Men's soccer

With two goals from Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Akron beat IPFW 3-0.

I'm at the women's game right now. The Zips lead St. Bonaventure 2-1 at the half. Yes, that means Krystin Wilson gave up her first goal — although it was a cheap one.

Football

Charlie Frye had a so-so game in the Browns' loss at Cincinnati.

Offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon is doing his best to ruin Frye's career.

Football

I see a lot of fans are bellyaching about Luke Getsy's performance on my blog and ZipsNation.org.

Stop. Now.

Getsy is a very good quarterback who made some bad passes in Saturday's loss. He had a bad game. Period.

It's easy to overreact and say he's not a capable quarterback. However, think back to all the great plays he has made. Think back to all the times he's carried the a stuttering offense on his back.

Luke Getsy doesn't deserve praise for his play yesterday, but he certainly doesn't deserve people questioning his ability.

Let me ask this: Would you still complain about Getsy's play if the kicker didn't blow four points and the Zips won?

• Two MAC outcomes really surprised me from yesterday: Kent State beat Miami in a pillow fight. Western Michigan upended Virginia on the road. I'm convinced I know very little about the MAC this season. This is anyone's conference to win (except Kent).
• I met Zips linebacker Mark Groza and former punter Billy Sullivan downtown last night. Very nice dudes.

Football

The Zips lost 24-21. That's all that really matters.

But here are 25 points the Zips should have scored…

• Missed 43-yard field goal by Matt Domonkos. (3)
• Missed extra point by Domonkos. (1)
• Blown goalline opportunity in fourth quarter. (7)
• Interception for touchdown from goalline in first half. (14)

As the Comcast announcers pointed out, Akron should have put up 40 points today.

Speaking of TV, Time Warner Cable should be embarassed for missing the first half of the game. What kind of incompetance does it take to miss your programming by more than an hour?

Still, Central Michigan is a good team, and might even meet Akron in the MAC Championship. I really don't think today's outcome is indicative of who the better team is.

Football

The ABJ's David Lee Morgan wrote a good story about linebacker Mark Groza.

He has quietly become an impact player on defense, despite admittedly lacking some physical traits of a great linebacker.

• Morgan expects Akron to beat Central Michigan, 28-10.
• CFN rates this matchup as its MAC Game of the Week, and it predicts a 27-23 CMU victory.
• This is probably the most interesting quote I've seen all week: "We might have to throw the ball 60 or 70 times today," CMU coach Brian Kelly said. The Morning Star newspaper reports the Chips also plan to pressure Luke Getsy, which is how they won last year's game at the Rubber Bowl, 31-17.
• That story also says CMU's solid linebacker Ike Brown is questionable.
• Sportsbooks are putting the line anywhere between Akron -3.5 and +1.

You are probably wondering about my prediction.

After showing they can match up with elite BCS athletes, the Zips will be relieved to know they aren't fighting in the wrong weight class anymore.

I see the offensive line playing much better, despite allowing some Dan Bazuin sacks. The defensive line will stuff Ontario Sneed. The game will depend on Akron's secondary, in which I have plenty of confidence.

Zips 31, Chips 21.

Football

Last Saturday at Johnny Malloy's, a section of the restaurant started a hilarious scream/chant to celebrate a good Zips play.

It goes like this: "Byaaaawwwww!" (With a Yosemite Sam voice).

You may know the scream from failed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. "We're going to California and Texas and New York and then to Washington D.C. to take back the White House. Byaaaawww!"

What's the point of this post? There is none.

Go Zips! Byaaaaawwww!

• Zips blogger Mike Hixenbaugh addressed the campus buses with "On the Hunt." Some loser from Michigan took a shot at him. Check out his response and his preview of the Akron-Central Michigan game.
• I just watched Toledo's 37-31 overtime victory over Kansas. Sure, the Rockets just beat a BCS team, but they didn't really show me much. The Jayhawks dominated most of the stats, including a 5-0 advantage in turnovers. I'm still always glad to see a MAC team pull of a big out-of-conference win.

Men's basketball

Last week, I mentioned the Zips were recruiting Aaron Johnson, a guard/forward from Chicago.

Well, he committed to Alabama-Birmingham this week. Johnson also had scholarship offers from Akron, Fairfield and Wisconsin-Green Bay, Scout.com reports.

