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That sucks. One thing I'll offer though is that we beat Toledo without him recording a single catch.

The MAC won't go anywhere with this beta male loser as commissioner.

I have been a fan of RJ Nemer since he took the dean position of the CBA (College of Business Administration). Because of his efforts the CBA showed a 9% enrollment growth this year over last. He thinks outside the box and he knows UA has to get out and recruit students. His decision to give $1.3M to the Browns is a real head scratcher. It is Scarborough-esque and he deserves to be called out on it. How did he get this thru the BOT? That money could have paid for a training table plus advertising reaching all Ohio high schools. One of the biggest boosts to enrollment is having a football team the region takes pride in. Give Joe the resources, w/o busting the bank, and excitement will return to Akron. That, more than an association with a decrepit pro football team, will pay off in growing enrollment.

It’s my hope that Anderson is a mature OL who’s outgrown FCS competition, and wants to challenge himself. He’s not going to be on any P5 programs radar. No one from a program that finished 4th in the SWAC East is. Give me a grad student with 2 years eligibility like Anderson from the portal every time. Great fit for a MAC program like Akron.

https://www.the-daily-record.com/story/news/local/2024/10/22/kent-state-university-ends-fiscal-year-2024-with-9-9-million-deficit/75775385007/ Enrollment to level off, Kent campus 'overbuilt' ... who'da thunk it?

Akron Zips vs. Indiana Hoosiers 1975-2024 7 Akron Wins 27 Akron Losses 3 Draws https://iuhoosiers.com/sports/msoc/opponent-history/akron/153 This Zips Memory 10/5/1986 is the only victory over Indiana during the 1980s. 1-0 It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in early October following nearly a week of rain. Everything everywhere was muddy. I do not recall Buchtel Field having much bleacher seating; maybe there was none at all. The crowd were kept from the field by hastily staked nylon rope. That’s it. Fans were virtually on top of the game, in a way that would not be permissible today. It was unsafe. The pitch was barely lined, and I think it was smaller than regulation. Both teams were just making do with the conditions. Matches between Akron and Indiana are historically physical. Just ask Dyson Clapier. To date, this match is the roughest (dirtiest) NCAA contest that I have ever attended (and I have attended hundreds). Every tackle was violent! Every head-ball left someone on the ground. Loose balls were perilous. Seemingly every player in the match was limping at one time or another. Sound familiar? This game was about screw-in cleats, slide-tackles, and bloody noses. Ugly. Choppy. MF Graham Evison (RIP) became my hero that day. After an especially egregious tackle where MF Michael Berish was intentionally elbowed in the face, Head Referee displayed the yellow card. Akron bench was outraged, screaming for a straight Red. During clock stoppage as Berish received medical attention from the Trainer, Assistant Coach Simon Spelling, himself not far removed from these same battles with Indiana, called D Shaun Docking to the sideline. The conversation was heated but whispered behind raised hands so that only those two could hear. Game play resumed for about five minutes afterward. Zips were (barely) keeping possession in their final third. Then there was very audible (and somewhat sickening) ccrracckk. Whatever happened occurred in the Akron defensive third, far away from where the ball was. Out of the corner of my eye I just caught Docking walking away from the Indiana player left on the ground… crying. Like sobbing. No call was made by the officials. Jerry Yeagley was apoplectic, as if he was going to stroke out and die right there in Akron. His coaching staff did well to restrain him. To this day I am not certain what happened. And I am not sure those who do know would tell. Rumor has it that the player’s rib was broken. Others maintain there was a knee to the… midsection. Whoever that Hoosier was, he did not return to the contest. Done. I need help from others here. These things are not easily researched nowadays. How did we score? Was it a PK? F David Wells? Sadly, I do not remember all the details. I just remember D Matt Smith picking mud out of his hair as the clock expired. I truly hope they are on our schedule in 2025, but F#@% Indiana and the Hoosiers they rode in on!

Everything was fine with athletics at the mid majors until the injection of big sums of money generated by cable TV. Then it became an arms race they had no chance of winning. Once the folks down on the farm were able to watch top notch competition for free on TV, why would they continue to support the local college? NIL and free agency will be the final nail in the coffin for the MAC and their ilk getting any notoriety on a national level. All that's going on right now in football is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I can hear the band playing.

We should get Myles Walker back as well (who earned the #1 jersey in summer workouts this year). And then there's the potential of Alex Adams, but can't count on him being available based on the past 2 years..

Simon Spelling remains the Gold Standard for Akron Defenders. I have not witnessed any better, though Beto Ydratch was very similar. It is a real shame that Simon is such a Spurs fan….

