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I did not see either of the exhibitions. I asked a high school friend for his impressions of the first 2 games I will paraphrase his comments. They looked much worse in the 2nd game than they did in the first game. 2nd game comments - They spent a lot of time passing the ball around on their half of the field. They appeared to be afraid to pass the ball into the midfield as the pass was likely to be intercepted. Most times, the zips looked to pass backwards....rather than looking forward. When the zips were able to cross the midfield, the ball did not stay very long on the zips side of the field. Same problems that we saw late in 2023...when they tied Marquette and other less talented teams. Final comment from my friend...game was very boring. Fans were not engaged. Fans were talking to their neighbors and checking stuff on their phones. my comments - I will pay $10.99 for a month to watch Thursday's night game on ACC TV. And I will pay the obnoxious $30 per month to pay for the very over priced FLO TV so I can watch the home games against Ohio State and Cleveland State on August 25 and September 2nd. I will pay whatever is necessary to watch the game in Kalamazoo. I hope to make it up to Akron in early to mid September I consider myself a devoted fan...and I was thrilled to see the addition of a super highly rated left back in James Buebendorf. I was absolutely thrilled to see that the coaching staff had great success in attracting excellent transfers like Maximus Barboto, Victor Gaulmin and Emil J. Super fast, elusive top talent....Malik Henry and Dyson Clapier...came back for a 5th year because they believe in this coaching staff and their returning team mates. Caleb Borneo was a top 50 rated junior and he is healthy to play this year in the midfield Fans that saw the zips play in the spring say that Beto Ydrach is a fantastic center back and these same fans give credit to the coaching staff for finding a great talent in Beto. My comments below are 2nd hand...for the first 2 exhibitions....but they appear to mirror the problems that we all saw in the disappointing end to last year. I have never played and I am certainly not qualified to be a coach....but as a passionate fan, I think that the Coaches are going to have to make some major adjustments to utilize our super talented new mid fielders....Borneo, Barboto, Gaulmin and Josh Bartels. Teams have figured out how to contest the zips step by step passing style.....and clog up the midfield Last year(similar to 2021 and 2022), our starting left back....struggled greatly to get the ball to our supremely skilled left winger (Dyson Clapier) This year, I am very hopeful that either Ashton Kamdem or James Buebendorf can lock down the starting left back position and use their speed and passing skills to get the ball up to the final 3rd of the field to Stefan, Emil, Dyson, Malik, Josh B. and other skilled scorers. Unfortunately, Ashton got a red card in the big east tourney game and will not be able to play against Notre Dame. I sure hope that James Buebendorf gets a lot of playing time at LB against Notre Dame and that the highly rated freshman can have a stellar zips debut. This team has many talented players in the midfield....and some terrific players as forwards and wingers.....Jared and the 2018 coaching staff....showed in the great 2018 tournament run...that they could get the ball to Marcel Zajac and Stuart Holthusen in good scoring position. All of the transfers and talented new freshman (Bartels, Borneo, Buebendorf) believe in their teammates and the coaching staff.. Soccer is not easy.....Lots of new players ...Rome was not built in a day...but this team can make a deep NCAA tournament run.

To accompany Captain's photos & recap, here are some videos highlights.

I just noticed my prediction 👆 is a photocopy of @catdaddyp's picks. I wasn't cheating, I swear! 😂

