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Notes from the Tip-off Reception: * Evan Mahaffey is the real deal. He could be one of Akron's best ever by the time he is done here. * Cody Head is better than expected. * The Serbian will get some minutes. * The team is fully healthy as of a week ago. * Barre is a good fit as he can get up and down the floor. * Nate had 9 serious high money NIL offers. * The entire team looks like they've spent a lot of time with the strength and conditioning coach. * They beat Wright State in an exhibition. * Every player that has completed their eligibility at UA in the last 9 year left with a degree. * Every scholarship player who has completed his eligibility at UA in the last nine years has played professionally. * 26 practices so far. * They are going to play fast again this year. * The emphasis in practice all pre-season has been on defense. * The JMU Game will include the ring presentation and raising the banner. * There will be two fan experiences- trips to Vegas and New Orleans. * This group is really tight on and off the court. * The proceeds of the YSU scrimmage are being split between the schools' collectives.

I didn't copy the link from the post but I saw on Twitter earlier that Enrique has made the opening night roster for the T-Wolves as one of their 3 two-way players. And he's wearing the #25 jersey.

Can the Zips give me a reason to give my wife a freaking high five at some point during the game. That's all I ask. Zips games have been like a Nick Saban VRBO commercial for years... I can envision President Nemer looking at the Zips player: "As your President I have some rules. No post game showers longer than 2 minutes, we have a budget...the locker room isn't a spa." "The digits underneath "Akron" on the scoreboard...don't use them. We cut the scoreboard operator from the budget and can't change them from 0" "To the fans...no high fives, no fun...the kids aren't allowed on the endzone grass." "There's a great loge and food spread upstairs...don't touch that." "To anyone that wants Zips gear - the team shop opens at 3pm." Fans: "But it's 2:45 and I want to buy some hoodies". Nemer: "I know."

The card shop I work at on the weekends had a Panini redemption for an Enrique Freeman rookie auto. After learning that I PC Freeman, the shop owner gave the redemption to me. The card arrived today from Panini. Love seeing Zips on official sports cards!

What a great atmosphere to be among the Zips fans at Xavier supporting our team on the road. Significant contingents of Matt Dreas', Ashton Kamdem's, and Jack Roman's family and friends and Zips Men's Soccer alumni players and/or family.

Hello!

That third goal just felt different. It seems in the last couple of seasons in that kind of scenario we can never seem to find a goal. Huge score there from Freddy

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

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

We may need to relocate the Brass sign. 🤣

The promotion of soccer has been pathetic in recent years. I hoped it would change between Guthrie and Goodrich but it seems to be the same. It is disappointing and the team of the past 2 years, deserves much better. Borneo not playing is a question mark, but it looked like Zips only had 7 subs yesterday and he was in zips attire not dressed to play. My assumption would be injury. Zips miss his skill. It was a must win game, and this team got it done without a bunch of key pieces available. Credit where is due.

Just for fun I was looking back at recent Akron successes in the MAC tournament. Akron was first eligible for the MAC tournament in 1993, it didn't even qualify for the tournament at all until 1998 and won only three games total until 2007 when it made the final (although the previous year the Zips were seeded third and their one win put them into the semifinal a streak that would continue for 12 years, then two years of not making the semifinal, then making at least the semis every year since it has been played). Despite the Zips never making a championship until 2007, and not winning one until 2009, they are 6-6 overall now (only one behind the three all-time leaders Ball St, Ohio and Kent (all of whom have made at least 32 appearances). Zips have 17. Despite the Zips having won only three games by 2007, they have the highest winning percentage in MAC tournament history at .607. Zips have as many wins as they have missed championship appearances since 2007. Just wanted to put in a little thanks to Keith Dambrot and John Groce for making these last 20 years so enjoyable. Now go win an NCAA tournament game (for us!). 🤣

