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JoeMo is on 92.3 The Fan with Ken Carman and Anthony Lima. - He was in the parking lot of Hoban during the call. His son is in 8th grade, so they're taking a look at the school. - Stressed local recruiting, but also mentioned that the staff he's building has connections all over the country. - Stated they're not going to do anything in this first signing period for recruiting. Needs time to do a roster assessment. - Brought up the 2005 Snow Bowl against PCCC. Stressed the importance of winning the Wagon Wheel. - Stressed being prepared, being ultra competitive, detail oriented, and playing for all 4 quarters. - Mentioned beating Matt Rhule's Temple program while at Fordham. Also reiterated his success at Mississippi State. The interview started and ended with our fight song. Ken was obviously fired up, and Anthony mentioned how great of a hire this is. JoeMo wrapped it up with, "This interview has me when more fired up. That's a big Go Zips!"

That convincing becomes easier when they sit for a year or two and come to the realization that they're never going to be "the guy" at their P5. That's the beauty of the portal. It's much easier to convince that 20 year old after he figures out that he's not the end all be all than it is to convince the same kid at 17 or 18 when he's been the top guy in his geographic area and had smoke blown up his keester for 2 or 3 years by all those around him.

And I think the Iowa State game in Akron was set up long before Matt Campbell was hired. That was a fun trip for us. Very special group of Iowa State fans came for that one. And our band director, Michael Golemo, also a neighbor of mine, brought the entire band, largely because he came to Iowa State from Akron. He sent a big group over to play at our tailgate.

It's the feeling you get when your team is being headed up by a person who is at a minimum competent. I think the new coach is more than competent and everyone should feel optimistic. Competency won the Zips a MAC Championship under Brookhart. Competency got the Zips to a MAC Championship game and a bowl win under Bowden. I liked both coaches, but JoeMo has the "stuff" to be a better coach than both.

I have watched enough crummy teams at the Info. Now that Moorhead is here, I'm happy Kentucky is coming. Something for Zip fans to get excited about for once. Kentucky will bring a good amount of fans to the game. Back in 2010 when we went to the Kentucky game, we had a blast with their fans! Tailgating for Kentucky will be a good atmosphere. Tailgating for some FCS BS team is a borefest. Been there, done that. I remember Lot 9 for Indiana, awesome, I would expect the same for Kentucky. But that's all I care to remember about that day.

Other than he'll actually get to claim them.

I'm not totally sold on it. The Portal isn't going anywhere, and student athletes now have the same ability to come-and-go as coaches...but I don't think it is good for college football. I would be pulling my hair out as a coach after spending a ton of time wooing a kid, only to have him bolt the program for any of the myriad of reason kids transfer now-a-days. I hate that Senior Day now consists of clapping for a bunch of mercenary grad students that you watched for a year or two. I like that the portal allows a downtrodden program like the Zips to get mature bodies and turn things around quickly. But I don't like that future "stars" bolt early (Mumpfield could have broken Matt Cherry and Jabari's records, and now he's gone). It's a shame a Freshman that doesn't get immediate PT bolts a team like the Zips, where he'd have been a starter as a Junior/Senior, and ends up at Slippery Rock. Hopefully Moorhead and his staff can create a culture where the bulk of kids the kids buy-in to each other, and being a Zip, and don't feel like starting over elsewhere. I think the surprisingly low number of incumbent Zips in the portal today (I expected 20+ by now) speaks to them enjoying the UA experience, and seeing some hope that the new regime will give them a chance to start winning at the place where they've invested so much to-date.

If a 4th string QB from Ohio State were being honored at Infocision, Zips "fans" would have paid attention. 🤢 Real Zips fans love Jason Taylor. Yeah, they wish he were more visible in his support of his alma mater, but no real Zips supporter dislikes him. 99% are proud of him. There's just so few of us it looks worse than it is. Additionally - while Taylor was strutting his stuff at the Rubber Bowl, there were probably between 500 - 2000 fans at most home games. And the teams of that era were pretty bad. Few Akronites ever saw him play.

https://www.audacy.com/923thefan/listen#schedule 9am mark to listen.

