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I never met Gerry in person. Only attended one of his games, when Terry Forbes' McKinley team whooped Moeller in the snow at the Rubber Bowl for the OHSAA title. However I know what a truly fine man he was. I attended the Notre Dame game versus Hawai'i at Aloha Stadium in the early '90s. Several Notre Dame fans saw my AKRON ZIPS cap and came up to tell me we were fortunate to have a great guy and leader of men as our football coach! But an even more personal story occurred around that same time just around 1990 or '91. I used to call a service that you would call on your land-line phone and listen to college basketball and football games -- it was HQ'ed in Akron. Well after a while I got the idea it would be cheaper to call Akron's radio station myself (WHLO then) and listen to the games. I called and they would put me on hold so I could hear the broadcast. About the third time I called the receptionist asked for my phone number. I thought she meant in case I was cut off she could call back. But about a week later I got a call about 5:00 Hawai'i time (10 or 11 in the evening in Ohio. After answering, the voice on the other end said "Hello, this is coach Gerry Faust. I hear you've been calling the station to hear our games! I just wanted to thank you for being such a great fan". I almost peed my pants! Again, late at night a college football coach makes a cold call to a stranger to just say thanks. That's the kind of guy Gerry Faust was!

Joe did what he was told. The customer is always right. During the selection process there were better designs. More clever designs. And Guthrie forced his lame, amateur Graphic Designer effort on us. Beyond that, he fixed a problem that didn’t exist, when he should have been focusing on real problems. Yay…he rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic. There’s a reason the guy’s gone, and it isn’t because anyone was impressed with his graphic designer capabilities. Hope our next AD isn’t a putz. Based upon history there’s a 75% chance he/she/they will be.

Years ago...maybe during the Brookhart era...we were playing Kent (at Kent). The Zips were forced to punt from their own endzone late in the 4th quarter. If Kent just let the punt drop on the field, they could run out the clock and win the game. The Kent return man tried to field the ball, dropped it, the Zips recovered and won the game. Completely improbable. This era of Zips football reminds me of that Kent team. Or the Morgan State team that could have beaten the Zips last year if they just took a knee instead of running it and giving the Zips a scoop 6 on the ensuing fumble. The Zips do stupid things. Incomprehensibly botched executions of fundamentals. And it is repeatable. Dropped handoffs to close-out games against CMU and Buffalo 2 years ago. Missed 31 yard FG's to beat Indiana. Three turnovers + a turnover on downs against Buffalo last week...in the first quarter! Weekly fumbled punts... If you're a Zips opponent, just hang around long enough against them and they'll beat themselves.

Zips basketball TOMORROW!

Groce did a good job explaining that our OOC schedule this season features some of the best mid-major programs this season. Ark St, St Mary's, N Kentucky and Milwaukee are all predicted to be March madness contenders. Sit back and enjoy the ride. By March we will be there too.

That actually made me laugh. Ive given stats about the game which were shot down. And now facts about recruiting that’s been shot down. I could debunk the “smaller players” statement with size stats that I’m sure would also get shot down. So not going to bother. When facts are ignored, it’s not worth my time to continue the conversation.

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?categoryId=21&articleId=53982&articleTitle=best-of-mens-college-soccer-week-ten Player to Watch: Emil Jaaskelainen, Akron He is far from a secret, but what Jaaskelainen is doing this season deserves an isolated look. The graduate senior leads the country with 20 goals, six more than anyone else. Add the seven assists, and Jaaskelainen leads with 47 points, 14 more than the closest competitor. The British forward has been the best striker in college soccer while also peaking at the perfect time, with 17 of those goals coming in the last nine matches for the Big East regular season champions. Identified as a preseason transfer to watch, adding the two-time NEC Player of the Year from Long Island has clearly been a success for the Akron Zips. It must be the tips he learned from his father, Jussi Jaaskelainen, an English Premier League goalkeeping legend who played more than 800 matches.

Game ball for his first NBA points.

