Let's Go Zips! An Akron Zips Dynasty

[The GIGGAS]

SF: It's Gameday! Welcome to ISP Sports. I'm Steve French, the voice of the Zips, and with me, as always, is Frank Stams.

FS: Thanks so much Steve. Looking forward to football being back!

SF: Agreed, Frank. Akron comes into this big game with a new identity, a new look for the offense and defense, and a new coach.

FS: That's right, Steve. Michael Snider was announced as head coach of the Zips earlier this offseason, and he made waves with his very first announcement as head coach: the suspension of QB Chris Jacquemain. Chris comes off an amazing season as the QB for the spread offense Zips, having a QB Efficency rating of 125.27, and threw for 2,748 yards and 20 TDs with 14 INTs. The starter will be redshirt sophomore Matt Rodgers.

SF: That's right. Rodgers hasn't played yet here at Akron, but he won't have an amazing amount of pressure on him, as Coach Snider brings a run-first offense to Akron, contrasting with J.D. Brookhart's offense.

FS: And that means the keys to the offense has been handed to one Alex Allen. He only played in 3 games a year ago, rushing for under 200 yards, but got to the endzone 3 times. He has some tools, though, and he's got a lot to prove as a Senior.

SF: And he'll be trying to run against a very good Penn State Nittany Lion defense which is led by mike linebacker Sean Lee.

FS: He's the defensive captain, and slated to be an All-American. He's looking to make a big recovery from a knee issue a year ago, and he'll be looking to sniff out Alex Allen when he's on the field.

SF: Let's not look past the #8 Penn State offense, Frank. On paper, Penn State looks to have an offense that will strike fear into opponent's hearts.

FS: That's for sure, Steve. Evan Royster is the workhorse of the offense, and he'll be looking to slice and dice defenses this season. I'm sure he's looking to get Penn State into a Big 10 championship and the Rose Bowl, if not National Championship.

SF: Let's look at some other big games this week. We'll start with the ISP Game of the Week, #17 BYU at #2 Oklahoma.

FS: That game is going to be a matchup between two of the best quarterbacks in the nation, BYU's Max Hall against Oklahoma's Heisman-winning QB, Sam Bradford. I think Bradford leads the Sooners to the win.

SF: Alright, Frank, what about #12 Oregon at #14 Boise State?

FS: This is a big game for both schools. Boise State won the game last year in Eugene against Oregon, and they'll have to win again to make sure they have a shot at the BCS. I think Oregon knocks off the Broncos.

SF: Sounds like a decent pick, Frank. #13 Georgia goes to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to face the #9 Oklahoma State Cowboys. Who wins?

FS: Well, these are two of the best teams in the nation. Dez Bryant is a great wide receiver, and I think he leads the Cowboys to a win.

SF: OK, Frank, we've only got time for one more pick before kickoff. In the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game, #10 Virginia Tech is going to face the #6 Alabama Crimson Tide in the Georgia Dome, in Atlanta.

FS: Wow, what a game. I think the Alabama defense will be able to stop Tyrod Taylor from being too much of a weapon, but the Virginia Tech special teams will keep it tight. I say Alabama wins in a squeaker game that neither team should feel bad about.

SF: Thanks Frank. We'll check on those picks next week, and after we come back, get ready! Akron heads to Happy Valley to meet the Nittany Lions!

[The GIGGAS]

Penn State Opens Season with Blowout of Akron, 59-14

State College, PA - Penn State started out its season like everyone expected them to. Evan Royster had a punt return TD to start his day, and ended it with 143 yards rushing on 19 carries with 2 rushing touchdowns, along with 118 yards receiving on 4 catches, adding another touchdown. He was named Player of the Game by the ESPN2 crew calling the game.

