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You do know Deion Sander was hired at Jackson state with absolutely no Experience Period. Never an assistant coach. Guess what? = he was a HS coach at an academy he created that no longer exist. Michael Vick = No Coaching Experience Eddie George = No Coaching Experience Desean Jackson = No Coaching Experience But you believe my solution is a Disaster?

Why hire some local slapper when Jim Grobe is available? Seriously, you analysis is good. Your solution is a disaster waiting to happen. There are former players chomping at the bit to become head coaches and are willing to go just about anywhere to become one. Sanders went to Jackson State. DeSean Jackson is the coach of Delaware State. Mike Vick is at Norfolk State. Eddie George went to Tennessee State and is now at BG. He is only one of two Titans to have his number retire. He's an incredibly handsome man. My brother is a high school football coach in central Ohio and says the buzz among recruits and coaches around George is huge. He might be the best hire in the MAC since Urban Meyer.or maybe Solich at OU. When you think if it in these terms, it shows how ridiculous the idea of a high school football coach taking over is. If anyone thinks Akron could never get a guys line this because they are so bad, you have to understand Jackson State, Delaware State and Tennessee State are worse places. It's not impossible. Akron just makes winning impossible. I'm going to say something and I desperately don't want it to become political. Approximately 15% of Americans are black. Approximately 52% of high level college football players are black. I asked before we hired Joe why we haven't hired a black head coach. Sanders turned around Colorado in five minutes. George is well on his way at BG. We'll be hiring a new coach in the near future. The solution will be to hire a coach who has a deep understanding of football and football organization up to the NFL level and is relatable to recruits and his players. He needs to be someone who just isn't smart, but can breathe some life into the program.

Saturday August 30th The big East went 0-2 tonight The really bad loss is that Bellarmine (from the Atlantic Sun conference) defeated Xavier 3-1 St. Louis (at home) had a 1-0 win over Seton Hall. Cornell will be a tough non league game for the Zips. Cornell finally opened their season tonight with a 3-0 win over LeMoyne I think that there are 4 games on sunday...involving Zips opponents. Northern KY at Western Illinois 2 Manhattan at UConn 6 St. Johns at Wake Forest 7 pm Temple at Ohio State 7 pm

DeAndre Yedlin (you know, the Zips RB who played in the English Premier League and for the USMNT, including a few World Cup Appearances as well as Turkey and MLS) bobblehead ...

1st off the folks who actually pay attention on here know I despise the MAC on the strength of it continuing to be a One Bid Conference on the Basketball side not getting an At Large Bid since Miami of Ohio in 1999 as the emphasis of the conference has always been on Football. With that said, the conference as a whole is not garbage. Schools like Ohio U and Miami of Ohio have consistent stable programs. Week 1 Toledo went to the wire against Kentucky losing 16-24, Ohio went wire to wire with Rutgers losing 31-34, Central Michigan Beat San Jose State 16-14 who recently had the 2nd best record in the Mountain West Conference 2 years ago. and Buffalo only lost 10-23 to Minnesota. The majority of the MAC competed this weekend. Akron is the 2nd oldest Football Program in the MAC (1891), 2nd to Miami of Ohio (1888). We have the 6th largest football stadium in the MAC But its actually our Basketball arena that hurts us from moving to another conference. At 5,500 capacity we have the 10th largest arena in the MAC. I been beating the drum for years at Homers hiring these overrated outside coaches who come here with one foot out the door immediately playing the not enough resources victim card when we have a Legend around the corner pursuing a 6th state championship for Archbishop Hoban with a 142-25 record in his 13th season = Tim Tyrrell. A local guy who knows this region and can aggressively recruit local talent and we can probably get him at a bargain price. But nah too many of you old outdated only go by the Book Homers rather keep bringing overrated assistants just because of who they held a clipboard for on paper.

Kenni Burns and I both had Merrimack plus the points.

The long snapper and punter should lead the MAC in special teams plays this season.

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.