Under the Big East Update, someone asked if the Zips could still get a top 16 seed if they lose to Georgetown on Thursday. I thought it would be good ....to look at where the zips currently stand. The zips were 29 in RPI at the start of the day. Western Michigan losing in their conference quarterfinals to Evansville ...badly hurt the zips in RPI Cleveland State lost in their conference QF's to Green Bay. The zips are currently 32 in RPI. ...as of 11:45 pm on Sunday night Don't get me wrong.....Based on the last 11 games, the zips deserve to be a top 16 seed. Sadly, IU-Indy and Temple are dragging them down now. If the zips beat Georgetown and Providence to win the big east tourney, they definitely deserve to be a top 16 seed. But , it will be tough to jump from 32 into the top 16. Let's look at the non-league schedule of the zips ....and current records and current RPI I think that Ohio State and St. Francis are the only teams that are still playing in their conference tourneys Ohio State is 1 in current RPI....will play Michigan for conference tourney title Western Michigan is currently 30 Notre Dame is currently #47 and will not make the NCAA tourney When the Zips played VCU, VCU was #13 in the country VCU ended the year 4-6-7 and is currently #59 in RPI Cleveland State finished their year 7-7-3 and is currently #89 in RPI Temple ended their year 5-7-3 and currently #108 St. Francis is still playing ...they are 7-6-2 and are at #114 Wright State ended the year 7-9-2 and are #141 IU Indy finished with a record of 5-9-3 and are currently #156 The 48 team tournament field is comprised of 22 automatic conference bids and 26 at large bids. I used Gaucho Dan's conference RPI rank.......to look at the 22 automatic conference bids https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/Conference RPI Rank he ranks the conferences 1 to 22 I will list the conferences from 22 to 1........ I think that there are 10 conferences that will almost certainly have only 1 bid Metro Atlantic is ranked 22 4 teams left in the semis Rider 85 ; Iona 99 ; Siena 139 Marist 158 Ohio Valley Conference is ranked 21 4 teams left in the semis SIUE 76 ; Lindenwood 128 ; HCU 164 ; UIW 174 Northeast is ranked 20 4 teams left in the semis...including a zips opponent Mercyhurst 111 ; St. Francis 114 ; LIU 130 ; Fairleigh Dickinson 138 Atlantic Sun is ranked 19 4 teams play in Semis Monday night Central Arkansas 137 ; N. FLA 152 ; Stetson 157 ; Fla Gulf Coast 185 Patriot League -is 18....4 teams left Colgate 116 ; Bucknell 123 ; American 125 ; Boston U 165 Big South is ranked 17 High Point at 39 will play Gardner Webb (66) for the conference title WAC is ranked 16 San Diego State 46 ; Seattle 58 ; San Jose State 166 ; Utah Tech 172 Horizon League is number 15 Oakland 101 ; Milwaukee 103 ; Green Bay 106 ; Robert Morris 122 Southern Conference is ranked number 14.....they are a long shot to get 2 teams into the tourney Furman is 69 in RPI and they will play ETSU (#105) for the league's automatic bid North Carolina Greensboro lost on PK's to Furman.......Greensboro is currently #36... I would think that they would drop during the week......and not get an at large bid Big West is ranked 13 #35 Cal Santa Barbara will play #65 UC Davis for league's automatic bid if Santa Barbara does not win, will they get an at large? Ivy League is ranked #12....they will definitely get 2 teams... if one of the 2 underdogs wins, they could get 3 teams in semis = #5 Penn vs. #77 Brown #19 Cornell vs. #41 Princeton West Coast Conference is ranked #11 they do not do a conference tournament...but 2 teams will likely get in San Diego is the favorite to win the league...they are 6-1-0 and play #124 Loyola Marymount in last regular season league game San Diego is currently #21 in RPI Oregon State is currently 5-1-1 ...they play #86 Portland in league game Oregon State is currently #20 in RPI American Athletic is ranked #10 semis - #34 Charlotte vs. #97 S. Florida #67 FIU vs. #98 Memphis Charlotte probably needs to win the tournament to get in American East is ranked #9 If Vermont does not win the league, will they get in semis - Vermont #28 vs. #84 UMBC #43 New Hampshire vs. #62 Bryant Atlantic 10 is ranked #8...they will get at least 2 teams in...possibly more semis - #11 Dayton vs. #29 Fordham #38 George Mason vs. #49 St. Louis UMass is currently #22 in RPI their season has ended as they lost on PKs to St. Louis in conference quarters Missouri Valley is ranked #7 If Missouri State does not win the tourney, that will really hurt teams on the bubble semis - #7 Missouri State vs. #82 Evansville #40 Drake vs. #60 Bowling Green Western Michigan is currently #30....their season ended 2-1 in double OT to Evansville Coastal Athletic is ranked #6 again, bubble teams...desperately want Hofstra to win Tourney final - #4 Hofstra vs. #73 UNCW Big East is ranked #5....bubble teams are rooting against St. John's semis - #16 Providence vs #71 St. Johns #10 Georgetown vs. # 32 Akron Sun Belt is #4....bubble teams want either Marshall or West Virginia to win the league semis - #13 Marshall vs #64 James Madison #15 West Virginia vs. #63 Kentucky Surprisingly, the Summit League is ranked #3 for conferences the final will be played on the 16th #2 Denver will play #37 Kansas City if Kansas City were to upset Denver, I would guess that they would move into the 20's for RPI Denver is obviously a lock for the NCAA The big Ten is #2 rated as a conference league final - #1 Ohio State vs #27 Michigan Indiana is currently #18...they lost to Michigan in conference QF Maryland is currently #24 in RPI.....they supposedly have a lot of players injured...they lost 6-0 to UCLA in conference quarters Washington is currently #25 in RPI...lost to Ohio State in league semis UCLA is definitely a bubble team...they are currently #33 in RPI....lost on PK's in semis to Michigan as you would expect, the ACC is ranked #1...... they probably expect to have 10 teams in the tournament lots of upsets in their conference tournament #9 conference seed Virginia and #11 seed California are in the semis semis - Virginia finishes 9th in league...they are currently #6 in RPI and will play #23 Wake Forest #14 Clemson will face #26 Cal in other semi Pitt is currently #3 in RPI...they won regular season but lost in quarters today to Virginia Duke is currently #8 in RPI...they were 3 seed in conference tourney...but lost in quarters today to California SMU is currently #12 in RPI...they lost on PK's today to Wake Forest North Carolina is #17...they lost in tourney round of 16 to California Stanford is currently #9 in RPI.....they lost in quarters to Clemson I don't think that NC State deserves to be in tourney...but their RPI is currently higher than Akron NC State is 31....they lost in round of 16 to Virginia I will post this now....will try to do a 2nd post ...before I call it a night

