GP1

Even with the suspension, Zips can still win.

Good point Dave. What goes on in college has nothing to do with what goes on in the NFL. Most NFL teams have 11 really good guys starting. College teams have 2-3 really good guys starting and you have to get the rest to execute and believe in what they are doing. If a kid between the ages of 18 and 22 doesn't believe in what he is doing, he can't execute. The reason the bubble screen works for Oregon is that they commit to making it work. They run it 8 times a game. I mentioned earlier that all the bubble screen is actually a running play where the statistics end up on the passing categories. It is blocked like a run from sideline to sideline and the ball is received by the receiver behind the line just like a running back does. Oregon doesn't have 11 NFL guys on the field. They have one great one and 10 good ones. They have a coaching staff committed to that play and they use it as the base of all other plays. They have a QB who can throw a simple pass to a guy wide open and they have a guy wide open who can magically catch a pass thrown directly to him. It really isn't a hard play, but somehow we can't seem to do the simplest things like throwing a catching. George Thomas wrote this a couple of years ago now. In it, he references Bowden wanted to do the basics of football...throw, catch, run, etc. We have been getting worse at doing those things as this season has progressed. My aggravation with this season has nothing to do with play calling or formation or whatever people want to dig into. My aggravation has to do with us after mid season not being able to do the basics like running, catching, throwing, tackling, etc. Back to identity and fans not understanding the progression of play calling..... Years ago now, people would go to college games when they were running pro style offenses and people called the off tackle play "stupid" when it didn't work. If you couldn't run it successfully, you didn't have play action so your big plays were limited so your opportunities for scoring were limited. If you couldn't run it, then you didn't have a counter run when the defense adjusted. If you couldn't run it, you couldn't milk a lead against a team you have beaten up all day. They probably said the same thing at Oklahoma games when they lost a couple of yards on a triple option play. I say the same thing when I see a failed bubble screen play even though I know it is necessary. I would love to know what the first play in our playbook is, how often they have run it in the first five plays of the game this and how well that play has performed. If that play has not done well, it explains the condition of our offense because if you can't run your base play, you can't set up other plays. My concern about Bowden Ball is it is one of those new offense we see now where they are just trying to play the match-up game. Some call the "match-up game" throwing poop at the wall and hoping something sticks. I prefer an identity and a base play that all other plays flow from. I'd like to get away from throwing poop at the wall, which is what I think we are doing. In order to do that, we need to run better, catch better, throw better, block better, etc. It really isn't a difficult game. Unfortunately, we are two weeks away from the end of the season and those problems are hard to correct mid season.

ESPN has been ripping people off for years. The book God Save the Fan documents a variety of times they claim to break news when in fact the stories were first reported buy local beat writers.

I know that, but what is the base play, not formation? The base play is the first in the playbook and must be executed out of different formations. It is the identity of the offense. We can't run simple plays because of talent. Until that is resolved, we will continue to not be able to execute the playbook. The base play of the triple option is the triple option. The base play of pro style is power running off tackle. The base play of the spread is the bubble screen/zone read which is a running play where the stats show up as pass yards. What is the base play of Bowden Ball? Not sure any of us can answer. I hope Milwee and Bowden go back and look at the first play they teach and start there when game planning and forming identity.

Agreed it is usually our first play, but that is not the base play of the modern offense. The base play is the first play in the playbook. It's the play that all other plays revolve around. I'm going to the VA Tech vs. Duke game today....not sure why, but I am. Tomorrow I'll be back with a full explanation as to why our offense is so offensive. Hint: It has to do with our inability to do the most basic of tasks that make up Bowden Ball and might even give some insight as to why Bowden Ball has lost its identity.

OK then, what is our base play?

I would say they are lacking in 11 elements to run anything successfully right now.

You can't fake it if you don't set up the fake. Here is a great primer on the bubble screen. Good teams can run any play in their book. Average teams are good at running some plays. Bad teams aren't good at running any plays. We are a bad team right now. Struggling with the basics of football. Run, catch, throw, tackle, block, get off of blocks, cover, etc. We can change formations and try to trick our way to victory all day long. If we can't do those basic things, we can't win.

