Are we really that bad?

[K-Roo]

CNN SI Preview

[akronzips71]

CNN SI Preview

2-22 was based on a coach who did not have a clue. He could have won a few games if he knew what he was doing.

Bowden Ball is going to be interesting. We could surprise a lot of people. 1-11 is not happening.

[Captain Kangaroo]

CNN SI Preview

No, we aren't.

Yet another ill-researched preview.

George Thomas declined to make any MAC standings predictions, admitting he'd got no clue about the state of the MAC. He deserves a tremendous amount of credit. 99.9% of the sports writers have no knowledge of the MAC, but write a sack of crap anyhow.

[GP1]

2011 SI Prediction

2011 Standings

Comedian: "Those folks at SI are so stupid and lazy..."

Audience: "How stupid and lazy are they!?"

Comedian: "I'll tell you how stupid and lazy. They picked UofA to go 5-7 in 2011 (Most of the crowd roars with laughter while a few UofA fans are heard weeping). Not only that, the are so lazy, they picked the MAC west to finish in exactly the same order they finished last year... and most of the MAC East in the same position they finished last year (loud laughter)......(final punchline)....They are so lazy and stupid, they make the folks at ESPN look like hard working Einsteins (standing ovation).....Thank you and don't forget to tip your servers."

[Captain Kangaroo]

2011 SI Prediction

2011 Standings

Comedian: "Those folks at SI are so stupid and lazy..."

Audience: "How stupid and lazy are they!?"

Comedian: "I'll tell you how stupid and lazy. They picked UofA to go 5-7 in 2011 (Most of the crowd roars with laughter while a few UofA fans are heard weeping). Not only that, the are so lazy, they picked the MAC west to finish in exactly the same order they finished last year... and most of the MAC East in the same position they finished last year (loud laughter)......(final punchline)....They are so lazy and stupid, they make the folks at ESPN look like hard working Einsteins (standing ovation).....Thank you and don't forget to tip your servers."

Like the Zips, you can also see the Great GP1 is rounding into shape for the fall season.

[jupitertoo]

2011 SI Prediction

2011 Standings

Comedian: "Those folks at SI are so stupid and lazy..."

Audience: "How stupid and lazy are they!?"

Comedian: "I'll tell you how stupid and lazy. They picked UofA to go 5-7 in 2011 (Most of the crowd roars with laughter while a few UofA fans are heard weeping). Not only that, the are so lazy, they picked the MAC west to finish in exactly the same order they finished last year... and most of the MAC East in the same position they finished last year (loud laughter)......(final punchline)....They are so lazy and stupid, they make the folks at ESPN look like hard working Einsteins (standing ovation).....Thank you and don't forget to tip your servers."

While the 1-11 record is a stretch (I see 3-4 wins), a bigger stretch is Ohio going 12-0. I don't see that at all. 3 losses in my book. And hate to say it, but I really think Can't might be the best or second-best team in the East this year.

[Roo]

Why are people so shocked by that? Bowden himself said that he hopes they can win two games. This team is depleted of talent, lost our best LB, have a QB with zero starting experience, a sketchy OL, unproven WRs and a defense that got humiliated week in and week out. Ill give you some credit that yes the coaching was bad last year and obviously we hope Bowden is much better but predicting anything over 3 wins is just as misguided as 0-12.

It's not like Bowden went out and got a lot of playmakers, we have no idea what the new faces will do. I don't put a lot of faith in scrimmages against our own team because frankly, they are going up against some of the worst talent on both sides of the ball in the nation. That's a harsh reality but we've only won 2 games the last two years for a reason and not all of it was bad coaching.

[Class of 82]

It's too bad internet articles are not suitable for lining the bottom of a bird cage.

Don't know how we'll finish, but neither does this writer.

GO ZIPS!!!!!

[LZIp]

To answer your question, know.

If we don't win 2 games, I'll never post on this site again.there should be 3-4 wins on that schedule

[Zipmeister]

To answer your question, no.

If we don't win at least 2 games, I'll never post on this site again. There should be 3-4 wins on that schedule.

Fixed it for you.

[GP1]

Why are people so shocked by that?

We are not. Every year, SI puts the same five minutes into researching their prediction as I did my post above. There is no shock they predicted the Zips to go 1-11.

[Zipsrifle]

We are not. Every year, SI puts the same five minutes into researching their prediction as I did my post above. There is no shock they predicted the Zips to go 1-11.

Yep. Copy (last year) + Paste = 90% of fans won't know he difference. IMO, if you really want to know what is going on in MAC football, your best bet is to hit the fan pages. In fact, I suspect that this is the first stop for many "Local" news outlets when they are doing research. The big time guys are just too lazy to wade through all the comments to find the details. Personally, I kind of like it this way.

