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My biggest issue is the lack of engagement from athletics to its most loyal alumni and fans. The only time I hear from Athletics is when they're asking for money. Fundraising is obviously vital, but if, every time you hear from someone, all they're doing is asking for money, you're eventually going to ignore their calls/emails. My second biggest is the complete lack of marketing/promos/ticket specials. Don't tell me you need a huge budget to do it when the Rubberducks kill it every summer with a limited budget. It takes creativity and effort, two things our athletic department has lacked for years.

Great points. Minor league baseball is the perfect example of how to engage the fans. And More important, engaging the youth. Minor league baseball is miles ahead of everyone else in that. Learn from it. Use it. Maybe the next generation won’t all be fans (and more likely to be future students) of the worthless nuts. The game day experience is definitely lacking. I’ll pay for the tickets and drive the admin to Canal Park. OSU can be stodgy and old fashioned. Open the gates and the seats are filled. That doesn’t work for anyone else in Ohio. Put players on the field in pads and let the young-in’s walk out and meet them. Maybe in the practice facility. Maybe send them out on a pass pattern and lob them the football. I’ve seen worse ideas. A lot of them. game. day. experience.

I just saw the Akron-Kent football game is listed as Youth Sports Day, perfect for a weekday school night game with a 7:30 PM start. 🤦‍♂️

Agree the offense has been a major disappointment. Part of the problem against most teams has been the offense’s inability to stay on the field and in turn cause the defense to play more snaps. They’ve also been put in poor situations numerous times. Even with the aberration against NIU, the defense is still on pace to be ahead of last year and especially vs Arth’s last season. I added the stats below. Total Defense: 2023 = 342.0 YPG 2022 = 406.2 YPG 2021 = 457.0 YPG Scoring Defense: 2023 = 29.4 2022 = 33.5 2021 = 38.6 Rush Defense: 2023 = 148.8 2022 = 162.4 2021 = 246.0 Pass Defense: 2023 = 193.3 YPG 2022 = 243.8 YPG 2021 = 211.0 YPG Sacks: 2023 = 15 2022 = 19 2021 = 14 QB Pressures: 2023 = 104 2022 = 167 2021 = 104 Interceptions: 2023 = 6 2022 = 6 2021 = 6 If the offense could even be average and protect the football, we’d be fielding a pretty good team this year. Instead, we’re dead last in the MAC in rushing for the second straight season and averaging almost 100 yards less through the air.

This. I'd bring in a marketing person from the Rubber Ducks or Savannah Bananas. Let them run Gameday operations & marketing campaigns. Give them free reign with only common sense restrictions. Differentiate yourself from the grey blob of G5 programs and non-OSUcks colleges in Ohio.

Rankings this week Zips are ranked #10 by College Soccer News Zips are ranked #13 by United College Soccer Coaches Zips are ranked #14 by Top Drawer Soccer In RPI (as of 7:10 pm on Tuesday 10/24), the zips are #33 in RPI There are currently 7 Big East Teams that have currecntly qualified for Big East Tournament Zips are currently the 2nd highest ranked Big East Team (in RPI) Georgetown 7 Akron 33 St. John's 42 Providence 43 Connecticut 59 Xavier 72 Creighton 102 Akron's next game opponent, Butler is 122 Butler has a record of 2-7-5

Thank goodness. That floor was horrible to watch on TV.

Why would anybody buy a reserved seat for a game where you can pretty much sit anywhere you want to, like pretty much any Zips football game?

This isn't a half bad idea, but the public should be warned to dress lightly (shorts and t-shirts) even though it may be freezing cold outside. They always keep the air temp in the natatorium pretty darn warm for the comfort of the swimmers.

Thanks @Reslife4Life for posting the post game interview. I wish more of our players would get their heads up and have more confidence in taking shots.

Finally!

Pro Football Focus rates QB play. Out of 160 QB's with minimal action, Jeff Underperformer is listed 159; one better than Iowa's Deacon Hill. I say again; can either of the young QB's perform any worse? It truely is time to find out!!

