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Merry Christmas to all on this board, even those who I have blocked! I am very grateful for this forum. Thanks to the creators, moderators and thoughtful posters. I look forward to accessing this site each day. I believe the best is yet to come. And yes, Virginia, there is a winning football team coming to Akron.

I was not expecting Coach groce to be out there signing autographs but I was surprised to see he was! Not enough good words can be said about him, he was telling all the people in line “thank you for coming out” and was just very appreciative of all the support the fans have for the team

My son and his friend stuck around for post-game autographs and the players were great. Really makes it easy to be proud of the program.

I’m loving seeing the youth showing up to the games. Been seeing a lot of youth basketball and football teams coming to games and filling in for the students. Great for growing the game and the fandom

Joe and coach Rodriguez do seem to find talent. But the unfortunate thing is It always seems to take 3 or 4 games to figure things out . We are competitive after that but having 3 or 4 losses before jelling makes a 6 or 7 win season pretty difficult

For a Monday night, Christmas break game against a D2 opponent, I thought the attendance was pretty good. It was a fun night.

I can’t wait to watch him work through his mistakes this season, blossom into a 2nd team all MAC OL in 2027, and transfer to Pitt or Purdue! #fourtypercentzip #barelylearnedthefightsong

The crew from 2022 is certainly on the naughty list.

Just watched Wright State hold on at home vs EMU. I can't decide if I wish I was blind so I could never see that, or if I'm now going blind with how bad that game was.

still very loosey goosey on 3 point line. they have 10 3s. make that 14.

Kent blows

Nickelodeon, The Comedy Channel and The Home Shopping Network were all booked.

I could be wrong, but based on the film and the other linemen who’ve been offered scholarships, my guess would be that he’s a walk-on.

I also like the in-conference aspect. It means they've been able to see your program up close and like what they see.

Is it gameday yet? This week off plus the final exam week is always the longest boredom stretch of the season 😭

In grand scheme it doesn't really matter. We play them in a week. If we win they will no longer receive votes.

Forget Santa, talk to the refs and hope they are listening.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope santa brings you an #11 NCAA seed or better.

Indeed. I don't put much stock in bowl games but I will say the MAC isn't as bad as some think. There isn't much difference between a mid level ACC school and a top level MAC program. If not for the financial need of suicidal schedules, most records would be much better.

Toledo had a mid-season ranked Louisville on the ropes yesterday and Ohio beat UNLV who was in the running for a playoff spot late in the season. On top of what WMU did to kennesaw state, feels like a very strong showing for the MAC so far.

Man this is going to happen to us every single year barring some likely unrealistic elevation of the program. College sports are not in a good position right now, especially for the “have nots”.

The dangers of Elon Musk's X, where anyone can get themselves verified.

The Zips head out to Oxford this weekend to face the Redhawks in a 3:00 Saturday tilt. The Redhawks stand at 13-0 heading into Tuesday night’s game at BG. The Redhawks wins include Trinity Christian, Indiana East, Milligan and Our Lady of the Elms. The Redhawks lost their second highest scorer when Evan Isapro went down last week. 6’8” redhirt sophomore wing Brant Byers leads Redhawk scoring at 14.5 ppg. 6”8’ junior forward Altmar Altason, a Bradley transfer from Iceland, contributes 13.2 ppg. 6’5” senior All-MAC guard Peter Suder is scoring 12.3 ppg. They are shooting an impressive .546 from the field and .436 from 3-point range. We’ll find out Saturday if their strong start has been driven by their weak schedule. It will be interesting to see how the Zips deal with their length and perimeter shooting.

They do a really good job with youth group experiences. I coached my son's team last season and we did one. They were able to do the high-five tunnel pregame and scrimmage each other at halftime. They all really enjoyed it and the Zips staff was great. I hope they keep looking for ways to connect with kids - it really does matter.

It will be important that we run them off the 3-pt line. I feel we're the better team, but the 3-pt line is the great equalizer in basketball and they're good enough to make us pay if we leave their shooters unguarded. Especially since this is @ Miami.

How in the deep-dive-hell did you find this factoid?

Purdue beats Kent 101-60.

The Grape drew 1550 in 2022. 1542 in precounted season tickets and 8 other.

They offered discounted season tickets as stocking stuffers. Even if we were slightly under 1k season ticket holders at the start of the season we have probably added a few dozen since then.

