LoyalZIP

As far as caliber of players, I'd say Akron has a chance to make this a game, but I'm not expecting much. I think WVU is gonna be pretty good and that style isn't something I'd expect Akron to be able to keep up with yet.

What an opportunity this administration had to do something special for the program last November/December. Welcome to a new low.

As unbelievable and amazing as the Northwestern win was, I just can't give it my vote for best Bowden win. It was just so fluky. I sound ungrateful of course, but I just didn't see it as being as impressive as these two: Obviously the Potato Bowl win is probably the most meaningful and historic win in the history of the program (Damn you, Michigan). A trick play for a touchdown, flawless kicking game, a third string QB leading the team to 8 wins, all while doing it on the blue turf with Ohio's Pride in the stands. I regret not shelling out the cash for that trip. But if I had one vote, I give it to the win over Ohio in 2017. I have never left Infocision Stadium with a bigger smile on my face. I wasn't even in much disbelief, I was just so proud of the program. First win over them in a decade that all but locked up a trip to Detroit, and one of the first plays from scrimmage was a 70-yard QB run to put Ohio up 7-0. The two deep balls to Kwad, the pick by Featherstone that came out of nowhere, Ohio ran a philly special for a TD before it was the philly special. I couldn't believe my eyes and didn't think Akron would win until George picked off Rourke to start the fourth quarter. Then it was just a battle to hang on for dear life, and I believe Kato sealed it with a strong run to get a first down. I had a swagger about me for the entirety of the week and into next week because it hadn't been that good to be a Zips fan in 12 years. Honorable mention: Toledo in 2013. People crying about the closing off of sections and it being cold and Black Friday seemed like a recipe for disaster. Instead, the Zips rallied for one of their best performances of the last 8 years to keep Matt Campbell's Rockets out of a bowl game. What a game. I thought the Zips would run away with the MAC East in 2014 after this one, and then they went on to beat Pitt and start 2-0 in the MAC, but we don't need to revisit hard times right now. We've got plenty to be miserable about LOL.

Not saying Les Miles will eventually pan out at Kansas necessarily, but I would have liked to see something like that. Don't sit on a lame-duck for too long.

Hey all, That one was kinda fun, no? For the first time this year the defense got multiple impact stops! That was so great to see. They couldn't get off the field on third down and have struggled to all year, but there were a few nice stops Saturday. Bring back Darryl Funk! I'm kidding...kind of. I wish I knew more about line play because I simply don't understand how it can still be as bad as it was last year. Gibson is promising if he can stay healthy, but he was getting his bell rang all day. Recipe for disaster. Special teams are atrocious, but so far what a lot of that looks like stupidity/ineptitude as opposed to poor scheming. Like, after Lako stopped the third down play in the backfield you could feel the momentum shift, only to go right back for good not 30 seconds later. This team is good at the whole shooting themselves in the foot thing. Not much else to say this week. Buffalo is bad and the MAC is an embarrassment, but we all knew that already. Akron will be 0-12. Sucks big time but it is what it is. On to the next one. If you're #HereToDevelop, start developing. To hell with red shirts.

?? I'd like to hear the argument in favor of that staff doing everything they could to win that game. I'd love to hear it. There's no shame in being wrong, son. I admitted I was wrong about Terry and so can you. My argument, as I have stated ad nauseam, has not the slightest thing to do with Arth. If that's all you can bring to this discussion, I appreciate you conceding defeat to simple logic.

BRO, THIS ISN'T ABOUT ARTH. WHAT ARE YOU NOT UNDERSTANDING? I acknowledge the previous staff's accomplishments, but that doesn't give them an excuse for what they became. My stance here is the very opposite of myopic. I loved that staff for a long time. Hell, go back and read some of my old posts from the glory days of Terry Bowden football at Akron. I fought for that group for a very long time. They brought us some amazing moments and a bunch of unforgettable wins, but if you wanna tell me that things were the same last year as they were in 2015.....yikes. No need to lie to yourself. No overlooking here. Also, taking 2 timeouts home with you after having nearly 10 minutes to muster 2 touchdowns against a bottom 5 defense in year 7 is the definition of QUITTING and not giving your student-athletes the best chance to win.

