GJGood

I hear everything you are saying about an expanded playoff but you neglect to consider one thing... and that is why the G5 is so inferior to the P5 in the first place.. a lot of things would change with G5 conference champions having inclusion in a national playoff, you would see better fan interest, better recruiting, and possibly even better coach retention. While most of the country now will only see the 63 schools that make up the elitist conferences, if there was to be legitimately possible inclusion of the other 67 programs it would only serve to close the very gap that you are stating as the reason it should not happen. Will Akron ever be an Alabama or Ohio State in our lifetimes? Most likely not but with all conference inclusion in a playoff there would be a lot more Boise State, Cincinnati and Central Florida type teams out there. As it stands now I don’t know why recruits would choose a MAC school over a FCS school but if the MAC was guaranteed a rep in the playoff every year that would go against the best that college football has to offer then I can see the recruiting advantage. Sure, it would likely be tough and not all that entertaining for those of us pulling for the underdog in the beginning but given a little time things would become much more competitive. By the way, you say 16 teams but I am a proponent of 14 teams, which would allow those very top teams to be playing to get those two first round byes that were the one bit of true excitement the old BCS got right and to cut down on player opt outs and irrelevance in late season games. If we would have had a 14 team NFL style (all champs in and seeded above wild cards/at larges) playoff this year the matchups would have been greatly entertaining. 1 Alabama ... bye 9 Utah State at 8 UTSA 12 Ohio State at 5 Utah 13 Notre Dame at 4 Baylor 14 Oklahoma State at 3 Cincinnati 11 Georgia at 6 Pittsburgh 10 Northern Illinois at 7 Louisiana 2 Michigan... bye Does it produce a different champion? Maybe not.. Is that really the point though? No.... It’s about rewarding the programs that accomplished what should be their primary goal which should be a conference championship. Secondly inclusion can only help the balance of competition overall. I don’t want to see the bowls go away either but right now there are 84 bowl slots for 130 teams, would having that number drop from 84 to 70 really be that detrimental if playoff games also went up from 3 to 13?

Group of Five 7-1 against the Power 5 in bowl season. MAC 1-0. You can say these mean less than the Cincy game and they do but it still shows that the gap is not as wide as the experts and ESPN would have you believe. I still say if they would just have a playoff, like every other sport, that includes all conference champions, the so called Group of Five would close a good bit of the perception gap after a handful of years. It would only help recruiting, coach retention, and fan interest in conferences like the MAC and that makes a big difference.

That was the first loss for a Group of Five team to a Power Five team in the entire bowl season. The Group of Five was 7-0 in 2021 bowls against the Power Five prior to the Cotton Bowl, including the MAC’s own Central Michigan winning the Sun Bowl over Washington State.

No offense intended here but shouldn’t the title of this thread same Game 11 instead of Game 14? I believe the Zips currently have a 7-3 record.

I am happy this game was scheduled. Do we know if Wright State will be making a return trip to the JAR in the future? The TV announcers tonight kept mentioning how Akron does not play many true road non-conference games. I have always been somewhat critical of bigger programs for not scheduling more away games against either smaller schools or at least road games where they would be prohibitive favorites. I would love to see Big Ten, Big East, or top half of the Atlantic 10 or Missouri Valley teams more often in the JAR. I actually think those type of games would be good for both programs. With that said, though, I have always thought the Zips should schedule home and homes with similar type teams as themselves and I really think it would be good for Akron to play a road game or two against smaller schools or schools over whom they would be a prohibitive favorite. I just think that is the way you toughen a team and get them more prepared for conference play. How would everyone feel if we scheduled a road game with someone like Radford or a middle of the Ohio Valley or MAAC type team? I think it would be a benefit to the team overall.

OK, I must have been either seeing some incorrect or dated information.. still, I do not see Radford as a team we should treat as a practice. How much worse than Florida A&M are they? A couple different bounces of the ball and that Zips-Rattlers game comes down to the wire.

I agree Radford would have been a game the Zips should have won but I also think they were more than a practice or scrimmage. Looking at our schedule I would believe they would be the second best non-conference team to visit the JAR this season. They seem to be streaky and capable of playing well although they do not do so consistently. I guess I see them as less of a cupcake than Southern or Florida A&M and the Rattlers were a little closer to the Zips than I was comfortable with. Radford was in the NCAA tournament in 2018 and even won a game in it (although it was in the First Four in Dayton). The Highlanders are also the currently reigning back to back Big South Conference champions... yes, it is a weaker league but the last couple seasons they are it’s premier program.

