catdaddyp

Thank you, glad to do them! I’m not sure the last FBS team we played was as bad as this 2025 UMass squad. We beat NIU 44-12 in Moorhead’s first season, but that NIU team was better than its record indicated and a lot of things broke our way that day. The UMass team we faced Tuesday night was both talent-deficient and injury-riddled. I agree—the Burns-led Kent teams probably would’ve beaten the Tuesday night version of UMass, although it might’ve been close. All that said, there’s a scenario where UMass leapfrogs us in the near future. They’re set to be one of the highest NIL bidders in the MAC, and their coaching staff will be among the best-compensated in the conference. If they use those resources wisely, NIL will help them retain their top players, while we’ll keep losing ours until something changes financially.

QB: Finley made some really nice throws and generally had plenty of time in the pocket. Some of the longer developing routes were open against a UMass defense that struggled to generate pressure. Outside of the fumble at the goal line, Finley protected the football all evening. That hit on the fumble seemed to rattle him a bit, and honestly, I was surprised he came back in the game. He could’ve easily finished with more passing yards, but it wasn’t necessary with how well the run game was rolling. RB: Gant is tracking toward a first-team All-MAC selection. His patience and timing when hitting the hole are excellent, and he has that rare knack for moving in a way that makes it tough for defenders to square him up cleanly. Patrick is certainly the more explosive back, but Gant has settled into his rhythm and is playing at a high level. He finished with 153 yards and two touchdowns, leaving him exactly 150 yards shy of a 1,000-yard season. WR: The receivers spent most of the night blocking, as the offense ran the ball 46 times compared to just 22 pass attempts. Mason made another highlight-reel touchdown grab, while Ma. Williams has clearly become Finley’s go-to target of late. TE: Another week, another solid showing from Cravaack. He did have one drop, but aside from that, he threw some crushing blocks in the run game and added a nifty 15-yard reception with solid yards after the catch. Whisner, backing him up, had his best game to date as well. OL: The offensive line dominated UMass’ front. They consistently opened up run lanes and gave Finley plenty of time to throw. They were credited with allowing only six pressures the entire game — easily one of their best collective performances of the year. DL: You have to feel for Laventure, who had back-to-back sacks wiped out — one by a teammate’s unnecessary penalty and another due to the staff accepting a holding call instead. Regardless, he absolutely mauled his matchup all game. Dall came close to a few sacks himself but just couldn’t finish. The defense as a whole held UMass to only 169 total yards, which says it all. LB: I’m a Shammond Cooper fan, but at this point Melvin Spriggs needs to be starting and taking the majority of snaps. Spriggs has really turned it on the past two games and has become a dynamic player. Summers may not have the same athletic upside, but he’s been in the right spot at the right time lately and continues to make key plays. DB: DeWalt, Reed, and Kamara may have taken all the corner snaps, and all three played well. The nickel backs didn’t see as much playing time as they usually do because the defense often went to a five man defensive front. Hunter and Somerville got the starts at safety and played well enough for a night, but they’ll need to elevate their play moving forward. ST: The only blemish came on the missed extra point. Otherwise, Wiley placed his kickoffs well, Schramm hit a 42-yarder, and Castle had a solid day punting. The return units didn’t generate much, but there were no major miscues either. Coaching: It was clear the team was locked in across all three phases. Outside of one big play allowed by the defense, they controlled things start to finish. The offense piled up 467 yards — an impressive total. Credit to the staff for having the group ready to handle business against a UMass team that simply shouldn’t be able to compete with the Zips in 2025. Next Tuesday night is another winnable matchup for the Wagon Wheel. * Some of the walk-ons that got in on the last play or two are not listed below. QB: Finley Roggow Johnson RB: Gant Patrick Curry WR: Ma. Williams Grear WR: Mason Louis Broughton WR: Polk Monteiro Hills TE: Cravaack Whisner LT: Morris D. Johnson Motley-Simmons Ndaiga LG: Archer McManus Stopiak C Lyons Mobley RG: K. Davis Fox RT: King Jones Mann DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier Cheatom DT: Hull Murphy DT: Laventure Mixon LB: Cooper Spriggs Benenge LB: Summers Boswell NB: Aa. Branch T. Thomas CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed Kamara S: Somerville Flowers S: Hunter Di. Johnson Top Rated Offense (20 snap min.): QB - Finley RB - Gant WR - Ma. Williams RG - K. Davis C - Lyons Top Rated Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Spriggs LB - Summers DT - Laventure DE - Dall CB - Kamara

