Leaderboard

Zips football will do that to you.

RPI rankings for some Big East teams....as of Sunday morning 9/29 Providence 6 Georgetown 17 Seton Hall 38 Xavier 41 Akron 48 Marquette 52

Whoooooooooops. I think I had a few too many yesterday... 🤣

Some basic points: 1) Nothing good is coming to this team until they establish a decent offensive line. They're not strong enough to establish a run game and they're not mobile enough to run the finesse passing offense Moorhead obviously wants to run; 2) It's highly likely that the reason Bullock is not playing is because he's just not very good (his numbers show that); 3) Moorhead mentioned in the pregame yesterday that he'd like to see Finley be more patient in the pocket and that he essentially has happy feet. I'm a little perplexed that he'd say that without acknowledging the cause of those tendencies (that he's getting pummeled every damn week).

Wrong thread. Wrong forum 😂

QB: Finley has to play better. There were times where he ripped passes and displayed his arm, but there were far too many one hoppers or overthrows. What bothered me just as much as the inaccurate passes was his movement in the pocket. A number of the pressures could have been avoided if Finley had improved footwork/awareness in the pocket. Instead, his first instinct was to roll out. What’s even worse is when he rolled left and opened his body up for a big hit and potential injury. Decision making where the ball goes also needs to improve. There were times where Moorhead was clearly frustrated as it seemed Finley missed the open man. I couldn’t see what was happening downfield, so I have to assume there was something based off Moorhead’s reactions. I’m a little surprised we didn’t see Bullock at QB for at least a series. RB: Not much to say here. Simmons and Kellom had a total of 8 attempts between the two of them. I did see the backs upend/flip a few blitzers, so there was improvement in pass protection. Snaps for Simmons and Kellom were evenly distributed. WR: As mentioned earlier, I couldn’t see most of what was going on downfield, so it’s hard to say how much separation was actually occurring. I would like to see Norton have the ball thrown his way more often if it’s one-on-one coverage. Throwing to him when he’s triple covered isn’t the best idea. That said, a few balls hit his hands that had a chance to be reeled in and it didn’t happen. TE: Newell played almost every snap again. He caught 8 passes, including one for a touchdown. He’s an offensive weapon most MAC teams don’t have in the passing game. OL: This group struggled creating room in their limited rushing opportunities. Pass protection wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed. Finley has to help out his offensive line. I always take OL PFF grades with a grain of salt, but this was - by far - the best rated pass protection grading for the OL. Subbing was tightened up this week. I believe T. Williams went the whole way at center and K. Davis played almost every snap at RG. Blanchard and James played about 75% of the snaps at LT and RT respectively. Seymore took most of the snaps at LG. DL: I’m only going to say this once so I’m not overly repetitive, but the amount of missed tackles by the entire defense was horrendous. We seem to have one game a year where tackling is awful. I don’t know how many sacks and tackles for loss we should have had today, but it was a fairly high amount. The odd/three man fronts really gave Ohio issues. Moore, in-particular, was wrecking things up front. Ohio’s IOL had major issues blocking him. Lavea had his moments too. After Cheatom went down, Kabbash Richards finally showed what he can do and I have to think he earned himself more playing time going forward. Zy Brockington and Dimitri Madden saw their first defensive action of the year. LB: Fish and McCoy played the majority of snaps. McCoy led the team in tackles with 14, but also had an uncharacteristic personal foul called against him. DB: The cornerbacks actually played well. They weren’t tested that often through the air and did a solid job coming up in run support. Safety play was not always up to par and gave up several explosive plays. Ohio kept getting matchups with their only receiving threat (Owen) against the safeties/nickelbacks. Anderson received the start again after doing some good things against South Carolina last week. T. Thomas saw his first defensive action. ST: Fantastic day from the special teams. Smith hit a 49 yard FG and Book continuously flipped field position on punts. Book may be our MVP at the moment. Coaching: In the end, this falls back on the coaches. The defense had a solid gameplan, but the missed tackles are mostly fundamental issues. The offense started off strong on the scripted plays and then struggled for most of the contest. The defense managed to create two turnovers and the offense couldn’t convert on shortened field position. I’m fairly confident in saying anyone who watched this game realized it was winnable and yet the proverbial ball was dropped again. It’s no longer a talent issue and the staff needs to get it figured out. Next up is Bowling Green. Many fans and pundits alike were anointing them one of the best teams in the MAC, despite their only win coming against an 0-5 Fordham. That may still end up being the case, but they did just lose to a previously 0-3 Old Dominion squad and are currently 1-3 overall. If we have any chance to go bowling, we probably need to win either Ohio or Bowling Green and one of those has already been taken off the table. QB: Finley Bullock (in other roles) RB: Simmons Kellom WR: Norton Davis WR: Golden Rush WR: Polk Granger TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Seymore Morris C Williams RG: K. Davis Burrell RT: James Thomas DE: Nunnally Cheatom Richards DE: Adler Ball DT: Lavea Brockington Madden DT: Kapongo Moore Proffitt LB: Fish Summers LB: McCoy Spriggs NB: D. Lewis T. Thomas CB: Golden-Nelson White CB: Hunter Reed DeWalt S: P. Lewis Greenwood S: J. Anderson Greenwood Top Players on Offense (25 Plays or more): TE - Newell RT - James LT - Blanchard WR - Norton LG - Seymore Top Players on Defense (25 Plays or more): DT - Moore CB - Hunter DE - Richards DT - Lavea DE - Adler Top Players on Special Teams: TBA

