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I thought the 12 man defense was an interesting wrinkle. Unfortunately, the officials were not fond of it.

I never met Gerry in person. Only attended one of his games, when Terry Forbes' McKinley team whooped Moeller in the snow at the Rubber Bowl for the OHSAA title. However I know what a truly fine man he was. I attended the Notre Dame game versus Hawai'i at Aloha Stadium in the early '90s. Several Notre Dame fans saw my AKRON ZIPS cap and came up to tell me we were fortunate to have a great guy and leader of men as our football coach! But an even more personal story occurred around that same time just around 1990 or '91. I used to call a service that you would call on your land-line phone and listen to college basketball and football games -- it was HQ'ed in Akron. Well after a while I got the idea it would be cheaper to call Akron's radio station myself (WHLO then) and listen to the games. I called and they would put me on hold so I could hear the broadcast. About the third time I called the receptionist asked for my phone number. I thought she meant in case I was cut off she could call back. But about a week later I got a call about 5:00 Hawai'i time (10 or 11 in the evening in Ohio. After answering, the voice on the other end said "Hello, this is coach Gerry Faust. I hear you've been calling the station to hear our games! I just wanted to thank you for being such a great fan". I almost peed my pants! Again, late at night a college football coach makes a cold call to a stranger to just say thanks. That's the kind of guy Gerry Faust was!

Norton catches that one and it’s his 2nd TD of the night. Instead, turnover on downs…

OFFENSE: QB: Not the best night for Finley. Not only did he struggle with accuracy, but there were multiple times where he either didn’t see an open receiver underneath or just chose to make the more difficult throw. Even though there were a few passes that could have been picked, Finley did not throw an interception. A “feat” that has occurred only one other time this year (against BG). Bullock was swarmed every time he came in the game. NIU did a great job of locating him and cheating in his direction. RB: Simmons ran hard, but the run game was an afterthought. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry on 12 attempts. Kellom didn’t have as many opportunities as Simmons and also did not look quite as explosive. WR: On a night where Finley struggled with accuracy, his receivers didn’t help much. Officially 8 drops. It’s hard to win that way. TE: Newell and Cravaack were a bright spot. The duo combined for 4 catches for 67 yards and may have had their best blocking performance. OL: I recall only two occasions where the OL flat out got beat in pass protection. Outside of that, Finley usually had plenty of time to throw the ball. Blitz pickups were the best I’ve seen to date. Two of the sacks were on Finley, not the OL. Run blocking could have been better, but it also wasn’t terrible. After having their worst game of the season, RG K. Davis and RT James bounced back with what may have been their best game of the season. DEFENSE: The defense gave up 6 explosive plays for the entire game, which is actually not too bad. Unfortunately, the bad is that 4 of those plays went for touchdowns. We played a ton of bear front (5 DL) and man. It limited the NIU rushing attack from gashing us for chunks at a time, but led to 2 passing touchdowns where the backend looked completely unprepared. We also looked unprepared on one of the WR sweeps for a TD. The other rushing touchdown came from a missed tackle on a gap fill. DL: Kapongo, Brockington, Moore, Adler, and Nunnally gave the NIU OL all they could handle. Those 5 were consistently stymieing blocks and allowing the backend of the defense to run free. That was one of our DL’s best games. LB: McCoy was, yet again, all over the field and finished with 11 tackles. He’s been incredibly good in MAC play. Summers saw his most extensive action and finished with 6 tackles. The light seems to be going on for him. (Summers was a late JUCO addition in the 2023 class.) Fish and Spriggs played, but neither made much of an impact. DB: Reed and DeWalt started at CB with Golden-Nelson and Hunter filling in. I believe it was DeWalt who allowed one of the early touchdowns and was subsequently replaced by Golden-Nelson. P. Lewis and D. Lewis started at safety with D. Johnson as the backup. That was the second straight week one of the starting safties left the game with an injury and we promptly allowed a touchdown. ST: We had the one punt gaff early on and then played relatively well considering the wind and rain. WR P. Davis was the new punt returner and fair caught the ball without issue. Coaching: Offensively, I thought we got away from the run game too early - especially when we struggled with accuracy and drops in the passing game. Even though we were mostly getting 2 to 3 yards a pop on runs, 3rd and 5 is much more manageable than 3rd and long. Besides that, there were numerous times receivers were running free underneath and we didn’t take advantage. Often, the play calls seemed to be there, but our execution was terrible. Defensively, I thought it was a solid game plan in the fact that explosive plays were limited. However, the major issue we looked completely lost on 3 of the explosive plays that went for touchdowns. Also, we finally had a game where penalties were next to nothing (no personal fouls and only 1? false start) and instead get hit with multiple substitution violations. How that happens coming off a mini-bye week is beyond me. In the end, it’s the controllable aspects of the game we lost again and that continue to cost us football games. QB: Finley Bullock RB: Simmons Kellom WR: Norton P. Davis WR: Golden Rush WR: Granger Polk TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Morris Seymore C Williams RG: K. Davis RT: James Thomas DE: Adler Dall DE: Nunnally Cheatom DT: Moore Murphy DT: Kapongo Madden DT: Brockington Richards LB: Fish Summers LB: McCoy Spriggs CB: Reed Hunter CB: DeWalt Golden-Nelson S: D. Lewis D. Johnson S: P. Lewis D. Johnson (NB): Greenwood Top Players on Offense: RT - James RG - K. Davis LT - Blanchard WR - Polk WR - Rush Top Players on Defense: LB - Summers LB - McCoy CB - Golden-Nelson S - P. Lewis DT - Brockington

