BigGreenTruck

Marshall's AD Christian Spears come from Pitt where he was Lyke's Associate AD and Director of athletic marketing.

Tarik Pannholzer scores his 2nd goal of the season from an amazing long ball from GK Aleksa Janjic. If you would have told me in 2011 when Marshall AD Mike Hamrick unveiled the Hoops Family Field renderings, that in 13 years "Marshall already had a national championship and they are getting ready to play for their second star". I would have ask you what kind of drugs you was taking. Before Grassie got to Marshall in 2017, Marshall had exactly 12 winning or break even seasons from 1979-2016.

Baffling to those who haven't watched this play out but to those who have watched in the last 2 1/2 years it was expected. Huff thought he was going to come to Huntington and run though the Sun Belt for two years and be snatched up by someone. That didn't happen. As a matter of fact his record before this season was 22-19 barely over 500. He did beat VA Tech at home and Notre Dame on the road. But how did he follow up the Notre Dame win, he went out and got beat by Bowling Green the next week. He was offered at least 5 contract ext going back to right after the ND win. He was ask to negotiate a contract ext every week of this season and refused to do so. He nor his high maintenance wife (She is always dressed like shes going to a party) have never liked Huntington and he has thrown the fans and university under the bus more than once. I thought he should have been fired during the spring when he told a former WOWK TV reporter some things that could have and should have got him fired with cause. The Marshall admin knew he was leaving for USM at least a week and half ago and flew to Raleigh (NC State) and in principal hired DC Tony Gibson.

The 3rd place and Championship game will be streamed on YouTube.

Or you could look 4 hours south of I-77. As a Marshall fan I would support a long term H/H with Akron. It could only benefit both programs. I think it would be some pretty entertaining games.

Face it outside of scheduling Indiana and Maryland most years anyone else is usually an RPI drain on any school looking to have an NCAA run. Men's soccer is probably the worst sport at Ohio State and probably one of the least funded. Just going back to 2008, 15 years, Ohio State, has 10 losing seasons and one NCAA. Just 3 years ago in 2020 (Spring of 2021) the B10 had only two programs with a winning record that being Indiana and Penn State.

Pitt was a mid to low level ACC team this who couldn't hang with the upper half of the Top 25 this year. Marshall manhandled them back on Sept 5th in a 3-1 win. With about 75% possession and a lucky goal by Pitt when GK Perrota tripped on a save attempt. If JMU plays like they did against Marshall in the regular season they can beat this Pitt team on Thursday.

Kentucky has a win over #1 Marshall and #2 WVU. Once Johan Cedergren started coaching this years team and not trying to do what he done last year Kentucky started to actually play decent. Pitt is in solely on ACC bias, has to be.

That's all they deserved. If the power structure existed in soccer like it does in football and basketball then the B10 would be the MAC equivalent. It seems to always be Indiana and seven midgets. That may change somewhat with UCLA and Washington joining next year. Even Maryland was better off as an ACC school for soccer. I was hoping to see Akron pop up but it wasn't to be. Is Jared Embrick's seat getting a lil warm I wonder. Akron made the NCAAs the past two years but the two before that were lackluster. From a few games I seen of Akron this year it always looked like the back line was getting beat over the top. Way to many runs where the Akron back line was chasing the ball.

Some of the coaches on rankings have been brutal this year. Dropping Pitt from 8 out of the top 25, Wake Forest from 9 to 21 earlier this year.

Oct 9 2023 Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 #5 Akron https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men Oct 9 2020 College Soccer News Top 30 #4 Akron Akron holds steady at #5 in TDS ans moves up one spot in CSN. I don't know how much movement we see in the Top 5 in the coaches poll but I suspect there will be some Both #1 and #2 (Marshall and UCF) won 2-0 in their only game. #3 WVU had a 2-2 draw with JMU and #4 SMU beat Charlotte 1-0 and had a 2-2 draw with FIU. Akron's 3-0 win over DePaul could bring them up a spot but Im more inclined to think if anything happens its WVU and SMU trading places.

Oct 3 2023 United Soccer Coaches Top 25 #5 Akron https://unitedsoccercoaches.org/rankings/college-rankings/ncaa-di-men/ One, Two and Three are the Sun Belt again this week with #1 Marshall, #2 UCF and #3 WVU. The top three are a combined 23-1-4. And the one loss is UCF at the hands of Marshall.

Akron a lil more stable in this weeks rankings unlike the last few weeks. Oct 1st 2023 Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 #9 Akron https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men Oct 1st 2023 College News Soccer Top 30 #4 Akron https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-news-mens-top-30-national-poll-week-ending-october-1-2023/

As long as Chris Grassie and Marshall win they will most likely hold the top spot for both. Marshall travels to Richmond VA tomorrow to take on the 1-4-4 VCU Ram's. As bad a their record is, their RPI is 71. That is how it played out for Kentucky last year anyway.

Again Akron is all over the map with wild swing of where they are ranked this week. Sept 25 2023 Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 #17 Akron https://www.topdrawersoccer.com/college-soccer-national-rankings/men Sept 25 2023 College Soccer News Top 30 #5 Akron https://collegesoccernews.com/college-soccer-news-mens-top-30-national-poll-week-ending-september-23-2023/ Marshall still holds the top spot for both polls but SMU now in at #2.