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I've seen some posts online that the tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ... but that is Atlantic Standard Time. Tipoff for us is 5:30 EST. Don't complicate things for me, please. 😂

The only proven formula to make the tournament - WIN THE MAC.

I've wondered this as well. I feel like he was pretty visible around the program for a few years and not so much anymore.

Nor that Goodrich will be particularly bothered either way.

Akron Felt is no more, the old owner didn't pay taxes for multiple years. One of the former employees started his own business doing the same thing. https://www.simos.cc/ He has totally rebuilt the business but is doing a great job, we use him to do all the repairs on the RubberDucks uniforms, highly recommend

@Z.I.P. 11:30am today for you if I'm not mistaken. You're welcome, you lucky, Hawaii-living son of a nutcracker. 😂

On a more positive note. A member of the womens volleyball ball team was chosen to putt in the Wentz Financial Group hole-in-ine contest. I think she is the first person to win the jackpot.

Fill the Hill

Gym looks a little better than the Cayman Islands, still not great. It’s gotta be funny to be some of the best players at their level and go play some of the most competitive games of the year in a gym like this

BTW I may be in the minority but I said this last year when all the Joe rumors were swirling. Very similar this year. I absolutely agree with whoever mentioned it in the past few days .. the rumors are all being generated by Joe’s agent. Watch other rumors pop early in the search cycles for OCs in the NFL etc. I believe Joe’s options to leave for bigger and better pastures are extremely limited. I don’t believe James Franklin will look at him as a first choice or maybe second/third based on how he’s building his staff. I also think he remains comfortable from the standpoint of family life, nice house in Hudson, grandkids around - his son is off next year to play college ball and he has his routine at Akron down to where maybe he can keep a better eye on his son’s career va working his ass off as a OC for some other program with less familiarity. I could be completely wrong but this is my gut feel.

I don't necessarily think it means anything other than he hasn't left yet. That's not to say he will or won't be leaving.

Troy lost in 3OT to USC on a buzzer beater 3. Edit: I found the highlight. What's worse is Troy should've won but the receiver on the outlet pass lazily attempted to secure the ball. USC stole it with 6 seconds left, passed it up the court with 3 seconds left, and the guy took 2 dribbles before getting the shot off at under .6 seconds. Brutal.

Win the paradise Jam first then worry about March

QB: It wasn’t Finley’s best outing by any stretch, but he made enough plays to keep the offense in position to score. In an unusual twist, he ran for 58 yards and was far more willing to pull it and go than we’ve seen from him in the past. I’m guessing a part of that was knowing it was his last college game and deciding to leave it all on the field. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating — Finley never made the jump I hoped he would this year, but we don’t get to five wins without him. RB: Gant is incredibly good at making people miss. He may not have the breakaway speed some other backs have, but his cuts, vision, and angles are almost as good as anyone I’ve seen. And congrats to him for going over 1,000 yards on the season — well deserved. WR: Drops were an issue at times, but the receiving corps still came through with some big plays. It’s a shame the season is over because Marcel Williams is playing as well as anyone in the MAC right now. He’s absolutely deserving of a First Team selection with the way he closed out the year. Polk and Mason should be in the mix for Second or Third Team All-MAC as well. TE: Newell returned but didn’t look like himself, and Cravaack didn’t have his best game either. OL: I thought the OL got better as the game went on. Ironman K. Davis finally missed some time, and Morris showed his versatility by sliding over from left tackle to fill in at right guard. Lyons logged every snap again at center and played well to close out the season. DL: This group got after it, and the starters played an insanely high number of snaps this year. Congrats to Dall on sealing the game, and I hope it’s not the last time we see him in a Zips uniform. Murphy probably played his best game to date — I noticed him blast the center into the backfield multiple times. Ideally, that’s a jumping-off point for him heading into 2026. Laventure and Hull were really good, as usual. LB: Summers played well, and Spriggs flashed his athleticism and physicality multiple times. It wasn’t an overwhelmingly great night for the linebackers, but they were solid and made the plays needed to slow down BG’s run game. DB: Reed and DeWalt played every snap at corner. I believe both Anderson and Hunter went down during the game, which left Somerville, Flowers, and Di. Johnson to handle most of the snaps at safety. I was impressed with how they came downhill and helped in the run game. The Branches — if that’s the right way to refer to them — split snaps at nickelback. ST: I was disappointed Hills never broke one for a touchdown this season. He had multiple chances throughout the year and just couldn’t shake free for that final bit. Schramm was excellent on field goals, Castle did well punting, and Wiley once again placed his kickoffs where they needed to be. Coaching: I thought the staff put together a strong gameplan and did a great job keeping the team focused and ready to play despite there not really being anything on the table anymore. Could things have gone better? Sure, but I’m not going to dwell on the negatives after wrapping up the season with a win. Now we head into an offseason full of uncertainty and a long wait until the 2026 kickoff. We’ll see what happens. QB: Finley RB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Monteiro WR: Polk WR: Louis Mason TE: Cravaack Newell LT: Morris D. Johnson LG: Archer McManus C Lyons RG: K. Davis Morris RT: A. Jones King DE: Dall D. Frazier DE: Durham J. Frazier DT: Hull Murphy DT: Laventure Mixon LB: Summers Hocker LB: Cooper Spriggs NB: Aa. Branch Al. Branch CB: Reed CB: DeWalt S: Anderson Somerville Flowers S: Hunter D. Johnson Offense: WR - Ma. Williams RT - A. Jones RB - Gant LG - McManus C - Lyons Defense: CB - Reed DT - Murphy DE - Dall CB - DeWalt DT - Laventure

