Lee Adams

Certainly agree that unless the defense improves immensely this team will be spinning its wheels next year. At this point in the season the problems on defense do seem to have a strong correlation to questionable coaching. Usually if kids can be 'coached up' to some extent they will improve during the season. That hasn't happened and there is not likely to be improvement seen now given the schedule. I do think the offense would benefit from a D that didn't give up tons of yards and points. I am liking Gibson more and more. I think the run game can be at least adequate. But, the offense is almost always 'chasing points' at some point during games. Makes it hard to establish a run game or controlled passing offense. The D has no impact linemen or LB's who can stop drives consistently. They leave the secondary exposed. Now the problem is beside trying to convince some more talented D kids to come to Akron, they have to try to convince a more competent defensive coaching staff to come to Akron. If you are a competent young coordinator or position coach why would you want to step into this situation? I have know idea.

Guess we shouldn't have had any illusions.

I hope that Arth has finally found something with the 'new' offense. But I get nervous when a back up QB who hasn't seen the field blows the top off with his performance. We have seen this before with other QB's. One good game, looks like the guy but can't carry it over. Arth needs to start Gibson this week to try to see if he is for 'real'. Can't keep shuffling QB's or O linemen. Let 'em play unless they get injured. That's the only way to finally see who can play consistently at this level. Again, I hope that the offense that finished the game last week is for real. Better get the porous D straightened out though. I still don't see anyone aspect of the D that stands out. A couple of individuals but not as a unit. Hope they win. But, not placing significant capital on it. Another road win and they have some real momentum.

Looks like Arth finally started doing the thing a lot of posters have been wondering about, ADJUST. O-line, tight end. Lets see how he 'adjusts' the QB situation next week.

Ya, problem with officials is they talk about penalties to look for with certain teams prior to games. If the films show a certain lineman holding in previous games they start watching a particular player or particular players. Had a former MAC official tell me that. So, when they see Akron has committed sideline infractions in previous games they start looking for that. Problem with that is officials might not notice infractions if they would just call what they actually see during the flow of the game. Thats why the #8.

Would loved to have seen Winters here after they fired JD. At 63 he has been away from D1 for a long time. This is not a Brian Kelly situation who came from D2. I am not as concerned about local connections as some. The next guy if there is one needs to be able to recruit the entire Midwest, Pennsylvania, some in the South and once in awhile Texas, Arizona and California. Yes if you can get a good local kid try to keep him from going to the Big 10 or another MAC school but don't bring in local kids who aren't D1 caliber. Don't know anything about John Hunt other than what I read here. But, that seems like the kind of background Akron should like to attract. Owens, JD and Bowden all had D1 backgrounds. Can't see firing Arth now. If the AD has decided to go a different direction, starting putting out the back channel inquiries. Toward the end of the season if you have a couple of prospects in mind, let Arh go and get a head start. BUT..Arth only needs 5 more wins to be Bowl eligible baby(lol).

Owens' team was over .500 the season he got fired,2003 I believe. He too was at least partially a victim of a regime change was he not? In any event, he recruited some NFL talent to the program. Frye,Hixon,Dwight Smith?,some good O-linemen and some others. JD took some of that added a couple of pieces, should have had a bowl game in 2004 and won the MAC championship in 2005 as we all know. Steadily downhill after that because he recruited some football talent that were poor citizens. There is no- stalgia like good-stalgia.

Still can't figure why they force the QB's to mostly pass from the pocket. Irons is not a pocket passer. He is not comfortable having to scan the entire field. As I thought before, run some play action like the Browns do with Mayfield. Get the RBs flowing one direction while the QBs roll opposite. That gets Irons feet moving and gives him less filed to worry about. Throw to a TE or RB. And as we see he is always a threat to run. Adjust! The defense...? Don't see that improving much now. If they can't tackle or consistently rush the passer at this point not likely to happen.

Ironically, there was a coach who actually had a winning season and was fired after that winning season.

Was at the game. Have been deliberately avoiding posting to see what might happen. Well, lets see. Irons is a definite improvement at qb. BUT...He while he runs with authority, he also tends to hold on to the ball too long. Some of that is because the O-line is bad at pass blocking. Its also because the WR's often have problems separating. But ,he missed an open receiver in the south end zone and then held the ball. What's going on with the running backs? The defense?! What kind of crap is that?! They can't tackle at the line of scrimmage. They just can't tackle. The line shows limited ability to rush the passer so the secondary gets hung out to dry. This is not an OU team that Solich coached. This one is not good enough to challenge in the MAC. Akron's defense is lacking in fundamentals. Not acceptable at this point. Thats coaching. Don't see any coaching changes this year. Nobody on that staff appears capable of taking over. Problem now is even next year how do you convince a decent HC prospect to come in here? Yes, and I was one who thought it was time for TB to go. But, didn't foresee them hiring someone who really appears in over his head. With the experience Arth had,would have thought he would be more competent. This is sad.

What happened to Norrils?

So are we and we haven't gotten a voucher for at least 2 seasons. Guess you are paying more than we are for you season tix. Section 212 Row 14. Since the place opened in 2009 and long before!!!

