Let's Fix The ZIPS

[RatFink]

Here's what I saw. And a lot of you ain't gonna like it.

Jim Pry as Offensive Coordinator SUCKS.

Straight up the gut on first down at least 80% of the time.

Not even slants or counters. Straight in. What a waste of

a down. Makes the Zips a two play offense. Guarantees

three and outs. Way, way too predictable. Easy to defend.

BTW, what ever happened to the great counters the Zips ran

in the past? Owen's play book wasn't junk.

Fire Jim Pry as OC as of now.

The OL is terrible. Have some pride. Do a gut check.

Try BLOCKING.

Defense, you are allowed to tackle.

Convert Jabari Arthur to WR NOW. Forget the QB position.

John Fergusson needs to be the back up QB. The QB

slot will fall to Luke Getsy next year. No coach in his

right mind is going to sit down a game proven Big East/BCS

QB for unproven "talent". Jabari is just too fine an athlete

to waste.

#18 ... you suck. Don't you EVER head slap an opponent

after a play again. You DUMB ASS, you damn near cost

the Zips a Personal Foul 15 yarder. Play with in yourself

or sit.

The most positive thing I saw all evening was the Zip's

defense in the third quarter. That was the best quarter

of Zip's defense I have seen in years. So, you followed

it up with "I'm too tired" in the fourth. What a shame.

MTSU's trick plays fooled the Zips nearly every time.

Stupid fouls, sloppy ball handling and a few bad breaks

finished the Zips. Take care of the ball, PERIOD.

Okay, those of you fond of blowing sunshine up our

collective asses, its your turn to vent.

[Guest BZ]

I totally agree.

We were in our seats laughing that on first down it was up the middle for 1 yard.

I think you were being generous with your 80%. It was higher than that.

Frye has no protection. How can this line be together for so long, and still suck so bad????

The defense is terrible. Chevin Pace looked good, but nobody else did anything to stand out.

Fry fumbled at the MTSU 6, and then we fumbled inside our own 20. That was a 14 point swing. We lost by seven. Also, the int that Frye threw in the fourth quarter was sad.

That receiver stuck out his hand. and made no attempt to catch the ball. It should have been a catch Not an int.

There is so little talent on this team, it is scary.

The entire d-line sucks, the lb's suck. the o-line sucks.

I say bench all of the seniors, and let the freshman paly.

That way in a few years when we have some talent. those guys can be experienced backups.

[zipsbandman]

This team is HORRIBLE. There is no talent whatsoever, and I cannot believe I am paying these guys' tuition. Now I understand why nobody wants to see this freak show every week.

Nothing ran smoothly on Saturday. It was like Penn State all over again in the first half. The offense gets a drive going and then they shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers or a sack. Is there anybody on this team that could block?

Defense still lacks consistency. They looked great in the third quarter and thats about it. They played like garbage besides that.

I say just stick in the second teamers for the Virginia game. Collect the paycheck and come home. Its going to be a ugly.

What's even worse is we have a huge chance of losing to Can't the next week. I hate losing to Can't.

I bet Charlie wishes he got out of here while he had the chance.

[zipboy]

I guess that I am one of the people that sees the sunshine part. I saw a lot of good things on Saturday.

The offense is averaging almost 450 yards per game after the first 2 weeks. They can move the ball without much of a running game, they just can't put it in the endzone. Biggs looks to be a great find. Receivers looked 100% better than last week. This was #81's coming out party. With #81. #23, and #12 at receiver, I feel pretty good the rest of the year. Run blocking was bad, but I thought Charlie was protected pretty well. It seemed to me that it was more coverage sacks than anything. The Zips should be averaging 30 points a game rather than 17, but they will correct that.

On special teams I liked the consistency of Swiger on kickoffs. Even Derr was not that consistent on getting the ball into the endzone. Punt coverage was horrible. Kick return team was solid. Is it Swiger or the line on FGs? He had to shot put the one before the half because of the penetration.

