GP1

I just got home from the Wake vs. NCAA State game. Beautiful sunny North Carolina day, the team I have season tickets for won making the $100 per game I spend worth it, saw some well played football by both teams.... All in all, a good day. How are things around here?

OU is a good, well coached team. They have only played one game on the road this year and got destroyed. Still, they have beaten an improved NTSU, who beat a good Ball State. The win against Marshall was an upset if you look at the Herd's schedule. OU may be one of those teams that plays as well as their competition with the exception of the Louisville destruction. I expect a game similar to last week's with the Zips playing well in the first half. I don't think the Zips are there just yet to beat a team like OU, so I'm going with the Zips losing. Akron 21 OU 31 The game will be close until about 8 minutes to go in the game.

I'm glad to see season ticket sales are up. Our basketball ticket sales are probably similar to how minor league baseball teams look at season ticket sales. Pre-season ticket sales are critical because it is so much harder to sell tickets once the seasons starts. If you have tickets, you have made the commitment to go...so, even on a snowy January night, you may go because you have the tickets. If you have season tickets and can't make a game, you can give them to someone who could attend and wants to attend because they can sit in a better seat. Actual attendance goes up. If you don't have season tickets and it is snowy, you can easily talk yourself out of going for any number of reasons. Not to mention, more season tickets means more scholarship fund donations. Always a good thing. To me, ticket sales aren't about a couple of sell outs a year. Season ticket sales are about increasing the actual average attendance for a season. If you want a new arena, this should be the number one measurable you look at. What you "might" get if you have a new arena is theoretical. What you are actually getting is a real number. Schools should "build" around real numbers. Building arenas based upon theoretical outcomes or cliches like "if you build it they will come" is the foundation for success that has given us years of the "building process". No thank you. The Athletic Department is doing a good job of creating reality by selling more season tickets. KD has to keep those kids winning though in order to keep the ticket sales up. KD has the hardest job in the whole equation. So many things have to go right...

I was at the Panthers vs. Giants game a couple of weekends ago. It was obvious from Chase's behavior in the way he played and his encouragement of his teammates that he badly wanted to win the game.

I'm not saying it can't be done like this. However, getting involved with the City and the politics that follows make me nervous. Too many people looking out for their own interests and we end up with an arena not in the Zips interest.

So, these are vacation programs?

Teams that recover a lot of fumbles always have a lot of players around the ball. If we can get more guys around the ball at all times, the fumble recovering will improve.

I agree completely. The difference between BG scoring 61 and 31 on the Zips is fifth year seniors. The losing is ugly, but even uglier losses hurt recruiting even more. Playing freshman and sophomores for the sake of "experience" while giving up enormous amounts of points is not the type of experience these kids need. They would also stand the risk of serious physical damage from playing in games for long periods they are not physically capable of playing.

I just want to be clear that I'm not ripping him. I have concerns about bringing in any player this small to compete in D-1A. I know there are always examples of the little that guy who could. There are a lot more examples of the little guy that never pans out. I have no problem with any player returning kicks or competing in special teams. My concern is any player this size touching the ball 13 offensive plays, which was roughly 15% of our offensive plays Saturday. When a team doesn't have anything else, they try to trick their way to success: Pass out of the full house backfield, QBs punting, reverses, getting the ball to players you believe can zig-zag their way to the end zone. These things drive me nuts. I would like to see us try using competency to drive success. Like the old saying goes, we are being too cute by half. I could be totally wrong. Maybe the coaches are right and there isn't enough competency to go around at the present time so they have to run these tricks in order for us to shuck and jive our way to victory. I say let's try getting the ball into different hands and see how they do. Let's start with getting Hundley in the game. Maximize the existing personnel.

I hope you are right and I want him to be successful. In the mean time, you can put my prediction next to the one of my prediction that Zeke Marshall would never play a second in the NBA.

Grow into what? 5' 7"? The kid is past puberty and there is little chance of him growing more. Bulk up to what, 150 lbs? The truth is, most schools don't offer kids this size a scholarship. Guys, this is D-1A freaking college football, not OHSAA. I hate to sound like I'm bashing the kid, because I'm not. I'm bashing bringing any kid with this size to play WR. His production will be limited the more he plays because more of how he plays will be on film. Players with this size are limited as to what they can do over time. Teams will find out their limitations and exploit that to their favor. Play a guy this size at RB? Why? We are already starting the wrong guy at RB.

I saw four catches for fifteen yards. Longest catch was for seven. That means he averaged 2.66 yards per catch in his other three catches. What is the spark I am missing?

I didn't like what the coaches did here either. The assumption is we would have scored. Maybe, maybe not. BG had some momentum at that point. While I don't agree with it, I can see why they did it. Let's say we score, we still lose by ten. If they get an int for a td, we lose by more. Nobody on the board can say for certain what would have happened. What we do know happened was BG was able to use superior talent across the board to win a game against an average to below average talented program. The Zips don't need a spark. They need players who present them with the opportunity to move the ball and get first downs. BG has that type of team. Lots of good players all over the place. We need to get the Zips to that level and not a program wishing for a miracle every week or trying to trick play themselves to victory. I can't review every college game on this board.