Tickets for a Wednesday night game between two awful teams (Akron and Kent) are currently listed as $19 for GA and $31-38 for reserved. Our ticketing team is completely unserious.

Double-post, sorry

I have looked very hard for the past 2 days......to find the press conference that occurred after the Marquette game. I have been unsuccessful in finding the Marquette press conference. The Beacon Journal has not been good this year in sending reporters to cover Akron U. Mens soccer games. Therefore, zips fans are forced to search for the press conferences on you tube. Normally, if a soccer game was played on Tuesday night, either Blue and Gold....or myself will find the press conference on the regular you tube web site (nomally found there around 2:00 or 3;00 on wednesday afternoon). As soon as Blue and Gold or myself or another zip fan finds the previous night's press conference on regular you tube, the zips nation soccer fan posts on this web site for other zip soccer fans so they can listen to comments from Coach Embick and 2 players. Normally, 5 to 6 days after the game has been played, someone in the Zips athletic department (I would assume that it is sports information director Sean Palchick) finally gets around to posting the press conference on the Zips Athletic page you tube channel. I am going to vent here. Zips soccer fans deserve much, much better. Zips soccer fans should not have to wait until 3 pm the next day for a zip soccer fan to find the press conference on regular You tube and then have that same zip soccer fan post on this site. Zip soccer fans sure as heck should not have to wait 5 to 6 days for the press conference to be posted on the zips You Tube channel. Thank you to Blue&Gold and other fans...that have posted press conferences on this web site. Let's compare the very poor performance.....by the Akron Mens soccer sports information director to what Creighton SID did last Wednesday night. Akron played at Creighton last Wednesday night from 7 pm eastern time to 9 pm eastern time. At 11:30 eastern time, I found this tweet from Creighton mens's soccer. It included a recap of the game, a 8.5 minute highlight video and the 6 minute press conference. All included in 1 tweet. Creighton Men's soccer fans are getting great timely information. Akron soccer fans are getting almost no information ....on a timely basis from our SID. Charles Guthrie, Markus Jennings, if you are reading this.....This one Akron Mens soccer fan says ....We deserve much better, more timely information.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear the teachers' union start back on its attack of the costs of the football program as it did in 2020. The University did a decent job of explaining the costs of leaving the MAC and/or dropping to FCS then, but I could see the continued floundering of the program opening the door to this critique again.

