Belated MAC and PSU Notes

[Captain Kangaroo]

Prior to the Penn State game, the MAC had a fairly inauspicious start. MAC East - Miami only scoring 3 in a 21-3 loss to Northwestern bodes well for the Zips championship run. Looks like we won't need a tie-breaker to beat them this year. BG played Wisconsin "ok." They're nothing to be scared of. Can't got absolutely drubbed. OU beat a weak 1-AA team. MAC West - Toledo played very well. Woulda coulda shoulda beat Iowa State. Versus OSU, NIU seemed to have the same issue as the Zips. Poor, mistake-prone first quarter, then a solid 3 quarters. CMU played BC very well, but their coach choked late in the game. WMU...EMU...Ball State...nothing special.Penn StateSeems like most everyone gave a good game day breakdown. I'll add the following:We (11 of us) set up camp at 11:15am. Tents and grills. It was brutal. TV didn't do justice to the constant, cold rain. By the time we walked into the stadium, we were all numb and soaked.The crappy weather didn't deter many Penn State fans. The place was pretty jam-packed. The first pass by Morelli was perfect. Not much we could do about it.Andre Jones and Brandon Anderson are our best DB tandem ever. Both are lightning fast, and hit hard. MAC QB's are going to toss a lot of picks to those guys.To me, the most apparent difference between this season's Zips and any of the previous, is team speed. Those plays that used to go for 80 yards against us only went for 8. We closed fast.Last season, when our first-string DL went to the bench, we got pushed around. In this game, when Reid, Gonzales and Cichetti sat, we lost nothing when Robinson, McPherson and Lively entered. We're 6-deep at DL? Whoda thunk!?Luke played a solid game. Lots of poise and good throws under tough conditions.I wish we'd have ran inside the tackles more, and outside less.I wish we'd have thrown downfield more, and sideways less.Great FG by Domonokos. It was huge to come off that drive with some points.David Harvey rules. Jabari needed more touches. He had a huge size advantage on the PSU CB and we never really exploited it.Kennedy had a nice day. But, why wasn't he spelled at game's end? No carries for McMillian, Reed or Walker...or anyone else for that matter.Ditto Jacqumaine or Jackson. It would have been nice for them to see the field and take a few snaps on our last possession.Kasparek and Poindexter are a tough 1/2 punch at TE. The 4th down catch by Kasparek was awesome. BTW - Speaking to someone at a bar prior to the game...apparently Northwestern is pushing hard for the younger Kasparek. PSU is also still high on him.Stec is pretty quick for a punter. He saved us twice with his coverage. His punts were ok considering the circumstances. Our kick off returns were solid, sans the Jones fumble. I think when the 2006 season is complete, the Anderson, Jones kick return tandem will have at least 5 TD's. Tuzze...I don't think he's a threat to take it to the house. (what was he thinking on his lone "return"?)Overall, a very solid effort. JD always seems to be at his best evaluating tape and making adjustments. I think we'll play even better vs NC State. If we can get off to a good start...and keep the turnovers low...and aggressively challenge NC State's defense...we can beat them. Over/under on ABJ reporters travelling to the game: 0

[Buckzip]

"Over/under on ABJ reporters travelling to the game: 0"That is better odds than I would have given.

[bobbyake]

I'm wondering if they'll be sending that Marla lady, who thinks she writes for the Columbus Beacon Journal, to Texas to cover the OSU vs Texas game.I'd give that better odds than someone going to the NC State vs Akron game.

[Zipsrifle]

Great Summary Cap'n. I'm amazed at what JD has done with the D. It's too early to be drawing comparisons for Anderson/Jones to D. Smith, but to hear you say that those two as Sophomores along with Corner compromise the Best DB ever, that's impressive. I hope the D keeps improving every week. We'll be suffocating the MAC opposition!

[ZipAnalyst]

CMU played BC very well, but their coach choked late in the game.

Hope he coaches this way when Akron plays CMU. Captain is most likely referring to a weird formation where (if I recall correctly) it was the center and the quarterbace (in shotgun) by themselves 10 or 15 yards in from the sideline and the rest of the team more or less in the center of the field. BC played it perfectly. The quaterback got pressured even though there was only one defender rushing and threw an interception.Up to that point CMU was moving the ball very effectively in their normal set and it looked to me that there was a reasonable chance they were going to score and force overtime.Apparently, the coach couldn't stand success and he comes up with the weird formation and bingo - end of the game for CMU.CMU's quarterback, other than the interception, looked good to me and gives Akron something to think about when we play. One note on the PSU game. I was very unimpressed with Tate (Zips #5), anyone else have a comment on his play?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Great Summary Cap'n. I'm amazed at what JD has done with the D. It's too early to be drawing comparisons for Anderson/Jones to D. Smith, but to hear you say that those two as Sophomores along with Corner compromise the Best DB ever, that's impressive.

Whether either of them is better than Dwight remains to be seen. But Dwight never had the likes of either of these guys to complement him. As a duo, Jones and Anderson are exceptional.Dwight's counterparts: Both great students, Rich Reliford was "ok" at CB and Jesse Smith played the softest corner I've ever seen.

[Dr Z]

For all the diehards that sat in the rain to cheer the Zips onThere are a few more PSU ones, click through them and see.

[zippyrifle32]

from picture 7:

Eighty-year-old Joe Paterno is as popular as ever on the Penn State campus, as evidenced by this fan's painted chest. Ol' Joe Pa's Nittany Lions annihilated Akron, 36-14, in their season opener.

annihilated...good descriptive word. maybe not the one i would have chosen, but it flows so nicely.

[zippyrifle32]

i found one i liked better:

Tony Hunt, who ran for 1,000 yards last year, managed just 36 yards on the ground, but did find the end zone in the Nittany Lions' win.

[ziptrumpet87]

and they did so well recording the score... 34-16 , not 36-14 but still

[Buckzip]

Hey, that's a 4 point swing.

[jmurphy644]

As a new forum member, let me first say "good job" to the admins and moderators of the site. It looks very nice....As an 86 Alum, I thought it would be fun to take my 8 year old to the PSU Akron games especially since I have a lot of PSU alum coworkers who never shut up about PSU but have extra season tickets :-) . So we drove to Happy Valley in the remanants of Ernesto. On the way there, we had the pleasure of flipping and totally my 4Runner on US 322. We would have turned back to DC (home) except that we could hear banjos playing in the hills. So we collected ourselves and belongings and rented a cheesy mini-van and headed on to State College. When we got inside we happened to be walking to our seats through the concourse when security stopped everyone and my 8 year old got the chance to see the Zips come into the stadium right in front of him where he could reach out and touch them. He was impressed. They're BIG he said. (Of course later it was interesting to see how much bigger the PSU guys are on the field).So, like all of the PSU fans we sat in the rain for 3 hours. I didn't expect Akron to win the game, but I thought a good showing would be nice. I was impressed with their effort and overall performancel, mistakes notwithstanding. Even when the game was winding down and they had been in the rain the whole time, they kept coming. It really was impossible for Getsy to call in signals with all the fan noise. I also liked how the Zips stuck it out to the end, calling all three time outs (it helped insure that PSU fans spent maximum time in the rain!)