Defense played ok. 14 points were from the offense and special teams. The D gave up 17 points. They gave up yardage, but caused 4 turnovers. They moved to the ball better and hit people. They made adjustments at halftime and made progress. They still play soft coverage, have no pash rush, and gave up the game winning TD when we needed them to step up the most.

This looks like the worst MAC level of play in 10 years. Yes Marshall and BG look tough, but no one else. Until Haidl comes back from his stress fracture, NIU looks mediocre as well. I would not give up yet. The guys competed and left it all on the field. They just made and continue to make stupid mental errors as in past years. MTSU did the same thing. Both teams are mediocre and can't have much room for error if they want to win. But mediocrity may be good enough to go 7-4 this year.

Thank the Lord that we aren't Toledo. What is up with them?

[ZipDude]

Wow, what a piece of shit football game that was. Sorry ZFF I got there aroudn 6:15 thx for the ducat offer, I owe you. Also di not get to the Captain's event. This is the first ever game ffor me in general admission and no parking pass, what a long walk!!!!

Now to the game:

MTSU would not have even been in the game with last years team...Period

OL play sucked. Crouch has to go he was no good last year and is even alzier this year. Protection breakdowns are on the left side.

Ringer should be sat down. biggs is the man.

We did not move the ball down the field. 5 had good numbers (%'s) and a ton of total offense but no points when it counted.

Basch got touched and coughed it up big time.

Nothing inventive offensively. The OC should be canned. The OL coach should be canned. He has no family his boyz dont like him and are not playing for him

The wide receivers showed some promise but nothing "down the field" Just dinks and flat passes. Thise DB's were just not that good

Now about that Defense. Did we have one that showed up except for a little in the third quarter??

No pressure, Harris had all night to find someone open.

No tackling

cheap penalties

speical teams sucked big time

Who's fault was the bloced FG? Swiger gets the KO into the end zone but they run it out. the KO is too flat no hang time. Billy s is still the man. Let him kick off !!!!!!!!!

totally embarrasing

stopped in same gas station on the way home as 44's parents. his dad said something about torn ligaments and maybe cartiledge. i suppose we know more today.

Unless this team finds some heart, creativity and coaching, Charlotesville will be the worst ass kicking of all time NCAA history. Oh BTW, someone besides 5 has to wanna step up and make a play.

im out

Nice waiving to you Padre

[zff]

My thoughts and answers to some question above.

First of all Zipdude. No problem buddy. I'm just sorry I didn't get to see you. We will catch uo with each other sooner or later.

To evrybody wanted to fire the OC Pry. Sorry but JD is calling most of the play so he is your guy to be pissed at. But I do agree the running back up the middle on first doen sucks how about throwing a play action every now and then.

Now the offense:

The oline did not look very good but I agree with Zipboy it's hard for Charlie to get rid of the ball when nobody is open. The WR needs to be more aggressive and try to get open and when Charlie is running for his life come back to him. But this is a sign of a very young and inexperienced WR group. Zipdue if what you say about the line not playing for there coach is true then sorry but I say that is crap. In the real world you are not alwyas goingto like your boss but you still have to work hard. I say suck it up to then and quit bitching and play with some pride or get on the damn bench.

Biggs is the man. THe little guy is a tough runner and should do very well in MAC play. I say if Kennedy is play on special teams put him at #2 RB. Give the boy a shot!!!!! Sorry Jerrel but until you run north and south with a purpose you should be on the pines.

I thought Charlie had just an ok game saturday. He was locked in on his WR to mant times and needed to look off the coverage more. Also #81 was wide open on the oppsite side of the field alot somebody needed to see that and tried to get the ball to him.

I was going to beak down the D but hell everybody has said there peace. I just think there are a couple great players and the rest or ok players until they get more great players on the field the other teams with get yards and points.

[zipper]

After two days to step away from the loss:

It's three things:

1) the new schemes. I know if LO was still here and we'd kept things as they were, we probably would have beat MTSU. The players were very familiar with the systems. They worked. Sometimes. They were experts at them. That doesn't mean LO's schemes were better than JD's - especially in the long run.

