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After calming down I still want offer a few thoughts on the Kent game so bear with me. Our biggest problem Tuesday night wasn't JoMo, player stupidity, the refs, or the cold. It was Kent State. They came believing they could win. They didn't have the talent, but they had a plan and they stuck to it. The game was exciting. The rivalry is renewed and heightened. The public wants a good game between these two schools and they will show if they believe it is going be a good game. Zip football can recover. It will be slow and it will be a series of addressing issues one at a time. Nemer wants a good team. Goodrich has been told to build up the program. He believes he can, but only over time. He is building up NIL now. It will not be great, but it's a start. Jo will not be fired or bought out. If he leaves no one in administration will talk him out of it. Jo told his team he didn't believe in them when he kicked a FG on 4th and one. They were on the 11 and all they needed was one f**king yard. It was the first series of the game and they had nothing to lose. Why? The Zips weren't prepared. On the first series of each half a TO called to straighten out the team. What a waste! What team uses TO's tat early in the game. That's an indictment on the staff, not the players. Also how can DeWalt be running to the ball on a punt when the receiver ran away from it thus exposing DeWalt to a bounce that goes his way, hits him and gives the recovery to Kent. That's stupidity and poor coaching. High school kids know not to do that. Speaking of coaching, I watched Kamara after giving up an 89 yard TD to Clark. He went to the bench, threw his helmet down and no one talked to him. Not fellow players, not captains , not a coach. He sat alone for several plays until a coach told him to get up and join the DB's. No coaching was given and guess what? He blew it again for another Kent TD. We were the better team, but we lost. Jo coached teams do that every year he has coached. Not once, but two or three times each season he has been here. After four seasons why would we expect it to stop. Jo has yet to show he can correct it. He may feel he hasn't gotten a fair deal here and he would be right. Sill he has compounded the problems and for that he can't blame anyone else but himself.

Looking at the box score, Purdue outrebounded Bama 52-28. Bama shot decently well but Purdue shot exceptionally well. Purdue: 47% FG, 42.9% 3P Bama: 42.4% FG, 36.4% 3P Bama only lost by 7. Our style is very similar to Bama's. This gives me hope that we can be competitive with Purdue despite being completely outmatched in the post.

Results from Thursday Night Virginia gets a 2-1 win over California SMU was very impressive in a 5-1 win over Syracuse Georgetown 2-0 over Providence Connecticut 2-1 over Akron Cornell got a 1-0 win over Penn Princeton continued its great season with a 3-1 win over Harvard What happened in RPI ???? Princeton and Virginia stayed at #1 and #2 SMU moved up from #11 to #7 Connecticut jumped from #21 to #12 Georgetown did not have a strong opponent so they only improved from 19 up to #18 The winner of the Georgetown- UConn game will almost certainly finish ahead of Akron in RPI. Cornell improved from #22 to #21 Akron , with the loss.......dropped from #8 in RPI to #10 in RPI.....

If we lose, we can say Purdue took back the #1 ranking because of us.

As an Akron connection, Fletcher Loyer's dad John played for the Zips when I was there, from 83 to 87.

Somebody has to step up and be the sociable, affable, ***-kisser to make up for JoMo's inability or unwillingness to be that guy in chasing NIL money. Maybe that's Goodrich. I've liked what I've seen so far from him. The most frustrating thing about the six sacks is that everyone watching the game saw them coming other than Finley and JoMo. Many of them were in situations where the Zips went 4 or 5 wide and PCCC blitzed and just outnumbered the Zips linemen. How about and audible or an adjustment or two?

I suspect Brisco was brought in at a time when it was anticipated that the program would continue in its traditional half court offense, where a less mobile big could succeed. That's also when Okonkwo was brought in. Groce then saw what he had personnel-wise and decided that up-tempo was the way to go. Okonkwo adapted but was never completely that guy. Barre was appealing in the portal as he is a guy who can get up and down. I'm not sure Brisco is a fit in the offense as presently constructed. However, at the same time, it's tough to judge the kid 12 minutes into his college basketball career.

Thus far it doesn't look like Brisco can shoot from the outside. Right now he just looks like a limited-minutes role player. Doesn't appear to have a very high motor, which is aggravating.