If you read my posts you know I'm not a fan of Guthrie. That being said, I do believe Akron Athletics is better off now than under Larry Williams. More on my thoughts on Guthrie later in this post. Here's my "State of Akron Athletics" comments. First - Facilities. Since Guthrie arrived we've seen repairs made to InfoCision that were needed, although we still need to fix/replace the video board. The JAR is what it is, but it's not terrible, and the new floor, the addition of a "$$$ donor bar" are all positives. It still looks good, and those who do attend infrequently still think it's a good facility. FirstEnergy continues to be one of the top Soccer-specific Stadiums in NCAA soccer, and they recently upgraded the sound system to give more sound clarity and moved the speaker system to make the seating area more enjoyable before the matches (you can actually talk to your neighbors pre-game without screaming!) Ocasek is a very nice facility for swim meets, and they just added a huge, state-of-the art video system that is not only informative, entertaining and readable, but offers the swimmers and divers training assistance. Of course, basketball is getting a new training facility as well. And the new track and field complex at Lee Jackson field is fantastic, although the throws area are a little convoluted. All of these were done under Guthrie, so hats off to the AD and The U on Facilites. Coaches - Guthrie was smart enough to realize that Coaches Groce, Embick and Peresie were the most successful coaches (and programs) he had, so he's left them alone, and even has enhanced their contracts. It doesn't mean he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't criticize them in public to others, which is a big negative IMHO about Charles. He is overheard many times at games/meets/matches being very critical of his coaches to the general public, which I'm sure get back to the coaches mentioned and may tend to undermine their confidence. That being said, I believe he made positive hires in football, softball and volleyball. Baseball has been a circus. He needed to move on from Sabo but the OSU coach fiasco and then not re-signing last year's coach has to be questioned, as well as his new hire. Granted baseball hasn't started and time will tell but his pick is a little underwhelming. The Women's soccer hire was and is disastrous, not that she is a bad person or knowledgeable, it's once again a terrible hire for a D1 school with a Nationally ranked Men's program. Track and Field is another terrible hire. Some will point to the 2023 Outdoor MAC title for men as an argument, but the head coach had little to do with that, it was the throws coach and his athletes that won that title. Meanwhile the women's program is still in shambles. And she's already lost the throws coach after one season and has gone through 2 PV coaches already in one year. It's no secret Guthrie chased Coach Mitchell off, like he did Herlihy from soccer (needed). Still...Now we have a new Lacrosse coach, so we'll have to see how that goes. And I do feel the new hire for Women's basketball is a solid choice without watching one game, but once again, Guthrie's handling of the Jackson situation was pretty ham-handed. Department - The Athletic Department is not what I would call a well-run machine. Being a retired businesswoman, I understand wanting to have staff around you that you have confidence in and comfortable with. And I understand the desire to change, but change for change sake is not always a good thing. The department was already reeling from needed staff reductions, like all departments at Akron when Dr. Miller came on board. It appears from the number and quality of recent departures from Athletics that the methodology is "make life hell on them and they'll leave on their own" rather than try to work towards a different and consistent approach. They've lost a lot of good people and their replacements seem more like a hodge-podge rather than a unified front. Game Day Experience - It is abysmal. At all events. From football's thuggish music on every down instead of marching band, lack of any entertainment during time-outs, quarter changes etc. to the treatment of us fans by game-day staff, plus the cost of everything, it's not going to bring anyone to games. Basketball was so-so but once again, where are the things that make families and casual fans want to attend? They finally seemed to "get it" at the last few soccer matches with a few give-aways. Let's face it, it just flat out is terrible across the board, especially compared to the entire MAC conference, other than perhaps KSU. We do got to many away events in the MAC plus go to watch a niece and nephew who compete at other MAC schools, and hands-down we are 11th out of 12 in Game Day experience. Eastern Michigan leads the way, Miami is very good, Toledo is solid, and I can go on. So that's my "more-than-two-cents" worth. I'm sure I've given enough ammo for some of you to tear into me and tell me where I'm wrong, but the premise was to offer "thoughts" on the State of Athletics....and these are mine.

Richie Laryea....!!!

Outrageous? Paying $20 to watch Akron football this year.

Much better.

Penn State went 3-and-out 15 straight times against OSU. That doesn’t sound all that bad? I think I’d take it?🤔

I heard Undercuffler was so upset with his performance Saturday he threw his helmet down in the locker room and it got intercepted. I wonder how many fumbles he coughs up this weekend against BYE?

There clearly is not a quarterback on the roster who can consistently move this offense in an efficient manner, at this time. There were numerous plays where the OL gave the QB more than enough time to throw the ball, just to see a poor decision made or an inaccurate pass come out. The OL certainly was not great, but the poor throws and bad decisions by the QB could not be placed on the OL. CMU was not going to let us beat them by running the ball with Bullock in the game and practically dared the offense to throw the ball. After an Arth era like defensive showing last week, the defense bounced back in a big way and created 20 pressures on the QB (most this season). They also collected 2 interceptions. Darrian Lewis may have been the best player on the field. Fish and McCoy also had big games. Freshman Marcus Moore was a regular in the rotation at DT and played really well. He has huge upside. Kicker Noah Perez drilled a 40 yard field goal. However, Dante Jackson did not have his best day punting the ball. It’s a shame what could have been a breakout season for this program has turned into so many close losses. There are five games left to figure out who can help going into next year, while still trying to win a few games this year. QB - Bullock (Undercuffler) RB - Lingard (D. Anderson) WR - George (C. Anderson) WR - Gathings (Norton) WR - Adams (Golden) (Walker) TE - Banks (Newell) LT - Chambers LG - Frank (Kilbane) C - T. Williams (Georges) RG - K. Davis (Lyons) RT - N. Williams DE -Nunnally (L. Jackson) DT - Jones (Robinson) DT - Lavea (Moore) DE - Adler (A. Smith) (L. Jackson) LB - Fish (Cooper) LB - McCoy (Cooper) NB - Lewis (C.Thomas) CB - Tallandier (Golden-Nelson) S - KJ Martin (Thompson) S - C. Thomas (Thompson) CB - Durant (Hunter)

