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Congratulations to our Zips on a good season. Hopefully, we will get an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Looking at the box score, it seems the team with the deeper bench and fresher legs prevailed. Lots of talent sitting on our bench who could have possibly helped but not to be (throughout this season). I still find what I see as an over tendency to go backward frustrating. I understand the need to send the ball back to reset and try to open up the defense, but it seems in some games that is done more often than putting the ball in the box. A shot not taken is guaranteed not to score. We’ve seen a number of goals scored this season on some unexpected rebounds yet at times our guys seem to be looking for the perfect shot rather than taking a not so perfect opportunity.

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!

Akron has been horribly thin all year at outside back.....ever since the Temple game (when James Buebendorf stopped getting playing time). Daragh held his own in the last 35 minutes after Ashton got hurt. When Josh came out of the game in OT, it appeared that midfielder/Forward Stefan Dobrijevic had to come in and play right back....... I hope that all of the injured players....Emil, Ashton and Josh......are healthy for the NCAA tournament. Georgetown is #5 in RPI....and Akron battled them on even terms for 98 minutes this team deserves a spot in the NCAA.

Game Thread and Preview: QB: Either former walk-on Tommy Ulatowski or true freshman walk-on Ruel Tomlinson will take the field against Akron. Ulatowski has completed 43% of his passes for 1,035 yards on the season. He has a 12 to 7 TD/INT ratio. When kept clean, Ulatowski completes 57% of his passes with 7 touchdowns to 5 interceptions. Under pressure he completes 26% of passes with 5 touchdowns to 2 interceptions. Tomlinson hasn’t played enough to give any true stat indicators. RB: Senior Ky Thomas leads Kent in rushing with 488 yards and a touchdown. True sophomore Curtis Douglas is the backup with 130 yards. Kent rarely utilizes the RBs in their passing game. WR: The Golden Flashes have two All-MAC receivers in redshirt sophomore Chrishon McCray and grad Luke Floriea. McCray is 8th in the MAC in receiving yards with 612 yards and 8 touchdowns. Floriea is 11th in receiving yards with 560 yards and 5 touchdowns. The rest of the receiving corps rarely see passes come their way. TE: Alabama transfer Charlie Skehan and Tiffin transfer Conner Muldowney are the starting tight ends. Both are used as blockers and have a total of 5 receptions between them. OL: Kent sports the worst OL in the MAC - by far. They have allowed 26 sacks in conference play, which is 10 more than the next closest team. They have also struggled to open running lanes for the backs. LT - Jimto Obidegwu (R. Jr.) LG - Mason Maddox (R.So.) C - Tony Georges (R. Sr.) (former Zip) RG - Chris Farrell (So.) RT - Dustyn Morrell (Jr.) DL: Grad Matt Harmon, junior Stephen Daley, and Buffalo transfer Kameron Olds rotate on the edges. Harmon has 49 tackles and 2 sacks, Daley has 43 tackles and 3 sacks, Olds has 39 tackles and 6 sacks. Kent State has become incredibly thin at DT. Notre Dame College transfer Lavell Gibson and Florida transfer Keenan Landry have combined for 22 tackles and a sack on the interior. LB: Grad Khalid Johns and true freshman Jayden Studio are the linebackers. They have combined for 81 tackles and an interception. DB: San Diego State transfer Dallas Branch and Monmouth transfer Jaylen Dotson are the cornerbacks. They have combined for 38 tackles and 4 PDs. Junior Josh Baka and sophomore Tevin Tucker and are the safeties. Baka is 10th in the conference with 73 tackles and also has 4 PDs . Tucker has tallied 50 tackles with 2 PDs. K: Junior Will Hryszko is 12 for 12 on extra points and 2 of 4 on field goals. P: Senior Josh Smith is 4th in the MAC in punting with a 42.3 average and a long of 61 yards. Offense - Kent is still working to find their “offensive identity.” Hard to do with a beat up OL that wasn’t that good in the first place. The Golden Flashes are also down to their 3rd and 4th string quarterbacks. Thomas, McCray, and Floriea can be offensive threats, but do not have much around them. Defense - Kent’s defense has the ability to rush the passer and are solid in the backend. However, they are horrendous at stopping the run and are extremely thin at defensive tackle. Summary: If there was ever a time to take advantage of a program at its low point, this would be it. Kent is beat up and struggling. They are dead last in offense and defense in conference play. This will be an opportunity to run, run, and run some more on a porous run defense. Will we take advantage? Kent has a few players on offense who can make plays, but they have struggled to score all season. Frankly, as long as our defense keeps the ball in front, Kent’s offense will likely find a way to botch it at some point during their drives.

