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I made the trip to Knoxville with my wife. It had been a couple years since I'd made a Zips road trip, so I was overdue. Irons was indeed fantastic. Amazing he could move the Zips against a top SEC defense, with no threat of a running game whatsoever. It seems Gibson made the smart move transferring to Georgia Tech. It is probably better to sit the bench close to home, rather than do it 600 miles to the north. It'll be interesting to see what Joe tries in order to kick start the Zips running attack. Norrils can break some tackles. Like others have said, I'd like to see him get a crack at a few consecutive series. Bungling in the red zone was costly. Missed FG, dropped passes, fumble...a shame the Zips never gave themselves a chance to make Tennessee sweat a little. And for my wife and me to cheer a little. If Irons got UA Player of the Game for his valiant performance coming off an injury, co-POTG would be Noah Perez. Off the bench, as a 140 lb true freshman, hits two FG's in front of 90,000+ hostile fans. I think there were 50 names from the 2021 roster that weren't on the 2022 roster. Even with 32 scholarships to give, that's an impossible number of holes in the dike to plug. Cornerback recruiting seems to have been the primary victim of that numeric impossibility. Being outscored 115-6 in the past two games is beyond rough. But Arth and Larry Williams left a huge mess for Joe and Co. to clean up. They'll get it done, but turning around a D1 football program that has beaten no FBS programs outside of BG in the past 4 calendar years is not an overnight process. You don't plant a garden on Monday, and eat tomatoes on Friday. The Tennessee fans were predominantly nice. Fun environment. Result aside, we had a great time. Beautiful day in the south. Ate too much. Drank too much. That's what life's all about. 😁

DJ Irons is ranked 35th in the nation for pass completion percentage with 67.4% according to NCAA FBS stats In addition he has not thrown an INT

You are right on the money. Charles hates these money games. Starting in 2024 we will see a much better schedule. Throw out what someone else posted earlier in this thread about who we play starting in 24. 2 new games have been scheduled and we should have 6 home games. The key to success is scheduling OOC games we can win. We need to take the extra 3-5 $million we will be getting from the new football deal and use it to improve our chances of being a winning program. No facilities improvements or using it to cut the existing budget. Winning breeds winning.

I don't know how you came to this conclusion, but I took this the exact opposite. I understood this tweet as Guthrie saying he had no control over the schedule, but if he did, Akron would not have played 2 Top 25 teams.

I now live about an hour and a half outside of Lynchburg and plan to drive in for this game. Any other Zips fans plan to attend? I brought my daughter to Liberty for a track meet last year and their campus and athletic facilities are out of this world. Beautiful surrounding area too if you're into mountains and hiking. I don't know much about their team other than they finished the year as a top 25 team in 2020 and their QB from last year was drafted in the 3rd round. I did a little research on their fan site. Looks like Charlie Brewer, who was a 4-year starter at Baylor, transferred in and was set to be their starter this year but went out for the season their first series of the season. They're now down to their 3rd string QB, which is the guy that played against Wake, Kaidon Salter, a former 4-star recruit. Looking at their schedule, Southern Miss taking them into OT gives me some hope, but a win over UAB and a stupid coaching decision away from a win over Wake Forest doesn't bode well for our rebuilding Zips. Regardless, I'll be there rocking my blue and gold, so if anyone else is coming down and wants to link up, let me know!

It wasn't Kesling. He's UT's radio announcer. I grew up in Akron and now live in Tennessee, so I'm both an Akron and Tennessee fan. It was Aaron Murray, the ex-Georgia Bulldog QB who was the color commentator. He was the one who kept suggesting that Irons transfer. One time, it may have been a joke. Mentioning it over and over again... unprofessional and irritating. Of course, Murray is an ex-QB of the Leg Humpers...