Starting to sound like we should have kept Ms. Jackson. Year three and the program is as bad as it’s ever been.

Zips women had an awful, awful loss against Binghamton. They were up by five points with seconds left in regulation and let Binghamton tie it. They were up by 2 with seconds left in the first overtime and let Binghamton tie it. Then Binghamton fouled out six of their players and only had five available players at the end of the game and still Akron let them win. They are a turnover machine. They turned the ball over 25 times tonight and their average came DOWN. And missed 18! free throws.

Big Ten Tournament Champ UCLA goes down to automatic conference winner.....Grand Canyon Big Ten Tournament runner up Michigan.......goes down to the highest RPI non automatic conference winner Pathetic results for the Big Ten. Yet, Indiana (5-5 in that mediocre league).....gets the overall #6 seed in the tournament...... The mighty ACC is also not shining..... Number 37 RPI Syracuse controversially got a home game against number 27 RPI Hofstra Hofstra smoked the ACC team.....2-0 Western Michigan with the biggest upset of the day.... Western Michigan came into their conferencee tournament with a 5-9-3 record.... they won 2 games in regulation and one on PK's....in conf. tourney 7-9-4......coming into the NCAA's Mighty Clemson was 29 in RPI The NCAA committee gave Clemson a super favorable draw...... play 7-9-4 Western Michigan in first round..... Winner faces the highest seeded team....Number 16 Furman by the placement in the draw....NCAA committee said that Clemson was one of the 4 best non seeded teams Western Michigan beats the over rated ACC team 1-0 Number 50 RPI North Florida is about ready to go to 2nd overtime with #28 RPI North Carolina Go, North Florida !!!!

Beating these three comparable mid-majors (Yes, OSU is now considered a hoops mid-major) only solidifies Akron as a top tier mid-major. It's not fair, but it is reality. Beating all three teams by double digits will not erase a 15-20-pt loss to Purdue in the eyes of the selection committee. And yes, the Zips looked very good even in that Purdue loss. I'm willing to bet there will be at least one B-10 team that loses to Purdue by the same margin, that gets an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Any takers!!! FWIW ... Oregon State (Kenpom 135) is ranked lower than Miami, Kent, Florida Atlantic, Illinois State and others. Iona (Kenpom 169) is ranked lower than at least four other MAC teams. Not saying these are bad teams. I'm saying winning these games do not move the needle toward an at-large bid.

We pick him off the scrap heap after Pitt ditched him and this is the thanks we get... If I want to say something nice about him - he played hard against BG. Guys like Mumpfield and Norton completely tanked their last games before hitting the portal.

Would’ve helped but Troy has some head scratching loses already. They’ve been all over the place this month

President Nemer did a promotional instagram post for the mens soccer game on Sunday https://www.instagram.com/p/DRSpiDwkqdo/

I would think the 8 weeks are important in the sense that even if you're able to retain 2 or 3 of the offensive lineman it puts you in a much better position to succeed than needing to replace all 5. Some guys will perform at such a high level that we will never be able to afford them. We saw that with Nate Johnson in basketball. We need to at least position ourselves to keep a few guys below that tier so at least we have a foundation to build off of.

No contract extension out of the gate and included in this letter definitely signals this IMO

As the AD of a school whose football program is currently experience academic hardship, it's an easy line to throw in to show that academics are still a priority (even if every common-sense-having human being on this earth knows that academics haven't been a priority in revenue-generating athletics for years across the country).

Some thoughts... - Love that Goodrich took the time to craft this letter. Not sure I recall any recent ADs doing something like this. - I do wonder if the importance of the next 8 weeks silently refers more to JoeMo's decision rather than the other categories mentioned. Fundraising is really the only other crucial component to the next 8 weeks. The NCAA has a new 1-window transfer portal from Jan. 2-16 which only means players have to be in the portal by the 16th (recruiting doesn't end on the 16th). Talent hasn't been the issue, at least not nearly as big of an issue as coaching and financials have been. Every school is going through talent overhaul YOY. It comes down to financials and coaching as the key denominators between programs. - I re-read Goodrich's bio. Something that stands out is he negotiated the JMA Wireless Dome naming rights agreement at Syracuse and the Yuengling Center naming rights deal at South Florida. If I'm not mistaken, the football stadium's naming rights deal ends within the next 5 years. I wonder if he'll be here to negotiate another naming rights deal for his resume. That could be a big step in the financial health of the football program.

That's a completely different scenario in which academics were the priority, and it was pre-NIL. It was also about one in a million that it happened at Akron. Nice story nonetheless.

Team shop at the football stadium.

If you search "Akron Zips" on eBay and sort by newest items, you can sometimes find some good stuff that I assume is from former athletes and staff members. Other than that, the Bookstore website is decent but expensive.

I believe he can do that, they have done Guardians jersey customization for me in the past as well. They can do cadcut stuff in custom shapes and stuff so I believe so, although I don't know if they are partnered with UA

Just received this email...doesn't sound like Moorhead is leaving Hello Zips Nation!! Thank you for all your support this football season. We had energetic crowds, especially in the suites and club spaces. We had a lot of fun with a big Homecoming victory over Central Michigan, and we had great student support from the AK Rowdies, Spirit Squads, and Pride of Ohio Marching Band. While the year certainly had plenty of drama, our 2025 campaign ends on a high note. Our victory over Bowling Green this week gave us five wins this season, which is the most we’ve had since the 2017 campaign and gives us plenty of hope for an even brighter future. While I am pleased with the progress, like so many of you, I have higher expectations for our football program. Trust that our coaching staff and student-athletes share in these higher expectations. In our first meeting after the conclusion of this football season, Coach Moorhead and I reviewed the calendar and came to the same conclusion that so much of our success next year will be dependent on the next eight weeks. Over the next eight weeks, we will evaluate our football staff, operations, roster, academic efforts, and recruiting and retention strategies as the transfer portal opens and closes. Inevitably, we will see some of our young men enter the transfer portal and we will also identify many new faces who are eager to join the Akron Zips football program in pursuit of a MAC Championship and University of Akron degree. In an effort to help us recruit and retain the highest caliber student-athletes, persons who possess both talent and high character, we are asking you to please make a gift to the Akron competitive excellence fund today. Click Here to donate to the Akron competitive excellence fund today. We acknowledge that many of our peers have more resources than we do, however, that does not scare us. We will confidently move forward as we believe that the most important resources are a healthy team culture and support from all stakeholders throughout our Akron community. Trust that we will never use financial resources as an excuse. While they do help, we identify as and aspire to be the pound-for-pound best athletics program in the nation I hope that over the past six months we have demonstrated that our new “Make The Climb” culture of competitive excellence will bear much fruit and that your investment will be put to good use. Join us, as we “MAKE THE CLIMB” and help us as we work to as hard as possible over the next eight weeks to get to eight victories next season. Best wishes and Go Zips! Andrew Dr. Andrew T. Goodrich Director of Athletics University of Akron Go Zips! #MakeTheClimb

The best Zips gear selection I ever saw was at the Salvation Army store on Brittain Rd last year, they had tons of brand new stuff donated from the bookstore. Not sure if they are gonna have more this year though

E ESPN+

that was a beautiful game winning goal by Marcus Caldera. Hat trick for Caldera tonight.

