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A note here, Gettman and Hester were put on scholarship recently.

CSU had 1 shot on goal that I believe Mitch tried to catch but ended up on the top of the net for a CSU ck. No matter...clean sheet.

Columbus Crew announce the professional retirement of former US YNT Captain and 2010 freshman all-America Perry Kitchen. One of the steadiest central mids I've ever had the pleasure of watching. #2 pick in the 2011 Superdraft, following a national championship season for Caleb Porter's Akron Zips. 🌟 Enjoy the sunset and a new sunrise 🌅 , Legend! https://www.columbuscrew.com/news/columbus-crew-announces-end-of-2022-roster-decisions

I've been trying to dial back my excitement a little bit this week, it's about to get crazy with basketball and football overlapping and I was overwhelming myself with thoughts and research for both. It will be nice to have next Saturday off. With that said, we have an interesting matchup coming up. Miami has one of the better defenses in the league, but struggles offensively whether they have Gabbert or not. Akron, on the other hand, can move the ball, but struggles to stop the ball. An interesting thing to look at in this league, which is a hot mess of flaming garbage, is the coaches. There are very few fanbases who are happy or satisfied with their coaching situation. Miami is at the top of that list. Chuck Martin has done a great job at Miami, bringing them from the low point of Don Treadwell going 0-12 to a MAC tite 6 years later. However, he hasn't done much to build on that title. They seem to have plateau'd and are slowly trending downward, especially after a horrid loss at home to the worst WMU team in nearly 10 years, wiping out one of the nation's longest home-win streaks. They are coming into Akron licking their wounds, and perhaps with their head coach's job on the line. Forecast looks pretty good, as we've only got a few more chances to see these guys play in person. I have been thrilled with the progress I see, but must admit myself I am feeling a touch of apathy losing close so many times. I, along with many others on this board and in the fan base, see the obvious progress and improvements. But because of the losses, on the conference and national stage, it's the same ol' Akron. Damn you Larry Williams and Tom Arth. I guess we'll just have to look forward to shocking the world starting next year. I truly feel like that is coming, for the first time in a long time. The program is performing as consistently well as it has since the middle of the 2018 season, but hasn't been rewarded with the wins. They're running out of chances too. Damn, I want to break through so badly. To send Miami spiraling out of control would be a beautiful thing.

NCAA RPI through games of Oct 23rd https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/soccer-men/d1/ncaa-mens-soccer-rpi 18 Akron 158 NIU 203 Chicago St 46 WMU

Ashton Kamdem's assisting of Jason Shokalook's goal was simply sublime and was the best highlight of the match for me. Replay, please! Kamdem's left footed service from the left side traveled at least forty yards diagonally, low and hard, directly in Shook's path. Perfect! How many defenders were beaten with that one pass? I need to see that one again! Ryan Kingsford's service from the right side on Terence Okoeguale's goal was also a thing of beauty.

The same lineup next game please…

I am very pleasantly surprised by the change in RPI after this game pre game Akron was #18 in RPI .6031 strength of schedule (SOS) 27 Opponent SOS 30 Cleveland State was 9-2-3 coming into the game their strenght of schedule was 157 their pre game RPI was 67 they had been in the high 40's but they lost to 3-9-1 Northern Kentucky at 9:30 tonight Gaucho Dan live RPI shows the zips at #11 ?! ?! .6172 SOS shows as 17 opponent SOS drops to 42 games in progress right now....probably won't help the zips at 89:54.....Indiana is tied with Evansville at 64:02, Rutgers leads Penn State 2-1 Akron will be hurt in RPI...with the next 2 games against Northern Illinois and Chicago State Akron dropped 6 spots in RPI ...the last time that they played Chicago State

Zips out of the top 25 and into the receiving votes section of the coaches poll: https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ Seems harsh for drawing 0-0 in brutal conditions in their only match since the previous poll.

Bandaogo?

Frankly thought the Zips would be No. 1 ... and probably would have if more than just the coaches voted. That said, a serious and legit argument can be made for any of the top 3 teams. Ball State, if the new coach is the real deal, might be the team to watch as the Cardinals have a lot of experienced freshman talent back from last season plus some VG transfers. Without a target on its back, Ball State may be tough to deal with come February.

Rachi Culler for 200, Alex? A complete guess on my part, but he always seemed to get positive yardage. He was a beast on the counter trap.

Never losing a yard on a rush an entire season, assuming more than a handful of carries, seems like a pretty unbelievable stat.

Ugh...you know this is good. Have my ire up already. eff'n Rootstown School of Design.

