InTheZone Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyzip84 Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? That's an interesting comparison, ITZ. And you're right that it's easy to forget some of the other "low points" in Zip FB history, while we're wallowing in our current malaise. But it also highlights just how critical it is for RI's squad to do something positive soon, hopefully this Saturday. Otherwise, Cordelli.....errr.....Ianello could soon find himself in unchartered waters as a 1st-year UA HC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? Thanks for posting my thoughts from earlier this year, only with more detail added. There is no Brett Biggs on this team. Everyone is from this program and used to the losing. It was Biggs first year at UofA and the chronic losing had not taken hold yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodthts Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? Thanks for posting my thoughts from earlier this year, only with more detail added. There is no Brett Biggs on this team. Everyone is from this program and used to the losing. It was Biggs first year at UofA and the chronic losing had not taken hold yet. So GP1, by your logic, all the Freshmen and first-year starters are already used to losing because the Zips have not won yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 The similarities are interesting. And for our sake, I hope the scenario turns out the same this week. However, I certainly wouldn't put Syracuse/Indiana/Kentucky in the same class as Penn State and Virginia. And I'd probably put an even larger gap between Gardner Webb and Middle Tennesee, considering MTSUs success in the 1-A Sun Belt, and the fact that Gardner Webb is maybe not even an average I-AA team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? Thanks for posting my thoughts from earlier this year, only with more detail added. There is no Brett Biggs on this team. Everyone is from this program and used to the losing. It was Biggs first year at UofA and the chronic losing had not taken hold yet. So GP1, by your logic, all the Freshmen and first-year starters are already used to losing because the Zips have not won yet? Don't we have something like 16 or 17 returning starters from last year. If two kids are playing on a playground, one good and one bad. Is the good kid more likely to become bad or the bad kid more likely to become good. In almost every case, the good kid becomes bad because it is easy to be bad. Losing is the bad kid. Good kids get around it and it is difficult to keep the good kid from becoming a loser. It happens very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipmeister Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Through the first part of the season, the similarities are striking.... Open the season against a subpar BCS opponent who we thought we could compete with and get blown out? CHECK 2004- Penn State 48, ZIPS 10 2010- Syracuse 29, ZIPS 3 Follow that up with a last second loss to a completely inferior opponent who was scheduled for an easy win? CHECK 2004- MTSU 31, ZIPS 24 2010- GWU 38, ZIPS 37 Recieve an absolute ASS KICKING from a second BCS opponent? CHECK 2004- Virginia 51, ZIPS 0 2010- Kentucky 47, ZIPS 10 Get absolutely HAMMERED by NIU? CHECK 2004- NIU 49, ZIPS 19 2010- NIU 52, ZIPS 14 A struggling head coach gets his first W at Dix Stadium as an underdog and proves once again that Can't State really does suck? TBD 2004- ZIPS 24, Can't 19 2010- WE SHALL SEE The second half of the season in 2004 was full of MAC lightweights and we went on a 5 game tear. As I recall, we had all equally lost faith then, though it's always easy to view the present as the worst it's ever been. In 2004, we found a spark in Brett Biggs and a few leaders on defense took charge and turned things around. Will the 2010 Zips find their spark?? Thanks for posting my thoughts from earlier this year, only with more detail added. There is no Brett Biggs on this team. Everyone is from this program and used to the losing. It was Biggs first year at UofA and the chronic losing had not taken hold yet. So GP1, by your logic, all the Freshmen and first-year starters are already used to losing because the Zips have not won yet? Don't we have something like 16 or 17 returning starters from last year. If two kids are playing on a playground, one good and one bad. Is the good kid more likely to become bad or the bad kid more likely to become good. In almost every case, the good kid becomes bad because it is easy to be bad. Losing is the bad kid. Good kids get around it and it is difficult to keep the good kid from becoming a loser. It happens very quickly. You do not specify, but I assume that if Losing is the bad kid in your story, Winning is the good kid. So what is the "it" good kids are getting around? Is this a different "it" than the "it" that happens very quickly? This could have been a good story, but it seems to have turned bad. I love talking sports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave in Green Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 Thanks, Zipmeister. It all makes sense to me now that you've fleshed out some of the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheZone Posted October 