LoyalZIP

One final note. Saw old buddy Mike Waddell wandering the sidelines today with Guthrie. Any other Zip old-timers catch that? So cool to see him in Akron.

The Zips just can’t catch any breaks, like all year. It’s wild. When you’re so bad you can’t even get lucky—ouch is all I have to say. Before I put this out of sight and out of mind for hopefully the rest of the night and weekend, I just looked at scores from around the country. Charlotte fired their coach and is pounding a Rice team with a winning record on the road right now. Even BS programs like that can get a stupid win. Yet here we are. 3 chances to go before a very important off-season for the Zips.

Ugh. Much needed bye week. Gross.

What a cluster. Just gotta laugh it off I guess. Joe playing the long game in helping Martin keep his job and keep Miami trending backwards right?

We need a medium to do an analysis of Infocision Stadium. It’s just unbelievable how terrible Akron plays here, over a span of 15 years and many different coaches.

Zips have been able to respond to adversity the last 5—not today. Just flat out sucked. First time disappointed in the staff this year. I guess we were bound to be blown out at some point. Just disappointed all around. John Groce, come to the rescue.

OUCH

Absolutely. I just get frustrated in the moment because it seems like all terrible teams luck into a win at least a couple times a year. It just feels hopeless week after week of being close, feeling like you’re going to get over the hump and do something awesome, and just drop a big fat deuce. Ugh. This week especially, finally felt like they had proven themselves. But as the Dr. ordered as medicine for BG, CMU, Kent, and now Miami—a game agains the Zips tends to cure some ills.

Boy I’m glad we’ve got a basketball game before the next football game. Every other MAC game has been entertaining, not this one.

Price runs into the line on 4th & inches deep in territory in a critical situation. Wash, rinse, repeat. Very disappointed in the offensive coaching staff today.

3rd and short just ain’t there for this team. Should be easy cash every time.

Oh yeah!

Another waste of the nicest October weather we will ever see.

Bring on the bye week. I don’t see the energy and body language today. Brutal here.

I hear they’re on the road this weekend playing

Bad sack inside the 10 to flip field position. Sound familiar?

Looks like Adams should’ve had that first ball

How nice would it be to just one time cruise to like a 35-10 win? Maybe someday. Maybe. Go Zips!

For Halloween, I am once again going as a Zips fan. Is there anything scarier than being an Akron fan and season ticket holder since Infocision Stadium was built? Maybe the Zips exorcise some demons tomorrow? Perhaps they put the final stake in the heart of Chuck Martin at Miami? The forecast looks perfect for the 3rd and final Saturday home game for the Zips in 2022. I'm kind of out of things to talk about in regards to the game itself, so I'll make some small talk about the weather. Looking at the last decade or so, it's kind of funny to me that since Arth was hired, I would say that we have had nearly perfect football weather for just about every home game. Before that, we had a couple crummy weather games in 2018. When the Zips went 5-1 at home in 2017, they had nice weather for the most part outside of a rainy 11:30am kick against Buffalo. However, we had OU and Kent on midweek nights, which is a shame. In 2015 when the Zips had their highest win total in ages and the bowl win, there was a torrential downpour for the Pitt game, a rainy ugly day for Savannah State, another gross bad weather home game for OU, rain in the forecast for CMU, ugly rainy day for the blowout win over Buffalo, and more rain for the butt-kicking of Kent. Since then, pretty much perfect football weather just about every week, including some of the midweek games, and we've been treated to some of the worst football in the program's history. Being a Zips fan is so tough for so many reasons. Screw Miami.

