GP1

I'm not worried about Luke. He is not playing nearly has horrible as he did midseason last year and I stuck with him then and I'll stick with him now. We just finished playing possibly the three most difficult teams on our schedule, all on the road, and his numbers are pretty good. We won the championship with him last year with almost exactly the same statistics. 2005 he averaged 265 yards per game and completed 53% of his passes. 2006 he is averaging 259.3 yards per game and is completing 50% of his passes. He has NEVER had sexy numbers.A team lives and dies with the play of the QB. Luke must play better on the goal line.Our league is horrible this season (anyone see how bad Miami and Can't looked on Saturday?) and we should compete for the MAC East championship with this team. The late season string of home games will save us. See everyone in Detroit.

http://www.cmuchippewas.com/ViewArticle.db...6&Q_SEASON=2006I hope he employs the same defense he did at Akron. I like our chances even better now.

Home field advantage usually gives a team 3.5 points when betting. Somebody out there knows something we don't know. "Sombody" is usually right. I worry.

Bingo!

Good report. Be careful not to trick the masses CK. They will start to tell us that the $3.00 game day parking is too much. Just so you guys know, not all parking there is free. I know many of you think it should be free, but it wasn't. A large part of their fans actually pay through the nose to park.The tailgating was good. I had a real nice guy sitting behind me who explaind how seating and parking works there. They have it all figured out. He told me that people own their own individual spots and gave a lifetime donation for the spots. The people there also purchased something similar to a PSL that gives them lifetime access to their seat. It was $2,500 per seat for the PSL. All of the black chairback attachments for the benches were people who dontated $2,500. There were thousands of these seats set up. That's how they helped build all that nice stuff around the stadium. Akron could do something similar to this on a smaller scale when the time comes to build a new stadium. People could have their own spot for basketball and football games. My guess is State does this same thing as their basketball arena is the hockey arena next to the stadium.There are parts of the stadium that have seats, not benches, like an NFL stadium. Another great idea if we ever get a new stadium. Very comfortable.Carolina pulled pork sandwiches in the stadium............mmmmmm pork.I don't know how many of you had a chance to look at the pressbox closely, but only a small portion of the box is used for the press and coaches. Everything else is like club seating. And I don't mean a small section either. This pressbox was HUGE.Could the grass have looked nicer? It looked like an astroturf field it was so perfect......even at the end of the game it looked great.One guy has a parking spot very close to the stadium that has a slight downhill grade to it. He built a small deck as wide as the spot and about ten feet long so he can back his truck up to it and tailgate on a level seating area. This level of dedication to tailgating deserves a .My only complaint about the stadium, and it really isn't the stadium, is that I have never been in a stadium where there is such a constant stream of fans walking up and down the steps. They were all State fans too. Akron fans seem to go to a game to watch the game. State fans seem to go to a game to be seen walking up and down the steps. For a while I thought it was only our section, but it was happening everywhere.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/spor...es/15506455.htmDLM has a good article about our early season sack problem. IMHO, the sacks are not as bad as the penalty problem we are having. Opinions?

True, but they make it sound like a professional photographer took it. It was some guy sitting in the second row. People can do whatever they want with a photo. The replays on the local news down there look nothing like the photo. When he lands on TV, the entire ball is across the line.

http://www.newsobserver.com/753/story/485191.htmlIn case any of you are still wondering, above is an article about whether or not DK crossed the line Saturday. If the ACC could have cheated us out of the win on Saturday, they would have, but they couldn't after taking a long look at it.

Every sales guy I've fired had every excuse in the world for non-performance and it was never their fault. The more they make excuses, the more stupid they sound and the more in need of being fired they become.With the team Amato has, he is going to be making a lot of excuses this year. If these articles are an indication of how bad his excuses are already, it will be interesting to see what he comes up with by Week 12 when they are 3-8 going into their last game.Comments like this assume the State fan base is stupid. For the most part, State fans were nice and intelligent. They should be insulted when they read stupidity like this coming from their coach. If I were the AD at State, I would be pretty pissed at these comments. I would have a long talk with Chuck about them and start to set the stage for his firing. This joke only going to get worse.On another note, we should give thumbs up to Mack for not lowering himself to this silly level by declining comment. The silence speaks volumes.

Thanks for the nap Cracker.

