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Just my best guess on all of this, but the staff probably thought DJI would come back healthy and improve upon last year’s performance. We rolled the dice and lost there. JU seemed much improved in the spring, yet has proven to be incredibly inconsistent in 2023. He’s limited in some of the throws he can make and when that’s the case he has to be more selective and efficient than what he’s been. I suspect the staff thought Wasel and Jennings would not be needed this year and would be used as scout team/devo players. Bullock clearly has all the physical traits needed to be successful, so the staff got it right on that front. However, he’s struggling with accuracy/decision making and that usually means he’s not quite where he needs to be mentally. For all we know, he could take a huge leap over the offseason and look like a completely different player next year. Unfortunately, he’s not where we need him to be now. There’s probably too much on his plate at this point in time. It also seems the staff was unwilling to bend on offensive concepts, which also caused some struggles. To top it off, the OL play hasn’t been consistent either. That being said, the OL probably had its best game in pass pro against CMU and we still struggled to throw the ball.

Here's Ali & Freeman. Look at Freeman's guns! He's come so far!

I know it is early but I am eager to get this season rolling! The Zips head off to Brookings, South Dakota to face the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State on November 6th in what is likely to be a tough opener. As you may recall, the Zips opened last season at the JAR against the Jackrabbits, pulling out an 81-80 overtime win. The Jackrabbits were selected by the Summit League’s head coaches, sports information directors and media to win the upcoming 2023-24 regular season title. 6’4” junior guard Zeke Mayo was selected as Summit League Preseason Player of the Year. Last year, Mayo led the team in points (18.2), rebounds (6.2) and assists (3.4). 6’8” redshirt senior forward Luke Appel was also selected to the Preseason All-Summit League First Team. Appel missed a large portion of last year due to injuries. In 2021-22 he was the Summit League Sixth Man of the Year. The team also has some serious size with 8 players 6’7” or taller including Wyoming Transfer Nate Barnhart. Warning to Zips fans- this is not Cedarville!

The SP+ model once again predicts Akron beats the spread and loses close. On the surface, this is certainly a winnable game, but they pretty much all will be in this league. I guess we've gotten to that point, for what it's worth. The league is bad, and there's no excuse to not get one or two of these before the season is over. Again, I can't even believe I'm saying that. I've lost sleep over this season, I hate to say. This is one of the few teams in the league with QB(s) that aren't that much better than what we're trotting out there right now. Their strength is in the run game. Terion Stewart averages almost 6 yards per carry, and Camden Orth, one of the QBs they use, is a strong runner. Under Loeffler, BG has been one of the most up-and-down programs in the entire country. He's in his 5th season and has never finished a season with a winning record, the closest being last year's 6-7 effort with a loss to NMSU in the Quick Lane Bowl. In his first year, they went 3-9 but beat Toledo for the first time in 10 years, in year two he had the worst team in the country that lost to Akron by 4 TDs, in year three he beat Minnesota before losing to Akron at home two weeks later, finishing 4-8. And last year, they started 0-2 with an FCS loss then beat Marshall, who was fresh off a win at Notre Dame. He then went on to beat Toledo again. Typing that out, even I didn't realize how wild a ride the Loeffler experience has been. Their new AD was hired to fix football and had no choice but to extend him after last year, and it looks like he's doing the thing again. Beat GT, shutout by Miami, go to Buffalo and dominate, home vs. Akron...?? Let's hope this is a down week for the Falcons. A home loss to 1-6 Akron may further push the AD to make the move, which their fans wouldn't exactly be mad about. I'll never forget in 2018 when BG came to Akron. They had fired Mike Jinks a month prior and were being coached by Carl Pelini. Akron, still with hopes of making a bowl game, lost on senior day 21-6, failing to find the end zone against a team that wound up giving up 30+ points a whopping 10 times that season. That was the last straw for me. It would be nice to have that effect on someone else for once.

I was listening to the NFL Network a few months ago and Bill Polian was being interviewed. Speaking about drafting Peyton Manning, he said - "You don't want to know how close we were to drafting Ryan Leaf. It was a dead heat. In the end, Leaf didn't want to show up for a 3rd interview, and Peyton did, so we went with him." So even at the highest level of football, with miles of film, the combine, and personal interviews conducted by people whole's sole job is evaluating talent...it can be tough to judge between a complete loser, and an all time great.

