Let'sGoZips94

The Serb is worth a couple OOC wins in my eyes, so if he's on campus, that's massive.

Zips had chances early with a laser off the upper 90 crossbar and WVU saved a corner header off the line. Was a hard fought, well deserved tie. Onto the next.

No, in my opinion, this was the most embarrassing for me. We're in year 4 of a highly paid, highly touted offensive minded HC. We're banned from postseason play because an archaic and apparently subjective NCAA academic standard. We have a very, VERY favorable schedule that should('ve) allowed us a chance to push the NCAA to drop the punishment, and we come out against a really bad Wyoming team and put up 0 points. 0. We scored vs Ohio State last year and can't score vs Wyoming this year. Unbelievably pathetic and embarrassing.

It's a 6-7 win schedule for even a bad football program. The regression tonight on offense wasn't on my bingo card. This was the most embarrassing loss I've ever witnessed as an Akron football fan.

Fire JoeMo. Make Tibesar the interim coach. Go find a homeless guy to coach the offense.

Tibesar won't be here next year

Finley has no idea how to read a defense.

Not if there are any P4 scouts reading this.

No Patrick from what I'm seeing to start the second half. Get Finley out of there. He's walking around like there's a stick up his bum. Our Punter is good.

Believably unbelievable.

Crowd is awesome.

I live within ear-shot of Kenston High School football games. A LOT of "TOUCHDOWN BOMBERS" came through our windows last season because of Sean Patrick.

Of all the things to bitch about with streaming, Akron being on ESPN+ is the most unworthy. ESPN+ houses most Akron football, men's soccer, and men's & women's basketball games. $12 per month gets you all that plus more. If you have kids or grandkids, the Disney+ bundle is one of the best deals in streaming. Now, in 2-3 years, I fully expect these services to be $80+ per month like YouTubeTV and other top streaming services have become, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. We have a party of 5 going to the game tonight. It'll be both my daughters' first night game at the Info, and my first night game in quite some time. Hopefully once the rain ends, it's done for the night, because this has the chance to be a very fun season opener for the Zips. This game will be won in the trenches. Does our OLine give Finley time to get the ball in the hands of our plethora of playmakers and open holes for our stable of RBs? Does our DLine get pressure on Wyoming's QB? Do we see a continuation of pre-snap penalties on both sides of the ball that have hindered this program under JoeMo? Looking forward to this one. Go Zips!

6'4" G from Ben Davis HS in Indiana. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the bigger and better athletic high schools in the state, most recently winning a state title in 2023 for boys' basketball (won the football state title in the same year). No idea on his other offers.

This is the biggest difference between Akron and a school like Wyoming. We have Ohio State less than 2 hours down the road, Cleveland State, Kent State, and Youngstown State all within an hour, and Toledo, Bowling Green, Miami OH, Cincinnati, and Ohio all in the state as public DI universities. This doesn't even include Dayton and Xavier as private but popular institutions in the state as well. The trade off is we have the pro sports - Browns, Cavs, and Guardians - 45 minutes north of Akron, so that's cool. However, all of this takes away from Akron, and it sucks to an extent. The War looks beautiful (and packed).

Nothing says "emphasizing strength of schedule" like sheltering your conference under the umbrella of zero-bias preseason polls.

I'm ~140-145 lbs and my goal every time I eat at Rockne's is to wolf down a Mack the Knife plus the fries. Someday this will probably catch up with me, but that day is not today. It's very, very good. @DCPoke Ahead of the game on Thursday: - Welcome to Akron. I hope you have a nice experience. Hopefully the forecasted rain doesn't occur around or during the game. Temperature wise, it should be perfect (low 70s/upper 60s). Echoing previous posts, you cannot go wrong with Rockne's on The Strip in North Canton. - Much as you believe this Akron game will be a litmus test for Wyoming's season outlook, Akron fans have the same view for our season. We have been very competitive in the majority of conference games the last 2 seasons, but the wins have eluded us for the most part. We finished last year strong and are hoping to build upon that momentum, especially with a rare returning starting QB in Ben Finley. - I know you have nothing to do with this, but thank you to your alma mater for playing at Akron. For our fanbase, seeing a non conference D1 FBS opponent at the Info is like seeing a winning Browns season. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's special. Wyoming is a great opponent and when Akron makes the return trip out to Laramie, I'm hoping to make the trip.

This team has the chance to be very, very good. Their possession and decision making seems... sharper compared to previous seasons (I could be wrong, just a feeling based on the first two games). HUGE contest on Friday. Go Zips.

Only 2 teams finished 300+ in the MAC - Buffalo (341st; 9-22) and NIU (354th; 6-25). Most of the teams in the MAC that finished with a similar record to UMass ended up in the 260-280 range, and odds are UMass would've ended up with a few more wins at least to probably settle around the same ~220 spot they finished in the A10. Ohio was 16-16 and finished 179th, for example. CMU finished 219th after going 14-17. It's all hypothetical, but I do believe UMass will be a Q3 opportunity for us.

Martin has a .575 winning percentage in 18 seasons as a head coach at Kansas State (5 seasons), South Carolina (10 seasons), and UMass (3 seasons). UMass is the only place he doesn't have a winning record at, and he's at .500 exactly (47-47; reclamation project as 2 seasons ago he delivered their first winning season since 2014-15). The top of the MAC is solid mid-major basketball, but let's not act like the MAC is going to bolster his resume vs. winning in the Big 12, SEC, and A10. Steele is the only respectable challenger outside of Groce for "best coach in the MAC" but the jury is still out on him. Kowalchoke and Pinky being in the same conversation as Groce, Steele, and Martin is disrespectful to those 3. If Martin fails to take UMass to the top of the MAC, he will lose a lot of credibility, but he's coming in as a top 2 coach, 3rd at absolute worst. S Tier: Groce, Martin A Tier: Steele B Tier: Kowalchoke, Pinky, Boals C Tier: Simon D/F Tier: Really, who the hell cares after those top 7?

They were 12-20 last year and bottomed out at only 223. Only 5 MAC schools finished ahead of them in NET: Akron - 91 PCCC - 128 Miami OH - 147 Ohio - 179 CMU - 219 It's all pure speculation, but I think the general public expects UMASS to be a top 4-6 MAC program as their floor which puts them within striking distance of the Q3 threshold (76-160 for Home games). Time will tell if the A10 overly inflated their NET, or if a (likely) better record in the MAC will be more beneficial. Frank Martin is the highest paid coach in the MAC now by quite a bit, and outside of the Groce, he's easily the best coach in the MAC. Their 5 year NET average based on the numbers you shared is ~163, and Frank should have them within that range again. The MAC has been dying for another team to be in that range, which will elevate the whole conference. Not to mention it makes us that much more competitive in the MAC/SBC Challenge, which again should help all NET rankings for the MAC. Maybe little bro is having PTSD from the absolute shellacking they took at the JAR last season.

Who knows how far Akron goes last year if Indiana doesn't take him out.

This was a very solid first-game performance. As expected, a few hiccups early that thankfully never cost us, and a total butt-whooping starting with the PK right before the half.

Another goal Akron! 3-0!