Not only was he interviewing for a job on Akron's company time, he was apparently working on the rebranding of the Fordham logo while still employed at UA? Someone in the Athletic Department found these renderings when they were cleaning out his desk.

This is... AWESOME 🔥🔥🔥

The Tip-off reception was a very nice event. As always, Groce worked the room like a pro. The team really seems to enjoy each others' company. As before, there was a lot of talk about character, selflessness and core principles. Nate was the player chosen to take the stage with Groce and answer questions. There was a discussion about how hard it is to get teams to come to the JAR to play the Zips. Most of the kids did a nice job of going around the room and interacting. Lyles looks much bigger through the chest and shoulders. Tavari looks like he grew a couple of inches. You could pass Seth Wilson on the street and have no idea he was a D1 basketball player. Josiah Harris moves and looks the part of a real player. Hardman, the OSU transfer, is purportedly the best shooter on the team with a great shot and a quick trigger. Eric Mahaffey was sporting a large knee brace for a sprained MCL and will likely be out another couple of months (redshirt?). Brisco is likely to redshirt. Okonkwo wasn't there as he was in class. The team will be very deep (10-11 players) and is looking to play at a very fast pace and will be able to mainatin pace due to their depth. Rebound the ball and off to the races. After the YSU game, the YSU coach called Groce and thanked him for showing them they needed more cardio as the Zips pace wore them down, while Groce thought the Zips had not played fast enough.