Jääskeläinen Field I love it !!!!! I have asked 2 friends to make a prediction......on tonight's game...... both friends....have taken a hard pass...... I will be BOLD !!!!.....and possibly show my brilliance...or more likely my naivete...and ignorance I know that the last game was 1-0. I know that Georgetown has shutout their opponents in 11 out of 18 games.... My prediction...... With a wet field, there will be players slipping...... It will be harder for a GK to control the ball on shots....... The score will be surprisingly high scoring....it will be 2-2 after 90 minutes @MDZip will leave the stadium happy as the Zips score in the first overtime......as Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal scores a rebound goal after the GK has not handled a hard shot by Dyson Clapier.

In a galaxy far, far away shall live a Jedi master. A future ancestor of Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal, named Obi Wan Kenobi. It shall be stated that Obi Wan's light saber skills are a throwback to the left-footed power of his grand ancestral footballer relative in the Mid-Rim territories, including the pitch at First Energy Stadium, Jääskeläinen Field as the facility should be known in galactic football havens such as Tatooine and Coruscant.

I have 2 memories of Gerry Faust: First, at a frozen yogurt store on West markets street when I was with my wife and young child and Gerry Faust comes up to our table and starts talking to us. Afterwards, my wife ask me if that was Gerry Faust. I answered Yes. She then ask me if I knew him. Nope. Never met him before. He was just a super nice guy that would talk to anybody and loved Akron. The second memory was at Kent in a game where Akron blew the game and an Akron fan started yelling at Gerry that he sucked as a coach. One of his children got in the fan's face yelling at him that his dad worked his ass off to make Akron a winner and if the fan did not shut up he was going to shut him up. I thought there was going to be a fight in the stands. Rest in peace Gerry.

In defense of Finley- it is miserable outside in NE Ohio right now. A 39 degree pouring rain. It is really tough to throw or catch a football in these conditions…conditions that were in Illinois about 13 hours ago. In reasonable weather he’s shown a strong arm and good accuracy. He’s also shown that he can throw too high a volume of inexplicable INT’s. He’s way better than Undercuffler, but after nearly a 4 year career sampling, probably grades-out as a slightly-above-average MAC QB.

At 19 of 52 passing I would suggest that Finley is not even a single threat QB.

Then the offensive genius better figure out how to make an offense work with the guys he does have.

They'll balance it out by 10 on offense before they're done.

