Post Game Thread

[skip-zip]

I'll get it started with my observations....THE GOOD:Chris Jacquemain looked pretty composed running the offense in his first start. As JD says, he doesn't make mistakes, and he showed that tonight.Our new OL did a decent job. We ran the ball quite well. I really liked Brian Williams, who I saw play for the first time. Will we face tougher run defenses? Sure. So, lets wait a few weeks to see if this continues. Jabari Arthur will need to carry the receiving corp, and he showed us once again that he's a great receiver when he holds onto the ball. Plus, he made some very difficult catches as well.Guys like Mackey, Corner, Tate and Jones showed why we have such a strong secondary. Army racked up some yards passing, but they did throw the ball 43 times.Our linebackers were solid against the option running attack. THE BAD:Our DL mounted very little pressure on the QB without help from the LBs and DBs in blitz packages. However, they did a nice job holding their own against the Army OL on running plays. Our kickoffs were landing on the 20 yard line, which often game Army WAY too good field position most of the game.THE UGLY:A misssed extra point, missed FG, and a blocked punt. It looks like our kicking game will once again be a weakness.

[74ZIP]

well lets start off by saying glad its a ZIP win!...lets do a different version of good/bad...GOOD-obviously JABBARI ARTHUR,,,he saved the ZIPS and Jacquemain from serious embarassment...O-LINE especially running...that was really the most effective part of the offense...Runningbacks...finally running in the middle(but Kennedy is dinged already)...Run D-Army is not very good but the line and linebackers controlled the run pretty well...BAD-Play calling in the "Red Zone' we saw the same movie last year...too many missed opportunities because of timid calls from the sideline...Kicking game AGAIN...i thought Igor was supposed to have a 'cannon'...again nothing improved from last year....and do we have to mention the punting game?! almost cost the game...again...sorry but Jacquemain ain't ready yet...if JD thought he was the better of the two QB's i want some of what JD is smokin'... Jacquemain is a Statue back there...when teams start blitzing him they may have to carry him off...and he doesn't throw the ball where it needs to be thrown,,,he ought to be buying Jabbari dinner for a month...he will make an O-line look bad...secondary looked a little shaky...if #5 for Army hadn't dropped the 'TD" in the end zone...too many open looks for a team like Army to get...Right now don't see much reason to believe these guys will win consistently against better competion like OSU,Indiana,CAN"T etc etc..

[skip-zip]

Zip74....I only mentioned Jacquemain in the GOOD category because I think he showed some good composure running the offense for the first time in a live game, and didn't make costly mistakes. As for his throws, he surely needs more work. My guess is that JD wanted the guy in there who wouldn't hurt us early in the season, while the new OL gels, and let the Defense carry us for awhile. Only time will tell if that was the right strategy.

[UAZips]

Good hard hitting Zips football http://youtube.com/watch?v=r5kugEj1v_U

[akronad]

Ok. My version of the GBU.QB's-I think we have 2 decent qb's at this time and there is nothing I can see that say's they shouldn;t get better. Will they make some mistakes, sure, but if they learn form those mistakes and keep those to a minimum, we will be just fine.RB's- I glad we have a couple of competent replacements for Kennedy. There should be enough work for all.OL-Nice job. Keep working.DL- I thought they did alright. In the 3-3-5, their function is alot like a 3-3-4. Especially, the NG.LB's- Good job.DB's- Very good job. When you can gwt an interception and return it for a TD, it is always a good day.Special teams-Kick-offs for everyone are going to be interesting and different this year, since it is taking place at the 30 instead of the 35 yd. line. Punting- What is it with Stec doing a rollout b4 punting the ball? The 1 punt I saw when he actually just kicked it rather than rolling out, was his best punt of the nite. How could we have a punt blocked, when everyone in the house knew that Army was going to throw an entire division at them? Definitely needs work!!!FG & PAT-I heard all thry camp that this was a problem and guess what is was! Igor needs to put the ball between the posts. This is a guy who was high on the list 2 years ago and I just don't see it.All in all, not a bad performance by the Zips (a victory). Not let's head for Columbus play the game and hope we don't leave with any serious injuries.

