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Just from a competitive standpoint, scheduling two Power programs in back to back weeks is a terrible idea. 3 in the first 4 weeks is even worse. We are catching all 3 with physical offensive and defensive lines. That’s a recipe for a banged up roster and apathy. Thankfully, we catch a struggling Colgate team next week. I expect to see a much improved performance from the Zips. QB - Even though Finley was solid in spurts, he has to play better. I understand the happy feet and quick trigger when pressured, but he has to hit his open receivers. There were times where he either didn’t see them or just flat out missed them with a throw. It’s hard to consistently throw accurate passes when peddling backwards, don’t have set feet, or shoulders are not squared. We saw far too much of that. I will say, when Finley had time and stood in there he threw some nice passes. RB - Despite the almost even number of snaps between Simmons and Kellom, Simmons continues to separate himself. He doesn’t have the same type of ability to break tackles as Lingard had, but he’s quick and has a nice burst. Both backs could have done better in pass protection. WR - The receivers have to catch the balls that hit their hands. When the QBs are scrambling for their lives, balls that are thrown decently have to be caught. That said, Norton played a whale of a game and should have had more balls thrown his way. He was rightfully frustrated on a few plays where he was open and wasn’t even looked at. I also noticed Norton call out the pre snap CB blitz several times to the QB and OL. Impressive for a guy who is just a sophomore. It should also be noted Norton’s perimeter blocking was excellent. TE - For the second game in a row, Newell made the most of his opportunities. His blocking was solid too. OL - By no stretch am I saying the OL as a whole played well, but they did perform better against Rutgers than OSU. The OL was mostly solid when Rutgers only brought 4. The OL tended to struggle when Rutgers blitzed. In the run game, there were times the OL had a run blocked well on the read options and the QB made the wrong decision to either keep or give. Blanchard, Williams, and Seymore actually played very well. Davis, Thomas, Burrell, and James often struggled. DL - Tibesar threw all kinds of looks at Rutgers. For example, in the first series, we had 3 DTs along the DL (with Adler) and often brought a safety up to LB depth. Unfortunately, as the game wore on, missed tackles were prominent and any kind of pass rush basically became non-existent. Rutgers big OL and physical RB just wore us down. Lavea may have had his best game as a Zip. True sophomore Marcus Moore had his moments as well. Cheatom created a few pressures on his own, which is something even Nunnally was not able to do. Freshmen Hull and D. Frazier saw their first action of the year. Adler had terrible luck with the missed interception that turned into a TD. LB - I know our LBs are hurting after that game. McCoy, Fish, and Cooper gave as good as they got most of the contest. However, there were times where they were overmatched in one on one situations with Monangai. The trio finished with 26 tackles between the three of them. DB - The secondary actually played decently considering the lack of a pass rush. We got beat up back there though, so I don’t know what the availability will be next week with a few players. I was critical of Daymon David in week 1 and he stepped up in a big way this week. Golden-Nelson and Hunter looked solid at CB too. White showed some potential and will likely be a starter next week if Golden-Nelson or Hunter can’t go. JUCO signee Justin Anderson flashed at safety in a backup role. ST - Outside of a missed field goal, this unit performed well for the second straight week. Coaching - The delay of game penalties are concerning. Delay of games coming off of time outs are inexcusable. That said, I saw a ton of delay of game penalties across college football this weekend and I do wonder if the headset communication is causing some of that. Regardless, it has to be cleaned up. As far as play calling goes, the offense is only going to be as good as the OL and QB take it. There are some play calls that we’ll see in conference action that simply won’t work against a team like OSU or Rutgers. If it can’t be blocked, it can’t be called. Defensively, I thought Tibesar had another excellent game plan. QB: Finley Bullock HB: Simmons Kellom WR: Norton Davis WR: Golden Rush WR: Polk Granger Campbell TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Davis Seymore Morris C T. Williams Mobley RG: Burrell Davis George RT: D. Thomas James DE: Adler Dall D. Frazier DE: Nunnally Cheatom DT: Moore Kapongo DT: Lavea Murphy Hull LB: Fish Benenge LB: Cooper McCoy Spriggs CB: J. Hunter White CB: Golden-Nelson DeWalt Jarmon NB: Greenwood D. Lewis S: David Anderson Roach S: P. Lewis D. Johnson R. Huntet Top Offensive Players (25 snaps or more): RB - Jordan Simmons OG - Laurence Seymore (was Blanchard) WR - Adrian Norton (was Seymore) LT - Josh Blanchard (was Norton) QB - Ben Finley (was T. Williams) Top Defensive Players (25 snaps or more) DT - Lama Lavea (was Hunter) DE - Bennett Adler (was Fish) NB - Darrian Lewis (was Nunnally) DE - CJ Nunnally (was David) S - Daymon David (was Adler) Top Special Teams (10 snaps or more) S - Noel Roach RB - Jordan Castleberry LB - Antavious Fish S - Aman Greenwood S - Paul Lewis

