Leaderboard

For me, Caleb Borneo was MOM. Scoring twice is (obviously) huge, but Borneo was also instrumental in the linking play through our midfield. What a comeback story for this guy! Hopefully, he continues his current trajectory. Remi Agunbiade completely changed the match when he entered late in the 1st half. Buckeyes could not contain him. Toward the end, OSU Defense began to look fearful. As previously mentioned, Jose Pedro was fantastic in both defending the flank and contributing passing into Offense. He needs to keep shooting, as unlikely as that sounds when referring to a Fullback. Judging from the room they afford him, opposing Defenses evidently do not believe Jose can score. He should prove them wrong. Ashton Kamdem was a monster on our left flank. Somebody check me on this, but I think Kamdem drew 3 OSU yellow cards. He is probably really sore today. Side note: Kamdem is the only truly ambidextrous field player we have. Mitch Budler also appears to be ambidextrous. What can I say that has not already been said? Five matches; Zer0 goals allowed. None will be surprised when Budler's name goes up on Stu Parry's wall.

great exposure for Zips soccer

The information above is too good to fade away to page 2. I will try to make the @catdaddyp season predictions and previews the official game day threads from here-on-out.

Thanks for the kind words. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere regardless of Moorhead’s status. Sure, Moorhead coming to Akron and my family’s move to Ohio may have sparked my initial interest, but now I’m in it for the long haul. My kids look forward to going to an Akron game with me every year, and I’d be thrilled if any of them ended up attending Akron someday. It’s also been a pleasure meeting some of the posters here in person. I’m going to go on a bit of a rant here with my disappointment on how things have gone since Moorhead took over. Like I’ve said before, there are certain turnarounds in college football I really enjoy following. The two other programs I’ve kept an eye on are South Carolina and Illinois. Forget for a moment that they’re P4 and Akron is G5—the similarities are still there. All three were sitting in the bottom third of their conferences when their current head coaches took over. None of them are near the top of their conferences in NIL money. And the general consensus from the media and most college football fans was that it was impossible to win at those schools. Fast forward a few years, and two of the three are sitting in the top 11 nationally, depending on which poll you look at. All three schools have also assembled excellent staffs. Just the other day I was talking with a colleague who played at Bowling Green and later coached at Syracuse. We got on the topic of MAC football, and unprompted he mentioned what a great staff Moorhead has put together at Akron with limited funds. I had to agree. The flip side is recruiting. Because without great players, it really doesn’t matter how good the coaching is—wins will always be hard to come by. I’ve coached for well over a decade and also worked on the recruiting services side of things. From my perspective, Moorhead has brought in a lot of talent, but it just hasn’t translated into wins yet. Recruiting services will disagree, but here’s some context: most analysts have little to no football background—they’re writers. They put too much stock into measurables and camp performances without pads. On top of that, programs with long track records of success almost always get the benefit of the doubt with rankings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a kid commit to South Carolina as a two- or three-star, only to decommit, flip to Georgia or Alabama, and suddenly get bumped to four stars. Same story with Illinois versus Michigan or Ohio State. I say all this because Akron football seemingly has what it needs in place to win right now—and just isn’t. I can’t explain why the offense looked like year one with a brand-new staff when this is year four with a returning starting quarterback who has the physical tools to make just about every throw at this level. I don’t have an issue with Moorhead being open about what the program is lacking financially. What I do have an issue with is the lack of wins despite a dramatically upgraded roster compared to when he took over and a really strong staff in place. All that said, I’m still hoping this week is the spark that finally gets the long-awaited wins rolling—and that I look foolish for even posting this. It’s past time.

(Pretend this is a zero)

Here's how the Big East Conference is doing through the first 5 games for most (https://www.bigeast.com/standings.aspx?path=msoc) ...

FYI only - there were some recent instances where the behavior of a couple members didn't meet the standards of ZipsNation. When this happens it drives good people away, and puts a damper on quality conversation. I apologize. I tend to give people a really long leash, and I probably need to nip this stuff in the bud quicker.

I've been researching the roster limits and I believe the players who were walk-ons are grandfathered in - so Groce and Halligan wouldn't count toward the 15 player limit. They apparently did this so existing walk-ons weren't forced out of programs.

Happy Birthday Coach Groce.

Making an entire thread to mock a potential punctuation snafu by spelling the title wrong is good stuff

The Hoban thing is complete BS.

No, that's a good thing. They will have to pay us.

