GP1

I think we are in an excellent position right now. UCF will be down after losing a close game at NIU. While they are busy wondering if they will ever win a game, we will sneak by them (I say that with my fingers crossed.....very difficult to type). All of our games are winable. Marshall looked bad Saturday and if Miami can lose one more between now and when we play them, they may lay down at the Bowl the last game of the year. There is no reason we can't win at least three more games. 5-6 would be a great finish to a VERY poor start. I hate to jinx us, but our special teams are plaing well this year. Swiger is kicking them high and deep and also into the corner where they want it. 14 is also kicking well. Keep up the good work guys, God knows that is all you have to do. Our punt returner is gauges where the ball is going to come down good and is sure handed. We had a kick returned for a TD Saturday and we never looked back after that.

Man do I miss getting drunk on May Day.

Just to answer a couple of questions, I'm a Zip fan. In fact, I go to every game so I would have not said what I did without seeing 5 play. I see a great MAC player, but I'm not sure I see an NFL player. Second answer. I'm not an NFL scout, but I am staying in a Holiday Inn Express tonight. I think Captain Kangaroo made a good point when he said that if the right team gets him, he will do well. I agree. The problem is getting with the right team. Sometimes NFL teams take a fourth QB into camp just to put pressure on the third team QB without intentions of cutting him. This situation would make it very difficult for 5 to make the team that selected him. What if that team's offense doesn't allow 5's talents to shine? What are the odds of the MAC producing four star NFL QBs in six years? Certainly at first blush, it would not be something one would bet a lot of money on. We talk about players making the NFL like it is a piece of cake when in fact it is an EXTREMELY difficult thing to do.

Zack Derr was in training camp for one year with the Cowboys and was cut prior to playing in any regular season games. Kicker is probably the most difficult position to make it because if you don't get with the right team, you're finished. I see him at games some times, so he must still be living in NE Ohio.

BZ, Thanks for your comments. Don't belittle the completion percentage though. I don't care what level of football someone is playing, he had a 63.8% completion percentage coming into the year and that is outstanding. I agree with your other points though. Arm strength is a major key in the NFL. Keep your fingers crossed for 5's sake though. Is there anyone else out there with the balls to raise questions? Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people.

Let me clarify. I'm not bitter on Charlie. In fact, I think the kid is the greatest QB, if not the best player in U of A history. Jason Taylor and Mike Clark might have something to say about that though. Also, he is one of the great players in the history of the MAC. Most importantly though, he is a good person and someone U of A alumni can be proud of. Secondly, I'm certainly not crying. All I did was supply evidence supporting my case. In fact, I'm trying to convince myself that I am wrong but I keep running into walls. Believe me, my skin is plenty thick. Let me get back to my main point. As great as he is, it may not be good enough to make it in the NFL. The wasteland of the NFL is full of great college football players who could not make it in the league or had extremely short careers. The average NFL career is very short. Hell, there have been Heisman players fall flat on their faces, which came to mind last weekend when I saw Andre Ware on ESPN2. Even if 5 doesn't make the NFL, he was still a great player. I just wish that by the end of this year, he could take one game and single handedly win that game. Marshall would be a good place to start for U of A and his own career. Lastly, what a buzz I started. This is fun.

Let me answer you questions since you raise them. 1. "No big games? Were you at the last Marshall game in the bowl?" Answer: Yes I was, and anyone with half of a brain would know that Marshall would have rolled all over Akron U. if Leftwich had not gotten hurt. 2. "This guy has put the entire team on his back for 3 years, and personally willed the Zips into a positions they could win from, only to have the defense let him down time after time after time. Came way back in Madison, only to have the D get burned, came way back in Hartford (injured) only to have missed field goals and no D let him down, stepped into his first game vs OU way back when and lead the team to a victory when we were down..........those are just the quick ones I can call to mind." Answer: The kid doesn't win in big games. I'm looking at t press guide right now, and in the past three years they have gone 4-7, 4-8 and 7-5. Three of those 15 wins were against 1-AA teams so he has 12 Division I-A wins in three years. In the past two years, he has lost to the likes of Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, OU and Can't State. All games we should have won. An NFL QB wins those games by himself. 3. Your Post: "Is 5 really as good as we think he is? I'm guilty of thinking the kid was a first or second round draft pick. After watching him in a pro style offense, he looks confused and uncertain." What team and game are you watching? This is the same crappy offense we ran unsuccessfully last year. Answer: The offense is much different and all of they players willingly say so. Even 5 says there are multiple reads in this offense when in the past there was only one. News flush, a multiple read offense is an NFL offense. There are also less counters and misdirections. 4. Your Post: " I just don't see the spark or professional ability of the kid." Trust me, this young man has the whole package...........he's a pro in the wings. No Lefty, Big Ben or Pennington??????????? Right he's not. He's probably better than any of them.............look at the programs and teams those guys played on. Now think about what 5's had to work with. End of discussion..........oh yea, and in case you haven't heard, he's got a shot at the MAC all time passing record. Additionally, look at this when you get a chance..........some of his best games have been against the biggest competition like Wisconsin and Virginia (past years). Answer: So much BS, so little time, but here it goes. Trust you, why....what the Hell do you know. The fact that you know nothing is indicated by the fact you think he is better than Big Ben or Leftwich. 5. No long ball? Really? How long is long enough? Tell him..............and go ask him to casually toss it that far for you. Our problem is that since the days of Schifino and Bailey we haven't had a deep threat to throw to. We can't get behind anyone, and haven't been able to for 4 years. Worse yet, his YAC probably sucks cause our guys always get caught from behind...........only Sparks doesn't apply to the above comments, but he was a bit timid as a receiver IMHO. Answer: 40 -50 yards accurately, which we when we have seen it this year has been well off the mark. I was at all three of the first three games. YAC has little to do with the ability to throw a pass over 40 yards, which I don't question his ability to do. However, if you still need me to ask him, here it goes. Dear Charle, Could you please take a camera to practice and casually toss a ball 40 yards and leave a video of it in the library as evidence of your abilities? I know this evidence does not display any ability to throw the ball accurately, only your ability to throw the ball that far, but there is an idiot who writes on a web site who is wants me to demand evidence, so if you could do me this one favor, I would be eternally grateful. Sincerely, GP1

