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Whatever rotation we start with in November will likely be far different come February and March.

Anyone want to guess on what the rotation looks like?

We were at the game sitting right behind the bench and kept commenting on Adams. He was fully dressed, but basically stayed away from the offense when they were off the field. He spent most of the time sitting on equipment trunks and exercise bikes. In the first half he actually had his gloves on looking like he was ready to go in. In the second half he never even put them on. He definitely seemed upset which makes me think it’s disciplinary.

Bummer to hear about this. Maybe he can come home and build our soccer NIL program.

He’s been a waste of a scholarship the past 3 years.

I’m waiting for the Frazier boys to make a play too. Durham seems okay but definitely behind Dall. I wonder why Cheatom isn’t getting more reps. The staff was high on him last year and he showed some promise. He rotated in for Wyoming but didn’t see him on the field the last week or two

QB: Finley had his best game of the season, though that might not be saying a whole lot after the first two. He avoided turnovers and made a handful of really nice throws. There were a few sacks I thought he could’ve steered clear of, but beyond that, if he can consistently play at this level, the offense has a chance to keep moving forward. I’m still scratching my head over why Johnson didn’t get any looks in short-yardage situations. RB: I kept waiting for Patrick to bust a big one, but it just never came. Still, he and Gant ran hard, combining for 148 yards on 20 carries. I’ll take that any day of the week. WR: Similar to Finley, this was the wide receiver corps’ best outing too. Even with three drops, they got open, put in effort blocking, and for the most part, hauled in the catches. TE: Newell didn’t do much with his two catches, but he was solid as a blocker, especially in pass protection. Cravaack saw less than 10 snaps. OL: I thought Lyons and K. Davis played well. There were a few times we were close to breaking a big run, but things like letting a combo block go too early and both guys releasing to the second level ended up giving the defender a free shot at the back. I can’t help but wonder if all the subbing we’re doing is causing some of those mistakes. The OL definitely could’ve been better at times, but overall they opened some holes and gave Finley a pocket to work with. DL: The defense as a whole did a really nice job against the run. That said, our four-man pass rush was anemic…again. We had a hard time getting pressure in the first half, though things looked a little better after the break. Both of our sacks came on five-man pressures if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure what’s going on with Cheatom, he hasn’t played lately, and we’re getting next to nothing from the backup DEs. LB: I thought Cooper, Spriggs, and Boswell all played well. The more I watch Boswell, the more I like him—kid’s going to be a player and just has a knack for making things happen. DB: All things considered, I thought Reed and DeWalt held their own. Our safeties, on the other hand, got absolutely roasted when they were stuck in man during the first half. The good news is we probably won’t see a better passing attack the rest of the way. UAB may not be a great team overall, but they’ve got some legitimate threats at receiver. ST: The kickoff return for a touchdown and the penalty that set up another score were absolute back breakers and, in my opinion, the difference in the game. Punting and placekicking were solid otherwise, with the only miss coming on a long field goal attempt. Coaching: That was the most animated I’ve seen Moorhead since he’s been at Akron. I think he knew this was a game we had every chance to win, and maybe he’s feeling a little pressure too. I did like the commitment to the run game, and the offense putting up 441 yards without a turnover is nothing to scoff at. Sure, it came against a bad defense, but the offense still played well. I’m not sure what adjustments were made defensively at halftime since I couldn’t see much of what was happening in the backend, but it was night and day when it came to points allowed. We still gave up yards, but that’s fine because at the end of the day the defense threw a second-half shutout. In the end, it’s another disappointing close loss in the Moorhead era. The game was there for the taking, and we couldn’t do it. We’re likely going to be 1-3 heading into conference play, which is the exact same as last year’s payday schedule. Of course, that’s assuming we take care of Duquesne this weekend, who will surely be pining for an upset. QB: Finley Johnson RB: Patrick Gant WR: Walker Mason WR: M. Williams Monteiro WR: Polk Grear TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Motley-Simmons D. Johnson LG: Archer McManus C Lyons Morris RG: K. Davis RT: A. Jones King DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier DT: Laventure Mixon DT: Hull Murphy Musika LB: Cooper Spriggs LB: Summers Boswell NB: AL. Branch AI. Branch CB: Reed CB: DeWalt T. Thomas S: J. Anderson Hunter S: D. Johnson Flowers KO: Wiley B. Johnson K: Wiley P: Castle Top Rated Offense (20 snap minimum) QB - Finley WR - Grear RG - K. Davis WR - Polk RT - King Top Rated Defense (20 snap minimum) DT - Murphy NB - AL. Branch LB - Spriggs DE -Dall DT - Laventure

Heard Adams was a disciplinary scratch last week, maybe he was still in the doghouse?

49 days until Zips basketball.

I heard Dave on the radio call say Newell was back after a two game suspension for violating team rules. Also that Alex Adams was back, but No targets for the former all american??whats up with that?

I appreciate the analysis, CK, but I never want to support a program that is satisfied with a close, competitive loss on the road because we are outspent off the field. On the field, that was a winnable game, and we beat ourselves with a lack of discipline, which has little to nothing to do with off the field spending.

The first D1 team at Akron had 10 coaches. The only thing they have more today of is an extra DB coach and special teams coordinator. This is year 38 of complete mismanagement.

