LoyalZIP

Alex Ramart far and away worst Undercuffler is on the same level if not worse Tra’von Chapman had some gutsy performances but never cut it Kato’s game against OU in 2019 puts him on the list for honorable mention

If you can believe it, I’m not sure he’s one of the 3 worst that Akron has put on the field in the last 20 years.

Like Buffalo all over again.

I can see why they wanted Bullock. There’s potential there. But he certainly wasn’t ready to be the starter this year. It’s a shame our only other option is JU.

Touches for Lingard and Anderson pls. Also think I saw #7 out there. Jet sweeps, handoffs, doesn’t have to be anything crazy.

Well that may have been worse than the Kent onside kick

Flock to the ball! Huge!!

Another one. CMU now knocking on the door. Cmon DB!!!!

Gotta get off the field on 3rd and long. Enormous play there. CMU putting a nice drive together.

A field goal a few weeks too late. Turnover huge, getting points good, lack of moving the ball and getting into the end zone—no bueno. That is a win for CMU.

TO!

His pocket presence is awful. Paired with a bad o-line…ugly. Is Adams back yet? Would love some short throws to get any skill players involved.

Bend but don’t break. We’ll take it. Huge to not spoil the drive post penalty.

EMU still up 7-0 and they have yet to record a 1st down on offense.

EMU going with the air raid and 5-wide with a QB who isn’t a good thrower when it’s 40 and pouring. Coaches are so stupid sometimes. Unreal how much money they make.

So I’m watching the end of College Gameday, which now goes to 12:05 for some reason. I flip over to CBS Sports to check out Kent-EMU. It’s 7-0 EMU with 14:54 left in the 1Q. Naturally I think something is wrong with the scorebug or something weird happened. So I log into the ESPN app and it hasn’t even launched the game yet to see the stats and play-by-play. So I check out Twitter and…

Strange, isn’t it? Bettors have been giving Akron a lot of late-week love all year long. I figured it would stop after last week. I guess they see CMU’s result at Buffalo and feel like 12 is a lot of points. Speaking of…Buffalo is a 4-point favorite at home vs. BG. They’ve done the same thing 2 straight years. Open with FCS losses in nonconference and start the first few weeks of MAC play undefeated.

These guys were as lucky as any opponent since 2009 to leave InfoCision with a win. Luckiest win I've seen there, until the Morgan State fumble this year. McElwain looked despondent most of the year last year, not too unlike Joe this year. I'd love to give them payback and ruin their homecoming with a crushing loss. With that said, these guys looked like they were going to contend for a MAC title...then they went to Buffalo. I'm assuming they drove through Canada, so maybe the long and difficult bus ride played into their struggles. Since going with Jase Bauer at QB, they started to look the part once again. He's a decent thrower and very good runner. Their skill players leave quite a bit to be desired, but they're the usual solid CMU team. Solid, but beatable. Through the first two games of MAC play, Akron has fallen into old habits. Poor line play, poor QB play, invisible defense. Even against Buffalo where they only surrendered 1 TD, they didn't record a turnover. It's so hard to win when you lose the turnover battle. Each turnover is a guaranteed stop and extra chance to score yourself. If we can force Bauer to air it out, I like our chances to get a pick or two. The big thing at this point has to be mentality. It's a big opportunity to show that the culture has indeed swung. Coach said after the BG game last year that the days of Akron rolling over and quitting are done. I guess we'll find out. I'm still a little shell-shocked that we're only 6 games in and the season already feels over. We have a streaky CMU team, bad BG team, bad Kent team, streaky EMU team and a couple divisional rivals still ahead of us. It hurts to think about what this season could have been. This has hurt more than any of these terrible seasons we've been through.

Series history vs. CMU: https://www.winsipedia.com/akron/vs/central-michigan Zips haven't won in Mt. P since 2003. In 2006 during the title defense season, UA went up there following the win at NC State. The Zips' comeback effort fell short as they dug themselves in too deep a hole after a 100-yard pick six thrown by Getsy right before halftime. Then last year, of course, the fumble heard round the world kept Akron from getting Moorhead's first signature win at Akron.

