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Off the top of my head, I remember our center completely whiffing on a defensive lineman twice—pretty sure both were by Lyons. I also don’t blame Finley for the 3rd and longs when Wyoming brought more than we could block. In those situations, the best-case scenario is usually a short completion where the receiver picks up some YAC. Outside of that, it just wasn’t a good day for our QB1. I kept waiting for him to get hot—he can be a streaky player at times—but it never happened. According to PFF, Wyoming blitzed 14 times, and Finley went 6 of 14 on those plays. Out of his 38 total attempts, he was supposedly kept clean on 24 of them. The brutal part is he only completed 11 passes for 93 yards in those clean pockets and even threw an interception. That won’t cut it against anyone on our schedule. For what it’s worth, PFF graded the OL fairly well overall, with the exception of both centers. Also of note, looks like they went through and updated some stats. True freshman Kenneth McManus was our highest rated lineman and 2nd highest rated player on offense.

When was the last time those words were ever written???? Zips could have been tied with Kent State for first place but NOOOOOOO

I wasn't talking about being able to compete with the Alabama or Ohio State of the world. G5 weren't positioned to keep up with those programs even before the changes. We can't even compete with the Rutgers, Indiana's, or top tier G5 programs anymore.

If we don't play football, there is no athletic department and we are less than Wright State. Happy?

I think we were positioned to be the next Cincinnati; however, the 2008 financial crisis, Covid, and consistent defunding could not have been predicted, and all have had disastrous consequences for UA. AND who would have thought that having been competitive during the Owens era with the worst facilities in the country that we'd have some of the best then hire a series of duds for coaches and choose to get rid of the only two who were successful (Brookheart and Bowden) and become consistently the worst in the MAC?

Is there a single coach in the country that has "adapted to the changing landscapes of college athletics" post-NIL? I mean seriously, what mid-major has raised its profile to compete with the big boys since then?! NONE. It's not possible when any decent player that might be discovered or developed by a school like Akron can be bought by the OSU's of the world the very next season? Jason Taylor's and Dwight Smith's are a thing of the past for schools like Akron. I am not a fan of Moorhead, but I think he just recognizes the reality of the situation. Also, the gap between the haves and have-nots is so large that OSU's financial success is allowing the Buckeyes to buy players in other sports like men's soccer. Never in its history has OSU men's soccer been so strong and never to arguably be consistently better than the Zips. That's what money can do. As another example, consider this past NCAA men's basketball tournament. There were no Cinderellas, and the SEC and the "Big Ten" dominated because their football money allows them to buy basketball players. NIL has killed everything that was romantic about college sports, and schools like Akron are less likely to be successful than ever. It amazes me that our men's basketball and soccer programs remain as good as they are given the circumstances. Good coaches and strong traditions are carrying the momentum, but I do not know how long that can last in the face of a paycheck for many athletes who grew up with little resources at home. You can't sell good coaching and tradition to athletes whose families need financial stability to thrive.

Same. Basically the Bowden years was the last time I got excited for Zips football. Now I always try to psyche myself up for the new season and then immediately remember why watching Zips Football is rough.

Yup - he wasn't perfect but night and day better than anyone we've had since.

Yes, you are correct. Thanks for the reminder. I was a big fan of Bowden and still oppose his firing. It's been so long that I cannot keep straight the chain of failures and, relatively speaking, when our last successful season was.

We did. Under Terry Bowden. We had an 8-5 and 7-6 seasons with him, and then fired him the year he pulled off the first BIG-10 victory in Akron's history, for a no-nothing loser from John Carroll.

Agreed 100%. All I am saying is that there was another major factor at play, which is commonly ignored in similar discussions and that is not relevant to the current circumstances.

And yet you're still here defending that Akron should be playing football, and spending tens-of-millions to do it.

True...but we made sure to better distribute those economic gains.

The iCoach years were way worse than this, but that was 15 years ago now, and I don't believe we've had a winning season since.

While well intentioned, this comment has aged like milk left out on the counter. Bring on the economics and soccer discussions.

I am all for taxing the plutocrats into oblivion to support a healthier society; however, another reason the 1950s were so prosperous is that most of the rest of the industrial world was destroyed during WWII.

The soccer Zips have a pretty consistent tradition of success for a pretty long time. The football Zips have been at best not good for a while. Also, ties in soccer are considered ok. Go back and look at the posts when the soccer Zips were 1-3-3after losses to IU Indy and Temple last year….. I don’t think we need to canabalize Zips fandom.

Wyoming is not a "name" school, they are a g5 team that was 3-9 last season and fans are not freaking out after one game, they are freaking out after well over a decade of pure futility from a program that is funneling money into a pit. Please do not be disingenuous in your comments. If the football team had put up a tying effort against a ranked team, this whole board would be doing cartwheels of joy.

We were at the match last night and enjoyed the evening, the atmosphere, the crowd and the Rowdies. I just want to add "Thank you!" to all who post here on the Soccer Forum for being informative, insightful and civil in your posts. I'm sure all of us wanted to see the Zips pull out a 1-0 win at the end, against a ranked team, but when we didn't you're not "never buying a ticket again!!!!!!" Over on the "Football" forum they're going nuclear and want to not only fire the coach, the assistant coaches, the AD, the cheerleaders, the band (I know, a little hypocritical of me, I wanted to see Women's coach gone last season, but over there they want to not just fire him, but string him up!) drop football altogether, leave the MAC, and even drop sports altogether, after a loss to a name school. Thanks for your cool heads....

There is a 30 for 30 about the Patriots. Bledsoe had been beaten up pretty bad in his career before his injury. He became a very nervous QB after he came back and that was one factor in his benching. He just wasn't aggressive anymore. At some point, when a QB gets beat up, they sort of cross a line and never go back to being an aggressive player again. I didn't see the game, but the QB has been beaten up and maybe he isn't the same aggressive player he was before.

Finley was bad from the jump. Puzzled me as I watched. The O line didn't seem THAT BAD. something else going on there.

I watched the offensive debacle, offensive in both senses of the word. I have no idea what was wrong with Finley. He wasn't that bad last season. Something more than a sore arm going on there. With that said, that was a bad Wyomong team and should have been beaten. My comment again and again has been that if football is to continue being played at Akron it has to be at a level where the program can consistently compete. That is NOT at any DI level. Hasn't been. I watched this program in the '60's and '70s when it was ALWAYS competitive. Look it up. I would be all for dropping back to DII. I don't think this program would be real competitive even at I-AA. And at that level you are still getting players poached by bigger schools. I'd rather watch them play competitive games against the IUP's,the Ashlands, Sag States, Grand Valley States etc. etc. as opposed to the crap we see now. Maybe something is brewing with a new sheriff in town. As for the rest of this season, go to most of the games,hope they beat KSU and see what happens.

You better watch. I brought this up maybe 10 years ago and found a burning cross in my front yard.

You have identified a key problem. What if instead of a marketing problem, it was a public service problem? The public has historically stomached funding public services that don't make money because the benefits outweigh the costs. For example, the only public transportation system that makes money in the USA is the NYC subway system, at least it used to. The rest are basically welfare programs for people who can't afford transportation but need to get places such as work. So again, what if at a modest cost, the football program benefited the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron? What if it's as simple as playing football games on days of the week and times that allow people to attend a fun day at the University their tax dollars support?

The soccer ball in last night’s game should be super healthy. The ball recuperated many, many times in last night’s game. the announcer was laughably very bad.