Watch Out for This Dude

[Captain Kangaroo]

Man amongst boys against Minnesota last week

[GP1]

I say bring him on. The Zips get their first win this week and iCoach breaks his cherry in his fifth game just like JD broke his in his fifth game.

niu is 2-2 and I'm not impressed by their accomplishment.

They lost at ISU 27-10. There is little difference betweenn isu and indiana or syracuse. They are a bottom level Big 12 team and niu got smashed by them.

They beat North Dakota 23-17. A play or two goes differently and maybe the lose to a I-AA school like we did to GW.

They lost at Illinois. Illinois is 2-1 beating a MAC school and a I-AA school. They lost to a mid level Big 12 school the first game of the year. They are a bottom level Big 10 school the same as Indiana. Once you get past tOSU, the Big Ten is garbage.

They beat Minnesota. It's a good thing MN put all of that money into "building" their program with a new stadium. New stadium, same crappy program. Should have stayed in the Homer Dome.....at least the fans would be dry and warm in October. MN lost to one of the Dakotas also. It is a laughable program. MN wouldn't win their division in the mac. This win says more about MN than niu. We did the same thing to NC State the year we beat them then their coach got fired. We finished that year 5-7 I believe. I'd love to see how often in the year a bcs school loses to a mac school that the coach of the bcs school is fired by or at the end of the season. How many times do those schools have winning records?

What all of this shows me is niu can be as inconsistent as any other team in the mac. They can play well in wins against MN, but let teams like ND hang around and allow themselves to get blown out by a bad isu program and lose to Illiinois. Do not be overly impressed by them. The key to winning in the mac is forcing a passing game. Stop this RB for niu and they will fall apart. Akron needs a better defensive game plan coming into the game though than they did last week.

Akron has the players to compete and win against niu. They need to go out and do so this week.

Stat of the week: NIU will be playing their third road game in a row. Anyone who has ever gambled on a football game knows this spells disaster for the visiting team in most cases. It's hard enough to win the second road game in a row let alone the third. Look for an niu let down and a Zips step up. Close game all the way, but niu is tired at the end from the travel.

Zips 27

NIU 20

[skip-zip]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

[Captain Kangaroo]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

[johnnyzip84]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

I think he (Wolfe) was hurt during the 1st game and limited to under 100. But their backup QB (Nicholson IIRC?) had a field day before finally losing out to Getsy in a shootout. I agree with assessment that NIU is probably more run-dependent than most teams. IF the Zips can limit them on the ground, maybe the secondary won't be as exposed against a team that clearly would prefer not to pass. I don't know much about NIU's receivers. Hopefully they're not all big like Indiana's. That was a matchup nightmare.

[skip-zip]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

Without checking, I think he actually rushed for closer to 300 yards in the MAC title game. Either way, these are two good points.

However, we negated those huge rushing efforts because Getsy threw for about 800 yards, and we scored about 80 points in those two games to outscore them.

Oh no. I hope we haven't started another defense vs. offense debate.

[Zipmeister]

I say bring him on. The Zips get their first win this week and iCoach breaks his cherry in his fifth game just like JD broke his in his fifth game.

niu is 2-2 and I'm not impressed by their accomplishment.

They lost at ISU 27-10. There is little difference betweenn isu and indiana or syracuse. They are a bottom level Big 12 team and niu got smashed by them.

They beat North Dakota 23-17. A play or two goes differently and maybe the lose to a I-AA school like we did to GW.

They lost at Illinois. Illinois is 2-1 beating a MAC school and a I-AA school. They lost to a mid level Big 12 school the first game of the year. They are a bottom level Big 10 school the same as Indiana. Once you get past tOSU, the Big Ten is garbage.

They beat Minnesota. It's a good thing MN put all of that money into "building" their program with a new stadium. New stadium, same crappy program. Should have stayed in the Homer Dome.....at least the fans would be dry and warm in October. MN lost to one of the Dakotas also. It is a laughable program. MN wouldn't win their division in the mac. This win says more about MN than niu. We did the same thing to NC State the year we beat them then their coach got fired. We finished that year 5-7 I believe. I'd love to see how often in the year a bcs school loses to a mac school that the coach of the bcs school is fired by or at the end of the season. How many times do those schools have winning records?

What all of this shows me is niu can be as inconsistent as any other team in the mac. They can play well in wins against MN, but let teams like ND hang around and allow themselves to get blown out by a bad isu program and lose to Illiinois. Do not be overly impressed by them. The key to winning in the mac is forcing a passing game. Stop this RB for niu and they will fall apart. Akron needs a better defensive game plan coming into the game though than they did last week.

Akron has the players to compete and win against niu. They need to go out and do so this week.

Stat of the week: NIU will be playing their third road game in a row. Anyone who has ever gambled on a football game knows this spells disaster for the visiting team in most cases. It's hard enough to win the second road game in a row let alone the third. Look for an niu let down and a Zips step up. Close game all the way, but niu is tired at the end from the travel.

Zips 27

NIU 20

I didn't even know dreal was sick, but he must be dead cause now gp is channeling him.

[GP1]

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Bingo. niu does not have a crappy qb, but he is also not impressive.

Completed less than 50% against a terrible isu team for 93 yards.

Only 146 yards against ND. They did have a huge running game that day.

19 of 25 against IL and not a single TD throw.

11-17 against MN for 81 yawning yards.

The QB for niu protects the ball and has not shown an ability to do anything spectacular. We need to stop this rb from killing us and see if their qb can win a game. I think when you put a mac qb under pressure to win a game, there is a greater chance of him falling apart than winning the game. Just keep the niu rb between 150 and 170 yards and the Zips win.

Big plays downfield win football games and niu does not do that. We could if our WRs would catch passes.

