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Should’ve built a new basketball arena in 2009 instead.

We've all heard the phrase "statement win." This was a statement loss.

Well, no. Students actually pay for this crap product. Those "free" tickets are paid for by their student-fees. I've done breakdowns of this in the past for people, but the majority of the "student fee" supports athletics, and THAT is actually why students "get in for free", because they've already paid for it... If you ever look up financials on the Athletics budget, the Atheltics department is mostly funded by a "subsidy" which is...student fees.

Unfortunately, this is not true. We've definitely watched waaaaaaay worse than this.

Talk about letting a prime opportunity go to waste. QB: I think we all knew this offense would go as Finley went, and unfortunately he picked a bad night to have one of his worst games. I honestly expected a lot more from both teams and came away disappointed. Granted, it’s Week 1 and there’s plenty of time to improve, but the offense won’t get much better if Finley doesn’t take a big step forward. He consistently missed throws that we saw him make with ease last year. The most concerning part is Wyoming isn’t a good team and probably won’t win many more games this season. RB: Patrick was as dynamic as expected. I don’t have the stats to back it up, but I’m almost certain our yards after contact dropped significantly after he went down. He’s a true playmaker, and we need him on the field. Gant looked dinged up to me. His vision and elusiveness were there, but he didn’t show much burst or explosiveness. M. Williams did fine with the opportunities he got, though he’s not on the same level as the first two backs. WR: The one good deep ball Finley threw was dropped by Adams, and that pretty much set the tone for the passing game. I don’t recall Adams getting many, if any, targets after that drop. I was also left wondering why Mason didn’t see many targets earlier—he made a few catches late, and it’s clear he brings something the other receivers don’t. There’s definitely talent in this group, and they’ll need to come down with some tough catches, but there weren’t many quality balls to work with. TE: Outside of some decent blocks in the run game, we got very little from this position. Newell did not suit up and our other tight ends did not make much of an impact. OL: Coming into the season I felt good about the IOL and had more concerns with the OTs. As it turned out, the tackles held up fine while the interior had issues in pass protection. There were also several times when the pocket was there for Finley to step into, but he bailed and scrambled into trouble—very reminiscent of early 2024. Overall, the OL was serviceable in the run game and created some holes. I’m not calling this a top-half MAC unit by any stretch, but they did enough to give the offense a chance. I think our two OTs (Johnson and King) played the entire game. DL: JUCO transfer DT Julien Laventure was a terror against Wyoming’s All-MWC linemen. Defensive ends Dall and Durham had their moments too. The rest of the DL may not have stood out individually, but they did a solid job holding their ground and making life tough on the OL. Credit to our new defensive line coach for landing Laventure. Now the focus has to be on developing some depth for when he comes off the field. LB: I’ll be honest, I didn’t see any drop-off in our linebacker play from last year. Multiple guys rotated in, and from what I could tell, they were rarely out of position or missing tackles. Summers and Cooper took the majority of snaps. True freshman Markus Boswell managed to come up with an interception in limited play. CB: I thought our cornerbacks were excellent in both coverage and run support. Granted, Wyoming really only had one true playmaker at receiver, but as a group the corners held up well. DeWalt, White (before injury), and Reed especially stood out. NB: I could be wrong here, but I’m fairly confident saying I counted several missed tackles that turned into big plays in the run game, plus a key reception in the 4th quarter by a receiver who wasn’t anything special. We definitely missed Darrian Lewis. Hopefully play at this spot improves quickly. S: Anderson picked up right where he left off last year, and his running mate was mostly DiMarco Johnson. Both stepped up at different times and looked well prepared. ST: Outside of a long missed 49(?) yard field goal, special teams were excellent. The lone kickoff was deep, punting and coverage were fantastic—no major mistakes in any area. Coaching: Offensively, I thought the game plan was fine, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I liked how often we ran the ball in the first half and tried to get it our best playmaker, Patrick. Normally, that’s a formula for success. But throwing the ball in the end zone after punishing Wyoming’s defense with the run on that drive was inexcusable. The sad part? I even said out loud, “we better not throw the ball here,” and sure enough… In no universe should this team be getting shut out by a not-so-good (to be polite) Wyoming team. Defensively, we gave up too many yards, but the unit made big stops repeatedly. Can’t fault the defense for this loss. Rotation: QB: Finley Johnson RB: Patrick Gant M. Williams WR: Adams Polk Louis Mason Grear Walker Monterio TE: Cravaack Whisner LT D. Johnson LG McManus A. Jones C Lyons Morris RG Davis Archer RT King DE: Durham D. Frazier Dall Cheatom Duncan DT: Laventure Mixon Hull Murphy LB: Cooper Boswell Summers Spriggs CB: White DeWalt Reed Kamara NB: Al. Branch Thomas Aa. Branch S: Johnson Al. Branch Anderson Al. Branch ST: KO - Wiley K - Wiley P - Castle Johnson I checked PFF against what I thought I saw and they have some players listed that I don’t remember seeing: Hunter Madden Vega Benenge J. Frazier Top Rated on Offense (At least 20 snaps): (RB) Patrick (RT) King (LG) A. Jones (LT) D. Johnson (RB) Gant Top Rated on Defense (At least 20 snaps): (LB) Summers (LB) Cooper (DT) Laventure (CB) DeWalt (S) J. Anderson

They do give them away for free to students and they still don't show. That alone speaks to the quality of the product.

