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Watching the replay this morning, because why the hell not?!

We all saw that this team, even sitting at 1 win, was better than anything Arth put on the field. This win validates that and gives them something to build on. Plus, Coach Joe gets a full recruiting season this time around so let's go!.

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401416652 DOMINATION! The guys one the sideline and in the booth all really deserved that. I wasn't surprised to see them win, like Joe said, but I was surprised to see them take over that game and dominate. The key to this? Limiting mistakes in the margins. Punt return game was still ugly at times. They didn't play a perfect game overall, but were pretty close. When JU threw the early pick to go along with a bad first drive, it felt like deja vu. But the defense kept them in it, as they should have against that QB, and the offense shook off the rust and made some plays. That was very cool to see. I'm definitely not sold on JU as QB1 heading into next year. Not even close as a matter of fact. He was just fine yesterday and obviously put up good numbers and won the game. But he was bailed out by some great plays made by the receivers, and just didn't impress me with his arm. With that said, performances like this give me a lot more faith in the QB depth as a whole. He redeemed himself and is not Alex Ramart, thank heavens! If only this could've been a home game, the Zip die hards deserved to see this in person! Funny enough, Akron's 3 MAC wins since the start of 2019 have come by an average of 25 points, with the only home win coming in an empty COVID stadium. Maybe next year we'll get to see the Zips dominate a team in person. This was the first win for the program in Dekalb since 1996! And the first win over NIU since some game in December of 2005, anyone know anything about that game?? 😂 I said this after the Miami game this year, which felt all too Arthy to all of us: While not closing out the year with the historic win, we still picked it up. AND we can play spoiler at Buffalo next week! I can't say enough how much more enjoyable this season has been to watch as compared to the last 5 years or so. This team plays as hard as anyone in the country, and they were rewarded with a dominating win over the best MAC program of the last 15 years. Whether they're down or not, that was a meaningful win over the 2021 MAC champs, and it was a game that Akron should have won, and they did. This moves Akron's point differential in MAC play to -29. That is an average of -4.14 points per game. The 2017 MAC East title team's average point differential was +2.13, just a 6 point difference going into the final game. If you include the MAC title game, a 17-point loss that was at one point 38-0, the point differential was exactly 0. It hasn't really shown in the win/loss column, but this team is further along than you think, while still having a significant talent and depth gap with most of the league. How sweet would a win at Buffalo be? The Zips haven't done that since 2005 either. GO ZIPS!!!!

I really want to agree with you, but I need to see a bigger sample size to give him the job and not have a QB competition in the spring and fall. I do believe that the Zips offense was much more productive the last game and a half when JU was the QB. The team seems to respond to him very well and the running game improved with him at QB. I do believe that JU needs more experience against FBS teams to get used to the speed of the game, but he has been improving over the last 6 quarters. However, Irons has shown to be a much better runner. I would not use the Buffalo game to make a final decision, but it should be a data point to use going forward. The bottom line is that the Zips finally beat a FBS team. This win along with the Suckeyes loss made it a great day!! Go Zips!!!

Suckeyes fans are miserable right now. They all expected a blowout win. Their day is ruined because some school in Columbus they have no connection to just got thumped by a rival they hate more than anything. Zips fans are celebrating the second win of the season and I couldn't be happier.

Offense: - JU was solid, but not great. There are certain throws he makes well and others where he is inconsistent. The biggest positive was he looked confident and in charge of the offense. - Our OL had their way from the 2nd quarter on. Not counting garbage time, there was a rotation of Landers and Chambers at LT. Robarge and Kilbane at LG. Georges, Whigan, Williams played nearly every snap at C, RG, and RT respectively. - What a game by Alex Adams. He is looking explosive. - Wiley and Price made some nice runs. - Excited about Kellom’s potential. He has some shiftiness to him with a nice burst. Defense: - We went with a heavier set the majority of the game and Lewis did not play as much because of it. - Same issues are still there in pass defense, but NIU had some of the worst QB play I’ve seen all year. With that being said, our secondary played physically. - Terry had a whale of a game. NIU had a hard time blocking him. - Thompson also had a strong game. - Defensive line won their fair share of matchups, but pass rush is still inconsistent. We were hands down the better team and in every phase. I expect this team will be ready for Buffalo and put it all on the line to close out the year. Good to see everyone having fun today.

