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QB: Finley made some really nice throws and generally had plenty of time in the pocket. Some of the longer developing routes were open against a UMass defense that struggled to generate pressure. Outside of the fumble at the goal line, Finley protected the football all evening. That hit on the fumble seemed to rattle him a bit, and honestly, I was surprised he came back in the game. He could’ve easily finished with more passing yards, but it wasn’t necessary with how well the run game was rolling. RB: Gant is tracking toward a first-team All-MAC selection. His patience and timing when hitting the hole are excellent, and he has that rare knack for moving in a way that makes it tough for defenders to square him up cleanly. Patrick is certainly the more explosive back, but Gant has settled into his rhythm and is playing at a high level. He finished with 153 yards and two touchdowns, leaving him exactly 150 yards shy of a 1,000-yard season. WR: The receivers spent most of the night blocking, as the offense ran the ball 46 times compared to just 22 pass attempts. Mason made another highlight-reel touchdown grab, while Ma. Williams has clearly become Finley’s go-to target of late. TE: Another week, another solid showing from Cravaack. He did have one drop, but aside from that, he threw some crushing blocks in the run game and added a nifty 15-yard reception with solid yards after the catch. Whisner, backing him up, had his best game to date as well. OL: The offensive line dominated UMass’ front. They consistently opened up run lanes and gave Finley plenty of time to throw. They were credited with allowing only six pressures the entire game — easily one of their best collective performances of the year. DL: You have to feel for Laventure, who had back-to-back sacks wiped out — one by a teammate’s unnecessary penalty and another due to the staff accepting a holding call instead. Regardless, he absolutely mauled his matchup all game. Dall came close to a few sacks himself but just couldn’t finish. The defense as a whole held UMass to only 169 total yards, which says it all. LB: I’m a Shammond Cooper fan, but at this point Melvin Spriggs needs to be starting and taking the majority of snaps. Spriggs has really turned it on the past two games and has become a dynamic player. Summers may not have the same athletic upside, but he’s been in the right spot at the right time lately and continues to make key plays. DB: DeWalt, Reed, and Kamara may have taken all the corner snaps, and all three played well. The nickel backs didn’t see as much playing time as they usually do because the defense often went to a five man defensive front. Hunter and Somerville got the starts at safety and played well enough for a night, but they’ll need to elevate their play moving forward. ST: The only blemish came on the missed extra point. Otherwise, Wiley placed his kickoffs well, Schramm hit a 42-yarder, and Castle had a solid day punting. The return units didn’t generate much, but there were no major miscues either. Coaching: It was clear the team was locked in across all three phases. Outside of one big play allowed by the defense, they controlled things start to finish. The offense piled up 467 yards — an impressive total. Credit to the staff for having the group ready to handle business against a UMass team that simply shouldn’t be able to compete with the Zips in 2025. Next Tuesday night is another winnable matchup for the Wagon Wheel. * Some of the walk-ons that got in on the last play or two are not listed below. QB: Finley Roggow Johnson RB: Gant Patrick Curry WR: Ma. Williams Grear WR: Mason Louis Broughton WR: Polk Monteiro Hills TE: Cravaack Whisner LT: Morris D. Johnson Motley-Simmons Ndaiga LG: Archer McManus Stopiak C Lyons Mobley RG: K. Davis Fox RT: King Jones Mann DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier Cheatom DT: Hull Murphy DT: Laventure Mixon LB: Cooper Spriggs Benenge LB: Summers Boswell NB: Aa. Branch T. Thomas CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed Kamara S: Somerville Flowers S: Hunter Di. Johnson Top Rated Offense (20 snap min.): QB - Finley RB - Gant WR - Ma. Williams RG - K. Davis C - Lyons Top Rated Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Spriggs LB - Summers DT - Laventure DE - Dall CB - Kamara

https://gozips.com/calendar Just take a look at this past calendar week's results. Starting last wednesday, Zips womens soccer wins 3-0 Last friday, volleyball and swim both beat EMU Last saturday, Mens soccer, volleyball, and rifle all win Monday, mens basketball wins (WBB takes a tough loss) And yesterday, Football wins LETS GO ZIPS

I love our OOC schedule this year. Overall our opponents are 16-5 with two of those loses being to Akron. None of our opponents have a "bad" loss yet outside of Milwaukee losing to Wofford. Obviously a small sample size, but off to a great start. JMU 2-1 (Akron) Princeton 1-1 (Akron) Purdue 2-0 Iona 2-0 Milwaukee 2-1(Wofford) Bucknell 2-1 (Princeton) Tulane 3-0 Murray St 2-1 (SMU) Potential Paradise Jam opponents: Evansville 2-1 (Purdue) Oregon St 2-0