I made the trip. Just a few observations - some already noted by others. Starters: PG - Tavari G - Young W - Eric M. F - Evan M. P - Lyles First subs: Shammah Bowen MMK ...Young moved to PG (though we all know Shammah still handles the ball a lot ... Evan M. moved to P Second round of subs: Stankovic for MMK Lyles back in for Evan M. Tavari back in for Young @ PG YSU was really hot from behind the arc. Kudos to them but definitely something we need to work on defensively. They had a guard named Tae Blackshear that was on fire & kept them in the game in the first half. Shammah was our 6th Man but was easily our best player & someone Groce can't presently afford to take off the floor. We don't look like as much of a shooting team as last year. Neither Stankovic nor Eric M. took a 3. I think we're going to need them to shoot from deep to better space the floor. Basically our offense consisted of Shammah, Tavari, Young, Amani, and/or Bowen launching it from deep. Stankovic is a physical wing. He's certainly tough and I can see he's not going to be punked by anyone. He makes his presence known out there. I'd even go as far as to say he's got some Ryan Andrick in him and may get under opposing players skin from time-to-time. He looks to be a good 6'7" by just comparing his height while on the floor to Evan M., Eric M., and Amani. Speaking of height, Tavari walked past me before the game and he is definitely 6' tall. No exaggeration there. I was a little surprised by how tall he was. Once again no inside game to speak of. Amani tried a few moves but I think only hit one of his patent hook shots (and none of his 3 point shots. Without looking at stats I'd say Amani definitely had a subpar game). Evan M. certainly likes to drive to the hoop... but he doesn't do anything more than that. At least he didn't tonight. Evan M. & MMK played a lot of minutes together & I don't really like them on the floor together as neither is a shooter. I was surprised at the amount of PT MMK received in general, not being much of an offensive threat. He's athletic & energetic but I'd expect his minutes to be cut back against JMU. Barri didn't do much. Looks like he's just going to be an occasional shot blocker/lane filler. Briscoe didn't get any PT. I was curious to see what he's got. Just watching him in warm ups he may be slightly slow-footed for this level. Idk. I probably shouldn't even say that without seeing him in game action. Tonight it looked like our team is a 3-point-or-bust squad. But I guess that's sort of what the game has evolved into. Idk. YSU got a lot of long rebounds & 2nd chance points. Someone else mentioned Head was not dressed along with the two true freshmen, Josh Henderson & Tai Perkins. I guess that's all I've got. It was kind of sloppy and disjointed. What I should have been expecting I suppose.

there goes the at large bid. John's Next endeavor.

Akron moved up to #20 in this week's United Soccer Coaches' poll. https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1/united-soccer-coaches RPI Rank https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1/ncaa-mens-soccer-rpi 14 Akron 107 Marquette 45 Creighton

Akron 31 Buffalo 24 I will go out on the mother of all limbs and predict the Zips go 3-1 to finish the season.

My guess is Groce and Tod K. I can't see Tod giving Groce much credit for anything. Their post-game hand shakes are quite brief.

And Bassitt has an excellent inning of relief in the 8th in game 7 of the ALCS.

They've tried with Ianello...and Brookhart...and Bowden...and Arth...and Motorhead....yet here we are. Maybe it's not all about the head coach?

Or possibly just had their eligibility expire.

The through ball by the Cornell player was one of the prettiest passes I've ever seen in a soccer match. Chest-high bullet volley that split the Akron defenders to give the Cornell attacker the advantage. What a save by Mitch to prevent that from being the highlight of the year for Cornell.

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

James Madison comes into the 2025-26 season after posting a 20-12 record last season with a loss in the Sun Belt Final to Troy. From looking at their roster, they have a ton of new faces. Included in these transfers are the following: · Paul Jones, a 6’4” sophomore guard who averaged 7.6 ppg and 3 rpg last year at Winthrop where he was named to the Big South Conference. · Bradley Douglas, a 6’4” senior guard transfer from Geogia Southern where he averaged 12.6 ppg, 2.3 rpg and 2.2 apg. He’s on his 5th school in 5 years. · Cliff Davis- 6’2” senior guard transfer from Rio Grande where he averaged 12.1 ppg and 4.5 rpg. · Paul Lewis, a 6’2” guard who started at Vanderbilt then transferred to UTSA where he missed nearly all of last season due to injury. · Justin McBride, a 6’7 junior forward transfer from Nevada (Previously Okla. St.) where he averaged 7.8 ppg and 4/1 rpg. · Ike Cornish, a 6’6” senior guard transfer from Nicholls who averaged 7.7. ppg and 2.2 rpg. He started in Maryland and spent a season at Ohio U. · Eli Wilborn, a 6’8” junior forward who was a teammate of Barre at Duquesne where he averaged 5 ppg and 3.5 rpg last year. · Gabe Newhof, a 6’9” senior forward who was an NAIA All-American at Spring Arbor last season, averaging 21.5 ppg and 7.2 rpg. From looking at the roster JMU appears deep and experienced and will again be towards the top of the Sun Belt standings. They’ll also likely still be in transition mode with so many new faces. I'll keep updating as more info and previews become available.

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.