Learning new systems ain't rocket science but it's no cakewalk, either. And you can know it on paper and in practice and it looks and feels pretty different when you're not going against the scout team. The kids are learning the new applications. It's just not going to happen overnight. It is DEFINITELY better for Charlie and his future to be learning the West Coast Offense. And I can't believe I'm saying this about a Zips team, but I saw some flushes of light in the defense.

And to the guy complaining about the new DC - I remember reading his bio somewhere and the guy was considered a defensive expert until he got to NC. As a Div 1-aa head coach he took a pretty sorry team and went 21-1 in his two years there. And we see how much NC has improved now that he's gone after last Saturday's drubbing by Virginia (tongue firmly planted in cheek). I have hope for this new defense.

2) Errors. Are the turnovers because we just aren't sure what we're doing out there yet? Probably. Got to tighten it up. More confidence = fewer turnovers.

3) Speed. I can see why JD wants to recruit speed over skill. You can't teach speed. On defense we are often just not able to stay with our opponents or get to them on time. We lag.

Hang in there fellow Zip fans. We have to be in this for the long haul. This weekend most likely won't be pretty and I can easily see us starting 0-4 for the season. But to be fair, while I was hopeful for this year because I wanted it so bad, I remember saying about a year ago, probably on this board, that we weren't going to do well this season no matter what. Much tougher schedule and greatly diminished recruiting the last two years as LO basically flailed about waiting for the ax to fall.

I am disappointed but have hope. Out.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I didn't have too much of a problem with our defense against MTSU. Two horrible turnovers gave MTSU great field position, and MTSU got a punt return for a TD. We lost that game because we gave it away. Frye's fumble was bad. Ringer's was worse. Frye's INT at game's-end was a killer. Charlie tossed for 400 yds, but it wasn't one of his better games...those few mistakes were killers. Goodwin's catch effort on the INT didn't help. Does the ball EVER bounce our way?

It was nice to see us make some adjustments at the half...but we aren't good enough to overcome such an avalanche of mistakes.

Lee Owens wouldn't have won that game. Even if he made the half-time adjustments to mount a comeback...something I rarely saw from him...he wouldn't have gotten the first down needed to ice the game at the end. Somehow, he'd have blown it. History proves it.

Hope Chase is ok, but it doesn't look promising.

[Dr Z]

What I think...

the "event" before the game was done well by UA Marketing. Great job!

it hurts to watch the Zips right now, I hope and think it will get better.

the Cavs are favored by 29 and I'm putting some bling on them to cover.

we haven't lost one Mac game yet.

#41 pancaked an end Saturday. I want to see more of that.

I will leave the Rubber Bowl earlier next game. Sunday morning was a killa.

I want to beat Can't as bad as ever and hope the players feel the same.

#10 is going to be a player.

I got to see a couple of series of defense played by the Zips. That's a start. Now step it up.

#34 is my starting RB this week.

[GP1]

I would like to put the blame for Saturday's game directly where it belongs. ON THE FREAKING PLAYERS THEMSELVES!!!!!

Both on offense and defense, the coaches are calling good plays and the players aren't executing the plays. Missed tackles, missed blocks, fumbles and missed easy ten yard catches are always disasters. Anyone in their right mind must understand that the coaches preach fundamentals on a daily basis and when the players do not execute, it is just as troubling for the coaches as the fans. Every play is designed to go for a touchdown, including plays up the middle. If the players would execute, we wouldn't have to complain about the OC (there is nothing to complain about anyhow). The players must be made accountable for their actions and play better......including #5. Are you kidding me with that fumble on the six yard line??????

One aspect of the new coaching staff I really appreciate is the business like direction they have taken the team. The high school coaching staff we had before is gone and we now have professionals that are not going to accept poor effort. My guess is that Ringer will not be starting this week. The same needs to be done with the cup cakes on defense. Either they perform or they should find someone who wants to play.

Damn the graduation rate!!!! This winter, the Zips need to find some JUCO players that can immediately step in to make an impact. The JUCO players will force the LO recruits to either become better players, or leave the team. Also, the JUCO players will allow some of the young recruits to mature before they are thrown into the fire. Either way, the fans win.

