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I can confirm, per a very reliable source, that Coach Embick is staying at Akron. With that said, the University and its Athletic Department continue to face financial issues. I believe that we, who love Zips Men's Soccer, need to find ways to help support our beloved program to keep it strong. I'm asking as someone who dearly loves UA and our Men's Soccer team. I love so much seeing DeAndre, Wil, and Darlington suit up in the red, white, and blue and hearing Akron mentioned when they take the field. I look forward to others who may yet take that step one day. The same for all of our players in the English Premier League, MLS, and USL. I can't imagine losing that. Getting the word out for more folks to buy season tickets, I'm sure, would be a help. The success of the program and the recent run of articles in the Beacon Journal (ohio.com) should help convince other soccer fans that our program is worth their investment. I think we'll need to go beyond that, though, and try to rally our fan base and alumni to help raise additional funds. One way I know offhand that folks can help is through giving to the Goal Club or Friends of Men's Soccer, regardless of the amount. If anyone has experience leading fundraisers, I'd be willing to help. Please PM me.

This is a early wonderful Christmas present.

Zips voice, many excellent thoughts I was typing a reply.....at the same time that Zip_ME87 was typing a reply. I have very similar comments. The situation for Akron soccer is much, much larger than Jared's compensation. I have seen articles that Lolla at Louisville made $330,000 this year and would make $350,000 in 2019 (if he had stayed). Suffice it to say, Jared's compensation is not near that high level. I have never spoken with Coach Embick but I know that his concern would be for a budget 1)that allows him to retain his high quality assistants....Ger is considered to be a great goalkeeper coach....; TJ, Ger had to do yeoman work with Jared late in the year as they were one coach down ; Funds need to be good to bring in another top notch assistant 2) a budget that allows Jared, Ger, TJ and others to travel to Portugal, Spain, Italy and all parts of the US to evaluate student athletes that will be the best fit for zips soccer ; 3) support for the student athlete...that help them perform well in school and on the field.... A) a few years ago...might have been 2015,the Beacon had an article about the cost of freezing cold ice baths....and how often that the team could afford to do that...I know that there is a technical term for the freezing baths but it helps the players recover quicker. I remember from the article...that Victor Souto was the first brave zip to get into the freeze bath.....If those are still the best mechanism to help athletes recover, boosters need to help donate money to have funds for that. B. ) Sports now are mental as well as physical...are funds available to the soccer program for sports psychologists?...again, I have no knowledge if this is something available for zips football, zips basketball, etc. C) Zip_me87...mentioned funds for travel.....travel needs to be set up to allow the student athlete to miss the least amount of school....and be the most rested for the road games....D) Nutrition An immediate concern of mine.....is whether the zip soccer team will be able to take a foreign trip in 2019. The team can take one every 4 years. The 2014 team lost in the round of 64 in the NCAA tourney. That team went to Brazil in 2015 and that team lost on PK's in the college cup in 2015. The players from that team talk about that trip as something that gave them the confidence to have a great year in 2015. This 2018 team was so close to winning it all. A foreign trip would give Carlo, David , Marcel, Skye, Colin, Sam , etal a chance to become even better. The athletic department and Coach Embick and his staff can't accomplish what they want to...without the help of alumni and donors. I, like many of us on this board, like to write. I would be happy to be involved in trying to increase the amount of funds available for our beloved soccer program.

Thank you, Jared Embick for choosing to see the very best in us. We are eternally thankful for your faithfulness. It is now time for UA AD to respond in kind. Akron Soccer must be afforded ALL the Resources and Support commensurate with a perennially elite program. We should not envy any other programs for anything. Larry Williams, recognize the best card in your hand, and play it accordingly. Louisville is unlikely to come for our Basketball coach, or our Football coach. But Louisville evidently really likes our Soccer coaches. There is a message there, Larry. Be smart enough to see it. Invest In Excellence!

I'm not a soccer fan at all, but I have always been impressed with how the program runs. I will get some tix next year for sure. If any fundraising events occur, please put it on the Board. Thanks.

Let's not forget, the Zips had a hurt lineman and a QB who missed some games. Damn, I knew I couldn't say that with a straight face. As for the bowl record, a conference that has to play on odd weeknights just to get coverage is not likely to be strong conference.

@ZipsVoice I don’t know all the numbers. Also, I’m not talking about Jared’s salary/compensation. I don’t know how it compares to what UA was giving Caleb. Im referring to the other support that our program needs. We need to ensure that we have the needed assistants. We also know that Jared and his staff “schedule up” which requires a decent travel budget. Add to that recruiting trips. Also, equipment such as the video system recently mentioned to track our players proficiency on the field. My thought is that there was a grassroots effort to bring back Zips Baseball. I don’t know how it started, who led it, how it worked, or really anything other than that is how Zips Baseball returned. Perhaps we could follow their lead for helping Zips Men’s Soccer. Also, I trust that George Van Horne, Larry Williams, et al have some things in mind. I know the Athletics Dept was extremely supportive of Zips Men’s Soccer, it’s alumni, and fans during the recent trip to the College Cup. Those of us who love our program so much need to somehow take a more active role in keeping it strong. We can’t just look to others to do all of it for us.