I would imagine we would see the same starters as last game, especially since it’s against concord. It seems like it would work out for a 2 game trial and then revert back to the original if it won’t stick

With this post, I am relying on top drawer soccer(TDS) for their accuracy in reporting. On December 17th, top drawer soccer updated their division 1 mens soccer transfer tracker. At that point, TDS was showing 3 high quality players as transferring to Akron. I did not post that update on December 17 as none of the 3 players had posted anything on instagram...showing an announcement that they will be transferring to Akron. 2 of the 3 players are now showing @zipsmsoccer on their instagram page. As a result of 2 players changing their school in the bio, I will share the TDS transfer tracker(below) with zips fans. Aiden Benitez was a freshman this fall at Butler. Aiden Benitez is now showing @zipsmsoccer on his instagram page. Benitez is a 5'8 160 pound forward. In his freshman year, Benitez had 4 goals and 4 assists. Benitez was selected 3rd team all Big East. That is a very impressive honor as Akron's own outstanding forward (Remi Agunbiade) was not selected to any of the 3 all Big East league teams. Benitez was part of the Sporting KC academy as a teenager. Aiden Benitez has also played on the El Salvador U20 national team. At the end of the year, Top Drawer soccer selects a top 100 freshman list. TDS selected Aiden Benitez as the 26th best freshman in the country. Nolan McGuire is the 2nd transfer now showing @zipsmsoccer in his bio. McGuire has played 2 years as a defender for Depaul. In his freshman year, McGuire played almost 1,200 minutes for DePaul. In his sophomore year, Nolan McGuire started 13 of 17 games for Depaul and he saw 1,124 minutes of action. The 3rd transfer that TDS is showing is Angel Lopez from Coastal Carolina. Angel Lopez is a forward with very good size (6'3 185). In his freshman year for the Chanticleers(fall 2025), Angel Lopez started 9 games. Angel Lopez had 13 points as a result of 5 goals and 3 assists. Angel Lopez was selected to the Sunbelt Conference all freshman team. That is quite an honor as the Sunbelt is a very strong league (should have had 5 teams in NCAA field - W. Virginia, Marshall, Central Florida, Kentucky and number 34 RPI Georgia Southern.) From what I can tell, Angel Lopez's instagram page does not yet show a zipsmsoccer connection. Below the 3 transfers to Akron, you will see that Nathan Ferguson is transferring from Akron to Belmont. Belmont has already confirmed that with an instagram announcement. With only 4 players graduating, we know of 7 high school seniors that will probably join the zips in fall 2026 (all have made instagram or twitter announcements). Top Drawer Soccer says that we will have 3 transfers joining the zips in January 2026. with 10 known players coming in and only 5 leaving, I would anticipate that the zips will have some other players transferring to other schools. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL in your comments about Nathan Ferguson and other possible transfers. Nathan is a very nice young man and he gave his maximum effort during his time with the Zips. I wish Nathan Ferguson much success at Belmont. Nathan and other future transfers do not deserve any negative comments on this board as they make their best decision for their soccer careers. From my very limited research, The zips are adding 3 young high quality transfers. I choose to congratulate our coaching staff on successfully adding 3 solid young soccer players. And I wish the best to any fall 2025 zips that will be joing another school in January 2026. Welcome to Aiden, Nolan....and I sure hope that TDS is correct about Angel Lopez https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-articles/2026-mens-division-i-transfer-tracker_aid55358 https://www.instagram.com/_nolanmcguire/ https://www.instagram.com/benitezaiden/?hl=en

I would stick with the new rotation. At least for now. I don’t trust that the new defensive effort is here to stay just yet.

BuT tHeY'rE uNdEfEaTeD (With one of the worst SOS in the country)

Can't look past this one.

Merry Christmas. I'll take the first ever NCAA Tourney win, if Santa is still listening.

bivens is definitely a walk on. i didn't realize u were not listing them. got it.

Working on buying an 1860s Abner Doubleday CDV and I was reading into the backstory behind the lore. Did not realize the rumor of him being the founder of baseball started with an article in the Akron Beacon Journal in 1905.

Congratulations to Mitch Budler and Stefan Dobrijevic They are both included in top drawer soccer's top 100 player list (soph to senior) Mitch was 26 on their list. Stefan was number 36 on their list. https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer/college-national-top-100/men

https://gozips.com/news/2025/12/21/womens-basketball-akron-earns-94-68-victory-past-le-moyne

The state of Ohio seems to be doing quite well when you consider there's over 350 D1 schools and only two from Ohio are in the bottom half. Also, love to see that one of them is OU.

Yes, I would imagine since they're hosting the next round they will be the favorites in most of these matchups.

If Wayne Campus had a team and beat Kent we'd never let them hear the end of it

I watched the NFL games today instead of the bowl games. I'm not sure what the powers that be hope to achieve by expanding the playoffs. Unless you're a fan of the teams playing, who is going to watch JMU-Oregon over Packers-Bears? The more they try to expand the playoffs, the more games that will overlap with NFL time slots.

It's better than Gunsmoke reruns.

I for one would be thrilled if the Zips are in a bowl game next year, regardless of where or who the competition is I will be excited....

Back with Minnesota

I jumped the gun, he's now listed as Out on the updated availability for tonight.

Durham back in the portal. That leaves Hull as the sole returning starter along the DL…at the moment.