Agreed. Obviously I’d prefer he stayed, but Granger and Polk ran with their opportunities. They’ll only get better. Mason and P. Davis will have their chance to step to the forefront as well.

Now the only other player I really hope we can somehow keep is McCoy.

Yep. He’ll get paid for sure. Good luck to him. He’s a kid that was unrated by the recruiting services and probably shouldn’t have ended up here in the first place.

I don’t know the answer to the All-MAC question. I do know we have a bunch of young talent waiting for their opportunity. It’s just unproven at this point. I’m anxious to see Finley with an offseason in Moorhead’s system. He could have a huge 2025.

I guess i missed it getting food. I never heard the announcements though, bummer. Thanks Mark.

Kent State signed Avon's QB. He was a finalist for Mr. Football. Avon won the D2 championship last night. He threw for 1 TD & ran for another. He's pretty tough but I'm not too upset we didn't go after him. Avon also has an OL committed to Cincy. We've been recruiting Avon junior LB Ryan Stolarski. Idk if we've offered yet but he's been on campus.

Last year Terray Jones came in from FCS Tennessee State and was one of the better DT's I've seen at Akron in a while. Plug-n-play.

The Buffalo game was Senior Night.

Offer to OL Christian Anderson of Alabama A&M.

No, he’s out of eligibility. Been in college since 2019.

CEO brainrot.

I remember that game!

Go for bad basketball, leave with a DUI.

Might need three Hoppin' Frog Blonds to sit through this one.

My concern is - do the budget-cutting bean counters realize this? Or do they just see the disparity in wins/losses as Joe has worked to pull the Zips out of the deepest abyss any D1 program has ever seen? Joe returned to Akron for a lot of reasons that had nothing to do with football glamour and money, and more to do with running a D1 program, while being there for his family. That remains valid. If we’d just treat the guy right I think we could hold on to him for a while longer. Giving him his training table back so his offensive linemen can be an athletic 325 pounds instead of a skinny 285 pounds would be a great start. There are few Joe Moorhead’s looking to coach Akron, and a ton of Arths and Ianellos. For once, could we not blow it?

On phone, so can't post graphics, but we ended up with: CJ Nunnally and Avery Book 1st team all MAC. AD Norton and Bryan McCoy 2nd team all MAC. Paul Lewis III 3rd team all MAC. Snubbed - Garrison Smith

This game makes no sense. I understand playing Ohio Weslyan 3rd game into the season but why are we playing another D3 team, a bad one at that, the 8th game in the season. I enjoyed that game because we were still sorting things out. But now it seems like we know what we have and playing a weak team is not to moving forward. The crowd sucked for Northern Kentucky and will be even worse for Saturday.

This thread needs to be renamed "With that being said..."

It appears we have lost Kellogg, Golden, Rush, Smith and Moore to the portal. Losing the first three is not a big loss in my opinion. They all had limitations, even for the MAC. But I hate to see Smith and Moore go. Smith was the reliable, consistent kicker we have lacked for years. Moore was on his way to All-MAC. I realize he will find a better program and probably get some NIL money. That is the nature of college football today. We took a chance on him and his bad grades, but he played so well other schools will now take him and make sure he gets the necessary grades, one way or the other. Our DL is a rebuild at all four slots. If this is the end of the transfers we lucked out. I'm not holding my breath that we are done.

Adrian Norton to the portal. Signed with an agent. He won’t be back.

The G5 offers are to bench players, with the exception of Burke from FIU. FIU recently fired their coach and I believe coach JRod recruited Burke to FIU. For the FCS offers, Anderson was a starter last year and Davis was a starter the year before. I went back and checked the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes to see which MAC schools have been able to recruit OTs out of the portal that went on to become all-conference. There are only two: Desmond Bessent (San Diego State) for Buffalo in 2022 and Carson Heidecker (DII) for Ohio this year. Although, Heidecker spent most of conference play at OG. All-conference interior OL have been easier to come by. Looking at DT, there have also only been two all-conference players to come from the portal from the 2022, 2023, and 2024 recruiting classes. Skyler Gil-Howard (DII) for NIU this year and Ryan Buell (Colorado) last year. Basically, we need to develop all MAC talent at those positions from the HS level. Portal players can be solid and become starters (like Blanchard), but that’s about all we can realistically hope for. P4 schools are having similar types of issues at the same positions. Of course, some of those P4 schools have plenty of NIL $ to help their cause. We’ve now lost 3 potential all-conference players to the portal, or grades, at OT and DT - Landers (2022 class), James (2023 class), and Moore (2023 class).