LoyalZIP

That was so bleeping sexy omg

Gooooooooooood morning Philadelphia!!!! GO ZIPS!!!!!! This is such a fascinating matchup and I have no idea what to expect. It should be a pretty good game, I’d imagine. Would love to see the Zips open a can of whoop-ass, but I think they could be slow to come on like last year—maybe taking 2-3 weeks to get into a groove instead of 4-5. Hope I’m wrong though. It’s a great day to be a Zip!

The pathetic miserable Nebraska losers blow a late lead and get walked off at Minnesota with a FG at the end of the game. 13-10 Phil Fleck.

Kent did look the part for a little bit, and by that I mean just like a bad MAC team. But it’s gotten ugly, you can tell that roster isn’t very deep. Lucky for them they have a trip to Arkansas next week 🤣 WMU has trouble wit SF for a bit but pulls away late.

Sloppy and disjointed game in Orlando. UCF leads Kent 28-3. WMU up 21-10 on St. Francis at the break.

Great read, great questions from Beaven What has that been like to coach freshman walk-on Johnny Brookhart, the son of former UA head coach J.D. Brookhart? "It's been great. Coach [Brookhart] is the reason this building [the field house] got built and the stadium got built. He won the only [MAC] championship in school history and we have stayed in touch. It is pretty neat, considering the circumstances by which his tenure ended here, which was ridiculous, that he thinks enough off our program and myself to want his son to come here." Love the honesty from coach. I hope JD is around for a couple games, I'd love to run into him. He deserves a proper thank you for doing what he did at Akron--2005 was magical and who knew we'd have to endure what we have in the 18 years following.

Zips weekly notes: OFFENSE: RB Clyde Price likely out for year with injury Jasaiah Gathings and Caleb Anderson will make a big impact in the passing game, filling in for SJL’s departure Norton, Louis, Paul Davis could get some reps at receiver OLine still working on figuring out a lineup, could be a bit like last year but working itself out faster Much more competitive and physical team compared to a year ago DEFENSE: Coach loves the DB unit of course, many familiar faces who improved greatly throughout last year LBs McCoy and Fish along with the newcomers are cause for cautious optimism, some depth here On the line, Coach likes the depth here but notes that chemistry issues can arise with so many new faces. Still working on finding the right combo. SPECIAL TEAMS: Dante Jackson will punt and kickoff Noah Perez and Owen Wiley on FG kicking duties, Perez a little bit ahead in that battle On kick returns, Blake Hester will be here again for the 3rd season Bobby Golden, Adrian Norton could get some reps at kick/punt return A LOOK AT TEMPLE: Owls moved the ball and put up points well at the end of 2022, much like UA Warner (QB) gets rid of it quickly and they protect him well, will be a challenge for UA’s defensive front Lots of returners all over the field for the Owls, will be a great challenge for week 1

Solid two minute presser. Just like all big-time college football programs 🙄

Should be an interesting year in the league, as they all are. My tiers of the MAC teams so far look as follows: Tier 1: Toledo Tier 2: EMU, Ohio, Miami Tier 3: Akron, Ball State, BGSU, Buffalo, CMU, NIU Tier 4: WMU, Kent While I am optimistic about Akron, I would not put them on the level of "contender" yet, but that could change after an impressive first four games. It wouldn't shock me to see anybody in the first 3 tiers representing their respective division in Detroit. Kent and WMU are way down there for obvious reasons, though I feel WMU has much more talent. However, the bodies that remain in Kalamazoo will be playing an entirely different style than before, so its a natural rebuilding year. It's far more likely that WMU is better than Kent than vice-versa. I'm really unsure of the whole Kent-Grit thing. Playing the Flash Fast style still? But Kent Grit? Does not make sense, as Burns is from a ground-and-pound background. But anything is possible, I suppose. Ohio, with Rourke, is as close to Toledo as anyone can get. Their receiving corps is also one of the best in the league, and Bangura is one of the best backs in the MAC. For some reason, Albin let their backup throw something like 40 passes in their loss last week. We'll see what Rourke's health is like going forward. He takes them from average to championship good. That Ohio defense is the real deal no matter what, though. NIU's success hinges on staying healthy. I am not going as far as most MAC followers and saying they will win the west, but I do expect them to be much better--as long as Lombardi is healthy and can have a big impact. With that said, 2021 was certainly an outlier year for Hammock after going 5-7, 0-6, and then 3-9 last year. After all, their 2021 was essentially the opposite of Akron's 2022. They won all the close games 2 years ago, Akron lost them all last year. If I were to break down into more tiers, I would put UB, BSU, CMU, and Akron in the same boat. All of them with decent floors and decent ceilings. All brought in some decent talent too. BG, on the other hand, is all over the place. Their 2022 was a lot like the 2017 Zips. They weren't that good, but somehow came out with a lot of wins--at least a lot more than expected. I expect this to be Loeffler's final season there if they do not make a bowl game. Some interesting week one matchups, here's the full list Thursday 8/31: Kent @ UCF, WMU vs. St. Francis (PA) Friday 9/1: EMU vs. Howard, CMU @ Michigan State, Miami U @ UMiami Saturday 9/2: Ball State @ Kentucky, Ohio vs. Long Island, NIU @ Boston College, BGSU @ Liberty, Akron @ Temple, Buffalo @ Wisconsin, Toledo @ Illinois