[Dr Z]

Damn the graduation rate!!!!  This winter, the Zips need to find some JUCO players that can immediately step in to make an impact.  The JUCO players will force the LO recruits to either become better players, or leave the team.  Also, the JUCO players will allow some of the young recruits to mature before they are thrown into the fire.  Either way, the fans win.

Don't get too gung ho on your JUCO fix there.

I've heard JD (with my own ears) say he doesn't believe in them.

He said one or two, maybe, but that is NOT the way to "fix" a team.

[Guest Guest_Zipper]

Straight up the gut on first down at least 80% of the time.

Hey Football Minds,

You have to run up the middle when your fat guards can't pull and your tackles are shit. The only other place to go is up the middle. The only thing everyone agrees on is that the OL sucks but then you criticize the creativity of the offense? If you were the opposing defense what would you do? Blitz the edges, force all ground game action to the middle and chase #5 all night long. You will get a sack, a hurry, or a tackle for a loss almost every time.

Last year the OL had Cummins and Conley. This year Aaron is all alone.

At least the OL has Conley, the DL has nothing but sloppy looking little guys and DL wannabes.

If you get you ass whipped in the trenches you lose 80% of the time. If you turn the ball over as well you lose 100% of the time.

[Zipsrifle]

Tried to post this last night but something was wrong...here goes again.

It's going to be a LOOOONG season, here are my thoughts.

1) Kudos UAM. Well done. We looked like a DI-A program prior to the game.

2) Everyone has basically summed up the general problems. D sucked, couldn't run, turnovers, etc. I am no expert but here is some additional stuff I saw.

Why is it that they can run a screen 5,000,000 times and we can't figure it out? Hell, if I got 5 yards every time I ran it, I'd just keep running it till the other team figured it out...which we didn't. After the first 5000 times they ran it, you'd think that you'd know what was coming.

We seriously need to learn how to tackle. I can't believe that we've got guys diving at feet instead of hitting the guy and wrapping him up. In addition, they were getting 2-3 extra yards because our guys were waiting for them to run UP THE FIELD to them instead of attacking the ball carrier.

Biggs is the man. I hope that Biggs being the starter will put a fire under Ringer, but I doubt it. Just imagine what he could do if the line could open up some holes. How much longer do I get to see Biggs play? IMO, Jabari is locked into the WR position for the next 3 years. He's producing and sorry dude, Getsy gets the nod next year.

Frye put up some good numbers but can we throw it over the middle every once in a while and for more than 5 yards? I know, it would take too long for that to develop and #5 would get creamed. While we're on that subject, Superman is scared to death back there. He is doing his first reads and then getting the hell out of the pocket. At the end of the game he was just bailing out and running one, two seconds before he needed to. Now, how much better would his numbers be if he could actually just concentrate on throwing to his receivers instead looking for receivers, running, and trying to avoid tacklers?

Special teams was scary. I was so glad when they would just take a knee when we would punt. We're going to give up some serious field position and points this year. Just kick it as high as you can so everyone huddle around the ball at the 30 when it comes down.

3) Now, I'm not hanging it up this early. The rest of the MAC is in the crapper and that is the best news we've got right now. I hope that Frye stays alive this week. I take back all that stuff I said about us being the at our most dangerous this week....I don't know when we're going to be dangerous this year. If anything, we need to work on the fundamentals this week and kick the crap out of Can't at Dix and start the MAC run. I believe that some of our troubles are due to the learning curve, but I don't care what anybody says, LO left the cupboard bare. With that said, the guys have got to keep after it and make a show of it this week. As long as those guys are giving 100%, I can't ask for more. This is the hand we're dealt and we've got to make the most of it. MTSU is over, done with. Lets look ahead and give Virginia all we've got. We've got to get the mindset ready for our MAC run and there's no better way than having a breakout game against Virginia.

