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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 totally get it Cat and I do come off as though I am attacking one player. I guess the point I am trying to make is I think it is very poor coaching on the new D line coach. He plays four guys; Dall, Hull, Laventure, Durham. (Murphy and Mixon rotate in occasionally) That's it. The Frazier twins get some snaps here and there (D. Frazier 188, J. Frazier 88) and that's it. Cheatom came into the season with good numbers never gets on the field (39 snaps). The guy is crazy athletic and had good numbers for the number of snaps he played last year, as good as Dall last season. They bring in Murphy, Brown and Duncan as walkons. Murphy gets 11 snaps, Brown 15, and Duncan 8 snaps thats it. My point was that Durhams numbers don't justify the number of snaps that he has played and we know that Dall is gone and most likely Durham also, so there has been NO development at the edge position. The twins are not the answer going into next year. No fault of theirs, they are linebackers not edge rushers. I don't see any of the walkon's coming back. Look at the interior linemen: Laventure is gone and rightfully so, Hull will follow I would bet YOUR lunch money that he follows Marcus Moore and bounces if even to another MAC team and tries to get some money. Murphy is a senior, Madden red shirt senior, Vega walk on that has played 3 snaps can't see him coming back, and musika 82 snaps that is rated a 43 %. Mixon is a red shirt sophomore with good size that seems like his snaps are far and few between and when he starts producing gets taken out. Other than Mixon who on the defensive line next year is going to have any experience? You have four freshman: Brown-Demery 6-4 310 (looks closer to 6-5 315); Bivens 6'0 255; Watkins 6'5 240; and Kavals 6'5 265. All red shirted and have never gotten a snap. Not against Duquesne a total blowout, UMASS, total blowout, or Toledo embarrassing blowout. The starters were in until the very end padding their stats. How does that develop the program? It doesn't. They had four games they could have played and still be red shirted. Why not see what they could have done? Now are defensive line is going to be in an even worse position going into next year than it was this year. It just seems that knowing how the system is, they did nothing to prepare for the future of next year. I don't expect Leonard to be back. Personally I don't think the defensive line played well at all, he did nothing to develop them/they did not improve throughout the year, and he did nothing to develop for next year. I don't know about Tibs, obviously Joe Moe is the big unknown. No qb development, no offensive line development except McManus, no secondary development, whoever the coach is next year is definitely going to have to a lot of developing and A LOT of coaching....

The crowd on Tuesday proved that attendance can be improved. Because the athletic department actually went and improved attendance...FOR A FREEZER GAME ON A TUESDAY. And then, they gave those folks that attended a reason to come back (even in a loss). I'm certainly not sold that Joe is the guy...and am generally sold that Joe ISN'T the guy...but I am very much willing to admit that even in a loss that game was good for the program.

TO BE FAIR, there was 7:14 on the clock. It wasn't particularly egregious IMO, but it did feel like a letdown. Now, 7:14 wasn't a usual "7:14" since Joe had already blown all three timeouts. But I would say it was "midway through the fourth."

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

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.

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

Update #3! Buffalo and Toledo were the biggest risers. Some fallers including JMU but teams like Murray St fell due to P4 losses. It’s that time of year for those but they’ll go back up. Zips go down to 77 for just existing as I like to call it

What if they didn't make it? Chuck Martin at Miami plays not to lose. He is a football version of Charlie Coles. His record at Miami is two games under .500. He has won over 60% of his MAC games. He has been to bowl games around 7 is his 10 season at Miami. This is what winning in the MAC looks like. Playing not to lose in the MAC is a winning strategy because so many of the teams are just dying to lose. You can't make losers feel like they can win, or they will sneak up on you. That's what happened to Akron.

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.

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).

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."

So the two events were not that dissimilar.

Beacon has an article this morning https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/soccer/2025/11/13/big-east-tournament-mens-soccer-georgetown-uconn-providence-akron/87238231007/

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. 🧐🥸🤫

Regarding Durham — PFF graded him as the best defender on the field against Kent State, giving him a mark above 80. I thought he played fairly well too, even though the stat sheet doesn’t show much. I’d disagree with PFF — as I often do — about the rating being that high, but compared to his other performances, I think it was one of his better games. Players don’t always need stats to be disruptive, and even those who haven’t played at a consistently high level can have a solid outing every now and then. Take it for what it’s worth, but a few opposing coaches have mentioned him in pregame pressers as someone they needed to account for. I do think he has the potential to develop into a much better player, but I also agree he hasn’t given us as much as we’ve needed this year — nor have our backup linemen, so the options have been limited. The potential is there; whether he reaches it remains to be seen. I’m not trying to turn this or any thread into something about one player — just clarifying the comment.

I thought the exact same thing the second I saw that. I had to look twice to make sure I read it properly!

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!

Did we learn anything about Brisco or Barre?

Tough night for the women's team...

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 would argue that each time they settled for a 3 point attempt instead of pushing for 7, it gave Kent momentum, not us. The first drive - where we pushed down the field at will and then settled - set the tone for the entire game.