If all the schools are getting the same bump in revenue then really none of the programs are going to be getting a bump in revenue. That money is quickly going to get eaten up by coaching staff pay increases all across FBS and other related expenses

Love them. Would also like to see us work in white pants once in a while. I love the all-white look. (From my understanding we don't have white pants this year. So maybe next.) I'm a uniform junky. I can bore the average person with uniform talk all day.

Off-topic, but those white unis with the white helmet is a snazzy look in my opinion! 🙂

Ardell Banks out of Massillon de-committed from Toledo.

I was at the Liberty vs. Wake game yesterday. Here are my thoughts about Liberty. Offense If I needed to describe their offense yesterday, it would be in two words: opportunistic and talented. Opportunistic - To be fair, their offense made some mistakes in the first half and that probably cost them the game. Now, in the second half they took what was in front of them and moved the ball great. Had they been more opportunistic, and probably adjusted to what Wake was doing faster in the first half, ESPNU would be talking about another G5 school upsetting a P5 school. Their run game moves the ball on first down and makes it easier to move the ball. Their QB is smart about when and when not to run. Talented - They have some burners at WR who also make good catches. After the catch, they are very shifty. Very reliable group. They have a decent offensive line. After halftime they were able to slow down Wake's rush and move the ball better. The QB was still under pressure, but not under siege. Their offensive line is the weakest part of their offense, but still a good group. If the offense Liberty put on the field in the second half shows up in Akron next week, they will hang 50 on the Zips. Defense My word description for this group would be: focused. They came to Winston-Salem with a game plan to stop Wake's running game and not give up a flood of big plays. I think they accomplished both. Liberty held Wake to 26 yards rushing on 21 carries. Wake lives and dies with the Sam Hartman to A.T. Perry combination down field. Everyone knows Hartman by now, but a lot don't know Perry. He is a very tall WR destined for the NFL and destroys teams downfield. Liberty held him to 33 yards on 4 catches. Wake could have done a better job of throwing some intermediate passes, but that isn't the nature of their offense so they were forcing the ball downfield a lot even though Liberty decided those plays would not beat them. In the second half, this group played great. For most of the second half, Wake's offense was confused and out of sync. Liberty also forced two interceptions out of a QB not prone to throwing them. Their defensive line made Wake's look like what I think they really are, average. They got just enough pressure on Hartman to throw off his game. I hope the Zips do something to move the pocket around against this group. Their first down defense was great. Zips need to find a way to move the ball on first down more consistently than Wake did. Special Teams Their biggest success was a blocked punt through the end zone resulting in a safety. On kick offs, they had a lot of success retuning to their left so the Zips need to watch out for that. Liberty's PK has a huge leg and can easily place kickoffs through the back of the end zone. He also made a +50 yard FG with relative ease for a college kicker. Coaching Going into halftime, it was something like 20-8 in favor of Wake. I really thought with Wake getting the ball to start the second half and their ability to move the ball late in the first, the game would quickly get out of hand and a sold out homecoming crowd could head to the bars early. Whatever they did, it worked. Actually, I think "whatever" was just Liberty playing better. Their offense is extremely creative and they are well coached in it. The two things I would be upset about today if I was a Liberty fan were: the decision to go for two with 1:10 remaining in the game and the play call. Liberty had a ton of confidence and momentum. I would have tied the game, gone into overtime and trusted my team. Second, they ran a form of the "Philly Special" for their two point play. I don't like trick plays to begin with and I hate them with the game on the line. I would have passed and given my QB, who was playing great at the time, a couple of options in the end zone and allowed him to make a decision. If the play would have broken down he had great legs and could have run in if the opportunity presented itself. I have seats on the 50 (actually, the 48) and could see from my view the play had no shot from the start. Too slow developing and Wake played disciplined defense on the play and had it well covered. The WR had no shot to do anything with the ball. I just felt like the decision and play were a form of desperation and they were too in control of the game for desperation.