• Point guard Joe Jakubowski also chose another school over a Zips scholarship offer, committing to Rice on Friday.
• According to Rivals.com, coach Keith Dambrot has offers pending on three other players: point guards Ronnie Steward and Josh Miller and power forward Hakim McCullar.
• With stud forward Steve Swiech and guard/forward Brett McKnight already committed, the 2007 recruiting class is already the best in the Dambrot era.

Women's soccer

This is getting kind of ridiculous.

When is Catherine Byrne's team going to lose? Heck, when will goalkeeper Krystin Wilson allow a goal?

Akron remained undefeated and unscored-upon (is that a word?) Friday with a 1-0 win over Cleveland State.

Jessica Fix scored Akron's goal in the 34th minute. The Buchtelite's Josh Volchko will feature Fix in next week's paper.

The 6-0 Zips will play a home match against St. Bonaventure on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

I'm considering writing my column about this team this week. Seriously, they're good.

Cross country

To the best of my knowledge, this is my first cross country post.

Anyhow, Akron's women took third and men placed second at the Buckeye Invitational in Columbus.

The Zips will run next at Notre Dame in two weeks.

Volleyball

Akron beat Denver tonight 3-1 thanks to sophomore Colleen Dryja's 12 kills and 19 digs.

The tremendous freshman quartet also played well.

The Zips will play Wright State and West Virginia Saturday. Akron defeated WVU earlier in the season.

Football

If you want to talk about shifty practices, read about Dennis Kennedy's path to Akron in today's Plain Dealer.

Ohio State offered him a scholarship, but retracted it for reasons the university calls "academic."

Kennedy's high school coach believes a Buckeyes recruit who wasn't expected to make grades earned higher scores than expected. That knocked Kennedy out of Jim Tressel's plans.

Kennedy really shows his character by saying God's will brought him to Akron, and there are no hard feelings between him and Ohio State.

• Danny Sheridan says Akron will beat Central Michigan by one.
• The major sportsbooks basically agree.

Miscellaneous

I'm sitting in the Buchtelite office slaving over a three-page paper on the history of science, and it's awful.

But at least the band just marched by, which mysteriously always brightens my day.

Football

I've been so preoccupied the past day, I forgot to post some pretty important news: Time Warner Cable will carry the Zips-Central Michigan game on Saturday.

It will either be on channel 23 or 1111 for digital cable subscribers. The game starts at 1 p.m.

My biggest concern is, where should I watch: at my apartment or a bar that might not have audio on the Zips game?

• I also meant to post this link from ESPN.com. It's the infamous Bottom 10. To my delight, two of my least-favorite teams are a part of it: Kent State and NC State.
• Speaking of NC State, here's what fans are saying about Chuck Amato's idiocy.
• UofAZips.com published another Roocast. In it, the editor Jason Roberts mentions some interesting facts: Akron is 4-40 against BCS teams. The Zips did not allow a non-penalty first down until the second quarter. He says Akron will win 31-24.
• Roberts published his podcast from a business trip in Raleigh, N.C. of all places. The site is still working to increase popularity on the forum.

Men's basketball

Binghamton? Akron is traveling to Binghamton for basketball (and not Eastern League Double-A baseball)?

It's true. And in today's world of RPI, it probably makes sense. There's a pretty good discussion about it on ZipsNation.org.

The athletic department has not released the complete Zips nonconference schedule.

Miscellaneous

Since I plugged ZipsNation and UofAZips, I'll give an update on another Zips fan site.

FeartheRoo.net still puzzles me. Perhaps that is the intention.

Men's soccer

When Akron struggles against teams like Oakland (1-5), one wonders what the heck is going on with a team that was No. 1 in the nation last season.

The ABJ's Tom Reed attended last night's game and believes goals will come. For now, they will have to deal with the frustration of outshooting opponents, only to see the balls bang off crossbars and miss wide.

Football

Here is the Buchtelite's preview of Akron-Central Michigan.

J.D. Brookhart addresses tackling Ontario Sneed. Tim Crouch talks about protecting Luke Getsy from Dan Bazuin, who might have superhuman powers.

• Those crazy Outsiders debate what the Zips' toughest MAC test will be. Dan Kadar says it's Central Michigan. Kiel Fleming votes for Kent State. Yes, Kent State.

Volleyball

New Buchtelite reporter Matt Kane (no relation to the SF Giants pitcher) wrote about the Zips' adjustments for starting the season on the road — especially with so many young players.