GP1

Yes. AA doing ok. Not limping. Needs some conditioning. A little chubby. Pp

@ Dave Zeke looks ok in post. Doubled a lot. CCU is average at best. Zips wear them down with more players in second half and win easy. AA need to be careful of his paella consumption when on rehab.

Sluggish AA out of shape.

@ Dave.....Nice! I've never thought of it that way, but the enforcement arm at the NCAA is more like the Vichy French than Nazi Germans. Sort of a group of witless bumblers taking orders from a bunch of goons. Good people get harmed in the wake of their stupidity. Thanks again for the paradigm shift.

Thanks for posting. Goes to show how explosive our passing game is. We took a four year bench warmer at an unknown school and are breaking school records with him. Give me a little more mobility in our QB and an improved running game....watch out!

Are you saying we had a problem complying with the NCAA's Bible-sized book of rules?

Good discussions on playing a tough schedule. Here is my opinion. We should play every team in the MAC East every year. That's why you have divisions...In order to find the best team in a single group of teams that will compete for a championship against a team from the same conference, but in another division. It streamlines the process. If the division is tough, so be it. If it isn't, so be it. I don't know why the MAC doesn't have every team in the division play each other every year. Doing so allows teams to develop programs designed to win their division and then take their chances in the MAC Championship. Really good NFL teams design their teams around winning their division first, maximizing out of division games, getting into the playoffs and then seeing where the chips fall at that point. The MAC should do the same.

Sounds like nobody really knows why the players may or may not be at CCU so this is just a general comment. There always have been and there always will be professors who stage protests because they believe their University spends too much money on sports. It goes on everywhere. For the most part, they are probably right if they believe big time college athletics are contrary to the mission of a university. They are, but I still like them and will continue to follow.

The good teams are getting better players all around. That's how good teams are made. It's like saying, "Defense wins championships". Good teams win championships, not defense.

Bachelor Party? That only means one thing. I know a guy who worked as a bar back and later as a bartender at The Dollhouse when he was younger. He made $600 per night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Less on other nights, but still a lot. The also paid $50 just for showing up to work. The guy could tell stories you wouldn't believe, but they are all true. He worked there seven years.

Talk?...You should see the way the locals dress. Summer attire is cut off jeans and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. Winter attire is jeans with a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off.

My offer still stands. I thought there would be several people who used this as a chance to spend a weekend at the ocean the best time of the year to visit MB. Rumor has it there are $49.00 round trip tickets out of Arnold Palmer airport in western Pennsylvania to Myrtle Beach on Spirit Airlines.

Even though Ok State plays the same offense, their QB has a net rushing total of 254 yards this season. Even if you take out his longest of 50, he is still averaging around 5 yards per running attempt. He may not be a "dual threat", but he is enough of a threat. I'll take a four yard gain any day over an incomplete pass. Offensive coordinators say all the time, "Get yards". When the opportunity presents itself, we have to get yards. Why should the defense rush more than three on a clear passing down? There is no threat of our QB running. Heck, they could drop 10 and there would be no threat of running. Of the Top 4 BCS teams right now, three of the four (Oregon, Can't State and ND) have QBs who are at least a threat to run. Alabama's QB has a net loss of yards this year, but when you have two RBs with over 700 yards rushing each, there isn't much need for a QB to get yards that have already been gotten.

Good points. The solutions are pretty simple. A QB with a cannon arm and pinpoint accuracy solves this problem....Very hard to find in the MAC and the good teams know it. Second solution, which is easier than banging your head against a wall trying to be right about something that is almost impossible to be right at (see JD Brookhart never giving up on the 3-3-5 defense). What the good teams in the MAC have also figured out is there has to be a running component with the QB as a threat to run in an offense in the 21st Century. Being able to run isn't as important as being able to pass, but a team had better have some running component to open up the field for passing. It doesn't have to be a 50/50 balance, but there as to be some action that provides deception and surprise to a defense. For a long time now, the NFL has had good runners who open up the field for passing. Think back to Steve Young and how his ability to run opened up the field countless times for the 49ers. Heck, you can go back as far as Otto Graham and Sammy Baugh to see NFL QBs who have, in their time, opened up a passing game with their feet. As time progressed, there have become more guys like Young. Ben Roethlisberger has been doing it for a while now. It's nothing new, we are just seeing more of it and a different evolution of it in college. I know a lot of people aren't going to like this, but look at how OSU has done with their last two running threat QBs with little talent on the team. Let's join the party...There probably isn't much pot left at the party since we played at Can't last weekend, but we can always buy/grow more. There are other solutions, but the second seems to be the one that works every time a turn on a television.