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 The similarities are interesting. And for our sake, I hope the scenario turns out the same this week. However, I certainly wouldn't put Syracuse/Indiana/Kentucky in the same class as Penn State and Virginia. And I'd probably put an even larger gap between Gardner Webb and Middle Tennesee, considering MTSUs success in the 1-A Sun Belt, and the fact that Gardner Webb is maybe not even an average I-AA team. You have to remember the time period. Penn State sucked in 2004, and was coming off bad year in 2003. I believe they won 3 more games in 2004, so I think they're a fair comparison to Syracuse 2010. Virginia was better than Kentucky this year, but not by much. MTSU has had success since 2004, but that year they were just recently turned 1-A and didn't do much that year or the next. It was certainly looked at as an easy win when it was scheduled, much like GW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted October 9, 2010 Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 The similarities are interesting. And for our sake, I hope the scenario turns out the same this week. However, I certainly wouldn't put Syracuse/Indiana/Kentucky in the same class as Penn State and Virginia. And I'd probably put an even larger gap between Gardner Webb and Middle Tennesee, considering MTSUs success in the 1-A Sun Belt, and the fact that Gardner Webb is maybe not even an average I-AA team. You have to remember the time period. Penn State sucked in 2004, and was coming off bad year in 2003. I believe they won 3 more games in 2004, so I think they're a fair comparison to Syracuse 2010. Virginia was better than Kentucky this year, but not by much. MTSU has had success since 2004, but that year they were just recently turned 1-A and didn't do much that year or the next. It was certainly looked at as an easy win when it was scheduled, much like GW. No doubt there were some similarities. But remember, Indiana was thrown in this time, which I think is by far the weakest of all of the BCS teams we played in either of those two years. I'm actually quite surprised if we scheduled MTSU as some sort of "practice" game. You might want to check your info. on them. I think they were already a 1-A team for about 5 years by that point, and had already won at least a couple of Sun Belt titles. They possibly weren't top notch that year, but they'd still have to be classified as infinitely better than an average 1-AA team. I see the pattern though. It would be beyond my wildest dreams if we can turn this team into a late-season MAC title contender, like the 2004 team. But, you just never know for sure. Things certainly would have to miraculously change starting this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheZone Posted October 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 I'm actually quite surprised if we scheduled MTSU as some sort of "practice" game. You might want to check your info. on them. I think they were already a 1-A team for about 5 years by that point, and had already won at least a couple of Sun Belt titles. They possibly weren't top notch that year, but they'd still have to be classified as infinitely better than an average 1-AA team. I see the pattern though. It would be beyond my wildest dreams if we can turn this team into a late-season MAC title contender, like the 2004 team. But, you just never know for sure. Things certainly would have to miraculously change starting this week. MTSU was 4-8 in both 2002 and 2003 and went 5-6 when they beat us in 2004. The following year when we beat them in 2005, they went 4-7. http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/2196 No doubt that a turn around this year would be a miracle, and is highly unlikely. My only point was that it's not impossible, and we've been here before and turned it around. This season doesn't have to be the biggest diaster in Zips football history, as we've had equally bad starts before, but it certainly will be if people don't start stepping up and stepping out and taking responsibility for and control of this runaway train. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InTheZone Posted October 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 Speaking of the SunBelt though, can we get a few more of those on our schedule? The SunBelt should be the MAC's best out of conference friend. Why take the risk of a humiliating loss to a 1-AA team when you can play a team just as bad but with the percieved legitimacy of the 1-A brand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted October 9, 2010 Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 Speaking of the SunBelt though, can we get a few more of those on our schedule? The SunBelt should be the MAC's best out of conference friend. Why take the risk of a humiliating loss to a 1-AA team when you can play a team just as bad but with the percieved legitimacy of the 1-A brand? Then was it 2000 and 2001 that MTSU won the Sun Belt? I know they had a near undefeated season in 2006 too, and went to a bowl game again. I knew they were possibly down a bit when they played us those two years. I'd love to see us play more Sun Belt teams also. And it would indeed give a 1-A legitimacy to those victories. But, it's a total guess where those teams