I contend, and have for nearly a year, that anyone that watched the football game that took place at Infocision Stadium on November 17, 2018 would be ashamed to wear the University of Akron's colors due to the coaches literally not trying to extend the game as the Zips failed to find the end zone against a bottom 5 defense. Bad football is bad football is bad football, but when you QUIT on the team, and in turn the players don't play hard, or you know fall asleep on the bench, or let the team run onto the wrong side of the field, please see yourself out the door. Year 7. Shame on you. Shame on all of you. That's a big time loser mentality. I simply don’t understand the myopic nature of the other side of the argument. Folks, it really isn't difficult. In year 7, you should NEVER gain less than 100 yards of offense in a game against Eastern bleeping Michigan. And then follow that up with a big fat turd on senior day when the coaches, again, QUIT on the team. Specifically, quit on one of the most successful senior classes in the program's history. N O B O D Y I S S A Y I N G A R T H I S G O I N G T O B E T H E S A V I O R O F A K R O N F O O T B A L L I wish that team last year was mediocre, we might've seen them make a bowl game! Instead, in year 7 of a regime, the 2018 Akron Zips would have had a hard time covering a 7-point spread against a significantly less experienced and talented 2019 Akron Zips team. And, again, they quit against Bowling Green. I was cracking beers and doing a dance the day the quitter was let go by UA athletics, and I was tremendously skeptical of the impending coaching search and even perplexed by the hire. Specifically, I was worried at how perfect administration deemed the coach they hired. I simply didn't (and don't) really see where that excitement comes from. The off-the-field stuff looks improved and they're playing hard, but that's it so far. GO ZIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wish I could be there Saturday!!!!!

Almost forgot about the penalties. This staff has shown they can hold players accountable, and it's time to do that with the discipline. When things get going, the Zips take a shotgun to their foot ruining any chance of improvement. Fix it.

Thank you for the second part. I must clarify, and I've said it before, these players are working so hard every week to go out and not have a chance in a lot of these games, so I do not want my comments on personnel to be seen as shots against the players. I simply feel that the staff should try to fix things that aren't working, and it's evident that Lee at RB1 is not working. Perhaps he could be better in the slot, that's the kind of thing they should be trying at this point in the season.

I'll try to keep things shorter than usual. No need to dissect this one too much. Kato Nelson is not the quarterback he was against Ohio in 2017. I keep telling myself that is the real Kato, but when you actually have time to throw and make reads like he did this weekend, you can't miss all those throws. Not sure if it's because he's been hurt so much since that Ohio game or what, but I'm not expecting him to be the starter next year, and perhaps he could grad transfer to somewhere he can be more of a help. With that said, he ran aggressively and that was cool to see. I love seeing guys give it their all, especially in this game. Man, I wish we could've seen what Gibson could do against that team. I feel like we're moving the ball better in general, hell we made it inside the 10 yardline what 4 times Saturday? Only issue is once Akron gets down there, they forget how to football. It almost looks like the staff gets afraid or something I don't know. That needs to change now. I saw it against UAB and I still see it. Unacceptable. Score some damn points. The offense isn't bailing out the defense, and that bothers me moving forward as far as the whole morale of the team goes. The final stats don't reflect it, but the D was able to get off the field most of the first half. And when the offense doesn't reward you with points, well the second half happens. The D is more promising to me than the offense moving forward, if you can believe that. Experience is hugely important on defense, so hopefully by next year there's improvement in the defensive backfield because it's bad. Just so bad. Why doesn't Burton start? Brandon Lee is literally not a D1 football player. I like the receivers, that's about it. Mathison and Stewart are probably the only dependable things when Akron has the ball. This whole patience thing is getting old. Seeing those garbage players take the Wagon Wheel home to that dump makes me really mad. I wish our staff had the fire of their head coach when it comes to rivalries. It just felt like this was just another game to this staff going into it. Now, excuse me while I talk myself into beating Buffalo.

We'll be sizable home dogs, but I can ALWAYS talk myself into beating Kent State. Coming off a bye, let's hope everyone plays loose and with fire. Maybe they do some fun stuff with Gibson, maybe a healthy Kato comes back and torches the secondary, maybe the turnover pencil gets used enough times to need sharpened, I don't know. Just BEAT KENT!!!!! A win here for this staff would be worth a few.

I mean, not to get into a discussion that's really a waste of time re: Bowden. But the last 5-6 games last year with a better roster didn't look much better than what we're seeing right now. I know this is the UMass thread, but I'll put it here anyway. And people have even said it already in some ways. Did Akron have a good reason to fire Bowden? Yes! Does that automatically make those of us who came to that conclusion fans of the current staff by default? Absolutely not! There's a reason that even if we do indeed go 0-12 this year (which I've come to accept, but still support the team) I will not miss what the previous group became. Not at all. That was an embarrassment, so far beyond the football itself.

