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I have a lot of thoughts this week. Number one, that was a frustrating game to lose and one I felt we should have won. I’ll give credit to BG in that they have some playmakers and If the ball bounces their way they have enough firepower to beat some above average teams - as demonstrated in their win over Marshall. On the flip side, they tend to give up big plays and if their QB is not playing, or even having an off game, I can see how they could lose to just about anyone. With that being said, we lost this game due to a number of our own mistakes. OFFENSE QB - As we suspected in the preseason, the offense (this year at least) hums at the rate Irons can take it. He hit some big passes and also had some well thrown balls dropped. Conversely, Irons missed on some open receivers and held the ball too long at times. Irons looked gassed on the last drive and that probably played a part in his accuracy and decision making. RB - It was refreshing to see Price get downhill and do some things we expected to see when he was recruited. Still not sure why Norrils has not seen much PT, but one thing is clear, we are missing an explosive running back and this offense will need to continue to rely on Irons’ running ability. WR - It seems Adams is due for one big drop a game, but outside of that he was impressive creating separation. SJL continues to have an excellent season. I was disappointed in George. For whatever reason, he did not seem to be fully immersed in the game and did not attack the ball like he has in previous games. TE - Banks is obviously a big target and creates mismatches in the passing game, but we need more out of him. I believe it was Brank who dropped a perfectly placed ball down the seam by Irons. JoeMo has been excellent in the past exploiting the TE mismatches, but so far we are not getting the consistency we need from that position. OL - Looked like Landers started at LT along with Robarge at LG. Daniels and Banes came back in after a series or two. Pretty sure Lyons and Kilbane saw time throughout the game as well. The OL coach is clearly trying to find a combination that works, but inconsistency has been the theme here. Whigan and Williams have been solid on the right side, except Williams continues to collect holding penalties. DEFENSE DL - I thought Thomas and Harper were excellent. I noticed Thomas hustling down the field in an attempt to clean up missed tackles by others. I’m pretty sure I saw Holt get a few snaps. The other DTs that played did not seem to have much effect on the game. Jones, Morton, and Johnson each had their moments at DE, but I expected to see a higher level of play from them. LB - Not sure what was going on with Bubba, but he did not start (although he did play). Behm started and there was a clear drop off in production. McCoy was the other starter. Regular rotation of Fish and Boateng, who had their moments against the run. Terry finally saw action in the back half of the game and looked good. Again, not sure where he’s been. Richardson was back this game. I noticed him play, but I don’t recall seeing him do much noteworthy. CB - Hooks and Durant started at CB again. Durant was the target of choice by BG. What has happened to Golden-Nelson? I thought he had that spot locked down after the first two games. He’s gone MIA and in turn that CB spot has become a position of weakness. Threatt played and did not look good. Amankwaa played his first game on defense and looked solid. I expect Amankwaa will receive more PT as the year goes on. Lewis and Hence played the Nickel, but Hence struggled in pass defense again. S - I believe Thompson and JKP started while Martin rotated in. Again, hit or miss in this area. Thompson came down to make a number of tackles but his run fits weren’t always the best, which has been the case throughout the season. It was good to see an opportunistic interception by Martin. Too many missed tackles by this group and the entire defense. SPECIAL TEAMS I’m not going to rehash the obvious goofs on ST yesterday. I will say not having a kicker with a strong enough leg to put the ball through the end zone is tough. Our tackling was not up to par when we needed to consistently cover kickoffs, therefore giving BG excellent starting position on most of their drives. The team definitely showed resolve and fight to the end, but had far too many mistakes. The missed tackles were infuriating. I can understand a handful of missed tackles against P5 teams, but I’m fairly certain we missed more tackles yesterday than any other game this year. What made the missed tackles even more disappointing is the majority of time our DC called the right play/alignment to put our players in a position to be successful. There is probably going to be some doom and gloom in our fan base after this loss, especially after we beat BG last year, but last year has little bearing on this year. This team is close to getting over the hump. As much as we’d all like it to be, progression is not on a linear upward trend. It’s choppy and sometimes requires taking a step back before two steps forward. I’m disappointed that we lost, but more so in the sense that we are so close to moving up the MAC ladder and did not take advantage of the opportunity yesterday.