FINAL	1	2	3	4		T
Akron (0-0)	0	0	7	7		14
Penn State (0-0)	14	10	14	21		59

"I'm just glad to get back on the field," said Royster, "It's nice to be able to get out there and do what I do best. Coach Paterno has told us to get ready for Syracuse next week, and that's exactly what we'll do. I'm glad I was able to make a big impact on the game today. I'll have to keep doing that as the year goes on."

Royster wasn't the only player to have a great game for Penn State, as Daryll Clark played well, connecting on 16 of his 21 passes, for 331 yards, 4 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions, for an efficiency rating of 252.3.

Derek Moye breaking the plane for a receiving touchdown

"I'm glad we got the win, but I need to make sure that I cut out all of the mistakes. I only missed on 5 of my passes, but 2 of those misses turned into interceptions," Clark stated, "I'm just frustrated that I made those mistakes. Hopefully I can play a better game against Syracuse next week."

The Penn State defense caused problems to the Akron offense. On one of the very first offensive snaps of the game for Akron, Matt Rodgers bruised his shoulder, which will keep him out of games for 4 weeks. That forced redshirt freshman Jared Wackerly into the spotlight. He performed admirably in such a hostile environment, connecting on 17 of his 30 passes, gaining 237 yards, while throwing for 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. But it wasn't all roses for Wackerly, as he was sacked three times and fumbled the ball 4 times. Akron would lose 3 fumbles to the Nittany Lions.

"Well, I need to keep the ball safer, of course," Wackerly said in the post game press conference, "But other than that sort of thing, we played well. I wasn't expecting to play today, but you know, I go into the game and play as well as I can... If I can do that, I feel good about my performance. I feel very good about my performance today."

Troy Gilmer picking off a Deryll Clark pass; Gilmer was named Akron Player of the Game

Alex Allen, although highly touted as the Akron feature back, was not able to display his talent as much as Coach Snider would like. He only rushed 14 times, gaining 69 yards, for a 4.9 YPC. He also caught two passes for 14 yards, and a touchdown.

"The game worked in a way that just wouldn't allow me to run as much as I would like. I got some good carries, though, and I'm going to be ready for Florida State next week. I'm very excited about getting another chance to be a big part of an Akron win," said Allen as he was running into the locker room.

Coach Snider was disappointed at his post game press conference, but he was also excited about the future of the Zips program.

"There are a ton of positives that arose in this game. For my team to still play hard in the 4th quarter and not give up, and get that touchdown, I'm very happy about that. Our defense needs some work, and we generally need to be a lot better holding onto the ball and keeping it safe. I think this team has a lot of good players on it. We just need to be able to put everything together, and I'm quite confident we can do it in MAC play," said Snider, "That's where we need to shine. Out of conference wins are nice and all, but MAC play is what we're looking forward to."

Akron will lick their wounds and head down to Tallahassee, FL, next week to take on 0-1 Florida State after their loss to their in-state ACC rival Miami Hurricanes. Penn State will stay in State College, and welcome the 1-0 Syracuse Orange, off of their big OT win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

4:56 - PSU - 72 yard punt return by Royster (Wagner kick)
1:01 - PSU - 11 yard pass from Clark to Powell (Wagner kick)

2nd Quarter

Sean Lee picking off a Jared Wackerly pass intended for Deryn Bowser

2:52 - PSU - 30 yard pass from Clark to Moye (Wagner kick)
0:00 - PSU - 49 field goal by Wagner

3rd Quarter

4:49 - PSU - 73 yard pass from Clark to Royster (Wagner kick)
3:38 - Zips - 14 yard pass from Wackerly to Allen (Iveljic kick)
2:13 - PSU - 12 yard run by Royster (Wagner kick)

4th Quarter

5:50 - PSU - 52 yard run by Royster (Wagner kick)
4:50 - PSU - 39 yard fumble return by Latham (Wagner kick)
4:34 - PSU - 33 yard pass from Clark to Moye (Wagner kick)
0:12 - Zips - 7 yard pass from Wackerly to Jones (Iveljic kick)

[Marino]

Well....