They were too busy trying to run cover for their precious P4 Suckeyes. As the game wore on, the realization that Akron is a more dominant soccer program than Ohio State really became evident in their tone and commentary. It was Louvre worthy.

Highlights

I found a code. If you use GAMEON at checkout you get a month of BIG+ free. Just gotta remember to cancel

I get that this is a paycheck game and a somewhat necessary thing to happen for the coffers, but I would love to see the contract deal sweetened a bit where we also ink a basketball game with whomever we play in these “paycheck” football games. Nebraska and Akron on the hardwood could be interesting.

The game is free, see everyone there!! There's parking contiguous to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium, I think a small fee to park.

Keep in mind, all of this was done in the preseason. I’m also not sure how much we actually learned in a loss to a G5 team compared to what UAB did against an FCS. If we’re looking at Week 1 in a vacuum and treating Alabama State and Wyoming as equals, then give UAB the edge in all the offensive spots and Akron the edge in the defensive ones. Special teams would go Akron’s way too. Teams rarely look the same in Week 2, but unfortunately for us, we’ll probably still be staring at an ugly score against a team with superior resources and talent. Week 3 against UAB will be a better barometer for this team.

If you add in the $4.5-$5 million we're paying for Infocision then we're spending about just as much as OU on football. The difference is on how the money is getting spent. OU using it for staffing, training tables, and whatever else. We blew it on a shiny stadium that we couldn't afford, which sits empty. Edit: Kind of gets back to the point I make 1-2 times a year when major JAR renovations are discussed. Facility improvements are prohibitively expensive and you get more return on your dollars (from a performance perspective) on investing in coaches, recruiting, and whatever else instead.

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.

Win on Saturday and Akron will be #2 at worst next week with the most difficult part of the schedule behind us.

We really haven't been playing to hold on to the lead in the 2nd half, we have been still keeping up pressure, this feels different than other zips teams recently

Before tonight’s game at number 2 Clemson, the VCU Rams had a 1-3-1 record final from Clemson , SC VCU 2 Number 2 Clemson 1 tonight’s final score from Burlington, VT unranked Dartmouth and number 13 Vermont battled to a 3-3 draw. Great win for VCU. That will help the RPI of the Zips.

I knew it's been a struggle against WMU recently but I didn't realize it was that bad. Gotta have a win tonight!

Chad Wiseman, the Western Michigan coach, has an outstanding record against the Zips. Every soccer game is a challenge. The zips can not afford to being looking ahead to their top 10 matchup on Saturday. Chad Wiseman knows how to prepare for the Akron offensive game plan. The Zips owe a ton of payback to the Broncos. From 2019 to 2024, the Zips and the Broncos have played 8 games. In those 8 games, our beloved Zips have exactly one win. Let's look at the facts : 2019 1-1 tie 2020 teams played twice 0-0 draw 4-3 Western Michigan win 2021 4-3 Western Michigan win in overtime 2022 teams played 3 times 1-0 Zips win in first regular season meeting 1-1 tie in 2nd regular season meeting 2-1 Western Michigan win in conference tournament 2024 1-1 tie Since the beginning of 2019, the zips have a 1-3-4 record against the Broncos. On paper, the Zips are playing well...and this is a home game. Games are not played on paper. Zips need to come out focused and step on the Bronco's neck. Go, Zips

I was also excited about JoeMo at the time of hire. The fact is the same reason we were able to land him is probably the same reason he's not cut out for this job. JoeMo said a big reason he choose Akron over being OC elsewhere is after a health scare he wanted to prioritize other things besides just football in his life, namely family. The reality is Akron has a ton of disadvantages it needs to overcome and frankly needs someone driven to do so. Someone who is busy finding solutions to make things work and overcome obstacles. Not someone who is constantly making excuses and trying to deflect blame.

JoeMo's needed a QB who is a dual threat. DJ Irons doesn't count as he was an Arth recruit, so it's on Year 4 JoeMo he hasn't been able to land one in the TP. Four years ago I was over the moon with us landing JoeMo... but it did cause me to raise an eyebrow when he wasn't even able to lure a 5th string walk-on Oregon QB to Akron with him. This sucks. We're demoralized. I do believe that JoeMo is done - though he's got another year on his contract. I'm more upset about losing the posts of Catdaddy than I am about losing the offense of JoeMo.

University lawyers are looking over his contract as we speak…

What a great win. Revenge for last year. Absolute domination that 2nd half. Ohio State looks good but not how good they were hyped to start the season. But I think they’ll end up being a better win than we think. This is a good rivalry keep it going!