From Hustle Belt: Akron's Heisman Moment 130 years ago helped shape our beloved game "The intriguing tactician who would change the game of football forever had a spell in the future Rubber City, delighting Akronites with “scientific” football before his rise to fame."

Hell of a win!

So pumped and so nervous. This board will be in an uproar if they lose this game but reality is, while the Zips should be able to win these games, the roster still does not know how to win. I wish it were at home, I'd be far more bullish on our chances. But it should be a great college football game in a terrible college football environment. This is going to be a fun season of Zips football, and opening with a road win would be awesome and the best way to enjoy a long weekend.

Their offense is flat out average without Rourke. But that defense…elite.

Understandably so. Most of it is click-bait crap. But he gets people talking and has kept people talking all summer so that is cool. Knows more about the MAC than most national people who fake it.

Nice win. Those 2 second half goals were absolutely beautiful. And it actually turned out to be a rather pleasant August evening. Go Zips!

Phenomenal @catdaddyp I can be guilty of homerism myself, especially at this point in the college football year, but I agree with everything said. I was also skeptical of the wins coming immediately last year, but knew of the guaranteed improvement across the board. It finally became evident in week 4 throughout the end of the year. As for this year, none of it is homerism. It’s legitimate empirical data to back up the prediction that this team will be much improved in the win column. I’m not sure how much it will be as I’m sure there will be plenty of struggles, but this is the best roster and outlook we have had in 5+ years. As with most Akron football fans, I went into the 2018 season with expectations similar to what I have now. That turned out to be foolish after such a fluky run to the title game in 2017. The 2022 Zips didn’t win the East, but they gave me far more confidence going into next season than the 2017 team did. This is now a Division 1 roster that is getting better every single day. Cannot wait for Temple. Akron football and expectations are scary. It feels good to be in this position again.

The 2014 and 2015 tournament runs by Akron were electric. I was there for their final games before the program got cut. They were getting hammered by Ball State in their first game of the day where they needed to win to stay alive. They put in all the seniors as a last hurrah and somehow rallied to win. Every Akron fan was ready to pack it in, then about an hour later we were all figuring out what to do in the couple hours between games. They played Ball State again after a couple hours and Ball State made a similar comeback to beat the Zips. Wild day, so much fun. https://ballstatesports.com/sports/baseball/stats/2015/akron/boxscore/4196 Zips scored 8 in B9 to win 9-8 https://ballstatesports.com/sports/baseball/stats/2015/akron/boxscore/4197 Then the final game before the program was cut, Ball State put up 4 in B9 to win 9-8. Walk-off was hit by some guy named Zach Plesac.

Must have some small injuries. I don’t think we’ll see much more of Dawson in this thing either, they’re still easing him into the swing of things.

Early 3pt. attempt from Freeman, looked good but didn't fall

I’ve been told Bradley makes an appearance at the JAR as well

I believe ULM’s head coach is going for his 4th consecutive 4-8 season as a head coach. Could be a record of some sort, keep your eyes on them!

The trolls use some pretty enticing bait sometimes, don’t kick yourself. While I’m not quite at 8-4 myself, everything you’ve said this off-season is spot on. A month from tomorrow is a massive day for this program, I cannot wait.

It seems to me that the admin got a little cocky and thought they could dump PEG to save $ and only use students/full time university employees to run the sound board and video board production and it was an unmitigated disaster. A month later at the next home game, all the usual people were back in that booth. Unfortunately for the 2023 season, the video board is still going to be a piece of junk, but my understanding is PEG & the rest of the crew will still be in place. That is my hope of course. But we will still be waiting for the new video board. Apparently the money stopped before that point.

Thank you, Captain! Akron football hasn't felt like Akron Football in a very long time. To me, Akron football has always been at its best and most fun to be close to when the alumni are bought in. Go back to gamedays at the later years at the Rubber Bowl. The team was just okay, but the gameday experience felt top notch because of how many people were there who cared so much. Joe is the perfect person for this job, it's still unbelievable that he's here and doing what he's doing. And to think, when the Akron job opened in November 2021, we saw dozens of reports on the Hoban head coach at first, and none on Moorhead until the season finally ended. This is gonna make a hell of a book someday!