The environment was the best I’ve seen out of my handful of trips to Akron games and it’s a shame the performance on the field did not match. From what I could see, it was a solid crowd and in general people seemed excited about the matchup. The band was great too, but that’s about where the positives end. NIU’s off balance sets and motions gave the defense major issues in both alignment and pursuit angles. McCoy was put in a tough spot on the counter runs to the boundary and found it difficult to make the tackle. The MIKE LB usually took on the lead blocker, which left either the safety or WILL LB to make the play. NIU often used a WR or TE to seal the safety inside. Not that it made much of a difference, but Gathings’ body language was poor in the first half and gave away whether it was a run or pass pre-snap. The OL struggled in one on one pass protection. In-particular the right side of the OL had a rough day in pass pro. OL in general had a tough time maintaining their blocks in the run game. The offense has felt like it was forcing round pegs into squares holes the entire season. Tonight, I thought the run heavy approach was the right idea, but once the game was out of hand that idea was basically tossed out the window. Bullock certainly has the arm strength to send the ball anywhere he wants. However, accuracy leaves something to be desired. Hopefully that improves as he receives more reps. Also, he needs to be careful about scrambling to his left. Rarely do good things happen for right handed QBs when scrambling to their left. Freshman OL Delvin Morris may not have a clue what he’s doing out there yet, but he’s extremely athletic, aggressive, and is going to be really good. A lot of young guys got some PT in garbage time tonight. Curious to see how the team responds after this performance. I did not see DT Kyle Thomas out there and noticed he is no longer listed on the official roster. QB - Bullock RB - Lingard (D. Anderson) (Kellom) WR - Gathings (Norton) WR - George (Anderson) WR - Golden (Walker) TE - Banks (Ognenovic) LT - Chambers (Morris) LG - Frank (Kilbane) C - T. Williams (Georges) RG - Davis (Kilbane) (Lyons) RT - Williams (James) DE - Nunnally (Smith) DT - Jones (Robinson) (Carter) DT - Lavea (Murphy) DT - Adler (Moore) (Richards) DE - Jackson (Adler) (Cheatom) LB - Fish (Griffin) LB - McCoy (Cooper) (Harris) (NB) - Lewis CB - Durant (Hunter) S - C. Thomas (Martin) S - Martin (Thompson) CB - Tallandier (Golden-Nelson) (Threatt)

