Bye-week breakdown

[ZachTheZip]

The Zips aren't playing this week (thank goodness), so I feel like it is time to take a break and look back on everything that has happened thus far in Zips football and UA affairs in general. I was inspired by Dr. Proenza's State of the University address and decided to make one of my own, from the perspective of a UA student and die-hard Zips fan. This post is a bit long, but there's a lot of stuff to cover so lets get to it.ZIPS FOOTBALL:Where to begin? I suppose I should start at the beginning. Pre-season, we all agreed that the defense would have to carry us while the offense learned the ropes. Losing Harvey was a tremendous loss. We had three rookie QBs and nobody had any idea who was better. At the Army game, Jacq started and played decent, not too bad for his first college start. The Defense came up big as expected and special teams struggled but looked better than last year. We began to realize just how good Jabari is.Next up was Ohio State. The defense played their asses off, but the offense might as well have not bothered to show up. John Stec looked like Dave Zastudil. That game gave us hope. Was our defense really that good? CJ7 looked like he was the better QB in terms of making things happen, but CJ11 still got to start the next game.Indiana has a reputation of not losing to MAC teams ever. They just don't. CJ11 went in and started his transformation into a Derek Anderson clone. He doesn't run well, and makes stupid mistakes but plays just well enough to keep his job. Then CJ7 came in and showed why he was the main backup until this season. He could move the ball well, and could make defenses think twice about just covering Jabari. The running game started to show signs of life. it was too little too late, however as the defense once again got worn down from being on the field way too long.Can't State was next. They outplayed us for three quarters, but Akron came up with the win because of improved special teams play, CJ7 running wild, and a defense that came to play against the MAC's top offensive weapons. CJ7 looked like he had finally earned his starting role for good. Then John Mackey goes down. It was an injury that would change the season. We lost a tremendous leader on the field and one of our best tacklers ever. Sure, the players replacing him may be more talented, but they are rookies and not leaders. They don't have Mackey's drive and will to win, at least not yet.And so we headed to UConn. This should be a game we can win, right? RIGHT? I mean they were the worst undefeated team in the country, perhaps ever. But things were not meant to be. With Mackey gone, UConn's QB went crazy on us. CJ7 and CJ11 looked worse than ever, but the offensive play calling regressed to peewee simplicity without adapting to the players on the field. A square peg in a round hole will not win you games. The defense looked tired. UConn rolled over us. We had a chance, but CJ11 screwed up royally before the half. To his credit, he does seem to have learned from his mistake, but at what cost?Then the road warriors headed to Kalamazoo to face a team that we just don't win against on the road. It was a hard fought battle that went back and forth all game. CJ11 looked like Peyton Manning on paper, but his performance was not as good as it seemed because it was riddled with mistakes. The defense couldn't stop WMU at all. Things were looking bleak. We couldn't score after throwing to Jabari 4 times in the ebdzone instead of running once and trying to punch it in. WMU ran the clock out, but was afraid of our punt returners and opted for a saftey and a free kick. The rest was history. Something that disturbed me was the lack of CJ7, but who was I to complain? We had just won on the most exciting play I can ever remember against a team that we could never beat on the road.Spirits were high. Maybe we really did have a chance to run the table and go 9-3. Nah. We're Akron, and that doesn't happen to us. Temple came here after getting their first taste of victory and was hungry for more. The Zips were tired, but we were at home. We should be able to grind this one out and then rest during the bye week. Yeah, right. CJ11 looked lost out on the field, CJ7 was avoiding the coaches on the sidelines, the defense was so worn out that they just couldn't do anything after the third quarter, the coaches playcalling stunk and defied logic, and we lost. This game has been picked apart endlessly much to my annoyance. There really wasn't anything more to be said after the maelstrom of frustration on Sunday. The JD decides to blame the game on the players not executing, instead of seeing what the other teams and everybody in the stands saw with the horrible playcalling. FREAKING PREVENT DEFENSE??? Calling plays that are suited for a running QB when you have a passer behind center? Running up the middle on 3rd and 2? Passes to the flats without blocking? Come on.JD has a week and a half to fix his problems. If we lose to Buffalo, our season is scrapped. For now, just undo the knots in your panties and calm down. There's still more football to be played. JD has a history of recognising his teams problems and tackling them one by one. Let's home he can do the same this week.RANDOM NON-FOOTBALL COMMENTS:Today is a college visitation day. Many people from the area with their kids are here. They seem absolutely stunned that UA isn't the ugly little commuter college they remember. Somebody mentioned to them "This isn't your parents' "Akron U", this the the University of Akron. Welcome to it." The Soccer team is playing Penn State tonight at Lee Jackson field. Be there.I'll have more comments after my next class is over.