[GP1]

The game went pretty good considering there were a lot of new players on the field last night. An early penalty turned a TD into a FG. The game was not as close as the score made it out to be. We should have won 27-14. Army is not the worst team in I-A.....close though. They would compete well in the MAC week in and week out. Here is what we need to improve and just some general thoughs. In general, I'll take a win any day and I'm feeling good today.Let's start with the most important player on the field, the QB. Jacquemain played decent. He needs to be more accurate with his passing. Accuracy gets yards after a catch. Accuracy limits balls getting picked off by tipped balls. He may not be the fastest guy, but they need to run that option more with him. We have a good back up if he gets hurt.Big plays. Big plays take game breaking players. Losing Harvey is going to kill this team because there is absolutely no deep threat on the field. Jabari is a good player, but while he made a great catch in the end zone, he also dropped a couple easily catchable balls. A senior needs to be more consistent. Kennedy does nothing for me, he is a mudder and not a game breaker.....way too easy to tackle in the open field. A good defense wlll just stuff up the middle with him in the game and force him outside where he is easily tackled. I think they could get more production out of another back. I think the only player on the offense who can change the game only played on series last night and that is C. Jackson. Jackson needs to play more....maybe not start, but one series a game is not enough.Speaking of catching the ball......Kasparek, you are a junior now.....if you want to be in the NFL some day, you had better start catching the f-ing ball when it is thrown to you and hits your hands. You have a young QB and you need to step up and help him. If you can't do this, we need to only throw the ball to 83.Defense. Int. for a TD is always a good thing. It seems as if teams are lining up, finding 19 and running away from him. Teams did this late in the year last year also. It's a good plan to run away from one of the better players. I still hate the 3-3-5 defense though....too small. It gives up too many yards and loses field positon. I don't think we had one three and out last night. Good teams will expose this defense again this season. There was a time in the second quarter where the defensive line was getting smashed. This can't happen.Play calling. I thought the play calling was pretty good for the players we have this year. First play they ran a quick pass to the WR and it worked so they ran it on the second play to the other side of the field. That's good play calling. They have a tendency to go to the well too many timess though and later in the game they showed they were going to run it and ran it. We lost five yards. It would have been a good time to run a deceptive play. I really think the play calling this year is going to be limited by the talent. They don't have anyone who can get open down field so look for a lot of short passes. The running game must be strong this season.Another play we run a lot is the fade near the end zone. I hate this play because it is all or nothing. We got one TD on a circus catch, but Jacquemain and Jackson both threw the ball badly out of bounds on the two other attempts.We ran the fullback for a ten yard gain last night. We have to run the FB successfully a couple of times a game because it opens the rest of the running game by presenting a threat to the defense.Special teams. As bad as it looked last night, it was still better than last year. I'll leave it at that.Kick offs. We had trouble last night, but watching TV yesterday, it appears as if there are a lot of teams having difficulty with kicking from the 30. It's not just us. There is going to be an adjustment period for everyone. Everyone may just have to accept better field position as the tradeoff.I think a young offensive line did a real good job last night considering their experience. A lot of the stupid penalties we say last year didn't happen (ie: the endless parade of false starts and holding). The option offense we run puts a young line in a position to look good.The crowd. On the way to the bar with my wife she asked me how many people I though would attend and I said twenty five thousand. When I saw the crowd, I said, "Did I say twenty five thousand, I meant twenty five hundred." ESPN did a good job of now showing the stands.I hope I don't seem overly critical here. Good win, good start to a season with a lot of new players. We played much better than the score looks. Let's get ready for next week.

[ZZZips]

Nice article by Terry Pluto in today's PD on the Patriot Bowl.http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/index.ssf?/...4250.xml&coll=2

[J-BIDDY]

I thought it was a fun game in a fun atmospohere. The Good QB:The offense played within themselves, they didn't try and do anything spectacular which is something I think Getsy suffered with last year trying to make something out of nothing, the QB's and the offense took what Army gave them. CJ looked good on his drive, I thought the motion offense actually ran smoother with him in there, but his passes didn't seem to have the touch of Jaque.The Bad QB:Jaque needs to look off his target, too many times I was watching him zoom in and not look off the defender.The Good Defense:Interception for a TD, great cover work, good pressure on blitz packages.The Bad Defense:Missed tackles, OMG, I couldn't believe all of the tackles that could have been wrapped up for a loss and weren't.The Good Kicking Game:At least we didn't miss all of our field goal and extra point attempts.Overall, I was happy, a good win for a young team, this team is that, young, beating a respectable Army team is a good step and keeps me interested in watching this team grow!

