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I had better outcomes in mind before the season started. There weren't going to be any legal bills. Bowls are a no lose proposition. For schools like Akron, it's a nice reward for a decent season. If you win, great. If you lose, it doesn't harm a program and the loses are quickly forgotten during the Holiday season.

That may be the best outcome for everyone lol. Tangible progress by increasing wins from last season, no legal bills trying to get the bowl ban overturned, and no wasted expenses for a likely bowl game blow out.

I remember reading that we added a new assistant coach, but didn’t realize that we parted ways with Jon Ekey after 1 year. Can anyone give some insight as to if it didn’t work out or if he got a better opportunity.

It was probably posted on here before, but Joe said during his post game presser that we have to practice one less day than everyone else (and did so last year as well) due to this bs.

Zips get one of those four. If they are going to do that it needs to be next weekend. It will be Miami's second road game in a row. Akron pulls off an upset at The Big Dialer. 31-28.

Yep this will somehow be the year we get to six - and then get denied bowl participation.

I lean to them choosing #1.

Assuming we stay relatively healthy, it’s possible. I feel like the toughest game left on the schedule is Miami — they’re better than their record indicates with Finn leading the charge. Ball State seems to be playing above their talent level right now, so that one’s probably a toss-up. I haven’t been impressed with Buffalo; they beat Kent by three and EMU by one in overtime. BG still can’t seem to figure out what they are offensively, and we tend to play our best football at the end of the season under this staff.

Under the assumption we are favorites vs Kent and umASS (though there is no such thing as a penciled in win for us), can we get 2 out of the 4 vs Ball St, Buffalo, Miami, and BG to get to 6?

Well said! Precisely why I can't stand OSU and their fans. I have more respect and appreciation for those from Can't. Barely, but still...

Miami and Ball State should be a couple of good games..

Well luckily they're absolutely choosing either 1 or 3

The contract expires after next season according to the internet. They have three options: 1. Extend the contract. 2. Don't renew and do something smarter. 3. Do something dumber. 2 of 3 choices are horrible. One can work.

Had a fun weekend. Good to be back. Wins always help!!!

Hey, as long as he makes the top 15 or so, that should get him some NBA playing time again this year. Hopefully more than last year!

Now just need to find a way to get out of the Tuesday games that kill home attendance.

The Mountain West also got raided. Nearly all their top teams are going to the PAC-12. It might still end up being better than the MAC, but I don't think it will be by a significant margin.

It's nice to look at the MAC standings and not see Akron in the heap of crap at the bottom. It does my heart good to see NIU flailing in their last year in the conference. Good riddance. If they think it's bad now, just wait.

I didn’t notice on the first one, but the second one definitely seemed like we were trying to game the system and draw a delay of game on CMU due to them having a late sub and us being entitled to sub. However, the ref let them snap (right or wrong I don’t know) before our guy got off the field. Our guy was definitely taking his time.

Bump

Great synopsis, Catdaddy. Thank you!

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

Freeman played the last 8 minutes of the first preseason game and scored 9 points making 2 three pointers. Hope he gets more playing time but it looks like they played close to 20 players