[ZachTheZip]

Just got back from "learning" in class.Now, on to the future. What is in store for his team? Where are we going? What has to be done to save this season?First, what is in store for the Zips is three road games and two home games. Both home games ca expect less thn 10,000 butts-in-seats attendance. The Temple game only had 14,017 in paid attendance. I'll get into more attendance later, though. For now, we have 4 MAC East games and a cross-division game. 3 of the East games are on the road. We must win two of them and play better at home. None of them will be easy.Next on the schedule is Buffalo, which is somehow in the lead of the MAC East. I know that their running back is extremely underrated and that they tend to get things done on the ground. Their defense istough to figure out as an observer. They seem to be up and down, sometimes playing like an All-MAC squad, other times getting blown out. Hopefully we catch them on an off day. They will be tough, but the competition they have played is not the best. After last week, I say this game is a toss up. If the Zips come to play, we should win. If they play like last week, we get destroyed.After Buffalo, we play at BGSU. Another must-win, and another MAC-East enigma. Thy seem to be in mid-season collapse mode, but I really have no idea what is in store for us. They could be out of contention by the time we play them with a game at Can't and Ohio at home. The Zips should win if they can play a solid game with no stupid mistakes, but when was the last time that happened?Next we have Ohio at home. This should be a win, if the Zips can manage to play to win for all four quarters and not be content to sit on a lead. OU seems to have regressed back to how they were before last year. It all rests on the coaching, as do the other games.After that we head to Oxford to take on Miami, who seems to be in the best position to win the division. This is the last road game, and the last chance to beat a MAC East opponent. It may come down to that game and a win would put us in a tiebreaker against Miami, and we would have the advantage. There's a lot of football to be played between now and then, and the game may matter very little. This Zips team seems to play better on the road and as underdogs, so we'll see.The final home game and last regular season game is against CMU at the Rubber Bowl. This CMU squad looks like the best the MAC has to offer right now, but it's still 6 weeks until we play them. Who knows what will happen in that time span in the unpredictable MAC? All I know is that we may desperately need a win to help out in a tie-breaker and to be bowl eligible. Not to mention to end the season on a positive note. It's a morning game right after Thanksgiving. I don't expect a lot of people to show up, but those that do had better be as loud and obnoxious as always. Hopefully it's not another blizzard/twenty-below day.We could go anywhere from 4-8 to 7-5 realistically. Now, where are we going? This one is the toughest question to figure out. I believe that JD has the ability to raise this team from mediocrity, but it will take a bit more time. There are some glaring problems that have yet to be addressed, and some that he has already taken care of. Some of the problems are out of his hands. Others are soley in his hands. He has shown a willingness to change his stance on things to facilitate improvement, but he has also been stubborn about other things. JD came here with absolutely no head coaching experience at all. He was an assistant for a little bit, but he was mainly a salesman. He has stopped taking chances on recruits this past recruiting class, he claims. He has fixed, for the most part, a special teams that fell apart after we graduated solid players with