Blue-Gold Game Comments

[ZipDude]

1. Wish the best to Bobby Gardner, hear but unconfirmed that there was bone sticking out of the skin.

2. Great seeing and meeting fellow slugs at the summit. As always old friends Padre, ZFF and the Captain; meeting JP Morgan, Zip Watcher and the good Doctor was great. BTW who hooked up Waddell with the welcome to the "Nation" comment from the halftime frstivities over the PA.

3. Nice to see the rumor was true and the seniors were asked to be the honorary co capitains for the game. There were more than a few there. Soime of them met JD for the first time today. Wow, what a load of shit that is.

4. The scrim: D kicked the O's ass!. Lots of dropped passes, underthrows (or perhaps blown routes) , but the running when that happened was ok. I sat with a couple of experts and according to them, it appears that the protection was breaking down on the OL.

Jamie goodwin caught a flare pass and was stopped but reversed his field and came all the way across the firld and then upfield and took a vicious hit on the sidelines, right in front of us. He is so quick. I bring this play up because Charlie was running interfearence for him, he truly is a Superman.

5. I cannot say anything specific about the D because im not a real fan of the D but they did handle the O QUITE WELL, ON THE FIRLD AND THE SCOREBOARD ALTHOUGH IF Gardner had not gotten hurt and the scrim stopped with a few minutes to play, I believe the O would have scored, it was still a butt whippin.

6. I think i saw the first disguised and undisguised blitz by an Akron football team, I have ever seen.

Padre, I love you Man!

Tenacious D rules

[Captain Kangaroo]

I chased my kid around the Rubber Bowl for 2 hours, so any insight from anyone else is appreciated...I didn't see much!

From what little I did see:

Hixson looked great at WR. Like he's been one forever.

Jabari looks like he has a lot to learn at WR. That's to be expected, of course. The guy hasn't ever played the position, and hasn't played in an actual game in 2 years.

Tough to evaluate RB. Few catties for Ringer or Vaughs. Berchie seems to be the heir-apparent to Ben Ruhlin...a ton of carries in the spring game, and not too many come the regular season.

D appeared aggressive and enthusiastic. CB's did a nice job.

Good to see many of you...if only in passing!

Tried to drop off a small "party favor" for the Allen Street fandango, but couldn't locate it. Oh well, no biggie.

Best wishes to #9, #2 and #33 tomorrow!!

[Zipsrifle]

Thanks for the update! Sounds like Coach Fleming has been able to turn the D up a few notches. It seems like last year the offence just Dominated the Defence at every scrimmage. Sounds like a pretty dramatic change! How many games did we blow at the end last year 'cause our D couldn't stop anything...2-3? I'll be looking for the D to hold Penn State for the Win in September!

As for the offense, they've got the entire summer to clean things up. Sounds like the OL still needs some work. I'd hate to see Frye on his back as much this year. Sounds like Ringer didn't get many carries today. It'll be tough to replace 42 back there....hopefully we won't have too much of a drop off. From what little I saw of Ringer last year, I was impressed. As for the receivers, I read somewhere that JD considers Frye just like having an additional coach. According to the Stink'n Urinal, Charile will be out there all summer working with the guys to clean things up. From the sounds of it, he's been putting in tons of time to learn the offense and I really hope the team is out there practicing on their own all summer. Man, if the O can be as potent as they were last year, with a better D...November will be an exciting Month in Akron!! I'm so PUMPED!!!!

[RatFink]

Seems to me that one handed brush by touches as sacks was lame.

All three QBs were victim of these (sic) sacks. In most cases they

would have broken free and continued the play. All three QB's had

what would have been excellent runs stopped by being touched with

a single hand.

All three had excellent completed passes negated by this victimization

as well.

Perhaps Joe Pa can get the Big Ten refs to accord him the same favor.

After all, a loss to the lowly Zips could force his long over due retirement.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Seems to me that one handed brush by touches as sacks was lame.

All three QBs were victim of these (sic) sacks. In most cases they

would have broken free and continued the play. All three QB's had

what would have been excellent runs stopped by being touched with

a single hand.

All three had excellent completed passes negated by this victimization

as well.

Perhaps Joe Pa can get the Big Ten refs to accord him the same favor.

After all, a loss to the lowly Zips could force his long over due retirement.

You seem to follow the program close enough....when in 2003 did you see any Zips DL get close enough to an opposing QB to even "touch" him? Once...twice?

The rule of the scrimmage was "touches" count as sacks for QB's in red. Jabari go nailed by #6 because he wasn't wearing red. I think Fergie and Charlie would have received a few decent pops had their shirts been white. The defensive complexity is definitely up a notch or two, and that's all I could ask to see in the spring.

[Hilltopper]

I ran into Dan Bailey at church this morning and he told me Gardeners career is over. It was a total break . Did anyone elese notice that LO son andy is still on the squad? He even got some PT yesterday.

[Guest Pro Scout]

Took in the game with my nephew, Nick Sparks. Kind of impressed with the way that the defense is improving. The offesne is not hitting on all cylinders. Earl needs to lose some weight - he looked fat. Blackburn is an OK linebacker but needs to get quicker if he wants to play at the next level. Dwayne could be a player but I have watched him have great spring games for the past two years then do nothing int he fall. He's the best pro prospect in terms of raw ability on the team, and that includes Frye. But unless he has a big year and makes some plays in big games he'll never get a shot. The word is out on him as being a shadow player - a guy who looks big but plays much smaller.