MVC last couple years have gotten screwed with some very good teams missing

UNC beats UNF on seven rounds of penalty kicks. UNC had missed their sixth but then UNF also did. UNF definitely deserved the game had two goals called back and ended up tying the game with one second left in regulation. Both of UNF's goals were scored by a former tarheel.

JDs first year. Charley's last season. Winning record but no Bowl invite. Lee Owens recruit's mainly. I believe they may have beaten Marshall? etc. etc.

The first Big East team advances. Seton Hall beats Siena on penalty kicks, when the Saints fail to convert any of their first three and Seton Hall gets all three. I will definitely root for Big East teams unless we're playing them. Oh, and by the way, during halftime of I think it was Michigan Notre Dame. They mentioned the small schools that got seeded and talked about us. We have a national championship and are in the Big East. F you. 😊

I came to this thread excited about Zips hoops, but the first thing I see is someone using the "A" word. Now I'm fully expecting to drop 2 out of 3 games.

We have always had too many people posting here who don't know a damn thing about Akron football from more than 10 yrs. ago because they are too lazy to look it up. There ain't no revelations here that haven't been out here for years. Maybe that's a reason the program is where it is. A bunch of latecomers to the ball!

I never said George was a bad hire. I said it's still too early to tell, which I stand by.

Unlike Western Michigan, at least Clemson, Michigan, UNCG, Seton Hall etc. have lights.

I know we’ve already got at least one thread going about the portal, but I’m going to try and streamline everything here. A few things I’m not completely sure about are which players are actually on scholarship, and which of the former JUCOs, redshirt seniors, or grad students still have any eligibility left. QB: Roggow (R. So.) Broughton (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Finley M. Johnson RB: Curry (R. Sr.) Gant (R. Sr.) Gee (R. Jr.) Williams (R. Jr.) Patrick (R. So.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: WR: Davis (R. Jr.) Hills (R. Jr.) Louis (R. Jr.) Mason (R. So.) Monteiro (R. So.) Ma. Williams (R. So.) Witherspoon (R. So.) Sivon (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Adams Grear Walker Polk (R. Jr.) - Portal TE: Newell (R. Sr.) Whisner (R. Sr.) Cravaack (R. Jr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: OL: K. Davis (R. Sr.) Fox (R. Sr.) A. Jones (R. Sr.) Shor (R. Sr.) Mann (R. Jr.) Morris (R. Jr.) McManus (So.) Gould (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Archer George D. Johnson Lyons J. Moore Motley-Simmons King (R. Sr.) - Portal DL: Laventure (R. Sr.) Murphy (R. Sr.) Musika (Sr.) Cheatom (R. Jr.) Dall (R. Jr.) Durham (R. Jr.) Mixon (R. Jr.) Vega (R. Jr.) Hull (Jr.) E. Davis (R. So.) D. Frazier (R. So.) J. Frazier (R. So.) Brown-Demery (R. Fr.) Kavals (R. Fr.) Watkins (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Madden LB: Spriggs (R. Jr.) Benenge (Jr.) Hocker (R. So.) Boswell (R. Fr.) James (R. Fr.) Reeves (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Cooper Summers DB: Flowers (R. Sr.) Reed (R. Sr.) Kamara (R. Sr.) Thomas (R. Sr.) Somerville (R. Jr.) White (R. Jr.) AA. Branch (Jr.) Hunter (R. So.) K. Johnson (R. So.) T. Davis (R. Fr.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Anderson AL. Branch David DeWalt Jarmon D. Johnson Stepney ST: Miner (R. Sr.) Castle (Sr.) Samaha (R. Jr.) Wiley (R. Jr.) Schramm (R. So.) Portal / Out of Eligibility: Denis B. Johnson

Has Matt Kaulig sunk into the woodwork since JoeMo's been here? I'm in no inner circles, but I haven't heard from him in a while. Is he not a huge JoeMo fan?

