1981 grad

The thing I do not understand about this team with Bowden is that we played our best football early in the season. This team looked good against Northwestern and against Iowa State. Two good teams. We dominated the first quarter against Miami where they did not have a first down. We moved the ball but gave up an early fumble. Miami then went hurry up and our defense floundered giving up 5 or 6 third down plays. After that first quarter in the Miami game our football team has been mediocre at best. The last 2 games we won but can anyone say they enjoyed watching these games? (Except for some spectacular runs by Kato and some great defensive stops) Last year we were big underdogs against Western Michigan and after a day rain delay we pulled out an upset. I just wonder if there is anyway this team can regroup and play some good football, especially on the offensive side. I would really like to see Kato get some easy passes to his backs coming out of the backfield. I would like to see Bowden do something different on offense to get this team to where it was early in the season.

That is 2 weeks in a row that winning ugly is still winning. The Chips have a terrible pass defense and we could not pass on them. Maybe it was the weather but the guys were not open and the long ball was not there. We only had one decent drive the 2nd half that resulted in a missed field goal. The defense had a great goal line stand and we had a penalty free first half.

Our offense has looked awful ever since we started MAC play and now we are turning the ball over. This has been difficult to watch. If we were playing a good team we would be getting blown out. Now a bad punt. I hope we can hang on. The defense has to hold on.

Bad snap. Holder decided to take off with instead of trying to put it down. Give Zips credit for rushing the kick and tackling holder immediately.

how many times does their punter have to kick it over the head of our return guy before he figures out to move back?

I thought early in the season we were running a lot of misdirection, jet sweeps, quick hitters to the wide receivers. Now it is zone read, zone read and you guessed it, more zone read.

I have only watched the second half but our offense has been in a funk ever since the first half of the Northwestern game, especially in the second half of the game. Tired of seeing the zone read ground game. Our only successful running play is Kato scramble. Difficult to watch!

Thanks, must be my internet connection.

I signed up for espn plus to watch the game and the game is like in slow motion except for the commercials. Anybody else watching on plus and having problems?

I really enjoyed the article. Great to see an Akron player doing well in life after football. With all the transfers taking place (B Ball team) it is great to see that a player was so successful by staying at Akron.

Went to the game last week. Felt like I watched the same game this week. This offense sucks. When Kato threw the last interception he looked confused at the line of scrimmage. HIs back had to tap him to hike the ball. Too many dropped balls, bad penalties and ref calls that killed us. I wish they would give Kato an easy check down pass to a back when nothing is open. Kato is best when he gets rid of the ball quickly. We need to make adjustments on defense. How many times did their QB run for a first down on third down. This looks like a long season!!

I bought my ticket 10 minutes before the game and had no problem. However, there was a very long line for the students to get their ticket and it looked like they only had one ticket window for students. Not sure what was going on but if they want students to attend they should make it as easy as possible. Also, the concession lines were also 20-30 deep. They needed to open more concession stands. The game day experience should be hassle free. The Akron defense in the first quarter was amazing and we did not give up a first down. In the second quarter we gave up a long drive and I think they were 5 for 5 on third downs. I did not think Kato was that bad. He missed some open receivers but I counted at least 5 drops and some were for big yardage. Also, the refs killed us in the second half. Every penalty in the 2nd half was against Akron. Also, the last interception the ball clearly hit the ground but the call was not reversed. We had several pass interference panalties that were hard to understand. On one pass interference the ref dropped a flag for offensive pass interference after we were back in the huddle. Our receiver was blocking downfield on the play but the ball was not near anyone. Not sure if I understand that call. We did not throw a deep ball all game. Not sure why. I also did not understand why when we were down 11 in the fourth quarter we went to the run. Between the turnovers, the dropped passes, the missed receivers and the penalties we were bound to lose. I was disppointed because I thought we played well against Northwestern and Iowa State.

I am not sure if anyone else noticed this during the game but Akron and Iowa State played with a great deal of sportsmanship. Early in the game there was a late hit and penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct on Iowa State the coach immediately took the player off the field. I cannot count how many times I saw Akron players helping Iowa State player off the ground after a tackle. I am hopeful that all the talking, taunting and stupid late hit penalties are gone and this team just plays hard nosed football. This team played with a great deal of maturity.