OFFENSE QB: Finley was a mixed bag…again. At times, he threw some pinpoint passes and at other times he was just off. Finley completed 48% of his throws for 250 passing yards and a touchdown. Finley did finish the contest without an interception (despite putting the ball in harms way several times) and did not take a sack. Bullock was effective as a runner and collected 35 yards with 2 touchdowns on the ground. On the negative side, Bullock took a sack, fumbled, and also missed a wide open Cravaack for what would have been a touchdown. RB: For the first time this year, we leaned on the run game - rushing the ball a total of 45 times. Simmons and Kellom finished with over 100 yards rushing a piece. Simmons took a knock on his long run and didn’t seem the same on his two runs after that. Both backs were excellent in pass protection. WR: What a difference a week makes. After 8 drops against NIU, the wideouts caught almost everything that came their way. Norton made several incredibly difficult catches and finished with 5 receptions for 107 yards. The perimeter blocking may have been the best it’s been all year. TE: Newell and Cravaack had only a handful of opportunities in the passing game, but they were extremely effective as blockers. OL: The OL often struggled with Kent’s pass rush. We actually did a nice job of picking up 3rd down blitzes, but besides that it wasn’t always pretty. That said, our run blocking was some of the best it’s been this year. Center T. Williams was dominant against the interior of Kent’s DL and climbed to the linebackers multiple times. He easily had his best game of the season. DEFENSE DL: Moore consistently disrupted plays at NT/DT. Former Zips center Tony Georges was badly overmatched and there wasn’t anything he could do against Moore. The other defensive tackles were solid against the run. Madden managed to collect a sack despite our usual lack of pass rush from the DTs. The DEs did a nice job of containing the edges and forcing plays back to the LBs. Nunnally had one of his best games overall and added another sack. LB: Linebacker play was excellent outside of one gap bust where Summers filled directly beside McCoy. Even though Fish and Summers started the game, McCoy played the most snaps. Summers is coming along, but needs to pump the brakes on running his mouth so much to the opponent. That behavior will eventually cost us. DB: Reed and Golden-Nelson started at CB and are easily our best options at this point. Reed snagged his first interception of the season. Hunter, DeWalt, White, and Jarmen were the backups. J. Anderson returned from injury to start alongside P. Lewis. D. Lewis started at NB and backed up the safeties. Greenwood subbed in at NB. To say P. Lewis and D. Lewis did not have their best games in coverage would be putting it kindly. ST: G. Smith was perfect on FGs and XPs. He went 3 for 3 on both, with a long of 43 yards on FGs. Book did not have his best day, but did manage to pin one punt deep inside Kent territory. Coaching: This was easily the best coached and executed game of the season. There was an emphasis on running the ball and Akron collected 529 yards of total offense compared to 281 for Kent State. As well as the team played, we still had some pre/post snap penalties. Kent is a bad football team. They pretty much did what they’ve done all season, which is get the ball to their three playmakers on offense and hope for the best. We shut down the RB and instead got beat on a few explosive plays by the two WRs. Their defense was as advertised with a few passes rushers and terrible against the run. It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here as far as Burns is concerned. The “youth movement” doesn’t seem to work in today’s age of the portal. The better players will continue to go elsewhere and it’ll be a constant backfill of incoming freshmen. Drayton tried the same thing at Temple and he’s already out the door. Vegas pinned us at 3.5 wins before the season began. Maybe next week we’ll come out and play a clean game (for once this season) and give ourselves a chance to finish on a high note. QB: Finley Bullock RB: Simmons Kellom M. Williams WR: Norton P. Davis WR: Golden Rush WR: Granger Polk Mason TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Morris George C T. Williams Mobley RG: K. Davis Burrell RT: James D. Thomas DE: Nunnally Cheatom Richards DE: Adler Dall DT: Moore Brockington Hull DT: Kapongo Madden Murphy LB: Summers McCoy LB: Fish McCoy NB: D. Lewis Greenwood CB: Reed White DeWalt CB: Golden-Nelson Hunter Jarmen S: P. Lewis D. Lewis S: Anderson D. Lewis Top Offensive Players: HB - Kellom WR - Norton HB - Simmons WR - Polk C - Williams Top Defensive Players: CB - Reed LB - McCoy DT - Moore DE - Nunnally LB - Summers

Akron has not won an NCAA match since 2018. We are lucky to be here. NO LOOKING PAST CURRENT OPPONENT!!!!!!!!

I think this is a really favorable draw. Zips will have no one but themselves to blame if they can't claw through this side of the bracket. Georgetown got a number 4 seed and we beat them once and should have beaten them a second time. Zips are a real sleeper team and without those terrible losses in the middle of the season, which seem like a year ago they would be one of the top 16 seeds. That's very dangerous when you are play-in team. Hopefully, this is our very first NCAA win in 6 years.

Happy to be in the tournament. Ecstatic to have a home match.