That's an egregious missed pass interference

Game Day Notes: Kent State has been fairly effective through the air in conference play, thanks in large part to redshirt sophomore Dru DeShields, who has brought stability to the offense and done a great job protecting the football. He’s thrown for 1,321 yards and 11 touchdowns against just 2 interceptions. The run game has been inconsistent, with Gavin Garcia and Minnesota transfer Jordan Nubin splitting carries. The pair has combined for 590 yards and 2 touchdowns but hasn’t been much of a factor in the passing game. Former running back Cade Wolford has transitioned to the slot and provided a spark with several explosive plays from that spot. Da’Shawn Martin — a player we once offered out of high school — and Wayne Harris are DeShields’ primary targets in the passing game. The rebuilt offensive line has actually held up well in pass protection, but the group has struggled to generate much consistency in the run game. Kent State rotates plenty of bodies on defense and blitz often. While none of the defensive linemen truly stand out, Southern Illinois transfer edge rusher Jamond Mathis has been the top pass rusher on the roster. Linebacker CJ Young leads the team in tackles and has put together an all-conference caliber season. The Flashes have been fairly stout against the run in MAC play, ranking fourth in the conference, but they’ve been torched through the air and have allowed more passing yards than any other team in the league. Mark Carney has Kent State playing well above its talent level, but there are still holes on the roster that simply can’t be masked without more overall talented depth. This is a game Akron should win, even with the Flashes having battled competitively in most of their MAC matchups. Time to start looking at potential All-Conference contenders. Not everyone listed here will ultimately make it, but these are the guys with the best shot from the Zips based on MAC-only stats: Offense - Finley is fourth in the league in passing yards and first in touchdown passes. It’s a six-man race for the three All-MAC quarterback spots, with Roberson (Buffalo), Kim (EMU), Gleason (Toledo), Parker (Ohio), and Finn (Miami) also in the mix. - Gant leads the conference in rushing yards and is on pace to be First Team All-MAC, likely alongside Bangura from Ohio. - Mason and Polk rank tenth and eighteenth in receiving yards, respectively. Mason has a strong case for All-MAC consideration with his four touchdowns (tied for third-most in the conference), while Polk would need a strong finish in receiving yards to earn a spot on an All-Conference team. However, Polk is also tied for third in touchdown receptions, which helps his case. Ma. Williams could work himself into the conversation as well if he strings together a few more performances like this past one. - Up front, Lyons (center), K. Davis (right guard), and King (right tackle) all have a shot to land on an All-MAC team, depending on how the final few weeks play out. Defense - Laventure looks like a lock for First or Second Team All-MAC as he sits fourth in tackles for loss and tied for seventh in sacks. Dall would be in the conversation too, but judging purely by his stats, they’ve dipped a bit in MAC play — though his disruption has not. - Summers and Spriggs could both sneak into the discussion — Summers has been a turnover machine, while Spriggs has come on incredibly strong over the past two weeks. - In the secondary, DeWalt and Reed have both been playing at a high level, but if it came down to one, I’d give the nod to DeWalt.

I checked out Creighton's presser. They are focused on gaining some revenge tonight. Weather is great right now; should be no factor for the match. My wife and I are making the 2 hour drive to Omaha; hope to see a few other Zips there.

I believe I read somewhere - can't now remember where so I cannot reference it - that this was our largest margin of victory over an FBS opponent in 23 years? I know it's been a while but that stat still surprised me.

That's pretty cool, even more amazing you have to go back to Oct 23rd to find the last Zips single game loss (women's soccer lost to Western Michigan). Since then it's been wins from volleyball, rifle, football, men's soccer, volleyball, women's soccer (tie), volleyball and then the string you just rattled off. Heck of a couple of weeks.

THE AKRON ZIPS ARE PLAYING THE SECOND STRING IN A WIN THIS IS NOT A DRILL THE AKRON ZIPS ARE PLAYING THE SECOND STRING IN A WIN

Hell, just protect the rivalry games. There is no reason for Akron-Kent to be played on a Tuesday evening at 7:30 in November. I'm fine with it against literally any other opponent, but this should have been a Saturday noon kickoff. I believe it would have been a decent crowd and generated at least some mild buzz for the program locally. Instead, we will probably get a bit more than last week, which was downright embarrassing.

Zips up to #9 in the RPI.

We were!!! The refs fouled out Freeman on a fathom offensive screen call with about 3 minutes left. There were several questionable fouls on him that day. Protecting the blue bloods of the NCAA

He's a career 20% three point shooter so I don't have high expectations for that aspect of his game but he contributes in so many other ways that I think he's going to be an integral part of the Zips' success this season. On top of it all, he's just a nice personable kid, as is Eric. As an aside, the other OSU transfer the Zips were rumored to be pursuing, Austin Parks, had 5 points and 3 rebounds in 18 minutes in Toledo's opening loss to South Alabama. We got the right Buckeye.

Give @Hilltopper and @clarkwgriswold a 2 million dollar accordion and tell me how melodic the tunes are when they squeeze it. Getting 2 million dollars in NIL money can be easy. Finding players that are worth a damn is a different story. The Mets had a massive payroll and stink this year. The Browns threw a bajillon dollars at a QB who couldn’t possibly have had more red flags. The Zips have gone 0-11 when they were playing with the same budget as the other MAC programs. Today we’re actually better than some teams that are outspending us. Joe is looking at a very realistic 6-6 season, where he’s had an on/off trading table to feed his Division 1 athletes, he was not allowed to travel and recruit this spring, he lost his on-line recruiting subscriptions, has the smallest staff and budget in D-1, allowed 25% fewer practices than his competition…one could argue this season is as miraculous as any in Zips history. This staff is here because they believe in Akron. Brookhart’s kids were born here. Moorhead is from less than 2 hours away and really values being close to family over a fat contract. Ferri is a local guy who loves being back in NE Ohio. Tibesar is a wizard when in comes to scheming to outwit opposing offenses with a random assortment of mercenary talent. Hope the AD doesn’t blow this and tell Joe he needs to win 7 games or he’s out next year. Support this staff who’s worked miracles in 2025 and see how it plays out. If we lose to Kent this week I have no problems accepting ridicule. But we won’t. Football is interesting and fun again. Go Zips! 🦘💪🏽

I'm obviously an avid Zips basketball fan. That said, if I had a son who was gifted enough to play D1 basketball and was on the Zips and some school came offering him that kind of money, I would be the one packing his bags. That's life altering money at a young age. Assuming he's not stupid with managing it.

Last night Mississippi Valley State, usually ranked last in Kenpom annually, played the mens basketball team from "Mississippi University for Women". MVSU won 97-61 After some research, Mississippi University for Women has been admitting men since 1982, and the name of the school when it was founded in 1884 was "Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls of Mississippi"

If Wyoming and UAB would have been in UMASS kind of form...

I would never wish anything bad on him and appreciate everything he did for us but seeing him in that uniform still makes me a little ill.