Game Day Notes: Redshirt freshman AJ Hairston remains the starter at quarterback, throwing for 812 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions on the season. He drew significant P4 attention early in his prep career before it became evident the G5 level would be his path. UMass has struggled to find consistent production from the backfield, partly due to injuries that have limited their key players. Colorado transfer Brandon Hood and UTSA transfer Rocko Griffin have combined for 519 yards and four touchdowns. At receiver, Jacquon Gibson has been the most reliable option throughout the year with 358 yards, though it was redshirt freshmen Kenyon Massey — a player we once offered — and Kezion Dia-Johnson who saw the bulk of the targets last game. Dia-Johnson, like Hairston, also had plenty of P4 interest coming out of high school. Up front, the offensive line has been a major problem, giving up 16 sacks in MAC play — the most in the conference. They’ve also surrendered 127 pressures on the year. For comparison, Akron’s allowed 83. Defensively, UMass has held up reasonably well against the run in conference play, but the overall picture hasn’t been nearly as encouraging. The Zips offense should have a chance to put together its best passing performance of the season against a struggling UMass secondary. The Minutemen have surrendered the most total yards and points in the MAC and sit second-to-last in passing yards allowed. To make matters worse, they’re tied for forcing the fewest turnovers in league play. Injuries have taken a major toll on what was supposed to be a revamped defense, though one bright spot has been Dartmouth transfer edge rusher Marques White, who’s been a steady presence up front with five sacks on the year. On the other side, Akron’s defense has quietly become one of the better pass-rushing groups in the MAC, second in the conference in sacks — and honestly, I’m not sure when the last time that could be said. On paper, Akron is a bad matchup for UMass, as the Zips’ strengths line up directly with the Minutemen’s weaknesses. Akron should win this one comfortably. Then again, things rarely come easy for this program, so we’ll see how it all shakes out. Notable MAC only Stats: Finley is third in passing yards and second in touchdowns thrown. Gant is second in rushing yards. Mason is eighth in receiving yards and tied for third in touchdown receptions. Laventure is tied for sixth in tackles for loss and tied for seventh in sacks. DeWalt is tied for fourth in passes defended. Summers is tied for first in interceptions.

Bump

Bump. Went ahead and included weeks 10 and 11 for conference play due to all the mini-byes for MACtion.

