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I think Evan playing the 5 can only work situationally. Like if we're playing Purdue definitely not. If we're playing against an undersized frontcourt and want to pick up the tempo it could work, but not something you'd want to see 10-15 minutes a game. More like 2-4 minutes at best. We really need to get 10-15 solid minutes of Barre/Briscoe.

I really think last years team got an unfair shake with injuries they were always competitive the first 2/3s of the game then would just run out of gas. Really hope this can be a breakout year and they can make the mac tourney.

Akron up to #18 in the College Soccer News poll and are finally ranked again in the Top Drawer poll at #24. https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-news-mens-week-11-top-25-coaches-poll-stanford-drops-while-vermont-maryland-and-virginia-stand-out-as-clear-top-3/ https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men

I think we'll see the same starting 5 that we saw against YSU- Tavari, Evan, Eric, Sharron and Amari. Shammah Scott has certainly worthy of a starting role but he's just so darn good as the 6th man and he'll still play most of the game. He was the Zips best player in the YSU game. The Zips also seem committed to MMK and this may well take minutes that might have otherwise in part gone to Brisco. I suspect we'll see more of Barre tonight than we saw at YSU. Barre was appealing to the Zips because he can get up and down the floor and as such can play in their up tempo system. Maybe tonight we also get to see Cody Head.

Honestly, I don't think that loss was as bad as some make it out to be. With 4 new starters I already expected us to not be firing on all cylinders at the start of the year. At least now with YSU Groce has a teaching moment to breakdown ways they need to improve.

After watching us struggle vs. YSU w/ Evan M. & MMK playing so many minutes together, I'd tighten up our rotation & relegate MMK to ~2-3 minutes tonight. Can't afford to just have a warm body out there on offense vs. JMU. I'm projecting tonight's starters to be: PG: Tavari... Young G: Bowen... Shammah (MVP) W: Eric... Stankovic W: Evan... P: Amani... Barre Barre will only get ~10 minutes as I'm betting Groce tries to play Evan in the post when Amani is resting. Ultimately I don't think this will work as Evan just isn't big enough. Lineup to close out the game: Tavari Shammah Young Evan Amani I think Stankovic's minutes will increase and Bowen's minutes decrease as the season progresses. I want to see Stankovic & Eric take a couple 3's tonight. If those two start making the defense honest from behind the 3-point line we're gonna be a buzzsaw.

I am quite nervous for our defense tomorrow night. Hopefully we are hot from 3 and take care of business. who is everyone’s prediction for mvp of the game. I am rolling with Sharron Young

Zips open up as a 10pt favorite

The promotion of soccer has been pathetic in recent years. I hoped it would change between Guthrie and Goodrich but it seems to be the same. It is disappointing and the team of the past 2 years, deserves much better. Borneo not playing is a question mark, but it looked like Zips only had 7 subs yesterday and he was in zips attire not dressed to play. My assumption would be injury. Zips miss his skill. It was a must win game, and this team got it done without a bunch of key pieces available. Credit where is due.

Bumping a new thread for the fresh season. So pumped for tomorrow

Congratulations to DeAndre. At least 2 more years in MLS. 🙌🙌🙌

JMU squad currently carb loading at the Howe Avenue Olive Garden. They're following the Michael Scott plan.

YouTube livestream https://www.youtube.com/live/NIRG_nSk-ZA?si=lEf10hX0MhbmP7ax

No surprise they're playing UMass. Can we dub that the 1990s Has Beens game?

MAC STANDINGS (Conference Record only) W L Akron Result Miami - OH 4 0 L - (20-7) Buffalo 4 1 W - (24-16) W. Michigan 4 1 N/A Ohio 3 1 N/A C. Mighigan 3 2 W - (28-22) Toledo 2 2 L - (45-3 ) Ball State 2 2 L - (42-28) Kent State 2 2 Akron 2 3 N. Illinois 1 3 Bowling Green 1 4 UMASS 0 4

I'm holding out for Marquelle McIntyre night.

I would expect Scott or Tavari to be on the court at all times. If he does start, he will probably be the first one subbed out that way we can return to the court when Tavari and the other starters go to the bench.

Attendance constantly bums me out. Watching old videos of how packed it used to be is really sad.

Did JMU win their last scrimmage? That YSU game certainly casts a pall over this game.

I'm sure LCJ will get honored in time. Not sure why it needs to he some sort of competition. Very well deserved for Big Dog.

Finally Marshall makes it in to the challenge

Zips are -7.5 according to Draft Kings for tomorrow's game, despite the ESPN matchup predictor only giving Akron a 56.8% chance to win.

I came here to say the exact thing, but "at Akron" was ambiguous because it was not mentioned in the context of the university or when he was in college, so it just as easily could have been understood as the Akron Aeros. Also, I wouldn't say it was a bad outing. He allowed one run and had a walk and two hits. In the greater context, he was bound to have an appearance that was similar to that. It could have been MUCH worse given that the bases were loaded. It's a shame though that the Blue Jays lost, especially in the manner that they did. In the 9th I thought we were going to possibly have our first Zips World Series Champion.

Zips up to #11 in the RPI - the highest RPI in the Big East.

Attendance of 1,242 that is very disappointing last regular season home game the zips are number 20 in the coaches rankings the zips are number 12 in RPI. The Zips are competing for a Big East division title. why is attendance so poor?

We'll pay them back in the Final Four.

I think a lot of people quit caring long before that. Joe Akron probably quit caring around the time of the Ianello years.