I saw him play and I'm not impressed. Need bigger players. The guy doing play by play said basically the following during one of his receptions: "Bubble screen to short guy. Look at him go. What an exciting player. He is like trying to catch a water bug. It's now second and nine." Enough said. I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Get the ball downfield to bigger WRs. USC has been crippled with recruiting sanctions over the past few years and is perfect evidence to prove my point. Thanks for bringing them up. Fewer scholarships means fewer good players to pick from. Fewer good players means less overall talent. Yes, ASU has better talent. Let's eye where Oklahoma State is at the end of the year. They aren't as talented as in the past. I bet they won't be in the top 25. There will always be upsets so nothing is 100%, but in the majority of cases in college athletics, the team with the better talent wins. It's easy to point the finger at one person when things don't go right. Saying things like the coaches "quit" are the silly discussions fans have when they don't know what else to say. It assumes the person knows the mental state of those they are talking about. If the coaches yesterday were driving NASCAR cars, Bowden was driving a Nationwide Series car and BGs coach was driving a Sprint Series car. The difference in the cars makes theirs faster and ours non competitive against their. Bowden had to hope for them to crash to beat them. They didn't crash. We lost again. Akron is going to win some games this year. It isn't going to be against the likes of BG and NIU. I still thin they will win four, but they don't have the base talent to win more. There are more Nationwide Series cars in the MAC then Sprint Cup Series cars.

Did they shut it down or get shut down? I saw the game and saw a team that got shut down. The Zips threw some really good punches in the first quarter and shot their load. I watched a lot of football yesterday. The one consistent theme was the teams with the better talent won. South Carolina had better players across the board than UCF and survived the early flurry to win. Oklahoma had better talent than ND. OSU has way better talent than WI and won. NIU has way better talent than Purdue and won....that was no upset. Stanford was bigger, faster and stronger than Washington State. This is why recruiting is so important in college football. The teams with better talent win. If we are going to be critical of Bowden for anything it should be for bringing in players, specifically WRs, who are too small to break tackles. Football is about QBs, Coaches and WRs and we brought in two WRs who are too small.

Ok. Say this works. They still lose by ten and are still 1-4. The gap isn't huge, but it is still there. Certainly not as big as last year and improving. My suggestion to fans who blame play calling is to diagram some plays and send them into the coaching staff. Most fans couldn't diagram a play.

They lost by 17. Much more than a coaching problem. Zips still have a talent gap that needs to be addressed before they can compete with the better teams in the league for four quarters. Better coaching, they still lose.

BGSU has better players than we do and would have won regardless. Here is what Bowden needs to do differently. 1. Stop force feeding the young receivers who are too small to get a yard after getting hit. I haven't seen such unproductive dancing since Eric Metcalf played for the Browns. 2. Feed the ball to the big WRs who are more physical and can get extra yards after being hit. I can't stand small WRs. 3. Our starting RB is as good as he is ever going to be. He is an average MAC RB. If there is a player who is equal in talent with more upside, start him. 4. Get better perimeter run support from safeties. 5. Be more decisive and stop trying to be cute. Stop with the pooch punts from the QB. Make commitments. If you want to punt, put your punter out and freaking punt already. He gets a scholarship to do that. The QB gets a scholarship to run the offense. Put players in a position to succeed by letting them do what they do best. 6. Give the QB more options on short yardage passes. I have no problem with throwing on third or fourth and two, just line up and execute a play that provides the QB with multiple options. Again, the Zips were out playered today. BG is a better team and we played them at their place. Started out great, but you can only adjust with the available talent on the team. The Zips are still lacking in overall talent so after the flurry of punches we threw at BG early ended, the leaned on use with better players. We are like an over matched boxer. Our plan is to come out and get a quick KO. 14-3 is not a quick KO. When we don't get the KO, it is only a matter of time before the ability of the opponent with better talent wins the fight. What I am encouraged by is the continued effort of the players. Keep your heads up and come back fighting next week.

I was feel a little down this week after a tough loss last week in a game the Zips program really needed to win. Working out of home today and wearing my Akron Alumni t-shirt. Went to lunch and ran into a stranger with a Zips polo shirt on and he came over to say hi when he saw me. Put me in a better mood about the Zips and I'm back to my old self so I picked the Zips by more than a touchdown.... Akron 35 GBSU 34

Looks like one of those new fangled plastic caps. They should be ashamed of themselves for ruining a great tradition. Give me the old fashioned ceramic caps because I'm not interested in inhaling burning plastic fumes.

I totally agree. Following this football team from far way is brutal. I don't know how some of you put yourselves through it. There has to be more than drinking beer in a parking lot. There has to be more than anticipation for the year they finally put it together. Anyone who walks away from following the team cannot be described as a fair weather fan. Too many of those people have been brutalized by this program over they years. As far as to when it will turn around? Who really knows? It could be in two years or it could be in twelve years. I think we are on the right track, but we have all thought that several times in the past. Give people a reason to come to games and they will. Then, give them a reason to come back

Poland vs. Italy. I think it matters.

Who cares? It's Poland.

I agree. Not sure how motivated I would be to live in Poland.

Does anyone still drink Grolsch? That beer really brings back some memories. When I was younger, the little plastic cap on the top of the Grolsch bottle was made of ceramic. The cap is hollowed out so the metal wire that applies pressure to the cap can be run into it. Let's just say that when you were smoking and what you were smoking got too small to hold, you could put it in the ceramic cap and finish off what you were smoking...like a toke stone. A great multi purpose product.