QB: Finley found his rhythm in the second half, getting the ball out quicker and settling into the flow of the game. The first half was more of a roller coaster. Ultimately, he did enough to get the job done and lead a few scoring drives. Finley’s 38-yard touchdown run should’ve been a loss, but instead turned into the best run of his career. RB: There wasn’t a ton of running room for the backs, but Gant made some nice cuts to squeeze out yards where there wasn’t much to work with. Gant and Patrick combined for 104 yards on the ground. WR: The negative: there were four drops in the game, most of which came in the first half. Outside of that, it was mostly positives — Mason hauled in another outstanding touchdown grab, while Polk and Ma. Williams came through with some timely catches. Hopefully Walker is okay, though I’m not sure Mason even gets that opportunity if Walker doesn’t go down, as he’s been backing him up. True freshman Luke Sivon also saw some action, and the kid can absolutely fly. He didn’t record a catch but did draw two pass interference calls. Ideally the staff keeps working Sivon in and doesn’t worry about the redshirt. TE: Newell returned after missing the last few games and was underwhelming. Cravaack played well again and PFF finally graded him as such. OL: The OL was solid in pass protection throughout, but looked noticeably better in the second half when the ball was coming out quicker and the backs held up a bit longer. They were credited with just seven pressures allowed all game. Not to take anything away from the OL, but I still stand by saying Buffalo isn’t great at generating pressure — and we saw that play out today. Of note is that backup center Delvin Morris started and played every snap at left tackle. DL: Dall was an absolute nightmare for Buffalo. The stats might not show it, but he blew up a bunch of plays that let others rack up the numbers. It may not have been his best game statistically, but it was probably his most disruptive in terms of wrecking the opponent’s offense. Hull and Laventure were also very active on the inside and gave the Bulls’ offensive line all kinds of trouble. Mixon even got in on the action, picking up his first career sack. LB: How about Melvin Spriggs?! Honestly, up until this game, he hadn’t quite played to the level I expected from him this year. Usually, it’s Cooper, Summers, and Boswell leading the charge, but against Buffalo, Spriggs had the game of his life — a reminder of the potential he showed on his high school film. I’m happy for the kid; he’s come a long way in his development, and hopefully this is just the start, not the peak. And not to be outdone, Summers had a whale of a game himself. Buffalo might have the best linebacker corps in the MAC, but Spriggs and Summers made a strong case otherwise — at least for one game. DB: Despite the secondary coming away with two interceptions, it wasn’t their best day. We played a lot of man coverage and got torched by Snow in the first half and McMillan in the second. Still, the defense as a whole forced five turnovers and made sure this one didn’t slip away. One guy who did play really well was Somerville, who saw his most snaps at safety and also played on special teams. ST: Outside of the botched punt that led to a safety, special teams did a nice job of keeping Buffalo’s units from making an impact. Smart strategy to make sure the ball consistently stayed out of Snow’s hands. Coaching: I don’t think anyone can argue much with the second-half game plan. Sure, it’s fair to say the offense got a bit too conservative too early in the 4th quarter, but the defense was holding their own. My biggest gripe came at the end of the 2nd quarter, which led to a fumble and an eight-point swing. There was no reason to rush to the line and try to run extra plays. Just run out the clock and head to the locker room. In no world was Finley or Gant breaking off a 60+ yard run. Just a boneheaded move that thankfully didn’t cost the game. Defensively, it was a very impressive performance. Buffalo’s offense was going to get their yards, so it was all about preventing points. Holding the Bulls to their season low, minus Minnesota, while forcing five turnovers was remarkable. Next week is our “bye” week, and we’re back in action the following Tuesday night for another very winnable contest against UMass on 11/4. QB: Finley HB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Gear WR: Walker Mason Louis WR: Polk Monteiro Sivon TE: Newell Cravaack Whisner LT: Morris LG: Archer McManus C Lyons RG: K. Davis RT: King A. Jones DE: Dall D. Frazier DE: Durham J. Frazier Cheatom DT: Hull Murphy Musika DT: Laventure Mixon Madden LB: Summers Boswell LB: Spriggs Boswell NB: Aa. Branch CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed T. Thomas S: Flowers Hunter S: D. Johnson Somerville Offense (20 snap min.) C - Lyons RT - M. King LG - McManus TE - Cravaack RG -K. Davis Defense (20 snap min.) LB - Spriggs S - Somerville DE - Dall LB - Summers DT - Hull

There’s no excuse for Buffalo to have gotten the ball back there. Just a complete blunder of events.