Late to the party this week. Boy, that was PAINFUL! I think 0-12 is on the horizon, which sucks considering Akron will have spent nearly half of this decade with one or fewer losses. That's pretty shocking considering how much "better" of a program this is than in the early 2000s at the Rubber Bowl. It just goes to show you, you win with people. It's all about the people. And we've had a lot of bad ones in leadership roles around the program recently. I didn't get to watch the game and I only listened to parts of it so I won't get too into things I liked and didn't like, but on the surface there are things we can take away from this. For one, we are not close to being good. At all. But that's obvious and has been all year. We are the worst team in the FBS. But I'll still wear the colors with pride no matter what. Moving forward, the QB situation will be interesting. I haven't the slightest clue why they hung Kato out to dry at the end of the first half by allowing him to be put in a position where he can get hurt. And he was already hurt so at that point I knew who was coming in behind him and immediately lost all optimism for the game. With that said, I figured we'd see Gibson at some point this year. He's the crown jewel QB in the first class on the staff of a QB head coach. This shouldn't surprise too many people. I wish I could've watched it live, but it seems like he was pretty electric. That is against a team with no scouting report on him and a team that has probably a bottom 5 defense, so you probably have to take that performance with a grain of salt. But either way, that was great to see. Also, Burton seemed like he was a decent back. And he's also a freshman which is great! But you won't be playing UMass every week, so again, salt. I've been concerned about the defense all year for obvious reasons. I wish I knew more about schematically how defenses work so I could pin point the issues, but I'll just have to point them out instead. It seems like there are a lot of blown coverages and guys getting burned. They're young so I can live with it to an extent, but French makes it sound like these receivers don't have anyone within 10 yards of them at times. That bothers me. Also, I don't know if we run a spy or not but it might be a good idea. Akron's pass rush isn't good enough to complete coverage sacks whenever there are opportunities, and the QBs often get big gains out of it. I don't know. We're just bad. At least they didn't roll over down 20 to that garbage team. I can't say I wouldn't have myself. And as for the transfers, best of luck elsewhere. The faster this group can get there players in here, the faster we can determine they're the right people to be here or not. The football greatly concerns me right now, and as I've stated the jury is out on this staff. But for the sake of the athletes, be supportive. They sacrifice a lot of time right now to get their asses kicked and not have hope in a lot of games. And they're repping our beloved university week after week. Go Zips!!!!!

Getsy 2020

One of the things I think the previous staff did well was emphasize beating Kent. Obviously these guys want to beat Kent too, but I want to see fire and desire. Like if you win one game all year make this the one. That's one way these guys could win over a lot of people I feel like. Lewis at Kent is big on rivalries and beating Akron, so those boys are going to be fired up. I'm concerned about that game.

My cooldown period has ended! Here are my thoughts from Troy and looking ahead to UMass Troy is a good team, they've got some massive bodies out there and they've won a lot in the past. I'd like to see more series' scheduled against programs like that. After the first drive, I thought "here we go with this sh*t again," but the Zips showed a lot of fight and resilience despite being overmatched just about everywhere on the field. I think most of the rest of the first half you could see that everywhere on the field. And man, that first quarter was fun. It's good to see that stuff earlier in the game as opposed to midway through the third quarter. Also, did everyone see how the team reacted when Featherstone got that pick? I got chills. That was cool. But the rest of the game was pretty much just going through the motions. I think at this point Kato has convinced me that he can be the starter all the way through his senior year or until the freshman they brought in passes him up. His leadership and attitude has come a long way. A few drops here and there were frustrating as well. The defense created a lot of havoc, or I should say a lot more than they have all year. If we had quicker and smarter players, there would've been a few coverage sacks. But that QB was smart and the Zips didn't have a chance when he scrambled, not sure if there's supposed to be a spy or not. Not pointing fingers but at this point in your football career, there should never be a snap that bad. If you watched how Arth handled the Hicks incident, you'd know what I mean when I talk about improving culture. He wasn't going nuclear, but he was making Hicks aware that his actions hurt the TEAM and he was being selfish. My biggest issue was first and goal on the goal line, the playcalling was horrendous. That situation should never result in zero points. That one bothered me big time and I was actually mad at the staff for not coming up with some kind of power formation and pounding the ball. Then the penalties, not only on that sequence but the whole game. Just shooting ourselves in the foot all day. If Akron loses to UMass, my concern level will jump significantly, but I will try to maintain a level head. I've known for a long time this year would include a lot of losing, so I've been fine so far. But UMass is a whole different kind of bad. It was another beautiful Saturday at Infocision Stadium, and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. GO ZIPS!!!!!!