nobody to back them up. He has shown the willingness to use trick plays in an all out effort to win. At the same time, he has shown stubbornness when it comes to benching players that aren't performing well. He has not made enough adjustments at half time, which has really cost us. He insists that we use the 3-3-5, which requires larger D-linemen than any other scheme I can think of, instead of a scheme which would use smaller, faster D-linemen which fits our player types. JD needs to realise that our offensive playcalling has to change. So we can't properly execute a screen play on 3rd and 11. There are other plays that are more effective, why don't you call those instead? He has to go to Jim Fleming, take his playbook, rip out the page with the prevent defense and then set that page on fire. There is never a good reason to allow the other team to score multiple times at the end of the game. Never.In order to save this season, JD needs to take a long, hard look at how his coordinators are calling plays. Correct them and inform them that if they don't shape up, they will be replaced. It's JD's team, and he should approve all plays. If he already does, then I don't want to begin to think of the problems we are in, but I like to think that he has handed off the responsibilities to his staff so he can focus on special teams, which were our weak point a year ago. Now he has to focus on this year's weak point, not what has become a strength. The team needs to play with heart. If you know any football players, encourage them to never say die.------------------------------------------------------------Now on to attendance. Look at this:MAC Home Attendance through Week 7 1. NIU - 32,188 (61,500 vs. Iowa, 24,182 vs. SIU, 20,012 vs. EMU, and 23,057 vs. WMU)2. Western Michigan - 24,486 (32,129 vs. Indiana, 15,718 vs. C.C. State, and 25,610 vs. Akron)3. Temple - 22,354 (30,368 vs. Navy, 15,629 vs. Buffalo, and 21,065 vs. NIU)4. Central Michigan - 19,506 (22,031 vs. Toledo, 16,522 vs. North Dakota St., 18,465 vs. NIU, and 21,013 vs. Army)5. Toledo - 18,983 (26,100 vs. Purdue, 15,219 vs. Iowa State, 18,542 vs. WMU, and 16,071 vs. Liberty)6. Bowling Green - 18,552 (16,482 vs. Temple and 20,622 vs. WKU)7. Miami - 18,456 (22,421 vs. Cincinnati, 16,800 vs. Syracuse, and 16,148 vs. BGSU)8. Ohio - 17,983 (19,823 vs. Gardner-Webb, 16,781 vs. Wyoming, 18,297 vs. Can't State, and 17,031 vs. EMU)9. Akron - 17,916 (17,865 vs. Army, 21,867 vs. Can't State, and 14,017 vs. Temple)10. Buffalo - 15,320 (22,676 vs. Baylor, 10,755 vs. Ohio, and 12,529 vs. Toledo)11. Ball State - 13,816 (15,488 vs. Miami, 14,333 vs. Buffalo, 9,617 vs. CMU, and 15,824 vs. WKU)12. Can't State - 12,810 (8,455 vs. Delaware State and 17,165 vs. Miami)13. Eastern Michigan - 7,968 (5,794 vs. Ball State and 10,141 vs. Howard)Week 7 Attendance:Total Attendance: 784,164Conference Average: 19,126 in 41 home games playedAttendance is horrid, and will only get worse as the season progresses. Bad scheduling is partly to blame. Apathy gets the most blame, though. You know, some schools have booster clubs that buy up chunks of tickets to help raise the average. Other schools have deals for corporate meetings with the entire company attending a game... We have a t-shirt cannon...-------------------------------------------------Campus construction:So I was walking to class and noticed that the land in between Spicer and the JAR is being cleared. The fraternity is either getting torn down or completely renovated. They said the area will be closed starting tomorrow. It's a lot of land, that's already being used for parking. They said it will be closed permanently. Anybody have a scoop as to what this is all about? I'm thinking another parking garage, or possible a park with walking trails.