Figured I'd share for anyone else curious. Mikal Dawson is averaging 6 PPG in 23 MPG but his shooting numbers are ugly - 5-26 from the field overall and 4-19 from 3. Good kid, hope he can turn it around. Ryan Prather Jr. is playing well early for Robert Morris, starting and leading the team in scoring. He's averaging 13 PPG and shooting a red-hot 67% from deep range. Darrion Baker is averaging 7/2 in 15 MPG for SIU Edwardsville.

I work with a guy whose brother is an extremely well known defensive coordinator in the NFL. When the Browns were going 1-15, people would say OSU or Alabama could beat the Browns. He asked his brother if that was true. His brother just laughed and told him the Browns would beat OSU and Alabama 77-0 and they would struggle to get more than one first down per drive. I thought of that when I saw your post.

All i have to say is WellDone>WellSaid DoOrDoNot

Definitely going to rain, But as of this moment it's only saying it's going to be about 4/100th of an inch an hour so hopefully it'll stay on the lighter side.

2024 has been (by far) the best season as a Zip for WKWK. He is evidently much more comfortable as #10. Big East post season accolades are deserved. Congratulations to Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal!

Good observation on Fordham....and good question. @fknbuflobo has often mentioned how Gaucho Dan is an absolute guru about RPI. It is safe to say that Gaucho Dan knows 1,000 times more about RPI than I do. Many rabid and knowledgeable college soccer fans post on a blog called Big Soccer college forum (I do not have an ID on that forum and do not post). Gaucho Dan earlier this week did a deep dive into RPI on big soccer college forum. After his initial post, another poster asked Gaucho Dan ( I added "of the tournament "..in brackets to give question some context.) I have attached a link below to Gaucho Dan deep dive Question by user: Could Akron fall out (of the tournament) with a semifinal loss (to Georgetown)? as I said , Gaucho Dan understands much better than I do....how Strength of schedule (SOS) and Opponent Strength of Schedule (OSS) impact RPI. Gaucho Dan answer to question on Akron: Akron's RPI will not suffer with a semifinal loss to Georgetown. Notice the projected SOS and OSS numbers on Akron's team page improve with the addition of G'town: that's 75% of the RPI formula. TennZip....I have never been to Akron's team page on Gaucho Dan's live rankings to look at Projected SOS and OSS numbers but I trust and like what Gaucho Dan is saying. Another important thing to remember about RPI......when it comes to tournament games A win by Akron in regular time.....or in sudden death overtime....counts as a win in the regular season record....and in RPI calculation Conversely, a loss by Akron in Regular time .....or in suddent death overtime.....counts as a loss in the regular season record and in RPI calculation Akron's current record is 11-3-4. if Georgetown and Akron are tied after 110 minutes, Akron's record after the game will be 11-3-5......no matter who wins on PK's @fknbuflobo ; @Zip_ME87 @YipaZip - you 3 are probably more knowledgeable than I am...about RPI Please correct me if the 2 statements below are wrong.... if Akron wins on PK's , they will not move up as much in RPI...as they would with a win in the first 90 minutes or 109 minutes Conversely, if Georgetown were to win on PK's, Akron would do much better than a straight loss in regulation as the record would reflect a tie against a high RPI team link to Big Soccer Deep Dive https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/rpi-deep-dive-in-final-week-of-season.2133272/ link to Gaucho Dan live RPI rankings https://rpiupdatemenssoccer.blogspot.com/search/label/RPI Rank

How many losses can one severely depleted fan base take? The Zips ain’t no fun to follow. Bad football.

Throw the damn ball away. Holy crap. 11 yd sack.

I mean, I guess that passes you in math class but it doesn't avoid the penalties, unfortunately.

TOUCHDOOOOOOOOWN!!!!!!!

Oh this season is past well done

Exactly. Seems like a great kid. I do wish him well.

He clearly hasn't been the same after the injury. I'm not sure if it's physical, mental, or a combination of both.

Very good point. This reminds me of the old scorpion and the frog story - he can’t help himself

Our 2025 recruit, Cibastian Broughton seems to fit the bill...but we shall see.

As of right now...

CLT is warm and sunny all year. NEO is cold and gloomy from December to mid March. That is a big reason why people are flocking there and to other southern cities.

