GAME 3
AKRON ZIPS (0-2)
COMMONWEALTH STADIUM – LEXINGTON, KY
SEPTEMBER 18, 2010 – 7:30 PM
TV: FOX SPORTS SOUTH
THIS IS THE FIRST MEETING
Here we come to the part of the football schedule that some Kentucky fans hate. The last “buy a win” before the Cats enter the SEC season. And as the trend has been in recent years, this year’s “Buy a Win” comes courtesy of the MAC and the Akron Zips. The Zips seem to relish their role as a hired win as Syracuse and Indiana are also on their schedule this season. While Akron has not had a good season in quite a while, they have been able to hold their own in a few of these games for hire. In 2008, they stunned the Syacuse Orange 42-28 and barely lost to Cincinnati 17-15. The Zips also boast a very respectable 20-2 loss to Ohio State in 2007 and a win over NC State in 2006.
Suffice to say, the Zips will not be scared to march into Commonwealth. To be honest, the Wildcats won’t exactly be shaking in their boots either. The years edition of the Zips do not appear to be the team to give the Wildcat’s fits. So far this season, they have lost to Syracuse 29-3 and are coming of a loss infamous Gardner Webb 38-37. But this is why we play the games, right? Let’s get to know the Zips.
OFFENSE
Patrick Nicely stepped in last season as a true freshman at QB when Matt Rodgers went down with an ACL injury and he has no relinquished the job through this season. Nicely has good size (6’4, 215) and he displayed a better grasp of new coach Rob Ianello’s pro style offense. Through two games, he really has not put up the numbers, completing just 46.4% of his passes for just 276 yards. Nicely has been sacked six times in the two games this season and is averaging just 4.93 yards per attempt.
On paper, it would appear that Akron has a pretty decent running back corp of Nate Burney and Alex Allen with 279 yards and three rushing TD’s between them. Now keep in mind, that this combo managed only 59 of those yards against Syracuse and 220 versus Gardner Webb and the allure starts to fade a bit. Burney is averaging 5.4 yards a carry but Allen has found the end zone three times compared to Burney’s none. I would say that this is probably the weakest running back tandem the Cats have faced this year, and that said, think that Kentucky needs to make a statement with their run defense and hold Akron under 100 yards on the ground. If Kentucky can rival the 59 yards that Syracuse allowed to these two, I will feel a lot better heading into the Florida game.
Jeremy LaFrance is far and away the main threat in the Akron passing game. LaFrance has 14 receptions and 163 yards with one touchdown this season. This success was expected for LaFrance, who was the sole returning receiver in Akron’s top five receivers last season. To help overcome this loss of experience, the staff moved Jalil Carter from strong safety to WR this year, but he has underwhelmed with just 2 catches for 6 yards this season. To be honest, the rest of the receivers are underwhelming as only Gary Pride (4-44) and Austin Bailey (2-26) are the only other receivers with more than one catch on the season. Don’t look for a lot of tight end action from the Zips either as Rhyne Ladrach has just one catch for 18 yards.
DEFENSE:
There is not a lot to fear here defensively but it appears the the DL is a strength of the Zips. Almondo Sewell, James Harvey, and Dan Marcoux provide experience and leadership on the line. Brian Wagner is coming off a 132 tackle season as a true freshman and should be in the mix of action from the strongside position. He already has 20 tackles in two games and MLB Mike Thomas has 24. Corner Manley Waller is the top corner of an extremely average corp of defensive backs.
It’s hard to sell a defensive unit that gave up 38 points to Gardner Webb and 29 points to Syracuse and make the sound intimidating. Syracuse pretty much had their way with this squad, racking up 431 yards. Seeing that I think that Kentucky’s offense is a step above that of the Orange … well this can get ugly.
ANALYSIS:
Not to be dismissive, but this Akron team may be the worst squad Kentucky has faced this season. New coach Rob Ianello is a strong recruiter and he has surrounded himself with a good staff, but the Zips simply do not have the talent to hang with the Wildcats. Look for Derrick Locke to hit the 2000 yard mark by half time and to see plenty of Donald Russell and Raymond Sanders in the second half. Mike Hartline and his receivers should have their way with the secondary, most of which is still new to playing together. 250 yards and 2 TD’s for Hartline would be a nice tune up for Florida and this could be the game we see Ryan Mossakowski take some shots downfield.
The real test should be on defense as I noted earlier and Kentucky needs to get their running defense in check because the SEC season starts next week. The goal for this week should to to jump on the Zips early and pull your starters early in the third quarter with no injuries. This is a game that should be over by half. KENTUCKY 49 AKRON 6
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