...


....


...

at least your weren't shut out!

[The GIGGAS]

Quote: Originally Posted by Marino

Well.... ... .... ... at least your weren't shut out!

I was fully expecting a blowout, so I'm not too upset about the game. With the Zips as I have them, I'm 100% looking for MAC play to get me into a bowl. I won't be able to do it on my OoC schedule. It's super rough early, with Penn State and Florida State, then Indiana and Syracuse later in the season.

Any early suggestions about the dyn, Marino? Thoughts?

[Marino]

Looks good to me. Maybe more around the league stuff and stats stuff I guess.

[WWF80sKid]

I'm following. Definitely tough schedule in the beginning! Good luck.

[The GIGGAS]

SF: Thanks for joining us on the Goodyear Zip Around the Country Recap Show on the Akron ISP Radio Network. We're here at Brown Derby Road House, and we're taking a look at the whole country along with a focus on our Akron Zips. I'm Steve French, and with me is my radio partner, Frank Stams. Frank, let's start off the week with your predictions from last week, and see how you did.

FS: That sounds great, Steve. Put them up on the board!

#17 BYU 3 > #2 Oklahoma 41

#12 Oregon 16 > #14 Boise State 45

#13 Georgia 30 > #9 Oklahoma State 34

> #10 Virginia Tech 24 #6 Alabama 18

*Frank's picks in bold

FS: Ouch, I missed half of the games from last week, Steve. I definitely underestimated the Virginia Tech defense against Alabama, as they took out Alabama by their great defense, picking off Greg McElroy 3 times, sacking him 5 times, and only allowing 37% passing.

SF: That's true, Frank, but Mark Ingram was effective, rushing for 91 yards on 22 attempts with one touchdown. You also missed on the Oregon/Boise State game.

Sam Bradford sliced and diced the BYU offense en route to a big 41-3 win

FS: I was way off on that game, Steve! *laughs* Oregon had 5 turnovers in the game, and Boise only had one. That's a big step in winning a game. It doesn't hurt to have your quarterback, Kellen Moore, throw for 369 yards on 31-48 passing with 5 touchdowns.

SF: It's pretty easy to win when 4 receivers catch touchdown passes. Let's focus on the games you predicted correctly.

FS: I'll agree to that! Sam Bradford was back to his usual tricks, passing for 285 yards and 4 TDs, with one interception, on 68% passing. But the biggest stat of the game was the total yardage. Oklahoma gained exactly 500 yards of total offense, and BYU scored exactly 190. Can't win the game when you get outgained by 310 yards.

SF: A good point, Frank. Let's finish out this segment with the Georgia/Oklahoma State game.

FS: This game was tight down the stretch, Steve, but both teams had 6 points in the 2nd half. The big play was when Oklahoma State QB Alex Cate hit DeMarcus Conner for a big 29 yard touchdown pass. That would prove to be the margin of victory.

SF: It wasn't all passing for the Cowboys, though, as Kendall Hunter ran the ball 34 times for 163 yards, scoring one big touchdown in the second quarter. Well, that's been Frank's Picks, we'll be right back with the MAC Report after this commercial.

Buy Goodyear tires.

SF: And we're back with this week's MAC Report, the first one of the 2009 college football season.

FS: That's right, Steve. Let's put the MAC Scoreboard up on the screen.

Akron 14 > #8 Penn State 59	North Texas 3 > Ball State 38	FCS Southeast 3 > Kent State 34	Troy 23 > Bowling Green 26 F/OT
FCS East 19 > Temple 35	Northern Illinois 21 > Wisconsin 31	Army 25 > Eastern Michigan 34	> Toledo 24 Purdue 0	> Connecticut 23 Ohio 21
Western Michigan 12 > Michigan 27	> Kentucky 28 Miami (OH) 10	> Buffalo 21 UTEP 3	Central Michigan 10 > Arizona 24

*MAC teams bolded

FS: A pretty good week for the MAC, all things being equal. An overall week record of 7-6, a winning record. But two of those wins were against FCS schools. Akron was the only team that played a ranked opponent, and they were blown out in Happy Valley.