Sounds like we’ll be throwing it 50+ times…

https://guhoyas.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-soccer-godinhos-golden-goal-propels-hoyas-past-akron.aspx very nice quotes by Georgetown head coach Brian Wiese (FYI....Georgetown first 3 non-league games were against current RPI #3 Pitt, #24 Maryland and #35 UNC-Greensboro). They also played another top 20 RPI team - Cornell Head Coach Brian Wiese "With a few injuries coming in that we needed to manage, we used a ton of our roster today. We saw guys step up. Miles Avery came in for Tate (Lampman) when he couldn't go and played fantastic. Aidan Godinho with the goal which was so deserved with the way he has been playing. The list goes on and on seeing guys come in and do the job, especially against a team like Akron. We have the hardest strength of schedule in the country and Akron is far and away the best team we've seen. To find a way to persevere through that was good to see. We're back in the final, and we'll see if we can finish the job."

Looked it up. 1975.

53 passes in a sub 40 degrees monsoon baffles me too. And the sea of 12 men on the field penalties is inexcusable. Maybe you’re right…the oc and hc responsibility load may be the root of our week-in-week-out incredibly poor attention to detail. I like Joe and want him to succeed. But who can put up with only 1, 2 or 3 wins every season for 6 consecutive years?

I am going to get on my soapbox....... The NCAA soccer committee is supposed to consider strongly....how a team ended the year.... they are supposed to consider the team's last 8 games Let's do 2 comparisons for Akron vs. 2 teams above them in RPI Western Michigan - #30 in RPI currently vs. Akron #34 currently in RPI the two teams met during the season at Western Michigan....2 teams played to a tie Western Michigan - last 4 games of the season 0-0 tie with Bradley....Bradley had a record of 4-7-2 at that time 3-0 loss to Bowling Green.....Bowling Green was #60 in RPI when this week started 2-1 win over 7-10-0 UIC in the MVC conference quarterfinals, WMU lost 2-1 to Evansville (#82 in RPI at the start of the week) WMU did not even make the tournament semis in the MVC...the 7th toughest league.... Akron went 7-0-1 regular season in the Big East....the 5th toughest league... Akron lost in the semis in OT to the current #5 team in RPI in last 12 games, Akron was 10-1-1 ...with only loss coming to high RPI Georgetown If I am on NCAA committee, Akron gets in before Western Michigan (I might be a tad biased 😁)...but the eye test, and the logic favor Akron NC State - #32 currently in RPI vs. Akron #34 currently in RPI with Cal ineligible to get into the tournament, NC State would be the 9th ACC team in the 48 team field Do you take 8 at large teams from the ACC and snub the undefeated regular season champ from the Big East? To be politically correct, I say heck, no. NC State lost in the round of 16 in the ACC tournament let's look at end of the season results for NC State 3-2-3 record in the last 8 games 3-4-3 record in the last 10 games Same strengths for Akron ...10-1-1 in last 12....with one loss to #5 RPI team regular season undefeated Big East champs.... again, If I am on NCAA committee, Akron gets in before the 10th best team in the ACC (9th best team , Cal is not eligible)

Zips are in and I think have a good shot at a home game in the first round.

will the NCAA keep their top goal scorer out of the tourney? We shall see...

Exhausted players hanging on for all they’re worth make mistakes. Hope we get a spot on Monday

Ashton got hurt..... hope Emil is healthy enough to play in OT... I am proud of the zips 2 very good teams battling tonight

We go to overtime.

I don’t think so. If we lost the QF maybe. A loss to G-town won’t keep us out. Maybe no top seeds maybe no home match, but no shut out of college cup

On a rainy night, even bad shots are good shots. Victor Gaulmin in the box should shoot the damn ball.

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

If you’ve see that grainy footage of Bigfoot walking past the log, looking over his shoulder, you have an idea of the picture quality you missed.

I can't answer your question.....but one site had interesting info .....on 2 brothers being all americans Louis immigrated with his family from North Macedonia, then Yugoslavia, when he was thirteen years old. His family settled in Akron, Ohio, where he attended Central-Hower High School. After high school, he attended the University of Akron where he played as a forward on the men's soccer team from 1974 to 1977. He and his brother George were top players with the Zips. Both Louie and George earned first team All American honors in 1976. This was the first time in NCAA history that two brothers received first team recognition the same year. Louie then garnered second team honors in 1977.