Watching the FCS quarterfinals and just saw former Zips WR Nate Williams make a big catch for Montana State as they are in position to upset the #1 ranked Sam Houston State Bearkats. I didn’t even recall that was where he ended up

I could see Akron attempting to get home and home series with any of the service academies. They may not be Power Five conference schools but those programs also carry some level of fan interest

I remember Indiana and also Virginia Tech once upon a time (Jason Taylor was all over the tenth ranked Hokies backfield in that game)

The only things I really don’t lIke are no home FBS non-conference opponent in 2022 and it appears we are in a 2-for-1 with Kentucky would rather have had a simple home and home with a power 5 conference school

We shall see.. but it does sound like as long as his son is in college an hour away he isn’t going anywhere and who knows maybe his son then becomes a Zip for another four years.

I always liked the traditional Akron font and feel it is certainly better than this new script Akron. I don’t have a strong preference on the logos just don’t care for the script.

The only kudos I give them is that they didn’t just go plain white jerseys. I like games where both squads have some color to their jerseys... just that the overall scheme was pretty hideous

Whatever the logo.. Running A, Script A, A Roo, Oval A Roo, Zipper mid-helmet... just bring back the Akron font instead of that script.

I don’t disagree but you want the local talent to have interest in you as well, whether it be high school recruits or guys who played elsewhere then decide to transfer home. I want Akron to be the school they consider “home” and not any of our rivals.

Great post.. the one thing you didn’t mention though.. are there any connections from his time at Akron that he would maybe want to reconnect with?

The college football world knows Moorhead as one of its premier offensive minds as a coordinator. That said, how he performs as a coordinator is how you get your foot in the door to being a head coach but being a head coach is quite different. The key to winning and success at Akron will be the ability to recruit and keep local talent at home and not just on the offensive side of the ball. If he can do that and provide a potent offense in the MAC then he will be successful as the Zips head man. The thing that excites me the most about Moorhead is that he was able to recruit top talent to places like Starkville, Mississippi and Eugene, Oregon. While those are “big jobs” they are not Ohio State or Notre Dame where the name really recruits itself to a large degree. He has had to recruit to places that have to compete with programs like Alabama, LSU, Washington, and USC for talent. If he can be successful recruiting where he has been then he should be able to get talent to come to Akron over the likes of Toledo, Ohio, and Buffalo and that is the first step this program needs to take. One other thing that will be interesting to see once he is officially named is who gets hired to run the defense. While there is reason to be excited about what can be done offensively with Moorhead as head coach the ability to couple it with strong play on the other side of the ball could really be key to future success.

Oregon’s 2nd , 3rd and 4th QBs on the depth chart are all freshman, With all of them being in a same class logjam it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility one of them makes the move

I can understand that, just wasn’t sure if being the “head coach in waiting” thing would be an attractive enough draw

I almost put “Probably thinking a little too far ahead” at the beginning of my post

OK, so if Moorhead is the guy I have a couple of questions. Is there any chance he reaches out to Getsy or Frye to gauge interest in being OC/ associate head coach, which is a position many programs have now? With Gibson entering the transfer portal I took a look at the Oregon Ducks depth chart at QB and found that their starter is a grad transfer but their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th QBs are all freshmen. Given that they are all the same class and cannot all get a ton of playing time does Moorhead bring one of them with him?

Agree.. except my first priority would be a guy who has built a program not just coached at a good one. Secondly, you say D2 but why D2 and not FCS? Yes, I know Arth came from FCS Chattanooga but he wasn’t there very long. He made his name in D3 at John Carroll. For what it’s worth, the guy I like the most turned around a mediocre at best FCS program so well that he led them to the Final Four and is now a coordinator in the Big Ten that makes about as much in a paycheck as Akron head coaches generally do. He checks all the boxes for me in building a program, achieving on field success and now being around the FBS as a coordinator. If you can recruit to Orono, Maine you can recruit to Akron, Ohio. Just my take and what do I know though? https://gophersports.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/joe-harasymiak/2429

I feel like Akron should at least inquire about Holtz, not sure how interested he would be in the job though. I will say if he could do for the Zips program what he did for East Carolina when he was there we would all be pretty happy

I know he came from Green Bay and there is no football there but he must have had connections with other ADs and administrators at places that did have football or with whom there is some familiarity. He must have friends in the business.