Good post. When given easy opportunities, too many guys are not completing simple tasks. I hate the bubble screen, but it is an effective body blow to a defense. It allows players easy opportunities to complete and catch passes so confidence is boosted. It also forces two parts of the defense to do something they don't want to. Forces corners to get physical and take some hits which they really don't want to do. Also forces defensive linemen to run a distance they aren't built for or want to. Beating up corners makes them tired late and opens up big plays. Tired linemen give up a lot of yards rushing. It's a play that makes me want to fall asleep, but is needed right now.

I agree. I mean, we were in horrible shape when he went down for one game with concussion symptoms. I can't imagine us being in a worse spot than having won 8 of 11 with him and being 4-2 with a win against a BCS team and having maybe the most favorable schedule we have ever had. Terrible position to be in.

If the expectation after six games and a 4-2 record with a win against a BCS team and a QB who had gone 8-3 in his previous 11 was we would lose six straight, then we are well on our way to meeting those expectations. My expectations after a 4-2 start was for us to go at least 4-2 in the remaining 6 for a 8-4 record. Maybe I expect too much. Maybe if I expect that and it will never happen, then I'm wasting my time following the Zips and I should just become like the other 99% of the alumni who could really care less.

I don't believe it had everything to do with it, but I do believe it was the beginning of the end for a program that is as fragile as ours is. Pohl was at least good enough to win with some help when the team was riding high. If they won not running the system Bowden wanted to run, then I was willing to wait until he had someone he wanted to run the offense run it. I like winning over system validation. The Zips program is fragile like a fine wine glass. The late game loss at OU cracked the glass. The absolute collapse at Ball State shattered the glass. After a collapse like that and with our history of losing, it is very hard to put the pieces back together by the end of the season. It just doesn't happen for programs like ours. An incident happened in the game Tuesday that illustrated how fragile we actually are. When did the first crack in the glass happen? With 4:55 to go in the first quarter, they run Bickley and he loses five yards. Next play, a WR drops a pass thrown right to him which would have gained the Zips at least 7 yards making it third and eight or maybe less if he picked up a couple of extra yards. Third and 15 we run the ball for a gain of one, but third and 15 is almost impossible for anyone to get let alone how our offense has performed lately. So we punt and Buffalo scores on the next drive and they don't look back. A novice observer of the Zips might say the game was over when Buffalo scored. Experienced observers of the Zips understand that the game was over when Bickley lost five yards on the previous drive on first down...that was the first crack...the second crack came on the next down and the glass was beyond repair. The rest of the game is just the the same old nonsense I have been watching for almost 3 decades now.

Wild Wing Cafe is good, but not great...sort of like Hilton Head itself. Interesting fact, the HH WWC is the original WWC. I would forego wings at WWC for this. As an added GP1 recommendation, I'll give you folks the ONLY reason for going to HH. There is a night club called The Jazz Corner. It is typically rated one of the top jazz clubs in the country according to the people who rate those kinds of things. There is a guy who plays there every Sunday night with his band called Deas Guys and his name is Reggie Deas. He plays R&B, Motown and some popular stuff you would hear at a wedding receptions (During wedding season, he does three weddings a weekend for around eight to ten thousand a gig.). It is really a great event and mostly locals show up. He also plays once a month at the Hammock Shops on Pawley's Island around 7-8 times a year. That's when Mrs. GP1 and I like to go watch him. You could download his Live at The Jazz Corner recording off of I Tunes. If you saw this band at the Jazz Corner, you would have a great memory for the rest of your life. One last thing about HH. Actually, it really isn't about HH, but about people from Ohio going there. If you want to go there on vacation, it's your money and you can waste it as you wish. However, folks in Charlotte need a break from the one thing that Ohioans do on their way home from HH on Saturdays. Some of us who live around Charlotte like to go into the city on Saturday nights and it is extremely hard to get there because of the amount of car wrecks people from Ohio get into on their way home on I-77. Every Saturday, there is a car with an Ohio license plate in a wreck on the side of the road in Charlotte causing large traffic jams and unnecessary delays getting into the city. If you go, please do not get into a wreck. If you know people who go to HH, please ask them to not get into a wreck driving through Charlotte. If you want to wait until Statesville to get into a wreck, that's fine, but please stop getting into them in Charlotte.