My biggest question is how we handle Young, Scott and Tavari. What lineups do you run? Can Sharron and Tavari play at the same time together. I’m very interested to see what they do

Borneo goal!

It makes OSU fans feel good though, and to that end, it doesn't matter if if the competition off the field before the game even started was unequal. I find it to be insanely pointless and boring, but there will never be a shortage of people wanting to buy 100k+ tickets to watch a gridiron sacrifice. It's just good business, nothing more. The real game of equals was last night, and OSU lost 2-0.

Great home game and crowd for a Saturday afternoon in Athens for the Bobcats against WVU, and it is a competitive game. Wish we had such things!

Pretend? It has been, is now, and will forever be a ZERO! 😃 (Love this by the way! Well-played!)

This team may just end up being special.

Tonight was a fun night for Akron soccer. The OSU Buckeyes were a good opponent, but not a great one. We were the better team. Nonetheless I hope we continue playing them and build a rivalry. What struck me about the Zips was that, despite not playing our best, we got better tonight. We found we have good depth and the staff came closer to finding who are the players who need to be on the field in crunch time. Remember this season saw 8 players needed to be replaced. The coaches deserve credit for finding the players, building chemistry and continuing the Akron style of play. That is what brings players to Akron despite offers of NIL money that has been in the $30,000 range. This is a team to enjoy.

I give tremendous credit to Coach Embick and Chad Welker.....for doing this video clip for the zips fans. This was a huge road win for the Zips....and I know that myself and other zips fans wanted to hear Coach Embick's comments on the game. Thank you again for taking the time to do this video. Congratulations on a great win and thank you for the thoughtfulness to take the time to shoot and post this video. Great job, Zips

Valiant effort. Incredible atmosphere. Decisive W. What a night!!

Thursday Sept. 4 DePaul and Illinois Chicago played to a 1-1 tie (DePaul now has a 1-0-4 recrod) UConn got a 1-0 home win over Central Connecticut State Friday September 5th Some huge matches tonight for Zips opponents... St. Johns hosted number 2 Marshall. the 2 teams battled to a 1-1 tie When you look at stats, St. John's led 11-7 in shots ; St. John's led 4-3 in shots on goal ; St. John's led 9-2 in corner kicks Georgetown hosted number 9 Duke final score was 2-2 Number 13 High Point went on the road and got a 3-1 win at VCU Seton Hall hosted Penn and it was a scoreless tie. Harvard got a 2-0 road win at Providence in a battle of 2 future opponents, Butler hosted Western Michigan. Butler 2-1 win Columbia hosted Villanova and the final score was 0-0 Remaining games tonight Number 21 Denver is playing at Creighton - 8:45 start Cornell will play at Cal Santa Barbara - 10 pm start

I believe two PGs can play together with no problem.

YESSIRRRR its so nice when an Akron team answers the call

Sept 5 pick: Nebraska 34 Zips 7 Bend but don't brake defensive effort with one defensive score. Patrick or not, we average 1 yard/carry. Finley completes less than 50% for under 100 yards and 2 int's. Back up QB's : no passes--5 runs for -10 yards. I had called earlier for this to be a throw away game. Let at least 2 back up QB's and plenty of others get some meaning full snaps. (That could make it 80 to 7). At least this time we leave Lincoln with a check. Ham and bride will have a great time pre game tailgating in down town Lincoln. Go Zips

Reading the preview of Hawaii's game tomorrow versus the Sam Houston State Bearkats, the Honolulu Star Advertiser writer is gushing and flowing in his praise of Antavious Fish. There are two long paragraphs dedicated to A Fish loaded with stories and clichés about his strength and his nautical name going back to using couch cushions as a tackling dummy at age-3. It doesn't specify, but I'm guessing he leads TSU in tackles so far. Apparently he was prepared to look to the NFL after 2024, until he learned his season at Coffeyville CC allowed him an extra season as a grad student in NCAA football. Partial text: "In the 3-3 or 4-2 front, Fish is a downhill run-gap filler, perimeter setter or 8-yard blitzer. With upper body strength (23 bench reps of 225 lbs.) Fish is a 'corner-turner' who can circle around a blockers punch."

OSU goal ruled offside, still 0-0

THANK YOU, that code worked perfectly. PS: I already canceled (so I don't forget) and it remains active for the next 30 days even after canceling.

B1G+ is $14 after taxes for the month. However, I don't have any interest in giving the Big Ten any of my money, so I'll be following this on a stat tracker. Go Zips!

Big game tonight! My prediction, Zips 2-1.