After 8 long months, Penn State football finally returns tomorrow, and it’s a matchup with MAC-opponent Akron that starts off the 2009 Nittany Lion season.  We’ve enlisted the help of Mike Rasor, who writes the premier (only?) Akron football blog on the internet, Rasor on the Zips, to help us understand just what it is that Penn State has in store for them on Saturday.

A Year Ago: Last year, Akron finished their season with a 5-7 record, 3-5 within the MAC conference.  Though they started strong, and appeared en route to bowl qualification, Akron dropped their last 3 games of the season to fall out of contention.  Last year, Akron finished 111th in the NCAA in total offense, and 76th in total defense.  Akron’s turnover margin was -1, and committed the 34th most penalties in the nation.  The Zips best win came at Syracuse and their worst loss was the season-ender against Temple.

A Familiar Foe: This matchup will be the fourth between Penn State and Akron in the past 10 years, and it’ll be the fourth time that Akron serves as Penn State’s opening day opponent.  Penn State handled Akron easily in 1999, 2004, and 2006, with an average margin of victory of 34 points.  However, the last time out, the Nittany Lions beat Akron by a much closer 34-16 score. 

Experience on Offense: Chris Jacquemain is one of the MAC’s best QBs, and he hopes to build off of a very strong 2008 campaign in which he threw for almost 2800 yards and 20 touchdowns.  He’s got a veteran offensive line in front of him–4 return from a 2008 unit that allowed just 18 sacks a year ago–but the unit to watch out for is the wide receivers, according to Mike Rasor. “Akron‘s receivers are top-notch. Deryn Bowser and Andre Jones are a great 1-2 tandem.”  He isn’t lying.  The two combined for 111 catches and 1463 yards a year ago, with 11 touchdown catches between them.  Unfortunately for Akron, the running back position isn’t so settled.  Alex Allen steps in for Dennis Kennedy, who had a 1300-yard, 17-touchdown season a year ago.  While there are plenty of solid players looking to fill Kennedy’s shoes, none can be expected to repeat his success.

Quirky Defense: Akron runs the 3-3-5 formation on defense, often called the stack, which is designed to create confusion and open up rush lanes.  However, it didn’t work too well last year.  Akron allowed 30 points or more 7 times in 2008, and in 5 of the last 6 games of the year.  There was one bright spot, though, as Mike Rasor tells us that “defensive end Almondo Sewell is a truck. He has pro talent.”  There’s some solid talent on the defense, with an Iowa transfer, Ryan Bain, starting at nosetackle, and Mike Thomas, who, at “rover” is like a free safety at linebacker, and made the most of that responsiblity with 81 tackles a year ago.  The secondary was a question mark a year ago, but it returns 3 starters.  The lone newcomer is Manley Waller, who I only mentioned because of his awesome name.  Because of Akron’s base 3-3-5 defense, Penn State could see a lot of looks on Saturday, and that could be Akron’s best chance at success, especially against an inexperienced group of offensive linemen.

In the Coaches Box: J.D. Brookhart returns for his 6th season at Akron, after working for the Denver Broncos as a receivers coach and for Pitt as the offensive coordinator.  Though Brookhart’s record at Akron is a mediocre 29-33, he did lead the team to its first ever MAC Championship and Bowl Game in 2005.  Interestingly enough, Brookhart brought along his former boss at Pitt, Walt Harris, to coach the quarterbacks, and former Miami University head coach Shane Montgomery is the new offensive coordinator at Akron.  With such a wealth of coaching riches, the Zips offensive should be among the MAC’s best in 2009.  The defensive coordinator, Jim Fleming, is in his 6th year with the team after serving as defensive backs coach at UNC.

Random Stuff: What exactly is a Zip?  Well, according to my exhaustive research (Wikipedia) Zip is a shortened form of “Zippers” which were rubber overshoes popular in the 1920s and 1930s.  Think the Knicks, here, who are similarly named for the shortened form of an old-timey clothing apparel.  However, the mascot, Zippy, is a female kangaroo.  Go figure.  Akron also opens up a beautiful new stadium in 2009, and Mike Rasor thinks it could make a big difference for the future of Zips football. “If attendance is good, it will be like night and day. The Rubber Bowl was an awful facility. InfoCision Stadium is state-of-the-art. If nothing else, it will make the team more comfortable when they get settled in.”

Could They Pull Off the Upset? Mike Rasor doesn’t think so. “The Zips might catch Penn State by surprise in the first half (like Akron did to OSU a couple years ago), but the Nittany Lions will eventually win by at least 14. Best case scenario: 34-24 PSU. Worst case scenario: 49-7 PSU.”  I’ll agree that Akron starts out strong, attacking Penn State’s weaknesses at offensive line and in the passing game defensively, but Penn State rallies and wins going away.  Penn State 45, Akron 17.

Akron will open InfoCision Stadium next weekend against Morgan State