The problem is we are a cupcake in the FBS and have been one for much of the past 10 years. Saying a mid MAC team could win 7 games with this schedule is irrelevant as we haven't proven ourselves to be one. Outside of Kent and Duquesne I wouldn't feel comfortable penciling in any "for sure" wins. That's not me saying we will only win two games, but those are the only ones I'm confident in us winning. Getting to 7 wins when you're an underdog (many of which 10+ points) in all but 3 or 4 games is a challenge.

I'm willing to say it's early with the new AD. But it's going to get late early, too.

Lawd Still can't purchase Football or Basketball gear unless we go on Ebay and buy it from Akron players who sell their gear on the low. Can't even buy exclusive Lebron Gear/Shoes. Any AD with a brain would take advantage of that to raise money/generate revenue. Different AD = Same results

They didn't have anything for people over 110 pounds either

Does the team store sell any football jerseys? They usually don't.

Game day experience: 1) One ticket window open and I ask how much is it to sit in lower bowl-all we have is upper level seating...what? 2) infocision is in need of repair, ponding water in upper deck with water leaking below in a lot of spots 3) how do we not have an led ribbon board on both sides, only between the 35 yd lines showing towards the home side. It would make the stadium pop with a full led ribbon on both sides 4) Hey team shop, can we get maybe some mini speed helmets? I was among 3 people that asked. (Why do I want one, I ask that same question as to why I fly the A flag on game day) 5) Why are the speakers so loud? 6) Final rant, hey band knock it off for maybe one play? The game, horrible per usual as this is a poorly coached offense. I give the D some credit.

Crisis averted, it appears

What's sad is that the defense was pretty fun to watch, and the Zips have another good punter. But they have the single worst offense in FBS, it appears, with a head coach completely unwilling to give anyone else a shot to quarterback it.

Will Viking basketball teams be playing in the "open air stadium"?? 🤭

They should give away thousands of tickets. Seems to be the right price for the product.

Football program doesn’t deserve a dime from anyone. Nobody should go to their games. Go watch some soccer and basketball. Ridiculous

They TV team indicated that the coaches told Finley not to try to win the game by himself and to trust the system. It seemed like he was not throwing any high risk passes downfield that would lead to interceptions. However, that interception in the end zone was so reminicent of the terrible passes he threw last year. He threw it to the defense, the Akron receiver was not in frame, and he was closely covered. I was hoping that they would try to run the ball since Finley has thrown so many stupid passes in his career. Does anyone want to guess when Akron will have their first score. Does not look good next week against Nebraska.

There won't be many MAC teams that score zero points this week. In 2025, it's almost impossible to get shut out. It's a level of malpractice ranking right up there with a doctor amputating the wrong leg. Wyoming isn't even a very good team. Joe is finished. They can fire him tomorrow or they can wait until the end of the season. I really don't care when. If they fire him now, it makes the type of fan who always wants to fire the coach happy, but they will probably want to fire two replacements by the end of the season. That level of Nihilism is insatiable. I don't think it matters either way, but I don't care at this point. The program isn't dead, but it's close.

At least we have soccer tomorrow night to take the sting off this one.

I certainly wasn't as high on the Zips as some on this board, but I bought into the idea that we should at least match our 2024 win total and maybe fight for bowl eligibility (even though that doesn't actually matter this year). For me, it was mostly because I was excited to see what Finley could do in a second year in the system with what I believed were some quality (for the MAC) playmakers. I can't believe how bad the offense looked tonight. It is incredibly obvious that there is no trust in anyone except for Sean Patrick to make plays, with how much they were trying to force the ball to him, and he got hurt and was out of uniform for the whole second half. I'm also incredibly frustrated that the Zips brought in a new guy to pretend to be Tahj Bullock, which just means come in for a single play, an obvious QB run for 3 yards, and then leave again.

Just a gut punch. So frustrating.

It's a 6-7 win schedule for even a bad football program. The regression tonight on offense wasn't on my bingo card. This was the most embarrassing loss I've ever witnessed as an Akron football fan.

I never really understood the optimism many had coming in to this season. We weren't good last year and we lost a good chunk of our best players to either graduation or poachers. We notably have one of, if not the smallest, NIL budget in the MAC so it's not like we're in a position to upgrade. Outside of blind optimism I'm not sure how anyone could have thought this was going to be a 6 or 7+ win team. Another 3 or 4 win season incoming.

Can’t blame them. I would too if I wasn’t cursed like the rest of you.