- Irons looked fantastic. From his pocket movement, to decisions, to ball placement, he was excellent against a strong P5 defense. - Tennessee showed a different defensive front than MSU and our OL really struggled getting any push in the run game. - Once the run game gets going, this offense will be fun to watch as that’s when JoeMo becomes so good at finding all the mismatches/open receivers. That’s predicated on a successful run game though. - Caden Clark saw playing time, but is clearly behind Banks and Brank. He has the ability to become a really good player once he settles in. - Wiley tried, but was often bullied in pass pro. - Still not sure why Norrils is not receiving more PT. He’s done some good things the past two games. - Bubba had a whale of a game. - Thompson and Martin were second and third in tackles respectively but that is misleading. They missed their fair share of tackles and were often late coming down to help or did not squeeze their run fits well, which led to big runs by the offense. - No one in the secondary was spared this game. Tennessee went after Hooks and Hence first half and was unbiased in the second half. - Robinson saw his most minutes at DT and had a few promising plays. He’s not much of a pass rusher, but can be a force in the run game when lined up correctly and fires off quickly. - Harper was doubled almost all game. - As athletic as Fish is he really struggled with Tennessee’s counter and misdirection plays, often getting caught badly out of position or allowing a block to climb to him. - Thomas was used as a DE first half and was ineffective. He tried speed rushing but that caused a loss of contain and he rarely got close to the QB. - I did not see Terry this game and Boateng started. - I don’t think Golden-Nelson played the first quarter. Not sure what was going on there. Hooks and Durant started at CB, Lewis at Nickel, Thompson and Martin at S.

I hope we land him. Curious to know why he decommitted. I would like to think he saw our passing game and thought “wow, I want to be in that system” but probably just wishful thinking.

I think what also isn't getting brought up is that since these games are often scheduled 5-8 years in advance it's hard to actually know how good some of these teams will be. Like sure if you schedule an Alabama, Ohio State then sure you know going in that's almost certainly going to be a top 10 team. Using Kentucky as an example, we reached an agreement with them in February 2018 so before the 2018 season even started. At the time we made the deal the last time Kentucky was ranked was in 2007 and they had some miserable seasons inbetween, including 2 years of going 2-10. They were the kind of opponent that you would think a good G5 team could upset. Fast forward to now and they're a top 10 team.

There’s levels to this. Multiple payday games against top teams is worse than multiple pay day games (one against a top team and one against an average to below average P5) and so on. Sweet spot to me would be one pay day game against a middling P5 team, 2 G5 OOCs, and one FCS opponent. Even if the sweet spot doesn’t happen, it doesn’t mean scheduling can’t get a lot better, and it seems it will.

He’s really good. I saw him play on Friday. Tall kid w/ great frame. Smooth route runner. St. Ed’s generally double-teamed him, sometimes triple-teamed him.

Haha I'm here for it my friend, I love uniform discussions too!! White pants with those jerseys and helmets would be killer!! I hope they get white pants in for next season. All in all, an upgraded look I like. And the new "A" is slick, too.

Beacon Journal post-game story. I've been too unenthused to read it, but I did click the link simply to remind the ABJ that there really are some Zips fans out here. The Akron Zips take a beating from the Tennessee Volunteers

Is it just CBus, or is it a growing trend in most sports now? Whether it’s auto racing, baseball, hell anything outside the NFL attendance is horrible. Fans still watch the games, but in their air conditioned home on their wall-sized TV. Where the food doesn’t require a second mortgage and doesn’t taste like the wrapper. Price gouging over the years doesn’t help, where you pay a fee for the privilege of buying the tickets, then the high local entertainment tax. Not that cable companies and cable channels aren’t in out wallet as well, but that’s a different rant for another day.

Really impressive when you consider our first 3 games might have been the toughest out of anyone in the country.