Here's what you need to do Danny. Get a time machine and fly back in time to the previous staff, and watch some practices and talk to the players. Then fast forward to the present and look at all the same things. Voila! The players care, the coaches care, people around the program care. That's not something I saw last year when I would go to practice and spend time around the players. But I'm seeing it now. If people don't want to believe me, then don't! It certainly could change again. As I said, I am not yet a big fan of this coaching staff, but they are doing things right in some places and I will give them credit. Organizational culture in sport isn't defined by a win-loss record in a team's first season. Stop being so myopic.

Don’t love Arth yet and I may never, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. I backed Terry as hard as I could for as long as I could, but man he lost me fast and I don’t see myself ever missing what he and the program eventually turned into. (Not referring to the division championship, ya buzzards, nor do I have to) The biggest difference that gives me hope right now is that this staff was able to sign a higher-rated class than the previous staff pretty much ever did, and that’s without signing a single player before February. That is pretty amazing whether you are a person who is not cutting the new group any slack because you don’t think Bowden should’ve been fired or not. If you can’t agree with that, I’m sorry, but you might as well go be a Kent State fan. Another difference I see is the lack of FBS coaching experience. The pressure is on like never before, and it helped to have guys like Stroud and Amato here when that group first came in. Their contributions were incredible. That’s the most frustrating thing about this group to me. Off the top of my head, and it’s the last one I’ll list because I can’t think of anymore, I see a team that’s got some fire to it that I haven’t seen in a while. I’m not talking about 3 defensive touchdown fire or wagon wheel fire, I’m talking about desire to play football for 60 minutes. Those early Bowden teams did it, but the last couple of years those teams rarely played hard for 60 minutes. Small thing, but could end up being a big difference maker. Also, rather irrelevant but could help with recruiting, the way this staff uses social media is really cool. It’s like a D1 program. Between the two of them I know of one constant, my love for Akron football. It’s a love I know a lot of people on this board (seemingly not all unfortunately) share with me.

I've been around this group and I was around the previous group. I gave them time, I will give these people time. Simple equation, really.

Culture is improving, non football things are improving, but the football is still bad. Kato isn’t the answer IMO. The whole O line is done after this year IMO. And the defense needs a year or two to get to the average level. My hopes are still high but damn!!! Trust the process & go Zips!!

???????

Per 247, I'm pretty sure Arth's first class, that he largely signed AFTER the early signing period, was more highly rated than any class Bowden signed. We won't need transfers if that continues to improve.

For some perspective, Last time I was at Infocision Stadium (not the spring game), it was a pretty nice November Saturday, on Senior Day for one of the more decorated senior classes in out history. Against a much worse team (than UAB) in Bowling Green that had fired its coach in the middle of the season, I saw the Zips players AND coaches quit while one player fell asleep on the bench as the Zips failed to reach the end zone against statistically one of the worst defenses in FBS, as the coaching staff decided to take a couple of time outs home down only two scores against, again, one of the worst defenses in FBS. Today, I saw a very young and inexperienced team play their asses off and play like idiots a lot. I saw a young coaching staff that isn't used to FBS ball. I saw a kicker leave 4 huge and easy points on the board in the first half. I saw a head coach screaming at the referee to reset the playclock quicker with just seconds to go because he wanted to give his boys a chance. And I didn't see any players or coaches quitting. How refreshing. Everyone knew we wouldn't be worth a damn this year, and shoot the run game stuff is probably going to drive me up a wall this year. As is the young DBs getting toasted. It felt like we ran as many positive plays today as we did the entire second half of last season, but there's still a very long way to go. Trust the process. Hopefully the boys are still doing well in the classroom as well. By the way, rooting for Charlie Frye to fail miserably next week feels weird, but you've gotta do what you've gotta do. GO ZIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agreed. I'd rather something like this happen in, say, 5 years when we're on a road trip to, say, Miami on a November Tuesday night while in the midst of a MAC East title race.