Seems a little odd for a guy to get 2nd team All-MAC when he's never played a conference game and had so-so results and injuries during his time elsewhere. I get he's a highly touted recruit, but I feel like there's got to be someone more deserving based on conference results.

https://miamihawktalk.fans/t/akron-week-2022/1748/11 They're really not happy with their OC (sounds familiar). Maybe Brian Ferentz will become available 😁

- Enjoyed hearing Moorhead talk about the young LBs - McCoy, Griffin, and Fish - and how they are going to be great players. Mentions how they go about things the right way, watch film, and love football. - I get more excited about Landers every time I see him play. Can’t wait to see the other freshmen next year. - Love how Moorhead is rewarding the contributing walk-ons with scholarships. I think that’s 3 now? Durant, Gettman, and Hester. All 3 of them are heavily involved with Special Teams. - I was surprised to see Moorhead get asked about Naim and Anderson, but glad they were mentioned. Naim is another special teams contributor and has flashed excellent hands at receiver. I’m excited about the potential Anderson brings. He’s stuck behind George right now, but he could become a big time red zone target for us in the future. Hopefully Anderson gets worked into the spot Shocky is playing right now and we see George and Anderson on the field together in 2023. - Moorhead mentioned Ryan Johnson had his best game. Johnson has been quietly developing throughout the year.

Miami, like us, has been in a lot of one score games that they were not able to pull off the win in. The difference is they are low scoring games. They have been able to play good defense but have little offense. Gabbert returned from injury last week against Western but they still only mustered 10 pts and only converted 2 3rd downs. In MAC play they are averaging 17.5 pts per game and giving up 20. We are averaging 27.5 pts per while our opponents are scoring and average of 36.75 in MAC play. ESPN matchup predictor has this at 68/32 in favor of the RedHawks with the spread at 9 pts.

@LZIp mentioned in another thread that Hester was recently put on scholarship. Good for him! I'd like to see the staff give him a shot at RB. He's not a world-class talent, or anything like that, but he's a gamer and a football player: hits the hole fast, gets north-and-south, has better top-end speed than it appears Pryce does, and, though he's not the biggest guy in the world, rarely lost yardage on a carry last season (IIRC).

The back and forth between Dyson Clapier and Jason Shookalook, with defenders on them, that led to Dyson's goal was some great work, too.

This was a beat down.

Zips go on to win 4-0.

I've seen bits and pieces of the match, but from what I've seen, they look sharp this evening.

If he’s using it as a way to continue to have his education paid for, more power to him. If he believes he’ll be able to transfer to a P5 school based on his 4 games this year, he may find himself disappointed. As far as our program goes, it’s frustrating in the fact we were one corner away from having a half way decent secondary to finish out the year. Amankwaa and Golden-Nelson on the outside would have made a nice combination - assuming Golden-Nelson would be healed up. While this move has no effect on next year, it makes winning another game this year a little more challenging.

Have you noticed a decline in participation on Zips Nation? I think the lack of Ws raked up by the football team has a bunch of folks too disappointed to post and put others in a funk. Emblematic, consider an unidentified poster who was one of the most optimistic posters on Zips Nation before the football season started, now reduced to unprovoked attacks on University of Akron graduates. Hang in there; things will get better.

Teams that don't have the QB take snaps under center also at a much greater risk of safeties when pinned back on their own goal line.

This will be an awesome opener. And I can already see the meltdown that ZN will have if the Zips drop it. Some folks will probably blame the Point Park and Wheeling game from last year. Anyway, the title defense starts now. It’s been 20+ years since someone not called Buffalo repeated in Cleveland. The Zips strike me right now as a team that would be kind of like that 2016 UB team. Lose a few big pieces from a title run, adds a few big contributors, but everyone forgets about you when you underwhelm a little bit based on expectation. Then you’re right back at the end raising the trophy. Did you see Toledo got a point in the first AP poll of the year? UT may very well end their tournament drought this year. But they lost Rollins and added a couple nice transfers. But they’ve still totally choked in the MAC semis back to back years. But nobody ever seems to take that into account, and they’ll probably be the preseason favorite again. Whatever. Love me some Groce basketball, and the weather is telling me it’s time to see some Zips basketball!

The JAR will be hopping that's for sure.

From the guy that was listening to Steve French on a Sony Walkman report the Zips were down 35-0 to BG on my wedding day in 1993...and the guy that was at the Rubber Bowl when Faust beat OU to go 1-10 in 1994...and the guy that saw Rob Ianello produce back-to-back 1-11 seasons...only to be succeeded by Bowden going 1-11 in his inaugural season, then bookend his tenure with a 4-8 record after beating the Big 10 champs earlier that season...and the guy that saw Tom Arth and Oscar Rodriguez rack up a combined 3 wins against 27 losses...and the guy that's staring smack dab into the face of another 1-11 season...I can say will 100% confidence - I feel your pain.