Game Day Notes: Not much has changed since the preseason outlook for Buffalo. Ta’Quan Roberson has been steady at quarterback, completing 60% of his passes with 10 touchdowns to just 3 interceptions. He’s also capable of making plays with his legs, adding two rushing scores and a long run of 40 yards. Al-Jay Henderson has handled most of the workload at running back, totaling 477 yards and 4 touchdowns. That said, Akron native Lamar Sperling has been the more explosive option when given chances. Buffalo’s strength lies in its receiving corps, led by the trio of Vic Snow, Nik McMillan, and former Zip Jasaiah Gathings. Snow is as dynamic as any receiver in the MAC — he consistently creates separation and has a knack for making the first defender miss. The Bulls’ offensive line has been reliable this season. They’ve been excellent in pass protection, giving up just eight sacks all year, and have the size and athleticism to open some lanes in the run game. Defensively, it’s hard to argue against Red Murdock being the best linebacker in the MAC. His running mate, Dion Crawford, has been solid as well. One area where Buffalo doesn’t quite stack up is in getting after the quarterback. It’s actually one of the few spots where Akron statistically holds an advantage. As one would expect from a Lembo-coached team, Buffalo features some of the better special teams play in the MAC. Without sounding like a homer, I can’t realistically pick Akron to win this one. However, Buffalo has had trouble putting away the lower-tier teams in the MAC, with close wins over Kent (31-28), EMU (31-30), and UMass (28-21). If that trend continues and Akron can put together a performance similar to the CMU game, the Zips could very well find themselves on the right side of the scoreboard today.

It’d probably make the most sense to filter by a minimum snap count of 20% of 500 to get a clearer picture. That would eliminate guys who’ve only seen limited garbage-time action and whose numbers don’t really reflect their actual effectiveness. I also think Durham hasn’t been graded as highly against the run as he deserves. He’s been pretty solid there, though I’d say there’s still some wasted movement in his pass-rush approach. I don’t know if we have any young backups on the DL who are truly ready to contribute. It’ll probably be next year for those guys. The DL was a big concern in the offseason, and while the starting unit has held up well, the depth pieces have basically just been warm bodies out there so far—like you’ve said. I’m not sure that’ll change much this year. I’ve also been curious about Cheatom’s status since a healthy version of him could make a difference. Realistically, without NIL support, I’d expect Dall to move on to a Power program next year. With his size, length, and now the proven ability to drop and run in space, it’s hard to see him staying. Laventure will probably get poached by another G5 as well.

Bump

Moorhead said it turned out to not be anything serious. Just an “upper body” injury.

