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Embick went to 3 final fours from 2015 to 2018......with Leo Chappel as the lead assistant for 95% of those games. TJ Kolba was also on that staff. Ger was the GK coach during that great run of success. This current staff with Embick, head assistant Ger and Michael Nanchoff.....has not won an NCAA tournament game in the last 5 years. The Akron soccer community (fans, players, coaches and former players) expect that Akron should be in the mix every year to be one of the teams in the NCAA sweet 16. The head coach and each of the assistants should be very much on the hot seat if they have not won any NCAA games in the past 5 years. Last night was horrible soccer. The coaches and all of the players have to share responsibility for the absolute stinkfest that occurred on the field. I have been an unabashedly huge Ashton Kamdem fan and felt strongly that Ashton should have started at left back in both 22 and 2023. I praised Malik for his play after the ND game. That being said, both outside backs - Malik and Ashton ...both played very poorly in the first half. Their completed up the field pass % had to be terrible. Credit to the coaching staff for bringing Joshua Hardin in the final part of the first half. After not playing much last year, Joshua has been a pleasant surprise. The coaches can not compete in the middle of the field for 50/50 balls. Ohio State won almost all of the individual battles last night. Western Michigan has always been a strong, physical team. They will play the exact same style against the Zips that the Buckeyes used. The Ohio State game will hopefully serve as a gut check for this team and adjustments will be made so the team can make it to the NCAA tournament. I will give you 2 examples of Zips teams...that looked like absolute dog crap....early in the season....and then went on ...to win at least one NCAA tournament game. In 2015, the zips opened the regular season with 2 road games...Friday night at VCU and Sunday afternoon at Old Dominion. Neither of those teams finished the year in the top 25. That was the first time that I ever travelled to see the zips on the road. On Friday night, the zips scored a golden goal in OT to beat a fairly average VCU team. On Sunday afternoon, Old Dominion led the zips at one point ...4-0 before the zips scored a meaningless mop up goal to make it a 4-1 final Old Dominion used long vertical passes to take advantage of the fairly slow 2015 zips center backs. Old Dominion had a super quick 5'4 or 5'5 forward and he consistently beat the zips center backs to the vertical passes. That little forward had 2 or 3 goals in that game. I walked out of that game....thoroughly depressed...and thought that the zips were in for a long, long year. After the game , the veteran players (Najem, Souto, Ruhaak, Fenlason, Radjen, etal)...called a players only meeting and said "we are better than this...and this is unacceptable", The coaching staff obviously made changes to deal with long, vertical balls and they made changes during the season to utilize the speed of Richmond Laryea. The following weekend, the zips went on the road again and got wins at two top 10 teams...Georgetown and Maryland. That 2015 team went to the college cup and lost on PK's to the eventual champ...Stanford. In 2016, the zips opened the season with 2 games at home. The following weekend, the zips went out to the west coast to play San Diego State on a Friday night and then play a top 5 or top 10 team in UCLA. I travelled out to the left coast to see those 2 games. San Diego State was not ranked. The zips were very highly ranked. The zips did not play well against San Diego State and lost in regulation. Victor Souto got a red card late in that game and never played in another game for Akron. On Monday at UCLA, future MLS draftee Abu Danladi made all of the zips look very slow and UCLA put a 6-1 beatdown on the zips. I think it was 5-0 before Adam Najem scored for the zips. I walked away from that game ...thinking that UCLA was a maserati and that Akron was a pinto. I did not think that "pinto" team could make the NCAA (and I was assuming that Souto would only miss the 1 game). That 2016 Akron team ended up winning a round of 64 game in Akron before losing to a seeded Indiana team in the round of 32. It is early in the season.....The zips did not have any offense in the first 2 exhibitions. The team did not play well or compete well against Ohio State. I am rooting for this 2024 team......to build a "recovery" story similar to what was done in 2015 and 2016.

No way to whitewash that disaster. If not for Mitch Budler, it would have been worse. I think that's the most unprepared I've ever seen our Men's Soccer team. No way blOSU is that good. Zips were atrocious.