The transfer portal is a horrible thing if you believe college football was something it simply wasn't before the transfer portal. NIL is a horrible thing if you believe college football was something it simply wasn't before NIL. The transfer portal started in 2018. Since then, college football has only gotten better. Covid has thrown a wrench into things for a year, but coming out of it, we have had the most exciting year of college football in my lifetime. The competition between teams has been great. Where there is better competition, there is better entertainment. Where there is better entertainment, there is more excitement. There is a new complexity to college football and the transfer portal is contributing to that complexity. I drive a lot and I can't tell you all how much I looked forward to turning on ESPNU from 10-1 every weekday this year to listen to Neuheisel talk about college football. He is so much better on the radio because he is a really smart guy who can expand on issues more than when he is on CBS television. He is awesome at distilling the complexity. How entertained are NIU fans with their Michigan State (?) transfer QB? We can be the next NIU! Embrace the transfer portal. It will be our friend.

I agree. I think the Portal is going to benefit the G5 schools more than it will hurt them.

What Coach Joe and others of the G5 coaches can do to improve their teams, in my humble opinion, is figure out a way to convince moderately talented recruits that are being courted by P5 teams that, being here and being a #1 or #2 at your position and playing every game is better than being the #6 through #8 at the big schools at their position, (especially QB!) where their going to run the scouting squad and get their brains handed to them every day by the first team offense in practice, and the chances of them starting, or even playing minimal minutes is non-existent. And I think the transfer portal is proving that, like @94zipgradsaid above, regarding moving down.

This makes me happy :-)

No real surprise since the University almost acts like the didn't attend. They did nothing for him during his Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I bought a table and a few die hard Zips fans went with me. I even offered to make the official Akron table and got no response from the University. No wonder he doesn't feel too embraced.

Too bad you only got an auto-call! 😉

I think that's the joke @Cykron was making. However, if Cykron thought he was actually talking to Joe Moorhead, we might have another Ray Kinsella situation in the corn fields of Iowa... Ease his pain, Cykron, ease his pain...

Just had a very fun experience. Got a call from Akron, Ohio. It was Joe Moorhead inviting me to buy tickets! We talked for a while. He was chatty at first, then didn't say much more. So I gave him all my thoughts about Akron football. To his credit, he didn't dismiss or critique a single one of my ideas. Didn't even interrupt me once while I was talking. Classy guy. Go Zips!

I don't think we will be competing with Oregon for any recruits that Moorhead didn't previously recruit. But those he previously recruited, like the QB from PA in 2024 class, why not check and see if you can get any of them to follow you? Those are the ones that has a chance at possibly considering Akron. After those recruits, I don't expect any "competition" between the schools. I think the bigger chance of taking any players from Oregon will be already on the team. The fact you got Moorhead in the same building as those guys for two weeks and a bowl game can only help.

How humble and understated of you not to mention the Playoffs!

A coaching hire like this restores a little faith that college football may survive the escalating costs (money and otherwise) of the coaching carousel. This is the way it is supposed to be.

I think they were supposed to make a return trip after that one, then.

I'm out of "Likes" for the day, so just wanted to say thank you for this recap!!

Last time we played Kentucky, it was at Kentucky in 2010. One of my favorite away trips. First time I read this!...."Kentucky star Randall Cobb caught five passes for 43 yards and a touchdown but spent the second half on the sidelines with heartburn symptoms." He was at the shrimp boil tailgate party we attended after the game!?!? I swear he was eating.

Indiana and Syracuse as well.

92.3 The Fan just had Moorhead on for an interview. He said a lot of the same things as he did in the Press Conference, but what stood out to me was that he was doing the interview from the parking lot of Hoban High School. Nice to see him over there already! My favorite part of this interview was when he said that wearing little slogans on shirts won't win football games. I hated that stupid "Our Way" crap.

If we are going to be taken seriously by the locals then we need credible teams coming to Info. We need teams like Indiana to come here that have a name but are in reach of us competitively. Having an SEC school come to Akron will generate a lot buzz, especially if we take care of business and are 2-0 going into it. You also don't know what Kentucky team we are getting. A 2 win team or a 9 win team.