I don't know how many picked up on all of the ESPN exposure, but the Zips received a ton on Saturday.First, my brother told me they interrupted the noon ESPN game to pick up the last few minutes of our game off of ESPNU.Second, Herbie loves any team from Ohio that does well, and he made Akron his "Impact Performer" for the weekend.Lastly, the talking head that does the show with Mark May and Lou Holtz gave a helmet sticker to Akron. The only problem was that they had to take a "liberty" with a generic gold helmet when putting the sticker on. My advice to ESPN would be, given the direction our program is heading, to call our media relations guy and try to get an Akron helmet. I think they will need to use it again in the future.

A cracker sitting behind me told me NC State has blocked more punts than any other school in both of the past two seasons. By their punt block performance Saturday, I have no reason to question this. I'm not concerned about the punter. When he has time he gets the ball off and makes good kicks.The PK made a 47 yard FG against PSU and missed a really easy one Saturday. The Roberto Clemente used to say, "You can't take your way out of a batting slump". When he was in a slump he used to try to swing at least three times per at bat. What does this mean for our kicker? Keep putting him out there to swing his way out of any slump he MAY be in. Once he gets a rythm established, all may work out well.

that confirms it. you REALLY don't know what you're talking about. i can't believe you actually said that. http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/a...de-chuck-amato/I'm not the only one saying it. My guess is that Chuck would grade out with the fans at about a D+ after the first and second games of the season. The team seems to be trending downward. The fans were mad as heck on the radio after the game Saturday and the team isn't very good. Chuck is in trouble.

I had to park quite a distance from the stadium yesterday so I had a chance to spend a lot of time walking next to the funeral procession that others would call a post game traffic jam. I've never heard such silence coming from the 5,000 cars sitting in traffic. The only sound was the sound of bitching coming out of the post game radio show.Anyhow, State fans are plenty pissed off at Chuck Amato, and they should be because the team is worse now than when he took over as coach. Anyhow, I have a sneaky feeling that JD pulled the hammer back on the gun that is going to end the Amato era in Raleigh. The trigger remains to be pulled and someone else is going to have to do that, but JD did pull the trigger back.Any thoughts?

Stop kidding yourself about the "talent" State has. There isn't much. Maybe your d-line was more athletic than our o-line, but that is where it ends.Our receivers made big play after big play on your defense like they were standing still, especially when it counted.Kennedy got around the corner at will on your defense.Your fat ass o-line was too slow for our defensive line. How do you think we stopped you guys on fourth and one late.Your linebackers couldn't crack an egg.Your QB is at best a waste of a scholarship.Your best player is #22 (a future NFL RB).As far as coaching, Chuck is a joke and the only reason he still has a job is because he went to school there. JD was calling the right plays at the right time against your soft defense. If you blitzed inside, we had a play called to run outside.State would have trouble winning the MAC this year with that garbage you put on the field. It's a good thing the ACC schedule is starting so you can win some games against D-1 teams.

Best point yet about the game yesterday. For those of you who were not there or didn't get to see the game, there was no difference in size and speed between the two teams. The best player on the field was #22 for State, but that is about where the best of list stops for them. Kennedy, Getsy and others were better than what they had on the field.Another headline for the game in the paper could have been, "Zips Almost Blow Game Against Inferior Team". Honest to God guys, we are really that talented this year. The talent alone could make them the best team in school history, but time will tell us whether they can keep it together or not. I believe they can.

One other thing, how does this guy from State (probably a Seahawks fan too) know that the ball is not across the line or maybe was across the line and came back as DK protects himself from the fall? Touchdown Akron!!!!!!!

What would a game be without the post game cry by the losers.

It smells like sour grapes in here. Are we sure Sloopy isn't posting again? Anyhow........Look cracker, learn the rules. A player is not down until something from the hips or lower touch the ground. Every piece of video I saw showed DK clearly crossing the line before his lower body touches.There was not a single person on the post game analysis on 680 AM here locally who questioned whether or not he was over the line. In fact, this is the only State fan who questions the call. When asked whether he crossed the line or not, one of the State radio guys said he was clearly across. One split second in a photo does not tell the whole story. The video was on TV several time last night and today here and he was clearly across the line. In fact, the entire ball is across the line before his lower body hits.Akron is a better team than State, period. In fact, State is a really bad team. No more excuses please from the sour grapes growing in Raleigh.