Well said. In the words of cousin Eddie, "Thanks Clark".

Just saw this as well and my heart sunk too. Akron is the type of place where good coaches do get poached but you'd hope it would more difficult to do in this situation, thank goodness Jared perhaps explored the possibility and decided Akron was still his best option. I don't have any problem with coaches looking elsewhere that is their right and I am thrilled that it appears we're keeping him. But to Louisville? No school I have less respect for than them. In addition to losing Lolla to them (even though it was a blessing in disguise) they had the two absolute worst low-life football and basketball coaches in the country, Petrino and Pitino. So happy both are now gone but they will forever stain Louisville. There is one University that absolutely sold it's soul. Jared you made a very smart choice to stay, I hope this University appreciates it and shows it.

I am heartened by the news and source reporting that JE is staying, Me_87 is my go-to on what is facts, and if he reports it's not going to happen, I believe... It's great to read from the posters that people want to help to be proactive and fend off any future "attacks" on our coaching staff. Lots of support here on ZNO for more season ticket sales, donations to "booster" organizations, etc. All good stuff. Also the usual call to encourage the Athletic Department and Larry Williams in particular to do all he can to prop up the program more, to invest in it. I'm too lazy and don't really know where to look, but before we can make intelligent arguments to the AD, I'd like to know some numbers. And I know TennZip, ME_87 and fknbuflobo in particular probably can run these down for me.... What is Embick's total compensation at U of A, how does it compare to what we were paying Caleb, and more importantly, where does it rank vs. the "elite" or top 25 NCAA D1 college soccer coaches? Probably harder to find, but how does our total men's soccer budget compare to the top 25 NCAA programs?, Also, where does our annual, season ticket, or per game attendance rank in the top 25 programs? Also recruiting budget? It would be total conjecture and probably not fair to ask but, has anyone heard from coaches, players (current and past) or parents that the men's program is being "short changed" budget or facility-wise by the U? With these things in mind, it will help push or nudge the school and the AD to put the Zip program at the top of all of those lists to make it a very difficult choice for Jared, or any other future coach, to leave the Zips. But how does that defend against an MLS, USL or European club from coming after our coach with BIG $$? That's what happened with Caleb, and despite all of us hating to see him go, we also knew it was a big and great opportunity for him. I think we'd feel the same for Jared. Now, all that being said, we do have to face a few ugly "facts". These are definitely things I think the AD and Board probably do look at. Despite how fervent of fans we are here, and at Stamford, Wake, Maryland, Indiana, (need I go on?) where does NCAA soccer rank in terms of overall college fan interest vs. basketball and football, or baseball for that matter? Not the U of A, but overall NCAA? And how about media? The NCAA was not even able to get ESPN to show the College Cup on ESPN or ESPN2, and that spoke volumes to me of the NCAA influence on their broadcasters. Would NBCSports or FoxSports been a better choice? They might not have any wiggle room to move away from ESPN. Without advertising $ in even a small form, it's tough to allocate $ to any program. We should push the AD to form a better package with the local AM radio for coverage of all matches, home and away. How many did Frenchy show up at, and he admits he knows little about soccer, so we need a better broadcast crew, so that the casual soccer fan might get "hooked" like Blue and Gold just did. Same with our ESPN3 or ESPN+ contracts. I believe there is an audience (modest) and those funds could be funneled back into the program. And how about a weekly half hour cable or tv program with coach (how about Chad Welker or Brad Bourneval as hosts?) to highlight last week's matches and upcoming matches, generate interest and ad $. Okay, I veered waaay off topic. We've got to look at how little the MAC is in relation to NCAA soccer. 6 teams, 2 of which are not full-time MAC programs. One more team leaving the MAC probably is the death knell for it as a MAC sport, and then we need to make sure the AD looks to get us in a conference that is more competitive and gets 4-5 invites to the Big Dance each year. We've got to look at title 9 as well. And we can rail on and on about how the cost of Infocision and the debt service has on all sports at the U, it is a reality that is not going to change. And also, the arguments about whether we should pay a new football coach or basketball coach what we did or do are wonderful to have, but in reality NCAA basketball and or football has the POTENTIAL, even at lowly Akron, for easily more fans to show up, pay $$ to watch and endorse than NCAA soccer. Sorry for the rambling, not much to do the day before Christmas I guess. I'd love for ME_87,, TennZip, fknbuflobo, malone pioneer, anyone who knows where to get this info, to post it, to help us understand what we're up against. Sorry to push it off on you guys, but hey, that's what they pay you the big bucks for!

Carnegie Mellon has a 99% chance in the ACT/SAT team competition.