[meatwad]

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Interesting historical note: Garrett Wolf ran for around 200yards against us twice in 2005, and we beat Northern both times (going off memory, but I believe it is true).

I had to check this out, because I remembered it that way too...

Sept. 24 52 yards rushing (112 receiving)

Dec. 1 270 rushing (0 receiving)

Source

[HuskieFan]

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Bingo. niu does not have a crappy qb, but he is also not impressive.

Completed less than 50% against a terrible isu team for 93 yards.

11-17 against MN for 81 yawning yards.

So you know, the 93 yards against ISU was DeMarcus Grady at QB. You won't be seeing him. Unless one of us getting blown out, Harnish is hurt or it's a trick play / Wild cat formation, he's not going to see any time behind center.

Chandler Harnish has started the last 3 games, where the offense has obviously played better. Grady was awful against ISU and is now the third string quarterback.

They didn't pass against Minnesota because we were averaging over 10 yards a carry on the ground and winning by a large margin in the second half. When we did try to pass, we did it with relative ease. Minnesota is pretty awful all around.

The only game we really passed the ball while Harnish was starting, was against UofI. A game we could have won had we had a high school level kicker playing that day. He's also benched though, and the new kicker is doing pretty well, so you probably won't get to enjoy that disaster either.

Harnish is a duel threat who has a decent arm. The WR's are pretty big, and the running backs go at least 3 deep. If Akron wins, it will most likely be because your offense had a big day, not because you were able to stop us from scoring.

[niufan99]

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Bingo. niu does not have a crappy qb, but he is also not impressive.

Completed less than 50% against a terrible isu team for 93 yards.

Only 146 yards against ND. They did have a huge running game that day.

19 of 25 against IL and not a single TD throw.

11-17 against MN for 81 yawning yards.

The QB for niu protects the ball and has not shown an ability to do anything spectacular. We need to stop this rb from killing us and see if their qb can win a game. I think when you put a mac qb under pressure to win a game, there is a greater chance of him falling apart than winning the game. Just keep the niu rb between 150 and 170 yards and the Zips win.

Big plays downfield win football games and niu does not do that. We could if our WRs would catch passes.

[niufan99]

What if the opponent is offensively 1-dimensional, with a crappy quarterback?

Bingo. niu does not have a crappy qb, but he is also not impressive.

Completed less than 50% against a terrible isu team for 93 yards.

Only 146 yards against ND. They did have a huge running game that day.

19 of 25 against IL and not a single TD throw.

11-17 against MN for 81 yawning yards.

The QB for niu protects the ball and has not shown an ability to do anything spectacular. We need to stop this rb from killing us and see if their qb can win a game. I think when you put a mac qb under pressure to win a game, there is a greater chance of him falling apart than winning the game. Just keep the niu rb between 150 and 170 yards and the Zips win.

Big plays downfield win football games and niu does not do that. We could if our WRs would catch passes.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

[Lee Adams]

akron is coming off 2 tough road games also...niu is a tough physical team that plays defense and obviously can run the ball...has akron improved to the point with 'back to basics' that it can control the ball on the ground,make few if any mistakes on the offensive side and keep Spann from gashing them possession after possession...and then there is the akron secondary which appears to always be vunerable...thing is i guess if you have to catch niu this might be the only good time to do it...akron HAS to score early..feed allen and burney and keep it simple for Nicely....maybe the improvement that was seen last week will continue...

[Lee Adams]

The challenge when you play a team with a stud RB is that you have to try to stop him. And when you try to stop him, are you becoming incredibly exposed in the secondary? The Syracuse game was a good example of some of this. And I don't think any of us are confident that our secondary can pick up guys consistently while our front 7 tries to stop their running game.

oh by the way Harnish can run the ball...running qb's have always caused problems for akron...

[niu007]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[GP1]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

[niu007]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

[dreal1scout]

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

Allow me to introduce myself. GO ZIPS!

[goodthts]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

Don't worry, he's not.

Our secondary sucks, our D-line is small, our outside LB's are very slow. Feel free to enjoy our city and get out with an easy win. Sorry ZN, we are just not that good.

Signed,

Reality.

[GP1]

I am happy to see niufan99 likes our emoticons.

I was waiting to see if someone would point out that Harnish didn't play against Iowa State - guess not. I'm not sure why actually - but Demarcus Grady was the QB in that game. After watching the North Dakota game, probably a lot of NIU fans would have echoed some of the sentiments expressed here. Harnish missed open receivers, and we had no kicker. In retrospect, I think Harnish was rusty, as he's played better the last couple games. He was injured this offseason.

I'm sure we're somewhere between the weak RB running attack of North Dakota and Illinois games, and the 10+ ypc running attack against Minnesota. Harnish has improved and it may not be possible to stack the run as much as in previous years. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Here is what we do know. Your style of play has won you nothing and will win you nothing. All you have to do with NIU is stop the run and force an average QB to beat you....they never do.

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

If you can't take some facts, don't come around. Maybe it is the thin skin that keeps you guys from winning anything.

[Dr Z]

They didn't pass against Minnesota because we were averaging over 10 yards a carry on the ground and winning by a large margin in the second half. When we did try to pass, we did it with relative ease.

10.6 as a team is impressive. What "defense" do the Gophers play? If you think you passed with ease against Minnesota, wait until you see the Zips secondary.

[cornbread]

I hope you're not representative of Akron fans. No class at all.

You must have been misinformed as to the nature of the intarwebs.

[Dr Z]

Gophers are trying to add coach Dungy to compete with MAC teams

[Captain Kangaroo]

Gophers are trying to add coach Dungy to compete with MAC teams

Minnesota would pay their HC $1.2 million?

Holy Crap, Lois!