I thought is would be interesting to compare the coaching staffs and budget between UAB and Akron. From what I can tell, UAB's football budget is roughly 11 million dollars...about double that of the Zips UAB has 24 football coaches and 18 support staff. Akron has 12 coaches and 6 support staff. And we only lost by 3 to them, on the road.

Coaching professional athletics is a tough gig, with high risks and high reward.

@catdaddyp Game Three Thoughts?

Nice call. 😎

It's worse than this. In many cases, managers can't accurately define the problems, so they can't fix what is wrong. Look at it this way. The lack of money at Akron is a symptom of a larger problem (s). I am of the opinion that Akron does not do enough to benefit the athletes students alumni fans and general community around Akron. Those are five problems impacting a lot of people. The football program is a product to sell and only people can spend money. A person has to buy a ticket. A person has to authorize corporate sponsorship money. People have to authorize tax dollars being spent. Akron isn't doing enough to satisfy the needs of these people so no money is spent. My biggest problem is this. I'm a guy living in the Carolinas and I really have no idea how to fix the problems. I have ideas, but I don't know enough to actually fix the problems. My worry is that the people who are supposed to know, don't know much more than I do. I'm also worried that they don't actually know how to go about finding the answers so they do the same things I've and over again.

College football is a business. Whether its Ohio State, Akron or Indiana PA. Businesses fail all the time. Why? Isn't it usually because the people with the corner offices on the 24th floor make bad business decisions? They hire bad personnel. They present a bad product. They don't correct problems when they present themselves. Who hires the AD? Who hires the coaches? Who 'hires' the players? When the folks at the top keep making bad decisions again and again you get the same results again and again. The effects trickle down. The definition of insanity? We all know it. Time to make some bold decisions about the direction of this football program.

Sorry to read this https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/new-england-revolution-part-ways-with-caleb-porter

I've always thought their poll was a little volatile, but I'm also not sure of its methodology. Is it just one person ranking the teams on behalf of the site, or do they have a committee or something?

Which makes you wonder. How can anyone take the Top Drawer poll seriously?

I agree with Kreed. Mistakes are going to happen and players will get called for penalties such as holding where they are trying to make a play. Summers calling the fake cadence with the referee two feet away from him was completely boneheaded. This was not like Durham getting caught up in the emotion and getting the 15 yards or half the distance what ever it was. Summers is a senior and supposed to be a leader he knows better. That was definitely a turning point. His teammates let him know it, the coaches let him know it, and I don't think he played a snap after that but I may have missed if he did. Initially, I was upset with how Joe handled the Durham penalty but the more I thought of it, I believe it was a teaching lesson and "hey we need you in this game, keep your head." type moment which in my opinion was actually good coaching. If Durham were to get ejected we would have really been hurting. We did not dress a third d end on that side and to this point D. Frazier has been ineffective. I'm not impressed with Durham to this point, but he is needed until someone else shows they can step up. The Summers penalty though... I think we all had the same thought when that happened. To me that is the "dumb butt play" that changed the outcome.

Akron stays at #8 in the College Soccer News poll, while Vermont moves up to #4. This week's opponent, UConn, is in the receiving votes section. https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-news-mens-soccer-week-4-top-25-coaches-poll-nc-state-takes-1-spot-and-furman-jumps-into-top-10/

We've been waiting a lot longer than that. The question I have is this. Are the people managing the coach good at managing based upon the two criteria I was presented when I was younger? It seems to me that when there is coaching turnover, the response to it by upper management is almost always the same in college sports, although we didn't do this when hiring Joe. When there is turnover or a desire to make a change, the ADs reach in to their tired bad of tricks and call an overpriced coaching recruiting firm to do a search. That firm reaches into their tired bag of recycled hacks and pulls out some names. A new head coach is hired. This all sounds to me like a collosal and lazy waste of money. Do any of the dummies who run athletic departments ever reach out to an organization like the NFL Players Association? The NFL PA is in charge of managing retiree benefits so they are probably regularly in touch with former players. I would think the nflpa would want to help their members in this way. Here, I'll write the letter to the NFLPA for every AD in America since most are not even slightly this creative, and what I'm doing isn't all that creative to begin with. Here it goes. Dear Mr. Reeves-Maybin, I am the Athletic Director at School X. School X has many active and retired members of your organization as former players. Included in this group are Chase Blackburn of the NY Giants Super Bowl winning team, Victory Green of the Jets and Patriots, and Hall of Famer Jason Taylor. Currently , I am conducting a search for a new Head Coach for our football program.and am looking for networking support. I believe former NFL players could provide great value to School X and the young men they would lead, and I would respectfully request that you make your retired members and their representatives aware of this great opportunity. The changing landscape of college football presents many possibilities for former professional players and if any of them are interested in talking with me, I'm interested in talking to them. Below are links to the job description and application. Link to job description. Link to application. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. My contact information is below. Sincerely, Blah blah blah Then Akron could do something like posting the letter to social media and tagging the NFLPA along with the NFL itself and any other party of interest.

Akron actually moved up a spot in this week's Top Drawer poll despite the loss. Up to #13. Vermont actually dropped from #10 to #11 but they did draw with Dartmouth on Tuesday which explains why. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men