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The Beacon Journal is doing a nice job of promoting Zips mens soccer this week. Malone Pioneer posted an excellent article from the Beacon(about zips seeding and possible opponents) .....under the ratings and RPI topic. This morning, The Beacon did a very good article on Stefan Dobrijevic. (attached below) I greatly admire Stefan for his tremendous improvement as a soccer player over the past 4 years. After reading this article, I also greatly admire Stefan as he is true definition of a "Student-Athlete". Congratulations to Stefan on his success on the soccer field and also for his succcesses in the class room. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2025/11/19/stefan-dobrijevic-akron-zips-soccer-ncaa-tournament/87320211007/ Dobrijevic grew up in Akron as an Akron Public Schools student, attending Salem Elementary School, STEM Middle School and Firestone High School. His family moved to Uniontown when he was 16, but he remained at Firestone, where he took engineering, college level and advanced placement classes, recorded a 4.7 GPA and graduated in December 2021. Dobrijevic played club soccer with Internationals Academy, which is based in Medina, and started taking classes at UA in January 2022. He has a 3.8 GPA, earned a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing in December 2024 and is working toward an MBA.

Maybe the conversation could sound something like this. "Mr. Commissioner, you are killing us with the schedule. All we ask is to play our rival when the weather is nice on a Friday early in the season so we can have a decent crowd. You did it for the BG/Toledo rivalry and all they did was sell out a stadium and put on a very exciting game. We all know the only people dedicated to weeknight games are drunks and degenerate gamblers. Gamblers will bet on anything and drunks will drink to anything, so trading Kent for another MAC school on a Tuesday night won't matter. Would it be too much to ask for you to dislodged your head from your ass for a few minutes to schedule the Akron/Kent rivalry early in the season?" There you go. Problem solved.

I can't believe you didnt just say Tim Tyrell. 😉

Anybody surprised Arizona is ranked 4th in the nation? Not me.

Here is a great post from the game thread: This is awful. I was a huge critic of Saul so I feel I have to say it: Boals is done here. He has lived off of JP and BVP long enough. No player development in all of his years. He runs a black hole offense when the ball is lost. Letting Hadaway be a point forward shows Boals is inept. Not playing JJ Kelly 35 mins a game is malpractice. Starting Ajay is awful. Not running offense with Elliott...the list goes on. We need a clean break. How has Bethune Cookman outrecruited us? We have 2 guys who can create their own shots. Buh-bye Boals. Once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat but you gots to go.

Toledo with a convincing 17-point win against YSU. Ohio with an embarrassing loss to Bethune Cookman

We have posted before about Kam Warnke... Kam had 20 goals and 10 assists this year for the state runner up Auroroa Greenmen. Nice to see all of the Akron logos in the signing announcement

Horrible QB. Leads the MAC in TDs. Second in the MAC in total yardage. Scholar athlete of the week in the MAC this week. Joe found a guy like this with essentially no NIL money and convinced him to stay for 2 seasons. Good luck finding better in 2026. I like Broughton a lot. I hope Zips fans get to see him at Infocision one day.

Top Drawer soccer did a preview on the regional that the zips are in. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?categoryId=21&articleId=55371&articleTitle=mens-ncaa-tournament-region-3-preview 4. Akron(m) (11-4-3) - 1.56 goals per game (76th ranked), .667 goals allowed per game (12th ranked) Offensive Leader: Stefan Dobrijevic (8G, 10A) + Strong defense + Performed well against nationally ranked opposition - Offense can be inconsistent There is no doubt Akron has the defense for a playoff run; the question is if the offense can score enough in a region packed with high-powered attacks. Losing the Big East semifinal was not encouraging, but the team will be well-rested after receiving a first-round bye.

The only problem is that I believe the TV contract does dictate for some of the rivalry games to be played on the weeknight games. But yeah...let's open the schedule with Kent...I'm sure Miami/Ohio and Bowling Green/Toledo (that one sold out Doyt Perry this year) would also like to always keep those games on Saturdays.

Bobcat Attack is a fun read right now. They're done with Boals.

Well.. a win is a win. Before the season I said 4-4 in the MAC was minimum. They got that. But I also said major program changes were/are needed. Yep. The more I read posts here about the lack of support from Administration for for football the more obvious it is. If the Admin. refuses to support the program at a DI level then they have to get out of DI! The record spesks for itself. Changing coaches is like moving the bulbs on the Xmas tree. Same tree. Either put up for DI or drop to 1AA or DII where U can afford to compete every season. Not a big Moorehead fan anymore but the problems go far deeper.

I’m not saying I wish he had a 6th season. I just think a Finley-like QB is what we’re going to need to get used to in the NIL era. In many seasons we’ll get worse. If he weren’t flawed, he wouldn’t be at Akron. The days of Charlie Frye’s, Luke Getsy’s and Mike Johnson Sr.’s quarterbacking the Zips are over unless UA’s priorities dramatically change. The Buffalo QB is very similar. Athletically gifted enough to be recruited to Penn State and Kansas State, but flawed enough to be a mediocre QB at Buffalo.

Half the MAC has 2 more games left. He'll likely be middle of the road statistically and towards the bottom in eligible QBR in what is an atrocious year for MAC QBs. He put up 0 points vs. Wyoming, 0 pts vs. Nebraska, 3 vs. Toledo, and 7 vs. Miami OH. There is definitely better out there, and both Broughton and Beals might prove that next year if we get to see them. To @kreed5120's point, the OLine will need to be rebuilt most likely, which may hinder Zips fans from seeing better QB play.