Thanks for your note Captain. I think you may be overstating that 5 has a long NFL career ahead of him. If he does make an NFL team, which I think has become a 50/50 proposition, I certainly don't think a long career is ahead of him. I think again he is more like a Brian St. Pierre who will be cut by the Steelers at the end of a two year career. Maybe he will get a third year with another team, but probably not. Thanks again for your response.

I'm wearing my suit of armor, so if you want to tee off on me, feel free. I have something to say that really needs to be said or at least asked. I hope I am wrong. Is 5 really as good as we think he is? I'm guilty of thinking the kid was a first or second round draft pick. After watching him in a pro style offense, he looks confused and uncertain. Him being drafted in the fourth or fifth round, or even not at all, doesn't seem all that unlikely. This is not the coaches fault either, so save the typing. I understand there are problems such as the offensive line, a hurt hand and lost playmakers, but even when he does have a little time, I just don't see the spark or professional ability of the kid. In the NFL, you either can, or you can't. I know that to his credit, 5 passed for a lot of yards in the previous offense, but at the same time, it was not a pro offense. They ran a lot of play action passes with little 5 yard dink passes to the tight end. When they did have to drop back and throw the ball, he never looked really good. The NFL is a drop back, down field passing league. Is 5 a down field passer? I'm not seeing it. Last year at Pitt (I was at three of their games), Rutherford ran the same offense much better than 5 does. Other than Fitzgerald, they didn't have much talent on that team compared to their opposition. I know they went to a bowl game, which they lost, but it is easier to tell me who Pitt lost to last year than who they beat. Can anyone tell me what Rutherford is doing right now? Back to Akron....... When we watch 5 play, are we seeing a Leftwich or Rothlisberger, or are we just watching a very good MAC QB who really has no meaningful future in the NFL? Personally, and it kills me to say this, I don't see Leftwich or Rothlisberger. In fact, I saw Boston College play Toledo a couple of years ago in the Motor City Bowl, I don't even think 5 is a Brian St. Pierre, who is barely holding on with the Steelers. He was going to be on the practice squad until the Steelers starting QB got hurt. Just so everyone knows, practice players do not make the league minimum. They make about $30,000 per year. 5 would be better off selling copiers. Remember, there are only 32 teams in the NFL. That is roughtly 96 QBs if each team carries 3 QBs. Not every team is going to turn over one QB so lets say there is competition for 10-15 NFL QB positions each year. Not all of those are going to be filled by rookies. Some will be filled by NFL Europe players, CFL players and free agents. So the field is narrowed down to 5-7 NFL positions. Can 5 fill one of those positions? Will he have the talent to fit into the offense of the team that selects him? It is at least statistically unlikely. Again, I hope I am wrong. It makes me proud to see Zips in the NFL, but I am really uncertain about this particular Zip. He is going to have a huge uphill battle come training camp and I really do hope he makes it. In the mean time, we were lucky to have a good QB who gave us those great wins against great teams such as....... well.......... ummmm..........let's see......... that was.........what was that team again............ Howard.......no that wasn't the game..............Liberty........... no, that wasn't the game................Wofford ............no, that wasn't the game.............OU......... no, that wasn't the game.............Buffalo...........no, that wasn't the game.......... Beating those rough tough Can't teams will have to work , because I could go on all day. Go Zips and see everyone Saturday.

I guess if I was the AD, the first thing I wouldn't do is panic like a hysterical school girl and want the coach fired after five games.

Man, that Lee Corso really knows his stuff. Saved me a lot of typing. Be patient my fellow Zip fans. See you all Saturday.

It would be even better if the quality of the broadcast was better than the Buchtel games we watch on WAPS. It was a high school audio visual display.

Good posts on this tread. Continue to support the team everyone. Thursday nights at the Winking Lizard in Fairlawn. 7:00. Zips Live radio show. Be there!