SF: But you can't forget the performances of some of theses schools hanging with their bigger equivalents.

FS: That's true Steve. Toledo went and took it to Big 12 Purdue, Northern Illinois played Wisconsin tough, as did WMU against Michigan.

SF: Plus Ohio nearly knocked off Big East foe Connecticut. Well, let's take a look at the players of the week for the MAC.

Offensive	Defensive
Eugene Jarvis (KSU SR HB) 31 carries, 175 yards, 4 TD (13 receiving yards)	Alex Johnson (Toledo JR DE) 7 tackles (2 tackles for loss) 1 sack, 2 forced fumbles

Jarvis Hayes racked up a heck of a lot of rushing yards against an FCS team, winning MAC Offensive Player of the Week

SF: It's hard to not give it to Jarvis out of Kent State, Frank.

FS: He might have been playing an FCS school, but scoring 4 touchdowns against any team is impressive.

SF: He's definitely going to be the workhorse for the Golden Flashes. Toledo couldn't have won the game against Purdue without Johnson causing problems to the Boilermaker offense.

FS: That's right. His forced fumbles led to Rocket possessions, which helped them win the game. He only had one sack, but he was disrupting the Purdue offense whenever he could.

SF: Let's go ahead and take a look at the national players of the week.

Offensive	Defensive
Tim Tebow (Florida SR QB) 29-36, 518 yards, 7 TDs (11 carries, 68 rushing yards)	Brian Wilkins (UTEP SR LB) 14 tackles (4 tackles for loss) 2 sacks, 2 interceptions, forced fumble

Tim Tebow was Superman in a big opening win

FS: I just can't believe that line for Tim Tebow. Looks like Tebow-mania is just going to keep rolling. Tebow rolled over that FCS team, 66-13, and Florida just came along for the ride. Who could possibly wrestle the Heisman away from him?

SF: He'll be quite a force in the SEC again. What about Wilkins, Frank?

FS: It's always nice to see players from smaller schools get player of the week, even in losses. Wilkins played admirably for UTEP in a loss to Buffalo. He was the catalyst for the defense for UTEP, but they could have used an offensive catalyst, as they only gained 224 yards on offense, and scored 3 points.

SF: Let's take another commercial break before we hit the end stretch.

Have you bought Goodyear tires yet?

SF: Welcome back! Let's look at the Top 25 poll.

Week 1 Poll
Rk	LW	Team	Votes
1	1	Florida (33) (1-0)	1497
2	2	Oklahoma (24) (1-0)	1459
3	3	Texas (3) (1-0)	1375
4	4	USC (1) (1-0)	1315
5	5	LSU (1-0)	1274
6	7	Ohio State (1-0)	1142
7	10	Virginia Tech (1-0)	1114
8	8	Penn State (1-0)	1086
9	9	Oklahoma State (1-0)	1062
10	11	Ole Miss (1-0)	923
11	14	Boise State (1-0)	897
12	6	Alabama (0-1)	805
13	16	North Carolina (1-0)	669
14	18	Georgia Tech (1-0)	573
15	19	TCU (0-0)	526
16	13	Georgia (0-1)	513
17	12	Oregon (0-1)	481
18	21	Nebraska (1-0)	436
19	22	Iowa (1-0)	392
20	23	West Virginia (1-0)	349
21	17	BYU (0-1)	325
22	24	Utah (1-0)	307
23	NR	Miami (1-0)	305
24	25	Kansas (1-0)	265
25	15	Cal (0-1)	204

FS: Well, the game of the week in Week 2 will be #4 USC heading to the Horseshoe to take on the #6 Buckeyes. That will make the polls change a lot, I should think. Some teams are falling pretty hard, like a Cal team that lost close to unranked Maryland. Other than that great USC/OSU game, there aren't any other games that pit two ranked teams together. Next weekend looks like it could be an upset weekend. Watch #16 Georgia against South Carolina. Georgia has to show that they can make a recovery from that game they couldn't pull out against Oklahoma State. Will they come out beaten or rejuvenated? Also keep an eye out on the East Carolina/#20 West Virginia game. Two very evenly matched teams are on a collision course in Morgantown.