Another tough one… - I cannot wrap my mind around why Lingard is not utilized more in the run game. He’s a threat every time he touches the ball and we only gave him 8 rushing attempts. I know Irons chose to pull several times instead of give, so that is part of the issue. In any case, Lingard may be the offense’s best weapon and we hardly use him outside of a few pass targets and to block. - Heavy emphasis on running Irons this game, which is somewhat understandable after last week, but he can’t be the only running option. - If Undercuffler is next in line and he’s expected to be successful without a run game, it isn’t going to happen. He actually did give to Lingard one (maybe two?) time on the read. - I thought Buffalo’s receivers made Snyder look much better than he was last year. This year, he is playing on another level. Impressive job by the defense holding the MAC’s leading passer to 142 yards. - Special teams were solid all game except for the blocked OT FG. - That’s already 3 losses by a combined 8 points. Defense has done more than their fair share and it’s past time this program turned the corner. There is not a talent deficiency on this year’s roster and the offense must figure it out. Coach Moorhead is a brilliant offensive mind, yet the offense has been incredibly inefficient scoring. This year’s offense (at least with the 3 QBs we’ve seen) needs to be more run heavy and the staff has to realize it. - Notable DNPs were Adams, Cooper, Bullock, Blanchard, K. Thomas, Behm. - Sophomores Kiawan Murphy and Jaharon Griffin saw their first significant action on defense. - KJ Martin played every snap on defense, while Bryan McCoy only missed one. The starting OL went the distance with the exception of Georges subbing in for Tyler Williams a few times. - Defense was credited with only 5 missed tackles for the game. QB - Irons (Undercuffler) RB - Lingard (D. Anderson) WR - George (Norton) WR- Gathings (C. Anderson) WR - Walker (Golden) TE - Banks (Newell) LT - Chambers LG - Frank C - T. Williams (Georges) RG - Davis RT - N. Williams DE - Adler (A. Smith) DT - Lavea (Murphy) DT - Jones (Robinson) DE - Nunnally (Jackson) LB - Fish (Griffin) LB - McCoy (Harris) NB - Lewis CB - Durant (Hunter) S - C. Thomas (N. Thompson) S - KJ Martin CB - Tallandier (Golden-Nelson)

Busy weekend, so just some notes off the top of my head. - This team talks way too much to the opposing team and to opposing fans. It’s a sign of being undisciplined and it came back to bite us in crucial situations. That needs to be cleaned up. - Outside of the two interceptions, Irons was the best he’s looked this season. He moved around well in the pocket, was able to push the ball downfield, and his scrambling ability was a difference maker. - Most of the pressure came from the right side of the OL between K. Davis and N. Williams. Williams struggled mightily against the speed of Indiana’s edge rushers. - The DTs did a great job all game keeping the OL off the linebackers. McCoy, Fish, and Cooper were routinely running free to the ball. - There were several option plays Indiana ran that would have gashed us last year, but the athleticism and discipline of our DEs and LBs stood out. - Speaking of the LBs, McCoy had a standout performance with 12 total tackles and seemed to always be around the ball. - The red zone and goal line stands by the defense were incredibly impressive. DT Kyle Thomas was stout in that area again. - Good for Andrew Behm. I’ve been critical of his play and it was nice to see him snag the interception. - KJ Martin had one of his best games as a Zip. Too bad he dropped an interception that could have iced the game. - Special Teams once again created another turnover. Unfortunately, once again missed at least one field goal, which was another missed opportunity for this team. - The identity of this offense has to be to run the football first. Lingard saw his most touches with 14 attempts and produced 113 yards and a touchdown. He was close to breaking a few other runs. I’ll continue to say it, give him the ball. Between the running ability of Irons/Bullock and Lingard/Anderson, is what will keep the offense on the field and eventually open up more one on one deep ball opportunities. It will also limit turnovers. - Total Yardage: Akron = 474 Indiana = 282 - Time of Possession: Akron = 34:24 Indiana = 25:36 This team could be 3-1 or 0-4. Instead, we’re 1-3 heading into MAC play. I thought the team would have turned the corner by now, but we are still fighting some of the same issues of finishing games with 2 losses of a combined 5 points. Sooner or later this group will put it all together. Side note: Blanchard went out with what looked like a knee injury and did not return. QB - Irons (Bullock) (Undercuffler) RB - Lingard (Anderson) WR - Gathings (Walker) WR - Adams (Golden) WR - George (Norton) TE - Banks (Newell) LT - Blanchard (Chambers) LG - Frank (Kilbane) C - T. Williams RG - K. Davis (Kilbane) RT - Chambers (N. Williams) DE - R. Johnson (Adler) DT - Lavea (K. Thomas) DT - T. Jones (Robinson) DE - Nunnally (A. Smith) (L. Jackson) LB - Fish (Behm) LB - Cooper (McCoy) NB - C. Thomas (Lewis) CB - Hunter (Durant) CB - Tallandier (Golden-Nelson) S - KJ Martin (C.Thomas) S - N. Thompson (C. Thomas)