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Game 1: Akron @ Illinois – 12 pm


UA1987

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We’re getting pushed around on both lines of scrimmage, especially our offensive line. This is by far the greatest area where Arth is going to need to improve. Give some credit to Illinois. They have a number of 4 and 5 star transfers. Three from USC. Peters looks good too,, but he has ALL DAY to throw, so this really isn’t a test for him.

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12 minutes ago, Zippy Fan said:

 

Andre Williams is very ready and willing to help this team. Has not screwed up. Why has Coach Arth decided not to use him? Not his recruit? Not from Ohio? Impact Player, returning receiver with the better Stats of last season. I hope someone can get these answers. 

Interesting. Not sure if that would have made a difference today unfortunately. Time to give the back-up QB some PT?

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2 hours ago, Zippy Fan said:

 

Andre Williams is very ready and willing to help this team. Has not screwed up. Why has Coach Arth decided not to use him? Not his recruit? Not from Ohio? Impact Player, returning receiver with the better Stats of last season. I hope someone can get these answers. 

Thanks for the info. Definitely something any reporter worth their salt would ask.

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4 hours ago, Zippy Fan said:

 

Andre Williams is very ready and willing to help this team. Has not screwed up. Why has Coach Arth decided not to use him? Not his recruit? Not from Ohio? Impact Player, returning receiver with the better Stats of last season. I hope someone can get these answers. 

Before the game the BTN announcers mentioned Williams as the best receiver in the Zips. Welcome to the Arth era.

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Honestly, that wasn't as hard to watch as I thought it would be. It's one thing to get blown out when you're blatantly not playing hard or committing dumbass penalties left and right and losing your cool, but for how young and inexperienced both the team itself and a lot of the staff is (as far as FBS goes), I definitely think this is one where you can walk away with your head held high. Some of the same football problems are still there, and the defense looks like we were expecting. As much as I hate to "throw away" a season, unfortunately that's what this one is ultimately going to come to. 

 

Line play is still very questionable and Kato still has a long way to go to reach his full potential. He made better decisions with the ball but still has to make quicker decisions. He's still missing a few throws and in year four, you'd expect that to be gone by now. I think his maturity has come a long way in 8 months, but he's still very raw, and might not be the answer, but we'll have to wait and see!

 

Brandon Lee and Michael Mathison look nice, Dre Williams, Boogie, and Stewart are all really good as well. There's a lot of potential on that side of the ball, as there were a couple of small flashes today. As far as the defense, not having two of your most experienced guys hurts, especially with one being arguably the best player on the team. Also, Arth mentioned postgame that 3 of the starters in the secondary were true freshmen, and man could you tell. Special teams was 'meh,' I like Fitschen's leg but kicking worries me, as does punting. 

 

That was a lot of all over the place rambling, so sorry about that. I'm just pumped to have the Zips back!!! Trust The Process!!!!

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2 hours ago, LoyalZIP said:

Honestly, that wasn't as hard to watch as I thought it would be. It's one thing to get blown out when you're blatantly not playing hard or committing dumbass penalties left and right and losing your cool, but for how young and inexperienced both the team itself and a lot of the staff is (as far as FBS goes), I definitely think this is one where you can walk away with your head held high. Some of the same football problems are still there, and the defense looks like we were expecting. As much as I hate to "throw away" a season, unfortunately that's what this one is ultimately going to come to. 

 

Line play is still very questionable and Kato still has a long way to go to reach his full potential. He made better decisions with the ball but still has to make quicker decisions. He's still missing a few throws and in year four, you'd expect that to be gone by now. I think his maturity has come a long way in 8 months, but he's still very raw, and might not be the answer, but we'll have to wait and see!

 

Brandon Lee and Michael Mathison look nice, Dre Williams, Boogie, and Stewart are all really good as well. There's a lot of potential on that side of the ball, as there were a couple of small flashes today. As far as the defense, not having two of your most experienced guys hurts, especially with one being arguably the best player on the team. Also, Arth mentioned postgame that 3 of the starters in the secondary were true freshmen, and man could you tell. Special teams was 'meh,' I like Fitschen's leg but kicking worries me, as does punting. 

 

That was a lot of all over the place rambling, so sorry about that. I'm just pumped to have the Zips back!!! Trust The Process!!!!

Like everyone here I just want wins and not explanations about why the Zips lose by double digits.  That being said, I agree that I didn't see the sloppiness and the stupidity i've seen in the past.  Also, from the parts I watched, I saw the refs make two good calls that benefited the Zips.  And because the announcers were Illini stooges, I learned about how great some of the Illini players were coming out of HS or from transfers.  Looking at other scores, I didn't see any upsets by FBS schools.  And F. U Penn State for running up the score to 79 on your opponent.

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IMO, overall in this game there was a night and day difference between line protection for Brandon Peters compared to line protection for Kato Nelson, and it seemed that Peters misses were more off target (usually way too high) even though he had plenty of time to throw in most cases.

 

In addition, there were at least 3 dropped balls by Zips receivers that were clearly on target (Wolfley, Knight, and Stewart). Plus on the interception Knight appeared to stop his route.

Besides the drop Stewart had a good game receiving, and Mathison looked pretty good. 

 

I think some designed roll-outs with play action should be implemented for the offense

 

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I slept on my reply so that I did not let my emotions get the best of me.  Ill was picked to finish at or near the bottom the of the Big 10.  They did get some transfers that would help, but this was a game in which Akron should have been competitive.  But, that was not the case.  As far as I am concerned, this is a bad coach (Lovie Smith) outcoaching a Division III coach (Arth).  It wasn't even close.  Arth looked like he had no clue to respond to what was going on.  

 

To all of the alumni that wanted Bowden out, you got your wish.  I agree that he should have been shown the door, but the next option needs to be a good move.   I would be happy to eat crow if by the end of the year, the Zips are 7 - 5, I will greatly apologize, but I would not bet against it.  I will still be at every game rooting on my team, but the game crowds will be scarce.  The national groups picked Akron to go winless, and I hope that is not the case.  If my voice is heard, we will now go 11-1, win the MAC championship and bowl game.    

 

Go Zips!

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13 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Did someone say 3 of our 4 starting DB's were true freshmen?  Is that true?  (I did notice true freshman Randy Cochran was a starter.)

Just checked the DVR. Tutu, McDonald, and Cochran started.

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Players whose stock are up after this game: Lee, Bubba, and Mathison. Hopefully Mathison is OK.

 

I'm not going to overreact too much after 1 game against likely the best opponent on our schedule. Just a reminder for all of the people on the ledge already - we were predicted to win 3-4 games this year for a reason. Plenty of holes that need filled from a team last year that wasn't very good and we were pretty short handed yesterday to begin with. A positive from yesterday's mess is that the staff got a chance to get an extended look at a lot of different players in a game situation.

 

I'll be a little more critical if we look like this against the rest of the OOC. The cupboard isn't completely bare here.

Edited by LZIp
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