Leaderboard

So the two events were not that dissimilar.

FGs provide some momentum as they offer some positive feedback for a good drive. Getting stopped on fourth down hands momentum to the other team. On two occasions the Zips were stopped on fourth down. Two wasted possessions or the surrendering of field position in a close games kill. I've watched a lot of football in my life. One thing I always notice is teams that play not to lose end up plodding along and winning a lot of games. However, Akron didn't play not to lose last night. They played to lose with turnovers, giving up big plays and sacks.

Are you really trying to argue settling for a field goal on 4th and goal from the 3 yard line when you're down 11 late in the 4th quarter? Even after kicking the field goal you're still down 8 so you would need to convert a 2-point conversion from the same distance that you settled for a field goal on. The difference is a touchdown gives you 6-8 points while a 2-point conversion only gives 2. It's logical to take the risk when the return is greater since no matter what you will have 1 play from the 3-yard line with the game on the line in both scenarios. That was the one particular call that I found egregious. I don't mind taking the field goals earlier in the game, but near the end of the game we absolutely should have went for it on 4th and goal.

Then we'd lose, just like we did anyway.

As Blue & Gold stated, there wasn't a whole lot that could be taken away because of the size and talent disparity, but they both looked okay. Brisco is definitely a big body but I wonder if he can get up and down the court in the way that this offense demands of its big men. Barre appears to have the ability to get up and down, and I understand that is why he was brought in, however, the results have yet to be seen.

It's looking like a Zips win on Thursday may wrap up a top 16 seed. And as TennZip said, a tournament win will almost assuredly guarantee a top 8 seed. Keep it going, Zips!

It might still be a little too early to say definitively. They have a lot of new bodies this year. It will likely take them most of OOC to find themselves. I certainly know last year we struggled in OOC play for similar reasons.

Last post of the evening for me....... St. Louis advances to A-10 final with a 1-0 win over Davidson. not an action filled contest.......St. Louis had 3 shots on goal and Davidson had only 1 As a result of the win, St. Louis moves up from 27 RPI to 23 RPI St. Louis is now 10-2-6 and they will play Dayton (8-2-7 record) in the A10 final as of 10:30 tonight, Dayton RPI is #98 with 4 of the 5 zip opponents.....advancing to their conference finals tonight, the ZIPS moved up 1 spot in RPI the Mighty Zips are now #8 in RPI Indiana was #8 before tonight. at 10:30 tonight, Indiana is #9 in RPI Indiana's regular season is done as they went 5-5 in the Big Ten and did not qualify for their conference tournament. Indiana in the Big Ten lost to 5-8-3 Michigan State. When they did not play Indiana, Michigan State had a record of 1-5-3 in the Big Ten. Michigan State is currently 89 in RPI. Indiana also lost to Northwestern. When they were not playing Indiana, Northwestern had a record of 2-5-2 in the Big Ten. as I have said before....if Georgetown or Akron win the Big East tournament, the Big East tournament winner must get a top 8 seed. the NCAA committee always seeds IU higher than their RPI.....but a mediocre team in the Big Ten does not deserve a top 10 seed in the NCAA

Groce just said in the post-game that Stankovic was sick the last couple of days and that he wasn't planning on playing him but he was feeling better and wanted to play.

I've stated this numerous times, it's not just about having the money but also knowing how to spend it effectively. Look at MAC basketball as the prime example. UMass has more money than Akron there as well, but Frank Martin mismanages how it gets spent. Meanwhile, Akron has reportedly the 2nd most NIL money, but Groce spends it wisely retaining players and identifying under the radar pieces that fit his style of play. Now if Groce had next to no NIL then we would be in a similar boat to our MAC peers and forced to turnover our roster every single year. Do you think we would be having the same level of success that we are currently under that scenario? If my earlier comments were construed that the only thing that matters is NIL then I must not have conveyed myself well enough. Both coaching and NIL are important in today's college landscape. A coach won't have sustained success without NIL. At the same time a program with lots of NIL, but a poor coach, will also struggle. Edit: If you have both a poor coach and no NIL then you end up like NIU basketball.

We actually (on paper) return a lot of experience next year. Like you said though, if there’s another big wave of players who transfer out, we are let again with a bunch of unknowns and will need to rely on kids who didn’t get time or newcomers. With that said, there’s reason to believe the staff was/is coaching for their jobs this season. I’d imagine due to that, their main focus is getting the best players on the field as much as they can rather than development.

