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Check the stats. DJ has the 2nd highest completion % in the MAC and 4th most passing yards. With 2 pay day games and missing 1/2 of one of those games, that's pretty impressive. If he didn't miss that half vs MSU, he'd most likely be 2nd in MAC in passing yards. None of the above even considers his running ability. He is a MAC POY candidate next year and has strong potential for all conference recognition this year.

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

A Kentucky situation may happen (though I'm skeptical on how good they'll be going into next year), but the downside is we get a potentially ranked SEC school at the stadium which is cool. Control what you can control and if it doesn't work out, so be it. A Rutgers or Kentucky is also going to be a safer bet than a Tennessee, MSU, OSU, Clemson, etc.

Mid season report cards for the league. A good read, especially if you haven't been able to follow the rest of the league as much as you would like. https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/12/23397960/2022-mac-fb-midseason-report-cards-akron-ball-st-bgsu-buffalo-cmu-emu-kent-miami-ohio-niu-toledo-wmu

oh great there's another one

these are the P5 games we should schedule

What a night!!! Thank you. That's getting me back in the mood for the long, cold slog to March.

Here's your reminder.

Yep, there's going to be some pain. Please keep reminding me that it's about where they are in February and March.

Its a conundrum. He clearly gives us the best chance to win since he's out there, and I think you want to be as competitive and win as much as you can at the collegiate level. Unlike the NFL, you dont get rewarded for losing, and losing is going to hurt in recruiting (both keeping the players you want and bring in the players you want). Looking at the roster, I don't see a promising young player like you might have at other positions to take his place (think Landers, Golden, McCoy). Cam Threatt would be the only option, but I'd imagine the staff gave him every chance to take that spot considering he was rated well by recruiting services and had the relationship with Moorhead. He also hasn't flashed in his time so far. One would've hoped a mix of Golden Nelson/Threatt/Amankwaa would have held down the starting positions this year, but 2 of the 3 have been mostly hurt and one not impressing with their play, forcing us to basically use Hooks, Hence, and Durant. We are pretty thin at the position. There are only 2 other scholarship options - Chu Ogbonna (R Sr) and Ronald Jackson (played a little under Arth but dont really recall seeing him play at all this year). Lewis has obviously been a nice surprise, but I don't think he's an outside corner and believe he mostly hasn't been playing it. This position should probably be the #1 focus in the transfer portal.

Thought I would add this. It’s Charlotte’s D, which is terrible, but an insane leap by former 5 star running back Marshawn Lloyd. Lloyd is explosive as they come now that he’s healthy.

Akron should strive to schedule bottom feeder acc and Big ten games for their pic schedule. Relatively easy travel for players, students, alumni and fans. Use history as your guide and ignore any recent success of a program. Most everything reverts back to averages. These schools would look as follows in any order: Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Indiana and Minnesota. If they were sane and played one P5 game a year, I just gave them 8 years of games with some shot at winning with a nice check attached.

We already have a series lined up with them in the coming years. Edit: Realized I may have misinterpreted your message and you were saying that we scheduled them.

Agreed.

A few things stood out. He mentioned Terry had his best game and earned some more snaps. Talked about Fish and McCoy briefly. Noted Griffin has been playing on special teams and liked what he saw out of him. I think Joe said we may see Murphy in some goalline sets. Also said the freshmen OL outside of Landers will likely redshirt. Surprised Joe did not correct him when he kept saying Whigan and Williams on the left side. Those two have been our RG and RT all year. Has brought up several times lately how much our OL has improved in pass blocking but is still working towards run blocking. Said Price got stronger as the game went on. Next to nothing was said about the secondary. As I was watching the highlights it reminded me how many times we were able to get ahead of the chains defensively on 3rd down and then let them out. I imagine 3rd down play calls were scrutinized this week.

Was checking the stats for CMU and Akron in MAC only games. CMU has really struggled offensively. 16.5 ppg. Rushing avg. 2.6 ppg. Passing 231 yds/game. Completion at 51.2%. Conversely, only giving up 27.5 ppg. We all know what Akron is doing on offense and...not doing on defense. If Akron can continue to control the ball not turn it over and put up points they have a punchers chance IF thats a big IF they can stop CMU on the ground and not have DB's chasing WR's all over the field. Joe usually comes up with something offensively. If the D side can at least make CMU have to use long drives to score, this MIGHT be the 'break through game' for Akron. They won't win by 13 if they win but...

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!!!

That’d be great if Bubba returned next year. It’s hard to fool him on anything due to his experience. Although, I really like the flashes I’ve seen from Fish and McCoy. They are physically impressive and when the light finally goes on for them they are going to wreck shop. My only gripe about Bubba is he’s not a great pass rusher. When Bubba and Behm are in the game, they rarely get close to the QB when blitzing. There is a significant difference in pass rush when Fish and McCoy are blitzing. Neither Behm or Boateng have gotten the job done, but they continue to see a good amount of playing time. Boateng has really only had one solid game this year.

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.

Good question. I’m not sure what the thought process is behind his playing time. Bubba is 2nd in the MAC in overall tackles with 64. To give an idea just how impressive Bubba has been, the MAC tackles leader Shaun Dolac (Buffalo) has 67. Dolac has played over 135 more snaps than Bubba.