I agree but wanted to show what we might expect on the recruiting trail from this coaching staff. The part I took away wasn't the recruit that was offered. The part I took away was Moorhead recruited him while at Oregon. That tells me that Moorhead isn't going to just cut ties with those recruits(including 2022 and 2023) he was recruiting at Oregon and at least see if he can get any to come to Akron.

I'll agree to disagree.

Diogo - 3rd team all american https://gozips.com/news/2021/12/9/mens-soccer-pacheco-garners-third-team-united-soccer-coaches-all-america-accolades.aspx

Why would should that matter? Akron first.

Bring on St. Francis! 😁

Jason Taylor Coaching at St. Thomas Aquinas

Nice article outside of some typos. I wonder who the DC is. Also, coach plans to call plays and apparently prefers to stretch the field more than he did this year at Oregon. I imagine we'll get to see the "real" Moorhead offense in the Alamo bowl if they sit that Sr QB. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/college/zips/2021/12/09/university-akron-coach-joe-moorhead-lays-out-his-philosophies-mid-american-conference-zips/8872891002/

He included a pic of former teammate Zach Morton. I’m sure Morton and Ferri are all over him.

This thread is going to be awfully discombobulated this year. I'm going to keep going with it while continuously updating the initial post. Also, I'm going to post offers I've seen posted on twitter, even if they're not giving us a verbal commitment.

Moorhead taking less money and lining up incentives is also an indicator of his confidence they will be successful.

WMU, NIU, and almost Kent til they choked in the MAC-C(yikes) would say yes. Not as realistic in recent years with the AAC's success, but with their top schools going to the Big 12, we are back to a much more level playing field in the G5 IMO. Of course its mostly going to depend on having multi-year double digit wins, wins over P5 teams, and not getting blown out from the top tier teams..which isn't easy.

I think it was a good hire.. and that the Athletic Dept acted responsibly. Two things I didn't think were possible... so things are looking up. I think spending more would have been foolish given the Athletic Department's financial situation---It's not fantasy football, it is a business.

$500,000.... seems about right, for a team and an Athletic Dept that bleeds money. Glad they didn't lose their minds and spend even more money that they don't have. I wish him the very best.

It's nice to know he doesn't care much about the money or prestige of a school. He just wants to be a coach and be near his family. Hopefully this means he's here to stay for a long time.

This is an incredible press conference. There is a genuine passion for Akron from JoeMo.

As much as I want his full attention to be on Akron's program, this could be a massive benefit for us. 1A) Cristobal is gone, meaning Moorhead is free to unleash HIS offense, should he so choose. 1B) Should HIS offense light it up against Oklahoma, with Akron having already hired JoeMo, it can be used as a selling point to transfers/recruits - "look at what we could do at Akron" 2) There are 2 P5 schools involved in this game, and both programs have/will have new coaches. That means there are depth players that might be looking for their next opportunity. Enter Moorhead and Akron, with Moorhead having a mini-opportunity to build quick connections with some of these players. 3) The staff he has in place already - Ferri, Richardson, Gilbertson, Rodriguez, Fessler - can hit the ground for recruits and transfers. Ferri is a known talent when it comes to recruiting, as he produced the MAC's #1 recruiting class in 3 straight seasons ('05-07) while at Akron. I'd imagine Richardson, Gilbertson, and Rodriguez will have no trouble themselves considering their backgrounds.

I'd say both are earning time through production. Especially Tribble. He's always played tough defense. But recently he seems to have traded his 3-point shots for aggressive drives to the hole. He's finishing at a higher percentage, drawing fouls, and hitting his FT's. He played great against Southern. What's not to like? There were probably 28-32 game-minutes freed up by KJ's departure, and it seems like Dawson and Tribble have seized them. It's a small post-Florida sample size, but I like the trend.

I hope Kentucky buys themselves out of their trip to Akron and the Zips can schedule someone more in line with the level we play at. Fans have had enough losing at Info. Bring someone in with a better chance of winning.

🙊