4) PLEASE, at some point before I die, I would like to see the Zips on the good end of a last second score to tie, or win the game. This is the one thing I was hoping that JD would change, but it seems like the same old same old. I still believe in the guy, and am in it for the long run, but I'm going to be pissed if we don't upset someone or pull one out when it counts this year. He's going to need one of these to show potential recurits that he is indeed a step above LO and that if they come to Akron, we're going to win AND have good facilities. I hope that something good happens in the next two weeks or it isn't going to matter if UA sold tickets for $0.01, we're not going to average 15,000 this year.

Oh yea, that was the first time I've every seen the WAVE at the Rubber Bowl. AWESOME!!!! Would you Season ticket holders get off your A$$#$ and have some fun! It's the stupid little things like that, that are going to bring people to the bowl.

[zff]

The best way to fix the Zips is to have them fix themselves.

They need to suck it up, practice their 's off, and go out there saturday and play the best game of there lives. Going all out for 60 mins and leaving it all out on the field.

What I really want to see the rest of the season is to see MY Zips continue to improve each week and give their all every game for 60 mins. .

If that happens the wins will come in the MAC!!!!

the Hoo's

[Dr Z]

4)  PLEASE, at some point before I die, I would like to see the Zips on the good end of a last second score to tie, or win the game.  This is the one thing I was hoping that JD would change, but it seems like the same old same old. 

  Oh yea, that was the first time I've every seen the WAVE at the Rubber Bowl.  AWESOME!!!!

I'm not sure when you started attending the Rubber Bowl,

but how could you forget the Eastern game for a come back?

That was AWESOME :blink:

Eastern game in case you forgot

[Zipsrifle]

Unfortunately, I was in the middle of nowhere in Alaska during that game. Lets just hope I don't have to miss any late season games this year for the same reason.

[Captain Kangaroo]

4)  PLEASE, at some point before I die, I would like to see the Zips on the good end of a last second score to tie, or win the game.  This is the one thing I was hoping that JD would change, but it seems like the same old same old.  

  Oh yea, that was the first time I've every seen the WAVE at the Rubber Bowl.  AWESOME!!!!

I'm not sure when you started attending the Rubber Bowl,

but how could you forget the Eastern game for a come back?

That was AWESOME :blink:

Eastern game in case you forgot

Maybe the "spirit" of the comment was "When are we gonna have a comeback in a game that counts?" EMU was horrible that year...the game shouldn't even have been close. Ditto the OU game last year...it was technically a comeback win...but they had 1 win going into that one.

Our comeback-to-blown lead ratio is unbelievable. A few blown leads that come to mind are:

Pennington in 99(?), Leftwitch(2001?), Rotlisberger (2002), CMU (2002...up 21-0 at the half), Can't 2003, MTSU 2004.

INT's vs. UVA (2002) and Miami (2003) and a 99 yd TD vs. Wisconsin (2003) are also "big" games that we could have pulled out in the 4th quarter, but which ended up as double-digit losses. Oh yeah, UConn (2003) too.

When we had the ball with 3:36 remaining against MTSU I turned to the guy next to me and said "If we play a clean game, we've got this one. A first down and we can run out the clock." Boom...INT and we're toast. It was soooooo predictable. We simply can't beat a good team in the 4th quarter of a close game. We can beat bad teams...but not the good ones.

[Guest Zip88]

Ditto .. Well said Captain...

Took my family. My 4 year old daughter and 6 yr old son were both upset at the Zips -- at least until the fireworks started...

My daughter kept asking me how we could have lost when we were winning. I couldn't answer except to say that this happens to the Zips all the time. I believe you listed them all for us...

The Game reminded me why I don't have season tickets anymore.... and why my wife won't come to anymore games. She says it's always the same.... we don't play smart football... the other team just has to wait for us to self-destruct....she's right...

Faust and Owens teams always imploded.... that's what is so frustrating about MTSU game... if we lose to a better team, then we lose... but I was hoping Brookhart would eliminate the stupid stuff.

I know it doesn't happen overnite and these kids don't yet believe in themselves -- I was just hoping to see light at the end of the tunnel...right now it still looks a long way off...

Hope I'm wrong.....