How hard is it to make an attempt to dry the camera lens when red light isn't on? We haven't figured out how to shield a lens a little better than that when weather is expected? Come on CBSSN. I switched to YouTube golf early in the 3rd. Couldn't take any more blurred vision, long runs for TDs or 12-men-on-field-WTF-are-we-doing?!? penalties. Absolutely miserable football on the field and sidelines.

I think you’re missing 58 other game minutes.

There’s the predictably defensive collapse in crunch time.

Put Bullock in on 3rd and 1. Come the hell on. Also Polk should have gotten the damn first down instead of running out of bounds short. We beat ourselves.

As good as Book has been all year, he’s sure punting pretty bad tonight

Simmons has about 4 yards a carry here...Finley is 10/29 passing early in the fourth. I guess we keep throwing into the wind...

How many times have we been flagged for 12 men on defense?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they could tackle me.

@exit322 & @Let'sGoZips94 Out of Like, fellas.

The question shouldn't be why did we go for 2. The question should be why we ran a stupid, stupid play to go for 2.

Any competent leadership could have seen this coming 20 years ago. Yet, continuously the incompetent BoT put President after President in charge of the University who were nothing more than overpaid resume building jumpers who needed to fund their vacation yachts.

Why'd we go for 2 after our TD?

This is fascinating. Thanks for posting. I live in South Carolina, but if there were no other cars on the road, it would take me less than 20 minutes to get to the Carolina Panthers stadium. Charlotte is a bustling city. The part of CLT that is most happening is the South End just across a bridge from uptown. South Blvd runs through it. When moved here 18 years, a mayor of CLT referred to South Blvd as The Corridor of Crap. Now, there are 10 miles of things to do. It's designed for young people to have fun. What happened in CLT could happen in Cleveland and to a smaller extent Akron. These cities MUST make their downtowns a place for young people to live, work and have fun. The failure of Cleveland has been not making downtown an attractive place to live and hoping people from suburbs come and spend money. If the people already live there, there is a lot less hoping. Columbus figured this out two decades ago. Cincinnati figured out later than Columbus and I hear it now has a busy downtown. Cleveland needs to figure it out soon. I can't believe the amount of energy people in Cleveland are putting into trying to keep the Browns by the lake. The best thing that could happen to Cleveland would be for that pile of junk of a franchise to move out to that junkyard by the airport and play there. It opens up acres of land for lakefront property and development for young people. That area would be better than Charlotte's South End.

Nice to see Mike pick up with Marshall where he left off with the Zips!

Excellent comments by @NYC ZIPand @zippy-claws Victor Gaulmin really grew in confidence and quality of play as he got more time.....gelling with the front 3. I think that the coaching staff adjustment to insert Josh Hardin as the right back...and move Malik Henry to right winger was the key coaching move of the season. Josh Hardin was not a starter in any of the first 4 games. 11 minutes in game 1. 53 minutes in game 2. 39 minutes in game 3. Josh had red card against WMU...so no minutes against Cleveland State (as NYCZIP pointed out, Beto also missed that game). Cleveland State was the game where the back line gave up several soft goals. Josh Hardin started against VCU and that was an excellent game. For some reason against IU-Indy, Ashton Kamdem only played 40 minutes with Daragh Reilly playing 43 minutes. Ashton and Josh have been an excellent pair as outside backs. Malik has also shown that he can be an excellent defender when Josh needs a break. However, Malik has been an absolute handful for other teams to handle after he was moved to Right winger. To me, an underrated change during the season is that Wan Kuzri Wan Kamal also grew in confidence during the season....and did a much better job running forward into the box. Having WKWK in the box gave the zips more options and opened more space for Emil to do his magical goal scoring.

Have you seen your optometrist lately?

I'm hoping they hire Jim Grobe out of the retirement home.

It's a commitment to donate $20,000.

He was a very nice man who actually cared about his players. He didn't have the required level of sleaze even back then to be successful at the college level.

I know this seems crazy, but the athletic department has no say in how the team shop and bookstore operate or what items they sell. One of the many frustrating aspects of the administration at UA. Hopefully RJ can change this.