[GP1]

Yep. Copy (last year) + Paste = 90% of fans won't know he difference. IMO, if you really want to know what is going on in MAC football, your best bet is to hit the fan pages. In fact, I suspect that this is the first stop for many "Local" news outlets when they are doing research. The big time guys are just too lazy to wade through all the comments to find the details. Personally, I kind of like it this way.

Agreed.

In my opinion, the MAC is the most difficult major college football conference to predict. Its not because of lack of information. There is plenty of information out there if you take the time to look. Picking winners and losers is so difficult because so many strange things go on in the league, which keeps it at least interesting. The talent may not be as good as BCS, but you never know how the talent they have is going to perform on any given Saturday......or Tuesday night .......or Wednesday night . Because of all of that, predictions can be fun to make, but we shouldnt take them too seriously.

[LZIp]

Fixed it for you.

Thanks grammar police

[Zipsrifle]

Agreed.

In my opinion, the MAC is the most difficult major college football conference to predict. Its not because of lack of information. There is plenty of information out there if you take the time to look. Picking winners and losers is so difficult because so many strange things go on in the league, which keeps it at least interesting. The talent may not be as good as BCS, but you never know how the talent they have is going to perform on any given Saturday......or Tuesday night .......or Wednesday night . Because of all of that, predictions can be fun to make, but we shouldnt take them too seriously.

I think what I really like about this is that it seems nobody is really out of the race when the season begins. The performance level is consistent across the conference. In the BCS Conferences, you pretty much know who is in the hunt. In the MAC, you have had Akron and Buffalo (perennial cellar teams) break out and win the conference out of nowhere in the past decade. Sure, you'll have consistently good teams like NIU and Toledo, but you also have teams like Ohio and Temple who build their programs to go from whipping boy to powerhouse. Here is to hoping Akron can become one of the latter.

[Zipgrad01]

Why are people so shocked by that? Bowden himself said that he hopes they can win two games. This team is depleted of talent, lost our best LB, have a QB with zero starting experience, a sketchy OL, unproven WRs and a defense that got humiliated week in and week out. Ill give you some credit that yes the coaching was bad last year and obviously we hope Bowden is much better but predicting anything over 3 wins is just as misguided as 0-12.

It's not like Bowden went out and got a lot of playmakers, we have no idea what the new faces will do. I don't put a lot of faith in scrimmages against our own team because frankly, they are going up against some of the worst talent on both sides of the ball in the nation. That's a harsh reality but we've only won 2 games the last two years for a reason and not all of it was bad coaching.

We are not devoid of talent. It was coaching, pure and simple. Look no further than Ohio State last year. Tressel is removed and they put a clueless first year coach in his place. What happened? A 5 win season and the national media saying that they just "didnt have the talent". Really? Stupid coaches can make really good players look like they have no talent. I am pretty optimistic that we are in better shape than most people think.

[K92]

I agree with Zipgrad that the Zips are not devoid of talent and I think the coaching staff will make the most of the talent that is there. However, the Zips are very thin. Injuries could be a huge problem due to the lack of depth. The Zips have been pretty fortunate the last few years with injuries and hopefully that will continue because I think we will be able to compete in the MAC with our starting group.

[GP1]

We are not devoid of talent. It was coaching, pure and simple.

You are right. There was talent, but not much. The coaching had to do with trying to play a pro style offense. It wasnt there was no talent...It was there was not enough talent to run that style of offense. The past couple of years, the results would have been a slightly better shade of terrible even with a better coach.

In modern day college football, a coach can go from genius to clueless with the loss of one player. Like his style of play or not, Pryor made Tressel look really good because he could make up for declining talent around him by himself. Pryor could do things I rarely every saw a college QB do...things that cant be coached. osu didnt go 6-7 last year because of coaching. The went 6-7 because one of the best players in the country was playing in the nfl instead of the Big Ten and the remaining players werent very good. I dont care what the name of the team is, BCS teams that lose seven games, go 3-5 in their conference and almost lose to a Toledolike team have a talent problem.

Bringing this back to the Zips. Football has become about QBs, WRs and coaching. The style of offense we play does not require large numbers of great players. Just good players in the right positions. If we can find a QB to do what the coach wants him to do, we can take this program to the next level. Score lots of points and MAC teams fall apart trying to keep up with the point total. Winning in the MAC is very easy.

With all that said, the Zips still have a talent problem. The talent is better than last season, but it is still a problem to the point that looking at more than 4 wins would be wildly optimistic. Four wins moves us from terrible (0-3 wins) to just plain bad (4-5 wins). At least it will be a step in the right direction.

[Wally B]

As a fan of Congrove, I enjoy following their top124 poll throughout the season, and their team by team point spreads. By their numbers, this is going to be an ugly but interesting season.