#10 Ben Finley is the hands down #1 QB. He began the scrimmage with a 20 yard pass to Adrian Norton, then a 30 yard TD to Norton. A severely blown coverage nets #88 TE Jake Newell an easy TD Ben sprinted to the endzone to celebrate The OL acquitted itself well today. The starters were #55 Blanchard, #58 Burrell, #56 Davis, #54 Williams and freshman Jayvin James at RT #15 Terrance Thomas broke up this pass intended for Adrian Norton. It was one of the few times Norton was stopped on Saturday morning. Isiah Jones made a nice over the shoulder TD catch in the back of the endzone. Boding well for the future, it came courtesy of a nice Brayden Ruggow toss. Jordon Simmons got a lot of PT today. He looks to be the #1A RB. Kellom looks to be #1B. Simmons breaks the goal line for a 10 yard TD. Tahj looked better today than in the spring, but there is no QB competition. He'll likely get some early season opportunities as we try to keep Finley as healthy as possible for MAC play. But he's entrenched at #2. Tahj moved the team down the field, but an ill-advised pass was snatched by Syracuse transfer Aman Greenwood and taken the distance for a pick 6! Like the Zips, the scoreboard remains a work in progress. Oddly enough, it's probably as effective right now as it was the past 2 seasons? Joe addresses the team after the scrimmage. Overall he was happy. He liked the physicality. I agree, as there were some hard hits, and tough running. It was a noticeable ramp up from the spring. He like that the defense generated 3 turnovers, and made several stops on 3rd and short. A few final words from the Coach before the players hit the shower. Owen Wiley hits a FG. We seem in MUCH better shape with special teams this year. The FG/XP holds were flawless. #47 and #99 hit some solid FG's. #99 and #36 both nailed KO's into the endzone. #95 Castle had some great punts. #37 Garrison Smith (McNees State transfer) kicked two second half FG's (both < 30 yards). Hoban's Grant Gainer pulls in a swing pass from Brayden Ruggow and waltzes into the endzone. #3 Jarvis Rush (Jr. JUCO from Mississippi) eyes a deep ball from Ben Finley... ... and pulls it in for the TD! A guy I am very high on is #9 Paul Lewis III (Safety). He's all over the place on coverage, physical against the run, fun personality...you will LOVE him. Shown here dapping up #13 Rodrick Hunter. Adrian Norton, celebrating after a Finley TD pass, can't be stopped in 2024. He seems to be Finley's go-to guy. He has great hands, and uses his body to shield-off defenders really well. #7 Alex Adams showed so much promise 2 seasons ago. If he could regain his 2022 form, the Zips could have a hell of an aerial attack. Other notes: Marquese Williams, the Minnesota transfer, seems to be the #3 RB. #29 Jordan Castleberry got some carries, and also scored a TD. Starting DL was #95 Andre Proffit, #90 Demitri Madden (UTEP), #16 Fr. Dahvon Frazier and #94 Kabbash Richards Bennett Adler is wearing #1 this year!?

What progress would you have been looking for to be more positive? General consensus is that at minimum, we have a better QB than last year, and that alone would've probably would've let to multiple more wins. Biggest loss might've been Lingard, but I think we have a solid replacement and Lingard was gross underutilized as is. Plus, Joe is back calling the plays.

We have lost the ability to receive the ball in midfield with our backs to the opponents’ goal, and then turn it upfield. Other teams are very physical when keeping us from playing through the midfield. That first pass from our defensive third into the middle third is hotly contested. Teams now realize that preventing that pass is the key to beating us. So, we must resort to playing over midfield rather than playing through midfield. And we are not especially good at that, the long ball.

I think 6 regular season wins is as good as we can realistically hope for, considering 3 of our initial 4 games are P5 road contests. Our offense will put up points as long as Finley is healthy. Our defense is solid. 6 wins is possible. 5 regular season wins is probably expected. I like this team. These are "Joe's Guys" now, and it's Joe's system. Year #3 needs to be a marked step up in the results column. 5 wins = .500 in the MAC, and I'll take that. 4 regular season wins is the bottom acceptable level. We haven't won 4 or more games since 2019 so as lame as a 4-win season seems, it would double our best effort since Bowden was here. The toughest thing to evaluate n August is - when our offense does something great, was the defense terrible, or is our offense actually good. Bowden's later teams fooled me on more than one occasion when his offense looked acceptable...but it was only because they were going up against a terrible Zips defense. In the regular season, guys that were August All Stars did nothing when the real season began. My gut feeling is - Finley is the real deal. He's fast, elusive, great pocket presence, and a strong arm. Joe has given him Carte Blanc to throw the ball downfield with abandon, and he's really good on those throws. Our WR's are really good. Kellom and Simmons are solid, tough backs. The OL opened some nice holes for them. We have TE depth. My only hesitation is our OL. They looked fine on Saturday, but the QB's wore a green "you can't hit me" jerseys. All OL's look great when the QB can't be sacked. Defensively, I can't tell if our CB's struggled on Saturday, or if our WR's are just that good. I think it's a bit of both. I like our safeties. LB is the strength of the team. Our DL had nice size and athleticism. I think we are a solid MAC team. Not Toledo...but definitely in the middle of the pack. The days of being #12 or #13 in the MAC should officially be over.

The Big East preseason poll has us as the favorites for the Midwest Division. Jonas and Malik preseason all team. Dyson will have a lot to prove this season https://www.bigeast.com/news/2024/8/19/akron-and-georgetown-favored-in-big-east-mens-soccer-coaches-polls.aspx

If Finley stays healthy? 5-7 @ OSU - L (0-1) Ugh. I just pray we compete well & don't become a state laughingstock. 😡 @ Rutgers - L (0-2) Colgate - W (1-2) @ South Carolina - L (1-3) @ Ohio - L (1-4) BUGS - W (2-4) @ WMU - L (2-5) EMU - W (3-5) Buffalo - W (4-5) @ NIU - L (4-6) With a near certain L vs. Toledo, in my scenario this becomes the pivotal game for potential bowl eligibility. @ KSUcks - W (5-6) All that really matters. UT - L (5-7)

Answered my own question with a couple quick searches.