Little background on these guys while I'm anxiously awaiting the Browns game to start: Matt Feeney: Dublin, OH native. Very young...earned his bachelor's in 2014. Team captain at JCU then joined Arth's staff. Led UTC to the #1 ranked defense in the Southern Conference in 2018, his first year as DC, as the prior DC left to join Kent State... Oscar Rodriguez: Kansas native. A lot of JUCO and D3 experience. ESPN article featuring him and the experience of JUCO recruiting here. Davern Williams: Popular in my eyes from Netflix's popular CFB documentary, Last Chance U. From the south. Played DT a few years in the NFL. Seems to be a real good recruiter and a coach that can connect well with his unit. Scott Aligo: Linked with Arth back to JCU. Also has 6 years of player personnel experience in the NFL. Brian Cochran: Another JCU guy. Coached with Arth his first year at UT-C. Apparently left for a promotion to Kent St in 2018. As far as I can tell, he'd rather be at Akron than KSU (who can blame him). Chris Hurd: Texas native. Played defense in college. Has prior FBS experience. His bio on UT-C site definitely leans on the special teams side. Chris Cook: UTC alum. Had a TE named to the All So-Con team in 2017. Tom Zagorski: Arth's OC at JCU in 2014. Then left for a offensive quality control position at Tennessee. Took another job to EKU the year after as assistant head coach/TE coach. Served as OC the final 4 games of 2018 where he led them to a 4-0 record. Is from Cleveland and definitely has some connections. As 94zipgrad pointed out, there are still a few open positions. Hoping Mounds can still make the cut as there is a real lack of FL connections in this staff.

Exactly. The talent is there, it just seems that his mind wanders sometimes when he's out there.

I appreciated that sequence as well. He was battling down there, was aggressive & wasn't at all intimidated. He didn't score, but it was a good sign. Just keep battling like that, Jaden. You consistently keep battling like that and calls begin to go your way.

I subscribe to some email called TeamRankings & they update the Zips' ranking after each game & give a forecast for their next game. TeamRankings give the Zips a 100% chance to beat the CM Tartan. 99% I can understand. But yeah, they went with 100%

An archived image of MJ scrimmaging against that legendary late 80's Carnegie Mellon defense.

Groce really tightened up the rotation last night. Only seven players saw the court. Neither Olojakapoke nor Roscoe played. Both Utomi & Ivey played 39 minutes while LCJ logged 35 minutes. Nevada was also forced to give the game everything they had, as they also only gave 7 players any PT. Both Martin twins played 39 minutes, while Jordan Caroline logged 37. That was a slugfest last night.

Its just hilarious to me how many of you look down on KD while praising mediocrity

Welcome to being a season ticket holder and thanks for sharing that. That speaks greatly about the support that Jared garners for our program. It was Jared along with Caleb, and the beautiful style of play in 2009, that got me hooked on our team and this sport. Until then, I was a very casual fan who knew little about the game and never really appreciated it. Now, I can't get enough of it. I have a lot to learn, but Jared and company got me interested enough to buy some books to try to learn more. I can get a little over-exuberant at times, but thank goodness people understand or keep me in check. Edit: I bought a season ticket in 2009, the first year season tickets were offered, to get a scarf. I came to one game, and got hooked. I still think our 2009 team was the best in NCAA history. 23-1-1 by NCAA rules. Never gave up a goal in 5 games in the NCAA Tourney but didn't come home with the top prize. Shows how much luck and circumstances contribute to this game of football.

On BigSoccer yesterday, they reported that Coach Embick had turned down the job. obviously, I hope that today's news tweeted above is not true. Coach Embick is the only Akron soccer coach ever that has led his team to the College Cup 3 times. Coach Embick is a tireless recruiter and he works hard to help players improve. We have been very fortunate to have Coach Embick as the leader of the Akron soccer program for the past 6 years. He was the great recruiter during the Caleb Porter years. All of us worried when Caleb Porter left. Coach Embick's great soccer mind and his ability to get the best out of young men...has been the key factor in Akron being a great program for the past 12 years. The financial difficulties of the University of Akron and not having a permanent university president....might finally be hurting the soccer program. if this is the end of the great Embick era, I want to say thank you very much...and wish Coach Embick the best. Honorable, hard working man. Great coach.

You make it sound like winning NCAAT games as a mid-major is easy. You have to win a single game elimination tournament to get there then have to beat a team that has exponentially more resources devoted to their program. We also won NIT games at Florida State and Houston. If you want to count Penn State as "a big game opponent" (which its not) Akron beat them by 25 in 2012 ?

Keep me up on the game guys. I'm caught up observing Daily Mass on the Eternal Word Televison Network on Spectrum 385 where Zips Facebook post said game would be on. (I did find it on WatchESPN)

I like Keith. I think he is a good guy who did his best at Akron before he knew he had to leave. It was time for him and us, but that's another story for those of you who want to continue to fight it out ad nauseum. His outburst against Penn State was a different matter. The AD or President of Duquesne should have suspended him. He embarrassed the university, the team and himself. No athlete would ever, ever be permitted to act that way. The same applies to a coach. I lost all respect for Duquesne University.