QB: It was definitely an up-and-down day for Finley. He made some big-time throws but also some head-scratchers. He finished just shy of 300 yards with three touchdowns, but those two interceptions on the final drives ended any chance of a comeback. We saw Johnson on the two-point try and never again — puzzling, especially given the struggles in short-yardage situations. RB: Gant couldn’t find much running room in the first half and even lost his footing a couple of times in short-yardage spots. Things opened up more after halftime, though, as Gant and Patrick combined for 118 rushing yards on the day. WR: I was pretty critical of the receivers last week, but they bounced back with an excellent performance this time around. Ball State’s secondary had trouble all day, especially the safeties, which led to several explosive plays. TE: Cravaack was on the field for nearly every offensive snap, and I thought he played really well. PFF and I don’t see eye to eye on this one, as they graded him below average. At this point, I’m not entirely sure what their criteria is when it comes to tight ends. I’m also not sure why Newell was out again, but either way, Cravaack looks like he’s starting to come into his own. OL: Much like Finley, it was an up-and-down day for this group. At times, the offensive line completely bullied Ball State’s front, and other times it looked like a jailbreak. Moorhead had several plays drawn up that could’ve gone for big gains if they hadn’t been blown up right from the start. The low point was probably when Ball State rushed three and we still couldn’t stay in front of them, even with double teams. No excuse for that. DL: We opened the game in a bear front with five defensive linemen and went back to that look quite a bit. At times, there were some clear alignment and gap issues — it looked like we weren’t sure where to line up, which led to some explosive plays for Ball State. On Kelly’s short touchdown run, for example, two defensive ends lined up next to each other, and when one flipped sides, the defensive tackles shifted that way too, leaving a huge lane for Kelly to run through. I do wonder if losing a day of practice played a role in that. One wrinkle I did like was using Dall as an overhang while shifting Laventure toward the edge. We actually dialed up one of my favorite blitzes out of that look, and it resulted in a sack. Credit to Tibesar for some creative adjustments, but also some blame — our guys looked lost at times. On the positive side, I thought Laventure played his best game of the year and was an absolute wrecking ball up front. LB: This goes for the entire defense — there were way too many missed tackles. A lot of that came from being out of position and having to take poor angles, but some were just flat-out misses. No position group is off the hook either, as the linebackers had their fair share of whiffs too. DB: I thought Anderson played well at safety until he went down with the injury. Johnson gave up a few plays but also came away with an interception. Ball State’s receivers didn’t do a ton of damage, yet their big tight end tore us for several explosive plays. Cornerback coverage was solid overall, but as I mentioned earlier, tackling was an issue. ST: Special teams were actually solid for most of the game, until that kickoff returned for a touchdown, which basically sealed things. Coaching: I don’t have many issues with the play calls — much of the passing game was there when the OL held up and Finley stayed tough in the pocket. That said, as I mentioned earlier, the short-yardage calls without Johnson didn’t make much sense on a day we were struggling to convert. Defensively, I liked the overall concept, but our guys looked lost and out of position far too often. Execution across the board needed work, and ultimately, that responsibility falls back on the staff. Final Thoughts: I came away feeling much the same as I did going in — this was a game we should have won. Too many penalties and lapses in execution cost us. Credit to Ball State, though, for taking advantage of what was there and sticking to what works for their roster. Next up is a Buffalo team that’s been underwhelming in conference play. We’ll see if our guys can bounce back and put together a solid performance on the road. QB: Finley Johnson RB: Gant Patrick WR: MA. Williams Grear WR: Walker Mason WR: Polk Monteiro TE: Cravaack Whisner LT: DA. Johnson Motley-Simmons LG: McManus Archer C Lyons Morris RG: K. Davis RT: King DE: Durham D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier DT: Laventure Mixon DT: Hull Murphy Musika LB: Cooper Spriggs LB: Summers Boswell NB: AL. Branch AA. Branch T. Davis CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed T. Thomas S: Anderson Flowers S: DI. Johnson Hunter Offense (20 snap min.) WR - Grear WR - Mason WR - Polk LG - Archer C - Lyons Defense (20 snap min.) DT - Laventure LB - Summers S - Anderson NB - AA. Branch CB - Reed

Game Day Notes: Ball State has been opportunistic on offense this season, but the passing game has been a clear weakness, averaging only 124 yards per contest. Quarterback Kiael Kelly leads the team in both passing and rushing attempts. He’s thrown for 725 yards with 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, while also carrying the ball 95 times for 273 yards and 2 scores. Transfer running back Qua Ashley, however, has been the most productive on the ground, tallying 333 yards and 3 touchdowns. Passes have been spread around to a number of different players, though receivers Magwood, Weatherly, and Hamilton have seen the bulk of the targets. Ashley has also been a reliable option out of the backfield. The offensive line has been one of the weakest units in the MAC so far, allowing 20 sacks and frequently struggling to open up running lanes. Statistically, the two defenses are fairly similar in terms of points and yards allowed. The biggest difference is that most of Ball State’s sack production has come from one player — UConn transfer Nathan Voorhis. Voorhis has already recorded 8 sacks and even led the nation in that category earlier this season. From my perspective, if Akron can control field position and limit costly mistakes, the Zips should come away with another conference win. Ball State has struggled to generate explosive plays and the odds of their offense sustaining long drives are slim. It’s a matchup where Akron’s defense should be able to control the line of scrimmage, but the offense will need to do its part and put enough points on the board.