It's a long, boring drive and HH isn't worth the time. Its where northerners who don't know any better go. With kids, you'd be better off going to Myrtle Beach for a day.

This is my number one worry JZ84. I thought I was the only one who believes the light at the end of the tunnel might in fact be a train coming towards us. Earlier this year when Pohl went down, I mentioned it would be hard for the Zips to go 3-3 after his injury. I was anticipating one game, not to mention the second game in which he was injured even though he said he wasn't injured...people can believe what they want about that. It looks like we could easily go 0-6 in the remaining six games. Not only that, I mentioned I watched Wake go 5-7 after bad coaching decisions Skinner's senior year by Jim Grobe and how it resulted in the collapse of the Grobe years and that we could be watching the beginning of the end of the Bowden years. I believe that more than ever right now. The next two weeks are critical. Going 5-7 again is easy to sell against if you are a competing school for a recruit. How many losing seasons in a row would that make? Going 4-7 after going 5-7 the year before is a disaster for recruiting at a school that hasn't posted too many winning seasons. Why is this the case? I've mentioned the last two weeks that the program is "fragile". Most schools that don't win find ways to lose unless they can convince themselves they are better than they really are (confidence and momentum). It doesn't take much to break that illusion of being better than you really are. When that happens, all the reminders of failure come rushing back and ways to lose become implemented. More than most sports, football is a game where lesser teams can use emotion to produce better results than their talent should allow them to produce. If the other team can just squash the emotion, it spells trouble. Back to recruiting. Watching the game last night, it was clear that there was a personnel gap between the schools. The gap isn't there when the Zips emotions are riding high, but strip away the emotions and the gap is there. Buffalo is not the best team in the world, but they had bigger/stronger players and were able to push us around the field on both sides of the ball. There are a lot of complaints on this board about play calling. I don't like our play calling either, but I don't think it is the difference in us winning and losing right now. We all know the old saying, "You don't win with Xs and Os. You win with Jimmies and Joes". ......"But GP1, we beat Pitt so we have to be good!"....Attention Zips fans, Pitt is a terrible program with a coach who is coaching a 1980s offense. They only have one win against a team with a pulse and as it turns out, VA Tech's pulse was not that strong to begin with. It doesn't matter what plays we call out of what formations right now because without better talent none of them are going to work in 2014 when teams run 65-80 plays a game. Buffalo just wasn't a couple of plays better than us last night, they were four quarters better than us. I don't feel like I am sounding the alarm about not just this season, but the next few years because if you aren't alarmed at this point, you aren't paying attention, or you choose to see something that doesn't exist. Waiting until the off season to make changes will be too late and it's too late to make any changes this season. This program is in a horrible position right now. Going 1-1 in the next 2 isn't good enough. They need to get to 6-6 for the program to have any real positive momentum going forward. Going 2-0 in the next 2 is critical.

I'm going.

Buffalo outscored both Toledo and Northern combined last night. Three teams in the MAC had something to play for last night. Two played hard. One didn't. Toledo fought and lost. No shame in that. We didn't fight. They should be ashamed today.

Well, the Zips scored more points than I thought they would.

Aaaaaand good night friends.

On the bright side, Brown will have the entire second half to study for his physics exam.

Please throw passes over the middle. Too many deflections because plays predictable.

The players execute.

Play calling has been fine. Execution terrible.

We are such a fragile program.

Name a college they have better than what we have in the following areas. I'm not talking about outside perception. I'm talking actual faculty, research and quality of graduates. Engineering (I've actually never met anyone with an engineering degree from Can't. Do they even have an engineering school? We have an entire glass tower for one type of engineering.) Education Nursing (ask any doctor around NE Ohio and they will tell you how good the nursing program at Akron is) Business (Can someone point out all of the great business leaders around NE Ohio that went to Can't or got an MBA from Can't. NE Ohio is full of business leaders from UofA.) Arts and Sciences (They don't have anything resembling the Bliss Institute) How is their law school doing? The day we combine athletic programs with Can't will be the day I completely tune out. If they want to combine non research, education, admissions and athletics, then fine. Lots of states have co-op buying programs...Texas and Michigan have them and they work pretty good.