It's impossible to compare our football to our basketball program. Thanks largely to Bud we're the 2nd best funded MAC basketball program (only behind UMass). Akron football is the bottom of the MAC in funding. If we didn't have the money to retain Tavari, Lyles, Scott, Young, not to mention sign Evan, Akron basketball would also be struggling. Maybe not to the extreme football has, but we wouldn't have had the success we've experienced either. In basketball if you find a diamond in the rough or one just happens to show up unexpectedly at open tryouts (Freeman) that dramatically raises the ceiling of your program as you only need 2-3 players to carry a team. That doesn't work in football where you have 11 starters on offense and another 11 on defense. Not to mention a few specialists. Even if you found 1 absolute star at QB he wouldn't have the same impact that a Steph Curry had at Davidson.

And I'm not saying George can't do well. Let's just wait until he has success before we praise him for it. We can check back in 2-3 years. Edit: As for Deion Indiana is just as hard, if not harder, to win at than Colorado. Especially since the Big 10 is vastly more competitive compared to the Big 12. The coach that deserves praise for turning a program around is Cignetti. Deion had a heisman winner and is still only 16-19 during his tenure.

All of these posts from national guys happening the day after the season ended and Franklin gets hired

Half the MAC has 2 more games left. He'll likely be middle of the road statistically and towards the bottom in eligible QBR in what is an atrocious year for MAC QBs. He put up 0 points vs. Wyoming, 0 pts vs. Nebraska, 3 vs. Toledo, and 7 vs. Miami OH. There is definitely better out there, and both Broughton and Beals might prove that next year if we get to see them. To @kreed5120's point, the OLine will need to be rebuilt most likely, which may hinder Zips fans from seeing better QB play.

The 2023-2024 Indiana State Sycamores got snubbed by the tournament committee with a 32-7 record overall, 17-3 in the MVC. Here’s the part that will make your head spin. They had a NET ranking of 28.

A bit is made about Akron's football history with regard to John Heisman as a former coach. However, I am still amazed by how relatively under-celebrated this relationship is and how there is virtually no awareness about the deeper and more distant history of Akron sports and the University in general. I am currently reading Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe by David Maraniss, which goes through some early college and professional football history. One thing that really stands out is who the Carlisle Indians opponents around the turn of the last century were. Their opponents included Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern, West Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Army, Navy, Lehigh, Lafayette, and all the Ivy League schools. There was not a single reference to Akron or another MAC-level team. So, Akron football has literally been trying to play catch up with the big boys for 125 years. We are not consistently at the level of the Big Ten, historically or now, and there is nothing wrong with that. Anyone expecting otherwise is ignoring history and not being realistic about the current or future. That is not to say we should accept mediocrity or worse in the MAC. Instead, we should be embracing the history we do have. Specifically, it is a mystery to me as to how I did not previously know that the owner of the first NFL Champion, the 1920 Akron Pros, was an Akron alum and former Akron football player, Art Ranney. He was also the first secretary and treasurer of the league and took notes of the league's founding meeting in Canton on Akron Pros stationary! A co-owner, Frank Nied was also an Akron alum and NFL co-founder. By my research, there are only four universities that can lay claim to having alums as founders of the NFL: Akron (Ranney and Nied), Dayton (Carl Storck), Notre Dame (Stan Cofall), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (George Halas). Hence, Akron is the only university with multiple alums as founders of the NFL. Not Kent, Not Ohio State, not Pittsburgh, not Penn State, not West Virginia, not Michigan, AKRON! How is this not celebrated by the University, especially when the alumni and football program are starving for something to favorably change focus and momentum?! It makes me wonder, how many other alumni accomplishments are unknown or not publicized (and not just with regard to athletics)? How many Rhodes and Goldwater scholars have we had? https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/carlisle/head-to-head.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Ranney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Nied

Maybe the conversation could sound something like this. "Mr. Commissioner, you are killing us with the schedule. All we ask is to play our rival when the weather is nice on a Saturday early in the season so we can have a decent crowd. You did it for the BG/Toledo rivalry and all they did was sell out a stadium and put on a very exciting game. We all know the only people dedicated to weeknight games are drunks and degenerate gamblers. Gamblers will bet on anything and drunks will drink to anything, so trading Kent for another MAC school on a Tuesday night won't matter. Would it be too much to ask for you to dislodged your head from your ass for a few minutes to schedule the Akron/Kent rivalry early in the season?" There you go. Problem solved.