I am not going to pretend to know what I'm talking about when it comes to conference realignment. I'll say that for starters. I see what your point is and that may well be what Guthrie wants to do, but I believe he will be gone from Akron long before that ever becomes a possibility. Former Buffalo ADs made it to UCF, Auburn, Tennessee in very little time for doing far less than that. Also, I don't know what all would go into a full-time member of the MAC jumping to something like the AAC. I was very much against this about 10-15 years ago--leaving the MAC or having visions above the MAC. However, every time I have the chance to walk around Infocision whether it be on gamedays on the 5th or 6th floor or any other time, I'm almost disheartened by what I see. That place is 100x nicer and more beautiful and functional than anyone on this board even thinks. That stadium should be showcasing so much better football than terrible Akron football and now terrible MAC football. It should be a college football destination for die-hard fans who like to take road trips to different games in different towns just to see them. Alas, it is invisible thanks to 15 years of some of the worst football at this level. Again, I don't know the specifics or if it is indeed a possibility, but any jump Akron would make, would have had to be done about 10-15 years ago when the Big East was blowing up and ICS was still brand new (it kind of still is). Akron could not have possibly opened that stadium at a worse time in the program's timeline, could not have hired a worse coach, could not have replaced Bowden with a worse coach and so on. UGH.

It is a nice touch, the old bulbs had many burned out and they had some kind of rusty gunk gathered in the bottom. A very rustic look indeed, it was time for a little face-lift. Inside, allllllllll of the old banners are gone, with some newer ones finally rolling in. It looks like a bit of a mess with the faded carpet walls, but I’m hoping it comes together and think it will look nice once it does. Zips volleyball is home Friday and Saturday if you want to stop in and see the new look, court, etc. Guthrie has a vision, finally beginning to play out so far beyond the hiring of Moorhead, etc. The new branding and his philosophy on what he wants the place to look like will be quite different from what we’re used to. He’s a bit much for some people and I don’t agree with every thing he does and says, but it’s a nice breath of fresh air to have an AD being proactive and trying to change things that haven’t been working. No matter what happens on the field or in the court, it’s awesome to have a guy in charge that’s involved and wants everything to be better.

I believe the editor-in-chief and perhaps another manager get something like $50 a month to write for them. There’s good ones and not so good ones. HB in particular was really really good back when midweek MACtion was at its peak about 7-8 years ago. It’s fallen off quite a bit, but I still give them clicks to show my appreciation for trying to grow coverage of the league a bit. I remember the Akron coverage during the Bowden years being pretty good, not much since then. SB Nation shut down a bunch of blogs recently as well, due to lack of engagement. HB survived, many others did not.

Preview from Hustle Belt: https://www.hustlebelt.com/2022/10/26/23424132/2022-week-9-preview-miami-oh-redhawks-akron-zips-brett-gabbert-dj-irons-mac-football-october-29

I've been trying to dial back my excitement a little bit this week, it's about to get crazy with basketball and football overlapping and I was overwhelming myself with thoughts and research for both. It will be nice to have next Saturday off. With that said, we have an interesting matchup coming up. Miami has one of the better defenses in the league, but struggles offensively whether they have Gabbert or not. Akron, on the other hand, can move the ball, but struggles to stop the ball. An interesting thing to look at in this league, which is a hot mess of flaming garbage, is the coaches. There are very few fanbases who are happy or satisfied with their coaching situation. Miami is at the top of that list. Chuck Martin has done a great job at Miami, bringing them from the low point of Don Treadwell going 0-12 to a MAC tite 6 years later. However, he hasn't done much to build on that title. They seem to have plateau'd and are slowly trending downward, especially after a horrid loss at home to the worst WMU team in nearly 10 years, wiping out one of the nation's longest home-win streaks. They are coming into Akron licking their wounds, and perhaps with their head coach's job on the line. Forecast looks pretty good, as we've only got a few more chances to see these guys play in person. I have been thrilled with the progress I see, but must admit myself I am feeling a touch of apathy losing close so many times. I, along with many others on this board and in the fan base, see the obvious progress and improvements. But because of the losses, on the conference and national stage, it's the same ol' Akron. Damn you Larry Williams and Tom Arth. I guess we'll just have to look forward to shocking the world starting next year. I truly feel like that is coming, for the first time in a long time. The program is performing as consistently well as it has since the middle of the 2018 season, but hasn't been rewarded with the wins. They're running out of chances too. Damn, I want to break through so badly. To send Miami spiraling out of control would be a beautiful thing.