Captain Kangaroo

I don't think over half were Kent fans. But there were certainly a lot. It made for a fun game day. When InfoCision opened, I envisioned that environment being a lot more common than it's been...

Lot 9 was packed for last year's Kent game. I was shocked. We arrived 3 hours before kickoff and there weren't more than a handful of spots remaining. I saw quite a few people there whom I hadn't seen in a while. To me, it showed that Akron area fans will still come out and support the Zips if InfoCision is a party.

Back in the Owens days, we recruited 4-star RB Thomas Plummer out of Canada. 0-star RB Bobby Hendry probably outgained him by 2,000 yards in his Zips career. Nate Robinson was a 5-star DL recruit for the Zips (via Rutgers). He spent a non-descript two years at Akron. Peter Patrick Hayes was a 4-star RB. I have to believe he saw Teon Dollard and said "I ain't playing much over the next 2 seasons...I'm outta here." Assuming Hayes plays again, I doubt he's ending up at Florida State. Who's better...4-star Jonah Morris, or 2-star Michael Matheson? The list goes on...stars don't mean a whole lot at MAC schools. Brookhart and Owens had top-rated classes in the MAC, and it got them nothing. If the Zips coaches signed a kid because of his recruiting "stars," we have the wrong coaches. Talent evaluation matters. Coaching-up that talent matters. Retention matters. In-game adjustments matter. If the OU game isn't an aberration...and it well could have been...the staff may well have identified some good young talent and coached them up (from last season's abomination). We'll see about retention next year, but I'll assume as the program fills with Arth's recruits, the retention will be pretty good.

Nice size, at 6’ 4” and 275 lbs. I like him. https://elitefootballnetwork.net/athlete/colin-lyons/

BG didn't look terrible against Kent. At least offensively. Kent just looked really good (hurts to say that).

You like Dollard?

Turnovers killed a great chance for a W tonight. Definitely saw some reasons for hope. It was nice to watch a competitive effort and some promising individual performances.

Which nut would you have surrendered...left or right...to have had 6' 10" Deng Riak be money from 2-feet-and-in?

I don't know that it is an excuse that we are young. If you look at the 113 person roster on GoZips we have 84 players that are Sophomores/Freshman. That has to be the youngest roster in college football history . I find it really risky by Arth to invest so heavily in Freshman recruits. By the time they're any good, your record is so terrible you get fired and the next coach gets the credit. And the fan interest is decimated. Lee Owens tried this route, and it took him 9 years to go 7-5. Year 10 gives way to JD Brookhart who soon wins a MAC Championship. Owens had no choice, and transferring wasn't nearly as common in the 90's. We now live in the era of transfers, and it is fairly common for teams to pluck mature guys off the waiver wire to quickly field a competitive team. Bowden did this. Of course, you are at the mercy of the waiver wire Gods, and they both giveth, and taketh away. For every Rodney Coe there are three or four Deltron Sands, who never produce outside the weight room due to injury, or other issues. Basing a program off transfers isn't sustainable...but it gets you competitive quickly. I wish Arth would have leaned a lot heavier on transfers. I don't foresee us winning a game until 2021. And maybe not win a MAC game until 2022. Hope I'm wrong, but unless we bring in a bunch of transfers, it is a loooong road back to winning seasons. Arth and Ianello are going to have similar records after 2 seasons. Ianello was a jackass and got canned. Arth is a nice guy and his players are sticking around, and achieving in the classroom. That, the budget crunch and the lag inherent to winning with such a young team mean he isn't going anywhere. Maybe in 4 years we have a bunch of 5th year senior offensive linemen, and we're competing at the top of the MAC. That's all we can hope for. But the ascent to that point has been, and for the next two seasons, will continue to be really painful.

Fearless Forecast™ - Kato gets some snaps. OU has 30+ on the scoreboard before halftime.

I think it will be played. Too much money at stake for the big schools not to play. I couldn't imagine them cancelling a second NCAA tourney. The MAC is a bus league, so I can see it having a season. I just don't see fans being permitted to attend. Unlike outdoor events where it's been proven you can golf or play tennis with virtually zero risk...even HS football has pulled off a respectable season so far... indoor crowds of hundreds or thousands of people during the Covid era have no precedent. I don't see fans indoors happening in 2020-21.

I assume it's this guy?

Does the rule that Freshman can play 4 games and redshirt still apply in a 6-game season? or is it now 2 games? Only 68 scholarship players...hopefully we don't get a rash of positive tests during the season.

Not a banner day for zzx...

I spoke to a colleague of mine from Germany this morning. He told me about the recent ramp-up of Covid cases across Europe. The prevailing theories for the sharp up-tick are the colder weather, where more people are now indoors. And students returning to school and having parties. If true, it makes having public-attended indoor events on a college campus somewhat unlikely this winter. We'll see how it plays-out.

Lost two, "4-star" recruits in one week. Seems to highlight the irrelevance of "stars" when it comes to Zips football recruiting classes and rankings? Mo stars, mo problems...

Is it within NCAA guidelines to transfer to your existing program? Are we just trying to get our transfer numbers up?

Didn’t someone rank him 4-stars? Lotta good that did us. The next 4-star player that makes an impact at Akron will be the first. We averaged 48 yards per game rushing last year. Pretty amazing number for a MAC school. I hope we have a RB on the roster that’s worth watching this year. If Jason Chisholm is your best RB in the past decade you’ve really struggled to recruit RB’s.

Council playing for Auburn tonight. Down 24-3 going into halftime. Few people in the stands. Deja vu.

The next thing you're going to tell me is the "Craig J. Ehlo" that's compiling for Kent State football articles isn't really the former NBA player. What's Dre doing photographing and posting 6 year old articles?

Nice compiling. I think Mark Price needs to stick to basketball.

Woo hoo!! Sounds like a hoot!

Since the days of Jona-san Chaney.

God Bless you if you can enjoys a Zips Game Day without tailgating.

Since this is in the football forum, it begs the question - are they "Athletics" supporters, or basketball-first or soccer-first supporters? Nothing would make some basketball and soccer supporters happier than to see the Zips football program drop to a lower division. It would be nice to have someone with a passion, and a clue, regarding G5 football on the committee. There are too many nimrods that think dropping to the FCS level will magically cure all Zips athletics ills. I'm scared of nimrods.