Great Game

[Buckzip]

The defense scared me in the 4th quarter, but they came thru in OT.

We need more depth. They were worn out.

This is a huge win for the program. They beat one of the MAC elite.

The greatest thing is that this is a young team. They will only get better.

With JD hopefully recruiting each year like he did last year, the future is bright.

This is the most excited I have been for UA football in a long time.

[KentZip]

Can't disagree with anything you said. I will add my thoughts about seeing this team in person for the first time this year.

OVERALL, the team I saw last night is better than last year's team. The defense is improved, special teams is very good (well, kickoff coverage could be better) and the offense is as good as last years if not better. The offensive line is better. Even though they did not consistently open holes for the running game, run blocking overall appeared better than last year. Dennis Kennedy is for real!

The "prevent" defense in the 4th quarter needs a lot of work (understatement of the year). At times it looked like 3 down linemen, one linebacker and 7 defensive backs and we still couldn't stop the big play. The failure of the defense in the 4th quarter made the whole game look worse than it was from a defensive standpoint. The "greatest running back in the country" was held to 49 yards on 21 carries. Kevin Grant is for real. Jay Rohr is for real. Jermaine Reid and Kiki Gonzalez are for real. Chevin Pace is a beast.

Impressions of those on the sidelines:

I can't remember but what the he&%( is the entire Glenville recruiting class doing out of uniform on the sidelines? Grades? Cloud, Benjamin and several others were sitting on the concrete wall the entire game. If it is an academic situation, I'm sure they feel like crap sitting out instead of playing in a game like that. Zach Andersen is huge! The recruiting sites listed him at 265. He looks more like 295 to 300 and no fat on him. Carlton Jackson looks like an athlete.

See all of you next week.

[zipboy]

Great game all around, I am still catching my breath. Some thoughts

1. Hixon looks even better this year. Definitely a shot to play at the next level. Depth wise we may have the best receiving core in the league. Maybe the other team has 1 DB who is great and they can try to isolate on Hixon, but we are so solid in our top 4 that someone will be open.

2. Running game is improved from last year but we still have trouble running from under center. I still worry about getting a running first down on 3rd and 2. First and goal at the 5, I worry about punching it in the endzone without passing. Kennedy a nice fill in for Biggs. Biggs made a tremendous run in OT. Hopefully the several series where Kennedy played and Biggs got to rest made him stronger for OT.

3. It seemed like in the 1st half Getsy had to scramble a lot and in the 2nd half the line blocked pretty well.

4. Nice INT by Henry, but how long before Tate takes over as a starter and Henry is the nickel back?

5. Several nice shoe string tackles by Mackey. Rohr was all over the place.

6. Take out the last 10 minutes of the game and the D played pretty well. What happened in the last 10 minutes? Secondary is supposed to be our strength. Even when it was 42-35 I still thought the D was going to stop them. Can't say I was confident in the past. I think they will straighten things out.

7. Good to see Cloud on the sidelines. Hopefully that means he is still in school.

8. Great job Zips! CMU already won at Miami, so the Zips need to be ready to play. Our talent is better, just a matter of playing the game the way they should. MAC East title is for the taking. Go Zips!

[Quickzips]

Couple Thoughts:

NIU showed up for MAYBE one complete quarter of the whole game. It looked like after they put up that 14 on us early that they figured that would be enough and tanked it. Once they did they really didn't get it going again til the 4th.

This offense is a threat to go the distance on any given play. NIU missed alot of tackles but our guys put ALOT of good moves on. Hixons long TD he did an excellent job of making guys miss and reversing field. It was beautiful.

That said, the offense needs to sustain more drives. The reason NIU came back at the end of the game was b/c the D was tired from being on the field alot. The reason for that was all of our drives in the second half were 3 and outs or 1:30, 78 yard, 3 play TD drives. Then the D is right back on the field. Don't get me wrong, you never wanna take points off the board by getting to conservative to run clock but we need a happy balance.

I'm REAL impressed with the RB's. Biggs picked up right where he left off last year and I'm convinced that Kennedy will pick up right where Brett leaves off when he graduates.

Defensivly we looked good right up until the end of the 4th. Very few missed tackles out there. Even when we had to make the shoestring we made it quite frequently. Its nice to see a team that flocks to the ball, wraps up, and brings em down. Far too often we see teams (not just the Zips) who make the hit but don't follow through, or simply try to arm tackle. Good job by JD and the staff gettin these guys to finish it off

Was that first PAT not the strangest play you'd ever seen?

Are we a legit threat to win the East now? BG is in near crisis mode after the start to their season and Miami has looked incredibly bland. The game we can't overlook though is OU. The bobcats are playing under Solich and could be just as big a test to us at BG and Miami.

[Zip N' Dots]

All in all from the Open End Zone the play looked intense, powerful and collective. I have never seen the Zips look so confident and explosive. I am proud of the way that the Zips fought back after they got down early. I was impressed by their composure.

The student section was rocking for the first time in years. I was so proud to see them out and in good spirit. I am even more glad that we gave them something to go home and talk to their room mates about. I hope to see even more out at the Rubber Bowl against CMU. A-K-Rowdies!

Keep it up Zips we are all behind you

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ZIPS!!