skip-zip

SGM....saying that "Charlie had his chance, and failed" is probably one of the most idiotic things I have ever read on here. First of all, he played behind an OL that may not have been able to start at Walsh College (no offense). Secondly, they had no running game. And Thirdly, as ZipGrad1990 has stated, Charlie Frye's numbers his first year as a starter match up pretty well with, and even exceed, the numbers posted by other QB's that are doing quite well now in this league, including Peyton Manning.What I've been thinking about all day is how bad I feel for Charlie. The Browns have basically told him "Hey, we have the left side of the offensive line all straightened out now....oh...and guess what?....after taking a pouding the last two years and showing your tremendous leadership and toughness, you won't be getting a chance to play behind this new line."As for the trade-up. It simply makes no sense mathematically. You take a guy at the #22 spot and trade away next year's pick which will likely be a #10 or better?????? Who can think that this makes sense?????If I were a big Browns fan, as some of you are, I would just be mad that the Browns appear to be rebuilding....again. We were told two years ago that the Frye/Winslow/Edwards combo was a rebuilding phase for the offense. Now, two years later, you want to start that over again? How much more of this can Browns fans take? And with no 1st round pick next year.....there's still way too many weaknesses left unaddressed.

In response to a couple of the things that GoZips says in his post.....there is one thing we can all do...We, as a Nation (Zips Nation, that is), can become a large "sales force" in this community to get people to attend games.Without more attendance:1) We'll never be looked at seriously by a "larger conference".2) We'll never attract a large radio station. Remember, public radio runs on advertising revenue. And advertisers of any kind of size will not come on board without a substantial audience to speak to.

I was not an athlete, but I did transfer from another college to Akron, so I know what it's like to try to graduate on time under those circumstances. So, I sympathize. I hope Andy goes as high as possible in the draft. He's a good kid, and the higher he goes, the more visibility he brings to the U of A.He's worked so hard to elevate his draft status. I really wish him well.

Originally, I had not seen trading down as an advantage. But, the Browns need so much help that trading down, and getting more picks, and still getting guys the quality of Sears and Blalock on your OL seems to be the best move at this point. You can get both quality and quantity by trading down. I think this is a good thing if if happens.

You know what? It is good news. Keith is a Zip. And if he wants to stay here, like he says he does, it's positive news for us. Especially if he keeps winning

Drafting Brady Quinn will do nothing more than put another quarterback on injured list, but this time it will be a 10 Million Dollar a year quarterback. It solves nothing. Everyone has known all along that Frye is no worse off than many of the star QB's in the league that played for crummy teams during their first year as a starter. In fact, he's better than most of them were.

I hope the OL is better also. And if it really is better, then I would have the following question....Was JD keeping his Senior OL's in the games late last season out of respect for them being Seniors and 3- years starters? If so, then in my opinion he wasn't helping the team as much as he could. Either that, or these freshman have developed VERY VERY quickly over the off season.

Wow..you guys are bringing up some great stuff here...Let me add to some of this...First of all, I really believe that Owens' downfall started when, for whatever reason, he was not able to work with Brian Magrell, who was looking to be potentially the best quarterback to ever wear an Akron uniform with the way he performed during his freshman year (the year before Owens arrived).Then I think his second big mistake was promising his old buddy Willie Spencer that he would play QB when nobody else in D-1 wanted him for anything other than a DB. And we all know how that turned out.I think these two mistakes really set him back during those first 3-4 years. I can confirm one thing. I've been told by some reliable sources that Thomas did indeed want Owens gone a year before he was actually fired. But apparently, the school did not want to pay for all of those years of contract extensions that Boob-inski was giving to Owens during his "promising" 2-9 and 4-7 seasons.I whole-heartedly agree with some of you that you have to question Owens' ability to get big-time assistants. I remember that one of his first D-Coordinators was David Snowball, who, if I recall, was about 28 years old, and had limited coaching experience at any level. I also recall that he tried to lure Copley's High School coach to be a coordinator. And I remember some assistants coming form placed like Malone College. Not exactly what you want to see when you are trying to reach big-time status as a program. Winters rubbed me the wrong way with some of the comments he would make in post-game interviews. And being stuck at Wayne State for 3 years now is not a glowing endorsement from the college football community of how much your coaching ability is respected. There was a game against Marshall during the Byron Leftwich era in which Marshall had over 700 YARDS of offense against us. That was the ultimate humiliation for me. If I were Owens, I would have stepped down myself after that game rather than face anyone on our campus.Ok..I'm done.

