kreed5120

On the plus side this nips those at-large hopes in the butt so we don't have to hear people talk about them for the next 4 months.

It's really early. Hard to tell how much rust or getting use to play with new teammates plays a factor in these games. EMU I think could be good mostly based upon how they finished last season and what they have returning this season. I'm still not buying into American yet at least.

I do agree the script Akron is a nice touch.

Mehhh. Not a big fan of the white numbers on a white jersey.

I'm with Hilltopper on this one. Every year some MAC fan base brags about how great their recruiting class is, meanwhile, Akron ends up with NR and 2* players. Somehow we are always there at the end.

I think that is the only thing this board agrees upon.

Play calling plays a big factor I'd say. Chapman's strengths aren't the same as Woodson's yet Akron OC is stubborn in not wanting to alter his game plan to fit the strengths of his QB. With Chapman in they should do more QB draws, bubble screens, and higher percentage passes over the middle of the field. Instead they still try to dial up the long ball even though that's not his strength.

I didn't even realize the games overlapped until now. But yeah, I'm definitely going to the jar. I'd rather watch the Zips beat up on some cupcake instead of being OU's cupcake and losing to them for a 9th straight year.

Akron lost by 3 TDs to previous 1 win Buffalo, lost by 31 at home to Toledo, and just lost by 2 scores to 1-8 BGSU. I think it is fair to say Akron right now is the worst team in the MAC given its current state. Unless we get the Woodson from week 3 back, we have no shot in hell vs OU next week. Hopefully we can keep the score somewhat close.

Those 14 points we gave up on 2 fumbles might have just been a little too much to overcome with our 3rd string QB. Do appreciate the effort they played with in the 2nd half.

At least Zips basketball season starts this weekend...

Looks like it's going to stand...

That was balsy by Natson trying to field that.

This is year 5 meaning Bowden has recruited every player on this roster. I can see giving him a small buffer as year 1 and year 2 would have been extremely challenging for him to recruit. That still means next season we need to start seeing some sophomores and juniors producing. It might not be this year, next year, or the year after but at some point Ianello would have been gone long enough that we can no longer use him as an excuse for Akron not doing better. This is the MAC where teams go from worst to 1st all the time in a matter of a few years. Edit: Personally, I think we HAVE to make a bowl this year to keep that momentum moving forward then need to be serious MAC contenders next year. Next year our offense should be better than this years and the defense can no longer blame inexperience. When you line your team up where one side of the ball is filled with senior talent and the other is mostly returning those are suppose to be your peak years. There will be some amount of growing pains the year after.

To be fair I actually only followed that game on my phone while watching the World Series. I intended to watch the replay at a later time, but didn't bother given how lopsided the final score was.

Yeah, I mean one has to remember that was Holley's 1st game ever as a college QB and Akron got the ball back with 59 seconds down 3 points to a team they should have beaten easily. We did just enough to win and that's fine by me. I'll take the "W" any day of the week. I'm not trying to say Kent is better, but they clearly play with more heart. If we played with their effort, we would have beaten Buffalo (certainly at least wouldn't have lost by 3 TDs) and wouldn't have lost to Toledo and WMU by a combined 72 points in our own house. Perhaps what we are missing is that on the field leader like Holley who is willing to lay it all out there and inspire his teammates to just give that extra 10% effort.

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.