[Class of 82]

It's always nice to win, so it's hard to be too critical. Anyway, here's my good/bad take, fwiw.GOOD-- Our DBs and LBs look outstanding... some true Division 1A talent across the field.-- The young O-line was more than respectable.-- Jabari Arthur is obviously a tremendous target and had his best game since that breakout performance in the post-season two years ago.-- Bryan Williams siezed every opportunity he got to make plays. I know one game does not a career make, but I'm pretty sure we're seeing the emergence of a legitimate star. (If he bombs, I'll admit to wishful thinking, but just got a feeling about that kid.)-- Jacquemain had a solid, while not spectacular, debut, and Jackson showed he can produce, too.-- Lastly, we won a game that in the not-so-distant past we probably wouldn't have won.BAD--If Jabari Arthur is our only legitimate weapon in the passing game, then we are in for serious trouble against better teams. If OSU will takes him away with double teams, then what else do we have?--Bryan Williams needs more opportunities at tailback, and maybe even as a slot-type guy who Jacquemain can throw to. He looks to me like he's way too good not to be on the field for the majority of plays.--Is it just me, or did the play signaling really look wy more than awkward? It looked like they called a formation in the huddle, then had the whole team(?!) looking to the sideline for the actual play call. Whatever they're doing, it looks more than iffy to me. It could look even worse in front of 110,000 Buckeye fans.--To be where we all hope the Akron program is headed, this game was way too competitive. The Zips team we're hoping for should have thumped this Army team by at least three or four touchdowns.Anyway, that's my two-cents.GO ZIPS!

[ZippyRulz]

Nice article by Terry Pluto in today's PD on the Patriot Bowl.http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/index.ssf?/...4250.xml&coll=2

Still a little patronizing if you ask me. And not every seat in the lower bowl is good for watching a game. My seat was in the corner of the end zone down low but I watched most of the game standing on the decking above the corner sections. I would have rather had an upper deck seat. And there was not an option of "spreading out" as they had attendants in every section for the entire game checking peoples tickets. That should be our last Patriot Bowl...once our stadium is built there won't be any good reason to play in Cleveland again. I would think the Browns games are a lot of fun though with that stadium filled to the rim.

[rln]

Very nice video recap on ESPN.com:http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId...42006&confId=80

[zen]

Good hard hitting Zips football http://youtube.com/watch?v=r5kugEj1v_U

haha, the most the crowd was in the game was after that return. They were showing the replay of it on the big screens, and the whole crowd was yelling BOOM when the block got laid!

[RACER]

i thought our qb played very well.it was his first game and we had alott of dropped passes.i wish we would go to the different defense.no presure on the qb unless we blitz the house.the thought the o-line played well for the frist game.the zips will have to step up big time next week.i have no idea what to expect next week.to early in the season.i give army credit there kids play hard and don't quit.

[Buckzip]

Great hit. I watched it 5 times on youtube and said "ouch" each time. We certainly need more speed on the field. Kennedy is not a speed back, and we have no speed at WR. This will hurt us badly against quality teams.I remember drooling about having David Harvey, Vince Hill and Gary Pride on the field at the same time.

[skip-zip]

I forgot to mention one of the more glaring statistics of this game....We were 2 for 12 on 3rd Down Conversions.I'm sure it's all a combination of some bad throws, some dropped passes, and the OL not getting the push we need on short running plays to keep the sticks moving. We'll have to improve on this. Converting 2 third down plays isn't going to win many MAC games.

[uafan]

Here goes my special teans rant! A 40 yard FG is difficult, but you read the papers every week where a few HS kids make them that long. A good D-1 kicker should make these. And missing an extra point...inexcusable! Our punting game is again on the junior high level. Under 30 yards per punt...inexcusable! We will probably lose a couple of games this year because of special teams. Maybe we should think about a new special teams coach. Oh, wait a minute...that's JD!

[GP1]

Here goes my special teans rant! A 40 yard FG is difficult, but you read the papers every week where a few HS kids make them that long. A good D-1 kicker should make these. And missing an extra point...inexcusable! Our punting game is again on the junior high level. Under 30 yards per punt...inexcusable! We will probably lose a couple of games this year because of special teams. Maybe we should think about a new special teams coach. Oh, wait a minute...that's JD!

The blocked punt factors as a punt for zero yards and against the average. Backing out the blocked punt, the average was 36 yards. Not great, but not a disaster either. The running kick can't help. I hope they had that in there to make OSU prepare for something different.I think there were some bright spots last night they can build upon. Good returns in both kick off and punt return. The center was actually able to get the ball to the punter this year. A punt inside the ten yard line. Kick coverage was good. We did make some field goals.....in fact, far more than I thought going into the game. Accuracy decreases greatly after 40 yards and kicking off grass is more difficult. Using high school kickers as an example is silly. They kick off of tees and the uprights are so far apart it is difficult to miss.The idea that a special teams coach is going to solve the problems just leaves me confused. Actually, I think some of you use it as a chance to take a cheap shot at JD. At some point, the players have to execute. The field goal kicker, not JD, needs to get his ass out on the field and make some kicks when called upon. TV showed JD chewing out a player after a kickoff for not taking the proper path to the ball. The coaching is there, just not the execution.What JD needs to do differently is not use the spread out line formation late in a game when punting. Protectiing the lead is like protecting your castle. Call in the troops, pull up the draw bridge, flood the moat and hunker down for the siege that is about to come. The only hope Army had was to block that kick and Akron didn't line up to just protect the kicker and get the ball away regardless of the distance it goes. This is something that goes directly to coaching (strategy and tactics), not nonsense like blaming the coach for missed kicks or the distance a punt goes. Yikes, that's just stupid.