Agree Clark. Hubby and I at the game and when the punt debacle occurred, we both said, "Last two seasons this game would be over." And we were proud the way the Zips came back and made a game of it. Like you said, they kept fighting, kept trying to find a way to win. Small victories, indeed.

Finally got to listen, and wow. That’s one of the best postgame pressers I’ve ever heard from a Zip coach. Every Akron fan needs to check this out, this man is one of us and he wants it as bad as we do!

Wow. Spot on post by @catdaddyp. Thank you for making this board even greater than it was, we're so happy to have you here! I don't think I disagree with anything said above. I am bummed that we haven't seen Golden-Nelson the last couple of weeks, and I hope that whatever injury he has sustained isn't too serious. Joe hasn't been hiding that info and has been pretty open about it, I just don't think he's been asked. Perhaps someone will submit that as a question during the live video of Zips Live this week. There's an advanced metric box score I always like to check out on CollegeFootballData.com https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401416609 A lot of it is over my head, but there are a few things I like to look at. Postgame Win Expectancy yesterday was BG 69%. That metric is essentially who would win the game if it were played again with the same stats, etc. Sure enough, if a couple bounces go a different way, this would have been a big homecoming win. For example, we all know Golden's muffed punt cost the game, a few of us said as much the second it happened. It flipped momentum, and instead of being down 3 and getting the ball to open the half, they were down 10. Well, BG did the SAME THING at the SAME EXACT SPOT ON THE FIELD! That was shocking to me, and kind of hilarious. But he was able to pick it up and evade a couple of tacklers to get out of bounds at the 12. That ended up as an 88-yard TD drive to make it 31-21 early in the 4th. That is football being football, and man did it pee me off. Grimes did play early, but was not dressed for most of the game. I have a feeling this wouldn't have happened with Tony in there. Damn damn damn. Another thing I like to look at on the advanced box score analysis is called Scoring Opportunities. It measures the points a team scores per scoring chance, which is defined as moving the ball inside the 40-yard line. BG made 9 trips inside the 40 on offense, netting 24 points, and 2.67 points per opportunity. The Zips, on the other hand, made 4 trips inside the 40, scoring a TD every single time (Adams TD catch was 41 yards, close enough). It's nice to see the offense turning these sustained drives into touchdowns more often, that's 5 quarters in a row finding the end zone! Just need to do it more than once a quarter. I also emphasize 3rd down efficiency on offense and defense a lot. Akron was one of the worst 3rd down teams coming in, but put up a very impressive 11-17 number yesterday. The threat of running the ball is the difference there. Later in the game, I felt a rare confidence in the Zips' ability to do either, and that's credit to Joe for once again being a mastermind in playcalling. I loved the QB draw calls and thought DJ was a smart runner, sans the fumble. Still holds on to the ball too long at times, and it's going to be hard to win games where you take 6 sacks. The defense struggled on 3rd down, giving up 7-13. They got decent pressure, but could not finish plays with hurries and sacks. McDonald had his best game against Akron and made some big time clutch throws. He did just enough to eek out the win that was served up to them on a platter. I still say that Akron should have won that game. I'm definitely bummed, but far from discouraged as to the progress of the program. I predicted this result pretty spot on, and I expect more games like this as we move through the season. The Zips are bad and at the bottom of the MAC, that is no surprise. Going from distant worst to middle of the pack/above average is what I was hoping for, but definitely not expecting. I've been thinking a lot about who I would compare this team to, whether in football or a different sport. In football, it reminds me of Kent in 2018, Lewis' first year. While he had Woody Barrett as a brand new QB, we've got a guy who played occasionally last year, and might as well be new with this new system. Some old guys who lost a ton sprinkled in with some new guys who show promise. But the same results in the win/loss column despite a new style of football and much more competitive games. On the basketball side, it feels like the 2018-2019 Zips. A team that did much better than the year before with an overhauled roster, that shows great flashes of potential but still can't seem to rack up the wins. That team also set itself up to win games and then shoot themselves in the foot constantly. I'm becoming a broken record, but I see a lot of these issues as growing pains, whether it be the players or the staff. This is one of the youngest staffs in the sport, with a big group of guys that have lost a butt-load of games and don't know how to win. I recommend listening to last week's edition of Zips Live to hear more about the staff construction, interesting stuff there. But words cannot describe how much better I feel about the program now than I did 365 days ago, that is for sure. Yesterday was nothing short of a heartbreaker, and these last 7 games could be a struggle, but I believe in the man on that sideline and I can see his vision playing out already in its early stages. Go Zips!

Was at the game. Frustrating. The offense was better with Irons being able to run. Had some nice yards ont he ground. I just thought Joe could have stuck with the ground game a little more. Irons still misses too many open receivers, still holds the ball a little too much. Had some drops too. Adams and Jacques-Louis are a nice combo. But, defense and special teams were the killer. Couldn't cover kicks well. Terrible play, on the muffed punt at the end of the first half. KId was backing up inside his 5! WTH! Joe was so pissed he yelled at the special teams coach. Jacques-Louis did have a nice return again. The defense was what it has been. Too many open receivers. Too many yards on the ground. Too many missed tackles. Even with an improved offense I am afraid I don't see any conference wins unless the defense suddenly wakes up.

No mercy! 4-0 Zips shortly before half.

IMHO they seemed to go downhill when The Chest retired

Way too many instances of the first tackler not getting the ball carrier down. This was one of the worst teams in the FBS last year. While it would be nice to see wins, we may need to be content with just seeing improvement on the field. I do think we've seen some of that.

Yes, and would have lost miserably yesterday.

Akron should be 0-5, until moorhead proves otherwise he's no better than Bowden/Arth

Not gonna get too deep into this one yet, I’ll sleep on it. But some small notes off the top of my head. Akron is a bad football team. Upgraded from horrendous. Great! My concerns for this week ended up coming into focus. Lots of growing pains by a team and group that doesn’t know how to win. JoeMo put them in great position all game, just couldn’t execute. They played from behind from the opening kick, giving BG the ball at midfield. Overall, the D was bend but don’t break. They really only gave up 2 real TD drives if you take out the pick and the muffed punt. That’s a good sign. A couple too many huge plays though. Wish the DL would’ve come up with another couple of sacks. DJ was excellent for 80% of the game. Thing is, the other 20% or so was a bad fumble, bad pick, overthrow at the end, and a couple sacks. He’s a tough dude, I’m glad we have him. The team is more banged up than I thought. Grimes not dressed, Wiley must’ve been hurt, though Price was dynamite, Golden-Nelson not dressed. Bubba didn’t look the same. We went from last week saying “we could’ve won” to this week saying “we should’ve won.” The arrow is pointing upward, but Zips fans are rightfully tired of waiting. This team can win some games this year, they just have to learn how to eat their mistakes and bounce back. Beautiful day for some ball today though, and I’m looking forward to the challenge next week. Go Zips!

Team showed no quit fighting all the way to the end but came up short. Good Game Akron

I believe he can. Time will tell. Everything is in line for Joe to be successful. Rick Neuheisel was talking last week about the importance of alignment between a President, Athletic Director and football coach. Joe has that going for him.

You can see it on the sidelines. How many times last year did we see kids on the sideline that were disinterested or dejected? You don't see that this year as the kids are fired up and focused on the game.

I wouldn't fret too much over game threads or things people say immediately after losses. Generally they're speaking with emotion instead of logic. Most people I've talked to believe Joe will right the ship. He inherited a roster that was bottom 5 FBS in talent. Even with the transfer portal it's going to take some time to build this roster

Spot on. Many good D players and defenses in general during the Bowden tenure. Offense, not so much.