SF: One more game to watch is the Thursday night game, where the Clemson Tigers head to Atlanta to face the #14 ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Another pair of very evenly matched teams. We've only got one more segment here on the week recap, and that's the highly anticipated Coach Interview. Once we get back from commercial, we'll have Coach Snider here at Brown Derby Road House.

Why haven't you bought Goodyear tires?

SF: Welcome back to the Zip Around the Country recap show. I'm pleased to have Akron Zips head coach Mike Snider here with me, welcome, Coach Snider.

MS: Thanks so much, Steve. I'm very happy to be here in front of the Zip faithful.

Jared Wackerly will have to be the starting QB while Rodgers is out with injury

SF: I think we all are, Coach. There were a lot of questions brought up about the game against the Nittany Lions, as you know.

MS: I'm sure there are. It's important to realize that they are a very very good football team. They have all sorts of talent. But when it comes down to it, these are games we need to battle in to get ready for MAC play. That's the most important part of our schedule.

SF: Coach, there have been questions about the quarterbacks in the program. Can you elaborate on that situation?

MS: I'll do what I can, Steve. Chris Jacquemain is suspended, as most of you know, until the Syracuse game. His status for the season will be made at that time. Matt Rodgers, the starting QB in Chris' absence has been diagnosed with a bruised shoulder, and will be out for 2-4 weeks. He was injured on the very first offensive snap on an option keeper.

SF: That must be very disappointing to you personally, Coach.

Almondo Sewell hopes to have a big season for Akron

MS: I can't lie, it's very disappointing. But Matt's a young kid and I know he'll bounce back from this setback. Right now, we're only carrying one active quarterback, Jared Wackerly. We have a redshirted QB in Freshman Patrick Nicely, who is someone we're very excited about, and he's the 2nd stringer right now. We'd prefer to not pull his redshirt, as I feel that he could use some time in the playbook.

SF: Who's the 3rd string QB?

MS: For right now, it's sophomore halfback Dale Martin. We feel like he has some really nice tools as a runner as well. We had to pull his redshirt, but we're not that worried about it, as, like I said, he's a sophomore.

SF: Any other notes about the offense?

MS: Well, we drifted away from the run game, which was disappointing, so we'll plan on running the ball and attempting to control the time of possession.

SF: Alright, Coach Snider, what are your notes about the defense?

Christian Ponder can make plays with his arm and his feet

MS: We're really high on Almondo Sewell. He only had two tackles last week, but we feel like he can be a real big tool for our offense. Personally, I'm really happy about that Troy Gilmer was able to pick off a pass last week that led to a touchdown. As a freshman, he really embodies what Akron will become in the future.

SF: We only have a couple minutes left, Coach.

MS: Hit me with your best shot!

SF: Well, coach, do you have any thoughts about Florida State?

MS: They might be coming off a loss to Miami, but that team is fast and talented. We'll have to watch out for Christian Ponder on defense. He presents a lot of problems, throwing strikes and also gashing defenses on the ground. I think that's where our main focus is going to have to be.

SF: Thanks Coach. That's all the time we have for the Goodyear Zip Around the Country Recap Show. Make sure to tune in at 11 am on Saturday for the Zip Pregame Show on your local Zips ISP station. Thanks for listening, Zips, and we'll see you in Tallahassee.

[DirectFX]

Good Stuff so far lots of good writing and game recaps......Nice to see a realistic dynasty as some would've beat Penn St.