It was a record-setting day for the offense, yet we still managed to find a way to lose. We put up 530 yards of offense compared to Kent’s 374 and held them to just 57 yards on the ground. The only team stat we actually lost was turnover margin — and that was only by one. If you count the onside recovery, then it was even. Yes, the refs were unusually awful — and that’s saying a lot for MAC officials — but we didn’t do ourselves many favors either. The defense, particularly the secondary, looked completely lost on far too many plays. QB: Finley may have had the better stat line — and maybe even played the best game of his career — but in my opinion, he wasn’t the best quarterback on the field. I can only hope that by 2026, Roggow develops into the same type of player DeShields has become with a few college seasons under his belt. As usual, Finley made some beautiful throws but also some head-scratchers. At this point, he is who he is — and to be fair, without him, we probably don’t even have four wins. It’s just frustrating that he never took the leap I thought he would in this system to became one of the elite quarterbacks in the MAC. RB: The running game became an afterthought once we fell behind, but Gant still managed to rack up 96 yards, keeping him on pace for a thousand on the season. WR: Marcel Williams was phenomenal. Mason made his presence felt but appeared to leave the game with a shoulder issue — which would explain why Louis got his opportunity. Polk added a few more catches and another touchdown to his résumé. Our receivers torched Kent all night, and there were plenty of times when guys were wide open underneath on some of those incomplete deep shots and sacks. I also noticed a few excellent crack blocks throughout the game that really stood out. TE: Both Cravaack and Whisner saw action and did some good things. I’ve been giving Cravaack some praise the past few weeks, and he just keeps getting better with more opportunities. OL: The offensive line was an enigma. They struggled in short-yardage situations but absolutely mauled Kent’s defensive front at other times. And to be fair, I don’t put all six sacks on the O-line — some of those are on Finley. Lyons and K. Davis were ironmen up front, playing every snap at center and right guard, respectively. DL: The defense was stout against the run but struggled to get to the quarterback. DeShields showed excellent pocket awareness and got the ball out quickly when he needed to, which really neutralized our pass rush. Durham probably had his best game of the year — which might be little consolation at this point. LB: It was a quiet game from the linebackers. My biggest issue with the defense is that there were too many plays where we just didn’t seem ready. I’m not sure if the signals weren’t getting relayed correctly or what was going on, but there were far too many moments where we looked confused both before and after the snap. DB: I thought DeWalt and Reed played fairly well, and Hunter had his moments. Outside of those three, though, it was a horrendous night for this group. There were far too many explosive plays allowed in the passing game, and too often our guys got caught trying to jump a route or were looking in the backfield and completely lost track of their man. ST: The missed field goal ended up hurting us. The short kickoffs gave Kent great field position all night, and the turnover on punt return was unfortunate. On the flip side, the onside kick recovery was an absolute thing of beauty. Coaching: Hard to complain about 530 yards of offense, but I’m going to do it anyway — it felt like there was more left out there. One major issue I keep coming back to: why wasn’t Johnson inserted in the short-yardage situations? The defense left a lot to be desired. We were flat-out outcoached by a Kent team that had no business creating that many explosive plays or points. Final Take: There’s no way around it — we shouldn’t have lost this game. Even if we beat BG next week, there were so many wasted opportunities this season. The frustrating part is that this has been an ongoing theme since 2022. I’m not sure where things go this offseason, as all parties involved are going to have some tough decisions to make. If I’m not mistaken, Moorhead’s contract runs through 2027. He’s been working with an insanely limited set of resources compared to other FBS programs, so you have to wonder if he even wants to keep banging his head against the wall for a fifth year. I also imagine the new athletic director may want to make his mark with a fresh coaching hire — as new ADs often do. To top it off, I suspect we’ll get hit hard by the portal again since there are no NIL funds to retain some of our better players. So once again, there will likely be a lot of new faces — certainly talented ones, as talent hasn’t been the issue — but players with little FBS experience. Little to no experience means it will take time for those players to develop over the course of the season. None of this is meant to sound negative; it’s just the reality of where the program currently stands. QB: Finley RB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Monteiro WR: Mason Louis Broughton WR: Polk Grear Hills TE: Cravaack Whisner LT: D. Johnson Morris LG: Archer McManus C Lyons RG: K. Davis RT: King A. Jones DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall Cheatom J. Frazier DT: Laventure Mixon DT: Hull Murphy LB: Summers Boswell LB: Cooper Spriggs NB: Aa. Branch CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed Kamara S: Somerville Flowers S: Hunter Anderson Top Players on Offense: WR - Ma. Williams QB - Finley RB - Gant LT - Morris RT - A. Jones Top Players on Defense: DE - Durham S - Hunter LB - Summers CB - DeWalt CB - Reed

Here's the deal. Akron showed up to this game. And they got a classic game. Make the damn things fun. The winning may come. Maybe play Youngstown, too...ya know, to get opponents people want to see. I don't care if it's a loseable game against an FCS school. Fun football at the stadium with opponents that people care about is enough for now. What they did last night to market...do that for all the games. Get people to come out, get a little better on the field...and maybe just maybe there's actual hope the program can turn it around. Last night was fun. I guess if they get over the practice restrictions and such, maybe they can just be fun. I dunno.

Thanks for this! Been trying to figure out the best way to watch and definitely not signing up for ESPN Unlimited. PS: Anyone with YouTube TV make sure to claim your $20 off vouchers. There's also a $10 off for 6 months promo in the "manage plan" settings.

I'd be surprised if we don't continue the pooch kickoffs that we saw last week against UMass.

White board update! As of 8am on 11/11

If Providence should happen to win the BET (shudder), the Big East would likely get five teams into the NCAA tournament (Seton Hall has an RPI of 16). I would be fine with four and an Akron tournament championship.

We have NO CHANCE to upset the #1 team in the nation. 😉 No. 1 Houston leapfrogs Purdue in AP Top 25 poll.

We all know that the answer is neutral site games in Florida and tarps on empty seats.