Would all of you believe that I had a business trip down here Wed. thru Fri. this week scheduled........my as well stay until Sunday and bring the wife down on Fri. Interesting how things work out. Anyhow, I've had a chance to go around town and recommend some things to do here in town. This is my first trip here so this will be brief.If you are coming, ask someone how to get to Glenwood Avenue in the city below the I-440 beltway. It's pretty easy to get to if you are staying near the team hotel. Anyhow, my recommendation would be to go to Sullivans steak house and you can go either way from there all within walking distance. There are several casual type of places to go serving different types of food. Just walk around until you find something you may like.Another place you may want to try, but is not near Glenwood Avenue, is 42nd Street Oyster Bar. It's kind of a local place and has been here for a long time. Nothing fancy, but good seafood.Chapel Hill is really close and my understanding is there are a ton of things to do when you get there.Lastly, I don't know a single bar in the Akron area that serves Yuengling, but evey place down here does. I know some of you really like this beer so you will have a treat this week.

I'm surprised nobody picked up on it yet. Any thoughts on the new away uniforms (tops)? I thought they looked better than the past.

Did anyone else out there waste three and a half hours of their life watching the most over-hyped game of the year on ESPN last night? I'm so ashamed of myself today.Was anyone impressed by either team? Both teams seem to run the same play every other down, which is the deep pass down the sideline, and hope for a catch or penalty. Could there have been more penalties?Does the game really warrant ESPN Classic playing reruns of past games all day long or are they just short on things to show?How many times was the word "speed" used last night? Does it matter if a guy is fast if he can't catch, cover or tackle?Here's to time wasted.

I guess if I'm calling anyone out, it is ME and everyone else. When I say we as in the Alumni, I am speaking as a member of that group which should be looked at as one body. I'm not trying to call anyone single person out though. Sorry if you are offended. However, if there are some people out there who are offended, they should ask themselves why?, and then ask if the shoe fits.I understand that there are people who give a ton of money, and that's great. The point is that this small group can not be the only people to financially support the program. If Akron is going to have a top notch program that pays coaches well and can support a new stadium some day, they must have a much larger group supporting them financially than they currently have. I don't think that asking the question, "With what?" when people say they need to pay JD more and we need a new stadium is unreasonable.The other end of the issue rests with the University. We should not always blame them for everything, but they do deserve some blame for the lack of money. I will take this point up at a later date though as I do not have the time to expand today. I think they do one thing HORRIBLY as it relates to generating money. The problem is easy to solve with a little time and effort.

Many of our fellow MAC schools were on television this weekand and many of us were able to watch them. With the exception of Akron, Toledo, BGSU and CMU, everyone else was pretty unimpressive. Most importantly, Akron and BGSU were the only two MAC East teams to score a respectable amount of points against bigger conference schools. What does this mean for us?Well, while we want to win every game, the real goal is similar to the first goal of an NFL team which is to win your division. Having Miami and BGSU at home is going to help us greatly. The rest of the MAC East is absolute garbage. In fact, Miami didn't impress me at all against Northwestern and I didn't get to see BGSU, but they had a similar score to ours on a neutral field against a much lesser team than what we played yesterday. I like our chances against those two schools.Most of the mistakes we made yesterday are correctable mistakes. We do have to stop giving up so many big plays though. Most importantly, we scored points against a very good defense on their field. Also, we played hard the entire game. If we can play hard against our MAC East opponents and score points consistently against them, we should make it to the MACC. Compared to other MAC schools, our team has a lot of talent even though it may not have looked that way at times yesterday. PSU had much more talent than we did on the field yesterday and I don't see how we could have ever overcome it.I don't feel like typing much today, so I'll just let you guys take it from here. We are the MAC East Champions and the Confierence champions though and as that bumbling idiot John Madden once said (I swear he said this, it's too stupid for me to even make up), "The champion is the champion until he's no longer the champion, and that's what makes him the champion." In his own crazy way, I think he is trying to say that someone has to take the championship away from us. I don't think Akron is the type of team to give it away this season. I really don't see anyone out there in the MAC East that can take the divisional championship away from us at this point, and I'll take my chances in a winner take all MACC again. I'm feeling good.

What are they going to pay him with? We have the cheapest and most short sighted fans in college sports. Even the people who consider themselves great fans complain the first time the cost of anything goes up.I'm convinced that it is not the fault of the Athetic Department that the coaches don't make more money. They would gladly pay it if they had it. It is the fault of all of US though. We are the alumni and fans of the University and in reality, very few are willing to do anything other than buy a ticket or two to support the program. We should stop blaming others and realize that WE are the problem and not THEM.