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In 2017, Joe Moorhead was the best offensive coordinator in college football with Penn State, and Jim McElwain was on his way out as head coach at Florida. On Saturday, they face off at Infocision Stadium in Akron, OH as head coaches of 1-5 (0-2 MAC) MAC teams. It's one of the more interesting storylines of the college football week, that most people are totally oblivious to. While CMU has been disappointing this year, McElwain was a tremendous hire and took the Chips fro 1-11 to MAC West champs in 2019. He's got a pretty stable roster, but they've struggled big time this year, especially early in ball games (sound familiar?). Daniel Richardson is one of the better QBs in the league, and RB Lew Nichols is probably the best returning overall player in the MAC from last year, they've vastly underperformed so far. Remember, they spanked Wazzu in their bowl game last year, a rare impressive bowl performance by a MAC team. A look at their early-game struggles: Week 1 @ Oklahoma State: Trailed 37-7 in the 2nd quarter before rallying back in the 4th quarter to lose 58-44 Week 2 vs. South Alabama: Gave up an early TD (missed PAT) then scored to take a 7-6 lead. Wound up giving up 25-unanswered points to take a 31-10 deficit into the locker room Week 3 vs. Buckenll: Really bad, currently winless FCS team. They won 41-0 and covered the 40.5pt. spread! But it was knotted up at 0-0 until a CMU TD pass with 4 minutes before half Week 4: @ Penn State: Actually not a bad performance overall. But they trailed 14-0 mid way thru the 1st quarter before scoring a couple times to make it 14-all. Ended up losing 33-14. Week 5: @ Toledo: The Chips score first! 3-0 after a Marshall Meeder FG (more on him later). Then Toledo ties it up, and then scores 4 unanswered TDs to end the half with a 31-3 lead. Week 6: vs. Ball State: No early struggles in this one, for the most part. They led 10-0 before a BSU TD in the 2nd quarter. They lose at home 17-16, giving up just 236 yards of offense. The aforementioned kicking game has been an unmitigated disaster. Meeder and Josh Rolston are a combined 11-14 on XPs, and 3-9 (!!!!!!!!!) on Field goals. They're a combined 3-5 on 40-49 yarders and haven't made one from 30-39. Rolston hit a 44-yarder in the loss to Ball State last week. Coming into this season, I would have picked CMU as a top 3 MAC team. They brought back a lot of guys from a really good team. As we know, that doesn't necessarily always mean success, just ask the 2021 Ball State Cardinals, who brought back nearly the entire 2020 championship team, including Justin Hall, one of the best players in league history. They thing that sticks out to me is CMU's inability to run the ball with consistency. I thought that would be the thing to give them a chance to win this league, but Lew Nichols, who gained nearly 2,000 yards last year, is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. This team has struggled mightily. I'm talking about CMU. And Akron. Both teams know who their opponent is. I would say everyone on the CMU sideline feels and knows they're better than they are, and certainly better than Akron. I would happen to agree with them. But as Joe has said, it's a new era here, and I don't expect the Zips to roll over and play dead. The line opened at CMU -13. The metrics must really like CMU, because that seems like a no-brainer to take the points. With that said, the growing pains will continue in some way or another. And OU may have exposed the defense to the rest of the league, showing them how to beat the Zips. However, Akron will have the better receivers, and maybe even the better QB as Joe has made DJ into one of the most efficient QBs in the league, which is hard to believe. This is a winnable game for Akron. I don't expect them to win it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're in it for 60 minutes and have a chance at the end. Now with that Jinx, CMU will open up with 3-straight TDs out the gate and hit 5 field goals of 50+ 😂 Go Zips!

It can't get here fast enough!

these are the P5 games we should schedule

Agreed. I can't believe how bad our defense is. There's no excuse for it. Victor Jones & Zach Morton should be top MAC DE's. Curtis Harper & Kyle Thomas seem to be pretty good DT's. Add in Opening Day starter Logan Hawkins & Ravontae Holt for depth. Bubba is one of the better LB's in the MAC & place either Boateng or Terry beside him & that's a more-than-serviceable LB crew. No one in the MAC should be running the ball on us. Especially like OU just did. No excuse. Our defensive backfield is a problem. But with that front 6 we should be stuffing the run & getting more QB pressure than we are to take pressure of our below average DB crew. Let me just say that I love #24 Darrien Lewis... and #16 Nate Thompson has stepped up his game. But... Jaylen Kelly-Powell seems like a great young man but he's never impressed me much at S, and two transfers that I thought were going to make a dramatic impact this year, CB Cam Threatt and S KJ Martin, have been... umm,... underwhelming. I can't get down on #28 Tyson Durant because one, he's a local product, and two, he's a former walk-on. If a former walk-on is the best we can field, then... I can't get down on Durant. Hooks is another disappointment. He's a physical specimen but teams have been picking on him for years. I remember a game at UMass a few years ago where the UMass receiver out-fought hooks for a TD catch. The UMass-homer announcers said UMass players hadn't been able to out-athlete teams before so they were glad to see that. Idk, I digress.

https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ zips stay at #20 in the coaches poll. next Opponent Western Michigan is #34 in the more Important RPI as of 6:30 Tuesday night, zips are #21 in RPI. WMU Broncos are #46

Agreed. But I'm also predicting that the beginning of the season will be rocky (in typical Akron fashion) as we get accustomed to playing without Ali & Dawson.

John Mackey was the Rover. When he got hurt in 06 the issues with the 3-3-5 really showed. I believe his injury ultimately lead to us not being able to repeat. Someone mentioned Lee Owens going .500 in his last season. He actually went 7-5 and 5-3 in conference. Which seems crazy now. I always look back at the 2000's as a magical time in the MAC. All the coaches that came out of that time like Urban Meyer and Brian Kelly. The MAC and what we refer to now as G5 schools developing the spread and the upsets of the bigger schools because they were not equip to handle the speed on offence. Yes Northern was really good at running the ball. They beat a ranked Alabama in 2003 with Michael Turner running the ball. They followed Turner up with Garret Wolf.