So this is what it feels like the day after an FBS win. Hmmm, I could get used to this.

Tremendous analysis and write up. The improvement this year is quite obvious once you look beyond the Win & Loss columns. Our ability to compete and be in just about every game is pretty remarkable. JoeMo is as transparent and straightforward a coach I've ever seen, and I think we should've taken his words a bit more seriously about the DI talent deficit on our roster when he took over. I'll admit I thought he was trying to temper expectations before easily exceeding them. Turns out, he was just telling everyone how it was - we weren't even a DI program under Arth. The first sign of being just a few players away was the Liberty game. We should've won that game, but lacked the extra few pieces to put us over the top. Liberty finished the season 8-4, and their coach is probably going to be on his way to Auburn. Looking at the MAC portion, every single loss outside of OU and Miami was by 1 full score or less. That's it. This team has completed all year. They are fully bought into JoeMo and his staff, evident by their effort, especially yesterday in a meaningless game. We are so much closer than the average football fan realizes, and I'm stoked for next year. However, we're not finished with this year. Keep Canada from Bowling.

As Matt and Joe were signing off, Matt said, "from DeKalb, it was Northern Illinois forty..." then he caught himself. Old habits die hard.

It’ll be on ESPN+ for the rest of the week. Type Akron in the search bar and scroll down. I’m not sure if it’s available on any other service.

Lamar is a beast, I think him only getting 1 offer comes down to measurable’s, he is considerably undersized for a college running back

Figured we could track the college football offseason here. First big domino just fell. Luke Fickell to Wisconsin. Cincinnati will be ripe for picking. One of their WRs, Tyler Scott, is from Norton.

He just made a tackle on special teams in the Brown game.

I agree, I really don’t think we are far away. The team is what it is this year and the staff has done a great job getting the most out of the current players. I suspect next year the defense will look similar to what we saw yesterday. I think the staff wants to play a lot of man in the secondary and stack the box to stop the run. We just weren’t able to do enough of that this year without getting burned for big plays on the back end. It’s clear the biggest needs and targets are at CB and OL. Once those positions are addressed, this program should take a massive leap. Barring massive injuries, I expect us to be one of the best teams in the MAC next year. One thing I didn’t mention in the original post is how much more physical we were than NIU. Imagine what the defense will look like in a year or two when every position is playing at that level. Beating Buffalo won’t be easy, but it would be huge for recruiting and perception of the program.

You referencing Gyuwon Chong's injury? That was the turning point in the season IMHO.

Experienced help can't arrive soon enough until talented D1 recruits start flowing through the recruiting pipeline. Looking forward to the final game against Buffalo and the 2023 recruiting/portal season!

@bigjim, I'm now agreeing with you about RB Charles Kellom's potential! I really like how he looked in his limited carries today. (I never disagreed with you, I just wasn't sure what to expect by only watching his highlight video. But you called it - he looked good today.)

Kind of unfortunate we have another game next week. This would have been a nice high point to end the season on.

First post of the thread and I called it correctly. 'Once I thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken' Go Zips!!!

I think at this time, it would be appropriate for me to refresh your memory.

JoeMo is their kryptonite 😎

If I'm not mistaken, LCJ was part of his recruitment. When Groce retires from Akron someday, put me in the LCJ for his replacement camp, should he want to follow in his father's footsteps. What a weird game this is.

With the men's game really only available on radio I turned the women's game on ESPN+ against Robert Morris. They look pretty good, working really well as a team. Last year they relied on Jordyn Dawson this year it's spread around much more evenly.

Through five games of the season now, IMO this offense does look better this year without Ali Ali. Thankfully I don’t think I’ve seen any isolation plays with the back to the basket yet by anyone. Although Ali did have better shooting stats compared to the likes of Sammy and Hank so far, having the option of multiple shooters this year pleases me way more than Ali at point last year. Even if the numbers aren’t there this year, by my eye test the offense is doing a good job, just gotta knock down some shots