I thought the 12 man defense was an interesting wrinkle. Unfortunately, the officials were not fond of it.

I know it's kind of a tired topic with the logo, but this one is indeed my favorite. I also liked the A-roo but it wasn't really instantly recognizable as a kangaroo. Looked a bit too much like a donkey. But the Z is so unique, there are only two colleges in the country that start with a Z and I don't think anybody would confuse us with Zane(sville) community college nor Zaytuna college. There are over 100 institutions of higher learning that begin with A, and more than a dozen Division 1 football teams. For a logo you want something that is instantly identifiable, connected and has some uniqueness to it. I thought the Z was fantastic. I hate the rationale of going back to an A to be more connected with the community. I think that was a load of crap. Long live the Z!

Shockingly, Dennis Helsel, Tom Wistercill and Larry Williams were not invited to join.

And still only one loss in two years of regular season conference play. Man where would the Zips be if they hadn't choked those two away against Temple and IU-Indy? But that's ok, maybe make some folks underestimate them.

Zips were number 24 in coaches poll last week they rocket this week up to number 13 https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/

It would be great to see the Zips play a clean game. No stupid celebration penalties after a score or a sack. No shanked kickoffs or punts No surrendering 95+ yard drives No muffed kickoff or punt returns No letting the opponent drive the length of the field in the closing seconds of the half or game. i can dream, can’t I?

Saturday, November 9th. Home tournament game! Nothing better than November akron soccer

Make sure...that you read the entire post.....you will be super happy to read the last thing that I typed Xavier looked like a good soccer team when they played Akron tonight, Xavier played Butler . Butler was 0-5-0 in the league Butler beat the snot out of Xavier tonight. Butler with a 5-1 win St. Johns moved into a first place tie atop the east division with a 1-0 win over Seton Hall U Conn came into tonight with a 3-1-1 league record Providence had a quality 2-1 win tonight over a good UConn team Congratulations to the Big East Midwest Division Champions....the mighty Akron Zips !!! Big East standings Midwest Akron 6-0-0 18 Marquette 2-2-2 8 Creighton 2-3-1 7 DePaul 1-3-2 5 Xavier 1-3-2 5 Butler 1-5-0 3 East G'Town and St. Johns both 4-1-1 13 Providence 3-1-2 11 UConn 3-2-1 10 Seton Hall 2-3-1 7 Villanova 0-5-1 1 Saturday games Providence at Villanova noon DePaul at Georgetown 1 pm UConn at St. Johns 2 pm Butler at Creighton 4 pm Seton Hall at Xavier 7 pm Akron at Marquette 8 pm...........................game will be on FloFC saving the best part for last at 9;42 PM.....the zips are showing as #21 in RPI https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

Outstanding team effort tonight. I am so happy to see the zips score a rebound goal tonight. Victor Gaulmin deserves to be in the post game press conference. Victor probably had his best game as a zip. He made some outstanding passes. The zips midfield of WKWK, Matt Dreas and Victor Gaulmin controlled the middle of the field in the last 80 minutes of the game Jonas Buechte really was fantastic in the 2nd half. He anticipated very well and he totally shut down Creighton on Jonas's half of the field. Chad Welker was bragging on Josh Hardin at the end of the game. Josh Hardin deserves a ton of credit. He was a highly touted junior and did not have much impact as a freshman. The young man has worked very hard and is now an excellent right back. The coaches have done well to make adjustments after the 1-3-3 start. What I love to see about the team is how they have multiple guys attacking the goal when there is an opportunity. Emil J. is obviously a gifted goal scorer. But, Emil also has great vision and he is a very unselfish passer. Dyson, WKWK, Victor, and Malik know that if they attack the goal, Emil will almost always see them and good things will happen. Finally, I do not know whose job it is........to promote Emil J. for the Hermann Trophy. I assume that is the job of the soccer SID. That person better be working super hard to promote Emil J as the player that should win the Hermann Trophy. Emil J. is a true team player. His work rate is off the charts. He has spectacular vision and is a great scorer/passer. 15 games - 18 goals and 7 assists. Spectacular.

So happy to be a Zip fan. We may not have won an NCAA game but we have a Zip in the NBA. Amazing trip to the NBA.