You are absolutely correct, it was Marshall that beat ND last week I was thinking about. Ask my wife and she’ll tell you I constantly make mistakes. Haha. But I’ll also argue ND is overrated and will have more losses coming their way. I didn’t take your comments as being rude and it’s 100% ok if we disagree and see something differently. I also appreciate the compliment as we have some excellent posters here. Don’t get me wrong, getting our tails handed to us by the scores we’ve seen is not ok. I’m not going to get into the scheduling debate about who made the schedule and why, but this three game stretch (not including week 1) would be difficult for any of the first year head coaches at non-P5 schools. I try to watch the action and ignore the score (especially when watching these types of games) starting with the line of scrimmage and moving out. I’m encouraged by the progress we see each week and can also say we have some players who are better than anyone we saw last year playing on our OL and DL. For example, Banes and Whigan have been solid additions to the OL, while Harper and Jones have been solid on the DL. We are also witnessing returning guys like Lewis take advantage of the coaching change and new scheme. Positives are happening. It’s just not easy to see with the schedule we’ve played and the issue of depth/talent still not quite up to par at certain positions - at least not to give us any type of upset potential against top 25 teams. That’ll change over the coming years, but we still have an opportunity to make a statement when MAC play arrives. While some mistakes are being made, I’m not seeing nearly as many egregious ones as we saw last year.

To date, I see no difference between the results from Moorhead and Arth. I so hope that I am wrong. I see you are giving JoeMo 3 years, and that is good.

Much better than blOSU's previous coach. Hoosiers all but completely shut down our Zips, yet they lose to a blOSU team that was not all that impressive vs our Zips. Why does our team seem to clench up so badly on the road? They just need to keep their heads about them and play their game, and they can compete with any D1 NCAA team out there home or away.

Great hire for blOSU. Just a matter of time...

I don't trust MAC athletic directors to work in the best interest of their employers. Until I see different I will continue interpreting their statements in this manner.

I took Guthrie’s tweet to mean that this is exactly what we will NOT be doing any longer.

That's how I took it. As sure, hes happy the money is there, but he understands the tweets I assume hes getting from fans angry about the schedule. His defense in the tweet was that schedules come to be years in advance and there wasnt much he could do about this. And I understand that, his hands were tied. The schedule this year is insane. One big game per year is fine with me, I like the high of feeling like we have a chance before the clock starts. But back to back MSU and TN, and now against a very good Liberty team, is downright deflating. I'm keeping faith that MAC play will be fun for us fans. Zips just arent ready for this type of schedule. And whoring ourselves out is only fun for very limited people, and I can assure everyone the fans arent enjoying this.

So...Akron sacrifices young men on the OOC games' altar for the money. The players risk injuries, the fans lose interest, the students don't attend games because the scores are embarrassing, the parents pray that their boys won't get significant injuries, and the school's football team reputation suffers so the best players enroll elsewhere. Sounds like a great plan to deep six football at UA.

Yeah, Williams added that one shortly before he announced his resignation or whatever it was. It didn’t become public until September though, once Guthrie was already in place.

after today, blOSU will move up in RPI Today's big result Ohio State 2 Indiana 1 former Indiana player and former Assistant Brian M......seems to have the Buckeyes moving in the right direction

Frustrating drops by Adams and Banks for sure. On the bright side, they were able to get open against a solid secondary and without the threat of any run game. You’re right, neither Threatt nor Robinson have panned out so far. Threatt missed a tackle in open space that led to a TD and I don’t think he got in the game again after that. The good news is Robinson made a few productive plays, so while he’s not anywhere close to what we hoped, he’s at least starting to contribute. Threatt is listed as a redshirt freshman so he still has plenty of time to develop in the coming years. Although, we could certainly use him this year. We have so many new faces and a lot of inexperience, I feel some things we’ve seen in the past few games will get corrected over time. I expect to see our pass rush pick up when we hit MAC play which would help our secondary. I’d think our run fits would be better too. It’d be nice to get Amankwaa and Richardson back sooner than later though.

Ignore them. SEC fans are the biggest pack of crybabies on the planet.

#PorterOut