Infocision is 15 years old. Stile Field House is 20 years old. I really don't think that the position that we have superior facilities is any longer the case. The program has had 5 winning seasons since 2000. It is 8-51 since 2019. The program has an experienced and respected FBS level coach. For it to be this bad every damn year the problem has to be systemic within the university and overall athletics program. At that winning percentage what kid would want to come here to play?

Spot on, Clark. The O line is awful. No QB, especially one new to a program, is going to have success with no running game and no protection. His happy feet moments are going to increase as is his time in the ice tube. This team is going to get him killed.

The real issue is coaching. Good coaches adjust their game plans to the strengths of their personnel. JoeMo is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and his lack of adjustments is astonishing.

BS.

Saturday Big East results #15 Seton Hall and #24 U Conn played to 0-0 tie #18 Providence and Creighton played to 2-2 tie Xavier and DePaul played to 0-0 tie St. Johns 2 Villanova 1 in the 8 pm game, Marquette just defeated Butler 2-0 Standings - midwest (unlike the premier league...I am showing wins, losses and ties) Akron and Marquette are both 2-0-0 Xavier 1-0-1 Creighton and DePaul are both 0-1-1 Butler drops to 0-2-0 Standings - east U Conn and Providence are 1-0-1 Georgetown and St. Johns have 1 win and 1 loss Seton Hall is 0-1-1 Villanova is 0-2-0

Roberto Ydratch = Warrior Too bad only one year we have him.

“our facilities are still tops in the MAC“ - maybe the stadium, but I assure you that everything else is not the best in the MAC, in fact probably lower half. Some high schools have nicer weight rooms, the locker room is tired and dated, and the indoor is dark, dreary, and very average at best. It’s a myth that our facilities are so nice. Go google Miami football facilities, or Northern Illinois football facilities, or Ball State football facilities, or Eastern Michigan…just to name a few.

My thoughts: I am growing sick and tired of watching a woefully inept offense, considering our HC is supposed to be an offensive mastermind. Our best offense was in his first year year. It’s only gotten worse since then. DJ Irons deserves a lot more credit than he got.

What is most astonishing to me is that the program is so bad, and has been for most of three decades, that regression to the mean bias (towards .500) suggests that just by pure luck, a coach should be able to exhibit some upward trend in terms of W's and L's, yet consistently, we hire coaches who manage to keep the program at the bottom. Unreal.

I watched the entire game. I have read all the posts on this disaster, most of which I heartily agree. My greatest fear is that this loss was most determined by the coaching. That is a fact. Yet any turnaround for this season can only come thru better coaching. I am not confident that will happen. Prior to this game I have been a staunch believer in Joe's vision and path to achieving it. Now I worry that he has checked out. How else can you explain a once universally heralded offensive genius coaching the way he does? I refuse to buy the idea that Akron is a program destined to always be in the bottom ten. The right coach can lift us out of this malaise. The wrong coach will keep us there. Once again I challenge Joe and staff to prove they are right for us.

I get sick and tired of seeing folks always defending the coach while throwing the university under the bus. The same folks who continue to be on board recruiting the coaches in question.

No truer words have been spoken. Preach.

When your QB has to crawl off the field, he's not going to be able to his those sideline throws. He was OK in the first half but was beat up after that. Why Taj not given a chance I have no idea.

What are our strengths?