The last few years In the 4th quarter to get the crowd excited they have a Zips "play of the game" We might be losing by 40 points but sometimes with great difficulty they will find a positive play for the Zips and put it on the scoreboard. In order to blow off some steam from this season, I will ask everyone on the board to give me the worst play of 2023 by the Zips. I know the season is young but I already have a couple of favorites: The missed field goal that would have given us a win over Indiana Our offsides against Temple when they were punting and we would have a last ditch effort to tie the game. When Kentucky threw a touchdown pass after we had the quarterback tackled but could not bring him down to the ground.

it is working thanks

He'll be 24 in January...at some point college has to end.🙂

New lineup can be said for every team. We have 5 seniors, 3 of which were staples last year, and the other 2 were staples the previous season when we nearly beat UCLA in the Dance. Our "new lineup" is much better off than most. It comes down to "do we put the ball in the basket more than the opponent." New lineup doesn't have as much to do with that as individual skill & effort. This is a Groce-coached team. We will almost always be in the game thanks to defense & effort. Bring on the Jackrabbits and as this game will be played in the shadows of Mount Rushmore, I'd like to quote our Founding Fathers who once said, "Go Zips!"

I watched Bullocks high school tape and he looks amazing However, he had all day to throw and his receivers are wide open. It makes me wonder how do you evaluate a high school quarterback that is on a superior team that never faces any pass rush and can pick and choose to pass to wide open receivers. Obviously, in Akron he has players in his face and his receivers are not wide open. It is great that he is athletic and has a strong arm but he is not making quick decisions and has had difficulty throwing the ball. Are the high school quarterbacks that are on teams with superior talent at all positions and consistently win championships and break records overrated and struggle when college levels the playing field?

You can tell Freeman has pro aspirations. Senior night this year needs to be an over-capacity crowd.

For what it's worth, the Zips dropped from #3 to #7 in this week's coaches poll https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ The NCAA Division 1 soccer committee ....is much more important than the coaches poll. For those that are able to get the ACC network, you might want to tune into the ACC network between 8:50 pm and 9:05 PM on Friday night. We will get to see where the NCAA soccer committee ranks Akron after they have played 15 games. ACC network will also be televising a pretty good game from 8 pm to 10 pm (#3 Wake Forest vs #6 Notre Dame) The NCAA Division I men's soccer committee will reveal the in-season top 16 men's soccer rankings at halftime of the 8 p.m. ET match between Notre Dame and Wake Forest on the ACC Network on Friday, Oct. 20. Games through Thursday, Oct. 19 will be in consideration for the Oct. 20 top-16 reveal. The announcement gives fans a sneak peek of where teams stand a few weeks out from the selection show, which is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 13. https://www.ncaa.com/news/soccer-men/article/2023-10-03/ncaa-di-mens-soccer-committee-reveal-season-top-16-friday-oct-20-acc-network

I appreciate the contribution to the board, but some of this is not correct. College coaches do not give a 💩 about stars. They recruit and evaluate based on what they see on tape and in person. Stars are for the fans and for the recruiting services to make money. The majority of time the stars will eventually align to 4 and 5 stars for the elite programs by the time signing day arrives, but many of those prospects start out as 3 stars if they have not competed in multiple camp settings. As offers are extended and the recruiting services get around to seeing the prospects in person, star bumps will occur. That being said, a large portion of 4 and 5 stars have competed in camp settings by the time they are seniors. As far as Rivals is concerned, the majority of G5 commitments will be 2 stars. On3 and 247 will rate most G5s as low 3 stars because it’s good for business and gets more eyes on their product. We can all say what we want about the performance on the field, but what is not up for debate is the amount of connections JoeMo and this staff have. They aren’t going to recruit anyone who they do not believe will help this program. Plus, the interest has to be reciprocal between the recruits and staff.

I'm a little surprised that I can get a men's GA season pass for less than this.

KenPom's 2024 rankings dropped in the last couple of days. They start with Akron at 102, 3 spots ahead of where they finished last year. The Zips opened at 110 last year and climbed as high as 95. For whatever reason, the site seems to be still filling in some holes, as it has the Zips opening with Southern Miss. KP has SDSU at 117. Their schedule is loaded once again. They play Kent again (this time at home), they go to Kansas State, Southern Miss, and Wichita State. Not quite the gauntlet of last year, which included a back-to-back road trip at Kent then at Bama. The opener last year felt like a tournament game. The atmosphere in the JAR was the best it has been in November in very long time. This game on the road will be no easy feat, and I wouldn't be shocked to see ZN melt down that night. Appel was in street clothes for the opener last year. Mayo was held in check most of the game. Matt Mims got hot from 3, and he may be one of the most under-the-radar best shooters in the country. William Kyle, in his first ever college game, played very well against Freeman. X was heroic.

Great review! Thank you for posting!