Game Day Notes: Redshirt freshman AJ Hairston remains the starter at quarterback, throwing for 812 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions on the season. He drew significant P4 attention early in his prep career before it became evident the G5 level would be his path. UMass has struggled to find consistent production from the backfield, partly due to injuries that have limited their key players. Colorado transfer Brandon Hood and UTSA transfer Rocko Griffin have combined for 519 yards and four touchdowns. At receiver, Jacquon Gibson has been the most reliable option throughout the year with 358 yards, though it was redshirt freshmen Kenyon Massey — a player we once offered — and Kezion Dia-Johnson who saw the bulk of the targets last game. Dia-Johnson, like Hairston, also had plenty of P4 interest coming out of high school. Up front, the offensive line has been a major problem, giving up 16 sacks in MAC play — the most in the conference. They’ve also surrendered 127 pressures on the year. For comparison, Akron’s allowed 83. Defensively, UMass has held up reasonably well against the run in conference play, but the overall picture hasn’t been nearly as encouraging. The Zips offense should have a chance to put together its best passing performance of the season against a struggling UMass secondary. The Minutemen have surrendered the most total yards and points in the MAC and sit second-to-last in passing yards allowed. To make matters worse, they’re tied for forcing the fewest turnovers in league play. Injuries have taken a major toll on what was supposed to be a revamped defense, though one bright spot has been Dartmouth transfer edge rusher Marques White, who’s been a steady presence up front with five sacks on the year. On the other side, Akron’s defense has quietly become one of the better pass-rushing groups in the MAC, second in the conference in sacks — and honestly, I’m not sure when the last time that could be said. On paper, Akron is a bad matchup for UMass, as the Zips’ strengths line up directly with the Minutemen’s weaknesses. Akron should win this one comfortably. Then again, things rarely come easy for this program, so we’ll see how it all shakes out. Notable MAC only Stats: Finley is third in passing yards and second in touchdowns thrown. Gant is second in rushing yards. Mason is eighth in receiving yards and tied for third in touchdown receptions. Laventure is tied for sixth in tackles for loss and tied for seventh in sacks. DeWalt is tied for fourth in passes defended. Summers is tied for first in interceptions.

The worst thing about BG’s collapse is - they’re going to beat us to Tim Tyrrell.

I suspect some of us with make the short trip to Youngstown for this one and the rest will want to know what happened, so I figured this scrimmage was worthy of its own thread. Here's a preview for YSU- https://ysusports.com/news/2025/9/23/mens-basketball-faulkner-meets-media-to-preview-2025-26-campaign.aspx

Smooth. Very smooth.

And yet another perfect inning in relief for Bassitt in an epic World Series game. Bet the Blue Jays wish they had stuck with him a little longer in a game they desperately needed extended pitching moments. He still has a 0.00 ERA in this postseason.

This is very well deserved. Congratulations, Stefan !!!!