Offensive and Defensive players of the week!!! 🤩🤩

Ok.....you have read all that.... like me...you probably wonder where the cutoff point is.... let's find out together I am not a predictor.... for this purpose, I am going to say the highest RPI team(still playing) wins the conference tourney (yes, I know that means that I list Georgetown rather than Akron)...... but I need to be consistent I am going to use San Diego as winning their last game and getting bid....they have lower RPI than Oregon State but they should beat LMU 22 conference automatics 22. Metro Rider 85 21. OVC SIUE 76 20. Northeast Mercyhurst 111 19. Atlantic Sun Central Arkansas 137 18. Patriot Colgate 116 17. Big South High Point 39 16. WAC San Diego State 46 15. Horizon Oakland 101 14. Southern Furman 69 13. Big West Cal Santa Barbara 35 12. Ivy League Penn 5 11. West Coast San Diego 21 10. American Ath Charlotte 34 9. American East Vermont 28 8. Atlantic 10 Dayton 11 7. MVC Missouri St 7 6. Coastal Athl Hofstra 4 5. Big East Georgetown 10 4. Sun Belt Marshall 13 3. Summit Denver 2 2. Big Ten Ohio State 1 1. ACC Virginia 6 Ok.....I am wearing down....but let me try to list the 26 at large in ascending order please let me know if you spot any logic errors 1. Pitt #3 2. Duke #8 3. Stanford #9 4. SmU #12 5. Clemson #14 6. West Virginia #15..........WVU is the first non ACC team listed 7. Providence #16 8. North Carolina #17 9. Indiana #18 10. Cornell #19 11. Oregon State #20 12. UMass #22 13. Wake Forest #23 14. Maryland #24 15. Washington #25 16. Cal #26 17. Michigan #27 18. Fordham #29 19. Western Michigan #30 20. NC State #31 21. Akron #32 22. UCLA #33 23. UNC-Greensboro #36 24. Kansas City #37 25. George Mason #38 26. Drake #40 last 5 out Princeton #41 Wisconsin #42 New Hampshire #43 VA Tech #44 Northwestern #45 Princeton and New Hampshire would probably move up if they won in the semis and lost in the finals

How many here remember when we had our last NCAA tourney run and the U had a couple of nice watch parties at the JAR, with cash bar and all? How nice would it be to do again for semi-final match Thursday night? Great for students, fans, casual fans.

For mere entertainment value, bring on the Extra Time. But the fact is that two 10 minute halves of ET rarely breaks the tie. Both sides usually just hunker down and wait for the end. The NCAA discovered a few years ago that the score at end of regulation usually is the score at FT. A longer ET may (or may not) render different results. But the season is already extremely compact. The extra strain on players, fans, and infrastructure was correctly identified as a negative cost/benefit.

From a late 90's Zips basketball game against Buffalo - Joe Dunn - "Dan, you were down over 20 points for the entire second half, and in the last minute cut it to 2 points. What happened?" Dan Hipsher - "Joe...it's easy to shoot threes when your down 20."

Hello Zips Fans! I am back again for my favorite time of year until March with OOC play. This will be a lot more brief due to the fact nobody has played yet and preseason projects are a bit random sometimes. A new era of zips basketball begins now! I will provide more in depth updates around the start of conference play! NET is from last year so i'm using Bart as a fill in Arkansas State Conference: Sun Belt BART: 107 Strong Opponents: Alabama, Little Rock, Indiana State, Memphis, UAB, MAC-SBC matchup II Should be a fun matchup in the MAC-SBC Arkansas State has very high expectations we will see if they meet them! Ohio Wesleyan Division: III Free Space Saint Mary's Conference: WCC BART: 39 Strong Opponents: Gonzaga x 2, Washington State x 2, San Francisco x 2, Nebraska, USC, Utah, Utah State People are mad we don't have a P4 team on the schedule. Saint Mary's is about as close as you can get to a P4 without being one. They are right below Gonzaga in recent years and is expected to finish second in a stacked WCC conference I'm expecting to be a 3-4 bid league with the additions of the PAC-2. This would be a massive win for the Zips or a Strong Loss at minimum. Lamar Conference: Southland BART: 276 Strong Opponents: Texas AM, McNeese State x 2, Louisiana, Texas Tech Omaha Conference: Summit BART: 306 Strong Opponents: Minnesota, UNLV, Iowa State, 2 Big Sky teams Alabama State: Conference: Southwestern BART: 273 Strong Opponents: UNLV, LSU, Cincinnati, Missouri I am not going to sugarcoat it these 3 teams are very rough. But we get 3 homes that will allow Groce to find the best lineups possible for the future and to prep for the 3 day marathon known as the MAC Tournament You never know we might find the next diamond in the rough like with Gardner Webb's decent showing last year. Northern Kentucky Conference: Horizon BART: 156 Strong Opponents: Florida State, Purdue, Cincinnati, Charleston, Horizon League had a crazy year last year so we need to beat them down every chance we get. NKU has a gauntlet in November so they will appear worse than we think heading into our matchup. As we saw last year we cannot take them lightly or else we might need another game winning dunk. Suny Brookport Division: III Free Space 2 Milwaukee Conference Horizon BART: 166 Strong Opponents: Duquesne, UCF Same thing has NKU except Milwaukee has an extremely weak schedule. I will mention this is a neutral site game as well which will add some spice. Yale Conference: Ivy BART: 124 Strong Opponents: Purdue, Minnesota, Vermont, Princeton The smart kids have been hooping. Yale had an amazing tournament and will look to continue their momentum this year. Really excited for this matchup at this Invitational. Jackson State/UTEP TBD Princeton Conference: Ivy BART: 97 Strong Opponent: Rutgers, Duquesne, Saint Joes, Yale Pretty cake schedule for Princeton. I expect them to have a nice record when we travel to face them in December MAC vs SBC Classic Matchup #2 TBD Average BART: 171 Not the best schedule I will admit it. However I think it was made to allow our team to gain chemistry and figure out the best lineups before MAC play without getting steamrolled for paychecks. Very excited for the new year I will be keeping tabs on every team on the list. Please put any updates or thoughts if you want! Thanks for reading!

Any hopes of an at-large bid rest on this game. I'm concerned.

No. Yes.

We aren’t undersized. We aren’t out-athleted. We just play stupid, indisciplined football.

That doesn't include Yale and Vermont, which are perennial March contenders. I love this schedule. Sure the "big names" aren't on it and there isn't even a flashy early season tourney, but the competition should be some of the best we've seen in recent memory. I laughed at the coach who said they haven't had anyone good enough to be plucked and paid. 😂

The full article.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brown-Demery work his way onto the two deep as a freshman.

GoZips.com is now showing the game will be on ESPN+ 8:00 p.m. EST

If they play for the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back they'll be just fine.

I want a coach who can win secret scrimmages as well as MAC Championships. Groce shouldn't show his face at the tip off reception Wednesday and if he does he better have some good answers after this debacle.

The general public of Summit County and beyond do not realize what they are missing. We are witnessing one of the best single player seasons in NCAA MSOC history. Emil Jaaskelainen is a great college player. No exaggeration. Never have I seen extraordinary production look so... mundane. The last time Zips had a superb, classic, back to the goal target man, true #9, was Matt English. Who was Matt English? Ask around. Starting to notice that tingle, last felt in 2018. Remember when Marcel Zajac went nuts? Get your tix.

Imagine the program you supposedly root for having its best win since Bowdens last season and not being happy about it. Couldn’t be me.

There will be a large pool of Power 4 conference players looking for homes next season when the 28 roster limit is imposed. Many schools have 35-40 players on their roster. There are already a large number of Class of 25 players announcing on social media that their verbal offers have been revoked and they are looking for a new school. It’s likely a safe recruiting pitch to say to them, that they could come to Akron and “heavily contribute” immediately. It would take some financial creativity because Akron will definitely not fund 28 scholarships, but finding enough for 2 or 3 power four level, attacking players would be worth the investment and effort.

From that video it looks like the Pacers players and coaches are starting the appreciate what we had in Enrique. I couldn't be happier for the kid.

I was taught in 8th grade to not field the punt if it was inside the 10. Stand on the 10 and if the punt is over your head you simply let it go. My coach was the assistant middle school principle who was also the wrestling coach and assistant track coach. Here we are playing D-1 college ball and how many times have we fielded the punt inside the 10 the last few years? I'm so confused. It's so simple. I'm aggravated and dumbfounded. I can't wrap my head around the issue.