LoyalZIP

Honestly, that wasn't as hard to watch as I thought it would be. It's one thing to get blown out when you're blatantly not playing hard or committing dumbass penalties left and right and losing your cool, but for how young and inexperienced both the team itself and a lot of the staff is (as far as FBS goes), I definitely think this is one where you can walk away with your head held high. Some of the same football problems are still there, and the defense looks like we were expecting. As much as I hate to "throw away" a season, unfortunately that's what this one is ultimately going to come to. Line play is still very questionable and Kato still has a long way to go to reach his full potential. He made better decisions with the ball but still has to make quicker decisions. He's still missing a few throws and in year four, you'd expect that to be gone by now. I think his maturity has come a long way in 8 months, but he's still very raw, and might not be the answer, but we'll have to wait and see! Brandon Lee and Michael Mathison look nice, Dre Williams, Boogie, and Stewart are all really good as well. There's a lot of potential on that side of the ball, as there were a couple of small flashes today. As far as the defense, not having two of your most experienced guys hurts, especially with one being arguably the best player on the team. Also, Arth mentioned postgame that 3 of the starters in the secondary were true freshmen, and man could you tell. Special teams was 'meh,' I like Fitschen's leg but kicking worries me, as does punting. That was a lot of all over the place rambling, so sorry about that. I'm just pumped to have the Zips back!!! Trust The Process!!!!

Would anyone else be doing any better? Akron is a pretty difficult job to begin with and throw in the fact that it was like starting over, and I just doubt there are many guys out there that could be doing better than this right now. Maybe they would have won a couple more of the close games and played into a bye in the tournament, but the results would largely be the same. I'm not championing Groce as a great coach for Akron yet and I may never be able to, but I have a hard time imagining any of the other guys they were looking at would have us any better.

As much as I'd love to be an optimist and say that last year's group would have been leaps and bounds better than they actually were, I'd expect this to be a pretty tough season. I have faith that this staff will eventually have us competing for the division annually at some point, but I also realize that almost everyone is still new to FBS ball and it could take them a year or two to get a feel for what success looks like at this level. And that's going to be especially hard to do at a place that's won very little in its history. But again, even after a couple of months, the program has a different feel to it and the culture is a lot better than the previous staff had. BUT, WE WILL SEE!!!! @Illinois--L, Even though Lovie is totally out of place, he does have them moving in the right direction. This would have been winnable in the past couple of years, but I have a hard time believing a completely re-tooled team that lost a lot on the defensive side of the ball will go on the road and beat a Big Ten team in August. I'd love to see a 2-game win streak against Big Ten teams, but I just don't see it happening. vs. UAB--L, I don't know anything about UAB going into 2019, but they have had a couple of nice seasons since bringing the program back. It's pretty hard to hang 37 on NIU and they did it in the bowl game last year. I'll be conservative and call this one another loss. @ C. Michigan--W, I'm taking a risk predicting a win here, but that CMU team last year was absolutely miserable. We're sandwiched in between trips to Wisconsin and UMiami for them, and they open with Albany. The thing that worries me is they've got a damn good coach (IMO) and he knows that this one could be one of very few chances to win. It should be a damn good game. vs. Troy--L, The Davern Williams bowl goes to the Trojans. This is a good program and we should've won at their place in 2017, but we crumbled when it counted most. Anyway, I again don't know too much about their squad for this coming season, so I'm going to make my prediction based on the fact that Troy is a really good G5 program and we're not ready for them. Again, we'll see. @ UMass--W, They just lost their best player on offense and they just suck in general. That 2012 loss still pisses me off to this day. Plus, we may be one of the hardest games on their schedule by the time they get to us. Just win. vs. Kent--W, Kent didn't make any real progress last year despite what that cocky bald dumbass coach of theirs thinks. Make it 5 in a row. vs. Buffalo--L, As much as UB loses, Leipold's done a nice job recruiting there and I think they'll be pretty good once again. Good enough to get him a better job? Probably not. But certainly enough to avenge their 2017 loss at InfoCision that could have been a win if he wasn't an idiot and simply kept running the ball. (Our former coach got into it with GT in the post game presser because he wouldn't admit that we stopped them because they stopped running) @ N. Illinois--L, I don't think NIU will be very good this year and I'm not sure Hammock was a great hire for them. But, it's still the defending MAC Champions and they've got players. @ BGSU--L, I kind of wish we had Loefler, but I'm not complaining too much. Pelini, though he left, showed the league these guys can play if they're motivated and I think they will be as they're at home and we may be one of few shots at a win. vs. E. Michigan--L, Creighton's done a great job here. They play hard, they play pretty good defense, they play disciplined, they just haven't made the jump to "contender" yet, and I think we'll see them take a nice step this year. For the first time ever since moving to InfoCision, no shame in losing to EMU at home. @ Miami--L, Who knows. Martin's done enough to hang onto that job somehow and even though they aren't great, they also don't suck. So they'll win this one. vs Ohio--L, I hate Ohio too, but I also acknowledge that they're really good and they have the best quarterback in the league. At this point in the season, we can win this one, but I'd be surprised if we did. So for me its: 1) 3-9 2) Kato Nelson 3) Alvin Davis 4) Ohio

What the hell is Banks doing? He's been awful tonight.