Would all of you Lee Owens jock sniffers please stop posting on this sight. Last night's game was EXACTLY the type of game that Owens would have lost you freaking idiots. For Christ's sake, he only won 40 games in nine years (some of those wins were against 1-AA teams). Oh, I'm sorry, he would have at least scored against Virginia and we could have lost 51-7........I feel much better. If Owens had ANY coaching ability, he would be somewhere other than Ashland. My God, you people are dumb!!! For all the sane people out there, Akron won a hard fought game last night against a good team. Road games are not easy to win, especially against a rival. Any time a team scores 24 points in a game, they should win the game........and they did. For all the Owens jock sniffers, I'm sorry the Zips ran the ball so much last night. It only helped them control the clock and wear down a Can't defense that allowed a long touchdown run late in the fourth quarter. In fact, I don't know what game you guys were watching, but the running game was excellent in the second half. Owens could have never made the adjustments with that hight school offense that he runs that the current coaching staff did. I'm sorry that that strategy is beyond the mental capacity of some of you on this site. Coaching won that game!!!! Great job JD. You deserve better than the first two posts. To all the jock sniffers, I'm also sorry the defense played so poorly. Holding a team to 19 points while blocking an extra point and forcing long field goals that were missed. Holding them on the two yard line was also a disaster. Should we have let them score so we could really have something to bitch about? It forced us to use that horrible running game of ours to run the clock down late in the game giving Can't no chance to win and we could kneel the clock out to win. Attention Owens jock sniffers, when a defense holds a team to less points than their own team scores, they win the game!!! One last time, if you are going to write this site with stupid comments about how Owens would have done this or that, please don't. You are all making asses out of yourselves. We now have a big time coach who wants to take the progam to the next level. Winning close games is a sign of a good coach. In the recent past, close games became disasters, Middle Tennessee included. The coaches got the team over the hump last night. I think it is a sign of good things to come.

See everyone on the beer patio.

The Captain is right on the money. It is obvious it is going to be a looooooong season for the Zips, but what can we do. Please don't take the following statement as being purposely malicious because they aren't intended to be so. My only disagreement is that Owens should have been fired one year before he did and certainly before he started to hire every high school coach in Ohio to work under him. My guess is that in the end Owens surrounded himself with high school coaches because every other college coach saw the writing on the wall and they were the only coaches he could get. High school coaches rarely are able to understand what a Division I player will look like two or three years down the road. Have you ever talked to a high school coach about football, they speak in cliches. Good Division I players do not always play for good teams or even have good statistics because they may be on a bad team. A Division I coach must be able to spot a good player's talent and I don't think that was getting done. For example, do all three Basch brother deserve Division I scholarships????? Are 5' 11" 215 pound linebackers really Division I players? The Zips are way too small and way too slow. The athlet director is also partly to blame. He is paid to have foresight about the program and when one high school coach after another is hired to be an assistant, he should have known something was wrong. It is not always about what plays are called. Success is more frequently about creating the right culture. The ADs job is to create the proper culture. JD has been around the block and I believe understands the culture of accountability that needs to be created. Speaking of creating the right culture. I said this a week ago and after seeing the game Saturday it is obvious that more competition needs to be created on the team for starting positions. After all, a rising tide lifts all ships. The starting offensive line has no pressure on them to perform because the back up players are so poor they could not be counted on to perform in a game. The solution to this problem is to bring in older players who can compete.......JUCO players (but not a lot of them and only for one or two years). Just enough to create competition and some depth. Oh by the way, Can't State has a patio where you can drink beer and watch the game. Some day when Akron has a real stadium, maybe we can have a beer patio that allows us to see the game also. See everyone there Thursday. Look at the current staff, they all have college experience, and a lot of it. Given time, they will do a good job. I really do have a lot of confidence in them. I hope everyone else does too. Have a good week everyone!

I would like to put the blame for Saturday's game directly where it belongs. ON THE FREAKING PLAYERS THEMSELVES!!!!! Both on offense and defense, the coaches are calling good plays and the players aren't executing the plays. Missed tackles, missed blocks, fumbles and missed easy ten yard catches are always disasters. Anyone in their right mind must understand that the coaches preach fundamentals on a daily basis and when the players do not execute, it is just as troubling for the coaches as the fans. Every play is designed to go for a touchdown, including plays up the middle. If the players would execute, we wouldn't have to complain about the OC (there is nothing to complain about anyhow). The players must be made accountable for their actions and play better......including #5. Are you kidding me with that fumble on the six yard line?????? One aspect of the new coaching staff I really appreciate is the business like direction they have taken the team. The high school coaching staff we had before is gone and we now have professionals that are not going to accept poor effort. My guess is that Ringer will not be starting this week. The same needs to be done with the cup cakes on defense. Either they perform or they should find someone who wants to play. Damn the graduation rate!!!! This winter, the Zips need to find some JUCO players that can immediately step in to make an impact. The JUCO players will force the LO recruits to either become better players, or leave the team. Also, the JUCO players will allow some of the young recruits to mature before they are thrown into the fire. Either way, the fans win.