The "if only Lee Owens had one more year" theory just doesn't register with me.He had 8 "next years" to show that he was making progress. And he wasn't making progress. Those of us that have followed this program long enough know that there were a handful of those years where we thought we might be about to make progress "next year" under Owens' leadership, and it just didn't happen.So, in theory, that gives us no basis on which to presume that 2004 would have been any different. And in terms of the lack of facilities? If you want to feel sorry for someone, feel sorry for Gerry Faust. He was the coach who REALLY had no facilities to work with, and was trying to start a brand new D-1A program. We didn't even have a grass field to practice on for road games on natural grass back then, and were holding conditioning workouts in spare classrooms in the back of Rhodes Arena. In comparison, the Owens era saw several improvements, but certainly not what we have today. In response to this thread. Yes, he did bring some good football players to Akron. And sure, we appreciate that some of those players are still here. I'll leave it at that before I get into another long rant about all of the specific areas where Owens failed.

Ya, I see a guy like Hill getting some PT in multiple-receiver sets. But, I don't see much of a chance of any of these other guys stepping in and playing right away. However, as the season rolls along, things happen, such as injuries, etc.

Z.I.P. - He's certainly "hit the map" beyond NE Ohio if he is a 3rd Team All-State selection in D-1 after only his Junior year. And to get Cleveland-area Player of the Year as a Junior is quite an accomplishment too. The reason I'm excited is because, only a few years ago, Akron simply wasn't getting players with those kinds of credentials. I'll be honest and say I didn't hear about him either until I had people calling me with this news over the weekend. I haven't paid too much attention in recent years to what is going on up in my old neck of the woods.I hope we hear more soon, and I sure hope he's as good as what I'm hearing from people that have been following his career over the last few years.

Zip Watcher....thanks for the info. on the website. Wow...I had not been told that he was the Cleveland Plain Dealer Player Of The Year. Buck Zip...all I know is what I'm being told right now by some very prominent people associated with high school basketball in that area. It's all I have right now. Hopefully, we'll hear more about this guy soon. Sorry if I mistakenly associated you with some of the folks that come on here who think that "it cannot be possible" that players would choose Akron over the high and mighty Ohio State Buckeyes. All I can say is.......basketball is looking pretty darn promising in the coming years. And it can't come soon enough. PLEASE...help me forget how this year ended.

Interesting thoughts....Not sure if you'll see an option with an inexperienced offensive line that has to string out their blocks, as you need to do in an option attack.But I did say that I think we have the WR talent to run a 5-Receiver set, which allows for quick passes on slant routes, and virtually eliminates the deficiencies of a weak offensive line. Big Zip...that's a legitmate question. With about 3 straight years of having the best, or one of the best recruiting classes in the MAC, you would think that we should have no worries about having great players filling the voids left at every position.I guess this year will really tell us whether those classes were as talented on the field as they seemed on paper.

Phillip Morris is the greatest name since Milton Bradley was in the outfield for the Indians.

At this point, I'm being given all of this information verbally from people that are very connected with high school basketball up in that area. They were all rather surprised, and their reactions were all "wow..we thought he was going to pick Ohio State".Why do some of you guys act defensive when you see that a player may have passed up Ohio State to go to Akron? If you are a true Zips fan, you WANT that to happen. It looks like this news has not even hit the papers or anything yet. Not sure when we might hear more about him, or his list of offers.

I don't believe the defensive is the problem. And we'd be in trouble if we played a 3-4 defense with our lack of DL's anyway. It is true that we probably didn't see much of this year's actual offensive play calling during the spring game. For obvious reasons.I'm hoping for a surprising year as well. I'm just not very optimistic right now. But didn't CMU win the MAC last year with a freshman quarterback? I guess anything can happen in our league.

I'm also hearing that Ohio State REALLY wanted this guy. How often is it that we can steal a player from the Suckeyes?

