Time to take a deep dive into our opponents for the upcoming 2010 season.  Our opener is against a team we fans should be plenty aware of as we have played them the last two years.  So let’s get to it!

2009 Review

To say it wasn’t the type of season that Zip fans had hoped for would be an understatement.  The season started rough with the dismissal of QB Chris Jacquemain, nose dived with a six game losing streak and ultimately crash landed to the tune of 3-9 ending with the firing of coach JD Brookhart.  The Zips did open their new stadium with a win over Morgan St. and their two remaining wins to Kent St and Eastern Michigan were at home as well.  The losses were to Penn St, Indiana, Central Michigan, Ohio, Buffalo, Syracuse, Northern Illinois, Temple and Bowling Green.  This marks the fourth straight losing season for the Zips.

The Orange was able to avenge 2008′s disappointing loss with a 28-14 win last season.  That was the first game without Mike Williams and Delone Carter had a huge day with 30 carries for 170 yards.

Spring Developments

Now the rebuilding job falls on former ND assistant Rob Ianello.  Ianello, who has never had a coordinator gig, pretty much decided to retool both sides of ball.  The offense is scrapping the spread (gasp!) in favor of a pro-style offense.  The defense is abandoning the funky 3-3-5 alignment and returning to a more natural 4-3 defensive scheme.  Former Cuse assistants Mitch Browning and Derrick Jackson are tasked with developing the Oline and Dline; so there will be some familiarity for Cuse fans on the Akron sidelines.

The Offense

The offense returns 5 starters from last season’s attack  that ranked 106th in scoring, 94th in rushing and 96th in passing.  It’s no wonder that Ianello decided to shelve the spread.  QB Patrick Nicely returns, but may not be the starter, as he replaced Matt Rodgers mid year and Rogers missed all spring recovering from an ACL injury.

Ianello said the quarterback position is wide-open after the spring.

“It will be wide open, in all fairness to Matt and in all fairness to our football team. Competition will bring out the best in them,” Ianello said. “Patrick will run out of the huddle with the first team on the first day and Matt with the second team, because that’s how we finished the spring. But then we will work the reps and work some things in there … to make a fair evaluation of both of them.”

RB Alex Allen returns for a sixth year and is the returning yardage leader (188 yards and 5 TDs).   Last year’s Mr Ohio, Erik Howard joins the RB stable next season, so there should be talent there.  Jeremy LaFrance is the top returning target with 43 receptions for 520 yards and two scores.  Last season’s starting SS Jalil Carter moved to the WR this spring.  Three starters on the offensive line are back as well.

The Defense

The defense didn’t fair much better last year ranking 94th in rushing, 87th and scoring.  The pass defense was a strength rating at 31st giving the overall defense a 59th best ranking.  Former Illinois coordinator Curt Mallory’s move to a conventional 4-3 should see improved play as the there are 6 players in front seven with starter experience.  MLB Brian Wagner was a revelation last year as a freshman finishing 7th nationally in tackles with 132 and a whopping 72 are solo tackles.  Senior Mike Thomas also should excel with 72 stops last year.

Mallory pretty much has put the emphasis on shutting down the run.

“‘We are going to try to put eight in the box when we can, with either a corner or safety,” said Mallory. “It’s what my background is. You always start with stopping the run. To do that, we will try to pack the box.”

It sounds like a mostly green and unproven secondary will be left to fend for itself.  Only CB Manly Waller returns and the unit could get tested, especially on first down.

The spring game seems to show a hint of defensive improvement as the D won 55-38.  A recap of the spring game can be found here.

Coach speak

“I told the players going into practice we do not determine the depth chart. They will determine the depth chart. All the work (in the off season) and some injuries factored into who went out with the first team and who went out with the second team. Every person played on our roster today and a lot of players were able to get good amount of playing time.”

Chattering masses

The most active football forum on the web can be found at ZipNation. An even earlier preview of Akron can be found at PreSnapRead, where the Zips are ranked at 105th.

Random Video

Not exactly worthy of O Fortuna, note the “packed house”.

The Pick

I find it amazing that it has been 6 years and 8 of the last 10 since the Orange has tasted victory on opening day.  In Akron, they may have finally found an opponent that they can handle.  With the hiring of Ianello, a person with no experience, it can be assumed that improvement is going to be a long term project.  They are dismantling both sides of the ball schematically and any time you do that you know there will be problems early.  The defense only allowed 11 sacks a year ago and as their DC alluded, it seems they will be bent on trying to shut the run down first and foremost.  That and the likely suspension of Delone Carter for the opener (I am assuming that he will in fact return) could be cause for concern.  However, we have more than enough talent on hand to run the ball effectively.  I also suspect that like last season, there will be some wrinkles on offense.  As we saw in the spring, there was more of an emphasis on down field throwing and that could spell trouble for Zip secondary.

They may have a position battle at QB heading into spring (much like we did last year).  Nicely actually said, “I’ve never been under center.  It sounds elementary, but it’s real complex.”  That tidbit alone shows you the type of uphill battle this team will have moving the ball.  Last year, they rushed for a net 0 yards against the Orange defense last year.  I expect that they will find the going just as tough this year.

So while this game is on the road, I think it is a game that suits the Orange well for starting the season on solid ground.  Let’s raise two beacons for this game and shade it Orange.  Cuse wins comfortably 27-10.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 10:03 pm by LvilleOrange . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.