QB: Finley found his rhythm in the second half, getting the ball out quicker and settling into the flow of the game. The first half was more of a roller coaster. Ultimately, he did enough to get the job done and lead a few scoring drives. Finley’s 38-yard touchdown run should’ve been a loss, but instead turned into the best run of his career. RB: There wasn’t a ton of running room for the backs, but Gant made some nice cuts to squeeze out yards where there wasn’t much to work with. Gant and Patrick combined for 104 yards on the ground. WR: The negative: there were four drops in the game, most of which came in the first half. Outside of that, it was mostly positives — Mason hauled in another outstanding touchdown grab, while Polk and Ma. Williams came through with some timely catches. Hopefully Walker is okay, though I’m not sure Mason even gets that opportunity if Walker doesn’t go down, as he’s been backing him up. True freshman Luke Sivon also saw some action, and the kid can absolutely fly. He didn’t record a catch but did draw two pass interference calls. Ideally the staff keeps working Sivon in and doesn’t worry about the redshirt. TE: Newell returned after missing the last few games and was underwhelming. Cravaack played well again and PFF finally graded him as such. OL: The OL was solid in pass protection throughout, but looked noticeably better in the second half when the ball was coming out quicker and the backs held up a bit longer. They were credited with just seven pressures allowed all game. Not to take anything away from the OL, but I still stand by saying Buffalo isn’t great at generating pressure — and we saw that play out today. Of note is that backup center Delvin Morris started and played every snap at left tackle. DL: Dall was an absolute nightmare for Buffalo. The stats might not show it, but he blew up a bunch of plays that let others rack up the numbers. It may not have been his best game statistically, but it was probably his most disruptive in terms of wrecking the opponent’s offense. Hull and Laventure were also very active on the inside and gave the Bulls’ offensive line all kinds of trouble. Mixon even got in on the action, picking up his first career sack. LB: How about Melvin Spriggs?! Honestly, up until this game, he hadn’t quite played to the level I expected from him this year. Usually, it’s Cooper, Summers, and Boswell leading the charge, but against Buffalo, Spriggs had the game of his life — a reminder of the potential he showed on his high school film. I’m happy for the kid; he’s come a long way in his development, and hopefully this is just the start, not the peak. And not to be outdone, Summers had a whale of a game himself. Buffalo might have the best linebacker corps in the MAC, but Spriggs and Summers made a strong case otherwise — at least for one game. DB: Despite the secondary coming away with two interceptions, it wasn’t their best day. We played a lot of man coverage and got torched by Snow in the first half and McMillan in the second. Still, the defense as a whole forced five turnovers and made sure this one didn’t slip away. One guy who did play really well was Somerville, who saw his most snaps at safety and also played on special teams. ST: Outside of the botched punt that led to a safety, special teams did a nice job of keeping Buffalo’s units from making an impact. Smart strategy to make sure the ball consistently stayed out of Snow’s hands. Coaching: I don’t think anyone can argue much with the second-half game plan. Sure, it’s fair to say the offense got a bit too conservative too early in the 4th quarter, but the defense was holding their own. My biggest gripe came at the end of the 2nd quarter, which led to a fumble and an eight-point swing. There was no reason to rush to the line and try to run extra plays. Just run out the clock and head to the locker room. In no world was Finley or Gant breaking off a 60+ yard run. Just a boneheaded move that thankfully didn’t cost the game. Defensively, it was a very impressive performance. Buffalo’s offense was going to get their yards, so it was all about preventing points. Holding the Bulls to their season low, minus Minnesota, while forcing five turnovers was remarkable. Next week is our “bye” week, and we’re back in action the following Tuesday night for another very winnable contest against UMass on 11/4. QB: Finley HB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Gear WR: Walker Mason Louis WR: Polk Monteiro Sivon TE: Newell Cravaack Whisner LT: Morris LG: Archer McManus C Lyons RG: K. Davis RT: King A. Jones DE: Dall D. Frazier DE: Durham J. Frazier Cheatom DT: Hull Murphy Musika DT: Laventure Mixon Madden LB: Summers Boswell LB: Spriggs Boswell NB: Aa. Branch CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed T. Thomas S: Flowers Hunter S: D. Johnson Somerville Offense (20 snap min.) C - Lyons RT - M. King LG - McManus TE - Cravaack RG -K. Davis Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Spriggs S - Somerville DE - Dall LB - Summers DT - Hull

I will say this is also with the league practice restrictions in place because of our grades. I fully blame the full administration for that but the fact we are still performing this well with that stipulation as well is something to make note of

For future reference, I can highly recommend the Zip Burger at Zip's Cafe, ~3.5 miles from Xavier's soccer field. Tasted great, especially following a 3-1 Zips WIN!!! https://www.zipscafe.com/menu/

At the moment Akron would not be one of the four teams to make the Big East tournament, but they do control their ability to do so. At the moment they sit tied for sixth place with St John's and Butler. St John's holds the tie breaker over the Zips but the Zips hold it over Butler. Standings are as follows (although the East and Midwest division leaders will each get a slot regardless of point totals). Georgetown 13 Creighton 10 UConn, Seton Hall, Providence 9 St John's, Zips, Butler 7 Villanova 6 Xavier 5 DePaul 1 Marquette 0 The "easy" way for the Zips to get in is win their last three. Then it won't matter what Creighton does in their other two games because the best they could do would be to tie the Zips and the Zips would hold the tiebreaker. But barring passing Creighton, they need to sneak ahead of three of the four of Uconn, Seton Hall, Providence and St. John's. The good news is all of them play each other at least once and some twice, so we probably want to root for a lot of ties. 😂 And the Zips really need to take advantage of playing two of the three bottom teams before they get to Creighton. If they can pull off two wins and at least a tie against Creighton, I think they're in. Going to be an interesting last few weeks.

Is there an unwritten rule that if the opponents offense gives you five yards on a false start you have to jump off side and give it right back to them?

JMU appears to have only one returner of any consequence, Eddie Ricks, a 6'7" junior forward who averaged 6.7 ppg and 4.7 rpg last season. This type of situation makes me realize how blessed we are to have a program that can hold onto kids from season to season.

I would have killed to see Lemmy coaching the Zips.

Any one who thinks simply paying close to $1 million to buyout our coach to bring in someone new will magically solve our problems is insane. We've gone down that route with how many coaches in a row? We have much deeper issues that need to be worked on. At this point it's probably way too late unless 2-3 deep pocketed boosters step up to carry the program like Bud has done with basketball. I say 2-3 because the costs to compete in FBS is several times that of hoops.

Those four are a good class. The best 4-year class in a while. They did not always play well, but they always stuck together. They were good soldiers. And they looked after each other. These men will succeed.