We have seen Hardin at RB before, pushing Henry up to R Winger. This combination has rendered mixed results. (Full disclosure: I would not have recommended this combination.) Clearly, Embick and staff identified something. Alluding to the obvious, Hardin and Henry appear to be among the swiftest on the team. But both are smallish. Against VCU, our right side put continuous pressure on VCU. It will be interesting to see if this fast but small combination starts Monday versus IU Indy. Major props go to sophomore Josh Hardin, the diminutive Defender with enormous fighting spirit. He reminds me of a right-footed Nico De Vera (high praise in my book).

Am I wrong to say NIU beating ND in South Bend is the biggest win in MAC history?

Rip IUPUI. IU Indy just isn’t as cool

I'm as much a diehard zip as anyone. But somebody has got to be the canary in the coalmine. It's 2024. The answer for a Mid-Major isn't "spend more" in NIL 2024. Hell, if we're going to spend more put it into Soccer and Basketball where we stand a chance of being competitive at 1/10th the price of trying to be competitive in College Football.

You pose good information here, and pretty well explain why Akron (and, really, the rest of the MAC) needs to drop to FCS if they're going to keep the facade of a "legitimate" football program around. 49 FCS teams outdrew what Akron announced in attendance last year. It's not like a drop in level is going to hurt attendance any.

Howdy, I don't typically stick my head into the football forum, but this was just too good to pass up. It wasn't all that long ago that I mentioned that there were seasons in the past that I believe U of I avoided playing NIU like the plague because they feared losing to little brother. Not only does this win validate my case, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Awesome for the MAC!! Good luck to Akron on the gridiron and I'll see you all when basketball tips off.

I will do the coaching job for $100,000 a year. We will never win a game, but if saving money is the priority, I’m a great fit.

They're not firing Moorhead. The days of paying multiple head coaching contracts simultaneously are over.

Ohio's roster seems to be the only one that didn't see major turnover. It's probably fair they're the preseason favorites as it will take all the other contending team time to build chemistry. What's important is that we fully hit our stride come March.

Starting to see some season previews go out.

The Jaguars have a record of 2-1-1. In their most recent game, they had a very impressive result they started the season with a 2-0 win over Incarnate Word. they then had a 1-0 win over Houston Christian. they then lost 4-1 to Bowling Green On Labor Day, IU Indy bounced back and played to a 1-1 tie with #6 ranked St. Louis (St. Louis had defeated Indiana 2-0 earlier in the season)

How much respect does the MAC get? NIU knocks off Notre Dame (but is still ranked below them), and then gets listed at #25 as... 😂

Scholarships are a paper expense. Money from one pocket to the other

Nice recap. I'm afraid these first two weeks could have damaged Finley's psyche to the point that he'll be quickly bailing on plays all year, even on perceived as opposed to actual pressure. Next week will be telling.

Deal. But...you are responsible for halftime orange slices and postgame refreshments for the players.

