from the get-go, that 3 game road stretch against NIU, Syracuse, and Buffalo concerned me. And I personally believe Syracuse is going to be a lot better this year. And having Central on the road this year is another one that's going to be really, really tough to win.I think we need to get it together in a hurry, and get a couple of unexpected wins, to make this season a success. If that doesn't happen, I'm in support of the administration taking a good hard look at our leadership, and seeing if someone might be available that gives us a better opportunity to succeed. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy the season, the tailgating, and the new stadium...and let the chips fall where they may. Go Zips!

Thank you Dave. I have some news for some of you...I know some people who've seen Nicely play in high school, and they aren't really impressed with him...especially when he played against good competition. I urge everyone to relax. We all wanted to see Rodgers play....now please let him play. We should be getting a great chance to see what he has over the next several weeks.For the most part, I think Matt had some timing issues last week. Threw too late or too early in a number of situations. A hallmark sign of someone who hasn't played much. i'm sure he'll work to clean that up.

There's a good idea. Broadcast nationally but not locally. I don't know if ESPN can do that, though.blah blah blah...you want fanny's in the seats? WIN...it really is that simple...& i'm not talking about Nobody state....beat teams like Indiana and prove that this team can compete...sadly, that will never happen under brookhart...he needs to goMivid....I agree with some of what you are saying here. In both football and basketball, I've always said on here that we need to win something of SIGNIFICANCE for attendance to change dramatically. But....in our 2nd game in the new stadium we're more than 10,000 short of a full house? I really thought that the "I hate the Rubber Bowl, and I'll go when we have a new on-campus stadium" excuse would have lasted a lot longer than that.

I'm not surprised. Summit and Stark county sports fans were treated to free tickets from UofA for years and they expect it. Those that don't expect it aren't the type of people that shop at Dollar General.Years ago, we playerd Va Tech at the RB and only 18,000 showed. We are what we are. I'm not so concerned about the crowd as I am the product on the field. Nobody is going to pay their hard earned money to watch a qb throw 4 ints and poor tackling.Actually, on TV the stadium looked like it had more than 18,000 if you counted all of the people sitting on the hill. If you put them into the stands, it might have been full. I wasn't there though.But that's exactly my point....they decided not to show up BEFORE we didn't tackle anyone, and threw 4 ints.

I'm venting now because I was way too upset to do it last night. And it's not about the game. My biggest dissappointment came before the game even started.18,000 people? All those empty seats? When we had an opportunity to play a Big 10 team at home?After nearly 30 years of following this program, I may have never been more upset about a crowd size. I've followed the discussions on here for months about the first season being packed. And I truly wanted that to happen. And I jumped on the bandwagon of hope of "an entire season of sellouts to open the new stadium".....even when my history with the program doubted it. We can't blame it on the condition of the stadium anymore.We can't blame it on not having an on-campus facility.We certainly can't blame it on "the team isn't winning" after we just came off of a 41-0 victory...which 30,000 area residents witnessed.We can't blame it on the lack of a quality opponent.A game like this should easily sell itself, if people around here really cared, and they still don't. The tailgate lots were noticably more empty than last week, and the Zipsfest was noticably more empty. I knew it was a bad sign.After all of these years, I'm just so upset that I can't blame it on anything else anymore....except....that sports fans in this area just still won't get behind the Zips. It's obvious now that many of them only came last week for the novelty of being at the new stadium. And it really upsets me today. And so many people around me that did show up yesterday were paying more attention to the Toledo/Suckeye scoring updates on their blackberries from the moment they walked into the stadium. We just have so much more work ahead of us as diehard fans....more than I ever thought, or wanted to believe....to get this community to get behind Akron athletics.

i've been wondering about Bruce also. It didn't look good. And I haven't heard anything all week.

I've hoped for this for years....and it's been gradually happening for years.We ABSOLUTELY compete againt Big 11 programs for athletes.......and also for students, media publicity, etc. It's what we always wanted, and it's here. Yes, our conference's defeats of Big 11 teams fuels the fire. So has OSWho's failure to beat a highly ranked team in the last 6 tries. It's a great day to be a Zips Fan