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It could be a rough 2 weeks ahead unless this team learns how to box out and defend.

I don’t care if you criticize him or not, I’m just saying that he might have some valid reasons for leaving. Maybe he wants to test his skills at a higher level. Maybe he wants to experience playing in front of 80,000 people every week - not 3,000. Maybe he wants to play for a great fan base that supports their players. Maybe he wants to play for a program with more resources than Akron - better staff, a training table, more coaches, more trainers, better facilities, more gear etc etc. And like you said, maybe he’s getting paid. Time will tell if it’s a bad decision

Replacing NIU with UMass is a huge net positive for hoops.

It's always 5 o'clock somewhere!

Thanks for this morning's pick-me-up. It's too early to start drinking so I needed this. This forum can sometimes be negative, primarily due to the frustration loyal Zip football fans have experienced. It seems the future is slowly seeing improvement despite the inequity in D1 football. Hope springs eternal.

You can’t win them all but it’d be nice to maybe at least go .500 in OOC marquee matchups. We never seem to win many… any.

Let's see. A kid gets a chance to go from a program that's won 11 games this decade in a poor conference to get paid to play for a program that is regularly in the top 40 in the country in a top 3 or 4 conference. Hmmmmm.

Bryant's not very good, so I hope not.

Good riddance.

Damn! Why didn't I think of that. I knew there is a reason I stay on this forum. Cheers! 🍻

Seems dumb to me, but I won't miss them at all. They better have a huge increase in their travel budget.

That's a really nice grab, heck of an offer sheet he had. Looks like he was initially a 2024 grad but reclassified to 2025

I know it seems gloomy right now and we’re losing some really good players, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be worse next season. Our defense should have been much better than it was in 2024. Going into the season we had one of the best linebacker duos in the MAC returning, a deep defensive tackle rotation, both starters at defensive end (one of them 1st team All-MAC), a starting cornerback, and starting nickleback returning. We marginally improved in a number of areas, yet somehow marginally got worse in pressures, sacks, and passing yards allowed. Not to mention our sudden change defense was horrendous. On offense, we lost two All-MAC receivers, both starting offensive tackles, and a running back with over 1,000 all-purpose yards. Fast forward to 2024 and we improved substantially in almost every category. A major difference now than when Moorhead took over is the young talent on the roster. In 2022, there was very little of it. Now we have talented (albeit inexperienced) players at every position. I’m not pretending we don’t have some holes that need addressing, but if we can bring in some key pieces from the portal, 2025 could still be a breakthrough year.

Yes, we've played 3 teams thus far in OOC play who have a pulse. We lost all three games and were ran out of the gym in two of them. Fortunately for us the majority of the MAC is the same caliber of the cupcakes many here complain about us scheduling OOC.

He's been battling a shoulder injury.

Well when you say it like that, why would anyone ever leave?!! 😄

I agree, but I think we will have 3 week-long breaks this OOC schedule. It just seems too erratic for my liking.

I listened to Groce on the post-game. He indicated that the defensive game plan going in was based upon Milwaukee being a poor three-point shooting team and then they were just on fire. They then made the adjustments at half to counter the threes and were then unable to stop them off of the dribble. He was relatively content with the offense but not at all with the defense. He also criticized the veterans for their approach at the beginning of the game while praising Young and MMK for their play despite their inexperience. He was also unhappy with the offensive rebounding disparity. Milwaukee is a decent team. They'll likely win the Horizon. As I mentioned in the post opening the thread, they were the preseason favorites along with Purdue-Fort Wayne. Their best player, Pratt, is now back. All that being said, the Zips who we consider to be the class of the MAC should not be thumped as they were by them. If the Zips performed like that on their exams we could have a lot of academic ineligibles coming up! Our bigs are not helping. Okonkwo, Lyles and MMK were 5 of 12 from the field, 0 for 1 from the line, had 6 rebounds and 11 points.

I honestly don't follow the Horizon enough to know. My comment was based off them being 4th in the Horizon in NET when I looked earlier in the week.

Winner of the MAC deserves the #16 seed

I’d be interested in seeing our won/loss record under Groce where our OOC opponents had a winning record at the time we played them. can’t we beat one or two quality opponents.

Marshall's AD Christian Spears come from Pitt where he was Lyke's Associate AD and Director of athletic marketing.

Lyke may have interviewed but is still out of a job, mother in Akron area I believe and most importantly attended UA law school with … wait for it … RJ Nemer. Don’t put it past him to convince her.

I’m not sure he’ll make an NFL roster and if 2025 happens to be his final year of football, it’s hard to blame him for making some money while he has a chance. It’s unfortunate we aren’t in a place to give a little something NIL wise, but that’s our current situation. I’d be really frustrated if he transferred to another MAC school and we had to play against him next year. On the bright side, I’m looking forward to seeing the young linebackers we have returning and who else we’ll be bringing in.

That’s kinda shitty. Hate to see him go but wish him all the best. He’s just trying to better his situation.

May not be a match or moment, but decorated our "tree" today, and hung this beauty our daughter cross-stitched/needlepointed for us way back in 2016...

Let's not forget that Lou left every single program he coached either on probation or on the verge of probation.

To add on to what @LZIp said, we also need to get these guys on campus. If we’re following the rules like schools should be, the earliest contact could be made was Monday - unless they were grad students who had already entered the portal. This isn’t meant to take a shot at NIU, but I’d rather not be sitting here with 4 DII signees. I’m sure a few will pan out, but if we’re looking for higher quality all-MAC type players, most of those come from P4 and high school recruits that have been developed. Here’s the All-MAC breakdown of recruiting classes from 2022, 2023, & 2024: P5 = 24 G5 = 5 FCS = 12 DII or Lower = 5 HS = 23 JUCO = 6 I did not count a player twice. So players like Nunnally, who made it two years in a row, was only counted once towards JUCO.

Probably will impact his playing time: