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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

last night was the coldest i have been in many years. I totally miss judged my clothing attire and over estimated the dollar general hand warmers i bought ! the crowd was amazing and the game was actually exciting. i thought the tribute to veterans was nicely done and the halftime show was nice how the bands came together. I am surprised at all the hatred towards Joe Moe. Some of the play calling I didn't understand. There was one drive when we had the ball the at midfield headed towards the scoreboard and finley threw two passes in a row towards akron's sideline that should have been intercepted and then went with a run that was stopped. Joe Moe lost it on the guy calling the plays, it was not Joe Moe calling them... He screamed at him for a good couple minutes obviously unhappy with the play calling. I'm not really sure how much of the plays are called by him. I am sure he sets the scheme but that particular series I don't think he called. The secondary sucked butt plain and simple but in my opinion the defensive line had no pressure either. I know someone was praising Durham and said he had his best game but i certainly did not see it. He had one qbh and one tackle which he was lucky on. He took a poor angle and got the kids ankle. He has been an absolute bust and you cannot justify playing him all but 89 snaps this year. he has played 629 of 718 snaps more than any player in all of Division one football. There is no reason. The defensive line had no pressure all night. Bruno was non existent also. It was a bad night for the line all together nothing good to say other than Hull had a nice sack and Durhams "tfl" was it. Nothing else behind the line of scrimmage. The defensive line had two standouts this year Dall and Laventure. Nothing changed the entire season, ever... Joe Moe didn't miss the field goal, Joe Moe can't control the dropped punt or the interception. AND the team didn't quit. The stadium emptied out quite a bit when Kent went up 18 and understandably so, but Zips scored 18 in the fourth quarter. They didn't quit... the players played til the end that says something about them and the team. I was very impressed. I thought it was over when Kent went up 11 in the third and I was wrong. I thought the officiating was horrible. I didn't understand why no PI's were called and couldn't believe there was only one holding called, but Kent didn't quit and neither did the Zips. I did think it was a pass interference in OT in the end zone but being at the game they didn't show a replay. But Sometimes you just lose a game. Kent lost to Buffalo in the last minute of the game and lost to Ball State in the last four minutes of the game otherwise they would be sitting on top of the MAC. It is what it is. Last night was a very entertaining game There will be a high turnover for sure. Players will not come to Akron and stay unless they never have a chance to leave like your walk ons. Players will come to Akron hope to be here no more than two years, hope to get their highlight film and then bounce for the money like Nunnally, Moore, and McCoy. Next year it will be Dall, Gant, Laventure. and if Leonard leaves he will take Durham with him. Hull has played enough and is only a sophomore that he will go also and tried to get paid. So the entire defensive line will be gone to the portal and graduates, and guess what... no one will be ready to step in because no one else has played except Leonard's boys... Linebackers wont be much different, spriggs, cooper, summers will all be gone; corners dewalt and reed will be gone... But this is not just an akron thing it is all G5 schools but until Akron starts paying (if ever) the only selling point for any transfer is "come to akron get playing time and go get paid". Laventure will be the poster child for that... hope for 5-7 which will be an improvement. What would be the selling point for a new coach? Come here start a new program with a new staff, new qb make a name for yourself with no money to spend? It might work OR you might get a UMASS and get an OF'er? Might get lucky and get a Kent State scenario you just never know but if you buy out Joe Moe now your down 1 mill right of the top... and probably at least 45 players to fill and you better make your decision quick cause the portal opens early January AND high schoolers are going to start committing in early December so if you are going to make a change at head coach better make it in like the next two weeks....

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

I know we technically have 4 new starters, but we seemed to have returned a lot more minutes compared to most teams as we returned pretty much all our bench players and then elevated them to bigger roles. Of the new players added to this years rotation thus far Eric already had 1 year learning the system in practice and Evan was born to play this style of basketball. That leaves only Ognjen who admittedly seems to still be adapting. Meanwhile, other teams have 5, 6, 7 new players in their rotation. It gives us a huge advantage this early in the year.

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.

There was one blatant pass interference call on a deep ball that was guaranteed TD. I believe that was followed by a pick 6. 14 point swing that totally changed the game! BTW - when they showed the replay of the PI, there was a ref 10 feet away looking right at it.

Congratulations to all the honorees. https://www.bigeast.com/news/2025/11/12/big-east-announces-2025-mens-soccer-regular-season-awards.aspx Offensive PotY - Stefan Dobrijevic GK of the Year - Mitch Budler

I am just not sure how Akron gets over the hump. The academic penalty this year staining any progress made. Moorhead isn't the answer, but it doesn't make financial sense to dump him. Fan interest is low. Any talented underclassmen will almost certainly go portaling, as most would. I just don't see it ever changing for this program.

Murray state lost by 11 to SMU, Tulane won, Princeton beat bucknell by 10, I’ll update Kenpom when I go in the office Thursday I’m tired

You just can't kick it from the 1. Cowardly move and we paid for it. Among other mistakes

Jo must go

I think it's probably a bad call but it was never going to get overturned

There's the stupid Finley pass

Akron needs to engage in some adult kickoffs. They are surrendering too many yards which makes the subsequent drive after another Kent three and out longer than it needs to be.