[Ryno aka Menace]

Just got back from "learning" in class.Now on to attendance. Look at this:MAC Home Attendance through Week 7 1. NIU - 32,188 (61,500 vs. Iowa, 24,182 vs. SIU, 20,012 vs. EMU, and 23,057 vs. WMU)2. Western Michigan - 24,486 (32,129 vs. Indiana, 15,718 vs. C.C. State, and 25,610 vs. Akron)3. Temple - 22,354 (30,368 vs. Navy, 15,629 vs. Buffalo, and 21,065 vs. NIU)4. Central Michigan - 19,506 (22,031 vs. Toledo, 16,522 vs. North Dakota St., 18,465 vs. NIU, and 21,013 vs. Army)5. Toledo - 18,983 (26,100 vs. Purdue, 15,219 vs. Iowa State, 18,542 vs. WMU, and 16,071 vs. Liberty)6. Bowling Green - 18,552 (16,482 vs. Temple and 20,622 vs. WKU)7. Miami - 18,456 (22,421 vs. Cincinnati, 16,800 vs. Syracuse, and 16,148 vs. BGSU)8. Ohio - 17,983 (19,823 vs. Gardner-Webb, 16,781 vs. Wyoming, 18,297 vs. Can't State, and 17,031 vs. EMU)9. Akron - 17,916 (17,865 vs. Army, 21,867 vs. Can't State, and 14,017 vs. Temple)10. Buffalo - 15,320 (22,676 vs. Baylor, 10,755 vs. Ohio, and 12,529 vs. Toledo)11. Ball State - 13,816 (15,488 vs. Miami, 14,333 vs. Buffalo, 9,617 vs. CMU, and 15,824 vs. WKU)12. Can't State - 12,810 (8,455 vs. Delaware State and 17,165 vs. Miami)13. Eastern Michigan - 7,968 (5,794 vs. Ball State and 10,141 vs. Howard)Week 7 Attendance:Total Attendance: 784,164Conference Average: 19,126 in 41 home games playedAttendance is horrid, and will only get worse as the season progresses. Bad scheduling is partly to blame. Apathy gets the most blame, though. You know, some schools have booster clubs that buy up chunks of tickets to help raise the average. Other schools have deals for corporate meetings with the entire company attending a game... We have a t-shirt cannon...-------------------------------------------------Campus construction:So I was walking to class and noticed that the land in between Spicer and the JAR is being cleared. The fraternity is either getting torn down or completely renovated. They said the area will be closed starting tomorrow. It's a lot of land, that's already being used for parking. They said it will be closed permanently. Anybody have a scoop as to what this is all about? I'm thinking another parking garage, or possible a park with walking trails.

How does NIU have such a high turnout when their record is so bad?

[ziptrumpet87]

How does NIU have such a high turnout when their record is so bad?

what else are you going to do on a Saturday there?

[johnnyzip84]

How does NIU have such a high turnout when their record is so bad?

what else are you going to do on a Saturday there?

NIU has slowly built up a nice fan base, that more less follows the slow, steady progress in the program under Nowak. One losing season hasn't deterred them....yet.

[GP1]

How does NIU have such a high turnout when their record is so bad?

what else are you going to do on a Saturday there?

NIU has slowly built up a nice fan base, that more less follows the slow, steady progress in the program under Nowak. One losing season hasn't deterred them....yet.

Good post and good posts by everyone.NIU has seen MUCH worse than this year in the past. It just goes to show how one player in the MAC can make a big difference. They lose their NFL running back and now they are in the dumps. It happens to a lot of teams in the MAC. Just think of how good JA12 is and what he is doing for Akron this year......he gets my vote for POY, butt I'm a homer. Think of how much better we would be with Harvey.

[GP1]

The attendance for Temple is interesting. They play in an NFL stadium, so there is some attraction to going to a game if you live in Philadelphia and want to see a college game in a big time stadium...especially if you had kids who wanted to go to the field and you couldn't get Eagles tickets. More than anything, they did some real smart things with ticketing this year. I have a friend who lives in Philadelphia and is a Penn State fan. PSU plays Temple at Temple later in the year (I believe the game is sold out). He wanted to buy tickets to PSU and Temple made him buy tickets to three other home games in order to get PSU tickets. That's smart marketing. Now he has found the MAC, enjoys going to the games and said he will continue to go even after this season.Temple has an NFL stadium and they are located in one of the best recruiting regions in the country. The MAC had better watch out for this program in coming years. Outside of a winning tradition, they easily have more advantages than Marshall did when they dominated the MAC. If they get things going.......watch out! It wasn't all that long ago that Temple was at least respectable playing a much more difficult schedule than a MAC schedule. It only takes one or two really good players to get it going in the MAC.

[flipthezip]

That NIU number is skewed / inflated due to them opening at Soldier Field against Iowa in a home game.

[ZachTheZip]

That NIU number is skewed / inflated due to them opening at Soldier Field against Iowa in a home game.