With all but Charlie gone from last year's offense this is not a big surprise. Not much left in the ranks in terms of offensive talent which will be a major cause for concern in the fall. When your best two receivers are a converted SS and reserve QB you are in for major problems. Kind of makes you wonder what the former staff was doing in the recruiting classes of the past few years. The offensive line could also use some new blood. having all but the big tackle back may not be the best thing since that group gave up about 40 sacks last season.

Some of these guys just look plain fat. Look at the lines at Miami, Toledo, Bowling Green and Northern Illinois - not a lot of flab. The conditioning coach of this squad may want to focus on the big boys because the belly factor could come back to haunt this team in late game situations. Their were two or three kids on the defensive front who looked like they could have been clocked by a sun dial in the 40.

If Akron wins 5 games next year it would surprise me. their is just not that much skill left on the roster to merit anything more against the schedule they will be playing.

With #9 on to bigger and better things I will probably not see many Akron games in the future. I will stop by from tiem to time now that this new board is up and running.

[Dr Z]

First off, let me say I think it is hard to get any kind of "real" read off of a spring game.

This year it is even more difficult because of a new staff putting in a new system. A good source told me they had put in plays that morning.

I like Hixon at WR, he stuck out. Good hands. Good athlete.

Jabari looks a little raw (to be expected), but he did have a DB beat deep,

but #5 under threw him?? Good to see the O throwing a deep ball to stretch the D.

I thought Elie looked good, had a nice INT, played the ball perfect. I watched the secondary run some nice looking two deep covers. I like the blitzing. Stayed in a 4-3 mainly. I heard Frenchy talking about a 3-3-5 D before the game where Chase has the option to play DE or LB (interesting). I guess that's what JD was talking about when he said we are going to play a D that nobody in the MAC has seen before? Saw some defensive players in the backfield, hope that continues against opponents. Seems like a zone blitzing, bend don't break D to me. Those defenses usually create some exciting turnovers. Gotta be better than past years.

Other than that, I don't have anything new that hasn't been said here already. Nice day to watch a game.

Nice to see all the board members there. The Frye2004 Heisman paraphernalia looked pretty good. Good start. Keep it up. Thanks to MW for the shout out at the game.

Oh yeah. Spotted Shippy on the field (good to see).

[zff]

My quick thoughts on the Blue Gold Game.

1. Nice to meet new people from the nation. And of course keep up with the old ones.

2. Hey ProScout: If you think the o-line looks fat you should have seen them last year. These guys have worked their tails of this spring and you can see the difference. If they keep at it the will be trim by fall.

3. Hixson will be a beast at WR. Great speed and has a nose for the ball.

4. Ringer should be the starter but Berchie might make a statement for the backup spot.

5. The defense was coming from all angles. I kind of thought I was watching my Steelers for a while there. Look for the defense to make a huge turn around this coming season.

On a side note I saw in the Plain Dealer the other day about a kid from Shaker Heights signing Akron to play football. This is the term they used but I thought they had no scholarships left. Does anybody know if he is walking on in the fall or did one of the players who signed not make grades and he is replacing them????

[JP Morgan]

3. Hixson will be a beast at WR. Great speed and has a nose for the ball.

Side note: This kid looks like a young Jason Taylor.....he could be his little brother/twin!

[Z-P]

Saturday was a great day. ILFSITF and a couple in the spring too.

UAM et al did a nice job on creating “an event†again. Man they make it fun to “hitch em up†and come to UA Football. I wish more FB fans in NEO would begin to take advantage of the great show going on over here. I’ll do my part to keep propping it.

We became the first on our block to post an election year lawn poster Saturday afternoon. Know what I mean? It’s bluuuuuuuuuuuuuue. Got a couple bumper stickers goin also. That’s fun………. “be the only kid on your block………â€

Slugs have pretty much spoken my observations. I’ll just add a few little things here:

When did Billy Sullivan get the tranplated bionic leg? Man can he bomb a punt this season.

I really like Bertchie. That kid’s tough and shows a lot of heart.

Swigerts attempts were looooong, given, but they still were really not very clean looking. Maybe we never gave Micah Fahler enough credit for the great job he did controlling the back end of that part of our game.

Like everyone else, I want RCMP on the field. I hope he works hard with Superman this summer and gets his receiving skills fine tuned.

I really feel bad for Bobby Gardner. The buzz I heard later was that the break was so severe, it could be career ending………….man that’s an awful thing, and after all the hard work he’s put in………….senior season, I’m just depressed about that……….it could happen to anyone, but shouldn’t happen to anyone.

Seeing Jerry Faust on the sideline doing his act made me “feel all warm and fuzzy†not………..JD’s the “anti-Jerry Faust/Lee Owens†i.e., all business and serious as cancer. It’s a good change……….we’ve tried a couple politicians and still haven’t gotten over the hump.

How large was that crowd? I know a count’s somewhere because of the raffle tickets passed out at the door. I’ll guess 500 excluding players and coaches. What do you guys think? It seemed to be about the same as last year, and that may be good…….in a way…..because there’s probably residual sentiment for the old staff and some people boycotted the game. Just an opinion.

Speaking of old staff, it was nice to see Coaches Meyer, Stacy and Geisser at the game. I saw quite a few people go out of their way to say hello, and wish them luck. IMHO, that whole group of guys were first class people, and I wish them well.

Yaddah yaddah yaddah………..got to get back on my machine………