Especially when you’re so close to having a handful. But reality is, with how they’ve looked this year, Akron is what its record is. Had they held on vs. Temple or made the kick vs. Indiana, it really wouldn’t change much as far as how poor they’ve looked overall. At this point, you wonder how much mentality and frustration is kicking in. Last year, after 3 close MAC losses, they got their asses handed to them by Miami and it felt like a setback. Saturday was a lot like that. But I hope the coaches are able to convince these guys that everyone on this schedule is still extremely beatable. Their opponent this week is a CMU team who has, like Akron, shown a few flashes of greatness but also moments of dread. They were able to win a couple more close ones, though. The mean of both of these teams is very close.

For whatever reason, Bill Connelly’s SP+ model really doesn’t like CMU. They’re just a couple spots above Akron in the 133 ranking, and the model projects a 26-24 CMU win. I believe the spread is 12.5 at this time.

Shooky is the goal scorer this program has been missing for many many years. They finally broke through in a road game, granted a very short trip. Just keep chugging away and building momentum toward December.

Hatty for Shooky

We only lost to Buffalo by 3!

This week's advanced box score: https://collegefootballdata.com/boxscore/401532418 No surprises at all. Total domination. The run defense went from a proud strength of the team to a laughing stock in one afternoon. I'm sure teams will hammer the right side from here on out. One thing that did stand out to me, was that Akron got the ball inside the 40 on 5 different occasions. It didn't feel like that many in game. It's funny, if not for the hold on George on our second drive, we were looking like we were going to punch it in with ease again. Would a 14-7 lead have made any difference? Probably not in the long run of that game, but that just goes to show you the importance of attention to detail and finishing. Put the ball in the end zone so you don't have to worry about getting stops on every drive defensively. My concern on the absence of Alex Adams is growing. He's dressed, but not playing. He is the most pro-ready receiver in the entire league, and now he is missing for one reason or another. After half the season, I have concluded that QB play and OL play are what have cost this team the most. The line is improved, but still is not a strength of the team. They allow far too many sacks and often no time to throw. That's part of the reason TB gives us the best chance to win right now, which isn't a good feeling at all. I will say, he looks more confident than the other two have at any point in time. I'm glad Joe is sticking with him and giving him a chance. NIU has a great defense, and the opening drive was cause for some optimism. The more reps, the better he will be. Hopefully. Anyway, the QB play has been bad. A competent QB gives us wins vs. Buffalo and Temple for sure, a competent kicker or WR to catch a perfect deep ball and we beat Indiana. It pretty much always comes back to the QB. With that said, the transfer portal is a tricky thing. Many people seem to think, moreso for basketball but now also football, that you can just change the filter on the Portal search engine and type in what and who you want and boom, you recruit them and get them. In reality, the list of players who enter the portal and are ever going to even take a call from Akron is short, and then from there you take out the players who aren't good enough to play at this level, and the list gets even shorter. Typically, portal pickups come from previous relationships that players have with coaches on the staff. So in Joe's case, the likelihood of a competent/good QB who is in the portal and also would fall to Akron is not great. For this reason, I would focus on Bullock and Wasel as the future. Bullock is still unproven as a thrower, and Wasel a true freshman, but as of right now, he is the only freshman prospect QB this staff has brought in. Jennings could be the guy at some point, but he was also a holdover from the early signing period when he was signed, so who knows how much he was being recruited at the time Joe brought him in. I have a feeling that Fessler and Moorhead are putting a lot of chips in on Wasel. It's more likely that the QB of the future comes through your system as a freshman than a guy from the portal. In the MAC we have Finn, Gabbert, and Rourke as the top 3 QBs in the league. All of them have been at their respective schools for many years now. NIU's Lombardi is a transfer, but he's been there for 3 years now, and almost never beats anyone with his arm. There is a lot of bad QB play in the MAC this year, and the teams with competent QBs are beginning to rise to the top.