LZIp

A Kentucky situation may happen (though I'm skeptical on how good they'll be going into next year), but the downside is we get a potentially ranked SEC school at the stadium which is cool. Control what you can control and if it doesn't work out, so be it. A Rutgers or Kentucky is also going to be a safer bet than a Tennessee, MSU, OSU, Clemson, etc.

Its a conundrum. He clearly gives us the best chance to win since he's out there, and I think you want to be as competitive and win as much as you can at the collegiate level. Unlike the NFL, you dont get rewarded for losing, and losing is going to hurt in recruiting (both keeping the players you want and bring in the players you want). Looking at the roster, I don't see a promising young player like you might have at other positions to take his place (think Landers, Golden, McCoy). Cam Threatt would be the only option, but I'd imagine the staff gave him every chance to take that spot considering he was rated well by recruiting services and had the relationship with Moorhead. He also hasn't flashed in his time so far. One would've hoped a mix of Golden Nelson/Threatt/Amankwaa would have held down the starting positions this year, but 2 of the 3 have been mostly hurt and one not impressing with their play, forcing us to basically use Hooks, Hence, and Durant. We are pretty thin at the position. There are only 2 other scholarship options - Chu Ogbonna (R Sr) and Ronald Jackson (played a little under Arth but dont really recall seeing him play at all this year). Lewis has obviously been a nice surprise, but I don't think he's an outside corner and believe he mostly hasn't been playing it. This position should probably be the #1 focus in the transfer portal.

Check the stats. DJ has the 2nd highest completion % in the MAC and 4th most passing yards. With 2 pay day games and missing 1/2 of one of those games, that's pretty impressive. If he didn't miss that half vs MSU, he'd most likely be 2nd in MAC in passing yards. None of the above even considers his running ability. He is a MAC POY candidate next year and has strong potential for all conference recognition this year.

I as well sometimes wonder why Bubba isn’t on the field more. The only thing I’d assume is that it’s to keep him fresh. Speaking of Bubba, during the Liberty game,unsure if I misheard or the announcers got it mixed up, but I recall them indicating Bubba got a medical redshirt last year and could come back next? If so, huge. For some reason I thought this would have been his last year regardless. I think we really need him on the field as much as possible though. Behm hasn’t stepped up after showing some flashes last year.

Did some reading on CMU message boards last night. Looks like they lost their OC and OL coach from last years teams as well as most contributing WRs. They aren’t happy with their QB, WR, and kicking (as Loyal Zip indicated). It would appear that if we focus on stopping the run wehave a chance as the WRs don’t seem to be a huge threat, meaning our disappointming secondary shouldn’t be giving up huge back breaking plays (knock on wood).

Was Wiley injured? Noticed he has no Carrie’s while Price and Norris did. Didn’t notice him in the game, but also wasn’t paying as close attention as normal.

Reminds me a bit of Bowden’s first year. No improvement in the win column, but the team did improve. The offense still has some kinks to work out inside the 20s, but the talent is there, and we only lose Whigan and Shocky after this year. Bring in another WR and 1-2 OL transfers and I think that unit will be top 3 in the conference next year. The defense should be better with all the transfers brought in, but remembee Tibesar was a late add after Toth decided to go to Air Force. I don’t have much opinion either way on the coach Tibesar is on D, but the late add is probably tough for anyone to deal with. This is the MAC, and games every week really are unpredictable, just look at the box scores. Because of that, I still think we can win another game or two this year. Moorhead consistently says he’s building the program (not rebuilding because there is nothing to rebuild). As frustrating as it is to watch, all the problems were never going to be solved this year. Go Zips.

I cannot believe how embarrassingly bad this defense is. I thought we fired Feeney last year and brought in a ton of transfers, yet we aren’t any better.

Playing from behind every single game isn’t going to end well. We have to start better.

And a timeout our first play of scrimmage. My god.

Turned on the game a minute late and already missed a TD from Ohio. They chose to take the ball and I don’t blame them one bit.

https://www.facebook.com/AkronZips/videos/447346677262932 Good info from Moorhead in this on recruiting. Says he looks to keep half the class high school and half transfers (at least right now). He expects 25 total openings, while mentioning up to 32. This tells me to expect very few additional HS commits and to expect another 10+ players to transfer out, considering we only have something like 12 scholarship seniors. I think that's a smart move for this year. There are some scholly guys who aren't contributing multiple years into their career, so likely won't ever, and I don't see a ton in the way of younger guys who are ready to step up and fill spots of those seniors graduating.

thanks for sharing. I came away more impressed with Lester Miller and Darius Owens than I think I originally was, though all look like players. Who stuck out to you the most?

Huh. Took their foot off the gas up 10 at most the whole game?

https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/4/23387531/bowling-green-falcons-akron-zips-football-game-analysis-what-we-learned-week-5-2022

Every Thursday at 6 I believe. Should be able to live stream on Akron Zips Facebook page or listen on 640 WHLO.

I wondered what the true share of sacks from OL vs DJ holding the ball too long was, as it’s not uncommon to read posters saying he’s holding onto the ball too long. 3.5 for OL vs 2.5 for DJ last game.

Probably a good idea considering we have half the students we had a decade ago.

Ohio, more so Rourke seems a little better than I thought. With that said, they're still a middling MAC team at best and I expect us to compete and have a chance to win vs all MAC opponents until proven otherwise. Clean up the inexcusable mistakes and we got a chance.

All the uniforms look slick a hell IMO.

Spot on. Many good D players and defenses in general during the Bowden tenure. Offense, not so much.

Eh, even if Grimes was hurt, Shocky was returning at the beginning of the season and I don't believe anything negative happened where you wouldn't want to put him back there. Still a big believer in the staff and not everything was going to be fixed in a shortened offseason (and depth/overall talent is still an issue), but there were some questionable decisions this game.