Wednesday, October 10, 2007

How Good are these Akron Zips?

The Akron Zips football team is off to a good start this season with a 3-3 record. Like me, at first glance, most people would consider a 3-3 record as a big disappointment. Digging deeper into the Zips three losses tells a different story.

Their first loss came at the hands of the Nation's #3 team, Ohio State, in Columbus. Of note though, the Zips were in the game at half time and held Ohio State to a season low of 20 points. Akron turned right around and headed to the #29 team in the country, Indiana. Again, they played competitively, but were handed their second loss. Keep in mind that Indiana only has one loss this season and that loss came against Illinois, who are ranked 18th in the country and who have only one loss at the hands of Missouri, who are ranked 10th in the country and undefeated. The Zips 3rd loss came against Connecticut. Yes, Connecticut, the 34th best team in the country and one of only 10 undefeated teams left in D-1 football. And they are in the Big East.

The losses are justified, but where the question of just how good are these Zips is with the wins. They beat a bad Army team to start the year, won a hard fought game against local rival and pretty talented Kent State and won with a thrilling finish at Western Michigan. For those that haven't seen the finish, please play the video below. ESPN is saying the Zips may have an ESPY winner this year. Not big time wins by any means, but wins none the less.

It's always easy to keep up with the likes of Ohio State, but being on the West Coast, keeping up to speed on the Zips is a difficult one. I'm always sure to check up on two blogs that are all over the world of the Akron Zips - Rasor on the Zips and Morgan's MAC Attack. David Lee Morgan had a great quick hitter Monday on the Zips talented wide receiver Jabaru Arthur.

Through 6 games, Arthur has 49 catches for 642 yards and 7 touchdowns. His 107 yards per game is good for 8th best in the country. He is a Senior, so keep an eye on Arthur come the NFL draft next year.

As with everything, only time will tell how good this Zips team really is. They should roll over Temple to get to 4 wins, leaving them with 5 more games. If they can go 3-2 in those five games, finishing the season off with a 7-5 record, the bowls will have to look Akron's way.

**Get your votes in as well. Zippy has made it through 4 weeks and is in the final 12 of the Capital One Bowl Mascot Challenge. Zippy is up against Seymour from Southern Mississippi and with my vote is trailing by only 133 votes at 13882 to 13749. Get your vote in by clicking here!



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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good post.