Next do Expenditures. Most of the Revenue barely covers the operating budget of the Football program: -$1.2 million for 62 Full-Scholarships (assuming basic tuition, room and board) -$1.4 million for coaches -$1 million at least a year for travel (The BIG-10 pays $7-million a year alone in travel expenses). -$5-million a year in debt servicing for the White Elephant (based on old data, but I can't imagine it's far from $3-5million) That's AT LEAST $8.6 million College football at UA costs. And even if we want to write-off the White-Elephant as "Infrastructure Capital Investment" (which would be an absolute, hysterical, joke) the basic operating expenses of the program are all that revenue covers. You could cut the Football program tomorrow, and thus lose all of it's revenue, and you either basically break-even, or completely come out with a net gain because you no longer have the looses. How are we supposed to compete? How are we supposed to be an actual university when we're dumping resources down the drain on a White Elephant program that's kept only because a very small alumni base expect it, and the administrative state wants to keep it because it's good 6-figure jobs they can use to springboard to other, better things by building their resume. What physical, tangible, benefit does Akron Football have to the Students of the University Akron (who subsidize the entire athletic departments $30-million budget to the tune of $19-million through student debt. There is none. Stop pretending Akron Football is something UA is neglecting and if only we spent a little more money we'd be able to compete. No, we won't. That ship sailed when you fired a named coach, with a college football pedigree in the same year the program beat it's first BIG-10 team ever, while the guy still had several years left on his contract. Enough is enough. Akron Football is never going to be competitive, especially in the years of the NIL. Takes like this are completely delusional of the reality of college athletics in 2024. They were clueless in 2012, and they're even more clueless today.

Bump for update.

Agreed. Don't want to tempt fate but I can't resist posting this 😂🔥🔥

FCS

NIU beats #5 Notre Dame. Wow.

We can’t fire another head coach less than 3 years into his tenure, especially when this one has seen a glimmer of hope unlike Arth. No one will actually want to accept the job

We fired Arth under similar circumstances. Though would hope the powers that be have a little more patience with Moorhead.

Play of the game by the holder

Bulletin board material

Or, field a competitive team, play at a time and day of the week where they can attract students alumni fans and the general community to games. The University doesn't maximize the opportunities for the primary purpose of the stadium. There is no evidence they could do concerts well. In fact, many stadium concerts were cancelled this year because of lack of interest and prices.

Jared talks about Remi Agunbiade at the end of the video. Matt Dreas really seems like a nice young man. Happy group of Zips at the press conference

You know how to take the lead, but do you know how to keep the lead? That's really the most important part of the lead.

The Acme Zip game was a great community event, but the support came from the chain basically giving away tickets on shopping bags. Little effort was put into the game by the University, but that was a different era. The University didn't have much of a marketing department back then. I think the BB problem has solid support and is meeting expectations. Sold out crowds on a Monday in January isn't realistic. It's also hard to have outdoor events for fans to draw more people. I also don't see how the University maximizes community opportunity playing so few home games in fair weather months and weeknight games in poor weather months during the week at night. The head winds of the ESPN contract and us selling out the football program for money makes it hard to get traction.

The real issue may of been the 2 horrible coaching hires during the stadiums life. The first one not only being a bad coach but the guy came off as a jerk all time. This stunted the excitement from Joe Akron in only the 3rd season of the stadium.

It's not that programs like Wisconsin or Iowa can't break even. It's that they choose to not breakeven as they would rather spend more in an attempt to keep up with the Jones's (aka UM/OSU).

Well, that's because the taxpayers don't generally support the sports of public universities. Taxpayer support for universities has declined over the decades, and most of that is considered an investment in training a workforce...or something something [insert political initiative here]. It's the students; with their tuition money, taking on debt to pay for these programs. It's basically a Ponzi scheme. The constant inflow of new students to fund the thing through their debt, and to reward the Alumni/Community. The 2000s will likely be remembered as a decadent era of fraud founded on debt, but that's a conversation for another day. Don't look behind the curtain. Just consume, consume, consume. I don't want to sound all doom-and-gloom, I do after all love my Zips. I do think there is (or at least used to be) tangible social/community benefits to these programs, but I think it's wained over the past 2-decades because of greed. The formation of the FOX and ESPN mega-conferances has basically accelerated the death of the value college-athletics had to communities IMHO. It's going to generate billions for other people, from the socialized cost of the student's debt on the bottom. Something has to give...

There are actually very few schools where the football program "makes money", when you look at the whole pie. There are now 133 D-1 football teams and only a handful (less than 10) are considered "profitable" by any private-sector measure. Most schools receive some sore of subsidy from the student body in the form of a "Student Facilities Fee" or "Student Activity Fee" or something, that is what pays for Rec Centers and Sports and that sort of thing. Usually the overwhelming % of that is athletics support, like we're talking 90%. I dug through the UA financials about a decade ago, and the student body was subsidizing the athletics programs at about $400 per semester per student, which means $3,200 over 4-years per student. I can only imagine that the "fee" has gone up since I looked at the numbers. Now Football will claim it also brings in the most money ... but it also costs the most money, so it's all a shell game.

Fixed it for you.