This makes me sad. When I was in school, we were always looking for something to do that would entertain us. The basketball team wasn't very good, so it wasn't a good form of entertainment and we didn't go. If they were good, I know lots of people who would have gone. It bothers me that the students have such a great form of entertainment within walking distance from where they live and don't go. I still don't understand why every game isn't sold out. It's great entertainment. These students are creating the next generation of empty seats. Other than school or work obligations, there is no reason for them to not go. Go to the games kids. You'll have fun.

I agree. My percentage might be a little higher next year with around 33%, but 25% is still a good number. I'd start out at 33% of the recruiting class and then try to taper that percent down to around 10% in four years and keep that at a permanent level.

The mac is going through a period of improvement and has room to get better. The league is deeper than in past periods of improvement. If you guys remember, Marshall was a regular Top 25 program and Miami finished in the Top 10 Roethlisberger's last year. We still don't see that team or the quality of QB they had. Maybe they have replaced star power with depth...I don't know, but there is room for the league to get better in terms of stars. Plenty of good depth though and plenty of quality play on the field. I wouldn't want to give up depth for stars. It got old watching Marshall, when they were loaded with stars, make the rest of the league bad.

EA does pick Doug McDermott. Should be a great game when the Zips go to Omaha in December. Big scorer vs the best MAC defensive team. The Zips will need a huge win here to make my undefeated December prediction come true.

I don't have a photo, but I do have an over/under question. How many times will children under the age of 10 say something like, "It smells like a skunk."?

Wouldn't a new scoreboard cost less? Better yet, wouldn't it cost less to, I don't know, test the system before the game?

Good stuff. A few years ago, I called the MAC Dollar General. Lets be honest, it was complete crap. However, the league is much, much, much better now. I don't need a guy at ESPN to tell me that. It is now a very entertaining league to watch. All I want is entertainment and the Mac is providing a high level of it.

The weekend after this coming is the CCU game in Conway, SC. If you don't know where it is, it is very close to Myrtle Beach. This is the best time of the year to go to the beach for a lot of reasons. Since I live down here (Charlotte), I frequently go to MB. If anyone is going and would like recommendations on things to do, places to go, places to eat, places to stay, etc. reply to this note and I'll put something together.

First of all, thanks to Dave for the recommendation. I highly, highly, highly recommend the website and service. To Z.I.P., yes, they can make just about anything you want. They have a wide variety of clothing and can design graphics. Very quick turn around, which is what I needed. IMO, for what they do, the cost is pretty cheap. I expected to pay a lot more. Give it a shot. My only regret is I didn't know about this place years ago.

It's something we could debate, but remember how bad it was the last year of Faust and the first year of Owens? I'm starting to think I'm getting a lot of miles on me as a Zips fan.

Appeal to the now and the future. The past is the past. Many of these kids have very little to hang their hats on after many years of effort. I'm sure they know Ianello was an idiot and anything he thought or even worse yet, said, was nonsense. They saw the larger crowds than normal in past games they played in against Can't. They know how big the Can't game is for both schools. The future.....Let them know they can be remembered for something big. Beating Can't in a bowl season would be something they would be remembered for years from now when they bring their kids back to watch future Zips play. The "now" is more important than the future. Make it all about doing something great for the University, alumni and their fellow students. Don't motivate them by hating Can't. Appeal to the better nature of humans.....Giving enjoyment to others by working hard this week and performing at a high level later in the week. It's a bigger burden than the team just doing it for each other, but the enjoyment is greater when enjoyment is provided to the largest number of people as possible. Watch how happy the faces of the SF Giants are in a couple of days when they get a victory parade through SF and they see how happy the fans are. They are happy because the fans are happy. That's a lot better emotion than being happy because they hated the Tigers.