An embarrassment. Jared should be ashamed to show his face on campus. OSUcks controlled every second of that pathetic match. I feel sick.

the zips have to travel to Kalamazoo on the 30th....to face pre season number 12 Western Michigan On Thursday, WMU defeated number 14 Vermont tonight, Western Michigan got a top 10 scalp with a 1-0 win over New Hampshire Cleveland State moved to 1-0-1 with a 1-0 win over St. Bonaventure (Cleveland State tied Ohio State 1-1 on Aug. 22) Temple 3 Villanova 2 (both are on Akron's schedule) number 16 Georgetown 2 Maryland 0 Butler was unimpressive and played to 1-1 tie with Western Illinois Northwestern 2 DePaul 1 Creighton 5 Drake 3 Marquette 6 Marist 1 St. John's and Stony Brook played to 1-1 tie IU-Indy 1 Houston Christian 0 Xavier 4 Cal State Fullerton 1 a few opponents have games on Monday night Aug 26 St. Francis will play number 3 West Virginia VCU will face in state rival Old Dominion big east team Providence (not on schedule) will face Boston Colege

Well from a men’s soccer perspective, the staff is an obvious one. That is what is seen at a game. From a schedule standpoint, the Zips used to play Seattle/Washington, UCSB and Denver for RPI reasons I presume. These games aren’t happening now. Why do you think that is not happening anymore? The 2016 (?) Zips went on an international trip to Brazil which the supporters were aware of a long time before it happened. Is this happening again? I heard an Ohio state fan at our game speak about her son going on a team trip to the UK.

A leader takes responsibility as Jared did in his post game interview last night. We also know that those "many things" won were accomplished with different staff. Men's Soccer has not been where it was since 2018 as another noted on this board.

I live in Columbus, but sorry, Zips, I just can't face this game. I'll open my eyes again in September. The only thing UA gets out of this is money. Everything else is a negative. Pray for an injury-free game.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/hot-seat-2024-25.2132003/#post-42483339

Ever since 2018, when we got off to a bad start then caught fire and made it the NCAA finals, where we lost to a Maryland team which did not give up a goal in the entire tournament , the Zips have been on a slow but steady decline

This looks like it is going to be a repeat of last year. Just cannot score. Teams just put pressure on us deep in our end of the field, we just cannot move it to midfield without a great deal of difficulty. That big crowd will drop very rapidly now.

Whomever stated in another thread that we struggled with physicality in the exhibitions was dead on. Wow are we soft and seemingly lack the skill to work around the physicality.

A different and bigger staff you should add. The strangle on not just soccer but other sports on campus from the powers above is taking its toll.

The debacle versus OSU I hang mostly on the players. Also, Jared Embick is on the Hot Seat. These two things are not mutually exclusive

Not going to be pretty.. I'll go 48-6, Zips to cover.

In a pre-season poll, Big10 MSOC coaches voted OSU to finish #6 in an eleven-team league/conference. That a mediocre side, and primary intrastate rival, can undeniably manhandle us, on our own grounds, is absolutely shameful. Zips lost 90% of all physical confrontations. Akron was consistently second to every contested ball. Fundamental passes were executed only erratically. Very rarely was there a meaningful three pass combination. There is no strategic planning, no tactical maneuvering, no formational scheming that can overcome the physical capitulation that 3,500 witnessed against OSU. If every 1v1 matchup is lost, success is impossible, regardless of the system employed. The attendance estimate of 3,500 is the largest crowd seen in quite some time. Most of those fans are not returning this season, and I cannot blame them. The course of this campaign must be corrected dramatically - and soon. If not, this season will end shortly, pathetic and bitter, prior to mid-November.

Wayt had field goals from 47 and 49 yards in Orrville's big win over Wooster Friday. With another year still to go, I imagine he will be getting a lot of offers.

Bad night for our Zips last night. Not many played at the Akron Soccer expected level. While being a big crowd it was very quiet, but the team didn’t give us much to cheer from the very beginning. From a great performance in ND where the zips should have won, to that last night is a crazy drop off. The team looked tired. Unlike many of you it seems, I think this team will score goals. #9 looked promising both games. The team has to win at Kalamazoo. Four points from tough opening 3 games would be respectable. Most, me included expected the win to come from the home game.

I'm skipping attending the game. Paying a couple hundred bucks to bake in 87 degree heat and watch osu fans dance to Hang on Sloopy 50 times as the Zips get smoked ain't my idea of a fun Saturday afternoon. I still think the Zips 2024 win total resides between 4-6. I think we'll have a decent season. But when the opponent's starting CB makes as much money as your schools entire football budget, it ain't a fair fight. OSU 58 - Akron 10

Sorry to say, but Dyson and Malik were part of the problem. They really didn't create much and were as guilty of not possessing the ball and making poor decisions as others.

What a disaster. Not even giving playmakers like Dyson and Malik chances to do anything all game. And WMU might be the worst opponent for our next game possible, especially if they play the same way they have played against us recently

Our “chances” on offense have been lackluster

great start to the season.... Coach Simonetti was handed a pile of smelly stuff in her first year. She is a hard worker.......and I am happy that the players and coaches are seeing some good results. go, Lady Zips