kreed5120

Serious question. Are you not even a little bit concerned with our inability to compete with the best of the best in the MAC even though teams with less talent can?

Regardless of how this game plays out Kent, despite using their 3rd string QB and being without their defensive leader, is playing WMU much tougher than we did.

He has us at 21 regular season wins. We should be able to get to 9-10 OOC wins fairly easily. Barring injury I can't see us going 11-7 or worse in conference play. I'd take the over on that win total and say we win 23 regular season games.

Have to imagine he makes a practice squad somewhere. If for nothing more than just his returning ability.

I'm counting 13 games before the start of preseason games. 2 of the games are part of tournament so opponent TBD, but we still have games those days. I say we go 10-3 losing to Creighton, Gonzaga, and someone random (UTEP or UCI).

Akron's shouldn't really be challenged until the Creighton game on December 3rd. Nobody they play up to that point is expected to be "good". Edit: Now will they be is another question. We will have to wait and see.

I looked at those yardage totals and thought holy crap that is a s*** ton of yards then I realized we are talking about the Zips D...

They also played both Toledo and particularly WMU far more competitively than we did. Sure they lost to what looks to be an improved Miami team (a team that is currently sitting ahead of Akron in the MAC East standings...), but at least they didn't lose to a 2-7 Buffalo (who is worse) by 3 TDs and allow them set a school rushing record in the process. At the end of the day they have 2 wins against quality teams, meanwhile, Akron's best win is against 5-4 Ball State. That 2013 Akron team beat a bunch of nobodies. List of 2013 teams we beat JMU - FCS Miami - 0-12 Worst team in FBS Kent State - 4-8 Terrible UMass - 1-11 2nd worst in FBS Toledo - 7-5 Decent My comment was purely on the basis that I feel EMU has already surpassed that 2013 Akron team and is currently better than the 2016 Zips. I haven't seen enough of Creighton to assess how good of a coach he is or isn't.

EMU has wins over 6-2 Wyoming and 7-3 Ohio. They've already eclipsed the 2013 Zips and honestly if they were to play on a neutral field, I'd have to say they'd be favored over Akron given the way Akron has been playing.

I won't be attending as I got other things going on, but I did get my season ticket packet in the mail yesterday which has me excited for the start of the season.

In addition they would need Miami to also lose one of their 3 remaining games (highly possible). At this point I'm more focused on just beating BGSU to get to bowl eligibility. Not making a bowl game would be a huge step back for this program.

We had the best defense in the MAC last season I'll give you that. But do you honestly believe our defense was really one of the 15 best nationally when we gave up 41 and 59 points to the only 2 high powered offenses we encountered? We benefited from padding our numbers against teams like Kent, Eastern Michigan, UMass, Buffalo, and Savannah State. Our defense didn't have to play Bama, OSU, Michigan State, Baylor, TCU, Clemson, Florida State, etc. on a week to week basis. Akron's defense by yards per game gave up 329 which was 17th, meanwhile, Oklahoma gave up 351 which placed them 31st. We saw these teams play one another. Can you honestly tell me you thought Akron's D > Oklahoma's D?

Bringing in and developing talent is part of the coaches job. This is the Bowden regimes 5th year so his staff has recruited every player on the roster. Coaches like Dantonio have made a name for themselves by steadily turning 3* recruits into 4* and 5* players. We're competing against MAC schools, not Alabama, Michigan, or USC. We need to get 2* and a few 3* players and get them to play like 3* and 4* players. Among our peers between our stadium and indoor practice facility we have as good, if not better, facilities than any other MAC program. We are also situated in perhaps the most fertile recruiting ground in the conference. We should want a coach that can bring us something better than a 7th place MAC finish. I get not wanting to blow it up as we can potentially be great next year if we even get our defense to somewhat average. I still think we need some sort of shake up. We should be pulling better high school players than we are.

I've heard a lot of excuses for our lackluster attendance over the years, but last night was the most legitimate one and one that I'll actually defend.

At least basketball season begins in 9 days.

I would have rather been wrong and saw a Zips win.

For the record I'd expect them to beat BGSU to make this conversation mute, however, nothing is guaranteed as can be seen by that loss to Buffalo. Serious question here. If Akron would finish 5-7 that means they would have had losing records in 4 of Bowden's 5 seasons and 5 years in they are still a below average MAC team. Even last years "historic" season we tied for 6th best in the MAC, technically finishing 7th because we lost the head to head with OU. At what point would you feel a coaching change would be needed? Would it be if they missed bowl games both this season and next?

I'll give the offense a partial pass for last week and the poor conditions. They have disappointed this week, but when firing on all cylinders they have been explosive. Edit: kind of hard to play offense when you are always playing from behind and the defense knows you have to pass.

Which is a damn shame because this might be the greatest Akron offense ever.

We've already given up nearly 500 yards of offense. This is pathetic.

If Akron finishes 5-7 Bowden has to go. 1 bowl game in 5 years would be completely unacceptable.

Our defense is on pace to give up over 660 yards. This might be the worst defense I've ever witnessed as an Akron fan.

Yeah, there have been times where I'm pretty certain that I was the only Zips fan at the bar. There have been times where it was me against the rest of the bar as was the case during Akron vs. OSU NIT game. The best experience that I had was at Puckers where I went in during my lunch break to watch a half of an Akron MAC tourney game. The bartender was pleasantly surprised the game was being aired as apparently her dad is a fan. Even though I just asked to have the TV turned on at 1 of the TVs above the bar, she turned it on on both large screen projectors as well. People were actually watching the game too which was a 1st.

And we are 3-0 in those games.