No penalties and we are looking good. Kato has made some great throws and nice plays with his feet. We are making this competitive!!

I was upset that this game was not on TV. It took me 15 minutes to get the stream working and the first play I see is our center taking a cheap shot clearly after the play was over and getting a 15 yard personal foul. I would have sat that guy down immediately. Why is there no discipline on this team. The personal foul on the kickoff set up the last touchdown. The commentatory is right, a MAC team cannot beat a big ten team playing with all these penalties. I expected a more competitive game. Maybe the 2nd half will be better.

I hated to lose an athletic guy that showed some potential as a frosh. It seems like a big step down from Akron. I wonder if he regrets his decision to leave.

Thanks for the reply. I do not know who is advising these kids but I think both had a future at Akron and would have only gotten better with experience. They both got extended playing time as a result of our depleted roster. If Parish left because he did not want to play defense good luck finding another school that does not want him to play defense. I thought Patton played his best basketball at the end of the year and I thought he needed to work on his outside shot but he could contribute next year. I hated to see these guys leave and I hope they were not pushed out for better talent.

I read somewhere on this forum that 500 b ball players are transferring this year. Are these student athletes getting an education or just looking to play b ball for their next team when they have a grievance with the coach. I understand why Cotton transferred. However, I was surprised by the Parish and Patton. Can somebody with some insight indicate why they left the program. It took me about half a season to figure out who was who on the roster and now it starts all over again. In the past we had kids transfer when they learned that they did not have enough talent to play division one and transferred out. It seems that we are recruiting kids who are transferring from another program. It makes me wonder if they were unhappy somewhere else will they be happy here. I want to praise Ivey since he will be our only 4 year senior next year. Thanks for staying with the program!!

Great win by Buffalo!! We played them better than Arizona and Buffalo had home court advantage.

I will give him an A for a nice goodbye tweet. I think it is best if he leaves no matter how talented if he is not going to respect and follow the coach's direction. It is weird in that on the post game after the Western Michigan win he thanked Groce for putting the ball in his hand at the end of the game and then he acts up in the Eastern Michigan game and he does not play at the end of the game.

I had this thought when I saw Antino not getting to the NCAA his senior year. Antino had a great game and led his team in scoring and always played his best basketball in the MAC tournament.. The Zips need players who are going to play their best basketball at the end of the season. I thought Utomi, Cotton, Parish, and Patten were playing their best basketball at the end of the season. That bodes well for the future.

I saw the box score and he led his team in points, had numerous assists and rebounds. Of the 3 guards that we lost, Antino was by far the best when it came down to tournament time. He was real competitor in the clutch. Even though he left I feel bad that he never got to play in the NCAA tournament.

I did not read that much into the T because in my opinion I thought all 4 techs did not have to be called. The coach got a T when his back was to the ref, Jimond for bouncing a ball hard and the Easter Michigan Ts were also weak. I still see Jimond separating the coach from the refs at the Buffalo game. I thought they were good. I trust Groce will get this under control since he will have the players he wants.

Why do you think he still had problems? After the win on Monday and the competitive game they played last night that was the last thing I expected. I did not see anything on the floor that looked like a bad attitude. The refs slowed down the game, we slowed down the game. And it caught up to us when they started hitting their shots and we could not make a basket. Not sure what you saw or heard.

This was a very up and down season. Toward the end of the season Groce had these guys playing good basketball, especially on the defensive end. But I was surprised to listen on the post game last night where he indicated he had some issues with the character of some of his players. I thought we were beyond that. Groce needs to figure out what players he considers to be problems and make a decision whether it is immuaturity that can be fixed on something else that cannot be fixed. I certainly do not want to hear about coachability next year. It is tough enough to win with guys who want to play for the coach. I think being down to our third string center hurt us all year and the last 2 minutes of the game certainly was an example of that problem. That should not be an issue last year. I think next year will be better.