It's a RPO scheme that takes way too long to develop behind an offensive line that doesn't provide the necessary time very often. Nobody fears Finley's legs, and they play calls require him to make some of the toughest throws (mainly out routes). There is hardly any WR separation, and we aren't scheming to get the ball into the hands of our playmakers in motion so they can beat defenders. It's an atrocious offense to watch.

Peden is a tough place to win, especially on homecoming. Tim Albin is a good coach and Ohio is a damn solid football program. I thought our defense played great when they weren't tired. I thought Marcus Moore Jr. was disruptive. I believe Golden-Nelson had a few nice plays. Guys were playing with intensity on that side of the ball. Special teams were very solid too. Defense and Special teams are good enough to put this team in a position to win every game left on the schedule. However, it's gut check time for the offensive line. Seeing that type of discrepancy in rushing yards and time of possession against an opponent that is much more similarly talented than the teams we've faced out of conference makes that abundantly clear. I really think the rest of this season will come down to offensive line play. Gotta shake it off, get the headspace right, and get ready for another very good opponent in Bowling Green.

Don't forget he has an administration that submarines the program at every turn. That's a huge benefit.

I get how pissed you are. There are a lot of things to be mad at. Here is a different perspective. Joe is coaching at a school that at every turn under mines him. If you are going to go down, you my as well go down swinging with what you believe in. There is nothing for Joe at Akron. In 15-20 years he will look at taking the Akron job as one of the worst decisions in his life.

I'd like to take some credit for this one. I have taken my wife to a number of Zips games (soccer, football, basketball) and the Zips have lost every single one. We were supposed to go to the Georgetown game but went out of town at the last minute. You're welcome. 🤣

Every year I keep hoping this team can turn it around but every year it is the same thing, bad football. This game it was the offense. Why Finley is still the QB is beyond me. He has been hit way too much to have any confidence. Tahj is a good running QB. Why not give it a try when you simply cannot run the ball. Not sure how I can watch this offense any more.

Is that really a taunting penalty? Seriously?

Also a phenomenal play call/design. Play action seam route. Chef's kiss on that one.

Absolutely horrible offensive performance. 3rd and 10 on every possession. Joe Mo needs to make a big change in the offense. Maybe he should not be calling plays.

Mitch Budler was absolutely phenomenal He had 2 one handed left handed saves that were out of this world. the first one was world class The Georgetown coach will definitely be voting for Mitch for Big East GK of the year Mitch also had 2 other pretty solid saves The zips had excellent defensive positioning on a corner kick....as Emil was on back line and saved a goal with a header out Right before Akron goal, Beto had a kick save on the right side that saved a goal. Georgetown easily could have scored 3 to 4 goals......but Akron was excellent defensively This was Mitch Budler's audition to be first team All American and he passed with flying colors it is impossible to describe....how good that Mitch Budler was today

From the 2020 Media Guide....we all know there hasn't been a 50 yarder since then! 1. 56 Daron Alcorn vs. Toledo, 9-12-92 2. 54 Bob Dombroski at Youngstown State, 10-1-88 3. 53 Jason Swiger at Connecticut, 10-25-03 53 Daron Alcorn at Virginia Tech, 9-2-89 53 Andy Graham at Middle Tennessee State, 11-15-80 6. 52 Zac Derr at Miami (Ohio), 10-13-01 52 Russ Klaus vs. Eastern Michigan, 9-21-85 52 Dennis Heckman vs. Murray State, 10-22-83 52 Dennis Heckman at Middle Tennessee, 10-2-82 10. 51 Robert Stein vs. Ball State, 10-26-13 51 Igor Iveljic at Western Michigan, 10-6-07 51 Daron Alcorn vs. Louisiana Tech, 10-7-89 51 Bob Dombroski vs. Temple, 9-26-87 51 Bob Dombroski vs. Youngstown State, 11-22-86 51 Russ Klaus vs. Eastern Michigan, 9-21-85 51 Brian Ellis at Ball State, 9-28-74 51 Brian Ellis at Western Illinois, 11-10-73

Igor hit one from 50 to win a game if my memory is correct. Then he said he was gonna get drunk on the post-game.

That's my guess also. It was such a great moment!

Daren Alcorn 1992 vs. Toledo??? That's my best guess!

It's all good. The coach can live close to home, make half a 7-figure salary, have no pressure while indulging his stubbornness (if any), and have the team bring in $6M to fund the department. If we want to see winning football, Tosu is omnipresent.