I am following up my own post. Ha!! I thought Brisco was going to be an explosive rebounder, power forward type. But Groce has said he will play strictly the center position. Well, he’s only 6-8 so he’s not a rim protector. All accounts say he moves slow and I watched him miss a dunk against Princeton. So he’s not going to be an athletic, jump out of the gym, Freeman type center. That only leaves the traditional, back to the basket, play under rim, earth mover type. He’s currently 240lbs. Maybe he gets to 245-250lbs by his senior year. The question I have is can he shoot at all away from the rim? Right now I believe he adds value by banging down low with the big boys and rebounding. Let’s see. I have posted this video link before of Maverick Morgan at Illinois under Groce. He was 6-10 and maxed out at 250lbs. This video is from his Junior year without a redshirt year. So he was even bigger as a senior. Notice how like a big tight end in football he gravitates to the open holes in the defense. Not flashy, but effective.

Since he's already grumbling about how he doesn't have the support to complete, maybe the angle is to make it clear HE'S not getting it...

I think they likely will be, based on the fact that they're still #9 in RPI after the loss. The committee seems to stick pretty close with the RPI rankings.

Zips add Devan Christion. Also, Zachary Halligan is a redshirt sophomore. Correction made.

Purdue/Alabama was a good game. Purdue is really solid. Two very good bigs and a strong 7'4" backup, though Trey Kaufman-Reay who was playing his first game left the game hurt with a couple of minutes left. The guards are also very good. I can see the Zips competing on the perimeter but the inside is going to be very tough. The Boilermakers killed a very athletic and solid Bama squad on the boards.

Yurachek is out. Wistrcill is replacing him. 😉

I think that's one of the reasons Carney seems a better fit. He's no introvert. Not that introversion is bad...I'm an introvert haha. But head ball coach isn't necessarily the best role for an introvert.

Sucks

Devan Christion- 6'9" F - Vegas Where in the world did this come from? Had offers from George Mason and others, but can't find too much on his recruiting. Looks long and smooth.

I know someone who was in the administration when Tressel came to U of A. The collective expectation was that he was going to be a lazy figurehead easing into retirement. To their surprise and pleasure, he worked very hard and did well in the job. The school could use a guy like that now to help make up for their introvert head coach.

I don’t get what we were doing at the end there. When everyone has finished their runs into the box and all the defenders are in the box as well why just pass the ball around the back line, just let one rip and try to get the deflection

Lol. Hunter Yurachek is replacing him - can't make this up.

I wouldn't get too excited about the attendance. 2021- 8879 attendance, 44 degrees at kickoff 2023- 8113 attendance, 36 degrees at kickoff 2025- 8501 attendance, 32 degrees at kickoff

I say this and then Akron has its best crowd of the year on a Tuesday. So what do I know, haha But in general, attendance is still way way down on MACtion nights.

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

Found this scouting report on Jashawn Ladd. It's from last summer. "The best player on the best team in the 3 Stripes Gold circuit is no doubt Jashawn Ladd from Ben Davis high school in Indiana. Ladd is a long wing that has a nasty crossover, good Jumpshot, and explosive first move to the hole. He often beats guys with his second move, finishing outside the frame of the backboard with great touch. His athleticism is extremely difficult to stay in front of, and his ability to play above the rim made him a fun watch. It was no surprise that Ladd already has a D1 offer from Miami (OH) and will no doubt collect more as his team finished 8-0 in the circuit, qualifying for the 3SSB finals in July. Ladd was a strong piece to an excellent team, who played the right way and coasted through Adidas Gold like it was nothing."

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.

Joe Moe didn't miss the field goal, drop the punt, or throw the interception. He also was not in the secondary letting the Kent wide receivers do whatever the wanted to like they never played defense before. He did however, have the offense last night have over 500 yards offense a qb that threw for over 400 yards, a wr that caught for over 200 yards and an rb that had 96 yards rushing... BUT most importantly to me... his team DIDN'T quit down 18 going into the fourth quarter and fought back and tied the game.... somebody motivated that team on both sides of the ball... But let me guess, we aren't going to give him credit for the offensive performance and we aren't going to give him credit for the team NOT giving him and scoring 18 points in the fourth quarter? we will just bash and hate on him and say he has to go cause he sucks.... It was a great game and it didn't go the way we wanted it to... sometimes that happens....

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 came here to say the exact thing, but "at Akron" was ambiguous because it was not mentioned in the context of the university or when he was in college, so it just as easily could have been understood as the Akron Aeros. Also, I wouldn't say it was a bad outing. He allowed one run and had a walk and two hits. In the greater context, he was bound to have an appearance that was similar to that. It could have been MUCH worse given that the bases were loaded. It's a shame though that the Blue Jays lost, especially in the manner that they did. In the 9th I thought we were going to possibly have our first Zips World Series Champion.