QB: Finley found his rhythm in the second half, getting the ball out quicker and settling into the flow of the game. The first half was more of a roller coaster. Ultimately, he did enough to get the job done and lead a few scoring drives. Finley’s 38-yard touchdown run should’ve been a loss, but instead turned into the best run of his career. RB: There wasn’t a ton of running room for the backs, but Gant made some nice cuts to squeeze out yards where there wasn’t much to work with. Gant and Patrick combined for 104 yards on the ground. WR: The negative: there were four drops in the game, most of which came in the first half. Outside of that, it was mostly positives — Mason hauled in another outstanding touchdown grab, while Polk and Ma. Williams came through with some timely catches. Hopefully Walker is okay, though I’m not sure Mason even gets that opportunity if Walker doesn’t go down, as he’s been backing him up. True freshman Luke Sivon also saw some action, and the kid can absolutely fly. He didn’t record a catch but did draw two pass interference calls. Ideally the staff keeps working Sivon in and doesn’t worry about the redshirt. TE: Newell returned after missing the last few games and was underwhelming. Cravaack played well again and PFF finally graded him as such. OL: The OL was solid in pass protection throughout, but looked noticeably better in the second half when the ball was coming out quicker and the backs held up a bit longer. They were credited with just seven pressures allowed all game. Not to take anything away from the OL, but I still stand by saying Buffalo isn’t great at generating pressure — and we saw that play out today. Of note is that backup center Delvin Morris started and played every snap at left tackle. DL: Dall was an absolute nightmare for Buffalo. The stats might not show it, but he blew up a bunch of plays that let others rack up the numbers. It may not have been his best game statistically, but it was probably his most disruptive in terms of wrecking the opponent’s offense. Hull and Laventure were also very active on the inside and gave the Bulls’ offensive line all kinds of trouble. Mixon even got in on the action, picking up his first career sack. LB: How about Melvin Spriggs?! Honestly, up until this game, he hadn’t quite played to the level I expected from him this year. Usually, it’s Cooper, Summers, and Boswell leading the charge, but against Buffalo, Spriggs had the game of his life — a reminder of the potential he showed on his high school film. I’m happy for the kid; he’s come a long way in his development, and hopefully this is just the start, not the peak. And not to be outdone, Summers had a whale of a game himself. Buffalo might have the best linebacker corps in the MAC, but Spriggs and Summers made a strong case otherwise — at least for one game. DB: Despite the secondary coming away with two interceptions, it wasn’t their best day. We played a lot of man coverage and got torched by Snow in the first half and McMillan in the second. Still, the defense as a whole forced five turnovers and made sure this one didn’t slip away. One guy who did play really well was Somerville, who saw his most snaps at safety and also played on special teams. ST: Outside of the botched punt that led to a safety, special teams did a nice job of keeping Buffalo’s units from making an impact. Smart strategy to make sure the ball consistently stayed out of Snow’s hands. Coaching: I don’t think anyone can argue much with the second-half game plan. Sure, it’s fair to say the offense got a bit too conservative too early in the 4th quarter, but the defense was holding their own. My biggest gripe came at the end of the 2nd quarter, which led to a fumble and an eight-point swing. There was no reason to rush to the line and try to run extra plays. Just run out the clock and head to the locker room. In no world was Finley or Gant breaking off a 60+ yard run. Just a boneheaded move that thankfully didn’t cost the game. Defensively, it was a very impressive performance. Buffalo’s offense was going to get their yards, so it was all about preventing points. Holding the Bulls to their season low, minus Minnesota, while forcing five turnovers was remarkable. Next week is our “bye” week, and we’re back in action the following Tuesday night for another very winnable contest against UMass on 11/4. QB: Finley HB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Gear WR: Walker Mason Louis WR: Polk Monteiro Sivon TE: Newell Cravaack Whisner LT: Morris LG: Archer McManus C Lyons RG: K. Davis RT: King A. Jones DE: Dall D. Frazier DE: Durham J. Frazier Cheatom DT: Hull Murphy Musika DT: Laventure Mixon Madden LB: Summers Boswell LB: Spriggs Boswell NB: Aa. Branch CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed T. Thomas S: Flowers Hunter S: D. Johnson Somerville Offense (20 snap min.) C - Lyons RT - M. King LG - McManus TE - Cravaack RG -K. Davis Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Spriggs S - Somerville DE - Dall LB - Summers DT - Hull

At home, versus a hapless Minutemen team. coming off a MAC road win at Buffalo, this is a "must win" game for the Zips. Should they win, the Zips are poised to force the locals to pay at least a little attention to the program as the Kent game approaches. They absolutely cannot take a step backwards with a home loss next Tuesday. A win would go a long way in securing Joe Moorhead's return in 2026. That is...should he want to return. But that's a story for the offseason. The Zips have done a good job of handling their business against lesser teams. Relatively healthy, at home, and coming off a road win, I see a 41-17 Zips beatdown of UMass next Tuesday, setting the table for a fun, intriguing Akron/Kent match up the following week. I think I saw Joe Akron's left big toe move a little? Could he be emerging from his coma?

This is such a good opening game. JMU brings a solid G5 brand into an arena that lacks opponents with solid brands. I really hope UA marketing is getting the word out that this game is just a few weeks away. We need a solid 4k+ crowd. We match up well with them. We're bigger, but they're going to be a handful athletically. Our guards need to take care of the ball and we need to make our shots. Do that, and we'll be 1-0 with a nice early-season resume building win.

Probably availability.