I'm assuming DJI has a good relationship with JoeMo and will stick around. My main concern is that being from Georgia he could wish to be closer to home and there are a lot of options in the Sun Belt and even the possibility of following Gibson to Ga. Tech.

Easy answer on the thought process. Most new (college and NFL) football coaches come into a program and say that all of the previous team is bad (a lot of truth in Akron's case). They want to replace everyone on the team. There are always some casualties, and Bubba is one. Look at all of the (P5) transfer brought in that get preferred PT, and the results are awful. Bubba is/has been the heart and soul of the D. He deserves better. Go Zips!!!

I as well sometimes wonder why Bubba isn’t on the field more. The only thing I’d assume is that it’s to keep him fresh. Speaking of Bubba, during the Liberty game,unsure if I misheard or the announcers got it mixed up, but I recall them indicating Bubba got a medical redshirt last year and could come back next? If so, huge. For some reason I thought this would have been his last year regardless. I think we really need him on the field as much as possible though. Behm hasn’t stepped up after showing some flashes last year.

Let's just hope JoeMo isn't like Stefanski and does nothing about the mediocrity on Defense/Special Teams.

I'm surprised, with the size and maturity of the guys we brought in on the DL, that's they have been so ineffective. I thought they'd make up for the thin talent at LB and DB, but it hasn't happened. The last non-BG D1 team we beat was CMU four years ago. Hopefully another Chipps "L" can bookend our 1,400+ day trail of tears, and we're subsequently poised for back-to-back "W's" on the 22nd! Hey, I can dream... 😀

I think Bubba's situation is a familiar one. He's a kid who they didn't recruit that appears undersized and not particularly fast. He doesn't have the measurables and that's where many coaches start when reviewing kids that aren't "their's." I see a player who is aggressive and never out of position that has stuck it out through now 3 coaching staffs and has the track record to be on the field. I've also seen nothing special in the players he's sharing time with. As such, I'd only have him off of the field for breathers.

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401416616 (Added glossary for reference on some of the metrics): https://collegefootballdata.com/glossary It certainly doesn't feel like it when the defense is such a sieve and playing from behind the entire game, but the offense really was impressive on Saturday. They were very explosive. The Zips got the ball inside the OU 40-yard line on their first 5 drives, cashing in with a pair of field goals and a pair of TDs. They were moving the ball well on their first drive, but failed on 4th & 2. I wasn't a fan of the play call there, and the double reverse whatever the hell that resulted in a big loss at another point in the first half. The Zips move too slow on these plays and with that, the D can see what's going on and get a step ahead. You can see that with some of the WR screens and swings, just slow developing, too much thinking going on instead of just making the throw and making the play. With time this year and in the future, those should iron themselves out a bit. The Zips had 33 first downs! Wow! However, there were a few situations, a couple down on the goal line, where they were unable to get what they needed to. The Zips regressed to 3-10 on third down. On both drives that resulted in FGs, the Zips had either 1st & Goal or 1st & 10 inside the 15, and they either went backwards or didn't get close to the end zone. This goes back to what we've seen most of the season, in an inability to spread it out and run the routes these receivers are good at running. I'd like to see Banks and Brank more involved down here. The trick play Joe ran against SFU with Brank lining up at tackle is one I'm surprised we haven't seen more of. The best defenses in college football have trouble with that one. Defensively, wow. Just so, so bad. I'm fine if teams make nice plays and just beat you, but Ohio did things in the secondary with ease. On the perimeter, they weren't getting a ton of success, but once they ran over the middle of the field, it was like playing Madden on Rookie difficulty for Rourke. DB is probably the toughest position on the field other than QB, as there's a very thin margin for error. And these guys weren't making anything tough for OU. Just a recipe for disaster. In a couple of weeks, Kent will feast on these guys. On top of that, even when the D does make stops, it feels as though they get lucky more than anything. Perhaps the opponent has a bad play call or misses something, but the Zips do not create opportunities on defense. Against BG, the pick they got was a nice play, but more as a result of a bad throw. The pick @ Liberty was beautiful, opportunistic defense to get pressure on the QB and give the secondary a chance to make a play. With no pressure and no push, teams are going to be able to do what they want. It's not helpful to say "GO GET TURNOVERS!!!!" because there's so much more that goes into it. Actually forcing the QB or pass-catchers or ball-carriers to be uncomfortable can make good things happen. The bottom line is, one of these days the Zips will have to come out of the gate on top and take momentum. For 6 straight games, they've come out flat (SFU) or just shot themselves in the foot before all of the fans have even made it into the stadium. Ideally, it would be nice to start a game with the ball, have a nice, long scoring drive to set the tone, and give the defense a lead to play with. Maybe that will help with playing more loosely. To me, this is overall a much improved team and program, but they really, REALLY, do not know how to win football games. CMU coming in this week has had similar troubles. They're more talented than the Zips, but have dug themselves in holes early in ball games, and find themselves having a disappointing and difficult year. The last FBS team that fans saw the Zips beat at Infocision....the Central Michigan Chippewas in 2018.

CatDaddy (candidly), you should be the color commentator on the broadcast, but that would put the King of Jackson Twp out of work! lol

Guthrie is crazy like a fox. Jackson Field will create a Tik Tok sensation with the “reversed home plate”. They also reversed 3rd base, but no one noticed.

Unfortunately... https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/columbus-crew-parts-ways-with-head-coach-caleb-porter

If it makes you feel any better the Browns are having the same types of problems on defense.😵