Against Michigan we didn't really have a ton of urgency on the attack. I think once they play a meaningful 90 minutes the mindset will be different

AKR 0-0 PIT FT Another lackluster scoreless draw. On a positive note, though far from flawless, Zips defending looked more cohesive and determined. Especial recognition to MF Matt Dreas who has developed into our #6. More than one Zips historian has compared Matt Dreas to Ben Zemanski at Defensive Mid-field. Encouraging to see players improve; that is why we watch collegiate sports, right? I would counsel that Dreas needs work on distributing the ball after winning possession.

Thanks to Captain for giving us a shot of hope that we are getting better. This week I was on campus visiting athletics. The word I got was Seymore has not healed and is not ready to start. Additionally football is running a bare bones operation. Athletics took a $3M cut and football has suffered. No GA's, no publicity, cuts in support staff. The money games are saving the budget this year. The attitude seemed to be 4-8 is reasonable and it will be the foundation for a better year next season.

Politicians always go for the low hanging fruit.

Tahj got one series with the 1st string. The rest was predominately with the second unit. He's throwing the ball downfield more than before. I like that Ruggow looked comfortable. Threw two TDs and moved the ball "well enough". I'm sure they want to redshirt him. But if Tahj struggles, I think #6 is constantly improving and could could hold down the fort if needed. Bubble wrap Finley.

It is really tough to keep track of the OL and DL sets in my situation. I really don't know the players numbers yet (there's maybe 40 new faces, plus some guys have changed numbers). The big guys roll up their shirts so you can barely read their numbers. And I'm running up/down the field trying to get some pics. No replays or announcers. No buddy next to you to ask "what happened?". Whatcha see is whacha get with my solo, amatuer reporting. 😀 Zips football is like a Yeti sighting. You've hear rumors it exists, but all you have to prove it is my grainy black and white footage of Joe Moorhead looking over his shoulder as he walks past that log.

I am very , very impressed......by your knowledge of world soccer I went to zips roster....and could not answer your first question.... I went to LIU 2023 roster....and I was super impressed by the work done by their soccer SID. Here is the answer to your first question: Personal: Emil is the Son of Maria and Jussi Jaaskelainen Father Jussi made 530 appearances with the Bolton Wanderers from 1997 through 2012, had a Premier League stop with West Ham United Wanderers during a two-decade goalkeeping career in England, and played 56 international matches representing Finland Has two brothers, William and Robin Brother William plays in EFL League Two with AFC Wimbledon Under the 2023 history....this is also very impressive about Emil (pre season top 11 All American) Ranked No. 5 in nation in Top Drawer Soccer preseason D-I player rankings and No. 76 in postseason D-I player rankings Top Drawer Soccer Preseason Best XI first team https://www.liuathletics.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/emil-jaaskelainen/3760

I was too optimistic in 2022 and 2023 ( I thought 6 wins in each year), so I have to pull back a bit. I think UA wins 4 games this fall. That's an improvement, but it does not give me much hope for 2025 considering that the landscape of college football in general and the circumstances and challenges of the Group of 5 in particular has changed dramatically. Once a coach could build off of a progression of increased success (something to sell to new and higher ranked recruits, etc.). Now, you have to rebuild the team each year because whatever player success reveals itself during the season means those players will leave through the portal.

I think we will be improved enough that we won't lose to all of OU, BG, WMU, EMU and NIU. Glad we don't play the RedBricks. Rockets at Infocision Nov. 26 for an ESPN Maction matchup with a chance for the Zips to go bowling.

Ditto

3-9. Wins over Colgate, Kent, and Buffalo

Good Lord I hope you are right! Reality I think supports my 4-8 prediction. We have yet to solve our OL problems. Behind it we have only one true D1 QB. Our DB's had turnover again. Our RB's need rebuilt. We lost WR's and our kicking game is questionable. If all those areas pan out we can go 7-5 or better. Reality and Akron history strongly say otherwise. The bottom line is that we, the public and fans, have no idea what we have. The flow of information and preparation of this team is non-existent and that is a flaw in the sports information dept and athletics marketing. Yet to end with some hope, I pray you are right. The last 5 years seem to indicate differently.

2-10 tops. Maybe. Absolutely no progress to show there should be any hope for more than this. Colgate and one MAC upset win. And neither is a guarantee; Colgate was 6-5 in FCS last year, so that's probably a coin flip game.