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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.

Wouldn't that be a Joe's coaching issue? Not adapting his offense to the talent he has? I agree - Finley chucking it 60x a game would've been a blast. We have the receivers for it and he has the arm for it. Unfortunately, Joe was stubborn and stuck with his RPO crap.

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.

No different than the people proclaiming Deion was going to be the next Nick Saban 3 games into his Colorado tenure. Meanwhile, with 1 game remaining in year 3 he sits at 16-19 overall while playing in a weakened Big 12. That was also with a heisman winner and his son playing QB for 2 of those years. Great players don't necessarily translate to great coaches. Let's see Eddie George make it to Detroit or at least make a few bowl games before we start praising his 'success'. That's not to say a great player can't also be a great coach, but it's far from a guarantee that some are trying to make it out 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...

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

I'm personally glad he is gone. Low completion percentage. Fumbled 8 times in 42 carries.and we all know turnovers are how you lose. If Akron cannot find someone to complete more than 53% of his passes and not kill them with fumbles, we have bigger problems than I thought.

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.

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.

Oh, so they got serious about their program and leveraged the assets they do have. Ah, ok. That makes sense.

That's a pretty easy list to screw up. Amato? You're digging pretty deep to make a point. Let's play a game. Who is more relatable to the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron? Eddie George or The Bowdens? Eddie George or JT? Eddie George or Faust? I can't believe I'm about to type this.... Eddie George or Chuck "Chesty" Amato? There is a reason they sold out two games this season.

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

Don't forget about Max Crosby, too.

The issue here is more Joe's recruiting than Joe's coaching. I think he did maximize Finley...but yeah Finley wasn't it. Still think he'd be fun in a "4300 yard 44 TD 33 INT" way in a Mumme air raid. Frustrating with all the picks, but fun. Why did I not put two and two together that Ben Finley's brother was the short-time NFL backup Ryan?

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.

I think you would be surprised about EMU. They probably have one of the more involved NIL programs in the MAC. Charlie Batch is kind of the face of it and he has recruited other well off EMU alumni to help bankroll it. In fact, they offered Caleb Williams $1 million if he would transfer to EMU. Obviously that was never going to happen and he went to USC instead, but the offer was on the table.

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.

This offense has a really good, young core of skill players. Polk (So), Williams (Fr), Mason (Fr), Cravaack (So), Patrick (Fr) and potentially a good young QB. I assume they will all have opportunities elsewhere so keeping them here probably won’t happen. It’s just a shame that the resources aren’t here to keep a team together.

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

Look at the historical average of the S&P 500.

That's pretty much it. Yeah, Akron's a tough job. No one's pretending it's easy. Joe isn't the type of coach that has any chance of thriving at this sort of tough job. Carney...just might be the type who can thrive at a Kent-type job. As an aside, how about a Chris Creighton at EMU (EMU being the actual type of job that many here think Akron is), who is 61-82 at a school whose last three coaches (and related interims) were 39-125. While his record isn't exactly stellar, if a guy can get EMU to five bowl games in 12 years...under current rules, between 1987 (their actual last bowl) and when Creighton arrived in 2014, they'd have had 3 or 4 bowl appearances (they had four years with an eligible record, but two FCS wins in 2011 would disqualify them without a waiver). If Eastern Michigan can go bowling about half the time...Akron should be able to reach that goal. But it will take work and the correct next hire when Joe leaves. That, traditionally, will be the tough part of this equation.

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.

Keep Dall by any means necessary. Pay that man!! EDIT: and Williams