The thing is, even if you take away that game, NIU would still be second in the MAC in terms of attendance. It's something else.Also, I wouldn't mind playing a home game at Cleveland Browns Stadium every once in a while, even if we get our new stadium built. Some teams won't come here no matter how nice our home field is. Having a home game in Cleveland against a "name" school every other year or so would be a huge boost towards attendance and would help us break into the apathetic Cleveland market. OR, an even better idea: hold the Akron-Can't game there every year, with each team switching off being the "home" team every other year like it is now. If marketed right, it would be a huge boost for both schools. I would love to see it done. I'll think I'll send out some e-mails to people in Can't, Akron, the Cleveland Sports Commission, and the MAC office. I see no downside to this.

[Ryno aka Menace]

That NIU number is skewed / inflated due to them opening at Soldier Field against Iowa in a home game.

The thing is, even if you take away that game, NIU would still be second in the MAC in terms of attendance. It's something else.Also, I wouldn't mind playing a home game at Cleveland Browns Stadium every once in a while, even if we get our new stadium built. Some teams won't come here no matter how nice our home field is. Having a home game in Cleveland against a "name" school every other year or so would be a huge boost towards attendance and would help us break into the apathetic Cleveland market. OR, an even better idea: hold the Akron-Can't game there every year, with each team switching off being the "home" team every other year like it is now. If marketed right, it would be a huge boost for both schools. I would love to see it done. I'll think I'll send out some e-mails to people in Can't, Akron, the Cleveland Sports Commission, and the MAC office. I see no downside to this.

hmmm I like this idea especially hosting the Akron Can't rival game.

[Captain Kangaroo]

hmmm I like this idea especially hosting the Akron Can't rival game.

The day the Zips took the K.e.n.t. game off campus and moved it to a neutral site would be the last day I own season tickets. Or any Zips football tickets. Why would you build a 55million dollar on-campus stadium, then move your premier rivalry game off campus?

[Ryno aka Menace]

That NIU number is skewed / inflated due to them opening at Soldier Field against Iowa in a home game.

The thing is, even if you take away that game, NIU would still be second in the MAC in terms of attendance. It's something else.Also, I wouldn't mind playing a home game at Cleveland Browns Stadium every once in a while, even if we get our new stadium built. Some teams won't come here no matter how nice our home field is. Having a home game in Cleveland against a "name" school every other year or so would be a huge boost towards attendance and would help us break into the apathetic Cleveland market. OR, an even better idea: hold the Akron-Can't game there every year, with each team switching off being the "home" team every other year like it is now. If marketed right, it would be a huge boost for both schools. I would love to see it done. I'll think I'll send out some e-mails to people in Can't, Akron, the Cleveland Sports Commission, and the MAC office. I see no downside to this.

hmmm I like this idea especially hosting the Akron Can't rival game.

This is why...

[g-mann17]

Sorry but I have to agree with the Cap on this one.Moving the wagon wheel game away from the two stadiums is a complete joke. Think about this for a second. Dix is a 5 minute drive from Summit County. Same as the Rubber Bowl from Stark. So now you are saying move the game to Cleveland which is a non-busy hi-way 35 minute drive from either county. Except, the hi-ways are never not busy. So you can count on less people going because they don't want to deal with the mess that is Cleveland. For what? To squeeze and additional 5-10,000 people in. It's not the Michigan OSU game (that makes me ill to my stomach even bringing that up). We aren't going to pack CBS. We have never both been up at the same time and we barely fill the current stadiums for the Wagon Wheel game. The only reason any MAC school should be using CBS is for the Patriot Bowl, or to entice a "home" game against major power so that the attendance average is boosted. It's more important to get people on campus and see the improvements to the University then to play in a large cavernous stadium.

[akronad]

I agree with the Capt. & g-mann on this one.We are building a new stadium and trying to entice future players and students to attend Uof A. Moving the game to Cleveland is counter to all of that.Besides, it is more fun to attend games at the college stadiums.

[Captain Kangaroo]

I will add: If K.e.n.t. is dumb enough to give away their home field advantage and play us on a neutral field, I'm all for it.

[ziptrumpet87]

I will add: If K.e.n.t. is dumb enough to give away their home field advantage and play us on a neutral field, I'm all for it.

they have a home field advantage?

[ZachTheZip]

I should mention that one of the reasons I found that moving the game to Cleveland was appealing was that we wouldn't ever have to sit in Dix Stadium ever again.