Worst loss of the season.

I just don't get it. These players are so much better than this. There's no reason they should be blowing leads like this constantly.

Gross (Groce)

I just don't get it. They can't shoot anymore. Flat out. Tuesday won't be any easier so we need to get our s#!t together before we end up paying this guy $650k to compete for the 8 seed.

This team is miserable to watch when they can't hit a three. So, they're usually miserable to watch. Especially with NIU getting a bucket on every damn trip.

Ain't gonna have many opportunities to win like that on the road with this group. smh.

Not shocking. I've got a feeling sh*t like that won't happen anymore.

Official https://twitter.com/ZipsFB/status/1073707319739990018

You seem to have glossed over my point of the "last couple years." And players don't openly complain about coaching at practice where they know donors and fans are present or on social media. I never said anything about players hating the guy or them being miserable playing for him, they just didn't look up to him like so many players on well-coached teams do. I don't want a "bro" coach that isn't professional, but I also don't want someone that constantly calls his players the wrong name in the media or just lets time outs sit in his pocket against the worst defense in the conference. How can you expect effort out of your kids if you don't put effort into them? (That also applies to the non-existent development of players but that's another discussion)

Whether Kato's a damn Heisman trophy contender or the worst QB in Division I has nothing to do with the effort displayed on the field that day. The offensive line doesn't just give up to pass rush like that no matter what the talent difference is on any level. They simply didn't care anymore. Again, because their coach quit on them. Think about some of the successes the team's had the past couple of seasons. When Akron won big games or just won games in general, did you see any players running over to hug their coach or celebrate with him? Did he go out of his way to put the focus on them or did he just forget their names and talk about his time at Auburn instead? I used to see a connection between the players and coaches here, but that was back in the first couple Bowden years. I've yet to see or hear from any players about how great a leader and inspiration he was to them since he got fired Sunday. No, that's not a scientific measurement of what a coach meant to a player. BUT, I find it very, very odd that so few (if not none) current or former players have come out and said anything of that nature. If I'm wrong, someone please share these testimonials so I can eat my words.

The team also rolled over down two scores to the 2-8 Bowling Green Falcons on Senior Day this year. You can't tell me the team was playing hard if they can't find the end zone against one of the bottom 5 defenses in 1A. Also, Terry let two timeouts sit in his pocket in the final eight or so minutes of that game down just 15 points...again, against one of the worst defenses in college football. I give the team credit for the final two games of the year, as they were in fact worth tuning into based on the fact that there was some desire. But to say that across the board the effort and desire was there is just false.

Take Loeffler off the list. BG announced his hiring this morning.

I think that might've been for us destroying their season last year

People on this board tend to over hype Akron's facilities as the "best in the MAC" or some variation of that. That could be said ten years ago, but schools have since followed through with indoor facilities of their own that are much better than ours, and more of those are coming. That's not an excuse for the lack of talent we have and the inability to develop players skill-wise, but it's worth noting that Akron doesn't have the edge in that department that it used to.

I believe the upcoming games at OU and South Carolina will be the final of Bowden's tenure at Akron. If Williams can get Terry to move on from Milwee, then maybe we'll only be looking for someone new to run the offense. Maybe there's even some changes that can be made at the position level, I'm not sure. I think we can all agree there need to be some changes though. I've listed a couple of candidates I feel are reasonable for head coach. I'm not too sure about coordinator candidates, so I didn't list any names because that is a much different hire. Vince Kehres, HC at Mount Union--80-4 with a couple titles. Not as accomplished as Leipold was at Whitewater, but you can see what winning culture has brought to a former football wasteland at UB. Scot Loeffler, OC/QB coach at Boston College--Local guy and a pretty good offensive mind. He's been around a lot of success and been instrumental in some nice offenses. He's had success in the MAC as well. Matt Canada, Interim HC/OC/QB coach at Maryland--I wouldn't be surprised if Maryland kept him because he's done pretty well with the difficult hand he was dealt this year. He's been around success in the MAC and is more than qualified. I suspect he'll get looks at much bigger jobs though. Luke Getsy, OC at Mississippi State--Doesn't really need any explaining. I think this hire would get a lot of people fired up that have lost interest in the program. Worked for Fleck at WMU for a year and was the receivers coach in Green Bay for a few years. But is he ready to lead a whole program? You might say I'm starting this thread too early, but the reality is that a week and a half from now, we're gonna be learning a lot about the future of this program. Go Zips!!!

Wake up call for Riak today

So I take it you were proud of the effort and attitude of the team this weekend

It's very true. I've never been so embarrassed to wear the UA colors. The fact that it was one of our top signees from the last class made it even more absurd.

Not sure if anyone else saw it, but late in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter we had a guy fall asleep on the bench curled up under one of those raincoat things, surrounded by teammates. None of them cared. Nor did the coaches that would talk to their position groups nearby.

The on-field officials don't have any say during reviews. All decisions are still made by the replay official in the booth, the monitors on the field are simply for helping with communication and understanding between the referee and replay official.

I hope so too, I just wish things were more fair. Just win a few games and make people respect you, I guess.