I'm originally from Lake County, and received a message today from a friend up there telling me that Alex Sullivan, a Junior Guard from Painesville Riverside, has just committed to Akron. He was a D-1 3rd Team selection in Ohio this past year....as a JUNIOR....and averaged 25.5 points per game. Some sources up in my old hometown tell me that he's been the best player in Lake County for the past couple of years.WOW...the basketball talent that Dambrot is landing is just phenomenal. Go Zips!!!!

First of all, I think it is way too early to tell how the DL and OL are going to perform. If JD can solidify those two units before September, he's done a remarkable job based on what he had to work with...Let me add to the thread this way, for the purpose of discussion...Here's my ranking (excluding special teams) of the different units on this team, highest to lowest.1) SecondaryThe way it looks now, we can go two-deep with some great players at all positions.2) LinebackersGrant, Stokes, and Mackey are great football players, and some of the most experienced players on this team. If guys like Williams, McNeal, and Balaam can contribute this year, we'll have some nice depth too.3) ReceiversSome good depth here also. I'd rank this as the #2 unit on the team, except that I noticed during the spring game that without the starters in there, nobody else was capable of getting any separation from our DB's. I'm looking for Arthur to have a solid year if the QB can get him the ball. Experienced two-deep lineup at TE also. I'm HOPING that by the end of the season, I can say that this is the #1 unit on the team. But some other things really need to fall into place for this to happen. 4) Running BacksThe return of Alex Allen could really solidify this unit. Walker and Kennedy are good, but I think we still lack the size back there to truly generate a power running game. I'm excited to see what Johnson can do once he's eligible.After this, we have virtually NO experience. That scares me. 5) QuarterbackAn inexperienced, but talented group. If we use them right, these guys can do enough to win us some games this season. But I am still concerned that they will make enough mistakes to cost of us a couple of games that we would have otherwise won. 6) Defensive LineNate Robinson better live up to his potential, or we're in trouble. And even if he does, we're still relying on some very unproven talents on either side of him. I'm staying optimistic since the rest of the defensive unit may be able to make up for our deficiencies here. 7) Offensive LineThis could make or break our season. How well did we recruit in this area over the last couple of years? How quickly will our coaching staff identify the best 5 guys to have up front? And how fast will they gel as a unit? If this unit falls flat, look for us to be able to win only about 3 or 4 games this year.

With an inexperienced offensive line, running quick pass plays out of a 5-Receiver set makes the weakness of your offensive line virtually insignificant. We'll see what happens come September. We can have all of the talent we want at RB, but without blocking, you're still screwed.

Wait...it appears that he is going to get some big offers. Hmmm, I wonder what the chances are that he would pick his brother's alma-mater over some of the schools listed as his possible choices?For those of you who weren't around at the time, Jason was very skinny when he came here. And although he had athletic ability, he wasn't very strong. I know some people who played here with him who said he couldn't bench his own weight when he first came on campus. His brother already looks to be legit linebacker size. Interesting post. I had not even heard about his younger brother until I read this.

That would be cool. A statue of JT.I agree with a couple of you here. JT's younger brother would NOT be flying under the radar. If he looks like he even remotely has D-1 ability, everyone would be making him an offer based on his brothers development during the time he was in college.If we are not making an offer, and nobody else big is after him, then I would assume that people have looked at him, and they don't see any potential.

I wouldn't be scared of us either considering that they came here in 2005 and beat us 20-0.This analysis looks like something he just copied from somewhere else. This information about us is just about the same as what everyone else has.

Holy Cow. Are you saying they are talking about turning the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Quaker Square into a dorm? I find that hard to believe.But if that does happen, people will be fighting over getting a room there. Is anyone else old enough to remember how everyone fought over rooms at Gallucci Hall back in the 80's? That was an old hotel, and was roomier than any other dorm on campus. And at one time, they still had the outdoor pool open. But...I can assure you that Galucci was nowhere near as nice as the Crowne Plaza....even without any renovation. And I'd be hard pressed to believe that they would renovate the Crowne Plaza just to turn it into a college dorm.I'd love to hear more about this.

Good questions. I'm not sure how the law applies to this situation.