Ya, I was surprised when Kato was named the starter. That ship sailed couple of seasons ago. Now Arth has screwed up the QB situation and is going to have to go with Irons. I am going to be interested to see what happens at the end of this season.

As someone said earlier, stop with the ad hominem attacks. Not intelligent, not insightful.

On the 'belt tightening' subject, as soon as my wife and I walk in at gate 1 what do we see? Already long lines at concession stands. As we walked by I was looking at all the concession stands that were closed. That was most of them. Pretty much long lines all thru the first half at least. The point? The athletic department seems to want to pinch pennies when it comes to customer services as others have pointed out. I heard people grumbling after having to stand in line so long. If your someone who attends games occasionally or rarely, you don't want to see people waiting in long lines to get a pretzel or a beer or whatever. That isn't a way to get people to return especially when they have to watch a bad product on the field. Oh and remember they stopped giving season ticket holders food coupons several years ago. Seems a bit of 'penny wise and pound foolish to me'.

Wasn't going to post this season. But... Went to the game and for 1Q I saw a good RB running behind some decent blocking by the O-line. Problem was the when Temple adjusted and shut down the running game Akron didn't or couldn't adjust. All Temple did was sit back in a 2 deep, played a 3 or 4 man front and their linebackers and corners were able to react to stop the run or clutter up the secondary. Akron couldn't pass block, receivers were running into coverage and both Kato and Irons were afraid to throw the ball. Coaching staff didn't help with some of the play calling. I don't think either Nelson or Irons are real comfortable as pocket passers. Seems that maybe if you ran some play action like the Browns do with Mayfield and get them out of the pocket they might be more effective. Defense doesn't look a lot different, still not much pressure. That could have been a nice win for a struggling program. Next week might be the only other chance this season. Gulp!

Has anybody heard what if any attendance restrictions will be in place this season? I e-mailed the ticket office last week and never got a reply.

The P5 schools need to separate themselves from the rest of the D1 schools. Even Cincy couldn't beat a half assed SEC team. Lets get the MAC's, AAC's , Sunbelts etc. into there own playoffs. Stop the delusion that it is necessary for those schools to get stomped on every year just for a pay check and to get kids beat up. The Akron's of the world need the cash. Thats another problema. Fans could give a flying U know what to watch Akron get beat by OSU by 4 TDS.

Agree that there will be competition at QB. Though I am not sure that at this late date Nelson is really going to be in the mix, at least initially. I thought he might get some PT last season but he never got on the field. Gotta believe if Arth thought he was going to be a longer term answer he would have played him. Not sure what was going on there. Also agree that better QB play will not only help the offense but also a very shaky defense. Score more points consistently. Gibson appeared to be very one dimensional and did not consistently make good decisions. The QB still needs to be able to bail out the defense with his feet. Want to see Irons on the field to see if he can more of a threat than Gibson appears to be. The O-line will grow. They can already run block adequately in front of a decent RB. Better QB play will help them.

Bowden took the program as far as he was going to take it. He got it back to somewhat a level of respectability. But, it was time to try to go to the next level in the MAC.

This guy should have at least been given a chance to take the program into D1. Would he have been better than Faust? Who knows. But he ran the last consistently winning program at Akron.

I still have some hope for the O-line for next season. Right now they can not pass block competently. They can run block but when your defense can't help control the game you lose the ability to utilize your decent run game. And, Gibson hasn't really shown the ability to help carry the team when they can't run. Again, I am surprised that the D hasn't shown much improvement over 6 games. Are the players that bad? Are the coaches not able to 'coach 'em up' or come up with competent game plans on defense? What do we thinl?

Agreed. I understand that the AD doesn't make the big decisions about the overall direction of the football program. If the administration decides that the financial situation is really dire, its decision will go far beyond whether coaching changes need to be made. I am sure it is hoping some 'sacrifice' games get played next year so some big paydays come in. If not what happens?

I guess I was surprised that another QB showed up in the last game of the season. Arth has seen enough of Gibson already to know if he will improve to the point where he can be even competent in the MAC. Otherwise, Arth better start now to figure out his next QB. Guess under the circumstances, short season, eligibility changes I might have worked in other QB's during the season to get a better idea of which direction to go next season.

I was hoping the defense had actually progressed to the point where it could help control a game against a decent team. Obviously BGSU was even worse than we thought. Only thing the O-line can do even close to competently is run block. But Akron only ran the ball 24 times other than the QB's.!! Only threw 18 passes.!!!!!! The defense is absolutely no help to this team. Buffalo only had to throw the ball 10 times because Akron's defense can't control a decent run game. Somebody said Akron should make Vantrease beat 'em. He didn't have to. Arth is going to have to take a real hard look at the coaches on the defensive side of the ball. He is also going to have to take a hard look at the upper classmen who are playing on the defensive side next season. They are not getting it done against good teams. Looks like Gibson may be on the way out. Problem,, break in another new QB next season. I am very disappointed in the lack of improvement even over 6 games. Thought it might be a little better. But right now Arth doesn't have enough players capable of playing at the MAC level. With Bowden apparently coming off the books early next year, the athletic department is going to have to make some more hard decisions next year.