Purdue’s system has a weakness and it’s athleticism. When they lost to a 16 seed with Zach Edey I believe FDU’s Center was 6’7. I think you beat them with athletic pressure and hope you shoot better than them. still a long shot to win. But I like this match up more than Arizona last year.

It makes no sense to me that college football has the 4 game rule for redshirts but CBB has none.

Remember he won 3 NCAA tournament games in a span of 4 years at OU. I also think you forget having NIL money is only part of the puzzle. UMass has significantly more money than Akron, but from what I've watched they look pretty mid. A coach still has to be able to identify talent, develop players, and get them to fit in their system. Tod meanwhile is in his 24th year as a D1 coach, 16th at Toledo, and has never made the Big Dance. NIL has only been a factor for 2-3 years so that can't be an excuse. Even if you exclude his Akron tenure, Groce had more success in 4 years at OU than Tod has had in his 24 years as a D1 coach.

Revenge Tour Update: JMU✅ Princeton✅ Milwaukee (Coming Soon) I never forget. Let’s go zips!!!!

Man Oggi is an unselfish player, had possible good shots but passed to a player with a better shot. Only 1 point but 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

Great to see so many Zips fans there cheering on our team in a tough place for visitors and celebrating the victory with them. Very cool. 💙💛

It's obvious that that this team has outstanding on field leadership - that will serve them well in BE tournament. Congrats, Zips. Such a fun game to watch.

In the 2nd half Mass reminded me of past Akron teams that were totally outmatched at every position and almost every opposing play was a positive one and we would shoot ourselves in the foot when we did make a good play with a stupid penalty. I give the Mass. coach credit. They finally get a stop in the 2nd half and their defensive back gets a penalty for taunting and Akron keeps the ball. The coach sent the player to the locker room, do not stop at the bench, do not keep your uniform on, just head to the showers. How many times did we see stupid personal fouls from Akron players when the team was winless and getting killed. Taunting when you are 0 and 8 and down by 21 points. Hit the showers.

I missed that comment, but I didn't miss the A flag flying when I approached the stadium. It was great to be welcomed by the large Budler contingent.

Also - John Groce is a freaking legend. We are lucky to have him.

Shout out to TennZip for the great coverage this season. You showed out!

Awesome crowd of Zips fans celebrating with our team in Omaha!!!

There was some absolute dirty play by Creighton during this game that wasn't called. Now I'd like to see them out of the Big East tournament entirely.

Meh. Sit on the sideline with the team & heaters.

If we get to 6-6, I’m expecting some donors to start chipping in. If multiple years of improving the program can’t motivate people to support it so that we at least have the ability to retain some talent, what’s the point?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQu_d2yAWy0/?igsh=MXQzaHNnNHR1cXlteA==

Congratulations to Zips alum Declan Watters…

Thank you, glad to do them! I’m not sure the last FBS team we played was as bad as this 2025 UMass squad. We beat NIU 44-12 in Moorhead’s first season, but that NIU team was better than its record indicated and a lot of things broke our way that day. The UMass team we faced Tuesday night was both talent-deficient and injury-riddled. I agree—the Burns-led Kent teams probably would’ve beaten the Tuesday night version of UMass, although it might’ve been close. All that said, there’s a scenario where UMass leapfrogs us in the near future. They’re set to be one of the highest NIL bidders in the MAC, and their coaching staff will be among the best-compensated in the conference. If they use those resources wisely, NIL will help them retain their top players, while we’ll keep losing ours until something changes financially.

We need a Revenge Tour graphic … this could be the OOC result we’ve been waiting for that sets them up for a better seed

Creighton started their season with 3 matches on the road. Since starting the season 0-2-2, the Blue Jays are 8-1-2 in their last 11 games. Creighton has not lost a game this year at home. Their home record is 5-0-2. Over the last 11 games, Creighton has played like a top 20 team.

The opponent quality is also true. However, to be fair, in at least one of those games, we beat ourselves with turnovers, penalties, and other self-induced chaos. The final margins of victory for our opponents were small enough that not beating ourselves would have enabled different outcomes.

Getting to go to a bowl game and experience that for the players may be something to keep more of them here if the alternative is meager NIL money somewhere else. Yes, I'd rather have the bowl game.

I just read that g league players make $40,000 a year unless they are on a 2 way contract like Freeman who makes around $500,000, half the NBA minimum. Therefore, Nate is now making the most money he will probably ever make in his career. In other words, his salary will peak as a college player. I hate that he transferred but I cannot blame him for making this move. This is college athletics. Akron is the G league for major conferences.