I don't hate the field goal but I hate lining up in shotgun for 3rd and short.

Zips were 19 in last week's coaches ranking.... Zips jump up to 14 in this week's ranking Georgetown at 15 and UConn is #26 https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ if Akron or Georgetown win the Big East conference tournament, it is my opinion that one of those 2 teams would deserve a top 8 NCAA tournament seed.

First game in a long time that I was really excited about. Wanted and expected us to win. Obviously did not like the results, but it was fun to be excited about ZIPS football for a change. Hope there is more of this!!! Let's win next week and then see where things go from there. I hope Joe wants to stay. Makes the right demands for the program and off we go.

What is so frustrating is that we seem to end up in pretty much the same place every season and have for many seasons. You can put up 500 yds of offense all you want. But if it doesn't result in wins so what? The pattern with this program on the field is well established. Still can't compete with the upper echelon in the MAC consistently. There is an occasional win but nothing consistent. OU,Miami,Toledo even WMU seem to carry over from season to season. Building a consistently competitive FBS program at Akron was always hard. With the transfer portal and NIL I don't see FBS as being realistic anymore. I have seen plenty of 3-9 seasons or worse. Don't wanna see no more. This isnt only about coaching. It's about an identity for the program long term.

I thought it was ironic when they were showing the graphics of their respective stats at Fordham. JoeMo had more passing yards at Fordham while Carney had more touchdowns. Symbolic of what we saw last night. JoeMo plays well in between the 20s while Carney gets in the endzone where it matters.

It is kinda wild they're both former Fordham QBs and that's where the similarities end.

It also helps when one of the new starters is the older brother of the stud redshirt freshman starter. Evan has been a blessing so far this season. Kudos to their parents who seemingly raised terrific young men.

Key to victory is just showing up lol

Game day. Feel the excitement.

I thought coming into the season Kent would go 1-11. They still aren't good, but their new coach was put into a tough situation and overachieved. I already miss Kenny Burns.

The recruiting has to change because of the portal and NIL and such. What it seems Akron needs to do is emphasize to those transfer candidates looking to rebound of "here's what this guy got, here's what this guy got. We don't have the money, no, but we have the exposure that's going to get you paid." I have no idea if that'll work...but it feels like it could. I am serious about getting YSU on the schedule...last night had perhaps the largest "actual" (not announced) crowd of the year for the rivalry game...on a Tuesday. Adding another game with an opponent the local market might care about is (to me) worth the potential of losing to an FCS school. At least it's a decent one, and at least it's a game that would matter to someone a hell of a lot more than Morgan State or Duquesne.

Ashton Kamdem 3rd team is a travesty. 1st team far and above!

I added the current KenPom rankings for each team, and added the rest of the Paradise Jam field. I know it's early, but this is a nice, competitive-yet-winnable OOC schedule. If the Paradise Jam includes a combination of beating Iona and 2/3 Oregon State/Charleston/Yale, it'll have a similar outlook to last year's OOC schedule which was pretty solid. The team this year is seemingly much more capable, however, of making this at this point in the season. For comparison, here is where last year's OOC schedule ended up in KenPom: Arkansas State 84 Saint Mary's 25 Lamar 158 Omaha 165 Alabama St 269 Northern Kentucky 230 Milwaukee 141 Yale 74 Jackson State 246 Princeton 177 South Alabama 109

Could he be considering a move to the state of Alabama to watch his son play at Jax State? Didn't he come to Akron to watch another son play at Grove City College.

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Hire a football guy who is a motivator. JoeMo certainly isn't the latter. Both the Browns and the Zips have alleged offensive gurus at the helm and they both get owned by football guys.

Don't know how many have noticed but Buffalo looks like it is turning the corner back to respectable ... Eastern seems to have found a quality post guy that was riding the bench at CMU (albeit behind a really god player who transferred) and is it me, or has Kent State abandoned defense for a chuk-n-duk offense.

Kinda wish we went for it. Because we still need to score from the 2 (2 point conversion) and now that's just to tie it up

Yeah I have no confidence that Joe will rally the troops in this final quarter

Youngstown State also played Shenango last night. How many D1 teams are these guys playing? 😆

This is one of the better Akron Kent game with different ebbs and flows. Not sure what our defensive back was doing on that Kent touchdown watching the QB and letting his man run past him. Akron has 2 mistakes leading to 2 Kent touchdowns. Our running game has been strong with some really long third down gains. Need a touchdown to open the half. Finley has thrown some nice balls.

Playing scared.

Kent State so far wants this more

Not a fan of the pooch kickoffs. Other than the kickoff that Kent fumbled and recovered, their average starting position after a kickoff is their own 39-yard line.

With the exception of a fluke and two good plays by Kent, Akron is in complete control of this game. They look like they know what they are doing.

We look like the better team, but turnovers and stupid mistakes are the only thing that will beat us. So far, we are doing that.

Minor setback.

So that was bad.

Legitimately a heck of a crowd for the game tonight.

Solid opening drives on both sides of the ball.

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.

It was relegation. 😊 That's also why NIU is going to the downgraded Mountain West.

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Regardless, bummer for the player(s). I hope they take this time during recovery and rehab to also reflect on their poor life decision to commit to Kent State.