I think this is BG's year. Somebody had to say it! 🤣

Great PK save by Mitch Budler...late in the 2nd half.

Jordan Gant > Jordon Simmons (9 carries for 33 yards on the season...Georgia State is 1-4)

And if your team wins you do both

You gotta love Akron football fans and the people on this board!!! We finally win a MAC game early in the season and we are talking about a bowl game even though we are technically not eligable. Last week this board was talking about firing our coach. When I was leaving the stadium I felt like taking a picture of our victory formation because I thought when is this ever going to happen again. If we win next week, this board will nominate Joe for coach of the year.

Congratulations to Jason Shokalook

QB: Finley had his best game of the season, and if he’d played like that against Wyoming, we’d probably be sitting here with another win. Granted, CMU’s defense wasn’t anything special — I thought the number of turnovers they’d created (or been gifted) coming in masked some of their flaws. Still, it was great to finally see the kind of performance we know Finley is capable of. Hopefully, that’s something he can build on moving forward. On the lone interception, it looked like there was some sort of miscommunication, with the receiver running a different route than what Finley expected. RB: I don’t have enough positive things to say about Gant. He was excellent and once again looked like the FCS All-American from a few years back. He seemed a little gassed in the fourth quarter — which is understandable given he carried the ball 32 times and was on the field for all but six offensive snaps. It would’ve been nice to have another playmaker like Patrick available to give him a breather, but that wasn’t an option. Curry saw his first action, and while he’s a bigger back, he didn’t have much of a chance to show what he can do in limited touches. WR: Mason finally had the breakout game I’ve been waiting for. His performance looked a lot like what he showed during the spring game — the flashes that had me raving about him during the offseason. Outside of one glaring drop that would’ve moved the chains, this group was solid, and that miscue didn’t end up costing us. We just need this unit to keep developing. If they do, we’ll be talking about one of the better wide receiver corps in the MAC by the end of the season. TE: All three tight ends caught passes today and chipped in with some key blocks as well. I’m not sure why PFF graded the group as low as they did — I actually thought they played a sound game all-around. OL: This was one of the offensive line’s best games of the season — especially in the run game. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but they did enough to give the offense a chance to be effective in both phases. I believe K. Davis played every snap at right guard, which says a lot about his reliability and consistency up front. DL: I’m not sure when the last time our defense had five sacks, with four of them coming from the defensive line. Laventure was credited with six total pressures and two sacks, while Durham had two sacks, and Dall had three pressures. I also want to give credit to the DL for holding their ground and blowing up running lanes so often. LB: Summers played a whale of a game. I’m not sure what the refs thought they heard when he was flagged for mimicking calls again, but from my view, it looked like he was just trying to get everyone lined up correctly on a play where several defenders seemed unsure of their assignments. I’ll lump the secondary into this as well — it’s tough to always be in the right spot and still make open-field tackles against an offense like CMU’s, one that relies heavily on misdirection and gets its linemen to the second level. There were more busts than anyone would like to see, but overall the defense did enough to slow CMU down when it mattered most. DB: The secondary was asked to play the run more in this game than any other so far this season — as alluded to above. In coverage, they were generally solid, holding CMU to just 136 yards through the air. No individual stood out in a negative way, which is definitely a positive sign. ST: Special teams were very good overall, outside of the long missed field goal — which came from a tough angle — and Hills overestimating his ability by bringing out kicks several yards deep in the end zone. I like Hills and still think he’s going to break one this year, but there’s just no reason to bring those out from that deep. Coaching: Give credit where credit is due — great gameplans on both sides of the ball. Offensively, we were stubborn running the football while also taking timely shots downfield. The defense looked well prepared and didn’t hang their heads after giving up some explosive plays. Overall, I thought the staff came close to maximizing what they could in this game. The only downside was a handful of penalties that were 100% self-inflicted. QB: Finley Johnson RB: Gant Curry WR: Walker Masom WR: Mar. Williams Grear WR: Polk Monteiro TE: Newell Cravaack Whisner LT: Dar. Johnson Motley-Simmons LG: McManus Archer C Lyons Morris RG: K. Davis RT: King A. Jones DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier DT: Hull Murphy Musika DT: Laventure Mixon Madden LB: Summers Boswell LB: Cooper Spriggs NB: Al. Branch CB: Reed Kamara CB: DeWalt Thomas S: Flowers Hunter S: Di. Johnson Stepney Top Rated on Offense (20 snap min.) WR - Mason C - Lyons QB - Finley RG - K. Davis RB - Gant Top Rated on Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Summers S - Flowers LB - Spriggs CB - DeWalt CB - Reed