Couldn’t watch last night. Actually both goals came late. What a finish!!!

I would love to know what happened with Bowden's regime. Wins against Pitt and Northwestern, Famous Idaho Potato Bowl win, MAC Championship Game appearance, then the program just seemed to hit a brick wall and actually went backwards - quickly. Regardless, I think the accomplishments Bowden had will be surpassed by Moorhead eventually.

Until Moorhead gets a Power 5 and Bowl win don't compare him to Bowden

Jim Fleming was the DC. He is now head coach at URI. They ran a 3-3-5. It's widely used in college football now because of spread offenses.

Our biggest issue is a lack of depth. That's why we have a Freshman back there fielding punts.

looked something like this. a bit more than a stubbed toe. next man up as a smart man once said.

On the DB's, seems a couple of guys were running with their backs to the ball. They never located the ball and then drew interference calls because they ran into the receivers. Don't know who is responsible for teaching technique but they have to get their hips turned earlier and try to run WITH the receiver not behind. It was happening all day on crossing patterns and deep balls. They played hard,just not always effectively.

Golden Nelson wasn't dressed yesterday. Just wearing his jersey on the sidelines, so I assume he has an injury of some sort. Gathings was another player not dressed, think he aggravated something against MSU.

The Crew actually scored in stoppage time (90’ + 3’) and won thanks to Jacen Russell-Rowe and Derrick Etienne. 😃

He's 1-4.

Kent State's performance last week against the #1 team in the nation is a prime example why I want to see Akron compete against as many Power 5's as they can schedule. Why? Because Kent's play last week pumped up their program on and off the field. It got the Nation talking bringing more eyeballs and $$$$ to their program I bet.

When Bowden became HC, he inherited a similarly depleted program his 4 year plan was Lose Big, Lose Small, Win Small, Win Big. In year 1 of JoeMo, we're already losing small - one to a team that is probably a year or two ahead of us, and one to a team that we beat ourselves more than they beat us. Through 5 weeks, the holes in this team are obvious. Special Teams, Offensive Line, and the entire Secondary. Zero concerns with that being solved via recruiting for next year and beyond, but what can be done to salvage this season with those groups? That will be interesting to follow. Love the offense and can't wait to see it ran with a more formidable offensive line. Beat OU.

The offensive line, defensive backs and special teams are killing this team. Areas to focus on in recruiting. I really like Morehead's offense and playcalling. I taught little kids two rules the Zips haven't mastered. One, do not field a punt inside the ten. Plant your feet on the 10 and do not back up. Two, nobody gets behind you if you are a DB. Those types of things make me worry that the coaching staff is either not on top of communicating with the kids or that they're putting kids in positions they're not equipped to handle (e.g. a freshman fielding punts). They gave a game away but an Arth team accomplishes nothing at halftime and gives up much earlier and loses by double digits. This team at least kept fighting. We have to accept the small victories when there's so far to come.

If anyone from UA reads this board:. Can we PLEASE stop with songs at 130db between every fricken play?

Wow. More stupid mistakes. This should be blamed on coaching just like last year. That should've been a touchback. I could hear "LET IT GO! LET IT GO!" from the top of the bleachers.

Not sure where this would fit best, so I'll put it here. So damn cool, these clips give me chills! This era of Zips football just felt different. They were tougher, and grittier. Joe can bring that magic to Infocision!

Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and Marshall all have wins against P5 schools. So do we in our wins against NC State and Northwestern. All of us have really ugly loses against many more P5 schools that far out number the wins. The point isn't to either play the games or not. The point is to limit your exposure. One beat down a year is enough. I give tDon Draper highlighting the importance of limiting your exposure. https://youtu.be/jWbyoUAEJ4E

This for a draw. Soccer is a weird sport. Haha.

so he was on one of those scooters with his leg immobilized in 90 degree position and there was huge cast or wrap over his entire foot/lower leg. Torn ACL?

Lol https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/mls/columbus-crew/2022/09/29/columbus-crew-cucho-hernandez-suspended-offensive-language/69528439007/