The problem isn't that we're losing Finley next year. The issue is we'll likely have to replace our entire offensive line, which was probably the best its been in at least a decade. For that reason alone I would be shocked if the QB play improves next year compared to this one. After all, a QB is only as good as the players around him enable him to be.

finally something that Gp1 and I agree on ! I know the grass is not always greener on the other side but for one am ready to move on from the finley era. you could foresee every run/fumble him getting up acting like he had been hit harder than any player was ever hit in the game of football... I don't know if they will go with roggow, broughton, the new guy coming in or a transfer but i am ready to move on for sure...

OMG let's play a game how many wet dreams has GP1 had involving himself and eddie george? i'll start with at least 15 this football season... These players don't even know who eddie george is !!! The team went 1-6 in the conference and 3-8 overall. they had three players recently arrested and if you were at the game last night you would have seen them on more than one occasion acting like less than desirables. I'll stick with Joe Mo. thank you.

Again, we had the Bowdens, Tressel, Faust, Amato at one point. We "Fd" that up!

Don't forget about Max Crosby, too.

Correct, also pulling out 4%-5% per year allows the investment to grow so that it doesn't lose value to inflation. Endowments are more designed to preserve capital than to look for rapid growth. They will probably be 30-40% bonds and 60-70% equities. Similar to what's recommended to retirees.

Except we've had the same QB 2 years in a row, who is not very good, which is on Joe.

This is another reason I'm very hesitant to knock JoeMo. This year was Year 4 but... it was really more like Year 1 than Year 4. Next year will be Year 1 all over again. Every year is Year 1. I hate it.

That's not how endowments typically are distributed. Usually 4-5% of the balance can be distributed annually

It's coming back to me why I am happy at the end of a Zips football season and sad at the end of a Zips basketball season.

And they presumably had the 38 staff personnel when they were going 1-23 correct? The only thing that changed was HC? DeShields isn't a really good QB. He has a 46.4 QBR this year (104th in the country). He has only had 3 200+ passing yard games this season, with Akron being his only 300+ passing yard game. Akron needs to get to Kent-level staffing, I agree. Them having a GM is interesting as well. However, the X's & O's, the motivation capabilities, and the execution on the field matter more than anything. That's my gripe with JoeMo.

No other MAC school has a $5 million note payment every year for a facilitie that sits empty for 90% of the year. Multiple administration's have tried everything you could think of to create interest. A nice 15,000 seat stadium would have been perfect. Mack Rhoades and others were sure if we built it, they would come. They didn't come. JoMo knew what he was getting into when he agreed to be the man. There is plenty of blame to go around. Hopefully Goodrich can find a different type of unicorn. A rich donor who is willing to give millions to support football. Odds are that guy is going to want some input on who is running the program. People with that type of money expect a return on their investment.

Cool promotion they have started doing every year.

The University has never once publicly mentioned any of the crippling limits placed on the football program in the name of budget cuts. They’ve hung Joe out to dry with a historic lack of support, whistling through the graveyard, and by their silence painting Zips football as having the same resources as every other MAC program. It isn’t fair to Joe, and I expect that grates on him. And it should. Bobby Knight once famously said - "If you're getting raped, you might as well lay back and enjoy it." Joe has bit his tongue 95% of the time, but who can blame him if, when pressed, he vents on his lack of recruiting budget, training tables, staff, and on and on? UA isn’t holding any pressers stating “You gotta understand the situation we’ve placed Joe Moorhead in. I can’t believe the guy won 3 games, let alone 5.” It's Zips Football against the world. Maybe the same geniuses at UA who’ve blundered every football-related decision since Jim Dennison’s firing will identify a "unicorn" coach that only wants a $300,000/year salary, that flits about Summit and Stark counties with a wicker basket collecting NIL money from scores of donors happily willing to fill it up, while also coaching Akron to MAC Championships and bowl victories. Wish in one wicker basket and poop in the other...see which fills up first. I have no clue what Goodrich will do regarding football. Maybe he spends a year crafting a new logo, quits his job and moves on to the next rung on his AD ladder? Maybe he’s empowered, independent of thought, and implements a plan to elevate Zips football to respectability? That would be awesome. Historically new AD’s "check their box" and hire “their guy” to run either the football or basketball program. On paper, Joe is on the hot seat. It it were me, I would fix the budget BS, show Joe a little love, and see what transpires in 2026. Joe took over a 1-11 Fordham team and went 38-13 during his tenure, winning 11 and 12 games in successive seasons. The guy can win big at the FCS/G5 level. It’s proven. But not when he’s hamstrung and unsupported. No one can.

Here is the dilemma, neither party is happy. JoMo doesn't want to be here and powers that be don't want him to stay. If the optics weren't so bad, UA would just pay him off and send him on his way. JoMo holds all the cards. Hopefully he can find a job somewhere else and everyone will get what they want. I would rather take my chances on an up and coming guy who doesn't act like he is entitled to someone else doing all the heavy lifting required to engage the fans and community. That is the only way out of our football pit of Hell. JoMo will never be that guy.

The ceiling is very high for the 2025-26 Zips...if they quit biting on every pump fake and fouling 3-point shooters.

Ban them both. It’ll end up boosting the conference NET😂

I mentioned this a while back, but Louisville contacted an Akron coach regarding a Zips WR that was in the portal last year. They were looking to build "the best scout team possible" and if the kid was deemed a decent MAC-level player they were going to offer him a little cash and a position on it. The Zips can't pay as much for a starting QB as Louisville...not Alabama, but Louisville... can pay for a scout team guy.