[timsum1283]

i'm vying for that special teams job when i get to UA. it will probably be hard considering i'm a jr. in high school now but it looks like we need some help but the important thing is the W

[zipboy]

Good posts, just my extra 2 cents1. Why not have Domonkos on kickoffs? It seems that at the end of last year, he was getting balls into the endzone. Igor was probably kicking to the 10-15 with a 5 yard disadvantage.2. OLine looked better than I thought. I don't remember many 2nd or 3rd and 12 plays. I don't remember many holds if any, and thank goodness there was no personal foul from the offensive line. That broke a record compared to last year. Not many plays went for negative yardage.3. Run D was very good, the D Line looked better than I expected.4. Nice rotation of players. Compared to the roster show from 5 years ago, we have much more depth across the board.5. Good energy, and for the most part smart playing. We did not beat ourselves. Next week is big, go down and play smart and hard. If we play well and they play mediocre, it will be a ballgame.

[uafan]

GP1...Yes, there were many positive things on which to build, but if you are willing to settle for mediocrity, that's what we should expect. Yes, I'm blaming JD, not taking cheap shots, that is how I see it. These are his players, so if they don't perform, was there a problem with recruiting? I'm sorry, but I don't see him as a good coach yet. He should let his coaches coach, and get a special teams coach who concentrates on special teams only, not the rest of the team. I am tired of lousy kicking, and I can see where we might lose a game or two because of them. Can I write back when we do and say I told you so? Or will you be defending JD then? I say we fix it before it costs us a game!BTW, Michigan used that rugby punt a couple of years ago, admitting they did not trust their punter. Maybe it's time to try the other guy?

[GP1]

He should let his coaches coach, and get a special teams coach who concentrates on special teams only, not the rest of the team. I am tired of lousy kicking, and I can see where we might lose a game or two because of them. Can I write back when we do and say I told you so? Or will you be defending JD then?

http://iuhoosiers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl...tt.html#coachesAbove is a link to a Big Ten team we play this year, Indiana (I tried to look up OSU, but their web page is slow). Big Ten teams can throw money at anything they want. They have no special teams coach who has the sole responsibility of coaching special teams. Indiana uses a LB coach as special teams coordinator similar to what we did last season, and everyone complained about that. The idea that hiring one will solve the problems is silly. I'd challenge anyonoe on this board to find five BCS schools that hire a coach for special teams only. It just isn't done. Akron loses money with it's athletic teams. Does anyone think they could possibly get the money to hire someone for a positon like that?As far as defending JD, I think I presented pretty good criticism of him in my two posts above. I'm just not going to call for extreme changes after one game.....and one that we won. All they had to do was close down the gaps on the punt at the end of the game and we win 22-7. It takes no special teams coordinator to figure that out. Akron was in control of that game for the better part of it. Speaking of special teams, didn't we capture the Army on side kick at the end of the game? In years past, that ball surely would have gone to Army and they would have found a way to beat us. Before anyone tells me JD is a bad coach, let's look at history. Faust's first three years in I-A, 15-17-1. Lee Owens, 8-26, JD:Record: 19-19One MAC East ChampionshipOh, there's that inconvenient MAC Championship where he completely out coached the other team that tends to trip up the JD doubters.Then there is the first ever bowl game.MAC COY in his first year.First ever win against a BCS school.We saw a lot of good, young, aggressive players play last night. The talent level as a whole is the best it has ever been. Another poster said they had great energy and he is right. We do for the first time. The team was focused (only three or four penalties). Last night was a good night. Akron won it's opening game for the first time since 2001.....the time before that was....get this.....1993.JD is a good (not great) coach. Some of you just need to get over it and stop rooting for failure so you can be right about something.

[skip-zip]

Ahh. The 1993 opener. When Alcorn kicked the 56 yard field goal to beat Toledo in our first game in the MAC. Great memory.For those commenting on the DL, I'm not hearing anyone mention the lack of a pass rush. We only got pressure on the QB when multiple LBs and DBs blitzed.

[Ryno aka Menace]

Ahh. The 1993 opener. When Alcorn kicked the 56 yard field goal to beat Toledo in our first game in the MAC. Great memory.For those commenting on the DL, I'm not hearing anyone mention the lack of a pass rush. We only got pressure on the QB when multiple LBs and DBs blitzed.

Yeah that ain't good you shouldn't have to damn near bring the house to get some heat on the QB.