I will say that neither of them had particularly great hands last night. But yes as previously stated when Barre was in the game he might've been 6 inches taller than anyone on the other team, he made 3 or 4 standing layups with very little effort

Penn State-Shennanigans play Kent the Saturday after Thanksgiving too.

Yesterday was NLI day but apparently Ben Davis HS is having their ceremony on 11/20.

The Zips are certainly testing themselves with a challenging OOC scheduled to start the season, but there's challenging and suicidal. Oakland also started with Purdue (when they were #1) and Michigan (#6) and Houston (new #1).

There were no takeaways from the game last night. PSU-S was terribly undersized. They had 3 nice, smallish, guards but that's it. Their best player, #0, was only 5'8" but could shoot the lights out. He was a chucker for sure.

One has to think that with the limited playing time through 3 games these 2 big guys will have little impact on the Purdue game. Or is that what Groce wants Matt Painter to think. Hmmm. 🧐🥸🤫

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

James Madison has quite a bit of talent with no chemistry yet. They'll be fine, and when they are fine, we won't have to play them.

I think I made the right choice attending the Midget Mania Wrestling event at the Barley House tonight.

absolutely love that Dublin Jerome......used the A-Roo logo in the announcement the BEST Zip Logo, ever !!!!

Akron and Kent used up all the MACtion this year.

58 point win over Penn State. Sure I'll take it.

WMU beat Purdue Fort Wayne. 2-0 day for the MAC

Am I the only person who saw the last play of the first half? It was hardly conservative. If they don't make a first down on one of the two they got FGs, the game ends in regulation. What if they just make another FG. We live in a very either/or world. Some day we can have a discussion about this lack of thought being a result of the increased use of Maoist tactics, but that's another day. Monday morning QBs always assumed one other decision would have worked. Quantum physics tells us there are an infinite number of possibilities with each decision. Many do not involve success. For example, getting a first down at the 20 in the second scenario could result in throwing a pick six on the next play.

Barre at the scorers table

Akron had the three possessions below account for 6 total points: - 4th and 1 Kent 11 yard line - 4th and 3 at the Kent 23 yard line - 4th and 2 at the Kent 2 yard line That's inexcusable, gutless football, especially playing at home in a rivalry game with so much on the line. Make all the excuses you want for the guy, but he coached ultra-conservatively, trying not to lose, while Carney coached aggressively and played to win.

Also the courtside club has been removed for today’s matchup. Must’ve had to make more room for the media

I will be listening tonight, but I would appreciate any further observations especially pertaining to Barre, Brisco and Halligan.

I use the iheartradio app for WHLO-640

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.

We're talking about a team in Kent that was 1-23 the last 2 seasons and had an interim HC up until a few weeks ago vs. JoeMo in his 4th year at the helm at Akron. So whatever positives you want to focus on, make sure they are accurately viewed through the appropriate lens. The scouting report on Akron shows that we struggle in the red zone. Kent's defense reflected this as they were giving Akron anything they wanted in between the 20s to prevent any big plays then locking down in the red zone. The total yards were largely meaningless. First drive, Akron got inside the red zone and were held to 3 points. Late in the 4th quarter, JoeMo had 3 plays from the 3 yd line - 2 were basic runs up the middle and 1 was a horrible pass play. He opted to take the 3 pts instead of going for it on 4th, a decision that will be hotly debated for a while. The offensive was wildly predictable most of the night, hence Kent's success for 2.5 quarters with bringing pressure and jumping passing routes. It wasn't until Akron started taking more chances and mixing things up in the 4th quarter that the points started to occur. A fluke onside kick recovery (incredible execution) and a fluke fumble were the only reasons Akron stayed in that game. Otherwise, Carney kicked JoeMo's butt. I don't really care about a team quitting vs. not quitting. These guys know there is always an opportunity to put out film for their next NIL deal, so in this era of college athletics, it's hard to take that discussion seriously. The fact is, the talking point of quitting vs. not quitting is being discussed because Akron was down by so many points to a previously 1-23 Kent team. As far as I know, Kent is in a similar financial situation for football. They made a move at HC to a true football guy and look how it's working out for them. Heck, I poo-poo'd Carney as a hire with his only success being victories over lowly UMass but I'm thinking that was largely denial from fear of them making a good hire. It is possible to get this right.

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.

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.

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

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

We are shooting 6/27 from three, 22%

50-23 at Half. No Stankovic or Barre.

No stankovich this half