Although I'm not exactly sure how they compute all of their preseason numbers, I appreciate the fact that their predictions continually evolve throughout the season. As it stands now, they have placed us at 1-11, with only two games rated as competitive. This includes a win over Morgan State where we are favored by 2.98, and a loss to UMass by only .58 (which was listed around 5.0 last week). Those margins are basically benign. What troubles me however is the fact that we are a whopping 21.78 point underdog to Fiami in our next closest game. However, if we perform those numbers will change drastically. My only concern is that I've never seen them look so bad so early before, even w/ iCoach.

On a personal note, i suspect we are far better than we appear on paper. A 4 win season would be extrordinary until we develop some depth, so I'm going with Bowden on a 2win goal for this season, with anything more serving as icing on the cake....

link

http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/analysis_mac_akron.html

[Ham]

I find it impossible to really evaluate a team wathching them on TV or web; so my take derives from one game I saw in person. Special teams were genrally hap hazard. I was very pleased to learn today that JB has lead a complete assult to bring special teams up to respectable performancen levels. Our secondary could not cover anyone at the line of scrimage, and they often seemed confused resulting in blown coverage. That seems to be solved. Pass rush? Coaching improved tecnique could milk available talent. Size? Give me quickness. especially in the MAC! Our new offense will require less time to get an effective throw off. If our QB can deliver the ball with reasonable cosistancy, the improved passing game will open up the run. I'm certain that play calling and game management will be a huge step forward this year. Retuning talent for this year is certainly thin, but we have brought in some people to fill some of those holes. Depth? I don't think any MAC coach would ever be happy or even comfortable there. I will be surprized if we don't win 4 or 5 games this year. Does anyone really believe that TB is telling his guys that all they need to do is win a couple games this year to have a successful season! Do you think he will give the team a pass for any loses that might occur as just part of the process? If I were TB, I would be "poor mouthing" in public too. I'm confident that he will have his guys waiting in the weeds ready to ambuse some people!

[GP1]

I find it impossible to really evaluate a team wathching them on TV or web; so my take derives from one game I saw in person.

Trust what you see on TV. Coaches spend their lives evaluating teams on TV. Its an exact representation of what is going on.

[Dr Z]

Trust what you see on TV. Coaches spend their lives evaluating teams on TV. Its an exact representation of what is going on.

TV shows you what somebody else thinks you should see. Coaches do not use tv broadcasts to evaluate, they have different film. Coincidentally, this is the first year the fan will be able to view that film in the NFL. Coolest thing ever for fans

[zen]

1-11 are we that bad?

"we" WERE that bad.

Nothing changes the state except change.

Lets see what Bowdenball has to say about this question.

For right now, it's still last year. Sorry. So until it becomes this year, yes, we were that bad.

[GP1]

TV shows you what somebody else thinks you should see. Coaches do not use tv broadcasts to evaluate, they have different film. Coincidentally, this is the first year the fan will be able to view that film in the NFL. Coolest thing ever for fans

Wow, ground breaking information . I underestand how it all works and I know coaches use different film. They watch it on TVs now. Ill make that more clear in the future. Ive been in the meetings and Im not a two year old.

Anyhow, a lot can be learned from watching the game on TV regardless. There is little differene between a fan watching a game in person or watching it on TV. Without knowing how plays are supposed to executed, we really understand little about what is going on. What we can understand and is in clear view during a TV broadcast are the basics. How is the line play? Does the QB have time to throw or not? How is the running back running? Is there anywhere for the RB to run? How is QB accuracy?

Football is a very complicated game. Film is interesting to watch, but the average fan doesnt know enough about how plays are supposed to be run to make an educated evaluation about what they are watching. This Catch 22 is just another way for fans to look at a game the way they want to look at it without clear understanding of what is going on. Id be more impressed if we were allowed to see a written gameplan for both teams for that game and what the playcalls were, but that will never happen. Until then, Ill continue to watch games on TV and understand just as much as a person watching Catch 22. There is a difference between information and understanding.

[Ham]

One can learn things about a team watching a TV broadcast, but like the Dr said, you see what the producer wants to show. In person, one can better see the play develope. This still isn't the best; because one canot rewind to see something more clearly; or go back to see how someone was lined up or their persute. I think a teams attitude or demenor is better assessed in person. For instance, did the Zips quit on I...in charge(coach doesn't work here). I might have played a long time ago, but this is still a game of blocking and tackling. For example, our 3/4 D from a few years ago really wasn't much different from the way we played a 6/2. Shot gun? Single wing. The bottom line on this question remains to be answered. Until we start blocking and tackling someone else, one can only guess. My guess is that we will win at least 4 or 5 games this year.