are in any given year. I think it would be dangerous if you played any of the better programs during a good year for sure. I'm not sure, unfortunately, that we can put too much separation between the MAC and the Sun Belt in any year really. However, I think playing some of the more higher profile teams like Troy, Arkansas State, or the Louisiana Lafayette Rajun Cajuns (love the name) would draw a heck of a lot more interest from fans that playing a 1-AA like Garnder Webb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GP1 Posted October 9, 2010 Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 Speaking of the SunBelt though, can we get a few more of those on our schedule? The SunBelt should be the MAC's best out of conference friend. Why take the risk of a humiliating loss to a 1-AA team when you can play a team just as bad but with the percieved legitimacy of the 1-A brand? I agree. The game last night matched up OK State against LaLaf. LaLaf looks like a MAC school and the games would be good because the equal level of player talent would create better competition. State had better players, especially #81, and was able to win on talent alone....How hard was it for the State Ocoordinator to call that game...."Tell #81 to run as fast as he can and just throw the ball in the air in his general direction." We can't compete at the BCS level, but we can compete against CUSA and SunBelt teams. I'll say it again. One BCS money game (25% of ooc schedule) Two non-BCS D-1A teams (50% of ooc schedule) One I-AA team (25% of ooc schedule). The loss this year was a fluke. There are sports programs at UofA who wouldn't dare to play an ooc schedule as difficult as the one I just described, let alone the level of difficulty the football team is playing this season. Let another program help pay for Title IX for a while and give the football team a break. That't the type of ooc schedule we should be playing. Three BCS schools a year (75% of ooc schedule) are killing the program. Starting out every year 1-3 or 0-4 is not helpful. Poor starts could still happen in my schedule, but much less likely. The Zips are set up for failure every year with our scheduling. We've been scheduling like this for too long and it isn't helping...it has to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctmjbowes@sbcglobal.net Posted October 9, 2010 Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 I may get slaughtered for this but I completely disagree with you guys about the relative merits of the MAC compared to the other bottom-shelf conferences. For years now, there have typically been a couple of programs each season in the MAC who either win early season games against "name" programs and/or show well on behalf of the MAC. However, the rest of the MAC is terrible, year in and year out. Our team happens to reside at the bottom of this bottom-level conference this year and has been really bad for several years now. So, excuse me if I'm unconvinced about favorable comparisons of the MAC with the Sun Belt or C-USA, or between Akron and, well, anyone. We have only one thing going for us: facilities, and that's it. If we were dropped to FCS right this minute, I'm not sure we'd go even .500 the rest of the way. I don't know what the hell happened or how exactly we find ourselves right where we were all those years ago when Faust came in to lead the charge to 1-A, but that's exactly where we are again. Proenza has done great things for the university and especially its physical foot print, but if his legacy is to include the development of the football program, that legacy is diminished by the failure of football at UA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted October 9, 2010 Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 I may get slaughtered for this but I completely disagree with you guys about the relative merits of the MAC compared to the other bottom-shelf conferences. For years now, there have typically been a couple of programs each season in the MAC who either win early season games against "name" programs and/or show well on behalf of the MAC. However, the rest of the MAC is terrible, year in and year out. Our team happens to reside at the bottom of this bottom-level conference this year and has been really bad for several years now. So, excuse me if I'm unconvinced about favorable comparisons of the MAC with the Sun Belt or C-USA, or between Akron and, well, anyone. We have only one thing going for us: facilities, and that's it. If we were dropped to FCS right this minute, I'm not sure we'd go even .500 the rest of the way. I don't know what the hell happened or how exactly we find ourselves right where we were all those years ago when Faust came in to lead the charge to 1-A, but that's exactly where we are again. Proenza has done great things for the university and especially its physical foot print, but if his legacy is to include the development of the football program, that legacy is diminished by the failure of football at UA. Maybe worse. At least in the 80s, and part of the 90s, we could beat most I-AA teams and were competitive with just about everyone in the MAC. We can only get better from here, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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