some new life in the mac championship. for the first time in a while, its not marshall, miami, or toledo in the title game.
akron's had a weird season. outright wins over northern illinois and bowling green, but also outright losses as DD chalk against central michigan and army, along with a loss at ball state. biggs has really come on strong lately for them. before the season, there were questions about his durability because he was a non-factor down the stretch last year. but any such questions this year were put to rest because he has been tearing it up lately. getsy has been up and down. sometimes, he looks like he'd be a better fit than palko at pittsburgh. other times, it's obvious why he transferred. still have some questions about their defense though. weather and weak competition contributed to some lower scoring games for them recently. but northern illinois is not ball state, nor are they ohio university or kent state. akron won the first meeting, but it wasn't because of great defense. to their credit, they were one of the few teams to keep garrett wolfe in check, but its obvious they were selling out for the run all day because horvath threw for 486 yards. obviously, horvath won't be playing tonight but theres no reason to think nicholson cant have similar success.
northern illinois has played like the best team in the mac lately except for their embarrassing loss to ball state at home as a 4 TD chalk. should be noted, however, that wolfe was out for that game with an injury and harris was just coming back from an injury too. still no excuse to lose as a near 30-pt chalk, but its obvious to anyone watching northern illinois the last 2 years that wolfe is the catalyst for this offense. if akron bottles him up twice this year, it would be a minor miracle. as far as nicholson goes at quarterback, you cant help but be impressed with the poise this kid has shown in 2-and-a-half games. he took over for horvath in the 1st quarter of the central michigan game on the road (when cmu was still in contention) and he threw for 300+ yards. then he went to toledo in 20-degree weather and completed something like 9 of his first 10 passes. and then last week against western michigan in the mac west-clincher, he managed the game and threw the ball well in very windy conditions.
so with weather being a non-issue inside the dome, no reason to think this kid wont play well tonight.
...back later
akron's had a weird season. outright wins over northern illinois and bowling green, but also outright losses as DD chalk against central michigan and army, along with a loss at ball state. biggs has really come on strong lately for them. before the season, there were questions about his durability because he was a non-factor down the stretch last year. but any such questions this year were put to rest because he has been tearing it up lately. getsy has been up and down. sometimes, he looks like he'd be a better fit than palko at pittsburgh. other times, it's obvious why he transferred. still have some questions about their defense though. weather and weak competition contributed to some lower scoring games for them recently. but northern illinois is not ball state, nor are they ohio university or kent state. akron won the first meeting, but it wasn't because of great defense. to their credit, they were one of the few teams to keep garrett wolfe in check, but its obvious they were selling out for the run all day because horvath threw for 486 yards. obviously, horvath won't be playing tonight but theres no reason to think nicholson cant have similar success.
northern illinois has played like the best team in the mac lately except for their embarrassing loss to ball state at home as a 4 TD chalk. should be noted, however, that wolfe was out for that game with an injury and harris was just coming back from an injury too. still no excuse to lose as a near 30-pt chalk, but its obvious to anyone watching northern illinois the last 2 years that wolfe is the catalyst for this offense. if akron bottles him up twice this year, it would be a minor miracle. as far as nicholson goes at quarterback, you cant help but be impressed with the poise this kid has shown in 2-and-a-half games. he took over for horvath in the 1st quarter of the central michigan game on the road (when cmu was still in contention) and he threw for 300+ yards. then he went to toledo in 20-degree weather and completed something like 9 of his first 10 passes. and then last week against western michigan in the mac west-clincher, he managed the game and threw the ball well in very windy conditions.
so with weather being a non-issue inside the dome, no reason to think this kid wont play well tonight.
...back later