One thing I don't understand, 3 years ago we played Santa Clara in the first round. How did that work out with proximity of opponents?

I'd love for us to host IU or Michigan, and I think these outcomes are entirely possible. I don't think there is any way that we do not make the NCAAT. A few bad losses very early in the season leading to a misleadingly high RPI is the only thing that even makes us borderline. We are currently one of the best teams in the country and could make a deep run. IMO, there is no way the selection committee overlooks these things. We also no longer have the MAC as a terrible, no name conference as an excuse. The Big East is legit, and we are the regular season champions.

Exactly. I can appreciate that with our recent history it may take a little time to start attracting talent equal to or better than the competition, but attention to detail and discipline shouldn't be an issue in the 3rd year of an HC's tenure. I'm not ready to start a "Joe's Next Endeavor" thread but when I see repeated instances of stuff like having 12 guys on the field I have to question what's going on behind the scenes.

Coach Embick is obviously devastated Credit to him...and Chad for putting an interview out on Twitter

the world's greatest expert....Gaucho Dan has confirmed that Cal at #29 in RPI....can not make the NCAA tournament Gaucho Dan : Clemson hung on to eliminate Cal and set up an ACC final with Wake Forest. Cal finishes with a losing record vs. Division I and is, thus, ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.

Not sure if it’s accurate but the guys on the ACC Network said that Cal has a losing record and is not eligible for the NCAA. One of their wins is against a Divison 2 team which doesn’t count and makes their record 7-8-2. That helps the Zips a tiny bit

Georgetown jumps up to #5 in RPI. Wake Forest 5-1 win over Virginia.....improves them from #23 on Monday to #15 as of 10:50 pm .....on Thursday Virginia drops from 6 on Monday to #10 tonight Clemson edges California 3-2 Clemson was 14 on Monday....they are still at 14 after the win California was 26....on Monday...loss drops them to 29 as of 10:50 Cal finishes the regular season with a 8-8-2 record they were the 11 seed in the ACC tournament Cal was 5-7-2 before getting wins against Stanford, North Carolina and Duke Akron strength of schedule(SOS) was 85 before tonight's game after the game, SOS for Akron was 76 Akron opponent strength of schedule(OSS) was 30 before the game after the game, OSS was 27

Emil got banged in the head numerous times

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!

Good for them. Hell, OU might produce more primary care physicians than Johns Hopkins for all I know. Sounds like they provide a need, particularly as it relates to rural care physicians. They get to stay. That doesn't mean that all the rest need to exist. There are some very high quality graduate programs outside of Columbus. I don't disagree with that. There are also a literal f**k ton of completely irrelevant, lowly ranked ones borne of arrogant, egotistical empire building that the state should rid itself of and refocus that money towards undergraduate education.

You should request a refund from FloSports. Give em absolute hell and maybe they'll go bankrupt.

thank you very much.....

Providence wins on a Golden goal about a minute and a half into overtime.

Prov wins in 2’ of extra time. Good for the Zips.

Rain is only sprinkling - field is in great shape.

OU graduates more primary care physicians than OSU by far. Also more than Cincy, Toledo, Wright State and NEOMed. There are some very high quality graduate programs outside of Columbus.

And also where the jobs are!

You're dreaming. 🤣

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.

One of the nicest human beings I've ever met during my time around Akron. Genuinely kind and sincere person. He will be missed.

That would certainly be welcomed news, but 16 years too late. Football should have been de-emphasized when you had a dilapidating stadium.

You do realize that the political considerations you criticize are responsible for making UA a state university in the 1960s. There's a legitimate case to be made that 2 state universities within 12 miles of one another was simply bad business. As for current round of budget cuts, I have heard there's growing sentiment among trustees and the administration that it's time to de-emphasize football. Simply no ROI in the existing business case.

Mine has been very worthwhile and very affordable.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed our weekend of happiness and welcome back to the reality of being a Zip fan. On Tuesday, Zips basketball took a beating on the boards and in the paint and showed as much toughness as your daughter's favorite Teddy bear. On Wednesday our football team lost and went scoreless in the 2nd half and now are 2 and 8. And then our soccer team took it on the chin on Thursday losing in overtime and now Zips fans will worry the whole weekend whether our record is good enough to get an at large bid in the tourney. Remember our motto, if being a Zips fan was easy, everyone would be one.

Akron loses 2-1