Leaderboard

QB: Finley had his best game of the season, though that might not be saying a whole lot after the first two. He avoided turnovers and made a handful of really nice throws. There were a few sacks I thought he could’ve steered clear of, but beyond that, if he can consistently play at this level, the offense has a chance to keep moving forward. I’m still scratching my head over why Johnson didn’t get any looks in short-yardage situations. RB: I kept waiting for Patrick to bust a big one, but it just never came. Still, he and Gant ran hard, combining for 148 yards on 20 carries. I’ll take that any day of the week. WR: Similar to Finley, this was the wide receiver corps’ best outing too. Even with three drops, they got open, put in effort blocking, and for the most part, hauled in the catches. TE: Newell didn’t do much with his two catches, but he was solid as a blocker, especially in pass protection. Cravaack saw less than 10 snaps. OL: I thought Lyons and K. Davis played well. There were a few times we were close to breaking a big run, but things like letting a combo block go too early and both guys releasing to the second level ended up giving the defender a free shot at the back. I can’t help but wonder if all the subbing we’re doing is causing some of those mistakes. The OL definitely could’ve been better at times, but overall they opened some holes and gave Finley a pocket to work with. DL: The defense as a whole did a really nice job against the run. That said, our four-man pass rush was anemic…again. We had a hard time getting pressure in the first half, though things looked a little better after the break. Both of our sacks came on five-man pressures if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure what’s going on with Cheatom, he hasn’t played lately, and we’re getting next to nothing from the backup DEs. LB: I thought Cooper, Spriggs, and Boswell all played well. The more I watch Boswell, the more I like him—kid’s going to be a player and just has a knack for making things happen. DB: All things considered, I thought Reed and DeWalt held their own. Our safeties, on the other hand, got absolutely roasted when they were stuck in man during the first half. The good news is we probably won’t see a better passing attack the rest of the way. UAB may not be a great team overall, but they’ve got some legitimate threats at receiver. ST: The kickoff return for a touchdown and the penalty that set up another score were absolute back breakers and, in my opinion, the difference in the game. Punting and placekicking were solid otherwise, with the only miss coming on a long field goal attempt. Coaching: That was the most animated I’ve seen Moorhead since he’s been at Akron. I think he knew this was a game we had every chance to win, and maybe he’s feeling a little pressure too. I did like the commitment to the run game, and the offense putting up 441 yards without a turnover is nothing to scoff at. Sure, it came against a bad defense, but the offense still played well. I’m not sure what adjustments were made defensively at halftime since I couldn’t see much of what was happening in the backend, but it was night and day when it came to points allowed. We still gave up yards, but that’s fine because at the end of the day the defense threw a second-half shutout. In the end, it’s another disappointing close loss in the Moorhead era. The game was there for the taking, and we couldn’t do it. We’re likely going to be 1-3 heading into conference play, which is the exact same as last year’s payday schedule. Of course, that’s assuming we take care of Duquesne this weekend, who will surely be pining for an upset. QB: Finley Johnson RB: Patrick Gant WR: Walker Mason WR: M. Williams Monteiro WR: Polk Grear TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Motley-Simmons D. Johnson LG: Archer McManus C Lyons Morris RG: K. Davis RT: A. Jones King DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier DT: Laventure Mixon DT: Hull Murphy Musika LB: Cooper Spriggs LB: Summers Boswell NB: AL. Branch AI. Branch CB: Reed CB: DeWalt T. Thomas S: J. Anderson Hunter S: D. Johnson Flowers KO: Wiley B. Johnson K: Wiley P: Castle Top Rated Offense (20 snap minimum) QB - Finley WR - Grear RG - K. Davis WR - Polk RT - King Top Rated Defense (20 snap minimum) DT - Murphy NB - AL. Branch LB - Spriggs DE -Dall DT - Laventure

I thought is would be interesting to compare the coaching staffs and budget between UAB and Akron. From what I can tell, UAB's football budget is roughly 11 million dollars...about double that of the Zips UAB has 24 football coaches and 18 support staff. Akron has 12 coaches and 6 support staff. And we only lost by 3 to them, on the road.

49 days until Zips basketball.

The first D1 team at Akron had 10 coaches. The only thing they have more today of is an extra DB coach and special teams coordinator. This is year 38 of complete mismanagement.

@catdaddyp Game Three Thoughts?

Clearly we're waiting for Moorhead 's contract to expire so we can hire a 6-5 FCS coach whose school is glad to get rid of him. That'll get excitement back to the program.

If the talent is not there it doesn't matter who the coach is. If the players are getting paid to go to other colleges why would they come to akron? bring in your young coach full of pee and vinegar maybe the best mind in coaching if he cannot bring in the talent it isn't going to matter at all. as soon as the last game ended last year, instead of celebrating the players were immediately talking about how it was time to get paid and they were gone. that's the mentality of the college athletes with NIL now. There is no loyalty to the university it's show me the money. Jomoe doesn't need the money, why stay if he didn't care? Especially since the majority of the posts in here say he can go elsewhere? Maybe what he complains about aren't excuses it's him trying to point out what needs to change so they program can recruit the better talent and convince it to stay so they can build a program.

Not trying to stir the pot at all, but why would anyone think that getting rid of joe is going to solve anything? the players that can are going to go where they can get money. until akron starts having money to pay the players akron will be a stepping stone. kids will come here because "it's D1" and they will hope to get film to bounce as soon as they can. example marcus moore left being a starter to get "paid" and is fourth string at purdue- hasn't played a snap. over half of Akrons team wasn't even on the roster last year. i don't agree with some player decisions that are playing and getting an absurd amount of playing time, there is only one starter from last on offense 2 if u count polk... an entirely new defensive line except bruno who stands out because nobody is doing anything. he is barely average to D1 ends. there are only 99 d ends in ALL of D1 who are ranked LOWER than Durham, yet he has more snaps than anyone on defense. it is a very tough position for any coach

https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/article/?categoryId=21&articleId=55064&articleTitle=tds-mens-player-of-the-year-leaderboard I didn't want to create a separate topic for this. If you click on the article above, you can see that Top Drawer Soccer has identified Mitch as one of the 10 players that should be considered as the best college soccer player of the year. The Player of the Year leaderboard is a weekly list of the ten players making the best case to win the prestigious award. The latest update features three newcomers who have helped their programs to historic starts. Mitch Budler, Akron (Newcomer) Budler breaks into the leaderboard thanks to an incredible start to the season, where Akron is yet to concede a goal despite playing four teams that have been nationally ranked at one point or another. The reigning Big East goalkeeper of the year has so far proven he may be the best in the country.

So you're saying there is room for one more...